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For nearly 1 year I was using one spot to make so called Stress-Test regarding Pixelation / Blocks in video to see how different dashcameras cope with that situation.
Dashcam users might know scenario when you drive at day time near trees, - in those cases image become with big blocks / pixels, despite in other situations image might be crisp.
I have tested many dozens of low-, mid- and high-end dashcams and present dashcams can not solve 100% blocks image in those scenarios. Yes, some dashcams do cope with those scenarios better, but not 100%. New technology which is already available and ( still in development and not yet fully polished ), promises to solve this problem, or at least to minimize pixelations in those stress-test scenarios. However as usually, any new technology need to be "Polished", so it might take some time before we see good result.
Recently I decided to do side by side stress-test in that spot to show that no matter how good quality and popularity is dashcam, - still they all can not cope with pixeleration in the tree-line area.
From well known reputable models on dashcamtalk I used Panorama II and Vico WF1. Less well known was Cowon AW1 and Papago P3.
The result is below:
You can see from 35sec focus on trees is still sharp, but as soon as I started turning right, - all 4 dashcams start producing pixelation / blocks and those pixels lasts till tree line finishes, after that it takes another 3-5 sec for dashcameras to adjust themselves t normal sharp focus, normal size pixels . Some produce bigger pixels, some smaller, but still this "issue" exist with all dashcams, not even with the ones I used in this test, but majority of others I had in the past.
Of course some little difference in pixelation size depens on which bit-rate is used on each dashcamera.
The slightly smaller blocky pixel size in tree lines I saw from good quality NT96650 + AR0330 based dashcams which recorded at 15Mbps bit-rate, but it's not all about high bit-rate, so don't be confused if you see some dashcam with super-high bit-rate thinking that this will solve problem. It's combination of CPU type ( Class ) / processor speed / RAM speed / bit-rate / perfectly tuned Firmware and so on. Some time fine tuned 10mbps bit-rate dashcamera can work almost as good as 15mbps poorly tuned dashcam. And so on.
So don't be surprised if your dashcamera ( no matter if it mid-class or high-end ) will record pixelation / blocky image in those stress-scenarios, - it is kinda normal at the moment !
YouTube might not be the best place to compare, but still you will be able to see result what I am talking about.
Please select 1080p from youtube playback options ( bottom right corner of video )
Top Left - Cowon AW1, FW: v2.8.0 = 7.5Mbps bit-rate
Top Right - Panorama II, FW: v1.12.02 = 12Mbps bit-rate
Bottom Left - Vicovation Vico WF1, FW: v1.51 = 10Mbps bit-rate
Bottom Right - Papago P3, FW: 2012-0622-192350-3 = 10Mbps bit-rate
Dashcam users might know scenario when you drive at day time near trees, - in those cases image become with big blocks / pixels, despite in other situations image might be crisp.
I have tested many dozens of low-, mid- and high-end dashcams and present dashcams can not solve 100% blocks image in those scenarios. Yes, some dashcams do cope with those scenarios better, but not 100%. New technology which is already available and ( still in development and not yet fully polished ), promises to solve this problem, or at least to minimize pixelations in those stress-test scenarios. However as usually, any new technology need to be "Polished", so it might take some time before we see good result.
Recently I decided to do side by side stress-test in that spot to show that no matter how good quality and popularity is dashcam, - still they all can not cope with pixeleration in the tree-line area.
From well known reputable models on dashcamtalk I used Panorama II and Vico WF1. Less well known was Cowon AW1 and Papago P3.
The result is below:
You can see from 35sec focus on trees is still sharp, but as soon as I started turning right, - all 4 dashcams start producing pixelation / blocks and those pixels lasts till tree line finishes, after that it takes another 3-5 sec for dashcameras to adjust themselves t normal sharp focus, normal size pixels . Some produce bigger pixels, some smaller, but still this "issue" exist with all dashcams, not even with the ones I used in this test, but majority of others I had in the past.
Of course some little difference in pixelation size depens on which bit-rate is used on each dashcamera.
The slightly smaller blocky pixel size in tree lines I saw from good quality NT96650 + AR0330 based dashcams which recorded at 15Mbps bit-rate, but it's not all about high bit-rate, so don't be confused if you see some dashcam with super-high bit-rate thinking that this will solve problem. It's combination of CPU type ( Class ) / processor speed / RAM speed / bit-rate / perfectly tuned Firmware and so on. Some time fine tuned 10mbps bit-rate dashcamera can work almost as good as 15mbps poorly tuned dashcam. And so on.
So don't be surprised if your dashcamera ( no matter if it mid-class or high-end ) will record pixelation / blocky image in those stress-scenarios, - it is kinda normal at the moment !
YouTube might not be the best place to compare, but still you will be able to see result what I am talking about.
Please select 1080p from youtube playback options ( bottom right corner of video )
Top Left - Cowon AW1, FW: v2.8.0 = 7.5Mbps bit-rate
Top Right - Panorama II, FW: v1.12.02 = 12Mbps bit-rate
Bottom Left - Vicovation Vico WF1, FW: v1.51 = 10Mbps bit-rate
Bottom Right - Papago P3, FW: 2012-0622-192350-3 = 10Mbps bit-rate
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