Another truly incredible comparison and assessment, full of excellent details, yet compact for us? Wow thank you Vortex! Great job and much appreciated!
Yeah, he's definately sold me on the Viafo - especially considering the blackvue is 2x the price for 1/2 the quality... Now he needs to do a side by side with the Viafo against the thinkware u1000 (again: huge price variance).
I really truly cannot thank you enough for all the work you put into these videos. You truly give us the information necessary to make a solid purchase decision. Years ago I got a Uniden R3 based on your thorough review and it’s still my daily driver. Been looking to get a dash cam and I now know that I want the Viofo A139 hands down. Could not have made an informed decision without the work you do!
What a great review! Knowing how much time it takes to compile a review, you should be congratulated! We roadtested the 139 pro about 2 mths ago and i said at the time that it was the best video footage i had ever reviewed - this just confirms it!
As others have already said, you must have put a lot of time both setting things up and capturing footage, and editing the videos to make the results comparable.That's something commendable, thank you so much for bringing us such meticulous and rigurous reviews. 👍
I've been waiting for you to do this exact review before making a decision on a replacement for my DR900S. You are an absolute professional in the way you carry out your work. I appreciate the hard work and long hours that goes into your videos. My first dashcam purchase was influenced by you and no doubt this one will be too! Please keep the fantastic work up👏🏿👏🏾👏🏽👏🏼👏
Truly amazing effort. Behind that smile during presentation, I can actually imagine the passion and the hours of effort you have put in to create these videos.
I was in an accident a few weeks ago and I had a viofo a129 pro which did great showing how the accident went I'm glad now that viofo made a better version and I really appreciate the detail you took on this comparison and I will be getting this newer viofo thanks for making such a great video
Viofo is obviously the winner, too bad they dont have the live view yet like the black vue. Still waiting viofo to get my first dashcam with LTE if they ever come out.
That Sony starvis 2 is really good. I'm glad viofo decided to go with the starvis 2 sensors. Hopefully viofo continues to improve on the starvis 2 while other dashcam manufacturers should adopt the starvis 2 sensors. Very disappointed in blackvue. Edit: dashcam companies should focus on night time capture
Couldn’t agree more about the blackvue. I bought their highest end camera and had it professionally installed. I’ve had two incidents where I’ve needed a numberplate and it’s been totally useless.
Hi. I agree with you 100%. Over the last 3 months I have been watching car driving/car crash channels. Whenever I see a really clear, crisp video, I check to see if the bottom of the screen has the brand of camera. If so, I log it on a running sheet. I was doing it starting in Nov of last year up until Feb. I put my impression of the quality of the video, the date I viewed it, the clip number and run time start of the specific clip, and finally, I put the URL of the clip. The majority of videos I logged were from VIOFO A119 v3, A129, A129 Plus, and A129 Pro dashcams. 1 or 2 Blackvue’s and some other 4k dashcams but the best were the VIOFO’s. The VIOFO 139 Pro doesn’t come out until the end of March this year so…. The VIOFO’s had, by far, the best clarity, and crispness overall. I have seen a lot of videos that were clear and sharp but did not have the camera identification labeled at the bottom. Maybe the GPS feature must be turned on. Just a guess. I do not have a dashcam but, I have been waiting to get a dashcam. I think the waiting is over.
I like the Nextbase 622GW. My issue with the Nextbase 622GW, is it does not offer 4/5/6 channel option. I want full 360 coverage - front / back / driver window / pass window / driver peripheral external / pass peripheral external. Basically I want ALL the bells and whistles, with 6 cam availability; I don't care the price. Do you have any suggestions? .
How do there compare to the Thinkware U1000 4K dashcam? And does the new Blackview have similar issues of overheating like previous Blackviews? Seems Thinkware does better with this issue as well as Viofo.
Just at the beginning I saw that Viofo angled USB-C cable fits better than the original A139 straight USB-C cable. Great to see that you was looking for the best frame and not for the same frame position when doing static comparisons. ;) I observed that 970X have a little red tint color something like on old Aptina sensors on some situations. I hope BlackVue will improve this situation. Also don't be sad about new 970, I am sure they will improve the image, right now I consider 970 to be much better than 900 from what I see in your review. Maybe they will use the same idea of Auto which was used for Viofo for DOL HDR. Was a nice surprise to see the day HDR from Viofo was so close to non HDR image but unfortunately this setup decrease the night performance of reading car license numbers compared to some older firmware versions. Look at 5:45 and 5:49 on the left at the houses and you will see that 970 is much better than 900 and if comparing all 4 houses, seems that 970 have some HDR or WDR implemented. At 8:34 we can understand that light is needed to read car license plates. No sun is not OK for any dashcam. Oh, at 16:36 we can see that people are wasting money on dashcams. ;) With actual HDR implementations the Auto HDR is not so important like it was on Viofo dashcams with Starvis 1. Congratulations for this great review about reading the car license numbers even in USA is very difficult to obtain good results. Regarding reading of car license plates, in theory, Viofo should put 3 types of HDR procesing: Clear HDR from actul firmware, DOL HDR, and DOL HDR from November 2022 beta firmware. Who wants the best reading of car license plates should accept some streets lamps flickering.
As a single mother who’s daughter will soon have her DL, I’ve been looking for a high quality dash cam. This video was so helpful and meticulously produced. Thank u for all the work put into this video-it should have ten times the views!
Awesome video. I really like how you make different scenarios to test the image quality for these. I have one question for you if you have time to answer. A139 official webpage says that maximum SD card capacity that can be used is 512GB but other sources say that maximum is only 256GB. Even VIOFO official information is confusing: A229 cam specs for example say that maximum is 512GB. But if you scroll down to the bottom of the same page it then says 256GB max. It seems even developers can't decide what is right. So what is the maximum you can use with A139? Thanks for reading
The A139Pro looks like a clear winner. One SURPRIZING or perhaps PUZZLING design flaw however is the lens placement! It is located on the right hand side of the dashcam body facing forward. Smarter engineering by Thinkware (Q1000) and Blackvue (R970X) place the lens on the left hand side of the dashcam body. As you know most new cars now have a significant centre piece associated with the rear view mirror that extends down the windshield and typically houses a car safety camera. Let use a Toyota Rav4 as an example. To get the camera reasonable centred (an important factor) and to ensure the camera does not obstruct driver vision (even more important factor), the possibilities are limited. To get the lens centred, one can place the camera underneath the main centre piece body. However, this will obscure driver vision and may also be too low for the dashcam to work properly. One can have the lens somewhat centred by placing the A139 Pro dashcam immediately to the left of the centre piece (at the optimal height) but this will seriously block driver vision. The logical place for dashcam placement in NA is immediately to the right of the centre piece (at the optimal height to eliminate issues with driver vision and camera function). If one places the A139 immediately to the right of the centre piece, the lens will be not even close to centred (now unreasonable). I hope this helps illuminate the concern.
I saw the Viofo A139 pro reviewed by another reviewer and was waiting for your review, before purchase. Thank you for this review as this definitely shows the Viofo is the clear winner in my book for image quality. It would be nice to see a brief video of what it looks like with the stock, or manufacturers polarizer lens filter.
I've had mine since Thanksgiving (it was on sale, yay!) and I don't really have any complaints. I wish it had the cloud capability, but for me it's not a dealbreaker. I use mine without the little polarizing cap, the video quality is really great, and the software didn't give me any issues so far. I bought the package with two cameras, front and back (no third/interior camera). I also got the separate Bluetooth button for "emergency" video capture. After all this time, I can say that I am very happy with my purchase and I would definitely recommend this dashcam.
Great comparison. I hadn't got to try the 970 versus the 900 plus at night yet so I'm glad to see it at least has some improvements with that HDR and night quality. Seems obvious Viofo is better if you don't want cloud features, which is most people. But I also love the cloud features so it's hard to pick. That's why I always ran an A119 V3 along side my dr900x plus and previous blackvues.
Pretty disappointing in the Blackvue especially considering the price. Im torn between whether having HDR on or off with the Viofo is a better option. Sometimes it seems to help massively while others it seems to hurt. Nevertheless, do you know if a new Thinkware is coming out soon with the Sony Starvis 2? I only want to connect my camera via OBD and Thinkware seems to be the only one that has that capability.
Blackvue is incredibly bad for the price point. I get it might be more feature rich than the Viofo, but it seems like image quality should be the foundation for a dashcam and you build on that, and it's a shaky foundation IMO.
Trucking for over 24 yrs in NYS & NJ.. A 1st for me on a very serious ACCIDENT.. Found it odd After observing a car circling my truck several times. Car disappeared & 20min later same 🚗 appears in front of me slamming on his brakes with no one in front of him. Yep. It was evident to me that it was an insurance job. They wanted to make sure I didn’t have a dash cam before doing their dirt. YOU NEVER KNOW. & Now I realize how important it is to own one. Greatly appreciate your time and dedication. I had doubts and was so frustrated on making a choice BUT Not anymore! Thank you so much …Ones again. Greatly appreciate your TIME AND DEDICATION. God bless!! Ps: Unless you have other options for truckers??
Quick question for you, what made you decide on these four dash cams to test? I see a lot of 4K dashcams, especially on Amazon. I've even purchased a Vantrue S2 3CH for my fiance which works great. Just curious on why you made these selections. Thanks!
Great video sir. Your videos always have great insights and knowledge. Watching from Uganda 🇺🇬 . I am yet to receive my VIOFO A139 that I ordered and I can't wait to have a look at its features
I really want the Viofo, for the image quality, but they just have so many reliability issues, vs the Blackvues, and people often aren't even aware until they go to pull footage. Not something I was willing to risk, so I went for the 970.
Thank god I waited for this review lol, I had a feeling i shouldn’t purchase the new dr970x without watching the vortex review. Not worth the upgrade in any form. Didn’t think it would be this bad !
issue is shutter speed of the camera. frame rate and and F-Stops of each dashcam. If you want better quality, we need bigger sensor so that we can capture more photons. better glass with higher f-stop to gather more lights so that we can have more FPS. Of course, you can go the software road and use AI processing to enhance the image. That would requires better SOC video processing.
This video was extremely helpful. I was very torn between the DR970X and the A139 Pro. This, combined with the significant price difference helped me decide. Thank you
Great video, I saw one of your previous videos about the 139 Pro and bought one after watching it. That camera came in and it's already been installed in my daughter's car. I just bought a second one after watching this video for my Ram limited edition 1500. Thanks for the reviews.
Looks like some of them have more than 1 channel connected. Increasing the channels decreases the bitrate. Bitrate determines how much detail can be collected in a frame. If any of these are active 2ch, its not a direct comparison.
Only true for certain models, not all. I also test in both situations because it’s important to see what you get in 1CH and 2CH modes given people will run both configurations. It depends on if you’re optimizing for looking good in a test or showing real world performance. Again both are valid, but this also varies between models since some have identical bitrates for both 1CH and 2CH modes.
The Blackvue DR970X is a disappointment across the board for a dashcam that is fresh to the market. Ariel you make it quite clear that the Starvis 2 sensor of the Viofo 139 Pro is superior to the Blackvue dashcams in all respects. Voltaire put it nicely, "The better is the enemy of the good".🤗 That's where Blackvue must have gotten it wrong when they made the decision to "only" give the Blackvue DR970X a new CPU and otherwise use old technology and a low bitrate for the videos. In my opinion, Blackvue has ruined its "good name" with the DR970X.🙄
How about a comparison on the video from the rear cameras as well. Interesting that the 970 is not as good as the 900 in a lot of situations, I wonder if Blackvue will update the firmware in the near future. That said, you have me looking at the A139 Pro now.
Good video! I use the VIO FO 139 PRO video recorder. I am satisfied with the quality of the video. tell us about the new firmware. What has been changed? what has been improved in the new firmware? thank you!!
Thanks for the great review. Its clear that its going to be a long time before we get affordable dashcams that actually capture , perfectly , the vital info required for legal cases (plates and brand badges) in all conditions with little to no image degradation. The issue is affordability . Great cams that need to capture small details at speed would be expensive to make . Capturing at 60 FPS minimum capturing at 4k minimum with very high bitrates all the while being small enough to use in a car. Currently unfeasible unless you were to create a super expensive smallish cam that does the job, but it wouldn't sell well as the high industry grade tech is thousands of pounds/dollars and isnt small enough to be usable in a car without getting in the way. Its going to be at lest 5 years before we see super detail capturing cams in the affordable price range.
LOVED my A139 Pro but it seems more and more of us are getting stuck in a boot loop. Cannot recommend it for that reason. Support is laughable at best.
Coming back to this vid and watching more dashcam clips it's crazy how clear crisp viofo dashcams are compared watching blackvue's if viofo ever joins the cloud world and is as good if not better blackvue then that would be great
hard job. dr 900 is clearly trying to improve image quality with a lower shutter speed. tricky stuff: you let more light in, but you introduce motion blur. probably NOT what you need On the other hand, being a wider lense, it obviuosly loses datail when zooming in. but it has a wider view. pick yiur poison, I guess
I have read that Viofo customer service is not the best, if you have to return an item it gets sent back to china and takes weeks. Blackvue have IN HOUSE team...so quality control is high. Yes, video quality is everything, but so is reliabilty in the heat and customer service.
i have 2 dr900x mounted in my car .... 4 cameras . 1 camera has LTE module. It is impossible to connect - 1 camera to the other through the wifi. Blackvue service just bringing up some new ideas to connect 2 900x cameras that don't want to speak to each other. Shitty setup.... never blackvue again ...
Wow, I have the 900x and was looking to upgrade to the DR970X, After watching this video, i think the DR970X is a downgrade from my 900x ROFL. Also the DR970X was being advertised as 60fps but it seems like that is dropper after launch?
Great comparison! Maybe a follow up video with just a few examples of the A129Pro vs the A139Pro for those of us wondering if an upgrade is warranted? 🙏
@@VortexRadar perfect, thanks! I think I’m sold on the upgrade, does the A139Pro use the same cables as the A129Pro? Hoping I can just plug in the new cameras and not have to rewire!
If only! It uses USB C for power so you'll need to run a new wire. The cables connecting the different cameras are also smaller and thinner and easier to run (with new connectors) so you'll need to redo that too.
THANK YOU... just ordered a Viofo A139 Pro today. For 3 Channels, that seems to be the best option. Though I'm not looking forward to the 'wiring' ... but the parked car and 'accident while away' options seem worthwhile.
Does it have tracking or intelligent mode, AI tracking? WiFi ? Does it turn off while you’re driving? Is it anyway to keep the screen on while driving? Does it have a back up camera? Does it have GPS does it have 24 hour parking monitor sensors or motion sensors? How much can you support on a SD card? Can I go up to 3 TB, does it have a recording because I hate group recording all this stuff is very important. Also mainly most important out of any question I asked does the dash cam itself have a built-in side on board battery to keep the dash cam on while it unplugged does it power off what does it have a built-in battery that you can charge up inside a dash cam this really matters because if you hit a bump your dash cam might go out due to the wire shaking so much it Hass to have a built-in side battery for this not to happen randomly turn off when you’re recording. That’s why you have to have a battery built inside the dash cam or some weight so I can get a secondary power source than just being plugged into the car power source.
The 900X Plus with its always on extreme noise reduction and HDR really smears any and all motion into oblivion. I went with a 900X non-Plus for that reason. I think your 970X might have been a bad binned device. With no autofocus, it all comes down to production tolerances affecting the image plane backfocus point. Glad to see they eased off the extreme DNR smear!
I wonder if the quality of the BlackVue could be that it uses HEVC (H.265) for the encoding, I believe the A139 Pro uses AVC (H.264) - be interesting to compare the same compression format. Thank you for your hard work with this video, certainly interesting results.
Thanks for this video! Gave you a like and a Sub from Sydney, Australia! 🇦🇺 Really appreciate it! It gave me reassurance to which dashcam to upgrade to.. 🙂
Man. This must have taken so much time and effort to put together. Thank you!
WAY more than I expected lol
Another truly incredible comparison and assessment, full of excellent details, yet compact for us? Wow thank you Vortex! Great job and much appreciated!
the flashing looks like face id
Yeah, he's definately sold me on the Viafo - especially considering the blackvue is 2x the price for 1/2 the quality...
Now he needs to do a side by side with the Viafo against the thinkware u1000 (again: huge price variance).
You're making my job of choosing a lot easier! Thanks for all the hard work.
I really truly cannot thank you enough for all the work you put into these videos. You truly give us the information necessary to make a solid purchase decision. Years ago I got a Uniden R3 based on your thorough review and it’s still my daily driver. Been looking to get a dash cam and I now know that I want the Viofo A139 hands down. Could not have made an informed decision without the work you do!
What a great review! Knowing how much time it takes to compile a review, you should be congratulated! We roadtested the 139 pro about 2 mths ago and i said at the time that it was the best video footage i had ever reviewed - this just confirms it!
As others have already said, you must have put a lot of time both setting things up and capturing footage, and editing the videos to make the results comparable.That's something commendable, thank you so much for bringing us such meticulous and rigurous reviews. 👍
Best reviewer ever. Excellent example of proffesionalism 💪💯
Imagine watching this video and you see yourself driving 😂
Nice job! I truly understand and appreciate the amount of time and effort that goes into this type of comparison video.
haha no kidding! I saw one of your videos recently where you did something similar and I liked your approach and added detail too. :)
I've been waiting for you to do this exact review before making a decision on a replacement for my DR900S. You are an absolute professional in the way you carry out your work. I appreciate the hard work and long hours that goes into your videos. My first dashcam purchase was influenced by you and no doubt this one will be too! Please keep the fantastic work up👏🏿👏🏾👏🏽👏🏼👏
Blackvue dash cameras are just overpriced junks.
Truly amazing effort. Behind that smile during presentation, I can actually imagine the passion and the hours of effort you have put in to create these videos.
I was in an accident a few weeks ago and I had a viofo a129 pro which did great showing how the accident went I'm glad now that viofo made a better version and I really appreciate the detail you took on this comparison and I will be getting this newer viofo thanks for making such a great video
Viofo is obviously the winner, too bad they dont have the live view yet like the black vue. Still waiting viofo to get my first dashcam with LTE if they ever come out.
That Sony starvis 2 is really good. I'm glad viofo decided to go with the starvis 2 sensors.
Hopefully viofo continues to improve on the starvis 2 while other dashcam manufacturers should adopt the starvis 2 sensors.
Very disappointed in blackvue.
Edit: dashcam companies should focus on night time capture
Viofo is made in Communist China while Blackvue is made in South Korea...
Couldn’t agree more about the blackvue. I bought their highest end camera and had it professionally installed. I’ve had two incidents where I’ve needed a numberplate and it’s been totally useless.
We have cameras on our phones with x100 magnification, HDR 8K 60FPS, and yet dashcams are still... that bad.
The industry has still a long way to go.
Hi. I agree with you 100%. Over the last 3 months I have been watching car driving/car crash channels. Whenever I see a really clear, crisp video, I check to see if the bottom of the screen has the brand of camera. If so, I log it on a running sheet. I was doing it starting in Nov of last year up until Feb.
I put my impression of the quality of the video, the date I viewed it, the clip number and run time start of the specific clip, and finally, I put the URL of the clip.
The majority of videos I logged were from VIOFO A119 v3, A129, A129 Plus, and A129 Pro dashcams. 1 or 2 Blackvue’s and some other 4k dashcams but the best were the VIOFO’s.
The VIOFO 139 Pro doesn’t come out until the end of March this year so…. The VIOFO’s had, by far, the best clarity, and crispness overall.
I have seen a lot of videos that were clear and sharp but did not have the camera identification labeled at the bottom. Maybe the GPS feature must be turned on. Just a guess. I do not have a dashcam but, I have been waiting to get a dashcam. I think the waiting is over.
I like the Nextbase 622GW. My issue with the Nextbase 622GW, is it does not offer 4/5/6 channel option. I want full 360 coverage - front / back / driver window / pass window / driver peripheral external / pass peripheral external.
Basically I want ALL the bells and whistles, with 6 cam availability; I don't care the price. Do you have any suggestions?
.
Extremely disappointed in the performance of the new BlackVue DR970X. They missed a great opportunity to integrate the new Sony Starvis 2 sensor.
Thank you, as always a killer job. Looking at the prices the BV is nowhere! near worth what they are asking. The BV is at best a 200$ camera.
Great video! Definitely won't upgrade my 900x plus 😊
Have you used the A229 Pro? If so what would you choose between that and the A139 Pro?
How do there compare to the Thinkware U1000 4K dashcam? And does the new Blackview have similar issues of overheating like previous Blackviews? Seems Thinkware does better with this issue as well as Viofo.
Just at the beginning I saw that Viofo angled USB-C cable fits better than the original A139 straight USB-C cable.
Great to see that you was looking for the best frame and not for the same frame position when doing static comparisons. ;)
I observed that 970X have a little red tint color something like on old Aptina sensors on some situations. I hope BlackVue will improve this situation. Also don't be sad about new 970, I am sure they will improve the image, right now I consider 970 to be much better than 900 from what I see in your review. Maybe they will use the same idea of Auto which was used for Viofo for DOL HDR.
Was a nice surprise to see the day HDR from Viofo was so close to non HDR image but unfortunately this setup decrease the night performance of reading car license numbers compared to some older firmware versions.
Look at 5:45 and 5:49 on the left at the houses and you will see that 970 is much better than 900 and if comparing all 4 houses, seems that 970 have some HDR or WDR implemented.
At 8:34 we can understand that light is needed to read car license plates. No sun is not OK for any dashcam.
Oh, at 16:36 we can see that people are wasting money on dashcams. ;)
With actual HDR implementations the Auto HDR is not so important like it was on Viofo dashcams with Starvis 1.
Congratulations for this great review about reading the car license numbers even in USA is very difficult to obtain good results.
Regarding reading of car license plates, in theory, Viofo should put 3 types of HDR procesing: Clear HDR from actul firmware, DOL HDR, and DOL HDR from November 2022 beta firmware. Who wants the best reading of car license plates should accept some streets lamps flickering.
As a single mother who’s daughter will soon have her DL, I’ve been looking for a high quality dash cam. This video was so helpful and meticulously produced. Thank u for all the work put into this video-it should have ten times the views!
Awesome video. I really like how you make different scenarios to test the image quality for these.
I have one question for you if you have time to answer. A139 official webpage says that maximum SD card capacity that can be used is 512GB but other sources say that maximum is only 256GB. Even VIOFO official information is confusing: A229 cam specs for example say that maximum is 512GB. But if you scroll down to the bottom of the same page it then says 256GB max. It seems even developers can't decide what is right. So what is the maximum you can use with A139? Thanks for reading
Just imagine you‘re csually strolling down the highway just to notice some guy with 4 dashcams filming😂😂😂
The A139Pro looks like a clear winner. One SURPRIZING or perhaps PUZZLING design flaw however is the lens placement! It is located on the right hand side of the dashcam body facing forward. Smarter engineering by Thinkware (Q1000) and Blackvue (R970X) place the lens on the left hand side of the dashcam body. As you know most new cars now have a significant centre piece associated with the rear view mirror that extends down the windshield and typically houses a car safety camera. Let use a Toyota Rav4 as an example. To get the camera reasonable centred (an important factor) and to ensure the camera does not obstruct driver vision (even more important factor), the possibilities are limited. To get the lens centred, one can place the camera underneath the main centre piece body. However, this will obscure driver vision and may also be too low for the dashcam to work properly. One can have the lens somewhat centred by placing the A139 Pro dashcam immediately to the left of the centre piece (at the optimal height) but this will seriously block driver vision. The logical place for dashcam placement in NA is immediately to the right of the centre piece (at the optimal height to eliminate issues with driver vision and camera function). If one places the A139 immediately to the right of the centre piece, the lens will be not even close to centred (now unreasonable). I hope this helps illuminate the concern.
I saw the Viofo A139 pro reviewed by another reviewer and was waiting for your review, before purchase. Thank you for this review as this definitely shows the Viofo is the clear winner in my book for image quality. It would be nice to see a brief video of what it looks like with the stock, or manufacturers polarizer lens filter.
The polarizer on/off sample I shared in this video was with the A139 Pro’s.
I've had mine since Thanksgiving (it was on sale, yay!) and I don't really have any complaints. I wish it had the cloud capability, but for me it's not a dealbreaker. I use mine without the little polarizing cap, the video quality is really great, and the software didn't give me any issues so far. I bought the package with two cameras, front and back (no third/interior camera). I also got the separate Bluetooth button for "emergency" video capture. After all this time, I can say that I am very happy with my purchase and I would definitely recommend this dashcam.
Probably the best dash cam video on UA-cam. Thank you so much! Looks like I'll be getting an A139 Pro.
Great comparison. I hadn't got to try the 970 versus the 900 plus at night yet so I'm glad to see it at least has some improvements with that HDR and night quality. Seems obvious Viofo is better if you don't want cloud features, which is most people. But I also love the cloud features so it's hard to pick. That's why I always ran an A119 V3 along side my dr900x plus and previous blackvues.
Pretty disappointing in the Blackvue especially considering the price. Im torn between whether having HDR on or off with the Viofo is a better option. Sometimes it seems to help massively while others it seems to hurt.
Nevertheless, do you know if a new Thinkware is coming out soon with the Sony Starvis 2? I only want to connect my camera via OBD and Thinkware seems to be the only one that has that capability.
Such a great comparison. Thank you for this. VERY helpful!!
Dayum. Viofo is killing it. Thank you very much for your efforts in creating this video! Love your thought and analysis.
Blackvue is incredibly bad for the price point. I get it might be more feature rich than the Viofo, but it seems like image quality should be the foundation for a dashcam and you build on that, and it's a shaky foundation IMO.
Trucking for over 24 yrs in NYS & NJ.. A 1st for me on a very serious ACCIDENT.. Found it odd After observing a car circling my truck several times. Car disappeared & 20min later same 🚗 appears in front of me slamming on his brakes with no one in front of him. Yep. It was evident to me that it was an insurance job. They wanted to make sure I didn’t have a dash cam before doing their dirt. YOU NEVER KNOW. & Now I realize how important it is to own one. Greatly appreciate your time and dedication. I had doubts and was so frustrated on making a choice BUT Not anymore! Thank you so much …Ones again. Greatly appreciate your TIME AND DEDICATION. God bless!!
Ps: Unless you have other options for truckers??
Quick question for you, what made you decide on these four dash cams to test? I see a lot of 4K dashcams, especially on Amazon. I've even purchased a Vantrue S2 3CH for my fiance which works great. Just curious on why you made these selections. Thanks!
Wow, I can't imagine how long it took you to create this video! You did an amazing job, definitely going to get a A139 Pro now!
With the HD switched on 🙂
Great video, the 970x simply isn't worth upgrading to imo.
Lets not be so forgiving with the Blackvue DR970X. It isn't soft. It's blurry as hell.
best review. you are actually the only one comparing these exact models. well done
Great video sir. Your videos always have great insights and knowledge. Watching from Uganda 🇺🇬 . I am yet to receive my VIOFO A139 that I ordered and I can't wait to have a look at its features
I love my VIOFO A129 Pro Duo, and it's $45 off on Amazon right now, BTW :-]
I really want the Viofo, for the image quality, but they just have so many reliability issues, vs the Blackvues, and people often aren't even aware until they go to pull footage. Not something I was willing to risk, so I went for the 970.
Thank god I waited for this review lol, I had a feeling i shouldn’t purchase the new dr970x without watching the vortex review. Not worth the upgrade in any form. Didn’t think it would be this bad !
For me, the Best Reviewer! 🌎
Thank you so much, from Italy 🇮🇹
If VIOFO A139 PRO had cloud access and live view, id buy it over a blackvue
Amazing video, love this channel!
issue is shutter speed of the camera. frame rate and and F-Stops of each dashcam. If you want better quality, we need bigger sensor so that we can capture more photons. better glass with higher f-stop to gather more lights so that we can have more FPS. Of course, you can go the software road and use AI processing to enhance the image. That would requires better SOC video processing.
There are a few “I’m like” and ‘l mean’s, but for the most part you speak quickly and precisely, with few “um”s -
Thank you
This video was extremely helpful. I was very torn between the DR970X and the A139 Pro. This, combined with the significant price difference helped me decide. Thank you
Great video, I saw one of your previous videos about the 139 Pro and bought one after watching it. That camera came in and it's already been installed in my daughter's car. I just bought a second one after watching this video for my Ram limited edition 1500. Thanks for the reviews.
Looks like some of them have more than 1 channel connected.
Increasing the channels decreases the bitrate.
Bitrate determines how much detail can be collected in a frame.
If any of these are active 2ch, its not a direct comparison.
Only true for certain models, not all. I also test in both situations because it’s important to see what you get in 1CH and 2CH modes given people will run both configurations. It depends on if you’re optimizing for looking good in a test or showing real world performance. Again both are valid, but this also varies between models since some have identical bitrates for both 1CH and 2CH modes.
@@VortexRadar Its disingenuous to make conclusions and comparisons that include the sensor model and HDR capabilities but not the bitrate.
Interesting, but expensive... I don't pay more than 50 bucks on dash cam kkkk...
The Blackvue DR970X is a disappointment across the board for a dashcam that is fresh to the market.
Ariel you make it quite clear that the Starvis 2 sensor of the Viofo 139 Pro is superior to the Blackvue dashcams in all respects.
Voltaire put it nicely, "The better is the enemy of the good".🤗
That's where Blackvue must have gotten it wrong when they made the decision to "only" give the Blackvue DR970X a new CPU and otherwise use old technology and a low bitrate for the videos. In my opinion, Blackvue has ruined its "good name" with the DR970X.🙄
Just ordered the 2 channel version of the a139 pro for both of my vehicles with your link. This plus your other reviews were very helpful.
Similarly, when I upgraded the DR750 to the 900x, I found that the 750 had been much better for reading plates, and had much better night vision.
How about a comparison on the video from the rear cameras as well. Interesting that the 970 is not as good as the 900 in a lot of situations, I wonder if Blackvue will update the firmware in the near future. That said, you have me looking at the A139 Pro now.
Good video! I use the VIO FO 139 PRO video recorder. I am satisfied with the quality of the video. tell us about the new firmware. What has been changed? what has been improved in the new firmware? thank you!!
A TON of work goes into making/editing these videos. Much appreciated 👍
Thanks for the great review.
Its clear that its going to be a long time before we get affordable dashcams that actually capture , perfectly , the vital info required for legal cases (plates and brand badges) in all conditions with little to no image degradation.
The issue is affordability . Great cams that need to capture small details at speed would be expensive to make . Capturing at 60 FPS minimum capturing at 4k minimum with very high bitrates all the while being small enough to use in a car.
Currently unfeasible unless you were to create a super expensive smallish cam that does the job, but it wouldn't sell well as the high industry grade tech is thousands of pounds/dollars and isnt small enough to be usable in a car without getting in the way.
Its going to be at lest 5 years before we see super detail capturing cams in the affordable price range.
LOVED my A139 Pro but it seems more and more of us are getting stuck in a boot loop. Cannot recommend it for that reason. Support is laughable at best.
Coming back to this vid and watching more dashcam clips it's crazy how clear crisp viofo dashcams are compared watching blackvue's if viofo ever joins the cloud world and is as good if not better blackvue then that would be great
Informing us newbies to the car dash cam scene, beautiful work!!!
too many parameters involved, such as focal plane, angle of view, Blackvue DR970X video quality is the best to me...
Great work. In summary, Blackvue sucks, get the Viofo.
I love it when u do these Comparison videos! The next time u should do parking mode while u doing it.
Thank you for your reviews really appreciate you taking the time and breaking it down
hard job.
dr 900 is clearly trying to improve image quality with a lower shutter speed. tricky stuff: you let more light in, but you introduce motion blur.
probably NOT what you need
On the other hand, being a wider lense, it obviuosly loses datail when zooming in.
but it has a wider view. pick yiur poison, I guess
I have read that Viofo customer service is not the best, if you have to return an item it gets sent back to china and takes weeks. Blackvue have IN HOUSE team...so quality control is high. Yes, video quality is everything, but so is reliabilty in the heat and customer service.
Amazing video. Thanks for all your work!!!
The blackvue new app sucks , now looking at replacing to a different brand .
What do you think about AZDOME M550? Thanks!
My DR900X will no longer connect to my app. It's just out of warranty. Cant believe I spent this much money on it
its embarrassing that in 2023 this is the best they can do.
i have 2 dr900x mounted in my car .... 4 cameras . 1 camera has LTE module. It is impossible to connect - 1 camera to the other through the wifi. Blackvue service just bringing up some new ideas to connect 2 900x cameras that don't want to speak to each other. Shitty setup.... never blackvue again ...
Yep, I agree that it’s an annoying limitation, even if there are bandwidth concerns
I thought the Nextbase 622GW was the best webcam out there in terms of video quality. Wonder how these compare?
Hi, amazing video! Did you have part two with the parking footage and other things?
Blackvue is not really worth the money. If it is not able to capture the number plate, there is no points to have dash cam
What ever one I decide on, a polarized filter is a must for me so I don't have so many ghost images of my dashboard.
Went with the 970x based on the cloud features.
Outstanding job! Great info that was interesting to watch.
Best reviewer out there period. What detail and great video comparisons.
Now thats what a review video should be like - great job
Thanks for your professional job.
why don't you just compare the most clear license plate pic of ear camera?
Wow, I have the 900x and was looking to upgrade to the DR970X, After watching this video, i think the DR970X is a downgrade from my 900x ROFL. Also the DR970X was being advertised as 60fps but it seems like that is dropper after launch?
I got the new Viafo a couple months ago. I keep forgetting to install it 😀😀
Is the parking mode on this camera any good? Or is there better cameras out there?
Great review….thanks for all of the effort you put into this. 👍
Wonder wtf is up with the new Blackvue...it's pretty bad. Kinda surprising...
Great video, lots of useful real world information. Not sure if we can get Viofo in the UK but I am going to look. Thanks
Yeah you should be able to ship to the UK when ordering direct from Viofo. Check the link in the description.
The best as security camera for camper van transit
Great comparison! Maybe a follow up video with just a few examples of the A129Pro vs the A139Pro for those of us wondering if an upgrade is warranted? 🙏
Check out my video on the Starvis 2 sensor where I do just that. ;) ua-cam.com/video/emOp6E-m8pU/v-deo.html
@@VortexRadar perfect, thanks! I think I’m sold on the upgrade, does the A139Pro use the same cables as the A129Pro? Hoping I can just plug in the new cameras and not have to rewire!
If only! It uses USB C for power so you'll need to run a new wire. The cables connecting the different cameras are also smaller and thinner and easier to run (with new connectors) so you'll need to redo that too.
THANK YOU... just ordered a Viofo A139 Pro today. For 3 Channels, that seems to be the best option. Though I'm not looking forward to the 'wiring' ... but the parked car and 'accident while away' options seem worthwhile.
Does it have tracking or intelligent mode, AI tracking? WiFi ? Does it turn off while you’re driving? Is it anyway to keep the screen on while driving? Does it have a back up camera? Does it have GPS does it have 24 hour parking monitor sensors or motion sensors? How much can you support on a SD card? Can I go up to 3 TB, does it have a recording because I hate group recording all this stuff is very important. Also mainly most important out of any question I asked does the dash cam itself have a built-in side on board battery to keep the dash cam on while it unplugged does it power off what does it have a built-in battery that you can charge up inside a dash cam this really matters because if you hit a bump your dash cam might go out due to the wire shaking so much it Hass to have a built-in side battery for this not to happen randomly turn off when you’re recording. That’s why you have to have a battery built inside the dash cam or some weight so I can get a secondary power source than just being plugged into the car power source.
The 900X Plus with its always on extreme noise reduction and HDR really smears any and all motion into oblivion. I went with a 900X non-Plus for that reason. I think your 970X might have been a bad binned device. With no autofocus, it all comes down to production tolerances affecting the image plane backfocus point. Glad to see they eased off the extreme DNR smear!
you literally just help me saves $500 from buying overpriced blakcvue 970x, lucky i saw your video before clicking that buy bottom in eBay Thanks
What does the Viofo do when the memory card is full? Does it delete and overwrite the oldest recordings? Or just it just fail "DISK FULL"
Same thing every dashcam on the market does. It begins overwriting the oldest footage so you can keep recording as you drive.
I wonder if the quality of the BlackVue could be that it uses HEVC (H.265) for the encoding, I believe the A139 Pro uses AVC (H.264) - be interesting to compare the same compression format.
Thank you for your hard work with this video, certainly interesting results.
Excellent comparison! Great job! Thanks for putting it all together.
Thanks for this video! Gave you a like and a Sub from Sydney, Australia! 🇦🇺 Really appreciate it! It gave me reassurance to which dashcam to upgrade to.. 🙂