2017 Black Car Cam Chinese Version

OldMan01

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SUMMARY:

This is not a review. This is a collection of the best information I have about this product. Some of it is from my own testing and use. Some is from researching on the Web -- including right here in "DashCamTalk.com". I will try to add some useful links later.

Known:

The Black version:
[Following rewritten 2017-04-30]

[NOTE: I do NOT read Chinese, and the only printed material I have to read is the Chinese manual. Beyond that, everything I have found out is on the Web.]

1. According to the Google Translation of Xiaoyi's Website specification page the model name can be translated as "Power" version. But really, it is up to Xiaoyi to decided what it should be called in other languages.

2. Costs Less than the older versions.

3. There is NO SUPPORT for ANY languages other then then native Chinese (Mandarin?) for this device, either built in, or in the aftermarket. No English and nothing else. There is NO hack. There is no software you can load that will give you any other languages.

4. Xiaoyi has identified the chipset as a single core version designate as NTK96658. So far, there is no indication that it is better than NTK96655.

5. Xiaoyi does not name the sensor chip, saying it is a "2MP" device. Early reports say that the performance seems close to the AR0230 sensor in the grey/gold Smart Dashcam.
6. Does not accept the firmware for the older versions.

7. There is no known "Engineering Mode".

8. Does not record the 1296 resolution videos, and does not record 1080p at 60 fps. It ONLY records 1080p/30 fps or 720p/30 fps. NOTHING ELSE. It does NOT have still image capability at all, and lacks image stabilizing and some other controls. It DOES support WiFi (which I have not used).

9. It has "3D noise reduction", but there is no indication of "2nd Generation" or any improvement over the grey/gold dashcam.

10. It claims WDR, which is not switchable

11. Lens is 130 degrees FOV, f=1:1.8 (instead of 165 degrees f=1:1.8).

12. Markings:
The model number seems to be "YCS.1216".
Also on the bottom of the camera is "CMIIT ID:2016DP3709". I think this is something like the US FCC and Canadian DOC registration numbers for radio interference testing.

Unknown:

1. There is no information about future plans that might affect availability of other languages.

2. The specification page seems to imply that the bit-rate might change.

Clarification: Like all image processors, the "sharpening" is triggered by local contrast rather than directly by distance. So it is possible to see something sharp 100M away while something 20M away is not sharp, and detail might even be removed by "noise reduction" in an object that is relatively close. So while I say that I have seen sharp objects at around 300M, there is no guarantee that anything in particular at that distance, or even much closer will be sharp. I have no better way to describe image processing performance at this time.
[2017-04-10]


NOTE: I would like to test this in a car despite the fact that I will not be using it as a Car DVR, but the main reason I will not be doing so in the near future is that I cannot remove my A118C from my car's windshield. I tried and after about a half hour or more, I gave up. The mount is stuck there for now. I think I need to wait for the summer, and I might even need a hair drier to warm the windshield.

Update: As I have been mentioning above, I did run a few in-car tests. I will not be posting videos, but I will try to post frame captures. The test conditions were not ideal because the Yi device is mounted too low and too far to the right to show typical usage. But I have no reason now to do a better job, so we'll have to wait for someone else to do it.

I have a few reasons not to use the YCS.1216 in my car. It does not have good exposure compensation controls, or control over WDR. It does not have optical motion detection, which I need because the accessory power does not switch off when I shut down my car. I prefer not having the date-time stamp, and do not like the "Yi" logo permanently on screen. And yes, even more reasons than these. But I did learn a lot about this sensor's capabilties, and for that much I am satisfied.
[2017-04-10]


But that is all I have to say for now.


From The Beginning:


I am replacing my Viofo B40C this year, and while I was doing so, I ran across the Xiaomi CarDVR black version at "LightInTheBox". I knew I was not going to use this as my new Car DVR, because there were a lot of things I disagree with in the original "Smart Car Cam". One thing in particular is the size. I disagree with having a "Car Cam" as big as this. It is going to be unnecesarily visible from the outside of your car, and becomes an invitation for thieves.

However, the original (grey, or gold) versions had a very good reputation for low light based on the combination of the AR0230 sensor and the advanced chipset (most likely a variant of the NT966660 from what I have read here). I have been thinking about buying a Git1 for low light video, and this was cheaper, and the original "Xiaomi Smart Car Cam" seemed to have pretty good low light recording, though accepting that they were not intended for anything like regular video work.

Anyway, I bought the new black Chinese version. "Light In The Box" is calling it a "Power" version. The price runs about $20 US less than the older Chinese versions and maybe $30 US less than the older International (English) version.


I made some test this device in a car, but I have not changed my mind about not using it as my Dashcam. In my first tests, I have used it handheld outdoors in the night. I have no reasons to make significant changes to what I wrote before:

Night recording is washed out (very little saturation compared to my other cameras). It DOES however seems to perform fairly well in terms of sensitivity, but the lens and sharpening combined to not reach to infinity. The depth of field, however does reach out quite far. I am estimating that the depth of field + sharpening looks good out to around 300M and maybe a bit further. I think that is very good. You are not going to hit something that is 2km away in the next couple of seconds, so as far as "Dash Cams" are concerned it is adequate.
 
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You are mentioned Xiaomi few times,but I think it is a Xiaoyi dashcam(car dvr).I think you are wrong when you say that the gray and gold ones are older version.That's my opinion any way,doesn't mean I am correct.
 
You are mentioned Xiaomi few times,but I think it is a Xiaoyi dashcam(car dvr).I think you are wrong when you say that the gray and gold ones are older version.That's my opinion any way,doesn't mean I am correct.

I have heard that about the company name and I was going to use "Xiaoyi", but the whole name situation is odd. If you check, there are websites under both "Xiaomi" and "Xiaoyi". Oh, and "Yi Technologies"? And then there's the "Miui" name. But I found it when I searched for "Xiaomi" so I decided to use that name this time. The newest dash cam they have on their international website is called something like "Meijia?"
 
I didn't find anything called 'Miui',but I heard there's a new dashcam named 'Meijia'.I agree with you that on some websites says Xiaomi Yi Car Dvr,but we all know that isn't Xiaomi really.
 
1. The "Action" version (black) was released in late 2016.
2. The chipset is NT96658.
3. The name of the company is "Yi Technology."


I own a few of these cameras (black and silver versions) and haven't been able to see a big difference between the two at night. The 1296 resolution on the original version is useless because it's interpolated. So realistically, it's 1080P60 vs. 1080P30. I consider the other features like still image and ADAS to be a checkbox for marketing purposes only.

Honestly, I think either version is good for everyday use. In fact, I find the Action version very slightly sharper at night. The 130 degree FOV actually improves sharpness in my opinion because it's not trying to compress everything into a single 1080 shot. If you're driving high speed, then the 1080P60 setting may be of use. Otherwise, I prefer to use 1080P30 to reduce microSD wear and prolong recording duration.

In China, the cost difference between the Action and the Original version is only US$6. Outside China, online retailers are marking up the camera with high margins and make customers think twice about what version to get.

Chinese name = Shanghai Xiaoyi Technology Co., Ltd
English Name = Yi Technology

Yi is a separate company from Xiaomi. However, Xiaomi invests in small startup companies like Yi. In turn, the startup companies develop hardware for the Mi ecosystem.
 
And as a side note, it seems so many people are trying to convert their Chinese firmware to English firmware. To what end? I would advise them not to make the attempt.

The risk of bricking your camera isn't worth it. The only benefit is an English menu. But the camera interface is already simple enough even a child could use it. Not to mention that all settings can be changed through the English app. To top it off, the Chinese firmware is a couple versions newer than the English/international version.
 
I thought about not bothering to post more the "confusion" issue, but there is something important to end users:

Let me make this much clear: What happened when I was researching this Yi CarDVR was that I went first to a XiaoYi website (I think it was their Canadian (.ca) website but it could have been the US), and there were NO CarDVR products mentioned. They did not acknowledge even the original grey and gold units as their products. I bounced around a couple of their websites, and ended up on the XiaoMi International website, and the XiaoMi website had all the XiaYi CarDVR products (except this black version we are discussing).

So it is THEIR OWN WEBSITES that seem to be saying that the CarDVR products are XiaoMi products and not XiaoYi products. So as far as I am concerned the confusion is THEIR fault first, not the vendors. For all I know, some of the vendors may have bought their units from XiaoMi rather than XiaoYi, and that might be why they are being advertised the way they are.

As for Miui, what I was saying is that I have know a bit about Xiaomi since near its beginning. "Miui" was their first product. It is a Chinese version of Android (with Google/Android sanction). That, in theory is where their money was made to fund the rest of their products, and eventually to invest in XiaoYi. I do not know how much is actually government money and under what terms.

But the way these companies are acting, is NOT ENTIRELY like two separate companies. It looks more like a Parent/Subsidiary relationship than two separate companies. It might be as simple as a result of the CEOs being close friends. Again, I do not know.

We can hope that this much will never become important to end users.

---
Anyway, here is the offical webpage for this product in its home Chinese market:

http://www.xiaoyi.com/yi_dash_camera/

If you click on "参数规格" you will get the specifications, and if you copy the specs in Chinese and put them in google translate, you get the following:

"Color: Night Black
Length x width x height: 74mm x 19.4mm x 52.4mm
Body weight: 71g

Display screen
Main screen size: 2.7 inches
Main screen resolution: 960 x 240 Dot-matrix delta
Screen: TFTLCD screen for camera chip

Processor: NT96658 single core
Built-in ISP: yes
H.264 compression technology: yes

Enhanced version of the wide dynamic: support
3D noise reduction: support

Lens
Camera pixels: 2 million pixels
Aperture: F1.8
Optical lens composition: 6G lens +1 IR infrared filter
Wide viewing angle: 130 °

Resolution
1920x1080P 30 frames
1280x720P 30 frames

The internet
wireless network Standard Wi-Fi 802.11n, support for wireless security standards
Wireless encryption WPA2 encryption

storage
MicroSD card
Be sure to use 16-64GB Class 10 or more microSD cards
Recommended reading speed 80MB / s or more

Shooting configuration
High fidelity H.264 encoding, MP4 format
3 minutes Video clip size:
Note: At present temporarily to 1.5-1.8MB high fidelity bit rate calculation, the future adjustment is not another notice to the actual shipping settings based.

Recording time
Note: the actual scene according to the bright and complex degree will be different, while the small ant products to support the cycle of video, each film 3 minutes can be uninterrupted recording, do not leak seconds.

sensor
Built-in 3-Axis MEMS Gravity Acceleration Sensor

Special feature
Collision video latch

Built-in microphone, speaker

power supply
Car cigarette lighter: power supply 12-24V, 5V / 1A DC output (please use the small ants box attached to the accessories)

Installation method
Inside the rear view mirror

Little Ant Recorder Power Edition"

And as a side note, it seems so many people are trying to convert their Chinese firmware to English firmware. To what end? I would advise them not to make the attempt.

The risk of bricking your camera isn't worth it. The only benefit is an English menu. But the camera interface is already simple enough even a child could use it. Not to mention that all settings can be changed through the English app. To top it off, the Chinese firmware is a couple versions newer than the English/international version.

I agree that I do not think changing firmware just to make it English is worth it, but "simple enough even a child could use it?" No. But then again, children do not drive cars legally in most countries.

Also, regarding pricing, we do not know what prices the vendors pay regionally. The higher prices for the "International" version might be legitimately fair prices. It could be Xiaoyi pricing their products higher overseas, or naturally higher expenses due to running a business in different parts of the world.

But the 60 fps in the gold and grey, and SERVICE in case of defects or failures is generally worth paying a bit more. How much more is arguable.
 
Comparison frame captures from Viofo A118C v Yi YCS.1216:

The vehicle speed was probably 50 - 60 kph -- roughly the same as the cars in front. Distance was about 2 car-lengths.
[2017-04-13 added above.]

These images almost match up in time (they might be "1 frame off") and both are among the higher detailed images of the sequences.

Better "low light" performance does not just mean more useful videos at night, but depending on the weather of the day, or your climate, it can mean better quality video all day long. In the A118C frames, you can see motion blurring in the far left and far right of the frames. These were taken around 14:00 which is roughly the brightest time of the day, and while the cloud cover was 100%, it was not a particularly dark day. Many, driving videos on this day would be worse than this video. None were better -- all day long. This is the point I making.


Why So Many Pictures?

In this overcast daylight set you can see the differences in blurring/detail at the far sides of the pictures, between frames within each series. This is why one has to look at consecutive frame sequences to understand what is going on. Comparing "best" frames and then comparing "matching" is a starting point. At minimum one should also look at the frame before and the frame after. Note that despite being fairly close to the car ahead, , the license numbers are not legible. I have not altered this. I do not think there are enough pixels to make out numbers. Even at 1080p I think this would be true.
[2017-04-13 added above paragraph]

170 degrees v. 130 degrees may sound like a big difference, but looking at these images, I cannot tell.
[2017-04-13 It has occurred to me that the A118C might not use the full width of the sensor in 720p mode. This is something I checked way back when I bought the A118c and now, I do not remember. I have switched it back to 1080p, for a day or two, and I might even run the two camcorders together to see any difference. I do not know when I will have something to write about it.]
 

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Night Drive: Speed at the time of these captures was probably about 60 kph. The car is approaching an intersection so it might be slower.

A118C has WDR on and no exposure compensations. The A118C was set to 720p because that is what I prefer to use for dash cams.

The Yi YCS1216 was set to 1080p, but the differences in "content" have little to do with that setting. The differences are due to the greater sensitivity of the sensor chip, the brighter lens, and the better WDR exposure and rendering algorthms on the YCR.1216. On the YCR.1216 one can see that the reason this section of road is dark is partly because there are trees on the sides of the road. They sky is just a bit visible. But on the A118C images, the sky and trees are blended black.
[2017-04-13 above paragraph slightly changed]

The latest version of the A118C2 has a new lens which is similar to the YCR.1216. That much change should bring the two camcorders closer together in performance, but I do not know how much.

Also, sadly, after looking at the images I have posted, a few more times, I think I did not upload the best choice of files. I think that the A118c "1c" image looks like it corresponds with the YCS.1216 image "1a". I will try to upload 1 more image to the A118C file group for a better sequence to compare.
[2017-04-13 last 2 paragraphs added]

I have uploaded the "A118c-01d..." file. It will probably appear out of order online, but if you download them to a computer, the computer will be able to sort them out and put them in order. This new "A118c-01d" file should correspond with the "YCS1216-01b" file.
[2017-04-14]
 

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One last comparison, NOT in a car:

I made a video test set comparing the YCS.1216 at 1080p against the SJCAM SJ5000plus running at 1296p.

Opps! The server refuses to accept the upload of the files. The images are too big. For now, I will just say that the YCS.1216 seems to need more green, and as mentioned before, it is not sharp at infinity. I will think about what I can do about a post later.

2017-04-13
I have uploaded the YCS.1216 image "as-is" but converted to JPEG. The SJ5000plus image was a capture from a 1296p video clip. I cropped the center 1920 x 1080 image in PNG format and then converted it to JPEG as well. The files are least compressed so all possible detail has been retained.

I mentioned that the YCS-1216 has too little green. Also, the YCS.1216 uses less noise reduction and sharpening than the SJ5000plus. I think it looks like it uses even less than the Git2. I like the minimal use of noise reduction and sharpening because it means more "real data" is retained. If you look at the concrete near the "water fall" more of the real concrete appearance is retained instead of macro-blocking due to "over-smoothing". Also, if you look at the vertical post near the middle of the picture, there is no white outline around it from "over-sharpening" as there is in the SJ5000plus. I like the SJ5000plus overall, but the reduced sharpening and noise reduction in the YCS.1216 can be better in many situations.
 

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The following are some YouTube clips using "Black" version Yi Smart Dash Cams. I do not know anything in particular about these clips.

[For some reason, the two video links I posted first are now dead. Although I did not study the videos in detail, I did not see anything wrong with them. They seem to accurately show how the device work. It is very odd that they were taken down. But I am adding more.]

"Xiaomi Yi Smart Dash Camera Black", "TinyQ", Jan 13, 2017, [day]

"Yi DashCam Smart Car DVR (Power Edition) Night Recording", "Mark Henry" Mar 29, 2017

"Yi DashCam Smart Car DVR (Power Edition) Day time Recording 2", "Mark Henry", Mar 29, 2017, [cloudy day]

"Xiaomi Yi Dashcam Power Edition (Black Edition) Sample Footage", "apieh23" Jan 13, 2017, [Dusk]
 
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This is the most unexpected thing I have found out about this pair of camcorders. These are frames captured from clips recorded at 1920 x 1080p @ 30 fps. from both devices. As I mentioned, the YCS.1216 is mounted lower and farther to the right than I would generally mount it -- too far for a really valid comparison, but good enough to find out some things about it.

The A118C claimed to have a 170 degree diagonal field of view. The YCS.1216 claims to have a 140 degree diagonal field of view. A bit of inaccuracy is expected, but what I found is quite surprising. Ignore the "quality issues" in these pictures. The only thing I was concerned with was the coverage. They definitely look different -- partly due to the problem I had mounting the YCS.1216, but the coverage looks almost the same. If anything, the YCS.1216 might actually be a bit wider than the A118c. If you check back to my 720p images above (the "daylight" image sets), again, the YCS.1216 and A118c were similarly matched. So, at least one of these companies seems to be claiming incorrect specifications for their device. It is also possible that they are both wrong. It is a disappointing thing to find out that such inaccuracies occur.

Matched Images:
"A118c-02.jpg"
"YCS1216-M02.jpg"

Firmware:
A118C = "A118C.20160316"
YCS1216 = "1.03.034-CN"

I have also uploaded the next sequential frame from the YCS.1216:
"YCS1216-M02a.jpg"

Comparing this frame will confirm the displacement of the vehicles.

The test vehicle, the vehicle on the left and the vehicle in front are all moving -- each probably at around 50 kph, so matching the frames is not hard. There is no doubt that the comparison frames are matched right down to around the 1/30th sec. frame rate.
 

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If I may interrupt you and your to long posts and ask you something?What is the goal/or point of your posts,because I'm honestly little lost with all of this?Are you testing your Yi Car Dvr and show your results or you are saying that Yi is good or bad dashcam?Sorry I don't understand.No hard feelings,I wasn't meant nothing bad.
 
If I may interrupt you and your to long posts and ask you something?What is the goal/or point of your posts,because I'm honestly little lost with all of this?Are you testing your Yi Car Dvr and show your results or you are saying that Yi is good or bad dashcam?Sorry I don't understand.No hard feelings,I wasn't meant nothing bad.

It is a collection of the most accurate information I have so far. If you have no use for accurate information, fine. Sometimes I post my opinions, sometimes I don't. Does it really matter? Either way, wouldn't you come to your own conclusions?
 
It is a collection of the most accurate information I have so far. If you have no use for accurate information, fine. Sometimes I post my opinions, sometimes I don't. Does it really matter? Either way, wouldn't you come to your own conclusions?
I am just curios and a little confused are these your opinions,observations or others and what's the point?Are you satisfied with your Yi or not,or you have no conclusion yet and still exploring it?I love to read your posts but don't know what's your material nad what' isn't.I am satisfied with my Yi for money it costs.I have my own conclusions,and love to hear others also.
 
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