Parking Mode Settings Clarification

LMJ

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Location
California USA
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United States
Dash Cam
Viofo A129 Duo (not installed yet)
At present, I am running my parking mode on low bit rate. Power source is a 26,800 MaH power bank. Its been working great and I dont mind having the continuous recording. However, the power source lasts about a day or so for me.

What is the next option as far as settings to stretch the power source out to say a week, if possible? In other words, which settings should I use?
 
You need a battery 7x the size!

You could make a bit of difference by disconnecting the rear camera, but it is a few hours extra, not days.

Not much else you can do, except maybe use a different dashcam, but the only ones that will run longer will stop recording between events, and even then few will last 3 days on that size powerbank and will be single channel.
 
Also have to think about memory card size.

Sent from my VKY-L29 using Tapatalk
 
I hope the buffered parking mode will extend the battery range.
 
I hope the buffered parking mode will extend the battery range.
It will a bit, because the memory card isn't being used most of the time, but everything else is being used, it has to record the video to the buffer instead, so you might get a few hours extra.
 
It will a bit, because the memory card isn't being used most of the time, but everything else is being used, it has to record the video to the buffer instead, so you might get a few hours extra.
The memory card is the buffer, so I doubt it will make any difference
EDIT: That statement may be incorrect - sorry
 
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did they say they were using the card for the buffer (it's not normally done this way), or is that an assumption?
That's what I was told when I was testing the beta FW. Perhaps I misunderstood though.
EDIT: I've re-read my earlier testing notes and now I'm not sure how it's done.

I would expect a camera designed with buffered parking mode from the outset to use built-in storage for short-term loop recording without writing to the card, but I'm not sure if the A129 has that hardware.
 
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I haven't looked into how they're doing it so not sure
Upon checking my testing notes I'm not sure any more how it's being done. I've edited my posts above.
 
I would expect a camera designed with buffered parking mode from the outset to use built-in storage for short-term loop recording without writing to the card, but I'm not sure if the A129 has that hardware.
Not certain, but I think it was "designed for buffered parking mode from the outset", so has enough internal memory, but other more important things were implemented first, like the low bitrate parking mode.
 
Not certain, but I think it was "designed for buffered parking mode from the outset", so has enough internal memory, but other more important things were implemented first, like the low bitrate parking mode.
OK - good to know, thanks.

Back to the original question, I suppose writing to an internal buffer memory may be more power efficient than writing to a card. But as you say, not really much to be gained beyond the current 1-day recording time on a 26800mAh powerbank.
 
OK - good to know, thanks.

Back to the original question, I suppose writing to an internal buffer memory may be more power efficient than writing to a card. But as you say, not really much to be gained beyond the current 1-day recording time on a 26800mAh powerbank.
The only way to make a big difference is to have a bigger powerbank. Not sure why bigger powerbanks are difficult to buy, it wouldn't cost much extra to put 2x the number of lithium cells in, the electronics would be identical, just needs a bigger box and the cells just connect in parallel. Maybe there isn't much demand for a powerbank that takes 20 hours to charge?
 
For low bitrate parking mode, why is there no audio even though the mic is on?

Also, what does "rear camera mirror" do? I tried enabling it and nothing happened with the image from the rear camera, at least from the live view in the front camera screen.
 
For low bitrate parking mode, why is there no audio even though the mic is on?

Also, what does "rear camera mirror" do? I tried enabling it and nothing happened with the image from the rear camera, at least from the live view in the front camera screen.
There should be audio in low bitrate mode. It may be worth checking again. Do you have audio in normal recordings?

I believe rear camera mirror affects only the AV output if you are connecting the A129 to an in-car screen, for use as a reversing camera.
 
The only way to make a big difference is to have a bigger powerbank. Not sure why bigger powerbanks are difficult to buy, it wouldn't cost much extra to put 2x the number of lithium cells in, the electronics would be identical, just needs a bigger box and the cells just connect in parallel. Maybe there isn't much demand for a powerbank that takes 20 hours to charge?
I think that's it - there's not much demand. Current powerbanks are about as large as today's largest smartphones. I suppose people don't want to carry around something larger. Would be useful for car parking mode though.
 
There should be audio in low bitrate mode. It may be worth checking again. Do you have audio in normal recordings?

I believe rear camera mirror affects only the AV output if you are connecting the A129 to an in-car screen, for use as a reversing camera.

Yes, I have audio in normal recordings. It's probably just really quiet while the car is parked. I'll try again.

Ok, I see what you mean by rear camera mirror.
 
Maybe try a different video player.

I thought the mirror setting gives a mirror image of the rear video, it is often hard to see that a rear camera is mirrored because that is how you expect it to be if you use your mirror often.
 
Maybe try a different video player.

I thought the mirror setting gives a mirror image of the rear video, it is often hard to see that a rear camera is mirrored because that is how you expect it to be if you use your mirror often.

If the video player I'm using plays the normal videos with audio just fine, I don't think it makes a difference with the low bitrate videos? I mean I'm using the built-in player of Windows 10. These are mp4 files that are easily played.

That's what I thought about the rear camera mirror function too but it is not the case. Viofo doesn't have any documentation about that though.
 
Ok, I just played the parking mode videos again and increased the volume of my speakers and I did hear audio. It just seems that the audio is more quiet with the parking mode videos compared to the normal recording videos. Is this to be expected?
 
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