I think I got a dud!

[freightguy]

Hey all, new visitor to the site. Thanks for making it.

So I just got my Opia 2. I have to say that so far the quality of the video kind of looks like junk compared to what I see on the internet. I have had it mounted in my wifes car and my tractor trailer truck. Both videos look grainy, pixelated and not smooth at all.

Now I have an email into Vico. They are in their Chinese New Year. So I'm expecting a response sometime in the second week of February.

My set up has been all the different formats. 1080p, 1440P etc. So after digging thru the owners manual. A couple thing came to mind and was wondering.

1. I have the default exposure set. Should I change it maybe?

2. My Micro SD card is a Lexar class 10, 64GB 45Mb/s card. Could this be a problem?

3. I use the suction cup mount, should I maybe re-position the camera closer with the sticky mount? I am not using the quick connect mount which looks like you screw in the CPL filter.

4. CPL filter? Don't have one, but wondering if maybe a purchase should be in order.

So far its not off to a good start. Gonna leave a couple videos to see what you all may think if I got a bad camera or maybe just an adjustment is in order. I am considering returning it to Amazon and exchanging it for a different one. Let me know your thoughts and thanks for your time.

So this is video 1. This was rendered in Vegas Pro 14. Thought maybe some people were doing some kind of crazy editing so I was playing with this. Not sure if I did it right but here's the render.

This is the raw footage from the camera. No editing done.

Please turn down the volume. I thought I changed the audio but apparently I didn't. Warning trucker swearing in video!!!

 

[freightguy]

BTW I forgot to mention. These videos are both at 1080P 60FPS.

 

[hyperm3]

Sorry to hear about your situation. First thing I would highly recommend is pointing the cam down more. Have the front of your hood in the picture, you have too much sky. Second, definitely run it in 1440p, things will get a lot cleaner. Also, check the firmware and make sure its running the newest one. 2.5 is what is recommended. Ive played with both 2.5s and 2.5 and currently sticking with 2.5.

 

[freightguy]

Thx for the reply. Both things you said I did this morning hooking it up. I also moved the exposure one notch. I also ordered the CPL filter. It's snowing here today so I'll be curious as to what the footage looks like when i get home. Thx for the reply.

 

[hyperm3]

I adjusted my exposure to +.5 but thats because Im using the CPL. I hope you get it working out because I absolutely love this dash cam and I know you will too.

 

[c4rc4m]

What's the original un-rendered video look like in comparison?

3 obvious considerations for Vegas:

1. Bit Rate of render

2. Codec Used and settings

3. Method for reducing frame rate from 60 > 30 fps. - Use discarding instead of blending to retain maximum sharpness especially in stills.

BTW, You can find guidance on rendering settings on Youtube itself.

 

[freightguy]

Thx for the reply. Vegas is a trial for me, lots to learn if I decide to keep it. I'm on the 30 day trial now. Not sure I want to spend that kind of money. The raw footage is the video above labeled "Vico Raw". It definitely appears to be lagging. Probably due to no editing. I just got in tonight the CPL filter. I'm really curious as to how the footage will look with it on. I'm a 60FPS guy. I have 144MHZ monitor and play games with A GTX1080 on it, I get around 120FPS, so I know and can see the difference. Love it!! I also notice the videos look worse in Chrome on my PC than they do on my phone, so wondering if that has something to do with it. But when I watch others they are smooth and crisp. So that what led me here. As to whether or not I got a dud or I placed it wrong on my windshield or etc. Will give an update soon when I run tomorrow with the CPL filter.

 

[old4570]

Hmmmm ...
Something is up if thats the quality you are getting ...
Could be the card (?) , long shot ...
Also could be that focus issue .. The lens is simply poorly focused from the factory ...

 

[hyperm3]

Thx for the reply. Vegas is a trial for me, lots to learn if I decide to keep it. I'm on the 30 day trial now. Not sure I want to spend that kind of money. The raw footage is the video above labeled "Vico Raw". It definitely appears to be lagging. Probably due to no editing. I just got in tonight the CPL filter. I'm really curious as to how the footage will look with it on. I'm a 60FPS guy. I have 144MHZ monitor and play games with A GTX1080 on it, I get around 120FPS, so I know and can see the difference. Love it!! I also notice the videos look worse in Chrome on my PC than they do on my phone, so wondering if that has something to do with it. But when I watch others they are smooth and crisp. So that what led me here. As to whether or not I got a dud or I placed it wrong on my windshield or etc. Will give an update soon when I run tomorrow with the CPL filter.

I understand that you say you are a 60fps guy but you are only getting lower video quality at 1080. Try the 1440 setting, even at 30fps it's higher quality. It's not a video game where pixels are imperative to higher frame rates.

 

[c4rc4m]

Thx for the reply. Vegas is a trial for me, lots to learn if I decide to keep it. I'm on the 30 day trial now. Not sure I want to spend that kind of money. The raw footage is the video above labeled "Vico Raw". It definitely appears to be lagging. Probably due to no editing. I just got in tonight the CPL filter. I'm really curious as to how the footage will look with it on. I'm a 60FPS guy. I have 144MHZ monitor and play games with A GTX1080 on it, I get around 120FPS, so I know and can see the difference. Love it!! I also notice the videos look worse in Chrome on my PC than they do on my phone, so wondering if that has something to do with it. But when I watch others they are smooth and crisp. So that what led me here. As to whether or not I got a dud or I placed it wrong on my windshield or etc. Will give an update soon when I run tomorrow with the CPL filter.

The footage is not raw once uploaded to Youtube as Youtube re-encode it.

A CPL filter will not improve the video quality, only the colour saturation and reduce any reflections from glass or water.

I'm not seeing any "lagging" as you term it. If you mean the video is slightly jerky, that's the effect you get from a fast shutter speed combined with a fast moving object and frames that are discarded. It's because objects travel a noticeable distance between the captured frames and so tend to "jump" down the road. Remember video is just a collection of stills played back so quickly that the eye sees fluid motion. If the differences between each still become noticeable, then the video will not look smooth. I'm struggling to see any footage in your video though which looks jerky. It all looks exceptionally smooth to me. As I said elsewhere smoother video from 60fps can be obtained by blending frames when rendering down to 30fps. However, it results in blurred stills as each frame is made up of part of one frame and part of the next. Discarding frames, keeps the better image obtained by the faster shutter speed used in 60fps capture. However, against fast moving objects it can cause jerkiness, as you throw away every other still, so the differences between adjacent stills become greater. The smoothness is all going to depend on relative speeds and how fast the shutter is and how fast the object travels between each frame.

As for the video, overall it looks quite good although I admit you can't read the number plates of even the cars directly at the side of the road next to your truck. That does seem unusual. Try talking to Vico about this.

As for watching the raw video, copy the file from your SD card onto your pc, (you will hjave difficulty streaming it smoothly direct from SD to PC), and then play it back from there without doing anything to it ie no rendering, no conversion, nothing. Just play it back. If it won't play in Windows Media player or anything you have on your pc, download a free copy of "VLC Player" as it plays practically everything.

That un-rendered video, will show what's truly been recorded and if that's still blurry for the plates parked at the side of the road right by your truck at low speed, then I would suggest you may have an issue.

 

[freightguy]

Lots of good info. Thanks. Vico comes off of Chinese new year Monday. So I'm sure I'll hear back from them then. The raw video looks like crap in Vico video player, questionable in Windows Media Player. I downloaded a video player called 5k and wow it looks awesome. When I get home tonight I will check into that license plate clarity footage. One final question. Distance from windshield. Mine is probably about 2 inches. Reading some other things on the net I have read that possibly 1 to 2 mm would be more ideal. Thoughts on that? Thx again for all the replies.

 

[hyperm3]

Ive never heard of distance to windshield being a thing. Not every car can get the cam placed that close. In my car its about 3 inches from the windshield because of the rake. As long as you have more hood(road) and less sky you should get the best picture.

 

[c4rc4m]

Not too sure about the windshield thing. I'd guess the aim of anyone trying to put it closer would be to reduce the visible reflection from the dashboard off the inside of the windscreen and improve the through the glass clarity that way. However, as Hyper said, due to rake, there are limits as to how close you can get the camera to the screen. Mine probably sits a good 6 inches off the glass. Have a look at the dashboard mat thread on here (it's in general I think), for a few ideas.

I would doubt your issue is down to distance to the windshield though. Reflections tend to cast a bit of haze over the picture. They don't tend to result in reduced sharpness in specific areas of the picture or in artefacts. You can see the effects of windscreen reflection here in this Opia 2 video:

My only comment here is that also number plates look sharper especially at the side of the road, although how much of this is down to the lower mounting position in a car vs a truck I don't know.

Reduced sharpness / blur can be down to camera (including lens issues), settings or rendering generally, so you need to narrow it down a bit. That's one of the reasons I suggested viewing in VLC player. You want to ideally view the raw footage in a straight media player that doesn't enhance or re-encode anything. If the raw video is clear, then the issue probably lies somewhere other than the camera / camera settings ie the renderer's encoding / encoding settings. If it isn't clear, then it's probably the camera or camera settings. I didn't know Vico had their own player. I would assume this would play back the video straight, although whether it's a player or editor is a little unclear since you say 5K (?) player plays it back nicely.

My first action would be to establish if it's the raw video footage or editing at fault. Other than that, if you can't, send it back to Vico to testing or return it to the store as faulty.

 

[freightguy]

Wow. You all have been doing Dashcams a while. Good info. Vico back tomorrow from holidays. Would there be a video quality difference between MSD cards?Like I said up above I'm using lexar 64gb 45mb's. It is not mlc but tlc. I've watched the video on the why you need to use an mlc, but really would that change the quality? To me it seems more of longevity than quality issue, but you all seem more knowledgeable.

Funny you mention the truck vs car distance. I brought the camera home with me to test.

Video player. I used Vico, Windows Media and that 5K player I was telling you about. Cannot read license plates on cars on side of road.

I'm gonna do some more testing today in my car. Mess with exposure and such. I'm probably being over analytical with the camera. Looking at some other videos on YouTube last night. There were videos where license plates could not be read during there videos also. Not really a game changer as is good video for any accident that may occur.


Thanks again for all the info. I do apologize about the formatting of my paragraphs. I type on the phone and forget to hit the enter button to tab down.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

Wow. You all have been doing Dashcams a while. Good info. Vico back tomorrow from holidays. Would there be a video quality difference between MSD cards?Like I said up above I'm using lexar 64gb 45mb's. It is not mlc but tlc. I've watched the video on the why you need to use an mlc, but really would that change the quality? To me it seems more of longevity than quality issue, but you all seem more knowledgeable.

Funny you mention the truck vs car distance. I brought the camera home with me to test.

Video player. I used Vico, Windows Media and that 5K player I was telling you about. Cannot read license plates on cars on side of road.

I'm gonna do some more testing today in my car. Mess with exposure and such. I'm probably being over analytical with the camera. Looking at some other videos on YouTube last night. There were videos where license plates could not be read during there videos also. Not really a game changer as is good video for any accident that may occur.


Thanks again for all the info. I do apologize about the formatting of my paragraphs. I type on the phone and forget to hit the enter button to tab down.

The default settings of the Opia2 should result in the best video quality. I would tweak only slightly here and there to see if things look better or worse. Important to remember that for best results, your camera should be aimed so that you capture about 60% road/hood/dash and 40% sky. A clean windshield and lens is a must if you want to see the best results of the camera. Also, don't expect any dash camera to be able to pick up plates all the time. If your moving and the other car is moving, chances are slim. This is for all cameras.

 

[c4rc4m]

SD card will make no difference to blur etc. It's just a solid state hard drive at the end of the day ie a data store.

 

[freightguy]

Well after yesterday's testing. I again was not impressed. Before I throw in the towel. I did decide to go with Vico Micro SD card recommendations.

I just bought the Transcend 64GB 633x. It's Mlc. Reads at 95mbps and writes at 85mbps. Card will be here Tuesday from Amazon. It was mentioned above possibly a Micro SD card potential problem. Which kind of makes sense. Maybe my card can't keep up and is downgrading the video or dropping frames.

If the card isn't the problem. Then I'm gonna go with an out of focus lense and I will get with Vico on that.

I'd like to thank everyone for their replies and thoughts. Hopefully soon I will mark this thread as solved.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

Well after yesterday's testing. I again was not impressed. Before I throw in the towel. I did decide to go with Vico Micro SD card recommendations.

I just bought the Transcend 64GB 633x. It's Mlc. Reads at 95mbps and writes at 85mbps. Card will be here Tuesday from Amazon. It was mentioned above possibly a Micro SD card potential problem. Which kind of makes sense. Maybe my card can't keep up and is downgrading the video or dropping frames.

If the card isn't the problem. Then I'm gonna go with an out of focus lense and I will get with Vico on that.

I'd like to thank everyone for their replies and thoughts. Hopefully soon I will mark this thread as solved.

I would doubt the memory card was the issue as the Lexar is a good card. Worth checking it with h2testw though to be sure it's working fine and it's legit. Do you have any raw videos from when you used it in your wifes car to share?

 

[freightguy]

Yeah. When I get home tonight I'll share a few. I honestly don't expect the SD card to be the culprit but I figured I'd give it a whirl.

Vico responded this morning and asked me to make sure I had the most recent firmware. I do. That was the first thing I did.

 

[freightguy]

Hey all. Just an update. So I installed the Transcend card today. One thing immediately noticed is the lack of frame drops. I tested the other card and it was writing at 18Mbyte/s. However with the 60 Mbytes with the Transcend, the frame stutter went away.

I have exchanged video with Vico. Trying to find a video good enough for them to compare that has lots of license plates.

I think them I still think the 1080p 60FPS looks like garbage and is very grainy. So I will let you know how that goes.

I do find it weird that the frame stuttering went away. Would seem like the Lexar would be solid but apparently not.

Updates soon. Thx again all.