Upgrade the trash OEM backup camera

I wanted to reach out and see if anyone has upgraded their oem backup camera. My hope is that the backup camera can be upgraded and that the new camera can fit in the oem housing.

 

I added a higher res front camera to mine and it turns out that it wasn't the rear camera at all but the resolution limit of the screen in your dash. I don't know if the rear camera is matched to the screen or not, but it seems like you'd have to replace the head unit as well to achieve your goal.

 

You'll have to replace the whole system, not just the camera. Be sure to post up how it goes.

 

I recently upgraded to the any time backup for the front view and that camera is noticeably better on the same head unit. I do agree that the head unit screen isn't the best but at this point I don't want to loose my Toyota connected services like remote start etc.

 

This is good to know. Compared to the wife's Forester my rear-camera-view on the screen isn't as clear.

 

I upgraded mine to a

$219 Kenwood CMOS 740HD High Definition Rear backup Camera for use with Select KENWOOD Receivers

Kenwood CMOS 740HD but I’m not happy with the mount the audio shop used. I’d like to get a bracket 3D printed to mount it. Either that or a small aluminum fabbed bracket. I swapped it back to stock for the time being, but I’ll get back to it eventually. It sure is nice to have a more clear camera, though the factory one honestly isn’t bad at all for what it is. The factory is bad if you blind it with a bright license plate backup light bar, because the blinding light reflects off walls/garage doors and blinds the camera.

I don’t think you’ll have much luck upgrading with a factory head unit, I don’t know of any plug and play options.

 

It's not the camera. The 2020+ have just horrid processing to the head unit. It's kinda shocking.

For example:

 

I didn’t feel any real difference in camera quality using factory camera between 2021 HU and aftermarket HD screen Kenwood.

my 21 camera also looked the same on the factory HD as one of my friends 16 did.

 

Who knows where that signal is processed though? Without schematics, it is hard to tell, but I would guess that one of the many ECUs is involved.

All that I know is that all of the 2020+ Tacos that I have been in have abysmal camera quality compared to the 2019 and old. Toyota dropped the ball there, somehow.

 

Oh man, here we go again. Not even friday

Sorry OP but this seems to be the topic the trolls come out on the most. Get ready to be bombarded by those who think they are special because they know how to use their mirrors.

Bottom line the issue has been talked about a lot and there isn't anything one can really do. The system Toyota uses allows at best less than SD resolution and that is every part of the system, from the camera to the wiring to the head unit. For comparison the system used has ten times lower resolution than 1080.

I have attempted putting in a higher quality camera with no improvement, I even hacked in a video feed and the quality was much much worse than the screen displays even for album cover art. I still want to see someone pipe in a very high quality feed directly into the head unit (its just a couple wires) but have not seen someone attempt it yet.

 

Nothing wrong with the camera…but the res is garbage…

 

The head unit does the processing. The system runs a direct wire feeding a NTSC formatted signal from the camera into the back of the HU.

IIRC the non-360 trucks have the same quality as the older trucks but for the 360 camera trucks the try to do too much manipulation of the already very low resolution system and it just trashes the picture.

 

My biggest compliant is that its not a fisheye type lens. Its helpful when backing up in a parking lot to see more left and right when there's a car next to you blocking your view.

 

Ah! Thanks. That is interesting. Still a let down.

 

And, we have a lot of stone and chip and seal roads in our area. Depending on weather, the backup cameras on my Tacoma and my wife's Kia are covered in crud and worthless. It seems silly to stop and clean a lenses to backup up when you have mirrors handy.

 

So, I have said I have tried different cameras/video feeds....

Still, the signal format is exactly the same as many aftermarket systems and I have seen them with what I feel is a better looking picture (maybe not higher res). I still want to try removing any and all wiring and connectors and then feed in the video signal from a known source that for sure outputs a very high quality (NTSC) signal, something like a modern DSLR camera or similar. The hard part is FINDING a good video source that still uses such antiqued communications.

I cannot rule out that the lengthy and cheap wiring, lack of RF shielding, and multiple connectors is not in fact affecting video quality.

I have a rear view camera from a dashcam, and a wiring harness...I might need to try this again.

 

It does look kinda "grainy" in this photo...but honestly, it's not that bad. Only when it rains and the lens is covered with water.

At least I can avoid backing into my fence!

Mirrors...what mirrors? lol

The weekend is almost here!

 

@caribe makaira , do you have a pinout for the HU on 360 camera trucks? The service manual I found does not have the newer trucks.

Not sure if there are multiple HUs for those.

Specifically I would like to see what pin(s) have the camera signal from the various cameras and I know the pinout is different from the standard HU/Camera trucks

 

Last I saw, the camera circuit is pretty simple. Camera has 4 wires, 6V, -, video signal and video ground. Radio provides 6V when in reverse, then camera sends video signal to the radio. I dunno, I've heard the wire colors and maybe quantity changed over the years.

All I can say is that my 2021 looks just like the rest. You can see that also by most of the trucks on auto trader having a demo of the backup camera in the pics. Looks the same across all years to me.

I am curious if maybe the trucks you're referring to have the 360 cam. Now THAT setup is abysmal.

I suppose mine could have been better on the aftermarket radio than stock, it's been basically since I bought the truck that I've had the Kenwood HU in there. But, I don't remember it being a noticeable improvement, so I really don't think so.

 

Looks like Firn already said along the lines of what I was thinking