DR970X Plus Series - Testing/Review - RCG

[Paul Anderegg]

Just received my REPLACEMENT 970X-2CH Plus from blackboxmycar, after the initial one exhibited front lens focus (backfocus appeared off), noise, patterns, and video level issues. Popped it in the car for the night to see how it goes, but for now, wanted to post some screen grabs of what the video looked like to an editing suite, which explains a lot such as why the blacks are too black on the rear camera, and contrast due to low video levels.

For reference, firmware 1.000 produces a white level of 93% and black level of 3%, so basically the entire video range is compressed.

@rcg530 Have you peeped your clips in an editor to determine where your video levels reside? The images here were sent to BlackVue and they authorized an RMA based on these and the linked YouTube clip (The original files used for the clip). They deemed these issues as indicative of "defective" sample. Firmware 1.001 altered the video levels a bit, but still not accurate, and image quality remained identical 1000 vs 1.001 when video levels were manually matched in post.

 

[rcg530]

Just received my REPLACEMENT 970X-2CH Plus from blackboxmycar, after the initial one exhibited front lens focus (backfocus appeared off), noise, patterns, and video level issues. Popped it in the car for the night to see how it goes, but for now, wanted to post some screen grabs of what the video looked like to an editing suite, which explains a lot such as why the blacks are too black on the rear camera, and contrast due to low video levels.

For reference, firmware 1.000 produces a white level of 93% and black level of 3%, so basically the entire video range is compressed.

@rcg530 Have you peeped your clips in an editor to determine where your video levels reside? The images here were sent to BlackVue and they authorized an RMA based on these and the linked YouTube clip (The original files used for the clip). They deemed these issues as indicative of "defective" sample. Firmware 1.001 altered the video levels a bit, but still not accurate, and image quality remained identical 1000 vs 1.001 when video levels were manually matched in post.

I've sent the raw video clips to Pittasoft. I've asked my point of contact what the current status is and he will only say that my videos and info has been passed to their QA department for review. It's been that way for weeks. They don't seem to be very responsive to my inquiries.

 

[Phatboy64]

I am not sure if this is helpful or relevant but when I sent a clip (FW 1.001) from my first cam I got the response below. What I uploaded was a full 1 min clip.

“The uploaded file is only 5MB. This indicated the file is highly compressed which gives reason for the image quality. A full resolution file is on average around 200,000 KB.”

After that I asked for a replacement and I have not heard anything further.

 

[Paul Anderegg]

I am not sure if this is helpful or relevant but when I sent a clip (FW 1.001) from my first cam I got the response below. What I uploaded was a full 1 min clip.

“The uploaded file is only 5MB. This indicated the file is highly compressed which gives reason for the image quality. A full resolution file is on average around 200,000 KB.”

After that I asked for a replacement and I have not heard anything further.

Don't these new cameras create secondary low quality "5MB" files for fast east WiFi playback on the app?

Paul

 

[Paul Anderegg]

My replacement unit apparently has a "golden sample" front lens...it also got rid of the excessive vertical pattern lines on the left and right of the screen I was getting, but still has a weird image blinking up in brightness every time the seconds change on the time. Replacement also retains the completely wrong video levels, the what seems to be locked 5600k white balance making everythign at night horrid, and noise reduction turned up to 11 smearing everything, yet somehow still retaining maximum grain and noise.

Because of the excessive noise reduction, which is not present in the DR900 and DR900X cameras I own, night license plate readability is simply not possible unless you are stationary and the plate is not fully lit by headlights and maybe the magic beans in the camera are feling cooperative. Attaching front lens examples and night plate illegibility samples.

 

[rcg530]

I reviewed my footage from my DR970X Box Plus dash camera with firmware v1.001 installed. I found the audio level of the record audio is outrageously high making the audio almost unusable. I have a video file that is from the 5-minute period between parking my vehicle and the dash camera entering parking mode. The microphone gain level seems to be set to an extremely high level. The “road noise” heard in the audio track makes it sound like I’m parked right next to the freeway, but the car is parked about ¼ mile from the freeway.

 

[rcg530]

This video contains day and night front camera video samples from the new BlackVue DR970X LTE Plus, a BlackVue DR970X, a BlackVue DR900X Plus and a VIOFO A229 Pro dash camera. I wanted to see how well the three most recent 4K UHD dash cameras from BlackVue performed when exposed to the same recording conditions.

 

[Vortex Radar]

I reviewed my footage from my DR970X Box Plus dash camera with firmware v1.001 installed. I found the audio level of the record audio is outrageously high making the audio almost unusable. I have a video file that is from the 5-minute period between parking my vehicle and the dash camera entering parking mode. The microphone gain level seems to be set to an extremely high level. The “road noise” heard in the audio track makes it sound like I’m parked right next to the freeway, but the car is parked about ¼ mile from the freeway.

hm, I wonder if that makes it easier to hear things going on outside the car like people talking, horns honking, or cars going by.

 

[rcg530]

hm, I wonder if that makes it easier to hear things going on outside the car like people talking, horns honking, or cars going by.

The audio recorded while driving is outrageously loud.

 

[Vortex Radar]

The audio recorded while driving is outrageously loud.

I just looked at some driving and parking mode clips and I'm not seeing that same issue.



The first clip is stopped at a red light and then driving and you can see the audio levels ramp up, but it doesn't get too loud to the point of clipping. I also don't have issues with excessive background noise.

Same thing with the second clip which is a parking mode test. You can see extremely low audio levels and just the spike when I whack the windshield.

 

[rcg530]

The DR970X Box Plus and the DR970X Plus both record audio level at a much louder level than the VIOFO A229 Plus (in this test). The Box Plus is the loudest and the Plus is the second loudest.

These are videos from a driving segment from this morning.

 

[Vortex Radar]

So another data point. I just saw a related post on RDF about a fellow 970X Box Plus user who’s seeing audio issues while parked. He’s getting sounds that sound like a lawnmower or jackhammer while parked. I don’t know if it’s related, but something else to note.

Noise Issue With Blackvue 770x Box and 970x Box Plus

I'm posting this in the hopes it reaches people who're having the same issue. I'm experiencing noise issues with Blackvue 770x Box and 970x Box Plus dashcams while live viewing remotely or when watching recorded videos. Currently, I only have the 970x Box Plus unit and returned the 770x Box unit...

www.rdforum.org

 

[rcg530]

So another data point. I just saw a related post on RDF about a fellow 970X Box Plus user who’s seeing audio issues while parked. He’s getting sounds that sound like a lawnmower or jackhammer while parked. I don’t know if it’s related, but something else to note.

Noise Issue With Blackvue 770x Box and 970x Box Plus

I'm posting this in the hopes it reaches people who're having the same issue. I'm experiencing noise issues with Blackvue 770x Box and 970x Box Plus dashcams while live viewing remotely or when watching recorded videos. Currently, I only have the 970x Box Plus unit and returned the 770x Box unit...

www.rdforum.org

I've been talking with him via comments on my YouTube video. When he uses Motion & Impact parking mode and the camera is awakened to record, he is getting noises in the audio. He also hears noises in the audio during a live view session.

Yesterday, I reported the LOUD recording level to Pittasoft. I received a quick response stating:

I am discussing the audio noise with our R&D.

By default the mic volume and speaker are set to highest setting in able to use well on voice call.

On the other hand less people are using voice call, so I am requesting to set it on a normal or mid-level.

 

[cpo]

I got this from PIttasoft support today: According to our 2nd level support, there will be a newer firmware version for the DR970X Box which will be released probably by Monday or the beginning of next week.

 

[cpo]

So another data point. I just saw a related post on RDF about a fellow 970X Box Plus user who’s seeing audio issues while parked. He’s getting sounds that sound like a lawnmower or jackhammer while parked. I don’t know if it’s related, but something else to note.

I am experiencing this same thing.

 

[cpo]

I uploaded a video for you to hear my parking mode audio. I was honestly glad to hear it wasn't just me having issues.

 

[shalamigri]

So another data point. I just saw a related post on RDF about a fellow 970X Box Plus user who’s seeing audio issues while parked. He’s getting sounds that sound like a lawnmower or jackhammer while parked. I don’t know if it’s related, but something else to note.

Noise Issue With Blackvue 770x Box and 970x Box Plus

I'm posting this in the hopes it reaches people who're having the same issue. I'm experiencing noise issues with Blackvue 770x Box and 970x Box Plus dashcams while live viewing remotely or when watching recorded videos. Currently, I only have the 970x Box Plus unit and returned the 770x Box unit...

www.rdforum.org

Thanks for pointing me to this forum and discussion. And thank you rcg530 for mentioning our discussion on Youtube.

I must start from the beginning on this noise issue though. I first purchased the DR770x Box unit through Amazon. Before installing it in my vehicle, I connected everything on my test bench. Right from the start, I noticed a strange grainy noise present while live viewing and also in recorded videos. I also noticed that the noise seemed to be more problematic during the daytime hours. At night, the noise was more of a hiss and not as problematic. I also verified that other Blackvue users were having this issue by snooping on publicly shared units using the Blackvue Live feature. A big observation I made on a particular day was the noise started to diminish at around 5PM and the sun set at 5:12PM on that particular day. I contacted support, but they were leaning to a wiring issue on my part and was suggesting me trying to use "fair rite" to eliminate noise. I decided to just return it back to Amazon.

Since I like the Box unit concept, I decided to go ahead and purchase the DR970x Box Plus through Blackboxmycar thinking that the issue was only tied to the DR770x Box unit. Just as I did with the DR770x Box unit, I also first connected the DR970x Box Plus on my test bench. I noticed the same grainy noise present while live viewing and also in recorded videos. I was leaning towards returning it, but decided I'd give it a shot and went ahead and installed it in my vehicle. Just as with the other box unit, noise seemed more prevalent during daytime hours and not as noticeable at night. However, a BIG observation I made is that if parking mode recording is switched to time lapse, the noise sounds like a helicopter/lawnmower and noise seems to be present no matter what time of the day it is in that mode. When the parking mode is set to motion detection, noise is more noticeable during daytime hours.

It was already posted here, but I'm posting the Youtube playlist again. Take notice of the night and early morning videos. You'll notice that the noise isn't as noticeable in those videos. Also note that parking mode was set to motion detection in most of these videos. At the time, I have 8 videos in this playlist so please use the arrow in the video play bar to advance through them quickly is you'd like.

 

[shalamigri]

I uploaded a video for you to hear my parking mode audio. I was honestly glad to hear it wasn't just me having issues.

Thanks for sharing. I hate you're experiencing this, but I'm also glad I'm not alone. I'll point support to this thread.

Can you try switching to time lapse mode to see if your noise gets better or worse? When I switch to time lapse mode, noise is absolutely HORRIBLE!!! Also, can you see if noise seems to diminish at around the time the sunsets in your area? That always seems to be the case for me. You may want to have the parking mode set to motion detection though. Otherwise, you'll have a constant lawnmower type noise if you have the same issue as me.

 

[cpo]

Thanks for sharing. I hate you're experiencing this, but I'm also glad I'm not alone. I'll point support to this thread.

Can you try switching to time lapse mode to see if your noise gets better or worse? When I switch to time lapse mode, noise is absolutely HORRIBLE!!! Also, can you see if noise seems to diminish at around the time the sunsets in your area? That always seems to be the case for me. You may want to have the parking mode set to motion detection though. Otherwise, you'll have a constant lawnmower type noise if you have the same issue as me.

So I am in timelapse mode now. I'll try testing some of the other options you mentioned.

 

[daves88]

I'm thinking of taking the plunge and just grabbing one of these. Would it be best to pair with the b130x or the cellink neo 8? Cheers