DR970X Test & Review PP

[Panzer Platform]

Shoutout to Bea Alexis, and the @BlackVue_Pittasoft Team for sending over the all new DR970X-2CH with CM100G LTE Module & BlackVue SIM Card for test & review. It has an official release date of March 6, 2023. I was also sent the DR970X’s predecessor the DR900X-2CH Plus for comparison. I’ve only been playing with the cameras for a few hours to make sure they are functional & working properly, and they are. @DashCamMan I would like to request a new thread for the DR970X.

I’ve taken some preliminary power consumption measurements with my WANPTEK 3010H Power Supply, and Fluke 115. It looks like the new DR970X uses slightly less power than the DR900X Plus. We’ll find out for sure when @rcg530 get his DR970X-2CH today, or tomorrow.

DR900X-2CH Plus / Wi-Fi ON / v1.0009
Normal Recording: 445mA @ 12.60 Volts = 5.607 Watts
Parking Motion & Impact: 425mA @ 12.60 Volts = 5.355 Watts

DR970X-2CH / Wi-Fi ON / v1.002
Normal Recording: 412mA @ 12.60 Volts = 5.1912 Watts
Parking Motion & Impact: 408mA @ 12.60 Volts = 5.1408 Watts

Looking at the front cameras they are identical except for two things. The 900X Plus Wi-Fi button has changed to a format button on the 970X. Also the proximity / touch sensor logo has been added to the 970X. The rear cameras are identical with the same model number RC110F.

One thing that stands out so far is the Coax cable connection for the rear camera provides a very nice secure connection with no slop, or slack. I was just playing with my Viofo A139 Pro IR Interior & Rear camera and the Coax cable connection is very loose compared to the BlackVue. Another thing I enjoy is the very low volume adjustability of the voice notifications. Viofo has 3 volume levels (HIGH / MED / LOW). BlackVue has 5 levels (1-5), level 1 is a very soft whisper that is coming in handy.

One thing I don’t like is the Date & Time Format on the text overlay at the bottom of the screen on recorded video footage (YEAR-MONTH-DAY & 24 Hour “Military Time”). I would like to request a firmware APP setting to change it to USA date format, and 12 Hour AM/PM time: (MONTH-DAY-YEAR & 12:00PM).

So what are the changes for the DR970X that make it different from the DR900X Plus. From what I can tell all of the internal hardware, and specifications are almost identical. But the DR970X has “improved image quality” according to a recent BlackVue comparison video. I’ll leave a link at the bottom. I’m planning to replicate some low light, and HDR experiments in my garage like I did with the A139 Pro. Maybe that will give us an idea what is improved.

-Chuck

 

[TonyM]

Not sure what BlackVue did with their promotional video. The playback is not smooth - perhaps it is 24fps converted to 30fps?

Looks like the 970X is using 4K HDR. It could be an interesting alternative to the A139 Pro.

 

[Vortex Radar]

Very cool! Mine just arrived too and I just started driving with it yesterday.

Internally it’s got the same lens and image sensor as the 900X Plus, but there’s a new CPU and image processing going on.

The rear cam itself is identical, but the new software processing should improve rear video quality nevertheless.

As for the new touch sensor, my initial impressions are that it’s a nice improvement. With the motion sensor there would be times when I would wave my hand and not knowing it triggered the recording, especially in the highway where road noise or music can mask the manual recording audio. It also doesn’t require a hard tap so it neither moves the dashcam or causes your fingers to sometimes flash in front of the lens while you hand wave.

I’m gonna test video quality alongside the DR900X Plus and A139 Pro.

 

[Panzer Platform]

Not sure what BlackVue did with their promotional video. The playback is not smooth - perhaps it is 24fps converted to 30fps?

Looks like the 970X is using 4K HDR. It could be an interesting alternative to the A139 Pro.

Yo Tony,
Thanks for stopping by.
I just checked the resolution & fps settings on my DR970X, and there is only one option. 4K@30fps FRONT / 1080p@30fps REAR. I guess that makes it easy. lol

As fars as Bitrate choices go there are four;
Highest (Extreme) “default setting”
Highest
High
Normal

I’m with @kamkar on this one, and I think there is only one bitrate to ever be used on a dash cam, (the highest one). “Just get a bigger SD Card” is my thinking. lol

I just re-played the BlackVue promo video, and it plays smoothly on my $100 Chromebook. I just checked my internet speed, and it says 313Mbps download & 21 Mbps Upload. I’m not sure how those speeds compare globally, but in my neck of the woods I would call that “average”.
(see attached screenshots)

I’m not sure if I should be comparing the image quality of the A139 Pro with the two BlackVue cameras, (it seems like an unfair fight). But I guess since I have them on hand why not. All’s fair in love, and war. lol
-Chuck

 

[Vortex Radar]

haha personally I think the A139 Pro comparison is fair. I’m curious to see if Blackvue’s choice of focusing on software evolution can meet or exceed video quality being produced by Starvis 2 dashcams.

Video quality has always felt like a weakness for Blackvues. You can get cheaper dashcams with better video quality and so the reason to get a Blackvue would be for cloud functionality primarily as well things like buffered impact detection parking recording with voice notifications.

Blackvues are pricey and I’d love it if we didn’t have to compromise on video quality to get the cloud stuff.

 

[Panzer Platform]

Very cool! Mine just arrived too and I just started driving with it yesterday.

Internally it’s got the same lens and image sensor as the 900X Plus, but there’s a new CPU and image processing going on.

The rear cam itself is identical, but the new software processing should improve rear video quality nevertheless.

As for the new touch sensor, my initial impressions are that it’s a nice improvement. With the motion sensor there would be times when I would wave my hand and not knowing it triggered the recording, especially in the highway where road noise or music can mask the manual recording audio. It also doesn’t require a hard tap so it neither moves the dashcam or causes your fingers to sometimes flash in front of the lens while you hand wave.

I’m gonna test video quality alongside the DR900X Plus and A139 Pro.

You're too fast for me, I haven’t even activated the SIM card in the LTE module yet. The nice “lady in the box” is starting to get pushy. She keeps saying “Please activate SIM card” every time I turn her on.

Thank you for the info on the CPU, I did not know that. Does that mean they swapped the HiSilicon for a Novatek?

Yes, I can confirm the touch sensor is much improved. When adding the DR900X Plus to my iOS App it takes several attempts to pair. I end up getting slap happy to make it work.

While I have you on the line I spent 15 minutes reading both included paper user manuals. I checked the BlackVue website “support” help section. I checked all over Google. Still can’t find my answer. I even “phoned a friend” @rcg530 and it doesn’t look like a simple solution.

How do I reset the cameras back to default settings / factory reset?
The only thing I can find is to reset the Wi-Fi Password.
I just tried that, and I can’t get that to work either.
I goofed up all my settings choices, and I want to make sure they are identical for future image quality & power consumption tests.
-Chuck

 

[TonyM]

I just re-played the BlackVue promo video, and it plays smoothly on my $100 Chromebook. I just checked my internet speed, and it says 313Mbps download & 21 Mbps Upload. I’m not sure how those speeds compare globally, but in my neck of the woods I would call that “average”.

I'm on 18Mbps down, 0.9Mbps up - slower than average

But that isn't the issue. Even watching on my phone with 80Mbps available over 4G and buffering the clip before playback, the dashcam footage stutters at a regular frequency throughout the entire video.

 

[Panzer Platform]

But that isn't the issue. Even watching on my phone with 80Mbps available over 4G and buffering the clip before playback, the dashcam footage stutters at a regular frequency throughout the entire video.

Right on Tony,
Mystery solved, (I never doubted your eagle eye for a second). lol
Right click the video, and select “stats for nerds”
It looks like their video editing software was rendered / upload at 25fps.
See attached screenshots.

 

[Vortex Radar]

You're too fast for me, I haven’t even activated the SIM card in the LTE module yet. The nice “lady in the box” is starting to get pushy. She keeps saying “Please activate SIM card” every time I turn her on.

lol I haven't used mine either yet. Still gotta get some pretty video clips with everything looking new before I start installing things.

That said, I haven't been getting that audio notification. I'm not sure if it's because I'm using my existing in-car WiFi or because I disable most of the audio prompts, but yeah.

Thank you for the info on the CPU, I did not know that. Does that mean they swapped the HiSilicon for a Novatek?

hmm, referencing some of my previous notes, they're now using a SigmaStar CPU. I wasn't given a model number.

Yes, I can confirm the touch sensor is much improved. When adding the DR900X Plus to my iOS App it takes several attempts to pair. I end up getting slap happy to make it work.

lol

While I have you on the line I spent 15 minutes reading both included paper user manuals. I checked the BlackVue website “support” help section. I checked all over Google. Still can’t find my answer. I even “phoned a friend” @rcg530 and it doesn’t look like a simple solution.

How do I reset the cameras back to default settings / factory reset?
The only thing I can find is to reset the Wi-Fi Password.
I just tried that, and I can’t get that to work either.
I goofed up all my settings choices, and I want to make sure they are identical for future image quality & power consumption tests.
-Chuck

hm I'm not sure... You used to be able to press and hold the side button to do things like format the memory card or reset WiFi, but I don't know if we have an option to reset factory defaults that way.

Luckily in this situation, there's not a ton of stuff that needs to be changed. There aren't many options for adjusting video quality. The settings are mostly there to adjust things like parking mode style, voice notifications, cloud settings, and other miscellaneous stuff that doesn't really affect video quality. For power consumption, you can always just make sure both are set to the same parking recording options, for example, and maybe double check G sensor settings to ensure they're set similarly.

Right on Tony,
Mystery solved, (I never doubted your eagle eye for a second). lol
Right click the video, and select “stats for nerds”
It looks like their video editing software was rendered / upload at 25fps.
See attached screenshots.

I wonder if they changed it to 25 fps in their editing software because they're in Korea?

Looking at the raw 4K30 H.264 video from the DR970X in extreme video quality (default option), it's reporting a bitrate of 25.24 Mb/s.

 

[rcg530]

You're too fast for me, I haven’t even activated the SIM card in the LTE module yet. The nice “lady in the box” is starting to get pushy. She keeps saying “Please activate SIM card” every time I turn her on.

Thank you for the info on the CPU, I did not know that. Does that mean they swapped the HiSilicon for a Novatek?

Yes, I can confirm the touch sensor is much improved. When adding the DR900X Plus to my iOS App it takes several attempts to pair. I end up getting slap happy to make it work.

While I have you on the line I spent 15 minutes reading both included paper user manuals. I checked the BlackVue website “support” help section. I checked all over Google. Still can’t find my answer. I even “phoned a friend” @rcg530 and it doesn’t look like a simple solution.

How do I reset the cameras back to default settings / factory reset?
The only thing I can find is to reset the Wi-Fi Password.
I just tried that, and I can’t get that to work either.
I goofed up all my settings choices, and I want to make sure they are identical for future image quality & power consumption tests.
-Chuck

There is "a way" (sort of) in the BlackVue Windows/Mac "SD Card Viewer" portion of the program.

When you use the "SD Card Viewer" portion of the program, you can click on the gear (Settings) icon and click on the "Firmware" tab. When on the "Firmware > Basic" tab, if you click on the [Reset] button, it presents a popup implying it will reset all of the settings to their defaults. Unfortunately, it only resets the settings on the current activate tab.

The screen popup implies the defaults will be put in place, but the settings on the other tabs (Sensitivity for example) remain at their original (non-default) value unless you navigate to that tab and click on [Reset] while that’s the active tab. The recordings don’t get erased as the popup states. I clicked on the [OK] button and the popup goes away. I clicked on [Save and close] next, exited the BlackVue program and dismounted the microSD. I inserted the microSD into the DR750X-2CH Plus front camera and booted the dash camera. All of the video files remained on the microSD and the only settings changed to their defaults were the ones on the [Firmware > Basic] page. If you navigate to the other tabs and click reset it seems to reset the settings on those tabs. You could then click on [Save and close], exit the program, dismount the microSD card and insert it into a powered of dash camera and power up the dash camera.

I've sent an email to Pittasoft support asking why this process doesn't seem to be working as stated and if there's a way to do a global reset of the settings in some other manner.



I've also tried the manual reload of firmware to verify again that process does not restore default values - it doesn't. That's when you download the firmware (files) in a zip file from BlackVue's website, format the microSD card using the BlackVue program (Windows/Mac) (FAT32 / 64K allocation units on the 64 GB card I used), perform a copy/paste of the "BlackVue" directory in the zip file to the root of the microSD card's file system, dismount the microSD, insert the microSD into the dash camera, power up the dash camera and it will state "Upgrading". After the reboot you'll find the settings from before the upgrade are still present (no restoration of the default values takes place during this process).

 

[TonyM]

Looking at the raw 4K30 H.264 video from the DR970X in extreme video quality (default option), it's reporting a bitrate of 25.24 Mb/s.

How does that compare to the 900X Plus? It's about half the max bitrate of the A139 Pro.

 

[TonyM]

It looks like their video editing software was rendered / upload at 25fps.

That's a strange choice for a promotional video given the 30fps raw file on both cameras, but does explain what I'm seeing.

 

[Vortex Radar]

How does that compare to the 900X Plus? It's about half the max bitrate of the A139 Pro.

Very similar. I'm seeing 24.66 Mb/s with H.264 4K30 video on the DR900X Plus.

Bitrate definitely is lower than the A139 Pro...

 

[Panzer Platform]

That said, I haven't been getting that audio notification. I'm not sure if it's because I'm using my existing in-car WiFi or because I disable most of the audio prompts, but yeah.

Since this is my first rodeo they sent me a BlackVue Branded SIM card, and a 1 year extension on cloud service. See attached. Please excuse my DOD security level painters tape to obscure the ICCID so nobody can get an early 1M face reveal. Lol

I wonder if they changed it to 25 fps in their editing software because they're in Korea?

It looks like Korea is a PAL country. In North America we are NTSC. So yup, maybe so.

 

[Panzer Platform]

That's a strange choice for a promotional video given the 30fps raw file on both cameras, but does explain what I'm seeing.

Maybe it was an "oversight" from their videographer hoping nobody would notice. lol
If so, somebody deserves a forehead flick. lol

 

[Vortex Radar]

Since this is my first rodeo they sent me a BlackVue Branded SIM card, and a 1 year extension on cloud service. See attached. Please excuse my DOD security level painters tape to obscure the ICCID so nobody can get an early 1M face reveal. Lol

lol... I've noticed that with blue painter's tape, you can take it into Photoshop and adjust levels to make out some digits. For that reason I typically use two layers of painter's tape when sharing stuff online.

 

[Panzer Platform]

There is "a way" (sort of) in the BlackVue Windows/Mac "SD Card Viewer" portion of the program.

I would be all over this if I owned a Windows PC / Mac, (you know what I'm going to say next). lol

Dearest @BlackVue_Pittasoft
Can you please add a reset button on the camera that I can "long press" with a paper clip to perform a factory reset / restore default settings?
Also, why is there no Loop Recording option for 1 / 2 / 3 / 5 / 10 minute video clips?
Can you add that in the next firmware update?
Am I being unreasonable? lol
-Chuck

 

[Vortex Radar]

Ooh shall we turn this into a feature request thread too? lol. I'd also love:

-Manual recording starts more than 6 sec before the trigger
-Blackvue dashcam's WiFi hotspot allows another Blackvue dashcam to connect to it
-Driving G sensor be able to be set lower so it doesn't trigger on pavement changes on the highway
-Higher bitrate for extreme video quality

 

[Panzer Platform]

Ooh shall we turn this into a feature request thread too? lol. I'd also love:

I guess I'm really used to the Viofo user interface.
These BlackVue's are like a whole different world to me. I'm glad I have you, and Robert to lean on.
Thanks for all your guidance.

 

[Panzer Platform]

Before installing the DR970X & DR900X Plus in my car I would like to test them as much as I can under “controlled conditions” to confirm & verify the claimed improved image quality of the DR970X, and compare what the low light & dynamic ranges look like. Also, because I’m lazy, and we’ve had a slight price increase in gasoline, and my car gets 9mpg around town. lol

The cardboard box from my last HDR test with the A139 Pro & A129 Pro got repurposed, so I found some scraps of wood to build this temporary contraption. Since the BlackVue’s use 12 Volt power I won’t be able to power them off my cheap USB power bank, so I strapped in the BlackVue B-130X to power all three cameras, (DR970X, DR900X Plus, A139 Pro). I wasn’t going to originally compare the BlackVue’s with the A139 Pro because I didn’t think it was a fair fight. But @Vortex Radar convinced me otherwise.

I think with this design I should be able to set in on my top fence rail, and look out at the street. This should be neat because I’ll be able to capture sunrise & sunset.
-Chuck