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For most people, the preferred mode of transport is a private car, the main advantage of which is freedom of movement, that is, the ability to go to any place at any time without resorting to someone else’s help. However, such independence imposes a certain responsibility in the form of the need to comply with the rules of the road. But, even if you follow all the rules, it is not a fact that other participants follow them. As a result, even an exemplary driver can get into a traffic accident, and he will have to prove his innocence. In the latter, special devices help us — car DVRs, they record what is happening around the car as a video file, while determining its coordinates using the GPS / Glonass satellite system. In this review, we will consider the features of this class of devices. We will be helped by the Russian company Blackview, which is also known for its secure smartphones. The Blackview A70 DVR has a good, in our opinion, price-performance ratio.

Design and management

The Blackview A70 DVR has a typical design for this kind of device, with a flat body, a screen on the back and a protruding lens on the front. This arrangement allows you to install a large display, good optics and place all the necessary controls.

When viewed from above, we see a massive and secure mount for the holder.

As is often the case, between the recorder and the holder there is an electrical contact designed to power the device (car charger is connected to the holder).

To the left of the mount is the button to call the settings menu and the power key.

The M key is located to the right of the mount and is responsible for selecting the mode (photo, video, view), in recording mode it turns off the display. The OK key allows you to start recording, take a photo, or confirm a menu selection.

The display is made using TFT technology and has a diagonal of 2.7 inches.

On the left side, we see the up and down keys for navigating through the menu.

On the right is a microSD card slot.

On the bottom surface there is a connector for connecting to a computer, an HDMI output and a microphone hole.

On the front surface of the case, you can see the reset button.

There are also advertising inscriptions talking about the manufacturer, the brand of the processor used (thanks to it, the video stream is encoded) and the resolution of 2K shooting.

A suction cup is used as a fastener to the glass, which is securely fixed with the help of the swivel part of the holder.

Menu

DVRs differ from other devices in that as soon as you turn them on, recording starts, which goes on continuously and cyclically. For example, the Blackview A70 records by default in segments of 1 minute, which occupy 100 megabytes in memory, and when the entire memory card capacity runs out, the first segment is erased and a new one is recorded.

Date and time of shooting are displayed both on the screen of the recorder and in the file itself when playing it, that is, they remain on the image when the recording is retrieved from the device.

On the video recording screen, in addition to the standard display, the speed and direction of movement are indicated.

The main device setup menu is convenient, logical and easy to read, it is divided into three submenus, displayed as tabs on the left:

POI GPS Alert Settings Menu

POIs are so-called “points of interest”, that is, places on the map with certain coordinates and properties, such as the location of radars or traffic lights. In this menu, you can select certain POIs and the device will announce them in advance. Here you can also turn on the speeding warning, adjust the range of the GPS radar alerts, select alerts for certain types of radars.

DVR settings menu

Here you can adjust the recording quality, enable WDR (high dynamic range), sound, GPS and lane departure warning.

The following two settings are worth noting:

The G-sensor is a shock sensor that responds to sudden accelerations and collisions, after which the protection of the file that was being recorded at a given time is activated, after which it becomes “inviolable” for the loop recording function.

Motion sensor — designed to start recording when a moving object appears in the frame of the DVR. It is necessary in order to secure the car in the parking lot.

System Settings Menu

Here are the standard settings for digital devices, but you can also enter your car number so that it appears on the video.

Image quality

A car recorder is a device that must record in a rapidly changing traffic situation, at night, in contrasting lighting, and all this in automatic mode. Therefore, all registrars are devoid of unnecessary “bells and whistles” and excesses, the main emphasis here is on electronics and optics, which are responsible for image quality.

The registrar, like any digital camera, has three main components that form a high-quality picture: a lens, a matrix (light sensor) and a processor.

The Blackview A70 DVR is equipped with a wide-angle aperture lens (f/1.8, focal length 2.7 mm), the viewing angle is 170 degrees. It includes six optical elements, as in some SLR lenses.

The matrix of the Blackview registrar, developed by the American company OmniVision, the specific model name is OV4689. This is a back-illuminated CMOS (BSI) sensor, a technology used in modern cameras and camcorders. Such matrices are good for night shooting.

In addition, this sensor is capable of capturing HDR video at a resolution of 4 megapixels, which is useful in both bright and dim conditions.

The processor is a chip from Ambarella, which, by the way, has been cooperating with GoPro and has been making processors for its action cameras since 2010. The processor is called A7LA50, it provides video recording with a maximum resolution of 2304×1296 pixels and a frequency of 30 frames per second. This is more than enough for the tasks performed by the DVR.

As a result, we get a clear, smooth picture, the quality of which is sufficient to see the necessary details. Geometric distortions are present, but they are due to the large viewing angle of the lens.

The developers managed to ensure that the quality of the image obtained on the Blackview A70 recorder is not inferior to much more expensive devices.

Video examples can be downloaded here:

Video examples.zip

radar detector function

Radar detector — a device that detects radiation from various traffic police radars and warns the driver about it.

Blackview A70 detects the signal of the Strelka ST/M radars, as well as radars in the X-band, K-band, extended Ka-band. A special detector captures the laser in the range of 800-1000 nm.

In general, it is clear that the built-in radar detector here belongs more to the budget segment, since it does not have any settings. However, due to the presence of a radar and GPS coordinate base, it will provide quite acceptable quality of work.

Autonomy and memory card

The battery of the Blackview A70 DVR has a capacity of 280 mAh, the charging mode from it is not the main one, so it is designed for a short operating time — about 10 minutes.

MicroSD memory cards are used for recording, up to 128 MB are supported, which is important due to the large volume of recorded files.

conclusions

Given the current traffic situation, the recorder, in our opinion, is a necessary device for any driver — amateur or professional, and as important and informative as the “black box” on an airplane. Modern video recorders not only record video, but also register the scene of the incident, help to comply with the speed limit. The Blackview A70 will be a good choice for its class, as it includes the functionality of two devices at a very affordable price, while having a good build quality.