3-Channel Dashcam Comparison Footage: Viofo A139 vs. Gnet GON3 vs. Blackvue DR750x 3CH

[DrekiTech]

Curious what your thoughts on these 3 cameras are.

 

[HonestReview]

Curious what your thoughts on these 3 cameras are.

When did Blackvue enter the 3 channel market??? This must be a very new device!

DR770X Box

BlackVue DR770X Box features front, rear and interior protection for your vehicle, powered by Sony image sensors for best image quality under any light. Also included are GPS logger, built-in Wi-Fi, Cloud connectivity and built-in voltage monitoring for Parking Mode.

blackvue.com

Big Question!

Is there a way for the Dr750x to permit continuous recording or does it only support motion detection + impact detection with buffered parking mode?

Off Topic:

I can't believe a company like Blackvue would advocate "tucking the wire" over pillars. Shivers.

 

[DrekiTech]

When did Blackvue enter the 3 channel market??? This must be a very new device!

DR770X Box

BlackVue DR770X Box features front, rear and interior protection for your vehicle, powered by Sony image sensors for best image quality under any light. Also included are GPS logger, built-in Wi-Fi, Cloud connectivity and built-in voltage monitoring for Parking Mode.

blackvue.com

Big Question!

Does the Blackvue do real time + live recording parking mode or is the only setting Motion Detection?

Blackvue is a buffered parking mode, with motion detect + impact alerts. I believe the cam can also do timelapse with buffered events. If cloud function is enabled it will upload events to the cloud over an LTE connection.

 

[HonestReview]

Blackvue is a buffered parking mode, with motion detect + impact alerts. I believe the cam can also do timelapse with buffered events. If cloud function is enabled it will upload events to the cloud over an LTE connection.

I guess this is probably by necessity to limit heat. If camera was recording all the time, you end up getting thermal shutdowns. Only drawback is that stuff can get missed with Motion Detection versus live continuous recording.

Thanks for answering the question.

 

[Nigel]

Curious what your thoughts on these 3 cameras are.

Some thoughts:

1. I'm watching on Youtube, so no point looking too closely at the detail or pixelation.
2. The Viofo A139 interior camera has a considerably sharper image.
3. The Viofo A139 interior camera has much better colour in daylight.
3. The Blackvue interior camera isn't wide enough angle to get the front doors for a police traffic stop.
4. The Blackvue interior camera is overexposed at times in daylight, especially the outside view.
4. The GNet interior camera has strong redeye at night time, although of course it is in black and white! Not really a problem in itself, but compared to the Viofo, it is using far more illumination and so the view outside becomes much darker while the Viofo has nice exposure inside and outside in the night time interior video.
5. The GNet front camera has considerably more motion blur at night. (Seen clearly as it rounds the corner and the other car headlights come into view.)
6. The GNet front camera has too much contrast, not much of a problem in this clip, but under trees, bicycles are likely to disappear into the shadows. I think the Blackvue has too little contrast to look nice, although it will work as far as capturing data is concerned.

 

[SawMaster]

My thoughts are posted on YT. It's better than I expected it would be and I do hope you'll play with settings and keep it for long-term testing, especially if they do some FW updates to tweak the video quality

Phil

 

[HonestReview]

Front Camera

1. Intro Comparison (Front Video ) look at the truck plates at 15/16 second mark. Viofo A139 makes out the truck plates first. Followed by the Gnet. The Blackvue fails here and the plates are a soft out of focused smudge.

2. On the next clip at 35 Seconds. Again the Viofo A139 wins. Followed by the Gnet. The Blackvue disappoints. The blackvue struggles with the surrounding scenery and nothing is in sharp focus.

Viofo A139 Wins

Interior Camera

1. Viofo A139 has the best image quality and 2nd best viewing angle.
2. Gnet has the wider lens and better viewing angle but a much softer and duller image comparative to the A139
3. The blackview interior cam has an extremely limited viewing angle / field of view, but a better image than the Gnet.

Viofo A139 Wins.

Rear Camera

It looks like the Gnet-On3 has the widest field of view, followed by the Viofo A139, and then the Blackvuew 750X-3chan.

Not really sure the clear winner on this one. It looks like the rear window may have been dirty when the A139 was tested.

Night Video - Front

1 Viofo A139 clearly wins. Gnet did reasonably well. The Blackvue 750x didn't perform well at all. I'd give the blackvue a mediocre performance rating. Everything appears washed out and out of focus.

Night Video - Interior

Viofo a139 produced the most crisp and clearest image, followed by the Gnet-On3. The Gnet-On3 certainly has a wider field of view but the image simply has less definition. The image produced by the Blackvue lacks definition and again the field of view is extremely disappointing.

Night Video- Rear

I preferred the Viofo A139. The Gnet placed second. The Blackvue 750x produced the brightest image, but appeared to be significantly over exposed.

Parking Mode:

Seeing the Viofo A139 uses low bitrate, it gets +1. Not sure what the Gnet uses (motion or live recording). The Blackvue is motion detection with buffered parking mode or impact detection. Not a fan of motion so I'd personally rate the blackvue last.

Overall: Viofo A139 is a clear winner. I will say owning one, the only caveat is it gets very hot in the summer, so avoid parking in direct sunlight for park mode.

For a Blackvue, I am extremely disappointed. It did not perform very well at all.

 

[Nigel]

Interior Camera

1. Viofo A139 has the best image quality and 2nd best viewing angle.

Not sure I agree with that. There is a point where the viewing angle is too wide, at which point you can see the front windows, but the detail in the rear becomes too low, and then you either need 4K resolution, or preferably seperate left and right interior views.

I think the Gnet has gone too wide for 1080 resolution.

Night Video - Front

1 Viofo A139 clearly wins. Gnet did reasonably well.

The Gnet has far too much motion blur, it is using maybe 1/3rd the shutter speed compared to the Viofo. Motion blur is the biggest problem for night video, and I put it last because of that. The Blackvue might not look good, but it is also far less motion blurred.

The Blackvue fails here and the plates are a soft out of focused smudge.

Blackvue always uses too low of a bitrate, which is far more obvious if you are not watching on Youtube with further bitrate reductions.

 

[HonestReview]

Not sure I agree with that. There is a point where the viewing angle is too wide, at which point you can see the front windows, but the detail in the rear becomes too low, and then you either need 4K resolution, or preferably seperate left and right interior views.

I think the Gnet has gone too wide for 1080 resolution.

But you don't see the front window at all on the Gnet Interior Camera? Matter of fact, to me it's the perfect viewing angle because you can see out every window precisely the right amount. There's a trade off of course. The Viofo A139 creates a crisper and sharper image with a reduced angle. The Gnet captures the wider angle, and due to the 1080p, the image is softer.

Personally, you aren't relying off the interior camera to be capturing plates. The front or rear are going to be the saving grace, and hopefully if someone sideswipes you, part of the action will be caught on one of these two cameras.

Point of an interior camera is to capture an event that Front and Rear can't see. Even if it isn't in crystal clear definition. I'd rather capture the car sideswiping me that missing part of it due to a lesser viewing angle. Also if the police come up to your window, you want to be able to capture that, too. Without much a worry if the police officer's face isn't the highest definition image.

So I would personally, and based upon my preference, give the Gnet a second place trophy on image and a fist place trophy on viewing angle.

The Gnet has far too much motion blur, it is using maybe 1/3rd the shutter speed compared to the Viofo. Motion blur is the biggest problem for night video, and I put it last because of that. The Blackvue might not look good, but it is also far less motion blurred.

Looking again, I agree that the Gnet has more motion blur. But neither the Blackvue or Gnet did reasonably well here. The Blackvue while less motion blur, has a very soft image lacking definition.

Blackvue always uses too low of a bitrate, which is far more obvious if you are not watching on Youtube with further bitrate reductions.

As we're watching on youtube, I'll have to take your assertion at face value. But I am certainly not impressed with the performance of the DR-750X considering it's price point is twice the cost of the A139 3-Channel. Sure, you get cloud support, but the images produced by this camera are definitely lackluster.

 

[DrekiTech]

But you don't see the front window at all on the Gnet Interior Camera? Matter of fact, to me it's the perfect viewing angle because you can see out every window precisely the right amount. There's a trade off of course. The Viofo A139 creates a crisper and sharper image with a reduced angle. The Gnet captures the wider angle, and due to the 1080p, the image is softer.

Personally, you aren't relying off the interior camera to be capturing plates. The front or rear are going to be the saving grace, and hopefully if someone sideswipes you, part of the action will be caught on one of these two cameras.

Point of an interior camera is to capture an event that Front and Rear can't see. Even if it isn't in crystal clear definition. I'd rather capture the car sideswiping me that missing part of it due to a lesser viewing angle. Also if the police come up to your window, you want to be able to capture that, too. Without much a worry if the police officer's face isn't the highest definition image.

So I would personally, and based upon my preference, give the Gnet a second place trophy on image and a fist place trophy on viewing angle.



Looking again, I agree that the Gnet has more motion blur. But neither the Blackvue or Gnet did reasonably well here. The Blackvue while less motion blur, has a very soft image lacking definition.



As we're watching on youtube, I'll have to take your assertion at face value. But I am certainly not impressed with the performance of the DR-750X considering it's price point is twice the cost of the A139 3-Channel. Sure, you get cloud support, but the images produced by this camera are definitely lackluster.

Blackvue is at a lower resolution but higher frame rate so I found that there was a bit more detail at speed; that being said the lower res is noticeable, as is the difference in colour processing where blackvue is lower contrast (my thought is to preserve detail in shadows?) but on a winter day like this it makes it look all washed out

 

[HonestReview]

Blackvue is at a lower resolution but higher frame rate so I found that there was a bit more detail at speed; that being said the lower res is noticeable, as is the difference in colour processing where blackvue is lower contrast (my thought is to preserve detail in shadows?) but on a winter day like this it makes it look all washed out

What comment are you referring in the response above. I.E. (Which Video Taken by the Blackvue).

 

[DrekiTech]

What comment are you referring in the response above. I.E. (Which Video Taken by the Blackvue).

Front video BV is 1080p60 while the other 2 cams are 1440p30

 

[Nigel]

Sure, you get cloud support, but the images produced by this camera are definitely lackluster.

And what bitrate do you get with that cloud video?

If you think the memory card video is lacklustre, you won’t be impressed by the cloud video!

 

[HonestReview]

And what bitrate do you get with that cloud video?

If you think the memory card video is lacklustre, you won’t be impressed by the cloud video!

Are you saying the video is further compressed when an event is uploaded to the cloud? If so ugh, I would hope not!

Having you tested and verified the compression is worse when uploaded to the cloud on a Blackvue or any other model?

 

[Nigel]

Are you saying the video is further compressed when an event is uploaded to the cloud? If so ugh, I would hope not!

Having you tested and verified the compression is worse when uploaded to the cloud on a Blackvue or any other model?

It is 480 resolution @ 0.6 Mb/s… 0.3MP

Well that is the specification on their website!

 

[HonestReview]

It is 480 resolution @ 0.6 Mb/s… 0.3MP

Well that is the specification on their website!

Dear lord, that's DVD resolution. Welcome to 2006!

 

[Nigel]

Dear lord, that's DVD resolution. Welcome to 2006!

The USA introduced the 480i (NTSC TV) resolution back in 1954!
The UK exceeded it with 576i (PAL TV) in 1967.

 

[HonestReview]

The USA introduced the 480i (NTSC TV) resolution back in 1954!
The UK exceeded it with 576i (PAL TV) in 1967.

Well is the resolution 480p or 480i when uploaded to the cloud? Either way, that's pretty bad for 2021!

 

[SawMaster]

And I thought the Nexar Beam was bad because it sends to cloud at 720p Can't believe BV is worse- well yes I guess I can; BV has never concentrated on having good vid quality Their game is mostly features and now connectivity too.

Phil

 

[Nigel]

I

Well is the resolution 480p or 480i when uploaded to the cloud? Either way, that's pretty bad for 2021!

480p and 480i are the same resolution, only difference is that with "p" the lines of a frame are transmitted in sequence while with "i" all the odd numbered lines are transmitted before all the even numbered lines.

The result is an identical image, unless like with old TV you run your sensor at twice the sample rate and send the odd numbered lines from one sample and the even numbered lines from the next, then the result is that you sort of double the frame rate resulting in smoother motion without increasing the "bitrate", however that only really works if you have no compression, as in old TV, in fact it was a form of compression to double the "sample rate" without losing resolution or needing more bandwidth.

With dashcameras, where we are using the fastest exposure times possible, using "i" would just mess up the freeze frame/frame grabs making number plates unreadable, and also without the slow exposures of old TV/film would fail to actually smooth the motion, it would instead have some unpleasant effects. Also, modern compression algorithms like H265 are not designed to use "i", they have much more sophisticated compression which relies on not using "i".

So the answer to your question is that it should definitely be 480p 16:9, not the same as old NTSC TV. Using "i" would be a terrible mistake!