DR970X Plus Series - Testing/Review - RCG

[LateralNW]

BlackVue DR970 Plus - Out of focus, No CPL (none available), FW v1.000, Bitrate Extreme 60.0 Mbps

Great examples.
With the DR970 Plus in your example, there seems to be a lot of dash reflections.
I know it's only one frame of many but could the location and the dash reflections introducing noise to the Blackvue making it appear out of focus?

A similar effect was happening to the Viofo A229 Pro in my car. In my case i move the dash cam but it made no difference. Viofo are sending me another to prove if it is camera or dash reflections.

Cheers

 

[rcg530]

Great examples.
With the DR970 Plus in your example, there seems to be a lot of dash reflections.
I know it's only one frame of many but could the location and the dash reflections introducing noise to the Blackvue making it appear out of focus?

A similar effect was happening to the Viofo A229 Pro in my car. In my case i move the dash cam but it made no difference. Viofo are sending me another to prove if it is camera or dash reflections.

Cheers

No, the pre-release DR970X Plus series of dash cameras that I've received have all had some sort of focus issue. When I first receive any dash camera, I test it outside of my car to check for focus issues. I have a test rig that I place the front and rear cameras on which I then place on the trunk lid of my car while parked in my garage. I can see how they handle license plates about 15 feet away and how in focus the buildings across the street are in the video footage.

I tested a DR970X LTE Plus front dash camera on the other side of the windshield (where the A119 Mini 2 is located) and it too had focus issues in that location.

Here are more screenshots from a different location with partly cloudy skies rather than the overcast skies from the previous example. With a bit more ambient light, the DR970X Plus looks a bit better, but still out of focus. I've had a large number BlackVue dash cameras mounted in that location for a number of years. If the camera is in focus, the footage will look decent in that mounting location on my car's windshield.

 

[Vortex Radar]

Regarding focus issues, I’ve been seeing some as well for both the regular and LTE versions, both front and rear cams. The results vary. I was sent a second set of dashcams and sometimes the first copies were better, sometimes the second copies were better.

It’s also sometimes on just the left or right side of the frame, suggesting similar lens alignment issues that have plagued previous Blackvue models over the years.

 

[Panzer Platform]

the pre-release DR970X Plus series of dash cameras that I've received have all had some sort of focus issue.

Regarding focus issues,

BlackVue Lens QC Inspector

 

[Bono]

They seemingly don’t care that their cameras have out of focus issues

 

[Triggerfish]

Curious as to why Blackvue can't make 512GB Cards work in their new cameras and limit us to 256?

 

[Swap_File]

The technical specifications says "Memory Support microSD card up to 512GB", Blackvue just doesn't have any 512GB cards for sale. I'm considering picking up a 512GB Sandisk High Endurance for use in mine when it arrives.

 

[Bono]

@rcg530 when is your review coming out?

 

[rcg530]

@rcg530 when is your review coming out?

I was really hoping to have a video out this week. It will be a few weeks since I'm still trying to get dash cameras that are "in focus".

 

[Bono]

I was really hoping to have a video out this week. It will be a few weeks since I'm still trying to get dash cameras that are "in focus".

No worries. What are they saying to you about them not being in focus? Are they saying that is just the way it is/meant to be?! So anyone who buys this new version will have the same issues as last year I assume? A lucky dip of who will have the most in focus version!

 

[xRYD3Rx]

Need 2 new cameras considering if I should purchase the 970x plus or wait...

 

[Bono]

Need 2 new cameras considering if I should purchase the 970x plus or wait...

Wait for rcg530’s review anyway. Out of focus seems to plague Blackvue dashcams and the company do not care it seems.

 

[rcg530]

No worries. What are they saying to you about them not being in focus? Are they saying that is just the way it is/meant to be?! So anyone who buys this new version will have the same issues as last year I assume? A lucky dip of who will have the most in focus version!

Pittasoft hasn't said much about it other than they did state that the very early pre-production front camera samples might have a focus issue. Even though the RC110F rear camera has a new lens, it looks about the same as far as video quality/focus when compared with previous RC110F rear cameras. The December holidays and CES 2024 have occurred during this "testing" period so that seems to have impacted some availability of pre-production samples.

 

[2na]

That's disappointing that these have the same issues that plagued the 970X. Waiting on your review before ordering two.

@BlackboxMyCar Do you have an ETA on when you'll have a listing for these?

 

[BlackboxMyCar]

That's disappointing that these have the same issues that plagued the 970X. Waiting on your review before ordering two.

@BlackboxMyCar Do you have an ETA on when you'll have a listing for these?

Listings will be up this week, only pre-orders though.

Review is roughly 2 weeks away.

 

[rcg530]

On Wednesday, I played dash camera Tetris on my front windshield to get the "current" set of cameras installed. I moved the DR970X Plus from the upper left side of the center rear view mirror to just below the mount for the center rear view mirror since it was mentioned that position might influence the perception of it being "out of focus" with whatever amount of reflection/glare that is present in that location. I have to say that moving the DR970X Plus to the "center" location made no difference. The DR970X Plus front camera is out of focus! I put the older DR970X in the "left of the center rear view mirror" position. It has better focus clarity than the DR970X Plus in any location. The DR970X front camera does not have perfect focus clarity, but it's much better than the DR970X Plus front camera.

The older DR970X front video has a much darker exposure level than the DR970X Plus front video. The U3000 front and VIOFO A229 Pro front have a slightly wider field of view than the BlackVue front cameras. I have a frame grab from the six different cameras on the front windshield.

In left-to-right order: BlackVue DR970X (No CPL), Thinkware U3000 (No CPL), BlackVue DR970X Plus, VIOFO A229 Pro (CPL/HDR Off) , VIOFO VS1 HDR On, VIOFO VS1 HDR Off


On the rear window (left-to-right): BlackVue DR970X Plus, VIOFO A229 Pro (HDR Off), Thinkware U3000, BlackVue DR970X


The DR970X Plus rear (RC110F with a different lens) focus quality compared to the DR970X rear (RC110F) is slightly better, but both are far from clear/sharp. The U3000 rear camera is a bit more in focus than the BlackVue rear cameras. The VIOFO A229 Pro 2K rear looks the "best" overall IMO with a decent focus clarity and 2K QHD video.

 

[Panzer Platform]

What is the file size for a 1 minute video clip from the;

DR970X Plus Front (4K30fps)
H.265 60 Mbps = ?
H.264 25 Mbps = ?

DR970X Front (4K30fps)?
Is it still H.264 189 MB?

Thinkware U3000 (4K30fps)?
H.265?

For reference the Viofo A229 Pro Front (4K30fps) is;
H.264 60 Mbps = 430 MB

 

[rcg530]

What is the file size for a 1 minute video clip from the;

DR970X Plus Front (4K30fps)
H.265 60 Mbps = ?
H.264 25 Mbps = ?

DR970X Front (4K30fps)?
Is it still H.264 189 MB?

Thinkware U3000 (4K30fps)?
H.265?

For reference the Viofo A229 Pro Front (4K30fps) is;
H.264 60 Mbps = 430 MB

• BlackVue DR970X Plus - FW 1.000 / Bitrate Extreme (Default)
  • H.265
    • Front UHD 2160p 30fps - 60.11 Mbps / 443.53 MB
    • Rear FHD 1080p 30fps - 10.15 Mbps / 79.7 MB
  • H.264
    • Front UHD 2160p 30fps - 40.17 Mbps / 298.04 MB
      • I checked the bitrate and file size of video created by a DR970X Plus and a DR970X LTE Plus to verify that the video bitrate is 40.17 Mbps instead of 25 Mbps.
      • The older DR970X front records front video with a bitrate of 25 Mbps.
    • Rear FHD 1080p 30fps - 10.15 MBps / 79.7 MB
• BlackVue DR970X - FW 1.007 / Bitrate Extreme (Default)
  • H.264
    • Front UHD 2160p 30fps - 25.00 Mbps / 188.72 MB
    • Rear FHD 1080p 30fps - 10.00 Mbps / 79.68 MB
• Thinkware U3000 - FW 1.01.00 US - Image Quality = High Quality
  • H.265
    • Front UHD 2160p 30fps - 30.00 Mbps / 246 MB
    • Rear QHD 1440p 30fps - 10.00 Mbps / 102 MB
• VIOFO A229 Pro 2CH (Rear) - FW v1.1_231208 (F) / v1.0_231207 (R) / Bitrate Maximum
  • H.264
    • Front UHD 2160p 30fps - 59.87 Mbps / 430 MB
    • Rear QHD 1440p 30fps - 23.82 Mbps / 172 MB

 

[rcg530]

It's been raining for the past couple of days and it will continue rain for the next two days. This evening, I found a two hour window with cloudy skies but no rain, so I went on a drive around town to gather nighttime footage.

In left-to-right order: BlackVue DR970X (No CPL), Thinkware U3000 (No CPL), BlackVue DR970X Plus, VIOFO A229 Pro (No CPL/HDR On) , VIOFO VS1 HDR On, VIOFO VS1 HDR Off


Just like in the daytime footage, the DR970X Plus front camera is very out of focus. The DR970X (older generation) does not have a perfect focus quality, but the DR970X has a much better focus quality than the DR970X Plus.

Now that I have daytime and nighttime footage, I'll start working on my day/night example footage video.

 

[Panzer Platform]

Now that I have daytime and nighttime footage, I'll start working on my day/night example footage video.

Wow, this is getting interesting.
I like the narrow FOV of the VS1 compared to the A229 Pro, and it's HDR works.
I'm not going to say anything about the BlackVues because I want to remain positive. lol