INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   One of the few things i like to do when i have very little free time on my hands (it happens) is to watch exciting YouTube clips from dash cameras all over the world since first person is always something different. I also watch many YouTube clips from Nurburgring (mainly crashes since i never got the chance to really learn the track and i like to know where the dangerous parts are) ever since i was there back in late 2010 but unfortunately although there are some taken with dash cameras the majority is taken from exterior cameras positioned outside the track and that doesn't tell as much about what really happened. In any case dash cameras have many uses and as stated numerous times in the past not only can they provide an easy way for you to film a road trip but their recordings can also be used in case of an accident since in some countries they are considered as evidence by the court not to mention that they are also a valid way to reduce insurance fees for your car (some insurance companies offer such plans) and protect you against insurance fraud. Pittasoft is one of the only names in this particular market that we've come to trust over the years and today we're taking a look at their latest BlackVue DR650GW-2CH Car Dashcam.

   Pittasoft has set the standard in the car dashcam industry since it was established in 2007. Taking car dashboard camera technology to the next level with its groundbreaking Full-HD 1-channel and 2-channel cameras, Pittasoft has enabled global customers to maximize usability by connecting car dashcams to smart devices via Wi-Fi and BlackVue Cloud services. Anytime, anywhere, BlackVue Cloud provides comfort with instant access to playback, live view and video publishing to YouTube as well as peace of mind with emergency alarm, location tracking and backup of important footage.

   It's been over two and a half years since we reviewed the very good BlackVue DR550GW-2CH car dashcam by Pittasoft so when they contacted us asking if we'd like to take a look at the latest DR650GW-2CH model we were quite excited. No the new DR650GW-2CH doesn't land far away from the DR550GW-2CH in terms of specifications and features but according to Pittasoft it is improved in more than just one area. Now we do know that available MP and resolution are not two such areas since both the DR550GW-2CH and the DR650GW-2CH use 2.4MP SONY CMOS sensors for the front cameras and 1MP CMOS sensors for the rear ones which in turn offer Full HD (1920x1080 @ 30fps) and HD (1280x720 @ 30dps) recording (if you are after a 2k/4k dash camera this is obviously not it). However whereas the front camera of the DR550GW-2CH recorded at a diagonal angle of 137 degrees (horizontal 108 / vertical 80) and the rear at an angle of 139 degrees (horizontal 116 / vertical 61) the front camera of the DR650GW-2CH records at a diagonal angle of 129 degrees (horizontal 103 / vertical 77) while the rear camera also records at an diagonal angle of 129 degrees (horizontal 108 / vertical 57). The reason behind that slight change was to boost picture clarity at the cost of recording area. That's not however the only thing Pittasoft changed since the DR650GW-2CH is painted black to make it easier to "blend" (the grey of the DR550GW-2CH was more visible) and now consumers can use larger capacity microSD cards (128GB maximum compared to the 32GB of the DR550GW-2CH) and can also access the camera feed remotely via Cloud (requires registration). So does the new DR650GW-2CH have what it takes to successfully replace the old but still very good DR550GW-2CH?

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pittasoft chose to ship the DR650GW-2CH inside a white box that has a product picture at the front (mounted) and the main features listed right beneath it.

 

 

The serial number and barcode of the product along with the capacity of the included microSD card (ours had a 16GB card but for our tests we used a 64GB Samsung Pro card) are printed on the left side.

 

 

Contact information about Pittasoft is available on the right side of the box.

 

 

The BlackVue name is printed on a secondary cover placed under the top cover.

 

 

Both cameras are securely placed inside a piece of black foam while the rest of the bundle sits right beneath them.

 

 

Inside the box you will find the front and rear cameras, coaxial cable (used to connect both cameras), car lighter power cable, user's manual, easy wi-fi manual, microSD USB card reader, 16GB microSD card, 8 cable clips and 2 pieces of adhesive tape.

 

 

THE BLACKVUE DR650GW-2CH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unlike the DR550GW-2CH that featured a textured grey paint the DR650GW-2CH features a smooth (almost polished) black paint. Size-wise both models are identical so once again the front camera measures 118.5mm in length and 36mm in height while the rear camera measures 67.4mm in length and 27.6mm in height.

 

 

We decided to throw a quick comparison between the DR550GW-2CH and the DR650GW-2CH.

 

Here's a close-up of the lens used in both models. Both models use the same 2.4MP CMOS sensor by SONY but the DR550GW-2CH has a wider recording angle (the lens look different too).

 

 

Both models have the Wi-Fi connectivity logo and the mute audio function on the left side.

 

 

The DR650GW-2CH is slightly improved on the right side since unlike the DR550GW-2CH you don't need to remove the coaxial cable connecting the rear camera every time you remove the microSD card. That aside we also find the on/off power button, microSD card slot and the DC in.

 

 

The microphone and speaker are both placed at the rear of both cameras along with the record and GPS activity LEDs.

 

 

Both rear cameras just have their 1MP lens at the front and the coaxial port on the left.

 

 

You can purchase Power Magic pro if you want an easy way to install the DR650GW-2CH in your car (just route the cable from the interior to the engine compartment and use Power Magic Pro to connect it directly with the battery).

 

 

The DR650GW-2CH may not be a 2k/4k dash camera and it doesn't have a rear LCD screen but it's one of the smallest ones around with that level of quality and that's something we all like.

 

 

BLACKVUE HD PC SOFTWARE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prior to using the DR650GW-2CH i suggest visiting the official Pittasoft support page to download both the latest product firmware and the latest playback software.

 

 

The strong point of the BlackVue HD viewer is not that it allows you to playback recordings made by the DR650GW-2CH but that it also provides extra information like recorded G's and map coordinates (you can also format the microSD card from the upper right corner - cards over 32GB in capacity need to be formatted using this and not the SD format tool).

 

 

You can also follow the exact route you took by opening the side map as seen above.

 

 

What i like most about this program is that it also allows the end user to setup the settings of the camera (settings are saved onto the card so you can have different cards with different settings) so from the first page you can switch between available resolutions for both cameras and enable/disable recording types.

 

 

The second page allows you to adjust sensor sensitivity (this is used to automatically switch between recording types).

 

 

You can enable/disable Wi-Fi connectivity, turn on/off the activity LEDs and adjust the voice guidance feature from the 3rd page.

 

 

The CLOUD feature can be configured from the 4th page as seen above.

 

 

BLACKVUE C ANDROID/IOS APP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pittasoft gives you complete control over the DR650GW-2CH with their brand new BlackVue C app for android and iOS devices. The software has 3 available choices, CLOUD, WI-FI and Internal memory (the last applies if you have transferred recordings from the camera to your portable device).

 

 

The most popular mode is Wi-Fi since with it you can connect your portable device to playback stored recordings and change available settings.

 

 

The Wi-Fi mode also has a live feed feature so you can see what the camera is recording on your portable device (for the most part the feed is blurry since it relies on WiFi connectivity).

 

 

Pittasoft expects the CLOUD feature to become just as popular but if you decide to throw away the 2D barcode attached to the camera (like we did) you're out of luck since it's required to complete your registration (you can however contact support to complete it).

 

 

AUDIO & VIDEO QUALITY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before we post our usual clips to showcase audio and video quality i wanted to point out the difference in recording/viewing angle between the DR550GW-2CH (137 degrees diagonal) and the DR650GW-2CH (129 degrees diagonal). This source screenshot is taken from the DR550GW-2CH and the red rectangle represents the viewing/recording angle of the DR650GW-2CH.

 

 

As always we didn't use YouTube to place our recordings since we want all of you to see exactly what you will when using the camera (unfortunately that's why the clips are 10-15 seconds long) so to download the above clips you just need to left click with your mouse or right click and use the save as command. This time over we also placed two short night clips to showcase what you can expect from the DR650GW-2CH at almost pitch black conditions. Also since the rear HD camera is identical with that used in the DR550GW-2CH (identical diagonal recording angle, resolution and bitrate) we skipped on testing it again (you can refer to our DR550GW-2CH review if you want to see just how good it is). By default the bitrate of the front camera sits between 6 and 6600kbps so it's not especially high compared to some other models out there (some companies have even released firmware updates that push that number to 20000kbps with heat and battery issues as the result). Luckily Pittasoft will soon release a firmware update which will push that number to 8000kbps for even better results without any stability issues (although i do feel that around 10000kbps would be ideal).

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   First of all I need to point out that from all the car dash cameras I’ve reviewed and tested over the years the DR550GW-2CH was up until a few months back the one mounted in my car. That goes to show how much I liked that particular model although aside when testing it I never did use the rear HD camera (routing the coaxial cable in a roadster is a nightmare and in the end you just can’t hide it). That’s also part of the reason I was excited when the DR650GW-2CH landed in our lab. Unfortunately when I saw that Pittasoft saw fit to reduce the diagonal angle and to still stick with Full HD I became quite skeptical since almost 4 years after the release of the DR550GW-2CH I was expecting something better in every single field. Of course i knew that Pittasoft took that route to improve image quality but still by using the same 2.4MP Exmor CMOS sensor by SONY even with the reduced viewing/recording angle the DR650GW-2CH doesn’t really perform that much better compared to the DR550GW-2CH (that’s not really a bad thing since we still think the DR550GW-2CH and now the DR650GW-2CH are two of the best dash cameras money can buy today). Would a Ambarella processor improve things enough for us to consider it a brand new dash camera? Honestly I don’t think so since the Ambarella processor has many issues of its own but a better (higher MP) CMOS sensor by SONY would definitely make a huge difference (even though that would probably mean increased costs). The rear 720p camera was not a surprise either since it is virtually identical to that of the DR550GW-2CH and although it’s without doubt a valuable addition for most cars again it’s not the ideal solution for use with convertibles (you can always mount it on the wind screen but you can’t hide the cable). Still I was glad to see that the DR650GW-2CH shares the same features and the same enclosure as the DR550GW-2CH and thus it doesn’t require much space to mount. As for the software and android app they are both very easy to use and offer the end user a plethora of available settings to mess around with (although I’d also like to see more image quality settings like contrast, sharpness, de-noise, recording compression and WDR) and features like remote Cloud access.

   Pittasoft makes some of the best Dash Cameras in the world and that’s why their products don’t come cheap and neither does the DR650GW-2CH since it currently retails for USD311.07 inside the USA (Amazon.com – with 128GB microSD) and for 355Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk – with 16GB microSD). Of course that’s excluding the Magic Pro which will set you back roughly USD35/40Euros. In the end although I do hope Pittasoft releases a seriously upgraded version with a new CMOS sensor and why not Bluetooth connectivity between the front and rear cameras things can’t get much better than the DR650GW-2CH and that’s why it gets our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Design/Size
- Image Quality (Sharpness/Color Reproduction)
- Audio Quality
- Dual Camera Solution
- Built-In Wi-Fi/GPS/G-Sensor
- Range Of Motion (Tilt)
- Motion Sensor On/Off Audio Recording
- Software (PC/Android/iOS)
- Cloud Access
- Up To 128GB MicroSD Cards
- Power Magic Pro (Car Surveillance)

 

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Rear Camera IQ
- Not Convertible-Friendly
- Not A Significant Upgrade Over The DR550GW-2CH