Understanding Vantrue’s WDR & HDR Implementation

[Vantrue Dash Cam]

Understanding Vantrue’s WDR & HDR Implementation

When shooting in large light ratios, dash cams cannot record extreme bright or dark details due to the dynamic range limitation. WDR & HDR turns dark and bright details into clarity under high-contrast light conditions. Thus, WDR and HDR are being installed in many dash cams as a function to turn dark and bright details into clarity under high-contrast light conditions.

Vantrue has been constantly exploring and developing, to implement WDR & HDR into the Vantrue series for better recording.


WDR Implemented In Vantrue Element 2 & N4

WDR is short for a Wide Dynamic Range. The WDR technology is applied to view the image smoothly under the condition of severe light contrast. The camera with WDR allows an imaging system to correct for the intense back light surrounding a subject and thus improve the quality of the freeze frame.



Recently Vantrue released Element2 to support the true WDR which can improve the car license plate visibility. With the premium SONY IMX335 Sensor and WDR hardware process, Vantrue E2 & N4 is strong for capturing a clearer license plate.



WDR OFF WDR ON


HDR Implemented In Vantrue Element 1

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. It can reach the shooting outcome that a normal combination of aperture and shutter cannot do by compositing various photos of different exposure and conducting tone mapping. Compared with ordinary images, it can provide more dynamic range and image details, and demonstrate the original vibrant colors to the maximun extent.

Vantrue E1 dash camera is equipped with a top-quality Sony CMOS sensor that's capable of capturing crisp 2592*1944P footage. It utilizes HDR (High Dynamic Range) Technology and F1.8 wide aperture, which can increase exposure automatically in dark situations and ensures super night vision, able to read number plates or find spot minor things that could act as important evidence.

 

[Vortex Radar]

Thank you for sharing some information about your implementation of the two different features.

Do you find that your cameras have improved dynamic range with HDR over WDR given the dual exposures? Do you see ghosting artifacts with HDR while driving?

How much of an impact do you see with WDR in seeing into the dark shadows and capturing plates with your headlights shining on them? From your sample image, it definitely looks like WDR makes a difference with capturing otherwise blown out license plates.

When would you recommend using WDR and when would you recommend using HDR?

 

[kamkar]

For sure HDR / WDR will do wonders for plate capture at night in static or almost static situations where plate reflections might be bad, or headlight hot spots wash out details.
actually it have been the sole reason to why i have used WDR in dashcams, though i must admit that lately i have not used WDR.
I do have high hopes for HDR if it can be implemented correctly with same time captures and not stitching together 2 consecutive frames.

 

[Vantrue Dash Cam]

For sure HDR / WDR will do wonders for plate capture at night in static or almost static situations where plate reflections might be bad, or headlight hot spots wash out details.
actually it have been the sole reason to why i have used WDR in dashcams, though i must admit that lately i have not used WDR.
I do have high hopes for HDR if it can be implemented correctly with same time captures and not stitching together 2 consecutive frames.

Definitely! Vantrue has been constantly exploring and developing, to implement WDR & HDR into the Vantrue series for better recording.

 

[Mtz]

Thank you for sharing some information about your implementation of the two different features.

I am sure you made a lot of tests with your dashcams.
Can you obtain any comparison with any dashcam you have like the above two pictures?
Do you think you can obtain WDR On and WDR Off at the same video frame using just one dashcam? If you will look at both pictures, the time is the same: 00:02:10. Also on the left side of the image is an incoming car. Do you think is possible to obtain WDR On and WDR Off with the same dashcam at the same milisecond? From my experience is not possible, but maybe I was not smart enough and I want to learn.

Can @Vantrue Dash Cam explain to the forum users how he obtained that two pictures? What was the car dashcam setup (was used one dashcam or two dashcams) and how they enabled and disabled WDR into the camera Menu so they can obtain a snapshot with WDR and one without WDR?

 

[TonyM]

Do you think you can obtain WDR On and WDR Off at the same video frame using just one dashcam? If you will look at both pictures, the time is the same: 00:02:10. Also on the left side of the image is an incoming car. Do you think is possible to obtain WDR On and WDR Off with the same dashcam at the same milisecond? From my experience is not possible, but maybe I was not smart enough and I want to learn.

Did you notice that the contrast of the OSD text is different with WDR on and off?

 

[Mtz]

As I said, I want to learn. I missed that detail. So the photoshopped image is the 3 off.jpg

 

[Vortex Radar]

Can you obtain any comparison with any dashcam you have like the above two pictures?
Do you think you can obtain WDR On and WDR Off at the same video frame using just one dashcam? If you will look at both pictures, the time is the same: 00:02:10. Also on the left side of the image is an incoming car.

I usually have two models of the dashcam side-by-side, one with WDR/HDR on and the other with it off.

Do you think is possible to obtain WDR On and WDR Off with the same dashcam at the same milisecond? From my experience is not possible, but maybe I was not smart enough and I want to learn.

Can @Vantrue Dash Cam explain to the forum users how he obtained that two pictures? What was the car dashcam setup (was used one dashcam or two dashcams) and how they enabled and disabled WDR into the camera Menu so they can obtain a snapshot with WDR and one without WDR?

If you're a manufacturer, I'm sure you have access to extra functionality that isn't available for retail owners. For example they could use a test firmware that has the ability to save both regular video and WDR video simultaneously.

They could also save a copy of the raw video that allows them to turn WDR on or off in post processing and then pull still frames from that.

I'm guessing that VanTrue did something along these lines using a feature that's not built into public firmware, but of course they can share more.

 

[Mtz]

I usually have two models of the dashcam side-by-side, one with WDR/HDR on and the other with it off.

And this is the correct way to show a feature, not to photoshop an image. Photoshoped images are good on manufacturers pages, Aliexpress, eBay, Amazon, etc., but not on forums like Dahscamtalk. TonyM observed also the text over the image was... WDRised.

But maybe both of us we are wrong and there is some secret chipset which can save two 2K videos from the same CMOS. Never heard about this but it could be a fantastic feature. And I will explain why: the best for reading car license numbers is the HDR (not the WDR!). But the HDR video is not looking so nice and the only advantage over a non-HDR video from the same dashcam are just the car license numbers. Having 2 videos saved, the user can chose to watch the nice non-HDR video, but if he needs to show to the police the car license number he can show the the not-so-nice HDR video and I attached a file to show the differences. Look at the road markings and at the trees.



I don't understood what Vantrue Dash Cam wanted to say about HDR with this text

It can reach the shooting outcome that a normal combination of aperture and shutter cannot do by compositing various photos of different exposure and conducting tone mapping.

by using the text from here , but all I know is that the HDR is obtained from 2 consecutive frames. So if the chipset can encode 2 videos, it will need to capture 3 frames at the same moment: one normal frame and two frames for HDR. In theory this can be possible if the CMOS and chipset can capture at 90 FPS: one frame for normal video and two frames for the HDR video.

But for the WDR demonstration the job is more simple in theory because it needs just two frames and 60FPS and this is possible with the IMX335 CMOS but I donk know which chipset can produce 2 separate 2K videos from the same CMOS, one with WDR processing and the non-WDR video.

 

[Lothar]