I looked at the specs - I wouldn't buy it. When driving in a vehicle, motion blur is the weakness of the image. Frame rate is the only way to combat this, but the processing power in these cameras is already stretched when recording in the UHD (4K or 3840 x 2160) format. The specs I looked up shows it can record "4K" with 2880 x 2160 at 24 frames per second. Most modern screens are 16 by 9 format, and our windshield view isn't too far from that. The camera in the link is the old 4 by 3 format that our Windows 98 screens and our 1999 TVs had. Couple that with the 24 frames per second, and it's total cheese.

I bought the BlackVue 900S 1CH, and I bought a 128 gig micro SD card to go with it. I drove home at sunset through the Columbia Gorge, and you can actually hear angels singing when you review the video at full 4K. I'm still working some kinks out of how I operate this thing, but I will post some demo videos by the first of the year.

This is a true 4K dash cam with 30 FPS, and it is now the only one I can find anywhere on the market in the U.S. with these specs. If you don't mind the expense, and you live someplace or are going someplace scenic - this is the ultimate today. If you just get groceries in town, this is mega-uber overkill.

Now... the devilish details. You have to be serious when you get into 4K. My "antiquated" i7 laptop that was an early adopter can't handle the video at full res yet, but I haven't tried every trick yet. My recent i7 laptop with a badass graphics card and a 4K touch screen handles it with Windows Media, but the VLC app makes the video choppy. My i7 custom made PC at work with an OMG graphics card digests the video without so much as a burp. The problem? The new H265 compression standard coming soon to a streaming service near you.

Straight up 4K video is a memory HOG. I can't emphasize that enough - 4K video will tear through over 1 gigabyte of your memory in a 3-minute drive. Say you buy a 128 gigabyte card (that's 182 CDs on a card the size of your pinky nail) - it works out to 4 1/2 hours of 4K video storage. If I drive to Seattle, that's enough to record the whole trip. If I drive to Oregon, not so much. I have a trip coming up, a very scenic one. Stinky has the staying power to far exceed that 4 1/2 hours of driving, so I needed something that would handle the range of my fuel tank - lest I stop to download every so often. I'd rather download the video in the hotel at the end of the day thankyouverymuch.

Enter HEVC - High Efficiency Video Coding. Anybody in the DVR world likely knows about "H264", the old way to compress video for more hours of recording on a hard drive, well... HEVC (H265) is the new standard that everybody in the industry is jumping to - because it is so much better for streaming and storage. HEVC is already in iPhone 8 and newer, and it's in a Google Pixel 3. It is also in my BlackVue 900S. I get more storage, but the H265 compression uses a lot of computing power to compress the video for storage (the camera gets warm), and my computer has to whack the snot out of a lot of bits of data to DEcompress the video. Newer 4K smart TVs and streaming boxes will have this power, if the newest units on the shelf don't have them already.

You might be saying "But Tugly, does it make that much difference? Is it worth all that hassle to deal with H265?" Oohoo is it ever. I easily DOUBLES the capacity of your storage, virtually. Say Netflix can store their entire library using half the storage they do now. Say it uses half the bandwidth to get that movie to your TV. Those with DSL can enjoy a movie without stalls, Netflix can greatly increase their library with the same storage, and stream twice the videos on the same bandwidth they already pay for. This is big freaking money, and big money is always an overwhelming force in new technology. It's coming... period.

I know that's a lot of tech talk on a diesel forum, but long drives are part of our world. I average 17.5 MPG, I've seen as high as 19.5 MPG, and my tank with the Hutch/harpoon mod weighs in at about 40 gallons. I'm going someplace scenic, and I wanted the dashcam with the best picture available (for Christmas for my wife, but we're using it on our journeys), so I needed storage with legs as long as Stinky has. I have that now... as long as I use the H265 available in the camera and the 128 G memory card I just bought. Long term storage? Yeesh. I need a 4T hard drive just to save the "highlights" of our drive.

If you want the 4K dashcam, but don't want the headaches of playback - you can back off the compression and use more memory during your drive. This makes watching your videos a lot easier for your playback devices.

 

Rich, I'm glad you like the DR900. I've been wanting one myself to replace my aging DR650GW-2CH but have many other things competing for my dollars. Who did you buy from and for how much if you don't mind my asking?

 

I just ordered it on Amazon, but I can't remember the price. I'll have to look it up when I get to the computer again.

 

Im with Y2 on this one, allowing Tug to weed thru the mess of electronics. Years ago Tug did same due diligence with cameras. Conclusion came to a Fuji X60. Just so happened it was around the holidays. So, wife got one in her stocking..

 

 

Thanks for the cold water in the face wake up reminder about how much of a resource hog 4K video is. That definitely cements my desires not to have 4K for a dash cam, since the only scenery my truck sees is asphalt coated with tail lights, with the occasional telephone pole standing in for a tree.

I want video that an LEO can immediately load and play quickly on his or her antiquated, underfunded, outdated device running code from a decade ago. I want small files that I can email to my insurance company. I think I want rear and side views as well, since I've been sideswiped a couple of times from folks drifting into my lane at the same speed. Neither a front nor a rear facing camera can record that, and it has happened to me 3 times over the last 40 years of driving.

But I can certainly appreciate Tugly's choice in seeking the ultimate in video quality, because the goal is decidedly different. Had Tugly not shared his shopping show down, I might have thought 4K, OK, why not. Now I really know why not. My device still says Pentium inside. No where near an i7.

 

Wanna buy my Blackvue DR650GW-2CH? Front and rear cameras, 1080p.

 

Blackvue is a good product, based on my little bit of experience and all the reviews I read. It sounds like FordTruckNoob wants to start an upgrade fund.

 

Exactamundo

 

Well searched through my list of threads, and while it was not in my build thread (could have sworn I posted this in there some where....) here is the link to the DVR system I was refering to with the multi camera set up


https://www.dashcam.co/

 

Well... here's my test video worthy of posting. This is dusk on an overcast day, so it can get a little grainy because of low light. Night vision is not this thing's forte', but it does just fine in low light.

For those of you with uber-speed internet and a 4K screen, you can view it in full 4K.

 

That's very nice,makes Me want to throw Our cheap one out the window,whats it look like in the dark?

 

Backstory here: I was driving 85 MPH (Boise to Ogden is a drab drive, but at least it has an 80 MPH speed limit). Just as I passed a truck, we crossed a large river. We thought it was the Snake river, but we couldn't be sure. I asked my wife to remember the time, and I thought I'd review the video to see if I could spot a sign.

Well... I froze the frame and cropped the image down so I could share it on the forum without it hogging the screen.

Remember - 85 MPH.

 

I deleted my first night videos, and I haven't made another set yet. They're coming.