SG9665GC firmware updates and pre release access

[Feitelijk]

I think that's what AE low does.

 

[DT MI]

Do you think that much difference is possible simply by moving the camera to another car? Perhaps you could have two video modes with different presets to adjust for the colour/shade of the hood/dash and the proportion of the frame it occupies, plus any other relevant differences between the cars?

JMO but I suspect that the number of people who move a camera between multiple vehicles, and would care about that capability when making a purchase decision, is so low that there is no economic advantage to investing the time and money to develop it.

 

[lacibaci]

What exactly is "Low cut"? I couldn't find an explanation anywhere including manual.
Does it mean we're cutting lower portion of screen to give higher priority to the rest of the picture?
We need better wording or better explanation.

 

[jokiin]

there is less priority given to the lower portion of the image compared to the upper portion, we're still fine tuning this so we haven't updated the description in the manual until this is finalised as it's subject to change anyway

 

[lacibaci]

Ok so maybe this should be called something like "exposure priority" with values "top, center and bottom"
I think this should be clear even without the manual.

 

[Feitelijk]

There is no bottom priority, but now that i think about it that may well be a solution for the dark image.

 

[Feitelijk]

Guess this is worth an upload of the original: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxJHQyAct4u4WGFmbHVBOUljdTQ

 

[Feitelijk]

Extremely difficult conditions but my feel is that the LOW cut puts too much emphasis on the sky. Center seems to have less of a problem with that.

 

[jokiin]

Guess this is worth an upload of the original: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxJHQyAct4u4WGFmbHVBOUljdTQ

thanks, can you confirm your other settings, WDR on or off, EV at 0 or something else?

 

[jokiin]

Extremely difficult conditions but my feel is that the LOW cut puts too much emphasis on the sky. Center seems to have less of a problem with that.

can you also give center a try with low contrast and see how that goes as well

 

[Feitelijk]

Sure, switched it to center now.

I double checked and EV = 0.0 and WDR is ON

 

[jokiin]

Sure, switched it to center now.

I double checked and EV = 0.0 and WDR is ON

ok thanks

 

[Feitelijk]

Turns out the cam had the blues again. This is the first show of that trip

recovery is 10 minutes later, original of that here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxJHQyAct4u4eDlxZldhTk1ORmc
Same settings as above

 

[Feitelijk]

Another example of bright skies, settings the same as above (LOW cut is not for the Daihatsu Cuore...) : https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxJHQyAct4u4b05yajFGLUlhQTQ

 

[Feitelijk]

Night time video is amazing still. Also WDR on, low AE and low Contrast.

As I understand it, WDR decreases contrast to cram all the intensities into the 256 levels available, If we then add the low contrast setting the darker parts in the (night)images become better visible?

 

[Feitelijk]

Center looks like it works better with the bright clouds.

 

[Feitelijk]

And for a nightshot comparison:

 

[drwaffles]

This has been discussed previously in this thread, but could additional changes be made so that the videos can be picked up by Apple's SD card reader (and the Photos application)? The latest non-beta firmware has had some changes toward this goal. However, the directory structure and file names need to follow the DCF standard (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_rule_for_Camera_File_system or http://www.jeita.or.jp/cgi-bin/standard_e/pdf.cgi?jk_n=51&jk_pdf_file=CP-3461B-E.pdf for the official specification). Some other dashcams follow this standard and would have allowed me to use the adapter that I already have.

Here's how things are laid out in firmware SG20160809.V2:
DCIM/

MOVIE/

2016_1004_170546_001.MOV​

What works:
DCIM/

100MOVIE/ (Mandatory 8 characters, but typically three digits followed by five characters.)

ABCD0001.MOV (Mandatory 8 characters without the extension, but typically four characters and four digits)​

After manually renaming the files on the SD card using a computer, it was picked up by the SD card reader. It allowed me to import the videos on my iPhone and the audio was working perfectly.

 

[jokiin]

we've looked into this already and technically yes that is possible, it won't be happening though, doing this in a non GPS model is no real issue but unfortunately it breaks a lot of the functionality we need for GPS if we were to rename the files to suit, aftermarket Apple card readers can view the files once they're in a DCIM folder but you need to follow the full spec for it to work with the Apple version

 

[DT MI]

...aftermarket Apple card readers can view the files once they're in a DCIM folder but you need to follow the full spec for it to work with the Apple version

Plus why go to the effort to make it work with Apple products when Apple won't return the favor - and even (it seems) go out of their way to break things that aren't Apple.