rcg530
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2021
- Messages
- 1,634
- Reaction score
- 2,724
- Location
- California
- Country
- United States
- Dash Cam
- BlackVue, Thinkware, VIOFO, Vantrue, Blueskysea, FineVu
Several weeks ago I started a review of the Zenfox U1 2-channel dashcam. I'm quite impressed with the overall video quality from both cameras.
Parking Mode Questions
The U1 user manual does not clearly define the parking mode operation when powered by the 12-volt power port adapter (motion based parking mode). I was getting somewhat inconsistent behavior with the motion based parking mode. It would sometimes start parking mode after 10 minutes of being motionless, on rare occasions it would start after 5 minutes of being motionless and other times it would not go into parking mode at all. It still continued recording in normal mode if it did not go into parking mode.
When I obtained the Zenfox hardwiring adapter, parking mode worked well at that point.
I'm still waiting on Zenfox support to supply me with a definition of what it should be doing in motion based parking mode.
Dropped Video Footage At File Transitions
I've been comparing the Zenfox U1 rear video footage with another vendor's rear video camera footage because the other vendor's camera is generating very dark video footage. These ongoing comparisons of video footage had me looking a lot at the video files generated by the Zenfox U1 cameras.
The Zenfox U1 has a 1-minute file rotation time period. I found more than a few examples where I would find the rear dashcam's video footage would be listed at 59 seconds in length. The filenames of the video files also had a longer than one minute gap (front and rear video files). It appears that the video file storage process is getting delayed in storing the video content by 3 to 5 seconds when this occurs. When that delay occurs, there are 3 to 5 seconds of video footage being lost.
In the following examples, you can see that when it's working correctly, the filenames have a 60 second gap (maybe even 61 seconds at rare times). When the problem occurs the filename time gap is 63 to 65 seconds.
I've reported this issue to Zenfox several weeks ago and they are investigating the issue and looking for a fix.
Review Status
I've paused my review of the Zenfox U1 2-channel dashcam for now. When Zenfox support provides the additional information and fix for the dropped video frames, I'll resume the review.
Parking Mode Questions
The U1 user manual does not clearly define the parking mode operation when powered by the 12-volt power port adapter (motion based parking mode). I was getting somewhat inconsistent behavior with the motion based parking mode. It would sometimes start parking mode after 10 minutes of being motionless, on rare occasions it would start after 5 minutes of being motionless and other times it would not go into parking mode at all. It still continued recording in normal mode if it did not go into parking mode.
When I obtained the Zenfox hardwiring adapter, parking mode worked well at that point.
I'm still waiting on Zenfox support to supply me with a definition of what it should be doing in motion based parking mode.
Dropped Video Footage At File Transitions
I've been comparing the Zenfox U1 rear video footage with another vendor's rear video camera footage because the other vendor's camera is generating very dark video footage. These ongoing comparisons of video footage had me looking a lot at the video files generated by the Zenfox U1 cameras.
The Zenfox U1 has a 1-minute file rotation time period. I found more than a few examples where I would find the rear dashcam's video footage would be listed at 59 seconds in length. The filenames of the video files also had a longer than one minute gap (front and rear video files). It appears that the video file storage process is getting delayed in storing the video content by 3 to 5 seconds when this occurs. When that delay occurs, there are 3 to 5 seconds of video footage being lost.
In the following examples, you can see that when it's working correctly, the filenames have a 60 second gap (maybe even 61 seconds at rare times). When the problem occurs the filename time gap is 63 to 65 seconds.
I've reported this issue to Zenfox several weeks ago and they are investigating the issue and looking for a fix.
Review Status
I've paused my review of the Zenfox U1 2-channel dashcam for now. When Zenfox support provides the additional information and fix for the dropped video frames, I'll resume the review.