Best 4K Cloud Dash Cam Thinkware U3000 vs Blackvue DR970X Plus LTE?

[@phileas816]

I am looking to equip my vehicles with a 4K front and rear dash cam with cloud and this video is gold. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this, super useful!

[@PanzerPlatform]

Excellent work Ben. I knew BlackVue could only download 480p over the cloud connection but I did not know it was that bad. What's the point of 4K if you can only download your videos in 480p? I guess BlackVue expects the consumer to pull the SD Card from the camera, and down load to computer, or Wi-Fi via APP. That BlackVue 480p looked terrible compared to the 4K from the U3000 regardless of the frame rates. I hope the Thinkwate U5000 for 2027 gets HDR, and built in LTE. -Chuck

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

Thanks. This was interesting to play with. Some cool features from both.

[@reggiebannister1080]

blACK VUE SUCKS THEY HAVE NO RMA EVEN THOUGH THEY SAY THEY DO THEY WERE PLAYING GAMES WITH ME REFUSE TO SEND ME AONOTHER ONE THERE IN CANADA AND BLACK VUE PLAYING GAMES IWTH ME AS WELL 30 EMAILS AND 12 VIDEOS FOR PROOF KEEP ASKING ME TO DO THINGS ETC DID EVERYTHING THEY ASKED KEEP PLAYING GAMESS I WANT ANOTHER DASH CAM WITH LTE.. SO THIS IS WHY I ASKED THIS GUY IF LIVE VIEW USES A DATA CARD

[@PanzerPlatform]

@@reggiebannister1080 Who did you purchase the dash cam from? BlackboxMyCar, or Blackvue Direct?

[@reggiebannister1080]

i bought it from blackboxmycar.. both companies blackvue and blackbox have run me around im done with them they keep making me jump though hoops to get a replacement then refuse to give a rma number and i just finally gave up and now im telling people dont buy off eiather company@@PanzerPlatform

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

@@reggiebannister1080 So I can understand your frustration. We do not sell Blackvue. Ocassionally a customer does ask for it and we take care of them. We put this video together to educate our customers and our channel subscribers. How can we help?

[@John_1033]

Thanks for another informative video Ben. Great job.

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

My pleasure!

[@fernandocornelis9397]

Check your sources, you’re missing out : yes, upon an event, like an impact while parked BlackVue will push to the cloud at 480 resolution, this is to get the footage quickly, and it’s being placed under Live Event Upload tab within the app, the footage is now in the cloud and isn’t dependent on the dash cam storage. However if you check the Camera tab you will be able to find the same event/footage with an option to download the original file at 4k. You will be downloading directly from the SSD card but through the cloud which means unlike Thinkware you don’t need to be hooked with WiFi to download any file, something that Thinkware Connected App cannot do, so for any other footage than an event you are forced to be in the car ON ignition to pull any other footage. With BlackVue you can do it while in parking mode, from anywhere in the world and with the download options 480 or 4k Nothing comes close to BlackVue cloud services.

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

Funny you say that. I tried multiple times on new 970x plus lte and it would not allow 4k over cloud. Now maybe they were having a glitch in their app or cloud that month. Either way it did not work same as prior generation did. Old 970x (non plus) it would work that way. I understand your point but the source was me testing it. It did not work as intended.

[@fernandocornelis9397]

@@SafeDriveSolutions I just tried it now to make sure and yes. I have the DR970X plus with their LTE module. I had previous versions as well and they all worked the same. The camera tab have all the footage, normal, events, and parking and when you tap the 3 dots you are given an option to download “quick file” or “original” the latter is 4k.

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

for some reason this comment was flagged by KZbin no idea why. EIther way. sometimes i wish I could share screen recordings here or screenshots of pictures. So everytime we tried to download via CLOUD on blackvue a high resolution video It was greyed out. It would only allows us to do a quick file. I always try things multiple times before posting a video. Like i said earlier there is always a chance they had a problem with software, app, or etc when the video was published. But because blackvue has terrible communication when you try and email them a question and you wait over a week to get a response. We have to publish our findings.

[@crutchclargo]

Very good review, well laid out and informative as always. You and RCG530 are the only two that I deem worthy of watching. The rest are hyper-inflated influencers and not worth watching. They sugar coat too damn much and are not worth the time to watch. I am still curious about the new 4K you are testing, much longer for the reveal, or have new issues arisen?

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

Its been in my vehicle for months. We test all products before we sell or put on our channel. We finished testing and then found out it had not gone into production. 🥲 So then we found android app had challenges which they fixed. Production was suppose to start January, February and now March they are hoping. Some challenges in supply chain. We don’t want to tell people about it if it for some reason never goes into production. Thanks for your comments we try hard to test thoroughly and be honest even though we do sell dash cameras. But we would prefer our customers be educated and it also allows us to learn about competitors products.

[@chrisnielsen3562]

Just wondering if the new 970 is still having problems uploading in 4K Or should I get different model , just need the front and cabin cams.

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

There are people saying it is operating normally. I have not verified

[@faisallukyamuzi279]

Well done Ben..this is nice 😊

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

Thank you! 😃

[@Javii96]

What is the most reliable hardware parking mode power supply in your oppinion? I have had to replace THREE of the viofo hardwire kits. (The older usb mini ones). We got a brand new car and i’m not taking apart my kick panels every year to replace them.. lol

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

Go with a different dash camera that does not use the mini usb cable.

[@wisdomabaraonye5485]

Videos are always cool. So with the think wear connected, I wanna be able to see my drive log when connected to the internet and so far I can't seem to figure it out. You just see the trip with acceleration etc. How can we view the trip? Cos if someone drives rough and causes an accident, what video do we produce for insurance purposes?

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

under notifications it will have impacts and such. I believe i turned my impacts down to lowest or off. My mistake. When you have 5 dash cameras on your windshield, beeping from every bump can be irritating. ha ha. If I had that turned up it would show impacts while driving.

[@wisdomabaraonye5485]

@@SafeDriveSolutions Thanks man.

[@burnjack291]

Are this the only 2 dash cams that have option to upload to cloud to see it offline? (with sony starvis 2 sensor)

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

Only 2 i know of currently. But i am sure there has to be more.

[@burnjack291]

@@SafeDriveSolutions Thanks for your prompt reply as always!

[@toipham9706]

First dash cam buyer here, I am extremely indecisive about my first purchase especially when the difference seems to be so minimal. It comes down to the Blackvue and Thinkware. I’m leaning towards thinkware, now would you recommend the u1000, q1000 or u3000 for daily commuter with long parking hours? Is the u3000 price difference really worth it? I commute about 5 miles one way or 10 miles round trip, I afraid the dash cam might compromise my car battery lifespan with such short distance driving, should I get a battery pack?

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

Battery pack is good. U3000, U1000 and Q1000 have low impact detection current draw. Or you can look at bew Vueroid D21 4K. Ultimate 4K Dash Cam Comparison 2024 kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJTFZmdsq9ypock

[@toipham9706]

@@SafeDriveSolutions great videos! Now you got me debating between the Vueroid and the Thinkware 😅. On your unbiased opinion, if you were in my shoes which dash cam would you go with? I’m trying to get a 24/7 wifi hotspot on the car as well, I think it would be great for cloud connection and/or video downloads! Would you even consider buying a battery pack?

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

@@toipham9706 if looking at Thinkware only products I would get the U3000

[@reggiebannister1080]

yes but does it use a data sim card? for the live view meaning you can view live anywhere in the world? whats the cloud feature cost when you get in a collision does it autoupload to the cloud via the sim card?

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

which camera are you asking about?

[@reggiebannister1080]

970x lte is the one i have.. im not asking about anything im warning poeople about the companies that ripped me off and refuse to rma it.. 23 emails to black vue 5to black box my car 15 videos as evidence they keep playing the blame game contact them contact him this and that do this test etc.. when you can clearly see in all videos its failed.. plus black vue isnt even in the usa its in korea and black box my car is in canada they want the old one back youll have to pay inport fees and its really expensive like 50 bucks or more asked them to pay for it they said sorry its past 30 days the thing is 3 months old ebay has a 90day return policy amazon 30.. amazon told me pound sand i paid 600 dollars for this thing ill never buy a blackvue again thinkware u3000 is the best one that im seeing.. so im just warning everyone that both companies play games and dont care about customers even with full eveidnce and jumping though all their hoops@@SafeDriveSolutions

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

Give me a shout in 30 minutes or more 1-604-299-7758 happy to see if I can help

[@crutchclargo]

There is no doubt, I would not ever, ever use the BlackVue LTE option. They are capturing far too much information that can be used against someone in court. Their definition of unsafe driving is different than mine. I found that on the later models Subaru cars that have the lane assist, it tries to keep you in the center. However, if you live in rural or mountainous areas, your learn to hug the outside line on curves. My night time driving has a lot of panic braking due to the large number of deer on the road. For me, an entrance ramp to a interstate that has a 70 or 75 MPH posted speed limit means I am doing highway speeds when I enter the highway. Those three cases would be considered Unsafe Driving by BlackVue. No one needs a lawyer and judge looking at their BlackVue captured driving stats and believing what BlackVue considers unsafe driving. That level of capture is OK for fleet management but damn sure not OK for the average every day driver.

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

Great points

[@MarkK01]

My issue with my Thinkware front and rear U1000 camera is it only records in 1 min segments. I really wish it was longer. Not sure what the Black view cameras does?

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

Blackvue is the same. Most korean brands are the same. I did have one of the brands tell me that is why they think SD cards may have issues on Viofo or other dash cams which allow you to change record time from time to time as it should format sd card everytime you are changing file size and it does not.

[@Toliman.]

@@SafeDriveSolutions 1 minute videos helps because SD cards tend to heat up, and wear down unevenly. MicroSD's get hot while writing data, so the longer it's writing data, the hotter the dashcam gets. Ideally, you choose a denser/bigger MicroSD, so it spends less time writing, as it has higher throughput for 4K video. Because the internal storage is buffering video before writing to the SD card (so it can compress the video), higher throughput MicroSD's will heat up less frequently. Which is better for longevity. 4K video especially, even with HEVC compression, is quite dense, and doesn't handle errors as well as lower-density, higher sized video codecs, so if a HEVC video is glitched or has an error, you could lose the whole video on a bad MicroSD that has new errors popping up due to defects with age/wear. The downside is a messy "folder" system and playlist to load up of clips and video segments. Some players can hide this, but it depends on the software or if the devs think it's useful to export, when most people just want a 20-50 second clip of an accident.

[@Tx460overland]

So for the Blackvue, you can only get 4k directly from the memory card?

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

from our testing that is what we could get. Which was weird because i am sure prior generation we did not have same challenge. I tried multiple times.

[@PatMerc007]

Can you install the U3000 outside the vehicle for the rear view? I have a pickup truck with a camper in the box, I would need the rear view to be at the top of the camper rear door...

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

These are interior cameras not meant to be exposed to elements

[@PatMerc007]

​@@SafeDriveSolutions what do you propose for this type of scenario where the cam has to be outside?

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

Blackvue has some options with exterior grade cameras

[@PatMerc007]

I see that thinkware and vueroid (cvd-h210) also has some options. Is it something you can get and install?

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

@@PatMerc007 you commented on the LTE video so i assumed you were looking for an LTE dash camera. Which is why I said Blackvue. We have access to thinkwares heavy duty camera add ons. We are suppose to be getting a VUeroid sample in the future to test but do not have it yet. We also have a final clearance on our website for a GNET GT900 that we are literally giving away because we do not sell heavy duty solutions often. safedrivesolutions.com/product/gnet-gt900-heavy-duty-dash-cam/

[@Steve-os9dg]

Great comparison. For Thinkware U3000, does the Radar function work for both front and rear camera or does it only work on the front? Thank you

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

yes it works for front and rear

[@Steve-os9dg]

@@SafeDriveSolutions Great! Is U3000 the best front and rear in the market - compared to other brands? Also, would the rear camera work as well on super duty trucks with 8 foot bed? Does Thinkware take into account (for the Radar) that longer distance from the rear window where the rear camera is and the rear bumper? Thanks again!

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

@@Steve-os9dg typicall the rear radar will not work well on a truck back window. you can adjust the radar for front and rear seperately.

[@Steve-os9dg]

@@SafeDriveSolutions so where do you recommend installing the rear cam on the truck?

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

@@Steve-os9dg that is tricky with U3000. We were talking about if it would be worth while to engineer a custom bracket for the trucks or not. It is basically a design flaw on U3000 currently

[@brunog4366]

good morning, how can I deactivate advanced energy saving

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

Use the dash cam link app. Log into record settings - parking mode - disabled

[@conman20000]

Why does thinkware have such a low review on amazon?

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

There was some bad instructions on rear camera so some people were not happy . Also the cloud was not well explained for pairing

[@ericjones363]

I thought you told me in another post that Thinkware does not upload videos to the cloud.

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

Their UBER style dash cameras do not. Which is F200 pro and F790.

[@ericjones363]

@SafeDriveSolutions I just want a good front and rear camera that uploads videos to the cloud.

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

@@ericjones363 What do you want to upload? Thinkware Q1000 and U3000 have Cloud

[@ericjones363]

@SafeDriveSolutions I just want a top notch dash cam that has a cloud subscription so we don't have to depend on SD cards.

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

​@@ericjones363 You probably want a blackvue then.

[@usingthatlogic]

Can you use a Thinkware RUT200 router to hotspot for the u3000?

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

Link? Never heard of it

[@user-jt5vm3mi1w]

@@SafeDriveSolutionsI think they mean Teltonika RUT200

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

@@user-jt5vm3mi1w i looked it up never seen that available in Canada.

[@crutchclargo]

@@SafeDriveSolutions I left a message with a link, but got deleted maybe by YT. They have a location in Toronto per their main web site.

[@avneetkainth9816]

Yes

[@Makingdifference100]

Thinkware will sell your drive stats to the highest bidder, and your insurance will go up. I would not want something like this monitoring me everywhere I go.

[@SafeDriveSolutions]

what country are they selling them in? I imagine any free service is never entirely free.