Reviewing and Testing the Vantrue N4 Pro S

Jeff_Vantrue said:
Normally, the rear camera should also display the time and date stamp. I’ll email you two firmware files so you can update both the front and rear cameras.
Click to expand...
Everything is working as expected with the new firmware update. Thank you!
 
I'll have to look at mine again. I did notice the stamps now appear across the bottom, but I didn't check for all of them (I've turned some off in the menu). I'll need to play some more to investigate more thoroughly.
 
@EricSan

Can you link me to the firmware update for the N4 Pro S Front Firmware Wendy sent. I can't find the email to update my other camera. Thanks.
 
Last edited:
You have ever tested two dashcams, n4ProS and n4S， May I ask if there is a difference in the actual clarity of the internal camera between the two dashcams, even though the image sensors are different.thanks！
 
I'll have to see if I have any footage from each internal camera to compare. I believe both have the same field of view and both have four IR LEDs positioned around the cabin camera, but I haven't directly compared footage from each cabin camera. If I can't find it, I'll try to make some videos from each and post some images.

Also, for @jsmith, I'll check firmware on the N4PS rear cameras. Vantrue sent me an update via email and there is the update on their webpage. I am not sure if they are the same or different versions, I didn't keep careful notes about these two releases.
 
EricSan said:
I'll have to see if I have any footage from each internal camera to compare. I believe both have the same field of view and both have four IR LEDs positioned around the cabin camera, but I haven't directly compared footage from each cabin camera. If I can't find it, I'll try to make some videos from each and post some images.

Also, for @jsmith, I'll check firmware on the N4PS rear cameras. Vantrue sent me an update via email and there is the update on their webpage. I am not sure if they are the same or different versions, I didn't keep careful notes about these two releases.
Click to expand...

I found it.
 
haiou_f said:
You have ever tested two dashcams, n4ProS and n4S， May I ask if there is a difference in the actual clarity of the internal camera between the two dashcams, even though the image sensors are different.thanks！
Click to expand...

Here are some screen caps comparing the internal cabin cameras for the N4S and the N4 Pro S. I used exactly the same windshield mount for each camera, thus the vantage point is exactly identical. Overall, there appears to be very little difference between the 1080p (N4 Pros S) and the 1440p (N4S) images from each.

Drive mode for the N4S has 2560x1440 resolution at 14.3Mb/s at 30fps.
In this image, the car is not moving, so the view out the windows is pretty clear. You can see about half of each front window with the 160 degree N4S field of view.
N4S Drive Mode Cabin Full.webp



Drive mode for the N4 Pro S has 1920x1080 resolution at 9.8Mb/s at 30fps.
In this image, the car is moving, so you can see some motion blur in the side windows. Though the official fields of view are the same between the N4S and the N4 Pro S at 160 degrees, you can see just a bit beyond half of each front window with the N4 Pro S. I'm not sure how to explain this slight difference.
N4PS Drive Mode Cabin Full.webp


Below is a 200% zoom in on the car out the driver's window to see if the rear plate is readable. Not quite.
N4PS Drive Mode 200p Plate Crop.webp



Here is the same comparison from parking mode. With parking mode, both cameras feature the same resolution. Don't read anything into color differences, this is a function of making these comparison images on different days and under different lighting conditions. Overall, these images are nearly identical: same resolution, same angle of view, same bitrates.

N4S Parking Mode has 1920x1080 resolution at 4.9Mb/s and 15fps:
N4s Park Mode Cabin Full.webp



N4 Pro S Parking Mode has 1920x1080 resolution at 4.9Mb/s and 15fps:
N4PS Park Mode Cabin Full.webp
 
EricSan said:
Here are some screen caps comparing the internal cabin cameras for the N4S and the N4 Pro S. I used exactly the same windshield mount for each camera, thus the vantage point is exactly identical. Overall, there appears to be very little difference between the 1080p (N4 Pros S) and the 1440p (N4S) images from each.

Drive mode for the N4S has 2560x1440 resolution at 14.3Mb/s at 30fps.
In this image, the car is not moving, so the view out the windows is pretty clear. You can see about half of each front window with the 160 degree N4S field of view.
View attachment 84359


Drive mode for the N4 Pro S has 1920x1080 resolution at 9.8Mb/s at 30fps.
In this image, the car is moving, so you can see some motion blur in the side windows. Though the official fields of view are the same between the N4S and the N4 Pro S at 160 degrees, you can see just a bit beyond half of each front window with the N4 Pro S. I'm not sure how to explain this slight difference.
View attachment 84360

Below is a 200% zoom in on the car out the driver's window to see if the rear plate is readable. Not quite.
View attachment 84363


Here is the same comparison from parking mode. With parking mode, both cameras feature the same resolution. Don't read anything into color differences, this is a function of making these comparison images on different days and under different lighting conditions. Overall, these images are nearly identical: same resolution, same angle of view, same bitrates.

N4S Parking Mode has 1920x1080 resolution at 4.9Mb/s and 15fps:
View attachment 84366


N4 Pro S Parking Mode has 1920x1080 resolution at 4.9Mb/s and 15fps:
View attachment 84365
Click to expand...

Do you have the ventilated seats? Is that Napa Leather?

I did exactly as you did. Set it up to see out the front driver and passenger window. It does a fantastic job. Plus, if you ever get pulled over, it can see the Officer as well and record the conversation!
 
No to ventilated seats. Not sure if it's Napa leather or not, never bothered to look. I added the head cushion for the driver's side. Vantage point is pretty good for the internal camera. Would have been interesting to have this vantage point several years ago when I got front-ended and the air bags blew...
 
EricSan said:
No to ventilated seats. Not sure if it's Napa leather or not, never bothered to look. I added the head cushion for the driver's side. Vantage point is pretty good for the internal camera. Would have been interesting to have this vantage point several years ago when I got front-ended and the air bags blew...
Click to expand...

I tell people, it's easy to say "I wish I had this on Camera", so why don't you actually have it on Camera. Dashcams are a safety net you don't want to need, but are glad that you have installed!
 
Last edited:
Yep- I got "lucky" with my accident. It was very clearly 100% the other driver's fault, her car was on the wrong side of the road and the crash left her car completely disabled, so she wasn't able to move it before the police arrived. We both emerged with no injuries, just two broken cars.

I'm wondering if a dashcam would have shown that she was on the phone at the time of the accident. I was driving up the stem of a "T" intersection and had stopped to make a right turn. She was coming right to left across the top of the T, attempting to turn left and cut the corner, plowing straight into the front of my car. I never saw it happening, I was looking to the left, checking for traffic. Would have been interesting to have footage of that one. Trashed my 20 year old beautiful condition Subaru Legacy that only had 80k on the clock. Now it's nearly impossible to approach my car without being recorded 😉
 
Last edited:
Now that I have two different cameras hardwired to my LTO parking battery for parking mode duty during the day, I'm noticing that my battery is running down a bit faster than I'm accustomed to. This made me wonder: how much power is consumed by the 12v to 5v regulator? So, I pulled out my bench top power supply and one of my DMMs to make some measurements.

With the PSU set to 13.1v, inserted my meter into the negative lead between the PSU and the Viofo VP-03 (II) 5v regulator box. My meter showed a current draw of 0.32mA (322uA) at 13.1v, for a total power consumption of a mere 0.004w - this is VERY efficient! This means the regulator box could run for a ballpark of 250 continuous hours and only burn ONE WATT of power over all of that time! That's impressive! I measured exactly the same power draw for both drive mode and parking mode (yellow cable connected vs not connected).
 
Last edited:
EricSan said:
Yep- I got "lucky" with my accident. It was very clearly 100% the other driver's fault, her car was on the wrong side of the road and the crash left her car completely disabled, so she wasn't able to move it before the police arrived. We both emerged with no injuries, just two broken cars.

I'm wondering if a dashcam would have shown that she was on the phone at the time of the accident. I was driving up the stem of a "T" intersection and had stopped to make a right turn. She was coming right to left across the top of the T, attempting to turn left and cut the corner, plowing straight into the front of my car. I never saw it happening, I was looking to the left, checking for traffic. Would have been interesting to have footage of that one. Trashed my 20 year old beautiful condition Subaru Legacy that only had 80k on the clock. Now it's nearly impossible to approach my car without being recorded 😉
Click to expand...

With the CPL Filter and the vehicle close enough, you can certainly see inside another driver's vehicle in daytime. At night, there'd be no chance.
 
EricSan said:
Now that I have two different cameras hardwired to my LTO parking battery for parking mode duty during the day, I'm noticing that my battery is running down a bit faster than I'm accustomed to. This made me wonder: how much power is consumed by the 12v to 5v regulator? So, I pulled out my bench top power supply and one of my DMMs to make some measurements.

With the PSU set to 13.1v, inserted my meter into the negative lead between the PSU and the Viofo VP-03 (II) 5v regulator box. My meter showed a current draw of 0.32mA (322uA) at 13.1v, for a total power consumption of a mere 0.004w - this is VERY efficient! This means the regulator box could run for a ballpark of 250 continuous hours and only burn ONE WATT of power over all of that time! That's impressive! I measured exactly the same power draw for both drive mode and parking mode (yellow cable connected vs not connected).
Click to expand...

1. I'm not sure how accurate the OBD II kit is, as I see a voltage that doesn't reflect when the hardwire cuts off vehicle. Also, I find the 12V setting on the OBD II and 3 Hardwire kit quite low.

I believe Vantrue should make a selectable voltage cutoff like Viofo. 12.4, 12.2, 12.0. On a non electric vehicle, 12.4 = 75% Battery, 12.2 = 50%, and 12.0 = 25%. On a cold winter day, 12.0 might not start the car

2. What parking mode setting did you measure?

3. I tell people expect the parasitic draw on your vehicle to shorten its life some. It's a small trade off. If you lose 15-20% of your battery life by having a hardwire, no big deal. The money and times my dashcam has come in handy usurps any amount spent replacing the battery a little early.
 
I haven’t used the OBD hardwire kit. I’m not sure that I could measure its voltage level accuracy without having an separate female ODB connector in hand to play with (or I’d have to cut the wires so I could insert my meters). Both the VP03 and VP05 hardwire kits have VERY accurate voltage cutoff levels. I imagine the regulator box itself is the same for the fusebox hardwire kit and the OBD port hardwire kit. The only difference is the wire termination that goes to the regulator input.

For power consumption of the hardwire kit, I measured only the power draw of the regulator box itself, no camera was attached to it. At the levels that I measured, the parasitic draw is effectively zero. It’s a pinch more than 1w every two weeks. Thats about 35w per YEAR. I imagine the self-discharge rate of the typical car battery is far higher.
 
Thank you so much! The larger angle of view of the front window of the n4ROS should be due to its protruding camera。
 
haiou_f said:
Thank you so much!
Click to expand...

You are welcome! I do like that you can see some of the sides of the cars in the view from the cabin camera. I'm curious to compare this to the N5S that has both front and rear interior cameras - this should provide more clear coverage of the spaces on the sides of the cars. For the N4S and N4PS, there are very minor differences to the method by which the camera lens is mounted in each camera - I think you are correct that this accounts for the very slight difference in the field of view for each camera. In parking mode they are exactly identical for resolution and bitrate. There is a small difference in drive mode resolution, but I don't see this difference as being meaningful in any important way.
 
EricSan said:
Here are some screen caps comparing the internal cabin cameras for the N4S and the N4 Pro S. I used exactly the same windshield mount for each camera, thus the vantage point is exactly identical. Overall, there appears to be very little difference between the 1080p (N4 Pros S) and the 1440p (N4S) images from each.

Drive mode for the N4S has 2560x1440 resolution at 14.3Mb/s at 30fps.
In this image, the car is not moving, so the view out the windows is pretty clear. You can see about half of each front window with the 160 degree N4S field of view.
View attachment 84359


Drive mode for the N4 Pro S has 1920x1080 resolution at 9.8Mb/s at 30fps.
In this image, the car is moving, so you can see some motion blur in the side windows. Though the official fields of view are the same between the N4S and the N4 Pro S at 160 degrees, you can see just a bit beyond half of each front window with the N4 Pro S. I'm not sure how to explain this slight difference.
View attachment 84360

Below is a 200% zoom in on the car out the driver's window to see if the rear plate is readable. Not quite.
View attachment 84363


Here is the same comparison from parking mode. With parking mode, both cameras feature the same resolution. Don't read anything into color differences, this is a function of making these comparison images on different days and under different lighting conditions. Overall, these images are nearly identical: same resolution, same angle of view, same bitrates.

N4S Parking Mode has 1920x1080 resolution at 4.9Mb/s and 15fps:
View attachment 84366


N4 Pro S Parking Mode has 1920x1080 resolution at 4.9Mb/s and 15fps:
View attachment 84365
Click to expand...
There is almost no difference between the two dashcams during the day, and I don't know if it's the same at night
 
I haven't done any direct comparisons using the IR LEDs at night - that's easy enough to do. Unless Vantrue changed the actual LEDs that are used, or tweaked the power supply to the LEDs (unlikely since they are both from the same product family line N4S vs N4PS), I would imagine their performance to be indistinguishable (much like the daytime images).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top