DR970X-1CH-PLUS II

>Ideally like a front and rear camera that's quality will not let me down day/night if I need vehicle registrations. Marketing lies. Registrations are hot and miss outside of ideal conditions. >I want this to be a one time purchase, install setup and forget, so long term reliability is paramount. Blackvue DR 970x plus ii is going to be your best option. Thinkware U3000 or Viofo would be second and 3rdm Ideally I'd like it hardwired so it starts with my car (I'd have no clue how to do this, so guides would be essential or direction to installers near to Crawley, UK). Buy the ODB2 kit, and it's plug and play. >I don't want my battery dying on me so how do you avoid this? You set the voltage cut off to 12.4 when it's below freezing and 12.0 when it's above. >Are there wireless rear cameras? Nope.

Thinkware U3000 with ODB2 power kit is likely your best option. Blackvue DR970x plus ii with ODB2 power kit would be a strong alternative. No modifications to the vehicle. High quality. Easy to install and remove without a trace.

Blackvue DR970x plus series 2 is a great option. They shortened up the boot time, and upgraded a few other internals.

You need to choose between a wide field view or a narrow focus on plates, and almost all cams choose the former. Add in low quality cameras and video compressed for uploading and you get what you describe. Thinkware U3000 and Blackvue DR970x plus are decent options.

Blackvue. Clear crisp video (even at night), was pretty straightforward to hardwire, convenient to download footage, parking mode with built in volt limiter (can use an exterior one too), cloud storage capability and rear cam fits even with my rear curtain closing for my LS. Used mine for over 7 years, have in multiple cars as it's the favorite of all I've used. Worth even if it's just the UHD ones.

They have their pros and cons. Viofo dashcams like A329S tend to come with the latest tech which results in the best image quality. They are also affordable (~$600 for a front & rear dashcam) for what you get but their app is pretty barebones. Blackvue dashcams are pricier but come with optional cellular connectivity (for remote viewing, etc) and box dashcam options where the processor can be hidden out of the sun and only have the camera itself on the windshield. For their latest dashcams like the DR970X Plus II, it’s about 1.5x-2x the price of Viofo’s alternative depending if you want LTE or not. Thinkware dashcams also come with optional cellular connectivity and have the smartest parking mode of the three as they use radar to detect impacts during parking mode but both Viofo and Blackvue units can record constantly during parking mode so its not a massive difference. The Thinkware U3000 Pro is also one of the priciest at $1300 just for the dashcam without an installation. The hardest part of any dashcam install is removing the A-pillar trim to run the cables behind it, and snaking the cable through the headliner for the rear camera. It’s not really dependent on which camera/brand you buy as it’s car-dependent how difficult that would be. Any dashcam can be powered by a hardwire kit to the fusebox or USB power (like from the 12v outlet), that’s not dependent on brand either.

I recently got a blackvue dr970x plus lte previously had a nextbase gw360 which I found useless

I like the constant recording, I changed after somebody hit my car whilst park, the next base turned on but took about 10 seconds before video. Fortunately it got the side of the car from the rear and a good shot of the guy inspecting the damage before he fucked off… From a test with the BV it would have got the car from the front when he entered the car park in its line of sight. Only thing I find bad is the cost of the sd cards in the uk, the 1/2tb is ~$100 whilst the 256gb is £190… I did try a Samsung pro endurance but it didn’t like it causing glitches. The other one I considered was the thinkware.

I went with a blackvue 970x lte. Had a nextbase fitted when I brought the car by the dealer, got it removed after I was hit in a car park and the footage started about 8 seconds after impact… just getting the footage off was annoying.

Same. Had mine installed when I did ppf, tints, ceramic. Specific model I'd recommend is the DR970X.

Most dashcams will do what you're asking. Night recording, license plate capture, history, etc. But there will be trade offs in terms of subscription vs storage and setup. 4k video is about 100MB per minute for storage. If you're keeping more than a few hours of video onboard, that's going to require a large (high endurance/extreme) SD card. 512GB up to 1TB. Unless you transfer video off daily, it will overwrite itself. Some people have written apps to do background transfers (i.e. Blackvuesync) to a server but that will require infrastructure and network access. Unless you park close to your Wi-Fi AP, you'll have to pay for cellular access. I've done what you're asking but it does require some effort. Blackvue DR970X in both cars plus LiFePO4 batteries. Park within Wi-Fi range and run a NAS with Docker to host the Blackvue app. Works great but it does have it's challenges. Or you could pay for a dashcam subscription.

BlackVue 970. High quality and reliable.