F800 Pro - Appalling video quality

bgreenstone

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I've had my F800 Pro for about 2 weeks, and I've got to say that I'm appalled at how awful the video quality is. It's very difficult to make out any license plate numbers, street signs or anything, and it seems to all be because of the horrifically low bit-rate that the camera uses to record the videos. There is so much compression artifacting on everything that it just looks like a mess. Trees are grey fuzzy blobs, text is all chopped up, and giant macro blocks of poorly compressed video are floating all over the place. How can they get away with charging so much for such an awful product. My GoPro records crystal-clear video at a much higher bitrate and resolution for not much more $.
 
Yeah you can get bad blocking with dashcams not lest if you venture into a area with a lot of information, this time of the year trees lining the road with the sun filtering down thru the trees and making lines on the road.
Even the best cameras can struggle some in places like that due to the moderate bitrates all brands use ( MAX about 20 mbit ) also why i tirelessly keep asking for higher bitrates, though that also mean larger files.
But some handle this worse than others, i remember my old Lukas dashcam it was only 11 mbit, which was not all that low back in 2012 but still not much in regard to what we ask of our little cameras.
ATM the excuse / explanation for the modest bitrates are heat generation, and i also understand this but on the other hand i have had cameras run with modified firmwares and 30 mbit, and i cant say for sure that this was what inn the end killed off that camera.
Still if you design for this you should be good, i know the hardware support the bitrates fine, so what i was hoping for not least with the coming systems with the main unit remote from the camera lens, if you do that you can also make the main unit fairly large as it dont have to be on the windscreen and so accommodate much better cooling solutions,,, hell even active cooling if need be.
BUT ! sadly it seem like none of the brands going that route have done this, so the modest bitrates seem to be the name of the game still.
 
You forgot to mention the over-amplified and distorted audio.


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Trees are grey fuzzy blobs, text is all chopped up, and giant macro blocks of poorly compressed video are floating all over the place.
On the example of these screenshots it can be seen that there is not only a problem in the bitrate.
800PRO_sample-1.MP4_20180401_014830.634.jpg800PRO_sample-2.MP4_20180322_230430.717.jpg
On a static frame, you can clearly see that the sharpness settings are not very well tuned.
1.jpg2.jpg3.jpg4.jpg
This error is typical for all stock firmware on Ambarella platform. It can be fixed. There would be a desire...

And this may be the result after applying the optimal settings...
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/tweaking-ov4689-hdr-off-imx322.26345/post-438727
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/f1-firmware.31818/post-436814
 
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Yes too strong sharpness are also a problem.
 
Did you pull these images directly from the card or from your smartphone connection?
 
I get blocking etc when I viwe via the smatphone. If I pull from the card and view on the PC picutres are fine
 
Yeah assume OP view on something proper, and im sorry but a phone screen while it might be 4K and all, its just BS if you ask me.
I am about to pull some comparative footage from my DC, will have that up in a little while.
 
Hi @bgreenstone, would be able to share the raw video files with us so we diagnose your issue? Are you using a smartphone or your computer to review the video footage? Feel free to contact our support team! Email - support@thinkware.com Phone - 1(844)865-9273

We appreciate all of the feedback and we will forward everyone's suggestions to our development team.
 
Hi @bgreenstone, would be able to share the raw video files with us so we diagnose your issue? Are you using a smartphone or your computer to review the video footage? Feel free to contact our support team! Email - support@thinkware.com Phone - 1(844)865-9273

We appreciate all of the feedback and we will forward everyone's suggestions to our development team.


Anything?..

You know what, these guys are not giving consumers any choice over any settings. I got the F800 and by far it's one of the biggest regrets I have, seriously. When I ask them why I can't change the bitrate, they say then it uses too much space. It's my camera, it's my memory card, it's my recording. If I want to have 3 hrs of video instead of 6 hours on a 64 GB memory card, that should be MY decision. Maybe I want 720p in the back, decrease the processors workload to allow 30 mbit in the front? No can do.

*Sigh :cautious:
 
Anything?..

You know what, these guys are not giving consumers any choice on any settings. I got the F800 and by far it's one of the biggest regrets I have. When I ask them why I can't change the bitrate, they say then it uses too much space. It's my camera, it's my memory card, it's my recording. If I want to have 3 hrs of video instead of 6 hours on a 64 GB memory card, that should be MY decision, not yours. Maybe I want 720p in the back, decrease the processors workload to allow 30 mbit in the front? No, can't do.

*Sigh :cautious:

Thinkware doesn’t want to improve any existing products as per my experience. They also have the bad habit to blame customers for their poor product performance. All they want to do is dump new products into the market. No support improvement for existing customers.

I’ve compared the sound quality of the F800 Pro with a Blackvue DR750S-2CH and showed their F800 audio was too amplified resulting in distortion. The Blackvue had no issues recording the same time. Thinkware in their almighty wisdom blamed me for having a muscle car. Yes! Even with evidence their competitors were better.
A clear signal of bad business practices and in the US we don’t appreciate that.




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"Listen" to this video
 
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