Yi Ultra Dash Camera

Yeah if you have EU in your serial number use the app I posted above and it enables that menu option and it checks if your phone can play h.265 and enables it. (Uninstall current app first). You can always turn it off again. Could be an issue with my memory card but as it's writing less data I doubt it.

Anyone have the king version and confirm the preview video is also encoded in h.265?

Disabling the preview video would mean modifing the device firmware. That's risky and beyondy my ability unfortunately.
Agreed.... I will give it a go as soon as I get my arse out of bed.. Lol.. Thanks again for your troubles...
 
Agreed.... I will give it a go as soon as I get my arse out of bed.. Lol.. Thanks again for your troubles...
Ok a quick test and it's working great... I am using a Samsung Evo plus U3 card. Don't like sandisk. Troublesome...

Well done mate...

Just one thing... Lol

As you can see from the screen shots of the video it is only recording at 3.8mb/s..... Giving a file size of just 27mb for one minute...



66c34aa4b89f6be2daa6fcfa1f4f9573.jpg
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Maybe because I'm not moving... I'll download a video clip from my drive to work later.... See what that shows and how it looks..

Thanks again...

Update:

I looked at 3 clips from journey to work.

Clip 1: was 1520p_h.265 and was 87mb in size with a bit rate of 12.7mb/s

Clip 2: was 1520p_h.265 and was 93 mb in size with a bit rate of 13.1mb/s

Clip 3: was 1080p/60fps_h.265 and was only 43mb in size with a bit rate of 6mb/s.....

So from I'd say all is working OK. I'll stick to 1520p for now.....

Thanks again for your work with tweaking the YI app.....
 
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Ok a quick test and it's working great... I am using a Samsung Evo plus U3 card. Don't like sandisk. Troublesome...

Well done mate...

Just one thing... Lol

As you can see from the screen shots of the video it is only recording at 3.8mb/s..... Giving a file size of just 27mb for one minute...



66c34aa4b89f6be2daa6fcfa1f4f9573.jpg
ea24c08156455d1556da65b92d1f083c.jpg
3d213151f86a6e71ca30bc069c49d9bb.jpg


Maybe because I'm not moving... I'll download a video clip from my drive to work later.... See what that shows and how it looks..

Thanks again...

Update:

I looked at 3 clips from journey to work.

Clip 1: was 1520p_h.265 and was 87mb in size with a bit rate of 12.7mb/s

Clip 2: was 1520p_h.265 and was 93 mb in size with a bit rate of 13.1mb/s

Clip 3: was 1080p/60fps_h.265 and was only 43mb in size with a bit rate of 6mb/s.....

So from I'd say all is working OK. I'll stick to 1520p for now.....

Thanks again for your work with tweaking the YI app.....

OMG it works with the Samsung sd card? I'd given up!

Thanks for trying this. Just need to order a new memory card now.
 
OMG it works with the Samsung sd card? I'd given up!

Thanks for trying this. Just need to order a new memory card now.
Here's a quick 20s sample... I know it's been YouTubed, lol, but it did start out as a full resolution h.265.


When I say YouTubed, I mean I have downloaded back to my, phone and it is only a 1440p_h. 264 file.. So you tube converts it.

UPDATE: Here's the original 1 minute clip.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u9bx05y8hcznwh2/2017_12_23_132734_1.mp4?dl=0

What brand and speed of card were you using?

Definitely recommend the samsung Evo Plus U3 cards....
 
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Quality on the Dropbox file looks really poor. Does the quality look the same as h264 did?

I've just the 16gb card that it came with. Only got the cameras a couple of days ago.

Will order up a couple of u3's
 
Maybe due to the cameras hardware capabilities, using the older h.264 codec but with twice the bit rate is more beneficial for better quality... And compatible for that matter...
 
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Here's a clip using h.264. 150mb in size and a 21mb/s bit rate...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/83ykoyt6ymko14d/2017_12_22_130118_1.mp4?dl=0

Maybe it's my camera or its my eyes but I don't think there much in it.....

My bad, clicked on the wrong button download and it was only 10mb. Got it sorted now, the h.265 looks better between the two but I was a brighter image. I'd be happy with that.

H.265 is supposed to give the same quailty for half the filesize so looks like it's working great.

Is your preview videos still h264?
 
My bad, clicked on the wrong button download and it was only 10mb. Got it sorted now, the h.265 looks better between the two but I was a brighter image. I'd be happy with that.

H.265 is supposed to give the same quailty for half the filesize so looks like it's working great.

Is your preview videos still h264?
From what I've seen on this camera, and using home editing software, yes it is pretty much like you said. Half the file size using half the bit rate for the same quality. Only draw back is that smartphones, tablets or pc's are only able to view h.265 files..... Maybe some of the newer tv's now, but my Samsung won't.....

I haven't actually plugged the card into the smartphone yet, so I don't know what the preview videos are. You'll have to give me 15 mins and I'll let you know....

UPDATE:

36c0e0a7c71b4d1eccfa3204e6d804ab.jpg


Yep, previews are still h.264 codec.....

And to agree, I'm happy with the quality of the h.265 also.... Gonna save a load of space on the memory card too...
 
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you will want to download from dropbox and view it on your own computer, steaming it from there give the same problem as with youtube.
 
Interesting to see the quality people are experiencing on here seems far lower than the videos from Techmoan.

I've followed Techmoan for years and never known him to give a less than impartial review, so it's interesting his video seems far superior. Wonder if it's worth someone striking up a conversation to try to ascertain the differences? I do know he said that 1080P mode was poor and the best mode by far was 2.7K 30.

 
Interesting to see the quality people are experiencing on here seems far lower than the videos from Techmoan.

I've followed Techmoan for years and never known him to give a less than impartial review, so it's interesting his video seems far superior. Wonder if it's worth someone striking up a conversation to try to ascertain the differences? I do know he said that 1080P mode was poor and the best mode by far was 2.7K 30.

I know. I bought my cam on the strength of his review. The only difference I see is that his daytime videos were quite sunny.... Mine were both overcast..
 
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One thing I be noticed is that when h.265 codec is being used the camera records using VBR. I have 2 night time clips that are 27 and 5.9mb in size..... Both using different bit rates..

Two night time clip properties below.

ac36fec18a13593f5d59f88de2a0c299.jpg
21dd8e889eeee3a432c131eff6615b2d.jpg
00be70cb299e72682c9c57db35a1e2c8.jpg
52fca086affd259c7c766f6080933405.jpg


Just proving that in different lighting conditions the Camera chooses different bit rates..

This doesn't happen when using h.264 codec.... It's always using 21-22mb/s producing 160-180mb file sizes....
 
One thing I be noticed is that when h.265 codec is being used the camera records using VBR. I have 2 night time clips that are 27 and 5.9mb in size..... Both using different bit rates..

Two night time clip properties below.

ac36fec18a13593f5d59f88de2a0c299.jpg
21dd8e889eeee3a432c131eff6615b2d.jpg
00be70cb299e72682c9c57db35a1e2c8.jpg
52fca086affd259c7c766f6080933405.jpg


Just proving that in different lighting conditions the Camera chooses different bit rates..

This doesn't happen when using h.264 codec.... It's always using 21-22mb/s producing 160-180mb file sizes....

I aslo bought these cameras on techmoans review. Even used his affiliated link.

I notice the frame rate is different in the above videos. One is 30fps and the other is 25. Didn't even know that was an option. Also was the 800kb/s one stationary? The filesize is tiny. Glad to see such a reduction in filesize. Will save writes to the SD card and hold so much more video.

I take it you played back the small one and it isn't corrupt or frozen video like I was getting?
 
I aslo bought these cameras on techmoans review. Even used his affiliated link.

I notice the frame rate is different in the above videos. One is 30fps and the other is 25. Didn't even know that was an option. Also was the 800kb/s one stationary? The filesize is tiny. Glad to see such a reduction in filesize. Will save writes to the SD card and hold so much more video.

I take it you played back the small one and it isn't corrupt or frozen video like I was getting?
plays back fine.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/voo2f8exz5owjhu/2017_12_23_235332_1_800kb_s.mp4?dl=0
 
No there's no option for frame rate.

I think it's all down to the quality of the camera hardware and software. I mean I only paid £61 for it. There's cameras out there that cost 4 times that.

Maybe the software isn't up to controlling a constant framerate or bit rate properly. I don't know.
 
I've followed Techmoan for years and never known him to give a less than impartial review, so it's interesting his video seems far superior.
Agree :) And always it can get much more sales after his video review! :)
 
Agree :) And always it can get much more sales after his video review! :)

Techmoan always makes a point of stating that he buys all the tech himself and never accepts freebies from manufacturers in return for a review. He also doesn't have a store or affiliates, but just usually posts links to where you can buy from based on places he's found.

Maybe that has changed I don't know, but his reports have always been reliable in the past.

As I said above, maybe it would be helpful to bring him in on the conversation and see if he can shed some light on the differences.
 
He doesn't hide the fact that he posts affiliate links, it's mentioned on his website

AFFLIATED LINKS NOTICE

TECHMOAN.COM is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to AMAZON.COM & AMAZON.CO.UK.


He also mentions that not all products are purchased, some stuff has been pre release
 
Just proving that in different lighting conditions the Camera chooses different bit rates..

This doesn't happen when using h.264 codec.... It's always using 21-22mb/s producing 160-180mb file sizes....

Actually this concerns me from a quality perspective. At night, or in lower light eg a dull day, why would you reduce the data rate? In theory at night you can see less, so less detail, so you might be tempted but there maybe a lot of detail there in the form of noise, and as the encoder presumably can't tell the difference between it and a genuine pixel, presumably that detail can in turn cause compression artefacts where high compression is used (low bit rate) due to the high level of detail being compressed - just a guess but seems logical). However, at night, the quality looks much lower in the above examples and when it's dull in the day it looks lower as well. When it's dull I can't see any justification for reducing the bit rate as the detail is still there and visible.

It seems to me that reducing the data rate according to the light conditions is just an anal way of saving SD card space and adversely affects quality. Why not simply set a data rate and leave it the same bright light, dull light and night? People will miss quality far more than an extra minutes recording space! Maybe someone needs to revisit the parameters of the VBR and up the minimum level considerably or switch it to CBR.
 
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