Viewing downloaded videos
Is the viewer only for playing back video directly from the microSD card? I downloaded some video from the dashcam onto my desktop computer (they transfer as *.mp4 files), but the viewer software does not recognize them. Is there a way to transfer video and play it back from a desktop or laptop computer, without physically removing the microSD card from the dashcam?
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The Viewer should work fine with your downloaded videos. I do this all the time. What process did you use to transfer the files to your PC?
If you double-click on an mp4 file in Explorer to play with one of the built-in video apps on Windows, what happens? Maybe the file got corrupted when you copied it.
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Lower-quality files play normally, but without the map data, of course. The high-res files play very slowly and with lots of jerking and dropped frames. I transferred the files by first saving them to internal memory on my phone, then copying them to a cloud drive. I downloaded the files from the cloud drive to my desktop machine.
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Curious. I do know that the "caching" of the video files read into the viewer isn't great. But it does try. Normally the symptoms you mention indicate a really slow hard drive that can't keep up. What version of the Viewer are you using? And try a non-BV video player and see if it's better. That'll eliminate suspects.
I, unfortunately, upgraded my PC and video card, and now I have the old crashing problem back. :-(
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I extracted the microSD card from the dashcam (which was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be) and tried viewing the recorded videos in the BV viewer on my PC. The videos wouldn't play, in the BV viewer or in two other video players. I tried this with both my reasonably fast desktop PC and a faster, graphically-optimized gaming PC. Clearly, I do not have a computer that is capable of playing back 4K video. I have reformatted the microSD card to record in HD, as opposed to 4K. This is a disappointment, as I bought the higher-end dashcam for the better video quality.
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You mention 4K, which presumes you're using the 900S. I'd recommend you look through the dashcam.com threads in this section:
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/forums/dr900s-2ch.255/The 4K videos may be in H.265 format (aka HEVC), which require some "beef" to actually play smoothly.
This thread in particular may be helpful (though perhaps not in a good way):
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/not-using-h-265-codec-again.36841/I'm a 750S owner myself, but apparently you can set the camera to record in the more traditional H.264 format. My understanding is the 4K quality is close, but the file sizes will be bigger (so fewer recordings on the card). But more compatible with the viewers.
Brad.
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I tried downloading a couple of the H.265-capable players, but didn't have any better luck than with the BV viewer or VLC Media Player. I will try a reset to record in 4K H.264 format and see if that works any better. The file size is less of a concern than the video resolution. Thanks for your help.
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Well, I got the microSD card out of the dashcam, loaded it on my desktop PC, and fired up the Blackvue Viewer. I opened the firmware menu (which is suspiciously absent on other microSD cards) and set the firmware to record in 4K, but with H.264 coding. I took a test drive, then downloaded a couple of video files onto my phone, then onto the PC. The files paly as before. They basically freeze at the first frame, show no motion, and occasionally the viewer screen goes blank altogether.
There really needs to be a way to access and/or set the dashcam recording options without having to extract the microSD card. Getting the microSD card in and out is a pain in the ass.
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Here is a screen grab of what the BV Viewer looks like when trying to play back the video.
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The Viewer app has problems with PIP is enabled. So far the "solution" is to merely document that it has problems. Hopefully some day they'll actually fix it. But for now, try disabling PIP and see if that helps.
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