Lunar
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2013
- Messages
- 378
- Reaction score
- 117
- Location
- Herefordshire
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Dash Cam
- 3x Mini 0801 / Mio-368WDR+AGF
iv
ive just updated my FW from 0913 to this one , my cams from GIVOE, it worked just testing over night now, lunar ive noticed with this FW the recording time has gone from 4 hours to 5 hours available to record on a 32gb card, does that mean video quality is reduced?
I suspected the bitrate had been reduced slightly, as I noticed it was lower than previously when I checked one video file taken inside the home, but put it down to the fact it records at a variable bitrate, so sometimes it writes at a lower figure, and other times when there's lots happening it will record at a higher rate.
The brief comparison tests I did this morning indicated no noticeable deteriation, though I'll do some checks, but in view of your observations, I would not be at all surprised to find they have reduced the recording bitrate in order to bring some stability back to the camera, because previously out on the road my 0913 firmware was recording at about 17200kbsp, which is quite high, and is much higher than my Mio 368 for example which writes at about 13500kbps. In fact there are not many dashcams out there that write at such a high bitrate as the mini 0801.
So it would make sense to reduce the bitrate slightly simple because many of these camera could not sustain it without have lots of issues. Personally I would rather have a much more reliable camera with a lower bitrate than one with a very high bitrate that was volatile and unreliable. Even joklin stated many times that he considered the mini 0801 camera high recording bitrate as possibly a prime cause of many issues some people have been experiencing.
Also when you consider that users have stated that disabling the audio seemed to offer a fix for some, plus other patterns too is very indicative that it simply struggled to maintain and write at that higher bitrate, on some cameras anyway.
If it means the image quality is reduced a touch, in order to get a full stable working camera then I think most people would consider that a better option than one that gives a better image but only when it rarely works...lol You can't have it both ways guys...lol. Though in reality I've not seen a significant difference in image quality, but if indeed it is writing at a reduced bitrate which my money is on, then yes it's posible the image will likely not be quite as good.
What do you want ? great image quality and crap reliability, or a not quite so good image, and a fully working stable camera. ? I think the choice is obvious. and you do have to look at the pluses.. we do get a longer recording time...lol. and the real big plus.. you still own one of the most discreet cameras you can buy.... but now it works... we hope.
After all it is only a car dash camera, and not something like a 3ccd camcorder costing several hundred pounds or a BBC broadcasting studio camera. ;-)
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