Disappointing 612GW

I'm about to box it up and get a refund on it, and try another one - I can't have this rubbish as it's useless in the event of something happening - no evidence whatsoever - I can imagine a headlong in the paper saying that someone had a bad accident and his/her next base camera didn't capture the picture and was a known fault...

Just look at this, driving in roadworks at 40MPH and car next to me doing about 35-38 - can't even read that license plate - it's disgraseful that this technology has been sold as it is being sold.
Numberpate.jpg
 
I've heard exactly the same that the BV 750 is a far better all rounder than the 900 for just the pixel reasons you mention.
 
I wouldn't call it faults as such, all dashcams suffer to a degree from these shortcomings that are a result of the technology available to us at the moment.
If you expect razor sharp imagery and plate capture under any conditions, you will be mighty let down by what ever camera you get.
At night i pretty much only rely on the camera documenting my own driving in relation to roadside / lane markings and color of intersections, but this few simple things can also disprove a lot of claims someone might file against me.
Plate capture also don't worry me that much, as long as i can prove i was not at fault my insurance should not take a hit, and even if it did it would have to happen more than 2 times in a year, and so far i have had 2 reasons to use my insurance, first time when i was 19 and driving my first car in 1985, and second time in 2016 when i was rear ended.
 
But if that was the case, why is the technology from the old G1W producing better images than something 5 years newer?

Maybe it is the mount - maybe I'm being unfair - but when I see better videos from a device costing 1/8th the price, I then have to wonder if this is the right purchase for me.
 
I was going through old footage and found this - taken in sunglasses weather - another example of the double exposure going on...
 

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When you play the video, look down at the wipers area. Are they showing signs of camera shake ?

That'll determine whether it's a camera or mount issue.
 
Wipers are fine - it's a compression / exposure issue - just look at the Jimmy's Farm sign - says it all really.

JF.jpg
 
So the black to white pseudo line that cuts through the yellow text at the bottom doesn't move.

The reason I ask is when I switched from my 412 to the 380 the lack of vibration down by the wipers was very noticeable on a 24" monitor. My 402 was a more solid mount but even that had wiper area vibration that affected the video quality.
 
Just chatting with a pal that works with digital encoding technology. Apparently Nextbase are very brave to encode 4K using H264 - the only format they should be using is H265 as this is what it was designed to encode - from what he explained, this sounds like the issues this device is having, its over compressing to get a H265 files size using H264 and that’s never going to work.
 
Well not necessarily brave. The chipset they use may not have support for h265, and many users may find it tricky to play back h265 as well (I don’t use h265 on my iPhone for this reason even though it’s more efficient)

H264 is fine but not if you also try to use h265 bitrates
 
Which is what it looks like they are doing - using H265 rates for H264 video encoding.

Just look at the noise and compression on this video...That is seriously over compressed...

Compression.jpg
 
More examples here - this level of compression too high IMO - maybe there should be an option to change the compression level in the firmware for those that don't care if the files are larger.

Compression 1.jpg

Compression 2.jpg
 
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That does look better - what's the file size like after the mod?
 
what's the file size like after the mod?
The size of the video depends on the bitrate and the type of bitrate (constant, average, variable)...
Quality and detail depend on other settings...
 
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Judging by the file sizes they are recorded at CBR, not VBR

FileSizes.jpg
 
Just had a conversation with NextBase support - they have said that the image quality is exactly what they would expect, and even though there are options to tweak the firmware to take better quality videos, they can see nothing wrong with the artifacts, and the level of compression - in their words, this has been set to give the best image quality and they can see nothing wrong...

Interesting, especially when you see this video with similar hardware (F1), and the clarity possible...


So...my personal opinion, stay clear of NextBase products...the potential is there, but the firmware needs an urgent tweak...

I'm going back to the cheaper G1W which can take videos this clear....

 
What's more disappointing is not having any official public response from NextBase Support in this forum....I've noted that they have been online and viewed this thread...

View.jpg

Guess it's a case of not wanting to incriminate themselves...

Anyways, I'm now contemplating boxing it up and returning it...Together with the wife's 312GW which hasn't been out the box yet...I'm not putting up with this lack of response, and lack of concern...
 
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Hi @xnsys

That is correct, we've viewed this thread because whilst on the phone to our Technical Support Centre you linked us to it and asked us to view it.

I am so sorry that you're disappointed in not having a response on the forum yet, we have been answering your phone calls and emails each time you've made them almost immediately, the focus is of course on direct contact.

As discussed on the phone, the file with the red car is fine, the registration is unclear when there is dash board glare present. This is solved be rotating the polarising filter.

We can't use H265 because as has been mentioned above it would limit the amount of customers able to play it back. That of course - isn't something we're willing to do.
 
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