Improvements I would like to see in the panorama II and/or S

[Street Guardian USA]

My unit was ordered on April 26,2014 from shpKorea
Here is a link to one of my videos recorded with the Panorama IIS :

The video is not horrible, but if a car passes me at any speed, the license plate is not legible, where I can see it clearly with my Mobius, which right now, is mounted right next to the Panorama.

This morning, the GPS took a full 30 minutes to lock on to the signal. I even tried parking in a wide open, shopping Ctr. parking lot for 15 minutes.
Funny thing though, if I park and turn off the car for 10-15 minutes, and then turn the car back on, the GPS locks on almost immediately!

Regards, R.Carr

I saw you bought from SHPKOREA, I heard they had a small batch where the lens was out of focus a bit. (stock from a few months ago) Your problem could very well be fixed if you RMA/replace your unit for a new one. I'd reach out to them.

Which firmware are you on? 12Mbps, 15Mbps, or 18Mbps? (try 18)
http://dashcamtalk.com/powerucc-panoramaii/#Firmware

Once you get a new in-focus unit, can you post a side by side front facing video of Mobius vs Panorama? Upload the RAW videos and share via http://mega.co.nz
Youtube re-compresses things in a fuzzy way sometimes. (not the best looking at times)

The real test of reading license plate numbers is at night. If you jump to 5m30s you'll see the Panorama has an edge on the Mobius here:

Original file Download HERE
Top - Mobius B-lens. FW: v1.17, 1080p-W, WDR On, 15Mbps
Bottom - Panorama 2. FW: v1.12.03 ( 15Mbps )

 

[jokiin]

My unit was ordered on April 26,2014 from shpKorea
Here is a link to one of my videos recorded with the Panorama IIS :

The video is not horrible, but if a car passes me at any speed, the license plate is not legible, where I can see it clearly with my Mobius, which right now, is mounted right next to the Panorama.

This morning, the GPS took a full 30 minutes to lock on to the signal. I even tried parking in a wide open, shopping Ctr. parking lot for 15 minutes.
Funny thing though, if I park and turn off the car for 10-15 minutes, and then turn the car back on, the GPS locks on almost immediately!

Regards, R.Carr

can't really tell with your videos, (YouTube compresses them and you only have them available in 720p mode) so hard to tell what the focus is like, have seen complaints about the domestic market versions that shpKorea has with focus before though, you could benefit from aiming the camera down more, too much sky in the video messes with the AWB

do you unplug your GPS at all, to take the camera inside at night etc or is it always connected to the camera?

could be a faulty GPS, can happen

 

[Smoke Pants]

An improvement I might like to see is a narrower vertical field of view. It doesn't seem necessary to have almost my entire dashboard in the video, with the camera mounted at the top of the windshield and pointed straight out. I drive a 2007 Chevy Monte Carlo.

By the way, my perception might be off, but the picture quality on my G1W-C almost seems better than the Panorama 2s. I can't pull a usable frame from the Panorama footage if I do any zooming at all with Registrator Viewer. Not so with G1W-C footage though. With that, I can zoom in a little. I even increased the Panorama bit rate to 18 Mbps. Disappointing.

 

[David Schellenberg]

An improvement I might like to see is a narrower vertical field of view. It doesn't seem necessary to have almost my entire dashboard in the video, with the camera mounted at the top of the windshield and pointed straight out. I drive a 2007 Chevy Monte Carlo.

By the way, my perception might be off, but the picture quality on my G1W-C almost seems better than the Panorama 2s. I can't pull a usable frame from the Panorama footage if I do any zooming at all with Registrator Viewer. Not so with G1W-C footage though. With that, I can zoom in a little. I even increased the Panorama bit rate to 18 Mbps. Disappointing.

In my experimentation, I found a considerable improvement in viewing the video with VLC over Registrator Viewer. I appreciate the extras included with Registrator Viewer, but when I want to extract a frame to get the clearest possible view, I use VLC.

 

[reverend]

Are you running RV in EVR or the other XP mode (can't remember the initials off the top of my head but it's under the Renderer menu).

Basically if you put it into the XP mode I think it takes better screenshots?

 

[hometechnc]

can't really tell with your videos, (YouTube compresses them and you only have them available in 720p mode) so hard to tell what the focus is like, have seen complaints about the domestic market versions that shpKorea has with focus before though, you could benefit from aiming the camera down more, too much sky in the video messes with the AWB

do you unplug your GPS at all, to take the camera inside at night etc or is it always connected to the camera?

could be a faulty GPS, can happen

Thank you for the input. I do not unplug anything, other than the memory card (for downloading). And I will aim the Cam down more as you suggest.
....and Returning the Unit to shpKorea is out of the question. The cost of return shipping, plus he wants an extra $50 for return shipping, and the paper work... it's not worth it. Just chalk up the cost of another over-rated Dashcam.

 

[David Schellenberg]

Are you running RV in EVR or the other XP mode (can't remember the initials off the top of my head but it's under the Renderer menu).

Basically if you put it into the XP mode I think it takes better screenshots?

That's what I read, but I didn't notice any improvement between EVR and VMR.
Neither shows the video as clearly as VLC.

 

[jokiin]

Thank you for the input. I do not unplug anything, other than the memory card (for downloading). And I will aim the Cam down more as you suggest.
....and Returning the Unit to shpKorea is out of the question. The cost of return shipping, plus he wants an extra $50 for return shipping, and the paper work... it's not worth it. Just chalk up the cost of another over-rated Dashcam.

it's a shame your experience doesn't match what people normally get from this model, have seen a few complaints of focus issues with shpKorea and although their initial service on sales is good have seen complaints about lack of aftersales support which is dissapointing

 

[Smoke Pants]

David, I tried VLC player and wow, what a dramatic improvement when it comes to picking up details.

 

[iamdrumming]

An improvement I might like to see is a narrower vertical field of view. It doesn't seem necessary to have almost my entire dashboard in the video, with the camera mounted at the top of the windshield and pointed straight out. I drive a 2007 Chevy Monte Carlo.

By the way, my perception might be off, but the picture quality on my G1W-C almost seems better than the Panorama 2s. I can't pull a usable frame from the Panorama footage if I do any zooming at all with Registrator Viewer. Not so with G1W-C footage though. With that, I can zoom in a little. I even increased the Panorama bit rate to 18 Mbps. Disappointing.

I LOVE the wide angle of the lens. If you were to come to a 4-way stop, and the other driver runs the stop sign and hits you, the wider view will show what really happened. I have a DVR270 before my Panorama, and it had a narrower view. I'll take the wider view any day.

 

[ohmygod]

I'll remember to suggest a few of these next time a new R&D cycle is opened up.

The two I have are
1) Daylight Savings Time (for now just set +/- 1 off as needed)See (Jokiin's response below)
2) The Option/Ability to turn off hard recorded OSD (and rely on soft embedded data via registratorviewer app)

There is no ETA on next R&D cycle, but I'll be sure to remember to suggest a look at this thread when I find out, thanks for your input.

I may re-work the English Manuals myself and create a new PDF in the near future. We want our future RoadCam.com support section to be high quality.

THIS! Please! Or at least give an option to change the font from outline to certain font colours. If you can give me a date I will buy at least one immediately.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

THIS! Please! Or at least give an option to change the font from outline to certain font colours. If you can give me a date I will buy at least one immediately.

The developer is pretty busy ramping up a new dual channel Panorama this month.
I'll followup with him on the potential S & G future firmware enhancement requests after he's launched the new Product. (details coming soon)

 

[CheckYourLights]

the mount you like are prone to connectivity issues, the rotating attachment style don't seem to last as long either, there are mounts for this camera that pivot though

I'm not a fan of the mount either. It's also on the G90 camera and I find myself always plugging directly into the camera and wishing I could swap the mount.

 

[ohmygod]

The developer is pretty busy ramping up a new dual channel Panorama this month.
I'll followup with him on the potential S & G future firmware enhancement requests after he's launched the new Product. (details coming soon)

Big shame. Would have loved to give that one a ride through Wales during my vacation and make a review, but I guess that it will be out too late.
Finally a manufacturer who is serious in getting things right doing a dual channel camera. I'm curious...