SG9665GC firmware updates and pre release access

kamkar1 said:
Its not monumental changes in the new firmwares, but you damm near get a new firmware every day :cool:

If only other companies could see this and learn from it, make it so much better to own a product with a beauty mark.
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I know all of us are very pleased to finally see such a concerted and sustained level of attention to improving the SG9665GC firmware, but the fact is that many of us waited many, many months for a firmware update that was finally released last March only to discover that some of the key fix-its and improvements we were hoping for hadn't yet been addressed at all. Specifically, in my case, it was this very issue with exposure/contrast/dynamic range that we've been discussing here recently and that is in the process of being resolved that I first reported all the way back in May 2015 to the point where I almost took the camera out of service.

As much as we appreciate the fantastic level of support and involvement we get from the people I will collectively refer to as Street Guardian for the purpose of this post, let's keep some perspective here when it comes to separating truths from hype.

I guess all good things come in time. To some degree, my impression is that a lot of effort initially went into dealing with hardware issues for the GC and now it is the firmware's time to get polished up.
 
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Well we don't quite do daily updates but firmware development has been ongoing from day one, the guys that have access to the private section here are more familiar with this as prior to this year we didn't share that publicly, it might look like there is a sudden rush of firmware but we actually had a lot more versions last year, we restarted the beta numbers after update 2 was released, last year was particularly frustrating as we had a lot of betas that went backwards a lot of the time, sometimes that was our error, sometimes not, some things just weren't even possible to address until we got SDK updates which we are reliant on others to provide so in the meantime you work on the things you can do

All the fixes are important and as much as you want to prioritize them we don't always have that luxury unfortunately
 
I'm just happy we finally have direct access to actual Novatek engineers for proper SDK support. DIY Firmware was pretty tough before that point. Innovation is ongoing as always but we can finally enhance the deeper stuff quicker now and into the future.
 
Pier28 said:
I'm just happy we finally have direct access to actual Novatek engineers for proper SDK support. DIY Firmware was pretty tough before that point. Innovation is ongoing as always but we can finally enhance the deeper stuff quicker now and into the future.
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we still have to get in line and wait our turn, we are by no means a priority customer for them but we are getting more access in the last 2 months than we have had in the 2 years prior, to be realistic I don't expect more as we don't have the numbers to justify their attention, but it's enough to have made a difference for us which for me is what matters most anyway
 
Would anyone be able to confirm if the auto restart works when the camera freezes recording or locks up? I've tested it by simply not recording and it works a treat.
 
arcticfire said:
Would anyone be able to confirm if the auto restart works when the camera freezes recording or locks up? I've tested it by simply not recording and it works a treat.
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it would depend on what type of failure, card failures are a bit unpredictable, if the error caused it to stop recording then it would restart after it timed out
 
Pier28 said:
Dash, Maybe you can share 50/50 vs 40/60 raw .mov test results so we can tweak AE further. I'd go back to aiming how ever you liked it previously for now.
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OK, so I've had a chance to do some further testing around my "hood" with the SG9665GCs lens module tilted higher so that less of my vehicle's hood is in the FOV. This definitely improves matters but it seems there's still room for improvement regarding high contrast/exposure issues.


Download

Here's an interesting clip of a drive down a road through the forest about a five minute drive from my place where I went to visit a friend who lives off the grid. The rough road seems to cause an unusual amount of macro-blocking which seems somehow worse with the recent firmware updates.


Download

On a Mobius such macro blocking is not quite so bad on rough road surfaces. I thought it would be interesting to see what happens with trees covering most of the image where the sky would usually be.

 
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yeah contrast, brightness etc we haven't touched yet as we really need to collect more source material before getting into that so the samples are helpful

are you on beta 21 now, any speed display anomalies noted?
 
jokiin said:
yeah contrast, brightness etc we haven't touched yet as we really need to collect more source material before getting into that so the samples are helpful

are you on beta 21 now, any speed display anomalies noted?
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Only beta 20 for now. Haven't had time to remove the camera from the vehicle and mess with flashing firmware. These uploads took a lot of time commitment as it was. My understanding is that exposure issues would be the same so that's what I've devoted my time to for the moment.
 
Dashmellow said:
Only beta 20 for now. Haven't had time to remove the camera from the vehicle and mess with flashing firmware. These uploads took a lot of time commitment as it was. My understanding is that exposure issues would be the same so that's what I've devoted my time to for the moment.
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the exposure related stuff we need the sample material so that's appreciated always

beta 21 has a change related to the sample file you gave us with the 425mph error so need to be checking for that also

forgot to ask previously but what make and model memory card do you use in the GC?
 
I keep looking at the edges of @Dashmellow s clips to see if i can spot a still out there in the wood :D

Looks mighty fine, even if internet is rubbish,,,,,, at least for this Dane.
 
kamkar1 said:
I keep looking at the edges of @Dashmellow s clips to see if i can spot a still out there in the wood :D

Looks mighty fine, even if internet is rubbish,,,,,, at least for this Dane.
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Whiskey stills were something you might have more likely found down in the Southern states here in the US. Up here in the Northeast, things are quite different. There was a rather infamous Hippy commune at the end of that wooded road I was on way back in the 1960's and early 1970's and so you'd be far more likely to find a pot patch around here than a still. Today there are several privately owned houses and properties on what was once the commune and I have friends who live in a couple of them. People live off the grid with solar panels and generators but otherwise live normal lives raising families in nice but interesting hand built homes. You can catch a glimpse of one at the end of one of the videos. Some of the people were the original hippies back then and still live there. I happen to live in a place where I am surrounded by thousands and thousands of undeveloped acres of woodland, farms and private homes. It's quite a beautiful place to live. Had a 300 pound black bear on my deck not too long ago. He was a real beauty.
 
jokiin said:
the exposure related stuff we need the sample material so that's appreciated always

beta 21 has a change related to the sample file you gave us with the 425mph error so need to be checking for that also

forgot to ask previously but what make and model memory card do you use in the GC?
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For these tests it was a Samsung EVO 32GB.

Yes, I will do the update, of course.
 
jokiin said:
that's a bit too close for comfort :eek:
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Bears are really nowhere near as dangerous as myth would have you believe. (well black bears, at any rate) They can be sort of pushovers in certain ways and will only attack if threatened directly or if it is a mother with cubs. This one was after my bird feeder (which I stupidly forgot to bring inside at the end of one winter) and when he saw me he got freaked out and ran away. Then I saw him sheepishly peeking around the corner hoping he could sneak back. (which he did for a bit) I do have to say that it was pretty cool to observe a bear from four feet way just on the other side of my sliding glass door. The thing with being around bears is you have to know how they think. As far as I know, no one has been killed by a bear around here for a very long time although there have been a few incidents. I have had the unique honor to meet and spend some time with a man named Ben Kilham, one of the leading experts on bears in the country who happens to live not too far from here. It's how I learned how to behave around black bears and to respect their habits and nature but not be irrationally fearful.

Sorry to veer so far off topic but working with and observing the wildlife around here is one of my passions and indeed is one of the reasons I live in a place like this.

kilum.jpg

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2002/03/01/html/ft_20020301.5.html

http://www.yankeemagazine.com/article/features/bears-new-england

https://www.amazon.com/gp/0805073000
 
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