VIOFO A129 non-IR 1080p Modified Firmware MODs Archive

Hey, how's it going. I'm interested in updating to your modded firmware, but a quick question first. Ever since updating to Viofo's firmware 1.3 and subsequently 1.5, I've noticed that the Live Video Source setting doesn't keep. It keeps reverting to Front/Rear Inset when I want it to be Rear Only. Does your modded firmware suffer from this issue as well, or did you fix it for them??
 
Hey, how's it going. I'm interested in updating to your modded firmware, but a quick question first. Ever since updating to Viofo's firmware 1.3 and subsequently 1.5, I've noticed that the Live Video Source setting doesn't keep. It keeps reverting to Front/Rear Inset when I want it to be Rear Only. Does your modded firmware suffer from this issue as well, or did you fix it for them??

it needs to have front/rear active at boot, if it doesn't it can have handshake issues with the rear cam, makes it much more reliable
 
it needs to have front/rear active at boot, if it doesn't it can have handshake issues with the rear cam, makes it much more reliable

Interesting. I could swear that out-of-the-box it would keep the Rear Only setting between power cycles.

What's the possibility of storing the setting to use to switch the Live Video Source after the boot/handshake process?
 
Interesting. I could swear that out-of-the-box it would keep the Rear Only setting between power cycles.
it probably did have it in earlier versions, it can cause problems though which is why they would have removed that function
 
Hey, how's it going. I'm interested in updating to your modded firmware, but a quick question first. Ever since updating to Viofo's firmware 1.3 and subsequently 1.5, I've noticed that the Live Video Source setting doesn't keep. It keeps reverting to Front/Rear Inset when I want it to be Rear Only. Does your modded firmware suffer from this issue as well, or did you fix it for them??
I'm planning many different minor modifications to A129Duo, will add your request to my List. The only modifications I cannot make at this time is to the Wifi APP. When Wifi is disabled and using the normal MENUs many changes are possible. You are correct about the Main view actually saving a preset after restart, its was an older firmware version but lacked the new Parking Mode voltage detection changes. Remind me about this later, working on some other MODs now for A119Pro.
 
The image looks good even in lower light, nice to see trees and grass not turning to mush as you pass them, the colour is great with Road Worker's bright orange pants and striped building.
What is your opinion of 4Uj over the stock FW 1.50 ?
Does your Parking Mode work ?
So far, it's the best in terms of image quality! The increase in bitrate improved it a lot. Great work!
I didn't use the parking mode yet. I want to install the 3 wire kit first. I will test it with a powerbank as soon as possible.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
 
I hope you don't have EV set to anything but 0 and WDR is off, those can also increase motion blurring. Suggest you raise Lens angle 1 click and see if it reduced motion blurring, I found it helps a lot.
The Lens angle is probably very under rated but massively important for image quality. Each vehicle windshield slope and hood length and slope and DVR mount height will affect best Lens angle. For my small car Lens angled just to see sliver of hood from washer nozzles down produces best quality video. For yours its between the previous angle and current angle, try half a click lower to caught the hood.

Although my old notes are gone I did measurements of Lens angles to automatic exposure level adjustment and the higher the Lens in daytime the less exposure meaning less motion blur. Lower the angle in cloudy daytime will produce brighter image by increasing exposure to combine frames and brighten image which can increase motion blurring depending on light levels. At night it depends greatly on street lights and effect wanted since all footage is motion blurred already, many owners lower Lens 1/2 click to brighten road with bad results for plate readability, too bright. I don't bother lowering Lens at night and too lazy to remove CPL so all night footage is motion blurred more than it could be.
I tried adjusting the lens up 1/2 click. That did give a more balanced exposure and reduced motion blur, but I felt it was looking up too high. So I put the lens back where it was and adjusted the front camera EV to -0.3 which has about the same effect on exposure. That will also darken my night recordings which I felt were too bright anyway.

I may even move to EV-0.6 since the video is still brighter and more blurred than one of my other cameras.
 
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I tried 5fps, 2fps and low bitrate. Same result - no parking video recorded.

I parked the car at 19:18. Plugged in a powerbank at 19:19. There's 5min of normal recording (19:19-19:23), then nothing until driving away at 21:43.

1544708495297.png

The 128GB card is not full: 1544709411911.png

I also recorded video clips of the screen during that time.

At 19:26 the camera gives the impression that it is recording in parking mode - but no file was created

Returning to the car at 21:40, it looks like it is still recording... but again no file

At 21:41 I started the engine (remember that the camera is powered continuously from a powerbank). The A129 registered the car vibration, but all it did was stop the 'phantom recording' then just sit there doing nothing until I unplugged it.

I have now turned off parking mode entirely and will just record 1080p30 when driving or parked.
 
I tried 5fps, 2fps and low bitrate. Same result - no parking video recorded.

I parked the car at 19:18. Plugged in a powerbank at 19:19. There's 5min of normal recording (19:19-19:23), then nothing until driving away at 21:43.

View attachment 43598

The 128GB card is not full: View attachment 43600

I also recorded video clips of the screen during that time.

At 19:26 the camera gives the impression that it is recording in parking mode - but no file was created

Returning to the car at 21:40, it looks like it is still recording... but again no file

At 21:41 I started the engine (remember that the camera is powered continuously from a powerbank). The A129 registered the car vibration, but all it did was stop the 'phantom recording' then just sit there doing nothing until I unplugged it.

I have now turned off parking mode entirely and will just record 1080p30 when driving or parked.
Excellent work collecting evidence of Parking Mode failure. It suggests a simple cause for the issue, will test my hypothesis.
In the Main Menu are both Time Lapse Recording and Motion Detection OFF? it shouldn't matter but could conflict with Parking Mode setting.
When Firmware was installed did you perform Default Settings? (I know you did just confirming)
Did you try multiple memory cards especially 64GB? (I know you did just confirming)
 
Excellent work collecting evidence of Parking Mode failure. It suggests a simple cause for the issue, will test my hypothesis.
In the Main Menu are both Time Lapse Recording and Motion Detection OFF? it shouldn't matter but could conflict with Parking Mode setting.
When Firmware was installed did you perform Default Settings? (I know you did just confirming)
Did you try multiple memory cards especially 64GB? (I know you did just confirming)

Same thing happened to mine if I have it set to 3fps parking mode, after I turn the car off it switches to it then when i restart the car I will not go back to regular recording the little red recording icon will also no longer be there and the recording time will be frozen. If you hit record it will stop and then you cant start recording again will just flash and beep. I tested with 5fps looks like it works fine. Might be something to do with 3fps setting.
 
Excellent work collecting evidence of Parking Mode failure. It suggests a simple cause for the issue, will test my hypothesis.
In the Main Menu are both Time Lapse Recording and Motion Detection OFF? it shouldn't matter but could conflict with Parking Mode setting.
When Firmware was installed did you perform Default Settings? (I know you did just confirming)
Did you try multiple memory cards especially 64GB? (I know you did just confirming)
Time lapse and motion detection are both turned off.
I did apply default settings before selecting my own parameters.
For consistency, I'm still using the same 128GB card that has been in the A129 for the past few months.
 
Beginning to wonder if VIOFO is converting A129 Parking Mode to a proprietary system requiring specialized Hardwire Kit. If this is true I'd request 5fps time lapse option for power bank users.

The most of the current Parking Mode options aren't recording probably because its waiting for specific voltage signal from 3-wire kit which MUST be connected to Front Camera side port and not the mount. The mount connector only carries 2 wires for GPS signal and 2 wires for power leaving none for additional vehicle voltage signal. Continue all testing using side port.
 
Very uncooperative weather on coast but wanted blue sky footage for this Review, delayed it for 40 days, posted anyway, tried to make it slightly entertaining. See if you can pause to identify the Auto Dealers passing by on right.
Many more pending shortly, stay tuned.

 
Very uncooperative weather on coast but wanted blue sky footage for this Review, delayed it for 40 days, posted anyway, tried to make it slightly entertaining. See if you can pause to identify the Auto Dealers passing by on right.
Many more pending shortly, stay tuned.

Nice review, keep up the great work!
 
Just wanted to say thank you loving this mod and took the card out to check the footage and looking good and working well in parking mode :) Thanks!!!
 
Just came back from a trip to Germany. I can say that I am really impressed by the image quality of 4Uj.
The image is sharp even at high speeds on the German Autobahn:

Links to files:
- Front cam: https://1drv.ms/v/s!AnJW_37kwnALn3_qd-GGWAoBht9C
- Rear cam: https://1drv.ms/v/s!AnJW_37kwnALn35-pK5bo_kG9TNQ

In bright sunlight, the image looks great as well:


In these videos I concatenated 3 clips (couldn't help myself as the landscape impressed me), but the links to RAW files are here: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AnJW_37kwnALoB4OTlDhDFVBeZAw
I should have used the CPL here but when I started driving the sky was really cloudy and I wanted to capture as much detail as possible.
 
Very uncooperative weather on coast but wanted blue sky footage for this Review, delayed it for 40 days, posted anyway, tried to make it slightly entertaining. See if you can pause to identify the Auto Dealers passing by on right.
Many more pending shortly, stay tuned.


Great review. Thank you for taking the time to compile and post this.
 
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