BlackVue DR970X-2CH PLUS

I have owned my Blackvue DR970X-2CH PLUS Dash Cam for the last 2 years. I have owned several Blackvue Dash Cams over the last 10 years and have always found them to be just what I need!! I look at buying a Dash Cam like buying House Insurance - Y oualways hope that you will never use it, but if something does go wrong, you are very grateful that… Read more ·  1

you have it!! This particular Dash Cam has never had an issue. They are made really, really well and last the test of time. I periodically Reset the Blackvue SD Card but other than that, it works quietly in the background, including when my car is parked, and protects me from any external mishap!! I am also extremely impressed with the Support available from Blackvue Australia. They are always there when you need them and always reply to your emails or phone calls. I was looking to Upgrade my Dash Cam to the Elite Series as my current vehicle has been traded-in and my existing Dash Cam will stay in that car. I Contacted (Tim) at Blackvue Australia and he could not have been more helpful!! He tried to ring me but I had left my phone at home. I rang him back today as I wanted to know about the Elite Series - He gave me the very best explanation of all the Blackvue Dash Cams currently available. He didn't rush, he took his time and made it just so easy for me the understand!! It was very much appreciated by me. If you want a Dash Cam that does exactly what it says it will, go with Blackvue. It may be somewhat more expensive than some other brands but it is tried and tested with many years of experience, and I don't believe you will be disappointed!!

Purchased a DR970X LTE 2CH Had some issues initially which Blackvue sorted out quickly for me. Recently had another issue where the camera was constantly rebooting, had some issues with contacting and getting support which was then promptly dealt with by Blackvue Australia. Happy to say, short of the issues Blackvue Australia was very… Read more

accomodating and a pleasure to deal with. A very quick turn around considering how close to Christmas we are now. Much appreciated.

Good camera for video details, but 5GHz Wi-Fi and GPS need improvement – The 4K front camera is very good for capturing details such as registration plates. The rear HD camera is also pretty good. In terms of achieving the basic requirement of a dash camera - recording videos from your car - the DR970X-2CH PLUS is a very good dash camera. Be aware that the 4K videos are very large - about 450 MiB per minute of video… Read more

- so if you're planning a long trip and you want to keep all of the dash cam videos you will need to invest in a large capacity SD card. Otherwise when the SD card is full the newest videos will overwrite the oldest videos.

I hired a dash cam installer to perform the electrical installation, so I can't comment on the ease of installation. It took him about an hour, which is apparently about standard.

BlackVue provides a mobile app to access the dashcam via a Wi-Fi access point. Alternatively, the videos and settings can be accessed via a free BlackVue application available for Windows and Apple computers. Unfortunately, there is no Linux version. If you run Linux on your computers, as I do, you will need to have access to a Windows system to use the PC software. I have a Windows installation I can dual boot, but I suspect a Windows installation in a virtual machine would also work.

The DR970X includes other functionality such as a Wi-Fi access point for connecting to the camera from a mobile phone via the BlackVue app, and a built-in GPS. That is where what would otherwise be a great dash camera starts to look shoddy, as if the developers were keen to cram more features into the DR970X PLUS but they didn't take the time to make sure that those features worked reliably.

The BlackVue mobile app allows the user to view and download recorded videos, change the camera settings, update the firmware and see a live view from either the front or rear camera. The Android app is available from the Google Play Store and it installs without any problem. There is a small amount of setup required to configure the app for the particular dash cam, but it isn't difficult. My only annoyance with the app is that the opening screen is about 90 percent taken up with an advertisement for BlackVue's online service. I'm never going to subscribe to that service, but there is no way to make that advertisement disappear.

Both 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi is supported by the camera, but I found the 5GHz connection to be very unreliable. Note that I always connect my phone to the dashcam access point while sitting in my car with the phone less than a metre from the dashcam. Even so, the 5GHz connection frequently drops out while in use. On multiple occasions the 5GHz access point disappeared completely, with no BlackVue SSID being broadcast until I unplugged the power cable and plugged it back in again to restart the dashcam. Attempting to access the Live View via the 5GHz connection routinely results in an error message "The Wi-Fi signal is too weak". And to top it off, the Pittasoft engineers who build the BlackVue dashcams decided to restrict the 5GHz connection to channel 157 only. There is no option to switch to other channels if that is a problem due to local radio interference or congestion or, indeed, government restrictions on the use of that channel.

From my experience, the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi access point is completely reliable. While it might be slower than the 5GHz Wi-Fi, at least it stays connected without a problem, and the SSID does not randomly disappear. I have given up on the dashcam's 5GHz Wi-Fi access point, and I now use the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi access point exclusively.

I considered sending my DR970X-2CH PLUS back to BlackVue under warranty due to the 5GHz Wi-Fi issues. Due to the intermittent and random nature of the problems, however, I am concerned the BlackVue technicians would return it to me without finding any problem. Other factors to consider are the cost of shipping the dash camera to BlackVue and the lengthy time I would be without a dash camera - probably a couple of months over the Christmas/New Year period. And of course the 5GHz Wi-Fi access point is not a core function of the dash camera - I don't really need it. So I decided not to bother.

My phone has no trouble connecting to the BlackVue access point, but my partner's phone will not connect unless that phone's mobile data is turned off. I have no idea why.

The GPS in the DR970X PLUS is woefully slow to lock in on GPS satellites. It often takes up to 10 minutes after driving out of my garage before the BlackVue GPS starts working. Given that the GPS sensors in my phone and in my car start working almost immediately, why is the BlackVue GPS so slow?

The DR970X PLUS firmware enables 'Reckless Driving' recordings and warnings. These are activated when the dash cam detects that the vehicle has driven, accelerated, braked or cornered faster than a user-specified limit. The dash camera uses the GPS speed to calculate whether these conditions have been met. A recent firmware update added audio warnings when a reckless driving situation was detected. Due to its reliance on the BlackVue GPS, however, that can result in nonsensical warnings if the GPS signal has not yet been locked on to by the dashcam. I discovered this when I kept getting 'Hard Braking' warnings sounding from the dashcam while driving slowly through road works in a straight line without braking. The warnings then continued repeatedly while I was completely stopped at traffic lights. When I subsequently checked the dashcam videos to work out what was happening, I noticed that my GPS-calculated speed was oscillating rapidly up and down from about 5 kph to over 60 kph while I was actually driving at a steady 40 kph. Even when stopped at the lights, the BlackVue GPS was calculating my speed as jumping from about 5 kph to about 30 kph and back within a few seconds. Hence the GPS-derived 'Reckless Driving' warnings.

The BlackVue DR970X PLUS enables users to overlay recorded videos with the GPS-calculated speed. Given the terrible inaccuracy of the GPS speed value if it has not yet established a good GPS signal, it might be best to disable that overlay function. Otherwise anyone viewing a recorded video might believe the vehicle is speeding or driving recklessly when it is not.

BlackVue accessories are absurdly overpriced, such as $55 for a small plastic polarizing filter that, contrary to the marketing I read while researching it, can not be rotated to vary the effect. Having said that, they can be useful for reducing reflections from the windscreen. Given the cost, though, I think I might have been better off making my own from a cheap pair of polaroid sunglasses - at least then I could have made them adjustable.

There is detailed help information available on the BlackVue website, but I found that several of the pages I looked at were out of date. They provided information and instructions that were incorrect for the DR970X PLUS model. It appears that the information was never updated for that dash cam despite it being released in Australia 5 months ago.

There is currently very little competition in the 4K dash cam market, so the BlackVue DR970X PLUS is almost certainly overpriced. That might change if/when other 4K dash cams become available.

BlackVue does not promise to honour the warranty if a non-BlackVue Micro SD card is being used. BlackVue claims this is due to BlackVue Micro SD cards being more resilient and reliable in high temperatures. Perhaps not surprisingly, BlackVue-branded Micro SD cards are about double the price of other high-temperature high-endurance Micro SD cards that users have reported are just as good as the BlackVue branded cards, such as the Samsung Pro Endurance line.

Overall, I think the BlackVue DR970X PLUS is a very good dash camera. The video quality seems much better than almost all other dash camera videos I have seen. Just don't buy one for the extra functions - you might be disappointed with how poorly they have been implemented.