A119 Firmware

[Tractor]

If you care to read my posting before Borik posted you will see it was suggested to clean the contacts.

 

[leoblack9]

Thank you for the suggestion. My unit was brand spanking new and the contacts were clean. Still, I tried wiping it with some microfiber cloth and put it back. I have not observed any change in operation (at that time it still gave me NO GPS).

 

[wryliewhiley]

I double checked this, seems OK, after change to .TS format, camera restarted and keep 1440P mode.

I have updated to V4 today. Then I read the manual on the Viofo website. I cannot see any instructions about how to set the A119 to record TS. I cannot see any advice about using TS instead of MP4. Is the manual out of date? If so, I believe it should always be updated to match the Firmware.

What does SDK stand for too?

 

[jokiin]

SDK is the software development kit, the models that they've added TS option to have a menu where you can select that

 

[Tractor]

wryliewhiley
As Jokiin said there is an option in the menu to change between MP4 and TS. The main advantage of using TS is that the video is in it's native form before it is encoded to MP4. TS files do not rely on the capacitors and will record even when they fail. Disadvantage I have yet to find software that will use GPS embedded info in the video. This only a problem if you have and use the GPS unit.
TS files are likely to be intact after a major incident, if the dashcam was damaged in the event, whereas MP4 may be incomplete due disrupted encoding.

 

[Lola]

So what is the consensus of the discussion, set in the main menu to TS ?

 

[borik]

if you use the camera to record the video for your safety record it in a TS format.
if you record the video for youtube record it as MP4.

 

[Lola]

if you use the camera to record the video for your safety record it in a TS format.
if you record the video for youtube record it as MP4.

Why the difference?

 

[jokiin]

Why the difference?

MP4 if the camera crashed before the file was closed you'd lose the entire last file, with TS you will have everything up until about the last second, there's no quality difference it's just the way the data it handled

TS is good in that your data is more likely to be saved, the playback options are more limited though, not aware of any of GPS playback software that will support TS

 

[wryliewhiley]

Thanks everyone

I have updated to V4 today. Then I read the manual on the Viofo website. I cannot see any instructions about how to set the A119 to record TS. I cannot see any advice about using TS instead of MP4. Is the manual out of date? If so, I believe it should always be updated to match the Firmware.

What does SDK stand for too?

Thanks everyone. So the V4 changelog would be improved if it explained who/what benefit SDK is. Surely it cannot be assumed every user "just knows"

Similarly the V4 changelog would be improved if the pros and cons of TS were explained. Surely it cannot be assumed every user "just knows".

Do not get me wrong. I, for just one, appreciate the constant software improvements and it is a great selling point for VIOFO and I have therefore recommended VIOFO to others for that very reason, However, with just a little bit of extra info, with the updates AND a corresponding update to the Manual the service would be unbeatable. I am sure Dashcam comparison reviews would mention this too.

 

[ember1205]

if you use the camera to record the video for your safety record it in a TS format.
if you record the video for youtube record it as MP4.

I believe there's more to this answer than what you've written.

TS could be thought of as more of a "raw" level of capturing content. Additional data that may not directly be used in the audio, video, or other aspects of the captured content could be written right alongside the data content that we ultimately want (the 'video'). When playing it back or when using it as a source for editing, this additional data is often times simply discarded with no discernible impact on the finished product. While capturing the additional is a "negative" (uses more space), the "positive" that offsets it is that the capture and writing of the data is much faster since no post-processing is done at the time of capture.

MP4 is a post-processed version of the captured data. The resultant files are of smaller size, but the additional steps required before the data is saved mean that it takes longer and more data is at risk of being lost in the even the camera abruptly shuts down.

There is absolutely no reason that you need to do the post processing in the camera at the time of capture unless you want the pure convenience of it. Even if you're capturing content to put it on YouTube, TS files are perfectly fine. HandBrake is freely available for all platforms and can easily perform a transcoding of TS to MP4 before you upload.

 

[Tractor]

To a large number of the users it is as simple as Borik put it. Anyone who as any experience in video would knows that there is lot more to converting files to a Users preference format (notable time). The length of time it takes to encode a video depends on the speed of the computer not a piece of software. Not everyone as a super fast computer in fact not everyone has a computer.
The biggest negative about TS files is that there is no currently freely available software that supports the GPS data in the TS file where as there are several that pull the data out of a MP4 file. Also many players are not able to play a list of TS file continuously without some sort of lag between files.
For the average user I would recommend MP4 over TS simply because it is more widely supported.

 

[ember1205]

To a large number of the users it is as simple as Borik put it. Anyone who as any experience in video would knows that there is lot more to converting files to a Users preference format (notable time). The length of time it takes to encode a video depends on the speed of the computer not a piece of software. Not everyone as a super fast computer in fact not everyone has a computer.
The biggest negative about TS files is that there is no currently freely available software that supports the GPS data in the TS file where as there are several that pull the data out of a MP4 file. Also many players are not able to play a list of TS file continuously without some sort of lag between files.
For the average user I would recommend MP4 over TS simply because it is more widely supported.

I agree. But, I feel that providing the details so that folks can all make their own, informed decision to suit their situation and needs is the best approach. That's why I added the details.

 

[wryliewhiley]

So, simple question ...... if you use TS and transcode to MP4 then play it with e.g. Dashcam Viewer does that allow you to see the GPS info?

 

[jokiin]

So, simple question ...... if you use TS and transcode to MP4 then play it with e.g. Dashcam Viewer does that allow you to see the GPS info?

try it and see I guess, I suspect it may be a problem but you never know

 

[ember1205]

Thanks everyone


Thanks everyone. So the V4 changelog would be improved if it explained who/what benefit SDK is. Surely it cannot be assumed every user "just knows"

Similarly the V4 changelog would be improved if the pros and cons of TS were explained. Surely it cannot be assumed every user "just knows".

Do not get me wrong. I, for just one, appreciate the constant software improvements and it is a great selling point for VIOFO and I have therefore recommended VIOFO to others for that very reason, However, with just a little bit of extra info, with the updates AND a corresponding update to the Manual the service would be unbeatable. I am sure Dashcam comparison reviews would mention this too.

While I completely understand where you're coming from, I disagree fully with the approach you're suggesting.

If every single vendor out there had to educate every user on every detail like this, changelogs and user manuals would be unnecessarily large and unwieldy. Your approach to addressing this gap of information was completely reasonable - reach out and ask for others that have the answers to share them and explain. The information that you got was relevant to you as it directly addressed your specific questions. What the vendor might have written very likely would not have been as directly relevant. So, even though it would seem a reasonable approach, it would almost certainly still miss the mark for many/most readers.

Besides... What else would we have to do if no one had questions?

 

[Tractor]

Regards trans-coding You will find that all GPS info is stripped out during encoding. Unless you have an encoder that recognises the GPS info and the many formats of GPS info in will be lost. I have yet to come across one that does that and I have be into video for about 35 yrs never seen one.
Encoding is a lossy process even for plain video without GPS info but the digital video era has made the loss minimal. You only have to watch YouTube to see what encoding can do to a video if the parameters for encoding are not set for best output.

 

[ember1205]

Regards trans-coding You will find that all GPS info is stripped out during encoding. Unless you have an encoder that recognises the GPS info and the many formats of GPS info in will be lost. I have yet to come across one that does that and I have be into video for about 35 yrs never seen one.
Encoding is a lossy process even for plain video without GPS info but the digital video era has made the loss minimal. You only have to watch YouTube to see what encoding can do to a video if the parameters for encoding are not set for best output.

It would seem that there is a live "transcode" that's being done in-camera when you opt for MP4 format. Would it be safe to say that whatever is being run in-camera is proprietary and doesn't exist "in the wild" for use like is being discussed here? In other words... The software that's running in the camera is combining the audio and video and is also overlaying the GPS data at the same time. It's too bad that GPS data isn't saved in a format like subtitles... that would make it really simple to overlay as well as turn on and off when watching.

 

[Tractor]

Dashcams are a sub-division of the video world so encoders are generally for the masses hence no additional data is available to dashcam/GPS. That's not to say that someone may develop one but at the moment there is none known.

 

[radier]

Could you please stop using this thread to discuss about video formats?