Vueroid S1 4K Infinite - Test & Review

[TonyM]

When i looked at image 1762775752197.webp it is looking out the back window there are 2x suv type vehicles and their number plates aren't straight

The image you referred to is looking out the front window, not the rear.

The white Skoda Yeti does indeed have a curved number plate which is visible on both of my S1 4K cameras:

This can also be seen on the A329T front camera:

the second car also has a line along the back that "wobbles" along it. Must be where the lens introduces FOV limits

The wobbles you refer to are possibly imperfections in my windscreen, or varying light & shadows on the rear light strip running along the car?

This is a closer look at the back of the Seat Tarraco as I drove past it. On the right edge you can see some 'wobbles' due to the imperfections in my windscreen.

 

[TonyM]

HIGHWAY DRIVING

Here are 5No 30-second video clips from a test drive on a 3-lane highway, driving away from the sun without a CPL fitted to the front cameras.

Video Enhancing Notes:
- One of the S1 is set to timed HDR which defaults to Normal during the day
- The other S1 is set to HDR+IPC which is always active (although IPC is automatically disabled in low light)
- HDR is always-on for the rear and interior cameras

Front 4K - Normal (No CPL)

Front 4K - HDR+IPC (No CPL)

Rear 2K - HDR

Interior 1080p - HDR

Side-Facing Interior 1080p - HDR

 

[LateralNW]

does indeed have a curved number plate

also be seen on the

possibly imperfections in my windscreen

Good point - windscreen imperfections.

I've seen this first hand of waves across the glass.

Let's take a moment and just think about this,

The dashcams optics and sensors have improved so much that the quality of the windscreen is now part of the test🤯. I've moved on to number plate shape!🤷‍♀️

Thanks.

 

[TonyM]

Auto REC Off Zone (Geofencing)

The Vueroid A1 4K has a practical and user-friendly implementation of geofencing. The user can set up to 3 zones, based on GPS location, where parking recording will not start when the ignition is turned off. This can be useful to limit battery use and save memory card space by not recording in known safe locations. Each zone can have a radius of 30, 50 or 100 yards.

To set an Auto REC Off Zone the user must drive to the proposed centre of the zone, then register that location's GPS coordinates and set the zone radius. This can be done with the on-screen menu, or with the app. The benefit of using the app is that the location and radius of the zone are shown on a map so you don't have to guess whether 30, 50 or 100 yards is right for you.

Last week I set Zone 2 to be near the centre of my office car park, indicated by the red marker on the map. I could see that 30 yards did not reach the corners so I set the zone radius to 50 yards.

Today I parked at the corner of the car park to test the radius. The dashcam turned off immediately as expected when I switched off the ignition.

Unfortunately the dashcam's current location is not shown on the geofencing zone map. I have included a screenshot from Google Maps showing where I parked.

@Vueroid please can you add a current location marker to the Auto REC Off Zone map?

 

[VUEROiD]

@Vueroid please can you add a current location marker to the Auto REC Off Zone map?

Hi Tony,
I'm really enjoying the thread here.

I believe we had focused on precisely defining areas and locations where recording is not necessary. We concentrated on implementing it in a way that takes into account various factors, such as terrain elevation and obstacles that could affect GPS. When designating these areas, we made sure that the Auto Parking Off function would work as smoothly as possible within the circular region. However, we didn’t give much thought to the need for displaying the exact parking position of the vehicle. Is this really a necessary feature?

 

[TonyM]

When designating these areas, we made sure that the Auto Parking Off function would work as smoothly as possible within the circular region. However, we didn’t give much thought to the need for displaying the exact parking position of the vehicle. Is this really a necessary feature?

Perhaps not in this instance because the car park is shaded on the map so I could compare the zone radius to the car park extent when I set it up.

I intend to test the Auto REC Off in a multi-storey parking garage and it may be useful to see where the dashcam thinks it is, compared to where I know it is. That might determine whether I set the zone location at the car park entrance or at the centre of the car park.

So far the function is working very well and I don't think anything needs to be changed right now. Maybe my request is more 'nice to have' than necessary. I'll do more testing and comment on this at a later date.

 

[TonyM]

Normal vs HDR+IPC

A short video clip merging onto the highway, driving towards the low sun.

Both front cameras : CPL-ON, FW V1.3.1

Full-frame screenshots (thumbnails):


Side-by-side (Left=HDR+IPC, Right=Normal)

HDR+IPC has more saturated colours and retains highlight details, but also has deeper blacks
Normal is perhaps slightly over-exposed but shows more shadow detail

 

[TonyM]

Highway Merge - 3CH Compilations

Here are two compilation videos showing the Vueroid S1 4K 3CH in its conventional Front-Rear-Interior configuration, and my alternative Front-Rear-Side setup.

Whilst the wide-angle interior camera does rather well as a side camera and offers an interesting perspective on movements around the car, I think the traditional interior viewpoint is more useful overall. The interior camera is good at recording through the rear and side windows, in addition to the cabin, thanks to the effective HDR.

 

[qusejr2]

Perhaps not in this instance because the car park is shaded on the map so I could compare the zone radius to the car park extent when I set it up.

I intend to test the Auto REC Off in a multi-storey parking garage and it may be useful to see where the dashcam thinks it is, compared to where I know it is. That might determine whether I set the zone location at the car park entrance or at the centre of the car park.

So far the function is working very well and I don't think anything needs to be changed right now. Maybe my request is more 'nice to have' than necessary. I'll do more testing and comment on this at a later date.

Now we are modify the UX slightly for user convenience. ( Easier setup and removal, viewing)

 

[TonyM]

City Driving Video Samples - HDR+IPC and Normal

A pair of 2-3min video clips driving around York on an autumn morning. Watch out for the driver of the silver Mercedes stopping to let a bus pull out, to the irritation of the Golf driver behind.

Video 1
4K30fps // Bitrate High 48Mbps // Video Enhancing = HDR+IPC // CPL OFF // FW V1.3.1
Original file on MEGA (900MB)

Video 2
4K30fps // Bitrate High 48Mbps // Video Enhancing = Normal // CPL OFF // FW V1.3.1
Original file on MEGA (900MB)

 

[TonyM]

Night Driving - Example 1

A slow-speed drive through my village at night.

4K30fps // Bitrate High 48Mbps // Video Enhancing = HDR // CPL OFF // FW V1.3.1

Licence plate captures are easy for the S1 4K, if the plate falls within my headlight beam. Colours are accurate and there is good detail although noise does appear at times.

The exposure metering copes well with oncoming headlights. The lens also performs very well with point light sources.

Shadow detail beyond the headlight beam is OK, but there are a lot of very dark areas on footpaths etc. The rear camera does better at lifting the shadows (more on that later).

 

[TonyM]

Night Driving - Suburban

Driving at the edge of the city and onto unlit roads.

4K30fps // Bitrate High 48Mbps // Video Enhancing = HDR // CPL OFF // FW V1.3.1

Oncoming vehicles are easy to identify if the licence plate is low, and therefore falls within the main headlight beam.

Rear licence plates are harder for me to capture because some of the plates are mounted higher on the vehicle, above my headlight cut-off line.

This one is lower down, below the cut-off

Stationary at the lights (50% crop)

Here's 4 examples of oncoming car captures on an unlit road, all images are 100% crop on the best frame:
(For info, these are very similar to my results on the A329S that I am also testing)

 

[TonyM]

I delayed night testing for a few weeks whilst I investigated why my results were not as good as others with the same dashcams. After much online research and varied testing I realised that the LED headlights in my Toyota Corolla are not great, with narrower coverage than many other cars (there are numerous discussions in online forums, and a 'Marginal' IIHS rating for my SE variant). With the height adjustment set to its highest option it never seemed high enough. The car did pass its annual inspection a few months ago, although I have read that beam pattern testing is not always done well.

I performed a manual screwdriver adjustment to raise the beams, taking care not to exceed the UK upper cutoff limit of 0.5% below horizontal which I can now fine-tune with the manual dial on the dashboard. I am now happier with the headlight performance when driving at night, and it has also resulted in better dashcam performance too. I will continue to assess the headlight angle to ensure I'm getting the best coverage possible without dazzling other drivers.

 

[kamkar]

I have put new headlights on my car 2 times now, don't recall there being a option to adjust the entire housing.

Will have to look into this CUZ my car is not throwing light into other lane where plate capture would be possible, well unless i cheat and run dipped high beam.
Had a car behind me yesterday driving home in darkness, already when he was 100 M behind me his god damn LED light was annoying, even more so when he was just 20 M behind me.

 

[TonyM]

Night Parking Modes (HDR and Premium Night Vision)

The S1 4K has three Video Enhancing options for parking mode - Normal, HDR and Premium Night Vision (PNV)

This is a quick look at HDR and PNV at night. I forgot to test 'Normal' at night - I will do that another time.

HDR (on the left) has slightly better control of highlights, but Premium Night Vision boosts the shadow areas and seems far more useful as a record of events around the car when it is parked.

Both modes record full 4K 30fps video - with 30 separate frames - plus audio. Vueroid told me that PNV uses a combination of HDR and longer or multiple exposures to achieve the brighter exposure. The downside is increased noise and perhaps a bit more blur but this seems to be handled very well.

 

[TonyM]

Night Parking Modes - S1 4K vs A329S

Comparing the Vueroid S1 4K to the Viofo A329S, both dashcams offer standard HDR and an enhanced night mode, but they have different approaches to video enhancement and consequently have different results.

Vueroid S1 4K HDR (left) // Viofo A329S HDR (right)
Both dashcam record full 4K 30fps (the A329S is in low bitrate mode in this example)
The S1 4K is slightly brighter but overall they look similar

Vueroid S1 4K PNV (left) // Viofo A329S SNV (right)
The S1 4K with Premium Night Vision records full 30fps with audio
The A329S with Super Night Vision records 1fps timelapse without audio

The A329S records continuous timelapse whereas the S1 4K relies on motion detection (or an impact) to trigger a recording. I found that motion detection is not particularly reliable when the light level is very low so it may not record someone walking up to the car for example.

S1 4K - 10s video clip

A329S - 2s timelapse video clip

My preference is 30fps video with audio, however I also prefer continuous recording to motion detection. I have not yet decided whether I like Vueroid's premium night vision with motion detection more or less than Viofo's continuous low bitrate with standard HDR.

 

[TonyM]

Early Morning - Normal vs HDR+IPC

The S1 4K struggles to capture detail when driving close to sunrise or sunset. The dashcam metering appears to select too slow an exposure time to freeze the motion of cars and other moving objects, when it is not yet dark enough for HDR to be effective even though my headlights are turned on. I have observed similar blurring when driving in cloudy conditions.

This video sample was recorded 5-10 minutes after sunrise with mostly clear skies:

Early Morning - Normal vs HDR+IPC
FW V1.3.1 // CPL OFF

Comparing Normal and HDR+IPC:
- HDR+IPC is better for plate capture if the headlights catch the number plate
- Normal has a shorter exposure time and is my preferred option for overall image detail

Comparing the S1 4K to the Viofo A329S
- The S1 has significantly more blur than the Viofo A329S

S1 4K Normal // S1 4K HDR+IPC // Viofo A329S

 

[Julian23]

I did encounter the same behavior from my S1 4K.
About 30 minutes before sunset, the plate capture of oncoming traffic is near impossible.

I hope Vueroid can look into this.

 

[bahus04]

Agree with the review. Nice modern dashcam.vueroid #vueroiddashcam #vueroid_s1

 

[qusejr2]

Early Morning - Normal vs HDR+IPC

The S1 4K struggles to capture detail when driving close to sunrise or sunset. The dashcam metering appears to select too slow an exposure time to freeze the motion of cars and other moving objects, when it is not yet dark enough for HDR to be effective even though my headlights are turned on. I have observed similar blurring when driving in cloudy conditions.

This video sample was recorded 5-10 minutes after sunrise with mostly clear skies:

Early Morning - Normal vs HDR+IPC
FW V1.3.1 // CPL OFF

Comparing Normal and HDR+IPC:
- HDR+IPC is better for plate capture if the headlights catch the number plate
- Normal has a shorter exposure time and is my preferred option for overall image detail

Comparing the S1 4K to the Viofo A329S
- The S1 has significantly more blur than the Viofo A329S

S1 4K Normal // S1 4K HDR+IPC // Viofo A329S

View attachment 88477

thank for your feedback .
" The S1 has significantly more blur than the Viofo A329S" => We plan to improve it, have found a way, and are testing it. We plan to release it soon.