Vantrue Nexus 4 Pro 3CH 4K / My introduction to the new model.

[Karagandinez]

I received a birthday present the other day, a new model Vantrue N4 Pro. For which many thanks to Jeff_Vantrue.
A complete set plus accessories was sent, as was agreed on the first day of meeting Jeff_Vantrue.
There is a gradual acquaintance with the new model on the table. I'll put it on the car later.

Photos of my copy.



Accessories.

 

[Karagandinez]

 

[Karagandinez]

These are the firmware installed from the factory in a freshly arrived DVR.



It does not ask to be updated through the N4 Pro application, so the initial tests are on pre-installed firmware.

This is what the bitrate of three cameras looks like when recording at a resolution of 3840x2160.



This is what the bitrate of three cameras looks like when recording at a resolution of 2560x1440.



This is what the bitrate of the three cameras looks like in parking mode when recording at a low bitrate.

 

[Karagandinez]

Work N4 Pro on the table continues.
He worked in the parking mode "Recording with a low bit rate" from 21:02 pm to 7:45 am without failure.
Video files in parking mode are written for 3 minutes and have a size of 112 MB. The size on all cameras is the same.


One strange occurrence. I read the manual and couldn't find an explanation...
I got up at night and took the DVR in my hands to see if it works or not.
When I took the DVR in hand, it went into normal recording. After 5 minutes
recording, the DVR again switched to parking mode and wrote without problems until the morning.

 

[rcg530]

One strange occurrence. I read the manual and couldn't find an explanation...
I got up at night and took the DVR in my hands to see if it works or not.
When I took the DVR in hand, it went into normal recording. After 5 minutes
recording, the DVR again switched to parking mode and wrote without problems until the morning.

The N5 will do the same thing. When you moved the N4 Pro front camera, it detected that as an impact event and it exited parking mode. The N5 will remain in normal recording mode for 5 minutes and if no further impacts are detected it will return back to parking mode.

• I found this would happen when
  • I parked my car
  • Turned off the accessory power which allowed the Vantrue 3-wire hardwire kit to put the N5 into parking mode
  • I opened/closed the driver's side front door.
  • The door impact would cause the N5 to exit low bitrate parking mode and return to normal recording mode
  • The N5 would remain in normal recording mode for 5 minutes
  • If no additional impacts are detected, it will return to low bitrate parking mode.

Each time the N5 switches between normal recording mode and low bitrate parking mode (in either direction), there is a loss of about 8 seconds of video/audio content. The impact event that triggered the switch from parking mode to normal recording mode will not have the 7 to 8 seconds of activity after the impact event recorded.

 

[Karagandinez]

The N5 will do the same thing. When you moved the N4 Pro front camera, it detected that as an impact event and it exited parking mode. The N5 will remain in normal recording mode for 5 minutes and if no further impacts are detected it will return back to parking mode.

• I found this would happen when
  • I parked my car
  • Turned off the accessory power which allowed the Vantrue 3-wire hardwire kit to put the N5 into parking mode
  • I opened/closed the driver's side front door.
  • The door impact would cause the N5 to exit low bitrate parking mode and return to normal recording mode
  • The N5 would remain in normal recording mode for 5 minutes
  • If no additional impacts are detected, it will return to low bitrate parking mode.

Each time the N5 switches between normal recording mode and low bitrate parking mode (in either direction), there is a loss of about 8 seconds of video/audio content. The impact event that triggered the switch from parking mode to normal recording mode will not have the 7 to 8 seconds of activity after the impact event recorded.

Yes, that is right. I have now reviewed the notes. When switching from parking mode to normal recording mode, 7-8 seconds are lost,
but when switching from normal recording mode to parking mode, after 5 minutes, 10-11 seconds of recording are already lost.
Why this transition to normal recording in parking mode with a low bitrate, if the recording is going on all the time anyway ...
If you block the file from being overwritten upon impact, then this is normal. But switching the recording from one mode to another,
and even with the loss of time between transitions, is not at all necessary.

 

[rcg530]

Yes, that is right. I have now reviewed the notes. When switching from parking mode to normal recording mode, 7-8 seconds are lost,
but when switching from normal recording mode to parking mode, after 5 minutes, 10-11 seconds of recording are already lost.
Why this transition to normal recording in parking mode with a low bitrate, if the recording is going on all the time anyway ...
If you block the file from being overwritten upon impact, then this is normal. But switching the recording from one mode to another,
and even with the loss of time between transitions, is not at all necessary.

I agree, if the unit is already in low bitrate parking mode, why transition to normal mode at all and incur the recording mode transition video/audio loss. I'm still waiting for Vantrue to send me a production N5 so I can use the newer firmware releases. My two preproduction N5 units have the issue of the IR filter being wired backwards causing them to operate opposite of the correct behavior. During my testing, I found dropped/duplicated video frames in the front camera video which is why I wanted to upgrade the firmware, but I can't without the video looking odd for the front/rear interior cameras.

 

[Karagandinez]

I agree, if the unit is already in low bitrate parking mode, why transition to normal mode at all and incur the recording mode transition video/audio loss. I'm still waiting for Vantrue to send me a production N5 so I can use the newer firmware releases. My two preproduction N5 units have the issue of the IR filter being wired backwards causing them to operate opposite of the correct behavior. During my testing, I found dropped/duplicated video frames in the front camera video which is why I wanted to upgrade the firmware, but I can't without the video looking odd for the front/rear interior cameras.

On the N4 Рro, there is an update only to the front camera.
The application does not yet ask to update the DVR. It is not known what the internal camera will show here.
At the expense of N5. I think those who received them now have the same models as yours, they just traveled a long time to Europe.

 

[wibbly]

Anyone tried the Vantrue Android app to download recordings to their phone? I'm finding it gets stuck "Waiting for download"?

 

[Karagandinez]

Anyone tried the Vantrue Android app to download recordings to their phone? I'm finding it gets stuck "Waiting for download"?

View attachment 66180

Just uploaded video files to Samsung Galaxy S10+. Everything loads without problems.

 

[kamkar]

I also DLed a video from the new N5 to my old xiaomi phone, and it worked just fine, and was over fast.

 

[Karagandinez]

I originally had the firmware versions installed:
Front camera: VT-ECD201
Cabin camera: VT-ECD191
Rear camera: VT-ECD201
And the cabin camera shot a black-and-white movie, although the backlight in the menu was set to auto.



After updating the main camera, the firmware versions became:
Front camera: VT-ECF211
Cabin camera: VT-ECD191
Rear camera: VT-ECD201
And the salon camera began to shoot color films.

 

[Julian23]

What do you think of the new mount compared to the E Series?

 

[Karagandinez]

What do you think of the new mount compared to the E Series?

I'm not familiar with the E series.
E1 did not reach me. Unfortunately German customs sent it back.
My friend has E1 and N5 on his hands and says that both mounts are good.

 

[bobcat]

How about rear cam? I've got an N4 Pro and I find rear camera to be awful, but it also may be that I got a defect one as it seems to be a focusing issue.

I also have a few issues on saving footage, things that should appear in Event folder do not and I'm capturing only about 30-40% of events so far.

Also one thing to consider, if you're changing settings via wifi, you'd need to power-cycle the main unit, I've found not doing so causes random glitches to a point of very poor video quality or not properly working park mode.

 

[Karagandinez]

How about rear cam? I've got an N4 Pro and I find rear camera to be awful, but it also may be that I got a defect one as it seems to be a focusing issue.

A couple of screenshots from the rear camera. The rear window is tinted.

I also have a few issues on saving footage, things that should appear in Event folder do not and I'm capturing only about 30-40% of events so far.

I can't advise here. I have not yet analyzed the operation of the sensors responsible for saving records in the "Event" folder.

Also one thing to consider, if you're changing settings via wifi, you'd need to power-cycle the main unit, I've found not doing so causes random glitches to a point of very poor video quality or not properly working park mode.

I did the N4 Pro settings through the application without stopping the recording. Didn't notice any problems. All settings are saved.

 

[wibbly]

Just uploaded video files to Samsung Galaxy S10+. Everything loads without problems.

Pixel 6/Android 13 here. It seems worse if you try and download from the playback screen. More reliable if you select one or more file to download from the file overview screen.

 

[Karagandinez]

Front camera screenshot



Screenshot from rear camera

 

[Karagandinez]

Video from the front camera in different resolutions.
The shooting was carried out in three-channel mode.

3840x2160

2560х1440

 

[Paul Iddon]

Your white balance fluctuates too like mine?

I notice no audio too - does yours make vibration sounds like mine?

Paul.