VIOFO A129 non-IR 1080p Modified Firmware MODs Archive

Indeed ( have been doing PC overslocking since 700 MHZ was a fast CPU.

But in general you always have some headroom, even with the box cooler, but of course adding a better heatpipe cooler or water cooling then you can go even further.
I don't think the guys would release a MOD firmware that had stability issues, i never encountered that with the A7 based SOC in the Joovuu X camera.

Yes you do shorten lifespan, and IMO you should not do it if you don't have a backup or money so you can go buy new hardware if you are unlucky and fry it, but i have never fried any PC hardware.
I did have water cooled OCZ ram that died on me, but just one of 4 RAM block, i also had Corsair RAM die on me in my I7 quadcore computer, and i never did any OC on that machine.

IMO with a dashcam if it just last 2 years i would be happy, by then something better are on the market i would want to have anyway, but if you are not a dashcam geek and just want it to be there and last a lifetime, then you should not use a MOD firmware.

It may be that it was the MOD firmware that killed my Joovuu x cam in the end, no way for me to tell, but judging on others that had their x cam die even faster and not ever using a MOD firmware it could be a number of other things too.
2 of the 3 joovuu X cameras i had died without ever seeing a MOD firmware installed, but those 2 was also pre- production cameras, the last production one lasetd okay IMO.

I am hoping summer 2019 will be as good as last year.
 
It has to be a compromise between CPU power and energy consumption. I am sure that more advanced CPUs that could handle higher bitrates with maybe lower power demands (thus running cooler) are on the way.
 
All this has Sweet FA to do with the Viofo 129 Duo.
I think that BCHobbyist's FW development shows some of the options and limitations of a dual camera based on the nt96663, such as maximum bitrate across all channels. This is applicable to a front / rear setup just as much as a wide / telephoto setup.

We have already seen an A129 variant with front and IR internal cameras. I know Viofo also considered a wide / telephoto option too.
 
Last edited:
Indeed ( have been doing PC overslocking since 700 MHZ was a fast CPU.

But in general you always have some headroom, even with the box cooler, but of course adding a better heatpipe cooler or water cooling then you can go even further.
I don't think the guys would release a MOD firmware that had stability issues, i never encountered that with the A7 based SOC in the Joovuu X camera.

Yes you do shorten lifespan, and IMO you should not do it if you don't have a backup or money so you can go buy new hardware if you are unlucky and fry it, but i have never fried any PC hardware.
I did have water cooled OCZ ram that died on me, but just one of 4 RAM block, i also had Corsair RAM die on me in my I7 quadcore computer, and i never did any OC on that machine.

IMO with a dashcam if it just last 2 years i would be happy, by then something better are on the market i would want to have anyway, but if you are not a dashcam geek and just want it to be there and last a lifetime, then you should not use a MOD firmware.

It may be that it was the MOD firmware that killed my Joovuu x cam in the end, no way for me to tell, but judging on others that had their x cam die even faster and not ever using a MOD firmware it could be a number of other things too.
2 of the 3 joovuu X cameras i had died without ever seeing a MOD firmware installed, but those 2 was also pre- production cameras, the last production one lasetd okay IMO.

I am hoping summer 2019 will be as good as last year.

Usually a stock heatsink will afford around 10%-15% overclock. Any more is going to be a bit aggressive and could cause stability issues. Or as I learned one time, fry the CPU (woops). You are taking 16Mbps and going to 22 ---> 27MBps on front camera. 16---> 22 = 37.5%

Or with the MOST aggressive Overclock on Front camera..... 16---> 27Mbps = 58% overclock.

Which I have to imagine the manufacturer did not account for when designing the camera. Thus, the major concern is going to be how does this camera handle a nice hot summer climate at those specs. Winter is cold so temperatures, so any signs of trouble may be masked. Because nature provides a "superior" heatsink this time of year.....But come 25-30C weather, it may be an entirely different story..

My Camera is under warranty and is brand new.....But I don't want the headache of trying to warranty replace the thing atm....

=) Therefore, I want a Guinea Pig that is willing to overclock to test this out in the Southern Hemisphere, and who doesn't mind the risk! =)
 
Last edited:
One Gripe I have with the Viofo A129 is that license plates are unable to be read at night. Could be my Tint + CFL filter as the culprit...But I also think the 16Mbit resolution might be too low. Seems if it had a higher bitrate, things would be a bit more clear... Which I'd like to run once I Know I won't kill my camera!

I noticed this same problem on YouTube Videos I watched too. Not sure if they had CFL Filter and/or tint

Anyone notice the same?
 
Last edited:
Thats the same on any camera, to capture a plate at night, you or it have to pass by at a speed no lager than walking speed.
It is simply not possible to do with current technology, or rather affordable technology.
There are plenty of commercials where you see plates clear as day in night footage, but if you look close it are often filmed in a town with more ambient light at night than in our countries in the daytime this time of the year.
And also the cars will be moving slow in respect to each other, and so a plate capture are possible.

I have driven 2 X 45 km today in pretty bleak weather, and i am pretty sure on the highways where we all do 80 i will have very few plate captures, in the rummer it is more a question of how few plates i don't capture.

To get a bright footage as possible in low light conditions a dashcam will drop to 1:30 second exposure time the slowest you can use for 30 FPS footage, that's far too slow for anything that move at speed so it cause a lot of motion blur, ideal you would want a exposure time of 1:500 second at least if you want to photograph something at a higher speed, at least that's what i was told in photo class many decades ago.

If you want to take a picture of a rifle bullet as it zoom past you, you will need a exposure time of 1:200.000 second i recon, the fastest cameras can do about a million FPS and so can have a exposure time of MAX 1:1,000,000 second for each frame.
And for such fast FPS and so also exposure times you need silly amounts of light, so much so even the brightest sun on a summer day will be too little for the really fast slow motion recordings.

If you look at this video from the slow motion guys, the footage of then talking are nice and bright as it is a sunny day. but all the slow motion footage you see are pretty dark, and that's due to them using 200,000 FPS camera and so faster than 1:200,000 second exposure time, and that's pretty fast even with a lot of sunshine.


If the slow motion guys had filmed those clips with a 1 million FPS camera the footage would just be darkness or close to it.

If a dashcam could do such exposure times, or just a fraction of that at night you will see razor sharp pictures, but as you cant add more light at night all you can do is up the sensor sensitivity ( ISO ) which you can do to a degree before you get noise in the picture, but you will need a stupid light sensitive sensor to do that, and while some awesome sensors exist, no one are going to use those as they cant sell dashcams costing 20,000 dollars.

This 1 million FPS fotage of bullets i can assure you the lighting used to capture that would be blinding even if wearing welding mask.


The really fast cameras can now film a light pulse as it pass by, and light move pretty fast.
At this many FPS and so exposure times, the footage are pretty dark hell even the light are faint, and i can assure you they was not using a 80W IKEA desk lamp to light up that footage.

 
WDR seems to oversaturate an image. I tested it yesterday at night. Brightens to the point of pixelation. Again, I have my CFL filter on and Tint...but the oversaturation is obnoxious.

I did look at videos from the street guardian. Does appear to have better night time pick up. Some of my problem might be due to tint. Can't say for sure as no way to test without. Well short of ripping out camera and installing it into another vehicle! Or taking the front camera to another vehicle... Not inclined to do so.

Correct me if I am wrong, but upping the exposure will cause motion blur. So that's not a viable option in a vehicle moving at rapid speed.

Far as ISO? I'm not an expert at Cameras, but would an increased ISO solve any of these issues? Where the camera lens detects light amounts instead of forcing a setting like WDR?
 
I always leave WDR off with the A129. It seems to use excessive ISO to brighten the shadow areas, and thus is rather noisy. With the IMX291, the A129 is bright enough at night. In fact I have my front camera set to EV -0.3.
 
VIOFO A129 Firmware Requests for next official 1.60 version hopefully March 2019

Bitrate changed from Normal / High ==> Normal 20Mb/s + Medium 24Mb/s + High 26Mb/s (use same levels on 1080P 60fps and 30fps)
Sharpness changed from Strong / Normal / Soft ==> Stronger 5 + Strong 4 + Normal 3 + Soft 2 + Softer 1
Change BootDelay default from Off ==> 5 seconds
Add Color Saturation option ==> Neutral + More + Vivid
Add Beep Volume ==> Low + Medium + High
Add Front Camera Mirror ==> On / Off
Add Bluetooth ==> On / Off
 
Usually a stock heatsink will afford around 10%-15% overclock. Any more is going to be a bit aggressive and could cause stability issues. Or as I learned one time, fry the CPU (woops). You are taking 16Mbps and going to 22 ---> 27MBps on front camera. 16---> 22 = 37.5%

Or with the MOST aggressive Overclock on Front camera..... 16---> 27Mbps = 58% overclock.

stop thinking in computer terms, there is zero overclock happening, whether the bitrate is 5mbit/sec or 50mbit/sec the processor clock speed is not changed at all, it's not comparable to overclocking a computer
 
VIOFO A129 Firmware Requests for next official 1.60 version hopefully March 2019

Bitrate changed from Normal / High ==> Normal 20Mb/s + Medium 24Mb/s + High 26Mb/s (use same levels on 1080P 60fps and 30fps)
Sharpness changed from Strong / Normal / Soft ==> Stronger 5 + Strong 4 + Normal 3 + Soft 2 + Softer 1
Change BootDelay default from Off ==> 5 seconds
Add Color Saturation option ==> Neutral + More + Vivid
Add Beep Volume ==> Low + Medium + High
Add Front Camera Mirror ==> On / Off
Add Bluetooth ==> On / Off
Are you able to comment on how the MOD FW settings translate to the new FW settings? Mostly thinking about the sharpness setting here. I assume the current colour saturation is neutral?
 
stop thinking in computer terms, there is zero overclock happening, whether the bitrate is 5mbit/sec or 50mbit/sec the processor clock speed is not changed at all, it's not comparable to overclocking a computer

You are forcing components to work harder, thus generating more heat....It's absolutely analogous to overclocking a processor. Heat is the enemy of electronics. Potential Failure Point: Heat generated from increased bitrate + outside ambient temperature = Potential Failure of components.
 
VIOFO A129 Firmware Requests for next official 1.60 version hopefully March 2019

Bitrate changed from Normal / High ==> Normal 20Mb/s + Medium 24Mb/s + High 26Mb/s (use same levels on 1080P 60fps and 30fps)
Sharpness changed from Strong / Normal / Soft ==> Stronger 5 + Strong 4 + Normal 3 + Soft 2 + Softer 1
Change BootDelay default from Off ==> 5 seconds
Add Color Saturation option ==> Neutral + More + Vivid
Add Beep Volume ==> Low + Medium + High
Add Front Camera Mirror ==> On / Off
Add Bluetooth ==> On / Off

Will increasing bitrate only be noticeable in the daytime or will it help make the image any more crisp a during night recording? Or will the upped bitrate simply create more noise?
 
You are forcing components to work harder, thus generating more heat....It's absolutely analogous to overclocking a processor. Heat is the enemy of electronics. Potential Failure Point: Heat generated from increased bitrate + outside ambient temperature = Potential Failure of components.
Will increasing bitrate only be noticeable in the daytime or will it help make the image any more crisp a during night recording? Or will the upped bitrate simply create more noise?
Quite funny how in one post you claim to know better than someone who manufactures one of the best dascams on the market, and in the next post you ask such a noob question! :ROFLMAO:
 
Quite funny how in one post you claim to know better than someone who manufactures one of the best dascams on the market, and in the next post you ask such a noob question! :ROFLMAO:

I know how hardware works....And making hardware work harder outside specified parameters does lead to potentials for failures. Unless the issue of heat is addressed. Otherwise, Viofo would have upped their stock bitrates much higher if there was little to be concerned about.

And knowing about hardware doesn't mean I have a well developed knowledge of lighting conditions and lenses. ....Beyond more pixels (4K vs 1080) will cause greater noise levels in low light...Because as the number of pixels are increased, each pixel becomes small. Didn't know if upping the bitrate, which is meant to improve video quality, would lead to the same effect. Since what you're doing here is upscaling.
 
You are forcing components to work harder, thus generating more heat....It's absolutely analogous to overclocking a processor. Heat is the enemy of electronics. Potential Failure Point: Heat generated from increased bitrate + outside ambient temperature = Potential Failure of components.

it generates more heat when you run higher bitrates, excessive heat is not good for electronics, it's not like overclocking a computer though, that causes stability issues which are not just heat related
 
it generates more heat when you run higher bitrates, excessive heat is not good for electronics, it's not like overclocking a computer though, that causes stability issues which are not just heat related

Without going back and forth. The question remains and no one has yet provided a well informed answer. Will increasing the camera's bitrate lead to a level of heat that will cause components to fail prematurely? Either due to Hot Summer + Increased Component Temperatures = Dead Camera or Components working outside spec causing a shorter shelf life.

What else causes a pc instability from overclocking issues if not heat?

Increase processor speed too high = Heat issue unless proper cooling solutions are put into place to disperse added heat.
Change Ram Timings = Ram won't run stable unless the heatsinks on the ram can properly disperse the temperature increases.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top