Cloud Camera Comparison

DrekiTech

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Dash Cam
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I am working on a comparison of camera cloud features and wonder what questions you would like answered about the cams, the apps and their features. Just want to make sure we cover everything that you'd want to know because this is a pretty comprehensive topic and I might not think of everything off the top of my head.
 
I'd check and compare what is actually getting sent to the cloud versus the card. I understand the Nexar cams which record to the card @1080P only send a lowered-bitrate 720P vid to the cloud :eek: And it seems a lot of their buyers aren't aware how poor that video is until they actually need it :(

Phil
 
I'm going to record my findings here as I go and I'll probably do a post every couple days as there is a lot going on to unwrap here.

The first cloud camera I am testing is GNET G-ON 2.

It seems like this camera system is geared towards fleet management with more advanced features including geofencing notification, live GPS tracking and trip records. Note that we are using a FREE plan of this cloud system and more advanced functionality may be available with a monthly plan. No plan pricing is available yet here in Canada, and even this plan that is currently free may end up being paid.

GOOD
  • Straightforward connection process - enable cloud in the GNET camera app and put in your Wi-Fi networks. Register the camera online using a separate withCLOUD app and the camera serial number.
  • The camera allows for multiple Wi-Fi networks to connect to cloud so if you want it to connect to your home network when parked and for a separate LTE hotspot on the go
  • Cloud functionality allows access to all videos on the cameras memory card when camera is connected to cloud and powered on
  • Option for high quality or basic quality download depending on what you need
  • Full quality video download option is available (as long as the camera is connected to a network) and it seems to be similar quality of video pulled from the memory card via the PC or directly through the camera and Wi-Fi
  • Once set up, the camera app was straightforward to use and seemed to be stable
NOT AS GOOD
  • Live feed has some stuttering and takes a long time to connect, may need better data connection than I had
  • Incident footage seems to be limited to 5 - 6 seconds for automatic upload. Only 5 seconds before g sensor is triggered and half a second after
  • Incident footage auto upload is 800x480px @ 10 FPS
  • This camera is sensitive on the g sensor and even though this was improved in a recent firmware update there are still false positives if drivers are going over potholes or speed bumps
  • Cam requires power after incident to upload footage, there is a small processing time and if cam loses power during this it will not upload or notify
INTERESTING
  • GNET app plays ads for their cameras and gear while your video is processing for cloud viewing. I imagine this could become ads for other services and/or even external ads so GNET has an option to monetize their platform if they do continue to offer this plan for free
  • GNET seems interesting in building a video sharing platform, when scrolling around on the map you can occasionally see clips from South Korean drivers that have been shared publicly
TECHNICAL
  • ORIGINAL QUALITY CLOUD DOWNLOAD:
    • 2560 x 1440
    • 30 FPS
    • Approx 12 Mb/s
    • HVEC
  • LOW QUALITY DOWNLOAD and AUTO INCIDENT:
    • 800 x 450
    • 10 FPS
    • Approx 5 Mb/s
    • AVC
Screen Shot 2022-01-17 at 9.37.06 AM.png
 
Do you know what the live feed access time limit on withCLOUD? Like how many free mins per day or per month with free plan?
 
Do you know what the live feed access time limit on withCLOUD? Like how many free mins per day or per month with free plan?
I did not see public info on time limits, but that may come when they release plan pricing and full list of features. Only info I could find on it is seen above in the screenshot. Would recommend reaching out to Gnet if you need detailed info.
 
BLACKVUE CLOUD

Camera used: DR900X-2CH

Setup is fairly straightforward. Please note we are using the “free” plan which allows live view, live GPS location, remote footage access and impact notifications. Overall opinion is that getting connected is a bit tedious as it requires entering a lot of info if the cam does not want to quick connect, but once it's connected and set up the cloud worked reliably and the app ran well. Some confusion with overall app layout. Two examples of app layout confusion include having to back all the way out of the app to view saved footage, and most of the way out to change camera settings, but learning curve was overall not that high for someone who already has used the basic BV app.

  1. Connect to the cam by Wi-Fi directly, enable cloud in camera settings
  2. Find wi-fi networks and type in your hotspot (and/or other networks) for the camera to cloud connect to
  3. Once this is complete back out of the app, and instead choose “Cloud” to start the cloud portion of the set-up
  4. Follow the prompts to connect.
  5. BE SURE TO ENABLE EVENT AUTO UPLOAD. This is disabled by default.

WHAT I LIKED
  • Notifications for vehicle (camera) cloud connect and disconnect
  • iPhone: Other notifications, such as impact, are received reliably
  • Minimal stuttering during live view
  • This camera also allows for 3 different wi-fi networks connected at once which could add for home, work, and mobile hotspot. If your hotspot turns on and off with the vehicle the camera should switch networks when you drive away from your home base
  • 1 minute of impact detection is uploaded at a time and upload will occur even if out of the wi-fi network, once the car returns to wi-fi network. That means basic cloud functionality is useful even for those who do not have a hotspot in their car. I would not however rely on this auto upload feature as the end result is low quality video
  • Full quality video download option is available albeit very, very slow (12+ min), and cam must be connected to the cloud
  • Most camera settings are available to change remotely and remote firmware update is available

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE
  • During set-up it required entering some wi-fi information manually and it could not take from already existing information (ie stored on the phone because the cam is already directly connected)
  • Live streaming and auto upload is at 10 FPS (D1 resolution) which is basically only useful for seeing the colour of vehicles and traffic lights
  • Auto upload is not rapid enough to process footage, in that any power loss means that footage will not be auto uploaded until power/wifi is restored. So for example if your window gets smashed, and a thief grabs the camera, that can all happen within 30 seconds and you won't get cloud footage from it. A faster version of auto upload or one that could process partial files would be helpful. Only low quality footage is available if the camera is not connected to the cloud or directly connected via Wi-Fi and assuming it has the time to upload
  • iPhone: downloaded files do not show up in gallery only in BV app
  • Auto incident upload is disabled by default
  • Free plan live view limitations

TECHNICAL
  • ORIGINAL QUALITY CLOUD DOWNLOAD
    • 193MB file size for 1 min of video
    • 3840 x 2160 resolution
    • 28 FPS (???)
    • HEVC
    • 25Mb/s approx
  • AUTO INCIDENT UPLOAD
    • 4MB file size for 1min of video
    • 704 x 480 resolution
    • 10 FPS
    • H264
    • 450kb/s approx
IMG_B12F19D98D1C-1.jpeg
 
704 x 480 resolution
That isn't even 16:9 aspect ratio! Does it chop the sides off, or squash the image, or add black bars at the top and bottom?

It is actually NTSC analog TV resolution, why on earth would you use that in the internet cloud age?
 
That isn't even 16:9 aspect ratio! Does it chop the sides off, or squash the image, or add black bars at the top and bottom?

It is actually NTSC analog TV resolution, why on earth would you use that in the internet cloud age?

Sorry I've just been testing these from the office window so the sample is not great, but here's a comparison screen grab. It appears to be squashed.

bv-cloud-auto.jpg

bv-cloud-full.jpg
 
Last edited:
The smart camera i get "soon" unlike most others i think, you can wake it up remotely via the 4G modem inside it even if it is in deep sleep and on the radar it also have, at least that is what i am told.
If you can wake it up still, IMO then it cant be in a that deep sleep state, so it can probably not match the extended parking guard times aided by radar on other systems.

From memory this radar putting camera in that deep sleep, have been a shock to some smart camera owners,,,, cuz when it sleep like that,,,,, well it is essential a "dumb" camera while it do so.

Cloud on that particular camera are also free / unlimited.
 
Sorry I've just been testing these from the office window so the sample is not great, but here's a comparison screen grab. It appears to be squashed.

View attachment 59789

View attachment 59790
No need to be sorry, that answers the question perfectly, except for an explanation of why they would want to squash the image, which I wasn't expecting you to know!
 
THINKWARE CLOUD

Thinkware’s cloud process is meant to be used for tracking the camera by geolocation, receiving impact notifications, storing auto impact footage and live view.

In short, I tested with two cameras, the U1000 and Q800 Pro and it was a bit of a process to get them connected. I did manage it, but what I expected to be and hour of testing and screen capture turned into nearly 3 to get it working. Here’s what I did:

  1. Connect your phone to your home Wi-Fi network. You will not be able to adjust the hotspot settings on the camera portion of the app until this setup is done
  2. Launch thinkware cloud app and click on the cloud button at the bottom
  3. Register for a Thinkware account
  4. Click “add a dashcam”
  5. Connect to the wi-fi network the dashcam creates
    1. The camera password is 12345679
    2. This step did not work on the iPhone I was using with the u1000, as the camera would connect but the app would not allow me to proceed, it did not offer to input the hotspot network name.
    3. I moved to an Android phone for testing and redid the whole process, and it worked there
    4. Later when I re-tested with the Q800 pro, this step worked on the iPhone
  6. Input the hotspot SSID and password. Note that if you are using an external hotspot or a local home network other than your phone, you will still have to enable the hotspot on your phone regardless if the camera is connecting to it. Otherwise you will lose all progress and the app will not allow you to proceed. You will not be able to do this process on a phone that does not have a sim card.
  7. Once connected you can go to “hotspot settings” and add additional hotspot/networks
  8. Make sure to enable automatic upload in network settings (this function is disabled by default and this menu is not visible in the Android version of the app I tested, and only on iOS).

WHAT I LIKED
  • No stuttering during live view

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE
  • There does not appear to be any way to view footage that is on the camera unless you are connected to the same hotspot/wifi network. Via cloud the only menu for playback I could find was “impact auto upload”
  • I could not get the camera to automatically upload impact footage
  • The camera would not notify about impact via app
  • Auto event/impact notification and upload are disabled by default, and even when enabled, no notifications were received nor were any footages available for viewing in the cloud app

Unfortunately as I could not get auto incident upload to work, I do not have sample footage to share nor any technical information on resolution and file quality. I suspect that the camera is only automatically uploading footage that has a “severe” impact which I would not like to replicate as I want to continue having a functional camera and vehicle.

Editorializing now, the Thinkware cloud was an excruciating process to get the camera to connect and there are a lot of things that don’t make sense in the setup process. For example, who does hotspot mode need to be enabled on my iPhone in order to proceed? I am connecting to my home wifi network (and many people have a dedicated in car hotspot). The iPhone I use for testing does not have a sim card in it (and cannot enable hotspot), so even on the Q800 pro where I could proceed through the connection process, there was no way to get the camera connected to the phone because I could not turn on the phones hotspot.

I gave this an honest shot and came out of it incredibly frustrated. Thinkware themselves are extremely responsive to customer service inquiries. I do consider myself quite dashcam proficient so I could see this being an overall poor customer experience for someone who is less tech savvy.
 
These two are pretty similar and the last cloud cams I'm going to test for now so I'll put them together:

Nexar Cloud

Nexar cloud seems to be primarily focused on backup and sharing of footage. When footage is automatically uploaded to the Nexar cloud, it is available for viewing. Just sign in with the phone number used and a text confirmation.

Some Notes

  • The camera does not directly connect to a wi-fi network and instead relies on the app to transmit video data to the cloud
  • These clips are created automatically (by impact / g-sensor) or manually (by user)
  • Full drives are uploaded to the cloud as time-lapses
  • Video is stored for 60 days
  • It’s hard to tell on the Nexar app what footage has been uploaded to the cloud as there does not seem to be any indication that is it uploading
  • The process of connecting to the camera was very user friendly.
  • They also put an ad in the corner of their cloud video for GetNexar

Cloud Download Specs
  • 5.9MB for 25 seconds
  • 1280x720
  • 29 FPS
  • 1,980 kb/s
  • AVC
nexar-web.jpg

Nextbase Cloud

Nextbase seems primarily focused on backup and sharing of footage. Their app is user friendly and has clear animations showing what to do. This is also the only camera that did an automatic easy connection without me having to jump into the wifi menu and manually type in SSIDs. It appears that you can enable auto incident upload and sharing but like Nexar it requires the phone app to be connected as I could not find a way to directly interface wifi hotspots to the camera.
The Nextbase also allows manual sharing of footage by link. It appears all footage is shared by link and stored for 30 days. Files require manual download to the phone before they can be sent to the cloud for storage. Videos can be password protected. Both copying the footage to the phone and uploading to the cloud take a few minutes.

Their cloud e-mail is also an ad for their cameras.

Cloud Download Specs

  • 210 MB for 1min
  • 2560 x 1440
  • 29.97 FPS
  • 28.5Mb/s
  • AVC

nextbase-cloud-email.jpg
nextbase-cloud-email-2.jpg
 
Here's the video that BBMC put together with all 5 of these cloud services.

 
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