The quality of the video at night, bad mounted?

lewvndowski

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Here's a sample video of what it looks like. License plates are not visible at all, is it normal? Maybe I have a camera mounted too high?

I know that after upload the file loses on quality, but it looks 99% the same as raw file.

 
Looks fairly normal, in fact for 100Km/h in the dark there is very little motion blur.
Adjusting the mount wont help, new windscreen without the scratches from the wipers would help a bit.
Not sure it likes your headlights, what sort of headlight are they?
 
These are xenon lights, I can not change their color too much, because the bulbs are quite expensive, and these are standard D1S 6000k, white-blue. The windscreen is less than a month old, I replaced it at the beginning of February with a new one, after a piece of ice broke off from the car in front of me on the highway and fell straight into my windshield. I think it must be so.
 
Try tilting it down a little, so that the horizon is in the centre of the image, it may darken the exposure a little which will make the number plates better exposed. Doesn't need much adjustment.

Surprised the windscreen looks that scratched already, maybe caused by road salt since it is winter and if the glass was very new it may still of been a bit soft. Might be worth a bit of polishing.
 
Try tilting it down a little, so that the horizon is in the centre of the image, it may darken the exposure a little which will make the number plates better exposed. Doesn't need much adjustment.

Surprised the windscreen looks that scratched already, maybe caused by road salt since it is winter and if the glass was very new it may still of been a bit soft. Might be worth a bit of polishing.

Windscreen it's really new. I've tried to set up differently, as I will give one level lower, it shows more hood of my car than the way.

Using modified firmware will improve quality if you're not already. https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/viofo-a119s-modified-firmware-mods-archive.35824/

Clean lens and windscreen, adjust view downward. If quality is still bad, upload raw file.

I have already custom firmware
 
With a new windshield this leaves me thinking it's a road salt film too, and if that was laid as a brine mixture with freeze-resistant chemicals mixed in like they do here, it is tough to clean off. Use a full-strength window cleaner and see what happens from there.

Phil
 
In my opinion the video is extremely overexposed, and maybe some focus problems.
 
With a new windshield this leaves me thinking it's a road salt film too, and if that was laid as a brine mixture with freeze-resistant chemicals mixed in like they do here, it is tough to clean off. Use a full-strength window cleaner and see what happens from there.

Phil

Windshield was completely clean, I never drive with dirty windscreen, sometimes I exaggerate with cleaning it. Visibility is the most important thing for me.
 
In my opinion based on the sample video you put up I see 2 problems.
The first one is the angle of the lens setting is too high.
Secondly on your video I see a residue almost like a cloudy haze coming from the upper corners down towards the centre in the focal path.
I also see 2 red lights and 3 green lights in the upper left 1/4 reflecting on your windshield.


A Sequential Cleaning Procedure I use on my A119S Dash Cam is as follows:
1 - Your windshield maybe clean, or is it?
Depending on how spotty or filmy looking the windshield is you can use either a 50-50 mix or slightly more white vinegar than water and you make sure you clean both inside and outside.
Either way, mix the solution in a spray bottle, spray it on the glass and wait for a few minutes. Once the solution has had time to penetrate, wipe off my windshield with a soft, lint-free cloth or I use paper towels which work fine for me. If my windshield is hard to clean I may have to go through this process a couple of times before my windshield, both inside and out, is squeaky clean, be patient!
2 - Does the CPL filter have any residue from the protective film or handling? A popular method to clean the CPL is with a “lightly moistened” Q-tip with Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol.
The dash cam lens can also be cleaned in the same manner but don’t over do it.
3 – Is the CPL filter aligned properly? After everything is clean and before I put the CPL and Dash Cam up, I check the CPL filter alignment for polarity (see the How to Align video on this site). I make sure when finished I haven’t left any smudge marks on the CPL filter when working on it.
4 – Vertical lens positioning for optimum view. Have the horizon of the hood covering the bottom by at least 25% to 33% of the image. It cuts down reflection from inside the vehicle and you won’t miss anything.

(see link below)
Winter -23C/-9.4F test for A119S
Good luck with your problem solving.
 
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Secondly on your video I see a residue almost like a cloudy haze coming from the upper corners down towards the centre in the focal path.

it seems to me that these are only light reflections

I also see 2 red lights and 3 green lights in the upper left 1/4 reflecting on your windshield.

It's LED from the air conditioning panel. In my opinion, they should not be visible because they are straight ahead to the driver, I do not know why they are visible on the windshield.

Does the CPL filter have any residue from the protective film or handling?

I do not know. After unpacking the camera, the CPL filter was in a plastic bag and had nothing protective at all. Unless it's so thin that I did not notice it.

A popular method to clean the CPL is with a “lightly moistened” Q-tip with Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol.
The dash cam lens can also be cleaned in the same manner but don’t over do it.

But... How do I clean the camera lens when the CPL filter is permanently sticked to the camera, on the tiny two-sided tapes? Is it standard? I bought the camera from eBay.

Vertical lens positioning for optimum view. Have the horizon of the hood covering the bottom by at least 25% to 33% of the image. It cuts down reflection from inside the vehicle and you won’t miss anything.

I will try to move the camera a little and find a good angle. However, I think that my movies from the camera are overexposed. How to prevent this? Your film at night is completely dark, look at mine, the sky is gray. It may also be that the highway runs through the center of the illuminated city, and your movie was shot in a small city where there is not much lighting and it is completely dark.

Which camera settings are the best? What gives this WDR?
 
But... How do I clean the camera lens when the CPL filter is permanently sticked to the camera, on the tiny two-sided tapes? Is it standard? I bought the camera from eBay.
if you have a CPL that mounts with adhesive tape that's not the genuine filter (the genuine filter clips on over the lens housing), one of the resellers did their own version, could be part of you problem, try removing the filter and see how it goes
 
if you have a CPL that mounts with adhesive tape that's not the genuine filter (the genuine filter clips on over the lens housing), one of the resellers did their own version, could be part of you problem, try removing the filter and see how it goes

Oh, i didn't know that. So, i just try without the filter and will upload the movie again. But, how can I stick it back then?
 
it would probably stick back on, not sure I would though, I don't think that filter is such good quality
 
Your camera seems to be located correctly in the top and middle of the windshield so there is no need to move it.
You mention overexposure and reflections and I would suggest:
EXPOSURE: +0.0 for this time of year.
WDR: ON in some cases may enhance or define colour clarity. ie: metallic blue and dark blue, white and black, etc.
LENS: Is adjustable vertically up and down, lower by 1 click for sure, perhaps 2 might do it.
Having less horizon and showing more dash/hood helps reduce inside glare and minimize over or under exposure variences.
CPL filter: Very important to be clean and aligned properly.
Further, the CPL filter can be turned within its bracket to obtain the best filter alignment and minimize reflections.
I use a CPL filter in a bracket that clips onto the lens it’s easy to install or remove for cleaning or adjusting alignment.
I’m not a user of CPL adhesive style filter so I can’t comment on it.
 
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Here are two sample videos after changes. I gave the camera a little lower. WDR ON, exposure +0. Maybe it's the firmware fault?? Which modded firmware is newest und the best?

 
The video https://streamable.com/3ss52 is a significantly marked improvement over your original video in your first post.
There is an orange garbage truck on one side and a blue car on the other.
I stopped the top video at 1 minute and 34 seconds noticing the following.
The license plate on the car is slightly fuzzy but readable within one or two car lengths It might be due to a filmy residue on the lens.
Also due to the fact your CPL filter is a stick-on the adhesive could possibly be coating and weakening optic quality.
I would make sure lens is clean and the CPL filter is calibrated with correct alignment and it’s clean both sides.
What is your Resolution setting?
Are using 1920 x 1080 at 60fps?
Do you have the CPL filter on or off the dash cam?
if so, is it calibrated correctly and clean both sides?
I would make sure the above is good before I would consider tinkering with the Firmware.
You are much closer to having optimum dash cam optics.
 
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CPL is on, but is not original. So, I did not take it off so far, I will not be able to fasten it. Should I try without this filter? I am of the opinion that 90% license plates can not be read anyway, just why?! Everything is really clean. It's because of my lights in the car? Maybe they are too strong?
 
When you pause the video with a vehicle within 2 lengths you should generally be able to read the plate.
Obviously it's more difficult to read in a moving video so I use pause to see if it catches and it works most of the time.
Try an easy experiment rather than removing the filter.
Adjust the Exposure Setting to -1/3 to see how much it reduces flaring and reflections. Reflective licenses can be a problem on a metallic finish car.
If it's not to your liking go back to +0.0
 
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