Video quality is terrible on high bitrate.

[Hans]

Hi Roman,
How do you view the recordings? Directly from the camera (Camera Files) or do you download them to your phone first (Local Files)?
Are you having the same problem with another phone?
What resolution settings are you using?
Can you post a “terrible” video?

[Roman]

I take card out and play on PC. In app it set to HIGH bit rate and max resolution 2k.

Not sure what codecs are used but if there is an option for H.265 and higher bit rate please let me know. Otherwise the video is not usefull if you cannon see a plate number.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S05E27qFDA2q4l-sbQVRSRTuDpxClc0u/view?usp=sharing

• This reply was modified 8 months ago by  Roman.

drive.google.com

20251019_132747_005183_F.MP4

20251019_132747_005183_F.MP4

[Frostie]

Hi Roman

Sorry, but I don’t quite understand your complaint. The only thing I would criticize about the video is the occasional jerkiness. The quality is okay. The video is H.265 with a bit rate of 13 Mbit. That’s a bit low for this resolution, but it’s sufficient for the current scene. With more details (e.g., more trees, bushes, etc.), compression artifacts could occur.

The license plates are legible within the limits of a wide-angle camera and the resolution. If you want to read the license plates at a greater distance, you need a higher resolution than 2k.

[Roman]

Well, in that scene, my bike was stationary. Yes, I get it that a wide-angle lens has some limitations for enlarging. The biggest complaint is that 90% of the time, I cannot read the plate if I’m not 1m away. Imagine a hit-and-run situation. So why is the bit rate so low? Is it a hardware limitation? It looks like I have to always carry a GoPro as a dash cam as well.

[Frostie]

Depending on the speed, it will always happen that the license plate of an oncoming car is not legible. Remember that the camera takes 30 frames per second. The more an object moves within this 1/30 second, the blurrier the image becomes. For sharper images in motion, you need a faster shutter speed. A camera with 60 FPS will take sharper images in motion, but only if it has real 60 FPS, not interpolated.

All this has nothing to do with the bitrate. Easy spoken, the bitrate defines the target size of the video (frame). It tells the encoder “Take this raw picture and reduce its size to x, keeping as much details as possible”. The higher the bitrate, the more details the encoder can keep in the picture and the bigger the picture will be. If there are too much details in the picture (like a lot of leafs, trees, etc.), the encoder has do drop some of these details. Means part of the picture gets blurry. These are called compression artifacts. To get rid of them, you would need to increase the bitrate (or reduce the details/resolution).

Which bitrate is sufficient depends on the scene, the resolution and the used compression codec. When choosing the bit rate, you always have to compromise between the size of the video files, the quality of the videos, and the computing power required. I think Innovv has choosen 13 MBit, as this is the best compromise between video quality and needed computing power. Because more computing power means more heat that needs to be dissipated from the small housing.

Just as an example, this is from a video made by my K3 with 1080p and 20Mbit bitrate. At that moment I am doing 70 km/h (43 mp/h) while the car is, I think, doing the same. Though boths cams are not directly compareable (K3 uses H.264, yours uses H.265), it shows that even a good bitrate does not quarantee that the licence plates are always legible.

[Roman]

I tried gopro with 60 and 30 fps. Not a big difference at 4k. But GoPro as a dash cam is not reliable. It often overheats with the battery on and charging. So you have to remove the battery and charge with usb c to battery. I believe the higher bit rate for Innovv will help to upscale the image (Topaz Gigapixel AI). The file size is not a big problem. I don’t need a week-long recording on 256gb card. One day is enough. In terms of overheating, is the recorder unit a front camera, right? It always has a wing flow, to except the traffic.

photo_2025-10-22_10-57-59.jpg 105 KB Image File - Click to view

Options

• Copy Download Link

[Frostie]

I tried gopro with 60 and 30 fps. Not a big difference at 4k.

Yes. It depends on whether the GoPro really takes 60 pictures per second or only 30 and then interpolates the output to 60 FPS. FPS only provides information about the output, not the input.

In terms of overheating, is the recorder unit a front camera, right? It always has a wing flow, to except the traffic.

Yes, the encoder is in the front cam. Air flow is always good, but Innovv has to design the camera in a way that it will work in any condition. So even when you are parking in death valley. That’s also a reason why they cannot (or don’t want to) max out the computing power for the highest possible bitrate. They surely don’t want complains from customers about cameras overheating while riding in Australia, Africa or any other hot country.

I believe the higher bit rate for Innovv will help to upscale the image

Not really. The bitrate only defines how good the quality (in terms of details) of the resulting video will be. If you have a video that would need 15MBit to keep all details, a higher bitrate would not really increase the quality. But of course you need to avoid compression artifacts, as upscalling them would look awfull 🙂

[Roman]

gopro does real 60fps and rize sutterspeed to x2 so 1/120s. At night time, it doesn’t work and it doubles the file size on 4k. + It’s possible to zoom in video Linear lens.