SG9665GC firmware updates and pre release access

[Dashmellow]

if you have a chance can you try these same conditions with it set to average and center for comparison?

really need to see them back to back on the same day if possible

Yes, assuming I can get similar conditions. I had hoped to try different settings and even different aiming today but I just didn't have the time. I'll see what I can do over the next few days.

I did compare carefully with recent videos and those do look better.

 

[jokiin]

even if you get a chance to stop somewhere with a similar type view of sun through the trees like that (assuming you can find a safe place to stop) and film a bit on each setting and see how it looks would be good, it's a hard scene to try and emulate

 

[Street Guardian USA]

There is a tunnel with steep mountain sides on a twisting road near Lake Tahoe that might be good for testing this. I'll try to cruise around soon.

 

[Dashmellow]

even if you get a chance to stop somewhere with a similar type view of sun through the trees like that (assuming you can find a safe place to stop) and film a bit on each setting and see how it looks would be good, it's a hard scene to try and emulate

The scene in my screen shots above is only few hundred yards from where I live so I'm sure to have a another opportunity. Of course, as you know, a lot of my driving around here is under tree canopies anyway which is one of the reasons the high contrast challenges with the GC have been so vexing. I'll report back as soon as I have something useful to show.

 

[jokiin]

thanks

 

[Dashmellow]

thanks

You're welcome!

 

[normm]

As a quick comparison...

Average AE on Beta21

Low Cut AE on Beta22

A day apart, same spot on road (slightly different time due to traffic)

 

[alexp999]

That's the problem with low cut, it still takes the sky in to account and under exposes, which isn't needed imo.

Quick Q about Centre weighted. Is it loaded across the centre, or only in the centre point?

I'm thinking quite a good AE table, could be the middle 2/5 or 3/5. Just ignore very top and bottom.

But normally centre weighted, it weighted for the centre point, which wouldn't be much good either...

Is low cut necessary, or can we have it as centre cut? Like a letterbox of AE across the image?

 

[jokiin]

That's the problem with low cut, it still takes the sky in to account and under exposes, which isn't needed imo.

Is low cut necessary, or can we have it as centre cut? Like a letterbox of AE across the image?

if you cut the sky out the picture blows out in some situations, have tried that already, if an image is underexposed you can reveal details, if it's overexposed you can't recover it

Quick Q about Centre weighted. Is it loaded across the centre, or only in the centre point?

But normally centre weighted, it weighted for the centre point, which wouldn't be much good either...

it's not just the center but it's not as heavily weighted in the very center as it was previously

the AE tables are still a work in progress and we still have some things to do with brightness and contrast, we need to collect a lot more sample footage before we can do some of that though

 

[Feitelijk]

I agree low isn't the right choice for normal cars. Waiting for the sun to try the other car.

Here it's too dark in the beginning but below the trees it looks ok.

 

[Deleted member 46308]

There is a tunnel with steep mountain sides on a twisting road near Lake Tahoe that might be good for testing this. I'll try to cruise around soon.

Depending on the time of day you might be able to get plenty of video there while inching your way to Tahoe

 

[daniel_bel]

There is a tunnel with steep mountain sides on a twisting road near Lake Tahoe that might be good for testing this. I'll try to cruise around soon.

Don't try and lure us into thinking you're working when you are on a tourist trip...

 

[Gary D]

Low cut vs average... These were taken on the same day, same morning, same road, etc. The youtube clips are for the exact same part of the road. Near the end, there's a huge blowout on both videos.
@jokiin, please expect a PM with a link to the raw mov files in a few minutes.

Low Cut:

Average:

I don't think there's much anyone can do to fix this. While I"m sure that, if I really wanted to push the issue, @Pier28 would gladly exchange the dashcam many times over, there are limits to what sensors and image processing can handle in real time.

Oh, and just to throw off anyone that likes to misinterpret my posts: Look at the pretty leaves in the videos. </sarcasm>

 

[alexp999]

Low cut vs average... These were taken on the same day, same morning, same road, etc. The youtube clips are for the exact same part of the road. Near the end, there's a huge blowout on both videos.
@jokiin, please expect a PM with a link to the raw mov files in a few minutes.

Low Cut:

Average:

I don't think there's much anyone can do to fix this. While I"m sure that, if I really wanted to push the issue, @Pier28 would gladly exchange the dashcam many times over, there are limits to what sensors and image processing can handle in real time.

Oh, and just to throw off anyone that likes to misinterpret my posts: Look at the pretty leaves in the videos. </sarcasm>

Low cut certainly looks better from my current screen, in your environment.

 

[Dashmellow]

Low cut vs average... These were taken on the same day, same morning, same road, etc. The youtube clips are for the exact same part of the road. Near the end, there's a huge blowout on both videos.
@jokiin, please expect a PM with a link to the raw mov files in a few minutes.

Low Cut:

Average:

I don't think there's much anyone can do to fix this. While I"m sure that, if I really wanted to push the issue, @Pier28 would gladly exchange the dashcam many times over, there are limits to what sensors and image processing can handle in real time.

Oh, and just to throw off anyone that likes to misinterpret my posts: Look at the pretty leaves in the videos. </sarcasm>

Your posts are not being misinterpreted, it's that they reveal a lack of understanding of the actual problem that these firmware updates and AE table revisions have been attempting to address in the first place.

The point of the whole exercise here is not whether the camera experiences some sort of brief blow-outs in the highlights. Virtually all dash cams do that to one degree or another.

The issue with the SG9665GC is that for a certain percentage of owners, under certain conditions these "blow-outs" are/were not brief occurrences where the camera recovers rapidly, but sustained events that completely obliterate the images badly enough and for long enough periods of time that there is a high likelihood that sooner or later the user may fail to adequately capture a sudden event.

We are not looking for cinematic perfection but for reliable documentation.

At this point, the firmware has come a very long way and things are looking really good. Thanks to @jokiin's dedication we are witnessing and engaging in an effort to improve things even further but it is important to understand just how bad this problem was for some of us SG9665GC users early on.

The following video, previously posted elsewhere on DCT is an example of this exposure/contrast issue at its most extreme and is the whole point of these firmware AE table updates in the first place.

It is important to view this 3 minute video in its entirety, paying particular attention to what begins to happen at the 2:00 minute point.

(Also note how dark the video appears in the beginning compared to what happens at the end.)

 

[Gary D]

Low cut certainly looks better from my current screen, in your environment.

I agree, though to be completely honest, neither one is all that bad. It's not exactly a scientific test, though, with only one pass (three minutes apart) each time. A single cloud passing under the sun could change a lot with lighting and exposures.

As with most of my samples posted, they are simply a response to the request to post samples of different AE settings in high contrast scenes.

(Okay, in all truthfulness, that last one is also poking fun at someone else... and based on "show ignored content" link that I see now, I'm going to guess that it had some degree of success.)

Take care
Gary

 

[Dashmellow]

I agree, though to be completely honest, neither one is all that bad. It's not exactly a scientific test, though, with only one pass (three minutes apart) each time. A single cloud passing under the sun could change a lot with lighting and exposures.

As with most of my samples posted, they are simply a response to the request to post samples of different AE settings in high contrast scenes.

(Okay, in all truthfulness, that last one is also poking fun at someone else... and based on "show ignored content" link that I see now, I'm going to guess that it had some degree of success.)

Take care
Gary

Try to act like a grown-up.

 

[alexp999]

Just been out for a quick ride with beta 22 and AE set to low cut, it does seem generally better for my camera position. Bit more colour, less washed out. Also faster to respond to coming out shady areas.

@jokiin do you want me to upload and PM link to original files, as there is quite a lot of in and out of tree cover. Or is it only useful if you have a comparable full frame video too?

 

[earlybirdDash]

I've been running beta 22 for a couple days now, and have found that Low Cut still gives me slight issues with overblown exposure on anything white (cars, houses, street signs, etc...), so I tried out Average, and it was somewhat of an improvement; it kept most white colors within reasonable exposure, but for some reason it still didn't cope well with white houses in particular, and it also appeared that it was making the entire image look flat and washed out, though this could've just been the time of day playing a trick on my eyes. The last option was Center Cut, and so far, this seems to work the best for my needs; it seems to keep the white colors at bay, and still retains reasonable color depth in the overall image, so for now, I'm rolling with Center Cut. One thing that I still wish for overall is for the colors to be more vibrant in the image, because I feel it's still on the flat side, but this is more of a want rather than a need. All in all, improvements seem to be moving in the right direction.

Edit: as per Dashmellow's suggestion, the color of my hood is grey/silver, and the color of my dash is dark grey.

 

[Dashmellow]

Some of us who have reported the worst problems with high contrast "blow outs" and exposure issues happen to have dark colored vehicles. It may be very helpful when reporting your personal experience with the new exposure settings to state what color your vehicle's hood/bonnet is.