Vantrue E1 Pro Starvis 2 IMX678 PlatePix & HDR / The best 4k single channel camera in 2025?

[michael007]

That's an impressive image for a pitch black scene at night! I've been thinking about similar uses recently, the power draw is so small and the recordings are pretty high resolution...

The main issue is taking advantage of the 1TB maximum capacity the E1 Pro is capable of.

I haven’t seen other dashcams allow this much capacity and I’m glad Vantrue isn’t jumping on the built-in memory bandwagon (eMMC) I’m seeing on a lot of dashcams out of China these days.

The WD purple is the only suitable card I could find that’s sold in North America and the price is high at $200USD. Comes with a 3 year warranty.

If buying from a website overseas, Adata sells a 1TB card for under $100US that’s supposedly designed for continuous recording and comes with a lifetime warranty.

might take the plunge

 

[runtohell121]

Here's two more sample video from today's drive to/from work.

Cloudy daytime:

Rainy nighttime:

 

[mentadent]

I have a Micron 1TB Industrial MicroSD card and it's worked great for the year(?) I've owned it in A139 Pro. The price was ridiculously high though.

https://www.micron.com/products/storage/memory-cards

 

[Dadi_T]

The main issue is taking advantage of the 1TB maximum capacity the E1 Pro is capable of.

I haven’t seen other dashcams allow this much capacity

N5 from Vantrue allow this capacity also.

 

[michael007]

I have a Micron 1TB Industrial MicroSD card and it's worked great for the year(?) I've owned it in A139 Pro. The price was ridiculously high though.

https://www.micron.com/products/storage/memory-cards

I was rear ended on the highway a few months ago and the card was corrupted, even though the camera seemed like it was recording fine. It was an MLC from Adata but for consumers.

I’ve never had a card last a year..

Thankfully there was no debate about what occurred and I wasn’t harmed but you reminded me that reliability comes first.

 

[michael007]

I’m not really sure the reason but the camera behaved better with the low light at 2am, compared to midnight or 4am.

It could just be clouds that moved away, allowing the moon to shine.

Will continue checking the overnight footage in the upcoming days

 

[Julian23]

Here's two more sample video from today's drive to/from work.

Cloudy daytime:

Rainy nighttime:

The plates look very good at day.
Was HDR enabled at night?

Could you or @michael007 check the bitrate of the files?

 

[runtohell121]

The plates look very good at day.
Was HDR enabled at night?

Could you or @michael007 check the bitrate of the files?

I don't think HDR is enabled for any of my videos; only PlatePix.
Daytime info:

Rainy day info:

 

[michael007]

With HDR on and PlatePix off and looks to be the same result as @runtohell121

​

 

[michael007]

Some sample footage of the one I bought, being used as a rear camera:

 

[EricSan]

Ha- that's an interesting approach to use two of these cameras, one in front and one in back. This has the potential to simplify the overall wiring (cameras don't need to be connected), plus you get great high-res video streams front & back. At the price point, it's pretty close to buying a 2-ch camera.

 

[michael007]

Ha- that's an interesting approach to use two of these cameras, one in front and one in back. This has the potential to simplify the overall wiring (cameras don't need to be connected), plus you get great high-res video streams front & back. At the price point, it's pretty close to buying a 2-ch camera.

It’s pretty wild as this was my first drive with it…. It looks like the passenger in the Ford Explorer might have taken a photo of my car @ 0:29 / 0:30

Doubt it would have been noticeable if the video wasn’t high res.

Guessing it’s the French license plate which is rare in my province (Ontario). I can tell they’re from Quebec, the province next door because their front license plate is not required

That screenshot was me zooming into the time stamp in the original video on my phone.

Here is the full screenshot showing the distance between us. When zooming into the original footage, it works very well 🙂

 

[EricSan]

That's a pretty detailed zoom! Even the Ford logo on the front of the car is pretty clear - that's much smaller printing that you see on a license plate...

 

[Julian23]

Some sample footage of the one I bought, being used as a rear camera:

Don't give me dumb ideas haha. I like this quality.
Also seems like the Volvo driver was having some issues.

@Jeff_Vantrue 4k on the rear in the future please 😂

 

[michael007]

Also seems like the Volvo driver was having some issues.

It looks like there’s a toy sticking out of the rear passenger window once she turns.

I don’t have kids but I’ve been around them enough to know she’s dealing with a lot.

So I’m all for venting in the car 😂 and just hope I don’t get caught doing it in 4k..

 

[michael007]

sample night video

Will try to mount it closer to the glass as the rear defroster is causing a blur

*make sure 4K is selected in settings because it wasn’t for me

 

[Julian23]

After some waiting, I finally got my E1 Pro, thanks to @Jeff_Vantrue.

My unit is a retail version and includes the CPL filter we know from the N4 Pro and other Vantrue models. The overall build quality seems just as solid as the N4 Pro, though the E1 Pro has a slightly brownish tint, whereas the N4 Pro is a very dark grey without any touch of brown. The difference is subtle but noticeable in a direct comparison. It's still hard to capture in pictures.

No need to go over the included accessories again since that has already been covered. Vantrue still provides the same charger with an extra USB-A port for powering another device.

We've already seen some comparison pictures of the E1 Pro and E360 from other forum members, so I decided to take a few shots next to the N4 Pro for a better size reference.
The E1 Pro is only about a third of the N4 Pro’s size, making it a very compact dashcam.

The E1 Pro has additional vents around the lens that I haven’t seen mentioned in any other thread. Aside from the right side and the display, every other part of the camera has a good number of vents to help manage heat in such a compact unit.
After running it for a while to measure the power draw, it became noticeably warm to the touch. Since it’s currently winter, I can’t properly test its heat management under high temperatures, but it’ll be interesting to see how well it handles the heat when summer comes around.

 

[Julian23]

My unit arrived with the latest firmware version, VT-EEA071.

In addition to the well-known HDR timer found in nearly every Starvis 2 camera, the E1 Pro also features a PlatePix timer.
Both can be set individually and independently of each other.

PlatePix explanation in the app:

Since the E1 Pro supports the LT01, the USB port now requires a switch in the app to toggle between LT01 functionality and PC file transfer.

 

[TonyM]

Since the E1 Pro supports the LT01, the USB port now requires a switch in the app to toggle between LT01 functionality and PC file transfer.

That confused me the first time I connected the E1 Pro to my laptop. Page 32 of the manual could help by stating this for the user.

 

[Julian23]

That confused me the first time I connected the E1 Pro to my laptop. Page 32 of the manual could help by stating this for the user.

I was checking the settings in the app and was wondering what it does.
A quick look in the manual helped me out.
Just wanted to post this here for everyone to see.