Please have a look and comment on video quality

[rudolf diesel]

I recently picked up an f70/i1000/x86 or whatever it goes by these days. It seems to be the "higher end" one as it's in .mov format, has an A10 processor and has firmware listed as 2014.

Now, I admit, this is my first Dash DVR, but the picture quality just doesn't seem to be very good to me. Signs seem "fuzzy" and things just aren't very well defined either when I watch video or pause it to see an image. Please have a look at a sample:

(Is that what my voice really sounds like? I'm not going to talk anyone anymore!!! )

There is a 1080P option in YouTube as that's what the camera thinks it is. But it's not true 1080, that's the cam settings. The CMOS in the cam is only capable of 720P in the imager manufacturers datasheets. So that 1080p is interpolated 720P for sure.

Is this the best I can expect from most lower dollar cams?

I have a G1W-C on the way also. Should it be better than this or is this what I can expect from it also?

 

[Nigel]

Doesn't look too bad to me for a low resolution camera, a higher resolution camera will give more detail. Don't know about the G1W-C but I put clip up from a mid range camera on YouTube last week at 1440p, see the frame grab for a non-YouTube compressed image: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/beer-loose-on-the-road-captured-with-mini-0806.8052/

 

[Street Guardian USA]

There are far too many good 1080P options these days to settle for blocky low bitrate 720P. If you got it dirt cheap I guess it's an ok "starter cam" but I have a feeling you'll want to upgrade in the near future.

 

[rudolf diesel]

depends on what you consider "dirt cheap" I guess.

I paid 47.99 USD.

 

[Dionic90]

That's dirt cheap.

Minimum should be full HD. Anything else is a toy

 

[liveinxs]

For 80.00, or 30.00 more , you could of had a top quality cam, like the Mobius, I would return the cam you have installed, looks like crap.

 

[petepete]

As far as evidence goes...no one can argue it fails to do the job...

you cant really knock it and you cant ask for more at that price with front and rear cameras if it reliably continues to work.

On the other hand, you can spend a dam site more and for your money stand a chance of reading more number plates, a hd picture, and a bit of extra night vision that remains appallingly bad even on the top model cameras ...

you have to think of your choices like a menu...

some will go for the cheap meal, some a midrange, and some who will order the top 32 oz even if they are not particularly hungry ! - they all do the same job !!!

 

[rudolf diesel]

Well, I don't know if I would quite call it crap. It does record video clear enough to see what's happening, so it would be reasonable in an accident.

I was just hoping for a little better quality from something 720p (advertised as 1080).

I've contacted the seller and listed all the defeciencies. They've agreed to a partial refund of 15 bucks, so that makes it a 33 dollar camera.

They did offer to return it and they would pay shipping once they received it and I showed them a bill, but I've had it apart and together a couple times now so I wouldn't feel good about that.

But, for 30 bucks it will do fine for use as a rear facing camera and I'll get something else for a front cam.

Not a Möbius though, its just not quite what I'm looking for...

 

[liveinxs]

When i said crap, i was comparing it to the Mobius.

 

[Nigel]

I was just hoping for a little better quality from something 720p (advertised as 1080).

For all of the current generation BSI CMOS sensors, if you want a truly sharp image you need to view them scaled down to half the vertical sensor resolution - in your case 360. If you view them at the sensor resolution then adjacent pixels will be blurred into each other and the situation semi-corrected by artificial sharpening. That is even true of my 16 megapixel stills camera, scaled down to 1080 that can produce very sharp video but viewed at full resolution it looks similar to yours, of course you never have a screen large enough to view it at sensor resolution so it doesn't matter.

Remember that halving the vertical resolution means a quarter of the stored detail. So comparing your 720 camera with my Mini 0806, I should have 4 times the amount of detail in the images. The Mobius should only have 2.25 times the detail you have ... I wont call the Mobius crap though, it's a good camera for what it is

 

[rudolf diesel]

For all of the current generation BSI CMOS sensors, if you want a truly sharp image you need to view them scaled down to half the vertical sensor resolution - in your case 360. If you view them at the sensor resolution then adjacent pixels will be blurred into each other and the situation semi-corrected by artificial sharpening. That is even true of my 16 megapixel stills camera, scaled down to 1080 that can produce very sharp video but viewed at full resolution it looks similar to yours, of course you never have a screen large enough to view it at sensor resolution so it doesn't matter.

Remember that halving the vertical resolution means a quarter of the stored detail. So comparing your 720 camera with my Mini 0806, I should have 4 times the amount of detail in the images. The Mobius should only have 2.25 times the detail you have ... I wont call the Mobius crap though, it's a good camera for what it is

Thank you! That was very informative and helpful!

Cheers