The list of shame fake 4K dash cameras Ultra HD

[jokiin]

Nah, it's mainly because the optics needed for 4K are very expensive so, in a way, all 4K dashcams are "fake".

nah, the camera in question is not fake, it's just not that good for the reasons that @Nigel mentioned

 

[HPF]

nah, the camera in question is not fake, it's just not that good for the reasons that @Nigel mentioned

Not fake but "fake". The cost for a lens that makes good use of a 4K sensor is prohibitive for consumergrade dashcams, hence "fake" because you essentially get the same level of details with a 1080p dashcam.

 

[jokiin]

Not fake but "fake". The cost for a lens that makes good use of a 4K sensor is prohibitive for consumergrade dashcams, hence "fake" because you essentially get the same level of details with a 1080p dashcam.

not even close to correct

 

[Nigel]

Not fake but "fake". The cost for a lens that makes good use of a 4K sensor is prohibitive for consumergrade dashcams, hence "fake" because you essentially get the same level of details with a 1080p dashcam.

That particular camera is not exactly cheap, it can easily afford a 4K resolution lens, maybe not of the best quality, but it does provide 4K resolution, at least when you are parked and so don't need much bitrate!

 

[Betamax_man]

Your review explaining the fake 4K is fairly obvious to those that bother to read the non-5 star reviews, so probably a better result than it being removed and then relisted without your review!

And a lot of people seem very happy with it, so as you say, not a bad camera. If people don't bother to find places like dashcamtalk to find out which are truly good value then they know they are taking a bit of a gamble.

I very rarely read 5 star reviews but definitely read 1, 2 and 3 star.

 

[Zeek333]

Rove response on fake 4k..

Thank you for your email and I completely understand what you mean by when you say not real 4K.

This is a great question and a handful of our customers ask us this.

So OV4689 is a 4MP sensor, which is made to record 1080P full HD videos at 30 fps @ 16:9 aspect ratio. (based on the manufacturer's guidelines)

Now, our engineers made custom changes and we made the same 4MP sensor record native 2880x2160P @ 24FPS @ 4:3 aspect ratio.
Notice here that the video frame rate is dropped to 24fps (instead of 30), and aspect ratio dropped to 4:3 (This was standard aspect ratio back in a day when we all had almost square TVs, remember?) (instead of 16:9 cinematic wide angle - current aspect ratio with all the widescreen flat panels)

Now testing our high bit rate firmware at 2880 x 2160p @ 24fps and 4:3 aspect ratio we were able to compact pixels more closely together to create a 4K image at 4:3 aspect ratio.
4K Image that has a 2160P (Out is 2880 x 2160P) [Wide Tv's are 16:9 which is 3840 x 2160P] -- However both are Native 4K. Just the aspect ratio is different.

The video quality at this bitrate, compression of H264 at 4MP CMOS OV 4689 Sensor, it was mindblowing and much better than those cameras using brand name CMOS 4MP sensors and even better than 1080P cameras.

Our customer then reached out to us asking why the video size is only 4:3 on their widescreen, so we even took the step further to add our zero fill interpolation technique to extend the video size from 4:3 to 16:9 cinematic widescreen.

But the video recording is natively captured at 4K - 2880 x 2160 @ 24fps 4:3, which is then bumped to the final image of 3880x2160p @ 24fps 16:9 aspect ratio.

Some customers will call it that this is NOT a true 4K dash cam, which we won't argue with them.
Because they only know the power of Google search, but they don't understand the technicality behind the processor, light capture, compression, and many other smaller scale factor which is most important in capturing the smaller details.
When they google up they think 4K means, it has to be 3840x2160p @ 30fps and nothing else. But in our eyes and 4k is measure in vertical length which is 2160P. So 2880 x 2160P @ 24fps is really the 4K recorded resolution, but then the final image is interpolated as per our customer's requests.

Currently, there is NO true 4K 3880 x 2160P @ 30fps dash cam our there in the market with the 8MP sensor. Especially, at this price. When we do come out with one, the price will be significantly higher because the cost of the 8MP sensor will be higher too (For example Stealth 4K - TRUE 4K Camera). In the matter of the fact, we are currently working on 8MP 16:9 TRUE 4K camera which will be released in the next months. However, you will not be getting it for $99.99. The price will be significantly higher.

So, for now, this is the best resolution dash camera that we have available in the market today with packed features such as built-in wifi and GPS and many other.

So another real question is do you want to pay $100 and stick to ROVE R2-4K which is better than 1080P or would you rather pay $400 for real 4K dash cam?
I personally have tested the ROVE R2-4K (4:3 2880P) vs. REAL 8MP (3840 x 2160P) side by side and honestly, the difference was about 30% in picture quality. It wasn't even then much difference. So now you can decide which one would you rather stick with.

Hope this was helpful.

 

[Russelluk]

anyone looked into this one as a fake.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/B07KP9KJJK

 

[TonyM]

anyone looked into this one as a fake.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/B07KP9KJJK

Look at the critical reviews:

 

[Nigel]

anyone looked into this one as a fake.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/B07KP9KJJK

"Warm Tips: 1. This camera supports Micro SD card up to 32GB"
My real 4K camera would fill that in less than 2 hours!
Don't consider a 4K dashcam unless it can support at least 256GB cards.

"Unique Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) video system..."

Maybe the "unique" bit is that it makes no difference to the image other than sticking a WDR logo and the word "Normal" over it?

 

[TomX]

I'm curious about the DR900S-1CH? While the sensor isn't fake at 8MP it seems like from all the samples I've seen it hardly bests the 2k dash cam's by much. I realize YouTube compression comes into play but unless I'm pixel peeping quite a bit I cant justify the $400 vs something like the A119 series if we're going for video quality.

 

[jokiin]

which Blackvue model has stellar video though, that's never been their claim to fame

 

[Betamax_man]

As I've said before, for the increase of cost between the DR750S and the DR900S, the latter is not worth it.

 

[Nigel]

I'm curious about the DR900S-1CH? While the sensor isn't fake at 8MP it seems like from all the samples I've seen it hardly bests the 2k dash cam's by much. I realize YouTube compression comes into play but unless I'm pixel peeping quite a bit I cant justify the $400 vs something like the A119 series if we're going for video quality.

YouTube doesn't need to compress Blackview video, their 4K is already compressed to 1080 bitrates by the camera!
(Actually, their extreme 4K bitrate is less than my Gitup Git2 uses for high bitrate 1080.)

 

[Thunderchild]

i would add the nextbase 612GW, I have no idea if the 4K is real and when I had 3 of them in a row i had no problems getting numberplates off them. However they are awful devices, i had 3 as they kept having issues and were very unreliable. the launch price was £249 and it now stands at £109 as they are having such a hard time shifting them with plenty off bad reviews on the halfords website. These camera's are not fit for purpose as they can cut out their recording at any time.

 

[Betamax_man]

i would add the nextbase 612GW, I have no idea if the 4K is real and when I had 3 of them in a row i had no problems getting numberplates off them. However they are awful devices, i had 3 as they kept having issues and were very unreliable. the launch price was £249 and it now stands at £109 as they are having such a hard time shifting them with plenty off bad reviews on the halfords website. These camera's are not fit for purpose as they can cut out their recording at any time.

Slightly off topic I know, I tried the Nextbase 512 and thought it wasn't that good so returned to Halfords. Settled for the Viofo A129 Duo.

 

[Thunderchild]

a work collegue is very happy with other nextbase HD camera's. I think the problem is that a 4K camera is very difficult to achieve, it needs power to process 4 times the data and there are other issues like this camera gets scorching hot in hot weather cooking the battery. I think the instability in use is because the electronics is poorly designed like a lack of bypass capacitors on each subsystem and sufficient bulk capacitance. Bulk capacitance work was being done by the deteriorating battery. Of the few other 4K cameras I have seen i am doubtful or it turns out they are not full width 4K.

 

[Nigel]

Slightly off topic I know, I tried the Nextbase 512 and thought it wasn't that good so returned to Halfords. Settled for the Viofo A129 Duo.

You want the A129 Pro if you want real 4K, the A129 Duo is a dual 1080 dashcam.

 

[StrayCam]

a work collegue is very happy with other nextbase HD camera's. I think the problem is that a 4K camera is very difficult to achieve, it needs power to process 4 times the data and there are other issues like this camera gets scorching hot in hot weather cooking the battery. I think the instability in use is because the electronics is poorly designed like a lack of bypass capacitors on each subsystem and sufficient bulk capacitance. Bulk capacitance work was being done by the deteriorating battery. Of the few other 4K cameras I have seen i am doubtful or it turns out they are not full width 4K.

Thunderchild-

You raise excellent points! - - Although some people may be able to live with the 4k cameras running very hot and sucking battery life, I would suspect that most won't opt for 4k with those current limitations.

 

[Betamax_man]

which Blackvue model has stellar video though, that's never been their claim to fame

The only thing I liked about BlackVue was the form factor, very easy to hide at the top of the screen. Price, high. Performance, low. Quality, low. Card compatibility, poor. I certainly wouldn't purchase another one.

 

[Thunderchild]

Thunderchild-

You raise excellent points! - - Although some people may be able to live with the 4k cameras running very hot and sucking battery life, I would suspect that most won't opt for 4k with those current limitations.

No it's worse than that. What i am saying is that due to the design flaws the camera quikly degrades, becames even more unstable than when purchased and then ceases to work all together. The first one I bricked during the firmware update. The second and third lasted around 6 months each before failing completely.