Samoon 3H2F / GS6000 A7 Ambarella

[FourEyes]

Falsificator is modding Texet firmware. He's well known and respected on Russian forums.

 

[jokiin]

Falsificator is modding Texet firmware. He's well known and respected on Russian forums.

Thank you, I wasn't sure if he was connected or just knew where to find the firmwares and was being helpful by offering the links

I'm interested in what they are doing as I've often seen reverse engineering that delivers better results than some of the developers themselves are capable of, sometimes you find people look at things from different perspective and can achieve some very good results

 

[jokiin]

These firmwares are corrected by owners of dvr's
as firmwares don't satisfy completely need of owners of gadgets...

I appreciate that, just interested in what you've done, any improvements or changes made, maybe you've found something you think could be done better etc

I'm always interested to listen to ideas and feedback from others about what can be improved

 

[Falsificator]

I appreciate that, just interested in what you've done, any improvements or changes made, maybe you've found something you think could be done better etc
I'm always interested to listen to ideas and feedback from others about what can be improved

 

[reverend]

Here are two comparison videos today of similar daytime footage with a tunnel thrown in for good measure to show night performance.

This is the video from the GS6000 running Falsificator's custom late Feb firmware:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106226829/Comparison/GS6000 Day and Tunnel.MOV

And then the same trip from the GT680W with fw 2.6:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106226829/Comparison/GT680W Day and Tunnel.MOV

As you can see IMHO the daytime footage is superior on the GS6000, and although the tunnel footage appears to have more detail with less streaking on the GT680W I'd say number plates are actually better made out on the GS6000. The reflection of the speaker grille on my dashboard causes the GS6000 a lot of grief in terms of trying to render full detail.

I'd say from this that it is my xenon headlights causing a lot more problems than I would have imagined as both cameras struggle when they automatically come on in the tunnel. These are uprated Osram Cool Blue Intense bulbs so about as bright as you can get without overdriving the ballast.

I'll try and get some proper night time footage ASAP which isn't as well lit as the above and I'll also sort out the firmwares to the latest versions

 

[reverend]

I've been testing the custom AdvoCam firmware today - I'd never noticed it before but you can see from the comparison below that on clones the dewarp function warps the image at the edges:

I've got to admit I think I prefer the image of the higher bitrate TeXet firmware so I'm going to try that tomorrow.

The device has crashed a few times with the custom AdvoCam firmware too today, basically the screen showed the Advocam logo and then turned off - silly question but do you have to reset to defaults every time a new firmware is flashed?

I'll get some night footage after the football

 

[reverend]

I was more productive than expected tonight - did some night driving with the AdvoCam FD7 custom firmware at 24Mbps and then pulled up and upgraded the firmware to the latest March TeXet custom firmware - both Falsificator's and got some night time footage also while running the GT680W running firmware 2.6G.

I've named the clips 1 and 2 so they can be compared easily. The GT680W is superior at night, and from the footage I've been through I'd say that the AdvoCam firmware is showing slightly better night performance than the TeXet with better detail at night. The image does seem to be smeared badly at night - not sure what the cause is of this though or whether it's something that can be fixed via software?

I did notice most of the options for tweaking the image are missing on the AdvoCam firmware. I also spotted auto power off was set to three minutes - I'm not sure what that is supposed to even do but I disabled it!

Here are the results:

GS6000 w/ AdvoCam firmware - Clip 1 : https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106226829/Comparison/GS6000-A7 Night - AdvoCam SHD 24Mbps Clip 1.MOV

GS6000 w/ TeXet firmware - Clip 1 : https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106226829/Comparison/GS6000-A7 Night - TeXet SHD 30Mbps Clip 2.MOV

GT680W Clip 1 : https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106226829/Comparison/GT680W Night Clip 1.MOV

GT680W Clip 2 : https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106226829/Comparison/GT680W Night Clip 2.MOV

From what I've read in the Mini 0803 threads these things behave better with WDR off - I'll go and test it out quickly!

 

[reverend]

OK that's confirmed - night vision is much better behaved with WDR turned off with the latest firmwares on these:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106226829/Comparison/GS6000 A7 WDR off.MOV

I'm hopeful that all of the good feedback of the Mini0803 firmware will mean that when that is released that the same code can be used on these!

 

[jokiin]

I've been testing the custom AdvoCam firmware today - I'd never noticed it before but you can see from the comparison below that on clones the dewarp function warps the image at the edges:

the dewarp settings need to be adjusted to suit the specs of the lens, if the camera has a different lens than that which is catered for in the firmware then you'll see this warped style of picture, this is something that might come back to bite people that have rushed in and got an 0803 before the mass production versions as the lens has been changed and the dewarp settings will differ so any future firmware update is going to be wrong for their hardware

I'm hopeful that all of the good feedback of the Mini0803 firmware will mean that when that is released that the same code can be used on these!

the 0803 firmware won't run on any other model if that's what you mean

 

[reverend]

the 0803 firmware won't run on any other model if that's what you mean

I was hoping more along the lines of using the A7Tool that Tobi@s is developing to take any optimisations or patches that are made available and inject these into the firmware we have already for the GS6000 variants out there? I went through the firmware dumps I could get my hands on and there are a lot of files that seem to relate to settings of the device in high ISO, low ISO etc. I'm guessing they just screwed up the WDR code in some of these GS6000 variants or worst case it's just that they're expecting a different lens and it's a knock on effect similar to what the dewarp does on the E-Prance one I got from Amazon.

It's been a long day at work but I'm tempted to try nipping out shortly and trying the WDR again but dropping the EV to see if that helps out at all.

I can see why you guys have spent so long working on these things - the update you said that's being waited on for the Mini0803 in that thread - I'm guessing that potentially also applies to these devices as they're all using the A7LA50D?

 

[jokiin]

I was hoping more along the lines of using the A7Tool that Tobi@s is developing to take any optimisations or patches that are made available and inject these into the firmware we have already for the GS6000 variants out there?

not sure what might be possible with the things @Tobi@s is working on, I'm sure it will evolve as he goes though and he's certainly making good progress

I'm guessing they just screwed up the WDR code in some of these GS6000 variants

if only it were that simple

I can see why you guys have spent so long working on these things - the update you said that's being waited on for the Mini0803 in that thread - I'm guessing that potentially also applies to these devices as they're all using the A7LA50D?

sorting out these cameras takes a ridiculous amount of time and can be very frustrating if you want to get it right, a lot of people push them out early and worry (or not) about it later

even if they're suffering from the same issues anything being worked on for the 0803 will have no bearing on the GS6000, different manufacturers

 

[reverend]

A couple more videos from my playing around with various settings.

The first one is taken on a rainy day with the sharpness set to soft. It cleans the image up of all noise but causes a weird posterisation effect on the video:

And the next was today with sharpness set to hard. This causes extra detail to pop but generates more noise (there's a bird with a really fit arse at 45 seconds in too!)

Youtube drops a lot of data compared to the raw files but they give you an idea.

 

[reverend]

Are there any known firmwares that support 720p/60fps please?

All the ones I have tried just say 720p/30fps?

 

[reverend]

I've been doing some reading on the Russian forums and have been going through some sample videos from the DVR Neoline Optimex A7 and the StreetStorm CVR-A7510 (6.6) and the new firmwares seem to have improved the quality in terms of the excess sharpness.

I think it's Falsificator who has modified the firmware for the Neoline which improves the picture so maybe the same will be done with the Texet and Advocam firmwares.

http://videoregforum.ru/threads/videoregistrator-neoline-optimex-a7.1055/

It's going to be interesting to see what the newer firmwares offer

 

[reverend]

I've got a few more videos here from various situations and using various firmwares

GS6000 A7 UK Day - TeXet SHD 30Mbps - Dec 13 Firmware EV+1
GS6000 A7 UK Dusk - TeXet SHD 30Mbps - WDR Off
GS6000 A7 UK Night - TeXet SHD 30Mbps - WDR Off
GS6000 A7 UK Night - TeXet FHD 20Mbps - WDR On
GS6000 A7 - UK Night - AdvoCam SHD 24Mbps - WDR on
GS6000 A7 - UK Night - AdvoCam SHD 24Mbps - WDR Off

I definitely prefer the custom TeXet firmwares from Falsificator, and there are additional improvements using his firmwares with the contrast and sharpness changes.

The Dec 13 firmware had these changes and was filmed with EV at +1.0 which is why everything is so over saturated.

Unfortunately this firmware didn't log the sharpness and contrast values properly so I'm going to reflash with the modified Feb beta firmware with these altered, see what settings it uses for the various settings and then will try with the March standard and custom firmwares to compare.

Lots of work yet to do but they do seem to offer the greatest improvements.

 

[jason g]

Hi I was wondering how to update my dashcam I have tried to update to the texet firmware but cant seem to get it to work.
I have tried replacing the bin file in the misc folder on the memory card and also tried on the actual cam, and wont update to the better version how did you guys get it done? once I copied it onto the memory card and put it back in then started the dashcam up it just goes back to the original firmware and nothing comes up to say do you want to upgrade the software not sure what I am doing wrong any help would be great cheers and keep up the great work guys

 

[jokiin]

The bin file needs to be the only file on the card, no folders

 

[jason g]

Thanks for your help Jokiin it worked lol now just have to try it cheers Jas

 

[parklawn]

(there's a bird with a really fit arse at 45 seconds in too!)

Really, Reverend!

 

[mprizzle]

Just installed the April release custom. It does add some nice to have features like contrast, sharpness, and quality control. It is a bit alarming that hard reset is required but I've seen worse with less, so I can get over it. Turning off those horrible beep sounds was one of the better things!

A small change, completely aesthetic, would be to fix the "Record Overwrit" to "Record Overwrite" just because it bugs me not sure why but it does. Now to take this bad boy for a spin, and I'm hoping for some improvement on the night vision since the chip is more than capable of it but the stock firmware on the GS6000 lead to some terrible night performance in darker areas.