The DR500GW-HD Dashboard Camera

If youve spent any time on the Internet lately,Starting today, you can buy these chinamosaic and more from her Victoria. you will have probably noticed the increase in dramatic video footage from in-car dashboard cameras depicting everything from road rage incidents to asteroids breaking up in the sky. Most of these come from Russia, where owning such a device is common in light of the frequent insurance fraud attempts.We rounded up 30 bridesmaids dresses in every color and style that are both easy on the eye and somewhat easy on the earcap. But its a good idea to own one anywhere, because you never know when having video proof of what happened in front of you will come in handy. With that in mind, we set out to look for the best dashboard camera and kept coming across the Blackvue DR500GW-HD camera from Korean company Pittasoft. So we reached out to them for a review unit and the following article will look at how it performs. Hit the jump for details. Out here well tell you this: its an outstanding product of superior build quality, with a few relatively minor flaws. Whether thats enough to justify its high price is up to you. 

We were sent the DR500GW-HD camera itself, along with the Power Magic Pro. This is a small control box that allows you to hardwire the camera directly into the fuse box of your car and allows for 24/7 operation, without using up your cigarette lighter port at all. Better yet, the Power Magic Pro constantly monitors your batterys status and insures that power to the dashcam is cut off once it reaches a pre-set voltage or a specified amount of time has elapsed. Its a must-have addition to the camera itself.

The first thing youll notice about the camera is the quality packaging. It makes for a fun unboxing experience and speaks volumes about the attention to detail the company has lavished on the product. The camera itself is cylindrical in shape and is held in place by a hoop mount. This allows the camera to rotate 360 degrees on the vertical axis but on the vertical axis only. This is actually one of the cameras main flaws as it hinders later adjustment in either of the two other axes. If you stuck the mount on your windscreen incorrectly (and you only really have one go at it, since it uses 3M double-sided tape and not a suction cup), you have to wrench it off and start over. This is somewhat annoying but not a deal-killer if you can get the installation right the first time. Theres a button on the mount which permits the cameras easy removal, perhaps for stowage in the glove box or at home. 

One of the main differences between this cam and others is that it doesnt have an integrated LCD viewfinder. To see what it sees you need to either check the Micro SD card in your computer (with the included MicroSD USB adapter) or, as youre really meant to do, by pairing it to a smartphone. There is an Android and iOS application, and with it, you can not only see what the camera sees in real-time, but you can also regulate all manner of settings. It connects through WiFi and lets you see all the files saved on the MicroSD card, and even allows you to download them to your phone for local viewing. Better yet, if you wish to upload a particular segment to YouTube, you can do so directly from the app! The only downside to this setup is that while youre connected to the camera, you wont be able to get any data on your phone. There is an unofficial workaround to this, which well detail lower. 

The Mac application reads the files on the card and features a very capable zoom function, which is great when youre trying to read someones license plate or some other small detail on screen. You can also adjust some of the settings in much greater detail than on the phone. For instance, when trying to determine the appropriate level of sensitivity for the cam, the Mac (and PC) application lets you see the accelerometer readings in real-time. Moving the sensitivity slider one way or the other moves horizontal bars up and down until youve filtered out all the potholes and normal road vibrations and only allow anything potentially serious. 

The camera records in segments that are between 1 and 3 minutes in length, depending on your preferences, and the gap between files is non-existent since the first second of the next file overlaps with the last one in the previous. This way youre sure never to miss any critical event. 

The sensitivity readings however are almost useless, at least in my car. Even in the lowest setting,Laser engraving and laser lanyard for materials like metal, files are constantly being tagged as event, when in fact it was some pothole or other. But thats ok, since we imagine that the only event that would really matter while driving is an actual accident, and we wouldnt need the camera to flag that.The whole variety of the brightest smartcard is now gathered under one roof. 

The parking mode is great, but only in some settings. The way its supposed to work is that when the Blackvue detects youre parked (after some time with no movement), it enters parking mode automatically (unless you disable that). Then if it detects movement through the lens or the accelerometer (someone bumping into your car, for example), itll start recording for a few seconds before and after the event itself. In practice, it only works well if youre, say, in an indoor parking garage where movement can be sporadic. Usually however, the camera will spend hours detecting leaves moving in trees or even grass blades moving in the wind. Unless you park your car in a calm, relatively motionless environment, the memory card will be full of boring parking events. 

The sound recording works well, but can be easily overwhelmed when it gets loud (such as when you have the window open). Of course we imagine its better for it to be too sensitive than the other way around. 

And finally, the biggest issue comes with the WiFi connectivity. If youre trying to read the card in an environment with several other WiFi signals around, transmission speeds can sometimes crawl. Whats more, since the dashcam doesnt have an Internet connection, once you sit in your car your phone will tend to automatically connect to its WiFi network and altogether disconnect from the net,Find the best selection of high-quality collectible plasticmould available anywhere. with no user intervention. This can be annoying if youre not aware you dont have data access but theres an unofficial workaroud: In the iPhone, Go into Wi-Fi Settings and tap the blue arrow against BlackVue connection, enter the settings you see in the image attached (IP Address: Static; IP Address: 192.168.8.2; Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0). Youll now be connected to your dash camera as well as getting data over cellular. In practice however, we found that this seems to make the connectivity issues worse: videos will often stop midway, and sometimes the camera will even crash. So, feel free to use this trick, but be aware that your mileage may vary.