Yupiteru DRY-FH31 (japanese cam)

[Riquez]

I just received the Yupiteru DRY-FH31 1080p Japanese DashCam & will be installing it this evening. I will report back with some details after trying it out.
I dont see this model or indeed any of the Yupiteru cams mentioned on this site at all, so it may be interesting to some of you.
http://www.yupiteru.co.jp/products/driv ... index.html

To begin, this camera is only in Japanese & the online PDF manual is unfortunately password protected, so I can't even translate it with google.
However, since I live in Japan, I am not totally lost when it comes to understanding the manual.

I was wondering if anyone knows if this camera has any copies or 3rd party versions that might have an English manual? Just to make my life a little easier.

 

[DashCamMan]

Hi Riquez,

I thought I knew most of the cameras out there but this company is new to me. I haven't seen this camera anywhere else. Here is the unlocked version of the user manual. You should be able to upload it to Google translate.

Looking forward to your review. Some decent Japanese cameras would be great competition for the Koreans.

 

[jokiin]

I just received the Yupiteru DRY-FH31 1080p Japanese DashCam & will be installing it this evening. I will report back with some details after trying it out.
I dont see this model or indeed any of the Yupiteru cams mentioned on this site at all, so it may be interesting to some of you.
http://www.yupiteru.co.jp/products/driv ... index.html

To begin, this camera is only in Japanese & the online PDF manual is unfortunately password protected, so I can't even translate it with google.
However, since I live in Japan, I am not totally lost when it comes to understanding the manual.

I was wondering if anyone knows if this camera has any copies or 3rd party versions that might have an English manual? Just to make my life a little easier.

interested to know how you go with it, frame rate is a bit lower than most and seems to record in AVI format so might be a bit of a trade off there

 

[Riquez]

Hi Riquez,

I thought I knew most of the cameras out there but this company is new to me. I haven't seen this camera anywhere else. Here is the unlocked version of the user manual. You should be able to upload it to Google translate.

Looking forward to your review. Some decent Japanese cameras would be great competition for the Koreans.

Thanks for unlocking that PDF! I didn't know you could do that, but I appreciate your help.

I have installed the cam, it was a 5 min job. But I have not tested it yet (its my wife's car & I dont have a JP driving licence), I will of course post some videos etc when I get chance to give it a proper tryout.

After checking this very useful website, none of the featured cams seemed to fit my needs, or I was unable to get hold of the ones I liked in Japan.
It had to be small, it had to be 720p & it had to be easy to set up. Since I live on a sub-tropical island, I was worried about overheating issues too.
But after checking them all, it gave me a better basis on what to look for.

The Yupiteru DRY-FH31 has a super small mounting, (like Blackvue) so the camera itself it tucked away without disturbing the drivers vision. I was concerned that my wife would find it distracting, so as small as possible was essential.
It does have 1080p, but a low frame rate. The 720p mode is 30fps, which is fine. I actually don't want 1080p because its more memory intensive (recording & editing) so I wont be using that for everyday use.
It saves H.264 AVI which is ok. I use a Mac, so I knew if there was software with the cam, I probably couldn't use it. A universal file format was preferred.

There were some reports of memory card problems on Amazon Japan (with other Yupi cams), but it seemed that class6+ card is whats required to solve that. It comes with a 4GB card & it does mention class6+ in the manual.

Here are some quick photos of the size:

 

[jokiin]

a couple of comments/questions

unless it has the ability to adjust left to right (not clear) I would have mounted it closer to centre of the screen, otherwise you'd find your picture would be biased toward the left side of the road and will miss detail to your right

also not clear from the pics but make sure the sweep of your wipers goes across in front of the lens as they do rely on having a clear view

and for the questions, how is the market in Japan for dash cameras, is there much available, are you spoilt for choice, hard to find, nobody knows about them etc?

 

[Riquez]

a couple of comments/questions

unless it has the ability to adjust left to right (not clear) I would have mounted it closer to centre of the screen, otherwise you'd find your picture would be biased toward the left side of the road and will miss detail to your right

also not clear from the pics but make sure the sweep of your wipers goes across in front of the lens as they do rely on having a clear view

and for the questions, how is the market in Japan for dash cameras, is there much available, are you spoilt for choice, hard to find, nobody knows about them etc?

Good points!
I hadn't considered the wiper issue. Yes, I might have to move it down a bit... to the same level at the rear view mirror. I thought I was being clever hiding it up there - ha ha!
I left some gap from the centre because that right side of the cam is where you remove the card & there is a record button to preform actions like save to a separate folder.
I was leaving a bit of space for access. I am sure I will have to move it after trying for real to find the best position.

I have never seen anyone in Japan with a dash cam, but having said that, I live on a small island - not Tokyo. After looking online its not a non-existant market, there are certainly people making & using them & there is a decent selection of cams on amazon JP.
Navigation & in-Car TV's are very popular however.
Dash Cams are called "Drive recorders" in Japan. If you are interested to check the models: amazon.co.jp you can search for "ドライブレコーダー"

 

[jokiin]

Good points!
I hadn't considered the wiper issue. Yes, I might have to move it down a bit... to the same level at the rear view mirror. I thought I was being clever hiding it up there - ha ha!
I left some gap from the centre because that right side of the cam is where you remove the card & there is a record button to preform actions like save to a separate folder.
I was leaving a bit of space for access. I am sure I will have to move it after trying for real to find the best position.

I mount mine behind the mirror, when I want to take the card out I just twist the mirror out of the way, things like pressing buttons are no real issue for mine even when obscured by the mirror as it's not something you need to look at when doing as it's easy to locate the buttons without looking at the cam, YMMV, the alternative of sticking it to one side makes it easy to get at but leaves it pointing in the wrong direction, so function over form for me

I have never seen anyone in Japan with a dash cam, but having said that, I live on a small island - not Tokyo. After looking online its not a non-existant market, there are certainly people making & using them & there is a decent selection of cams on amazon JP.
Navigation & in-Car TV's are very popular however.
Dash Cams are called "Drive recorders" in Japan. If you are interested to check the models: amazon.co.jp you can search for "ドライブレコーダー"

I will look at that thanks, just want to do a bit of market research

 

[Riquez]

I mount mine behind the mirror, when I want to take the card out I just twist the mirror out of the way, things like pressing buttons are no real issue for mine even when obscured by the mirror as it's not something you need to look at when doing as it's easy to locate the buttons without looking at the cam, YMMV, the alternative of sticking it to one side makes it easy to get at but leaves it pointing in the wrong direction, so function over form for me

Since the cam has a screen on it, i thought that directly behind the mirror would be a bit hard seeing the display. Its in my wifes car, I am the passenger, so I will be the one to operate it when needed. I was a bit worried about accidentally knocking the mirror if i do something. I guess i wont need to press any buttons much, except while i am learning how to use it. eg: now.
Once I work it all out & set up as I like, then behind the mirror sounds good as I am unlikely to need to change anything from that point on.

Its my first dash cam, so the temptation to 'play-while-drive' will be high!

 

[jokiin]

mine has a screen as well, realistically (once you get over the new toy phase of course) it's not something you pay attention to day to day, useful for setup but not much else

 

[Mtz]

Maybe this is the smallest camera with display. I can say this is Japan technology.
I think you should put the camera on the other right side of the rear mirror. Here is a topic about windshield mounting of camera.

I know this Yupiteru brand from few years ago because they made some solar radar detectors.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[jokiin]

I think you should put the camera on the other right side of the rear mirror.
enjoy,
Mtz

maybe not practical, Japan is right hand drive, mounting on the right side could end up in the drivers field of vision

 

[Mtz]

Yes, this is the reason why I said that and also to easy access the card.
In my country I drive on right side of the road and I mounted the camera on the left side as you can see in my new topic. Regarding that topic I hope to put a picture about how you mounted the dashcam on the windshield.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[jokiin]

Yes, this is the reason why I said that and also to easy access the card.
In my country I drive on right side of the road and I mounted the camera on the left side as you can see in my new topic. Regarding that topic I hope to put a picture about how you mounted the dashcam on the windshield.

enjoy,
Mtz

also depends which side the lens is on if not centre, what type of mount bracket, suction or 3M etc as to what's most suitable

 

[DashCamMan]

Really interesting camera...i like the small size. Perhaps I need to start investigating the Japanese cameras too Hopefully they start selling outside of Japan.

 

[Riquez]

Hi Guys, thanks for the suggestions & input.
I tried out the cam today & will post a couple video clips below.

Observations:
• The wipers in the car do go right to the top of the window, so the mounting position where I have it at the very top is OK.
• For now, the position seems ok too. It could do with moving a little to the right I guess, so the video is more centred. But I noticed today that the card is a bit fiddly to remove & even with the space I have, I fumbled around for a while. The rear view mirror has an 'arm' & if i have to squeeze my hand between that & the cam to access the card slot, its going to get tricky.

• The video quality is not as good as i expected, but its not bad. Although its 720p, there are some artefacts in the video (blocky-ness).
• I also discovered that editing the AVI's was a bit sketchy. I use Adobe Premiere & it has some trouble with these AVIs. I guess due to the codec used. Actually, I imported 5 clips & edited them together. Premiere freaked out & rendered half the video black. I tried again from scratch with less edits & it was OK, but I couldn't fade between clips etc. I will probably need to convert these AVIs to a more stable format before editing in the future.

• There is a ZOOM example in the second clip at about 50 seconds. Its pretty horrible actually. The zoom is obviously just digital & not very nice at all. I wont be using that again - ha ha.

There are 2 clips.

TEST 1 is direct AVI upload from the cam to youtube. If you change the quality to 720 it looks fine. Good enough for youtube for sure.

"Compilation" is edited in Premiere at full size, then exported as 720p H264 mp4 for youtube.
It seems a little more blocky, but hard to be sure. You can see how editing created some ugliness at the 1:00 - 1:20 mark.

 

[jokiin]

• The video quality is not as good as i expected, but its not bad.]

what did you pay for it?

Although its 720p, there are some artefacts in the video (blocky-ness).

YouTube takes away from the quality so always harder to judge the results, AVI format always seems to be a compromise on these cams, I've seen better 720p video but some of that could be YouTube related, the artifacts and blockyness possibly suggests the recording bitrate is a bit low, if there's a quality setting option in the menu maybe try choosing a higher setting

 

[Riquez]

• The video quality is not as good as i expected, but its not bad.]

what did you pay for it?

¥16,000 ($170 USD)
but that 'feels', more like about $130-$140 to me, the exchange rate to $ makes it seem higher.
Its good enough & I cant expect too much for that price, I am probably just unfairly comparing to my DSLR.

The 5 min clips it records are 270MB each, so its obvious there is compression. I have to be happy with this because it means about 70+ mins of recording on the 4GB card & I would probably be moaning if I was only getting 20 mins. ;-)

Overall I got what I wanted - easy to install, small, decent quality, not too expensive for my 1st cam.

 

[Mtz]

Can you upload somewhere like sendspace.com the original AVI from the camera?

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[DashCamMan]

Hi Riquez,

That video quality looks about right for a 720p camera. A bit of pixelation but not horrendous. How is it at night?

 

[Riquez]

Can you upload somewhere like sendspace.com the original AVI from the camera?

enjoy,
Mtz

Here you go: https://www.box.com/s/wvp3zz1ez3anjj2etrz1