Vortex's Viofo A329 Review

[Nigel]

I thought when a camera goes from 30fps to 60fps the Bitrate needs to double to be effective.
Is that not true?
I have a Sony Action Cam (AS200V), and when I switch from 1080p30 to 1080p60 the size of the files double.

All things being equal, I believe so, but I think that with compression, you can sometimes get away with less than 2x the file size, though that'll be more true when there's not as much motion around you, aka you're stationary or driving slower and with a clear sky overhead instead of a bunch of trees or something.

60fps needs more bitrate than 30fps if you are going to keep the same image quality, but you do not need double, generally the codec will only store information on what has moved between the 30 fps frames and the new frames, and that doesn't need much bitrate for a dashcam in a car that is moving at constant speed with no picture vibration, it does not need to store much extra colour information, or spacial detail, your eyes would not pick it up anyway. The general guide is that 60fps should have about 30% more bitrate, but for a dashcam, it should probably be less than that, maybe 20% most of the time. If you have 0% more bitrate then the smoother motion will be at the expense of some other detail, and generally colour detail will get dropped first, then it will become more pixellated and road surface detail gets lost. For normal slow driving, 60Mb/s is enough that the lower image quality of 60fps will be hard to see but the extra smoothness will be obvious, on a sunny day when driving faster under trees, the image quality difference will be more noticeable.

Realistically, 65Mb/s is enough for a dashcam, even at 60fps, until we get above 4K resolution, but it would be nice to have a 100Mb/s 60fps version, even if it is only available for 1 channel use, when you want top quality video. Or if the limit is the microSD card then 100Mb/s only when using an external SSD, as with the iPhone 15 Pro "raw" video recording, Although the iPhone does tend to drop a lot of frames without warning if your external SSD is not fast enough, so that is not a great device to copy!

 

[Augustus]

60fps needs more bitrate than 30fps if you are going to keep the same image quality, but you do not need double, generally the codec will only store information on what has moved between the 30 fps frames and the new frames, and that doesn't need much bitrate for a dashcam in a car that is moving at constant speed with no picture vibration, it does not need to store much extra colour information, or spacial detail, your eyes would not pick it up anyway. The general guide is that 60fps should have about 30% more bitrate, but for a dashcam, it should probably be less than that, maybe 20% most of the time. If you have 0% more bitrate then the smoother motion will be at the expense of some other detail, and generally colour detail will get dropped first, then it will become more pixellated and road surface detail gets lost. For normal slow driving, 60Mb/s is enough that the lower image quality of 60fps will be hard to see but the extra smoothness will be obvious, on a sunny day when driving faster under trees, the image quality difference will be more noticeable.

Realistically, 65Mb/s is enough for a dashcam, even at 60fps, until we get above 4K resolution, but it would be nice to have a 100Mb/s 60fps version, even if it is only available for 1 channel use, when you want top quality video. Or if the limit is the microSD card then 100Mb/s only when using an external SSD, as with the iPhone 15 Pro "raw" video recording, Although the iPhone does tend to drop a lot of frames without warning if your external SSD is not fast enough, so that is not a great device to copy!

True even my Android phone at 4k60 dropped frames during recording at 60mb/sec bitrate a few weeks ago when I was out of the country - purely because it was 40 degrees Celsius outside and I was recording videos every few minutes. Heat is the enemy lol.

 

[Chuck McCoy]

it would be nice to have a 100Mb/s 60fps version, even if it is only available for 1 channel use,

Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
@viofo

 

[alexp999]

Can you have 60 FPS recording and AutoHDR on at the same time? So it records daytime 60 without hdr then night time 30 with HDR? Or does AutoHDR also force 30 fps all the time?

 

[Nigel]

Can you have 60 FPS recording and AutoHDR on at the same time? So it records daytime 60 without hdr then night time 30 with HDR?

Yes 🙂

 

[Vortex Radar]

Working on an updated version of the video. I've looked through a ton more sample footage and found that 60 fps really doesn't have that much of a benefit so I've updated that, included a ton more sample footage, and did a little better job explaining some of the shutter speed stuff. I've also added some extra content based on your questions including if the SNV for timelapse also works for the rear cam, if you can use the included long USB cable for the SSD, if the USB C port also functions for power. I'll post the improved version of the video once it's ready. 🙂

 

[Chuck McCoy]

I've looked through a ton more sample footage and found that 60 fps really doesn't have that much of a benefit

Was this with the 97Mbps Bitrate firmware, or the 65Mbps Bitrate firmware?
Do you think the magical 100Mbps Bitarate in 1-CH configuration would provide the 60fps benefit we’re looking for?

 

[Vortex Radar]

Alrighty, updated video is now live!

Was this with the 97Mbps Bitrate firmware, or the 65Mbps Bitrate firmware?
Do you think the magical 100Mbps Bitarate in 1-CH configuration would provide the 60fps benefit we’re looking for?

I dunno, I'd have to go back and doublecheck every clip. IIRC, most of the clips were at 65.

100 Mb/s could help with reducing some of the compression and getting better detail when moving which could help offset some of the IQ reductions when you try to cram in more data due to the additional frames, but it's not gonna impact shutter speeds or motion blur which is what 60 fps is often advertised as helping with.

 

[Augustus]

Working on an updated version of the video. I've looked through a ton more sample footage and found that 60 fps really doesn't have that much of a benefit so I've updated that, included a ton more sample footage, and did a little better job explaining some of the shutter speed stuff. I've also added some extra content based on your questions including if the SNV for timelapse also works for the rear cam, if you can use the included long USB cable for the SSD, if the USB C port also functions for power. I'll post the improved version of the video once it's ready. 🙂

Very nice, quick turnaround and good to see that can use the usb c port for power too, but bummer that the long cable is power only and not for data either for the SSD :/

 

[Nigel]

Do you think the magical 100Mbps Bitarate in 1-CH configuration would provide the 60fps benefit we’re looking for?

45Mb/s gives the 60fps benefit of smoother video, capable of being turned into slow motion video without becoming too jerky.
What other benefit were you looking for?

The advantage of 100Mb/s would be to improve image quality, but to match 30fps 60Mb/s image quality, you probably only need about 60 + 20% = 72Mb/s. 100Mb/s would give significantly better image quality than the A229 Pro, which most people would have difficulty seeing. The real advantage comes when you are editing/colour grading your road trip movies, something which most people never do, but some will.

 

[SR14626]

I just wish that Viofo would update the A229 Pro with the additional cooling vents on the side like the A329. Don’t really need the A329 and the SSD capabilities. Are you listening Viofo ?

 

[Augustus]

I just wish that Viofo would update the A229 Pro with the additional cooling vents on the side like the A329. Don’t really need the A329 and the SSD capabilities. Are you listening Viofo ?

Perhaps A339 next year then ..

 

[Chuck McCoy]

45Mb/s gives the 60fps benefit of smoother video, capable of being turned into slow motion video without becoming too jerky.
What other benefit were you looking for?

Daytime plate capture.
Are you going to test & review an A329 unit?
Theory is good, but we need to see hands on results.

 

[Chuck McCoy]

I just wish that Viofo would update the A229 Pro with the additional cooling vents on the side like the A329. Don’t really need the A329 and the SSD capabilities. Are you listening Viofo ?

The cooling vents are only a portion of the reduction in heat signature.
The all-new latest, and greatest processor we don't have a model number for yet is a major factor.
Am I wrong @viofo ?

 

[Augustus]

The cooling vents are only a portion of the reduction in heat signature.
The all-new latest, and greatest processor we don't have a model number for yet is a major factor.
Am I wrong @viofo ?

If they were super confident in the processor they probably wouldn't need to have so many cooling vents, and be worried enough to have those vents.

A53 is more efficient architecture than what came before for sure, but still runs fairly hot for what it is (and was when it was in cell phones)

 

[Chuck McCoy]

If they were super confident in the processor they probably wouldn't need to have so many cooling vents, and be worried enough to have those vents.

An A329 Box Version would solve this heat issue.
Where’s the box version Viofo? lol

 

[Augustus]

An A329 Box Version would solve this heat issue.
Where’s the box version Viofo? lol

@viofo @VIOFO-Support

 

[viofo]

Using SSD is not a heating concern, it means you can almost forget LOOP RECORDING.

 

[Chuck McCoy]

Using SSD is not a heating concern, it means you can almost forget LOOP RECORDING.

1.) Do you have any plans to publish a list of Recommended, and NOT Recommended;
a.) SSD
b.) Type-C to Type-C Cable Minimum Specifications
c.) Type-C to Type-C Cable Maximum Length
Just like to did for Micro SD Cards.
I can already see customers buying the cheapest SSD’s, and cables and then blaming the camera for malfunctions / incompatibility.

2.) Do you have any plans to add 1TB Micro SD Card support?

 

[viofo]

1.) Do you have any plans to publish a list of Recommended, and NOT Recommended;
a.) SSD
b.) Type-C to Type-C Cable Minimum Specifications
c.) Type-C to Type-C Cable Maximum Length
Just like to did for Micro SD Cards.
I can already see customers buying the cheapest SSD’s, and cables and then blaming the camera for malfunctions / incompatibility.

2.) Do you have any plans to add 1TB Micro SD Card support?


View attachment 74224

We suggest buying PSSD and using it with the official 1.8-meter cable.

Even if the camera supports a 1TB microSD card, we don't recommend using it, so we will not list it supports 1TB.
I don't think a 1TB microSD card is good enough for dash cam.

Like the Sandisk MAX endurance version, it doesn't even come with a 512GB version. It advertised the best card for dashcam on the Chinese recommence website.