DR970X Comparison Images

[Vortex Radar]

Last week I was sifting through some sample footage from the DR970X, DR900X Plus, and A139 Pro. Here's a few screenshots to get an idea of what I've been seeing so far. Still early on and I have a lot more samples to sift through, but just wanted to share some initial impressions.

The DR970X footage is surprisingly grainy. I suspect it's due to limited bitrate and thus heavier compression while moving. I'm noticing the Blackvues are struggling to capture plates whereas the new A139 Pro (with more than 2x the bitrate) can grab them.



Much better results from the Viofo, particularly on the front license plate and even the bushes on the left side of the screen. It's set to max bitrate and HDR on while I compare to the Blackvues. You can enlarge the image to get a better sense of details.

I'm also noticing times when I get better results from the 900X Plus than the 970X. Notice the differences in the front plate detail on the left and the green street sign on the right.



Looking through some nighttime comparisons, the dynamic range of the 970 is definitely better.



The 970 does a much better job of capturing plates when headlights are shining on them.

A tiny bit of movement though and it’s a different story. GPS is showing 10mph as I pull up behind the vehicle at the red light, though it’s even slower given the GPS lag.



If you match vehicle speeds with other moving vehicles, it works better.



So the 970 is looking like an improvement in the dynamic range department, but it really seems to want ideal conditions. I wanna focus first on DR900X Plus vs. DR970X and I'd like to look at DR970X vs A139 Pro as well separately.

Still a loooot of video to sift through in different conditions, but here's a quick preview.

 

[Panzer Platform]

Thank you so much for uploading these preliminary images, and thoughts.
I haven’t installed the DR900X Plus & DR970X in my car just yet.
@rcg530 is out having fun playing hooky on a week long cross country road trip, and I haven’t been feeling motivated. Lol
But seeing your test footage makes me want to get some “in motion” sample footage.

Nice job capturing that car trailer license plate at night directly illuminated by your headlights. That’s a great example of the new processor & firmware tweaking.

I get why you left HDR enabled on the A139 Pro because that is the default setting. But I got better results disabling HDR during daytime testing.
I gotta remember to get both HDR On/Off for my night time test footage.
-Chuck

 

[Vortex Radar]

Yeah if only the Auto HDR option was working reliably on the A139 Pro.

 

[TonyM]

I'm noticing the Blackvues are struggling to capture plates whereas the new A139 Pro (with more than 2x the bitrate) can grab them.

Remember that the A139 Pro has a narrower view than both the BlackVues, which will help resolve more detail.

The DR970X footage is surprisingly grainy.

Looking through some nighttime comparisons, the dynamic range of the 970 is definitely better.

The 970 does a much better job of capturing plates when headlights are shining on them.

Either the 970X is using HDR, or perhaps it is using shorter exposures to avoid clipping highlights, then lifting the shadows which results in more noise?

A tiny bit of movement though and it’s a different story.

Even when moving, the 970X has less motion blur and better highlight detail than the 900X.

As a suggestion, sometimes you can compare exposure durations at night by looking at the refresh cycle on LED headlights, or some other high frequency light source. In this example, the lower camera has a 50% longer exposure duration which results in less noise and better shadow detail, but more motion blur.

 

[Vortex Radar]

Just posted up a compilation video with some DR970X-2CH sample footage. It's got front and rear footage, day and night, driving and parking, etc.

I'm working on my comparison next with the DR900X Plus, DR970X, and A139 Pro.