If the police would use it and deal with bad driving, i'd think about one. until then, I'm ok without.

Can you share the link? if it looks any good I might purchase one!

here you go.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Ship-HD-720P-GPS-Smallest-In-Car-Dash-Camera-Video-Register-Recorder-DVR-Cam-G/635662863.html

As I mentioned, they are all getting legless for the next week, so wont be shipping until the week after - I just hope the people making mine dont have too bad a hangover!!!

Looks good. Do you mind writing up a review when you get it? For that price I might follow suite!

Looks good. Do you mind writing up a review when you get it? For that price I might follow suite!

Me too. Possible group buy if they're any good?

Regards, Mike

(using Tapatalk on Android)

here you go.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Ship-HD-720P-GPS-Smallest-In-Car-Dash-Camera-Video-Register-Recorder-DVR-Cam-G/635662863.html

What made you pick this one? I had a look via the aliexpress app and there's hundreds to pick through :(

Regards, Mike

(using Tapatalk on Android)

I found a review of it on Youtube that rates the picture quality during the night as some of the best the reviewer has seen; the only downers were a stupid video connector that fits nothing ( I have already sourced a different one), and a dodgy clip holding the camera in place (can be easily sorted with a bit of electrical tape).

It has all the features you really need, such as GPS, and a decent picture resolution.

The dual lens camera look great - until you dig deeper and find out the resolution they give is the COMBINED rez for both pictures; so when they say 1200x800 they mean two lots of 1200x400, which isnt HD whichever way you try to sell it.

The other "con" is the megapixel count; YES - more pixels CAN mean a better image, but if the electronics are no good it usually means the picture is worse - due to "noise" from the electronics. For example, I used to own an excellent 2.1Mp Olympus camera; when the flash finally cards died I bought a 10Mp Kodak - which was complete carp, every photo in anything other than bright sunlight or stationary target, was speckled with blue "noise" artefacts or blurring. Now I own an excellent 5Mp Nikon.

The car camera I am buying has a 1.3Mp count, many cheaper ones have a 5Mp count and look great in the bright daylight example photos/videos given, but in poor light/at night they are awash with noise artefacts.

Be careful though, I have seen some cameras claiming to be "HD" that have a 0.3Mp count!!!! NO WAY!!!!

Off hand, it's 2MP needed to be 'HD' isn't it? (1920 * 1080)

If that's any good then I'll be seriously interested. It's the right profile etc to fit behind a mirror too (that's something to check actually, does the rain sensor block the mounting points for these. . .)

Be interested to see your thoughts on it when it rocks up.

Edited 13 February, 201313 yr by TriggerFish

There is "HD" and "Full HD"; HD is 720p.

From reading around, there are a lot of cheap sets upscaling 720p to 1080, or even 640 to 1080 !!!

Most cameras purchased from china are upscaled VGA and have awful video quality. A 2MP sensor is needed for Full HD.

As I said- it is "HD", 1280x720p.

As for most, you need to look again, there are many selling with 5mp or higher lenses, and some only pretending to have that size lens. 99% of the footage on Youtube of Russian car crashes is filmed on Chinese made cameras, some is dire, but most of it looks pretty decent, and the Ruskies are only buying the £20-£30 cameras, they cant afford any more (and nether can I).

Mind you, I wish I had my camera delivered last week, some (expletive deleted), has hit my car in a car park - and hit it hard enough to split the bumper!!!

As I said- it is "HD", 1280x720p.

As for most, you need to look again, there are many selling with 5mp or higher lenses, and some only pretending to have that size lens. 99% of the footage on Youtube of Russian car crashes is filmed on Chinese made cameras, some is dire, but most of it looks pretty decent, and the Ruskies are only buying the £20-£30 cameras, they cant afford any more (and nether can I).

Mind you, I wish I had my camera delivered last week, some (expletive deleted), has hit my car in a car park - and hit it hard enough to split the bumper!!!

Ouch! - You checked with the store to see if they have CCTV?

i would love an in car camera but wouldn't know where to start to hard wire them in lol

Ouch! - You checked with the store to see if they have CCTV?

I havent, but thinking about it they MAY have footage, I will check camera angles later.

You might want to check ASAP. Some companies might be writing over CCTV over a short period of time.

Installed my BlackVue DR380 over the weekend. It nicely recorded my garage shutter opening at home this morning and then my car journey to work.

I've had to tweak the G settings as it recorded an event file on my standard run to work this morning, it was just the sideways movement from a dropped manhole cover.

Ordered mine from SmartCamDirect, very prompt service, next day DHL delivery - it was with me by 11 the next day.

Can anyone please offer advice/assistance on a problem I am having with the Blackvue Viewer software.

I have a Blackvue 380g HD which is working well. Have been using this for 3 months with no problems.

Yesterday while viewing the latest recordings the Viewer software came up with a message "This website needs a different Google Maps API key" followed by an "HTTP:/........Obtaining_key" command. The viewer works OK on all functions except the Google Map and positioning window which remains blank.

Have tried to obtain a new API key as instructed but this is still not working and displays the same message each time the viewer software is loaded. I loaded the latest version of Google Maps and Google Earth but this has had no effect and the problem continues.

My system is a desktop PC running XP Pro.

HELP!

Mike.

Fixed the problem with the API key which was caused because Google changed the APSI code.

Downloaded the latest version of the Blackvue Viewer from Pittasoft and all now working as it should. :sun:

Apparently this problem could be met by any user of the Blackvue viewer on any Blackvue 300,400 or 500 camera system.

Regards,

Mike

Edited 12 March, 201313 yr by Ryn

For information the latest version of the Blackvue Software is 2.032-HD-E.

Meant to include this in the previous message.

Mike

Bad news, the carpark isnt covered by CCTV.

Good news, my cheapo Chinese carcams have arrived, I ended up with a different model due to problems with updated GPS hardware on the original, I now have a version of the X3000 Dual Camera DVR (~£60); some of these clones are not very good, so it will be interesting to see how this performs.

I will install in the car and try to post a review and some footage over the weekend.

I will be trying a small mod on the system ASAP, fitting a 5v regulator off of the interior light switch so I dont have to run the cables around the windscreen and use up the cigar lighter.

OK, so if you remember, I ordered a cheap 720p dashcam from China, I saw several reviews that praised its video clarity, even at night, and with GPS included for £31 I couldnt really go wrong.

Sadly, it never arrived, I had a call from the makers saying they were having GPS firmware issues and so werent shipping any more units, and offered me an “upgrade” to the dual cam X3000. Now I had read the specs for the X3000 and wasnt overly impressed, also, the UK reviews of other X3000s havent been very good, so I really wanted to wait for the original, but nearly a month had gone by and still no good news, so I accepted the X3000 and hoped I was getting one of the better made versions (like many electronic products, there are hundreds of sweatshops churning out clones in China).

So, it arrived; well packed and a fake value indicated to avoid customs (not my idea, a lot of the suppliers do it); the box was well presented without too much obvious “chinglish”; inside the X3000 unit looks sturdy and well made, nothing rattles and all the connectors are a good tight fit, the suction cup is multi adjustable and also mounts the GPS sensor, my only gripe is that the rubber cover is futile as it needs to be left open to allow both the power and GPS leads to be inserted.

The microsd card is a little fidly, but I have big fingers and microsd cards are... well... micro sized!!

Opening the (slim), manual gives you a few worry pangs – everything is in Chinese! But shuffle through a few pages and you will find a fairly well translated English version, and after that a Russian version.

Set up is painless, just insert the card and it will ask to format, then go into the menu (which takes a little while to appear), and set up the options as you want them. The unit can take stills as well as video, and the battery alows it to run for a short while without power.

The X3000 contains two camera, one pointing forwards and one facing the rear, the rear one is a 140 degree wide angle lens and the front one is a 120 degree wide angle lens with a tilt action, and the display shows the two video feeds alongside each other, although there is an option to select either front or back to display on its own. The display is rather dark, although that might be the angle I am viewing it from.

The camera works well, starting up quickly and saving the files with only about 1 second gap, the actual size of each secgment seems very variable, I havent yet figured out the logic behind it – some sections are a few megabytes, others run to a gigabyte!!

Formating the card also installs the “Jplayer” software that is used to access the files, although you can save them to your pc as video files only, or as stored Jplayer files, you can also copy and paste the Jplayer exe across, so you can view the files without having the card inserted.

The Jplayer software works well, displaying the video feeds (F, R, F+R), with speed in KPH or MPH, lat/long co-ordinates, direction of travel (using a tiny compass), G force and shows your progress on a google map insert.

There are issues though; there is no maual for the Jplayer, and some of the menu items display as mostly blank boxes, so it is a guessing game finding out what they are; the player will also not run full screen, so you have to export the video file to see them enlarged.

One final (possible) issue, I am wondering if the GPS speed reading is low; either that or my car over reads by about 10% as when I am doing about 60MPH, the display says I am doings nearer 54MPH.

I dont have any night time footage yet, I DID have some but something strange was happening; the first day or two the video quality was a bit disappointing, the picture just didnt seem as sharp as it should be, then suddenly the picture seemed to get better. Perhaps it was some chemical film on the lens that finally evaporated, I dont know.

Various sellers list various video file sizes, and the unit is supposed to be “HD”, but in actual fact the video size is a very odd 1280x480 combined; and if you decide to only record with the one camera, you only get 640x480, so DEFINITELY NOT HD.

PS, the car seats arent really purple, I am not sure why they show that colour when everything else is correct. (They are actually black)

Edited 23 March, 201313 yr by GentleGiant

One final (possible) issue, I am wondering if the GPS speed reading is low; either that or my car over reads by about 10% as when I am doing about 60MPH, the display says I am doings nearer 54MPH.

Just FYI I did a detailed calibration of my speedo against two GPS units (Medion Satnav & Samsung S2). Both GPS agreed with each other, showing my speedo consistently reads around 10% over the GPS speed.

I asked a Bobby on here (privately) for his opinion on speedo vs GPS speed for police purposes and he confirmed he would only ever go on the GPS speed.

I will repeat the calibration exercise and report the detailed numbers on here at some pount.

Finally, many thanks for the detailed report on the camera; much appreciated.

Regards, Mike

Thanks for that Sticky, I did suspect it was the car, as I know some manufacturers do it on purpose, as they are allowed 10% OVER read, but 0% UNDER read on the speedo calibration, so go low to avoid trouble.

I forgot to include the price of the X3000, they cost from £18 plus delivery (~£6), but I dont know how badly made that one would be; the people I bought mine from want £59, with others asking anything from £28 to £101; "you pays your money and you takes your chances".

Remember, you may have to pay 20% VAT + a handling charge if customs stops it. (DHL charge about £10+vat)

One other point, the unit doesnt come with a microsd card, you have to buy your own. It says you need a class 6 or better, but I tested it with a 4GB class 4 with no problems (I now have a 16GB class 10 fitted), 4GB is the SMALLEST size it will accept.

Edited 24 March, 201313 yr by GentleGiant

Good review

FWIW there is firmware update for Blackvue available here

https://www.blackvue.com/en/contents/sub3.asp?mode=view&serboardsort=&page=1&idx=996&search=&searchstr=

One final (possible) issue, I am wondering if the GPS speed reading is low; either that or my car over reads by about 10% as when I am doing about 60MPH, the display says I am doings nearer 54MPH.

Nothing new here. GPS is far more accurate than your speedo. Speedos are allowed to over-read your speed, but not under-read it, even given the "10%+2" rule. This way it will never be down to the car that you were caught speeding and that's also why the police will give you a lower reading than what you thought you were doing, if you get nicked for speeding.

Speedos are only loosely calibrated and have to take into account that some cars have different rolling circumferences at the wheel. (Octavias have several rolling circumferences across the range. Although having electronic speedos, it is possible to re-calibrate these against GPS using VCDS)

What is good fun is getting into a SPECs zone, hitting the limit at GPS and then happily overtaking everyone else.