About to swap - Questions

[DJ70]

Having used BlackVue's for years I'm finally considering a change. The only thing I liked about Bv DR900X Plus is the 4K image quality of the front camera, but the total lack of any meaningful support, combined with the absolutely abysmal mobile app & the ever rising top-end prices, has finally push my patience over the edge.

This is the early stages but, from the PR, the U3000 looks promising.

Now the questions. I'm wanting better rear camera images & the QHD of the U3000 should be far superior to the HD BlackVue. My BMW (I've learned its electrics can be fussy about connections) has standard though quite heavily tinted rear windows, can I really expect a much improved image, given that the U3000 doesn't have HDR?

Also, again on the electrics, powering from the OBD socket, while it seems handy/quick, are there any drawbacks to that?

The U3000 seems to have some quite advance & unique features (radar, lane assist etc etc), are these country specific, ie. will all the features advertised work in the UK?

I'm sure there are more questions, but hopefully someone can provide real world opinions on this dashcam, at least to give me a starting point.

Thanks.

 

[kamkar]

As i understand no camera have HDR on the rear camera, well at least not while also having HDR on the front camera, with tint all you can do is raise the EV value on that camera to compensate.
Using the OBD socket are strait forward, and for sure more easy to deal with for the not mechanical / technical inclined people out there, i am not aware of any disadvantage to using it.
ADAS and so on seem to work much better these days but i would never personally use such things, i have enough problems with the emasculating ABS brakes and the like.
For many years people have not used those features as they have not been particular good implemented.

PS: I do not have any personal experience with Blackvue and Thinkware.

 

[DJ70]

As i understand no camera have HDR on the rear camera, well at least not while also having HDR on the front camera, with tint all you can do is raise the EV value on that camera to compensate.
Using the OBD socket are strait forward, and for sure more easy to deal with for the not mechanical / technical inclined people out there, i am not aware of any disadvantage to using it.
ADAS and so on seem to work much better these days but i would never personally use such things, i have enough problems with the emasculating ABS brakes and the like.
For many years people have not used those features as they have not been particular good implemented.

PS: I do not have any personal experience with Blackvue and Thinkware.

Thanks.

 

[Thinkware Dash Cam]

Having used BlackVue's for years I'm finally considering a change. The only thing I liked about Bv DR900X Plus is the 4K image quality of the front camera, but the total lack of any meaningful support, combined with the absolutely abysmal mobile app & the ever rising top-end prices, has finally push my patience over the edge.

This is the early stages but, from the PR, the U3000 looks promising.

Now the questions. I'm wanting better rear camera images & the QHD of the U3000 should be far superior to the HD BlackVue. My BMW (I've learned its electrics can be fussy about connections) has standard though quite heavily tinted rear windows, can I really expect a much improved image, given that the U3000 doesn't have HDR?

Also, again on the electrics, powering from the OBD socket, while it seems handy/quick, are there any drawbacks to that?

The U3000 seems to have some quite advance & unique features (radar, lane assist etc etc), are these country specific, ie. will all the features advertised work in the UK?

I'm sure there are more questions, but hopefully someone can provide real world opinions on this dashcam, at least to give me a starting point.

Thanks.

Hello, if you wish to get more information about the U3000 you can reach out to our Thinkware UK sales team
Thinkware Sales support:
Phone:
+44 (0) 1206 500 874
Email:
thinkware@chameleoncodewing.co.uk

 

[DJ70]

Hello, if you wish to get more information about the U3000 you can reach out to our Thinkware UK sales team
Thinkware Sales support:
Phone:
+44 (0) 1206 500 874
Email:
thinkware@chameleoncodewing.co.uk

I don't means any disrespect, I'm sure you wish to help, but the reason I asked for real world opinions is to avoid any bias. By its very nature, your sales team have an strong interest in selling.
Also Thinkware is not the only brand I'm considering.

 

[Vortex Radar]

I find that the 2K resolution does help with the rear cam does help with detail capture compared to 1080p, but the lack of HDR can hurt it, especially in darker scenarios. That said, I don’t remember off the top of my head if Blackvue does HDR on the rear cams.

Both Blackvue and Thinkware now have OBD options, but I believe the IRoad OBD cable is the best. It’s only compatible with Thinkware though.

The radar stuff, I don’t believe there’s restrictions on transmitting K band in the UK so that should be fine. In fact we just had a nice save this weekend with the U3000. A neighbor backed into my mom’s car and cracked her headlight, but she didn’t leave a note. We checked the dashcam footage and found the culprit.

I am especially grateful for the rear radar feature that tracked her vehicle for a good bit before she actually hit the car while also doing that in the energy saving mode to give us way longer parking record times compared to the Blackvues.

All the ADAS and lane assist stuff I find annoying and disable quickly. For example the lane assist doesn’t tie into your car’s turn signal and thus it doesn’t know when lane changes are intentional. For that reason it’ll beep every time you change lanes which gets old quick lol.

The parking mode stuff is really where I see the biggest advantage for the Thinkware.

 

[DJ70]

I find that the 2K resolution does help with the rear cam does help with detail capture compared to 1080p, but the lack of HDR can hurt it, especially in darker scenarios. That said, I don’t remember off the top of my head if Blackvue does HDR on the rear cams.

Both Blackvue and Thinkware now have OBD options, but I believe the IRoad OBD cable is the best. It’s only compatible with Thinkware though.

The radar stuff, I don’t believe there’s restrictions on transmitting K band in the UK so that should be fine. In fact we just had a nice save this weekend with the U3000. A neighbor backed into my mom’s car and cracked her headlight, but she didn’t leave a note. We checked the dashcam footage and found the culprit.

I am especially grateful for the rear radar feature that tracked her vehicle for a good bit before she actually hit the car while also doing that in the energy saving mode to give us way longer parking record times compared to the Blackvues.

All the ADAS and lane assist stuff I find annoying and disable quickly. For example the lane assist doesn’t tie into your car’s turn signal and thus it doesn’t know when lane changes are intentional. For that reason it’ll beep every time you change lanes which gets old quick lol.

The parking mode stuff is really where I see the biggest advantage for the Thinkware.

That's the sort of info I was looking for
Thanks.

Now to dig deeper...