BlackVue DR500GW-HD WiFi

New car updated with new dashcam (or windshieldcam :-)

Please welcome BlackVue DR500GW.
Got it for several reasons over competitors:
- view angle
- no screen
- variable quality
- linux on board
- settings and monitoring via smartphone app over wifi
- compact design
- gps
- real full hd
- parking mode (with Magic Pro, keep reading)

Manufacturer's preso

One of tons reviews available on YouTube

I placed it near rear mirror. It hidden from direct sun by that perforated mesh.
Cord goes under plastics and there is one place where you can see it - near arm brake it comes out to go into the 12V socket inside armrest.

Now, as I got Power Magic Pro controller that can power up dashcam depends on your settings for parking mode. Just need to install it.

Power Magic will allow dashcam to work longer time preventing battery discharge, because it will cut voltage if it drops below threshold or specific time settings. Parking mode is cool, because it will allow your cam to record 5 sec before and 1 minute after any hit detected by built-in sensors. Think of you leaved a car on parking and someone hit it and ran away.

Of course it will be visible only if front camera will catch it. But there is set with two cams - BlackVue DR550GW-2CH. Like this one but with rear small camera. We ordered this for my friend.

One minor almost accident filmed on my dashcam

Regarding the cost.

Here is fresh price list from my seller Jae from Korea. I bought DR500GW when it cost $250, now it's $210. If you order it to Israel, you should avoid EMS (DHL, FedEx, etc) carrier for delivery as it will go directly to the customs where you will spend extra fees and should pay VAT. There are ways to bypass it.

For $200 you can probably get 4 cheap dashcams from eBay or aliexpress or whatever and put in all 4 directions. It will work. But compare video and features with this one, they all out of league.
One missing feature is that it doesn't rotates horizontally that can be useful when police officer comes to your car from driver's door and you want to film him in case they do bullshit like recently one guy filmed how he stops near stop sign and just around the corner police write him penalty for not stopping :-) 3 times already! He was on evening news with videos. As far as I know, first penalty was canceled and second not.

When I chose, I thought about these models from this Russian thread (and new one) - this is dashcam vids community:
TrendVision TV-Q5NV
teXet DVR-1GP
Mio MiVue 388 Full HD
Neoline Cubex V31
IconBit DVR FHD

Links
Great Russian forums about this dashcam: on taker (already dead thread) and now moved to car-dvr.

Update (2013-10-28)
To compare DR500GW and DR550GW-2CH we did few videos.
You better download sources, YouTube is not so good to find differences "in pixels".

I got in my car DR500GW-HD with firmware v1.008R. It allows you to set maximum bit rate to 10 Mb/s for 1080p and 8 Mb/s for 720p. With custom firmware it can be increased, usually users use 15 Mb/s.
Morning - 720p, Bitrate 8 Mb: YouTube, Source MP4
Night - 720p, Bitrate 8 Mb: YouTube, Source MP4
Example of bigger bitrates from other users on YouTube: 15 Mb, 12 Mb

My friend got DR550GW-2CH with front and rear camera together. Firmware is 1.010R.
Day (front) - 1080p, Bitrate 6 Mb: YouTube, Source MP4
Day (rear) - 720p, Bitrate 2 Mb: YouTube, Source MP4
Night (front) - 1080p, Bitrate 6 Mb YouTube, Source MP4
Night (rear) - 720p, Bitrate 2 Mb: YouTube, Source MP4