A119 V3 Settings Questions

Iggy

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Dash Cam
Viofo A119S V2, Lexar High Endurance Class 10 32GB memory
I figure I will start this off by many I'm sure who have never had a Viofo Dash Cam has some questions about what to select in settings.
So I figured I'd start by asking one.

Which Frequency setting do you use in SETUP and why?
50hz or 60hz
 

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Set 60 Hz for USA and much of Asia and 50 Hz for Europe and various other parts of the world. The setting will determine if you see flickering of electric lighting in your videos, depending upon your location.

See Wikipedia: "The utility frequency, (power) line frequency (American English) or mains frequency (British English) is the nominal frequency of the oscillations of alternating current (AC) in an electric power grid transmitted from a power station to the end-user. In large parts of the world this is 50 Hz, although in the Americas and parts of Asia it is typically 60 Hz."

For specific international mains frequencies see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains...ble_of_mains_voltages,_frequencies,_and_plugs
 
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So the 50 or 60 Hz is for playback only as we all have 12v batteries doing the recording.

I wonder what it does to the footage ?
 
So the 50 or 60 Hz is for playback only as we all have 12v batteries doing the recording.

I wonder what it does to the footage ?

It has to do with how the recording is made when capturing the frequency oscillations of AC (Alternating current) lighting, not the power going to the camera which is DC (Direct current).
 
What I think it does is when viewing the video it stops that flickering of car tail lights and intersection lights if you use 50hz. I'm in US and that stops the flickering.
It has nothing to do with electrical AC power (120 or 240 volt) frequency

Am I right or wrong?
So what do you US folks use?
 
What I think it does is when viewing the video it stops that flickering of car tail lights and intersection lights if you use 50hz. I'm in US and that stops the flickering.
It has nothing to do with electrical AC power (120 or 240 volt) frequency

Am I right or wrong?
So what do you US folks use?

That's a different issue. Many car tail lights today use LEDs rather than older type 12V incandescent light bulbs. LEDs use a technique called PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) - (intentional high speed flickering) to alter the perceived brightness of the LED emitters. These high speed LED oscillations can manifest funny things in digital video, often flickering similarly to what we might see from the AC oscillation frequencies of 50 Hz or 60Hz but it is a different phenomenon. The 50/60HZ setting "may" affect how car taillights are captured but the results will be highly variable because the PWM frequencies used in LEDs can be highly variable. PWM modulated tail lights can also appear different in digital video depending upon the speed of the car driving past you. Often a steady tail light will be recorded as a dotted line of short dashes.

You don't need a camera to see PWM. If you have a LED flashlight that happens to use PWM (not all do), if you wave it in front of you as fast as you can in a dark room you may see a dotted line rather than a streak of light.
 
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BTW, if you've ever heard a hum coming through your stereo system or other electronics such as a guitar amplifier, that is a "Power Line Hum" usually called the "60 cycle hum" in the US and "Mains Hum" elsewhere and this is a manifestation of the 50/60 Hz frequency oscillations inherent in AC current generation. It can happen at other frequencies as well, according to the source of power or other factors, such as a light dimmer.
 
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Am I right or wrong?
It only applies to light bulbs connected to the power grid, so not car lights. It is mainly an issue with the old incandescent light bulbs that are not used any more, but can also apply to fluorescent lights that don't use electronic ballasts, not many of those about these days either, so it doesn't really matter what you set it to! (Unless the USA does still use environmentally damaging incandescent light bulbs? They are illegal this side of the Atlantic to reduce CO2 emissions.)
 
It only applies to light bulbs connected to the power grid, so not car lights. It is mainly an issue with the old incandescent light bulbs that are not used any more, but can also apply to fluorescent lights that don't use electronic ballasts, not many of those about these days either, so it doesn't really matter what you set it to! (Unless the USA does still use environmentally damaging incandescent light bulbs? They are illegal this side of the Atlantic to reduce CO2 emissions.)


The US had been on a steady and rapidly accelerating path towards the phase-out of incandescent light bulbs. Older incandescent signage, traffic lights and other types of illumination are being steadily phased out and replaced. Unfortunately, we have a president who has installed representatives and lobbyists from various industry special interest groups as heads of the very regulatory agencies they have been fighting against for decades. The result is that we've been witnessing the rollback and deregulation of a wide range of forward looking environmental rules and directives across the board, from air pollution standards to methane releases, to coal mining, to water pollution, lead contamination, mercury emissions from power plants and more. And now it is light bulbs. Just three days ago it was announced that, "U.S. rolls back standards on energy saving light bulbs". It's a sad and tragic state of affairs. I refer to it as "suicide capitalism".
 
It's a sad and tragic state of affairs. I refer to it as "suicide capitalism".
It is not even good for the consumer's wallet! Since the UK banned them, the amount of electricity consumed in the UK has seen a steady decline of about 20%, which is surprising given that there are quite a few people using electricity to power cars these days and we have a lot more electric trains. It's not all from the light bulbs, but they are the thing that gets used most. Combine that with the fact that the newest wind farms to be built here will produce the cheapest electricity we have ever had and these changes for environmental protection are very good for our wallets. Meanwhile many Australians are suffering huge financial and other losses as their homes get burnt to ashes, at least that is parly their fault since they are the ones that mine the most coal and produce some of the dirtiest electricity.
 
Thanks I think. Got a lot more than I thought. Even went political too. lol
 
I basically agree with you @Nigel. Fortunately, the USA is a huge country made up of individual states that can map their own destiny to a significant degree. Many states have passed laws dictating energy efficiency standards, building codes, carbon reduction targets, phase out of fossil fuel target goals, the use of biofuels, etc., along with tax credits, rebates, incentives and net metering for solar and wind providers and other efficiencies. Like many states, these goals far exceed the anemic federal goals and targets, if they still exist at all under the Trump administration. Where I live, there are huge solar arrays popping up all over the state as well as many homes, farms and businesses converting to solar and geothermal. As a rural state, many farmers are converting their cow manure anaerobically to methane for generation of electricity for their own use and to sell back to the grid. It is also getting harder and harder to find incandescent bulbs at local stores. The state publishes its emission figures and goals on a regular basis. There are numerous industrial scale wind projects, a few of which have been in service for decades and new ones on the way, along with many hydro power sources. We also have a large scale hydro power arrangement with Canada, our adjacent neighbor to the north. Many of our energy efficiency regulations date back to original legislation from 1997 and we have continued to build on them. Locally, my home town hired an energy coordinator some years ago and this resulted in numerous efficiency improvements across the board including the conversion of all the street lighting throughout the city to LED. So, regardless of the environmentally injurious behavior we are witnessing from our current federal government, at least many US states and local municipalities are pushing forward with a positive environmental agenda or at least attempting to.
 
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The state publishes its emission figures and goals on a regular basis.
Good to hear that effort is being made, but the graph of actual emissions is hardly heading downward, equivalent UK graph:

UK CO2 emissions
1577136719137.png
"In per capita terms, CO2 emissions are now just 53% of the level 1890 and below that of 1860."
 
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Good to hear that effort is being made, but the graph of actual emissions is hardly heading downward, equivalent UK graph:

UK CO2 emissions
View attachment 49982
"In per capita terms, CO2 emissions are now just 53% of the level 1890 and below that of 1860."

Well, as you can see in the links I provided those graphs are from all the way back in 2012. Word is that now, nearly eight years later the needle is moving in a somewhat better direction, although a bump in the road has been the closing of the aging and only nuclear power plant in our state several years ago which has caused an increase in the use of fossil fuels to make up for it. Anyway, the US is a huge country with an enormous economy compared to the UK as in your graph so even on a per capita basis you can't make an equitable comparison. It's like trying to turn around an ocean liner compared to a tugboat. In any event, every nation needs to turn the environmental ship around as soon as possible regardless of size. Unfortunately, here we've been thwarted by three years of the Trump administration who believes that climate change is a hoax and pollution is simply the cost of achieving corporate profits.

BTW Nigel, it is rather amusing to see you use terms like "per capita" (A Latin phrase meaning "according to heads") in your post after previously giving me such a hard time about using a similar Latin derived phrase ("non sequitur"). :smuggrin:
You do this quite often actually, such as your regular use of the term "i.e." (id est - Latin: that is (to say); in other words) and "e.g." - (exempli gratia (for example). :geek:
As I said at the time, vast swaths of the English language are derived from Latin.
Pot calling the kettle black, I suppose. ;)

Wish you wouldn't include all these latin words in your posts!
 
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Some cameras also have a auto option for this feature.
And even if you set the camera to your local mains frequency you can still see light flicker, many a action camera user have noticed this not least when they do a slow motion recording under artificial light.
I also often see a flicker on roadside LED signs / petrol station price boards ASO
So you can still get to see this issue even if you have the correct setting in your camera.

I added a little Latin to my signature earlier today. :)
 
Some cameras also have a auto option for this feature.
And even if you set the camera to your local mains frequency you can still see light flicker, many a action camera user have noticed this not least when they do a slow motion recording under artificial light.
I also often see a flicker on roadside LED signs / petrol station price boards ASO
So you can still get to see this issue even if you have the correct setting in your camera.

I added a little Latin to my signature earlier today. :)

A little Latin? That's a lot of Latin! :smuggrin:

Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc

unclefester.jpg


Yeah, those flicker roadside LED sign are from the PWM I was talking about. If the PWM frequency is other than 50Hz or 60Hz your gonna' see some flickering.
 
Word is that now, nearly eight years later the needle is moving in a somewhat better direction.
But nobody knows because Trump doesn't allow the graphs to be published?

The US is a huge country with an enormous economy compared to the UK
7.6 x, however the state of Vermont is tiny with a tiny economy compared to the UK, so by your argument it should be really easy for it to make a difference.

BTW Nigel, it is rather amusing to see you use terms like "per capita" (A Latin phrase meaning "according to heads") in your post
It was a quote, I can't change a quote! Presumably a United Nations or WTO phrase. And I very rarely use "i.e.", although I do use "eg", generally as a word without the "."s.

There are numerous industrial scale wind projects, a few of which have been in service for decades and new ones on the way, along with many hydro power sources. We also have a large scale hydro power arrangement with Canada, our adjacent neighbor to the north.
The wind power capacity of the whole of New England is only 22% of Denmark's wind capacity for nearly 3x the population, hydro is a bit more, but still not a major source, majority of your electricity comes from gas.
 
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But nobody knows because Trump doesn't allow the graphs to be published?

True.

7.6 x, however the state of Vermont is tiny with a tiny economy compared to the UK, so by your argument it should be really easy for it to make a difference.

That's a false equivalency. However, the actual reason that C02 emissions haven't fallen as much as they might have and have even risen a bit recently is because Vermont's only nuclear power plant was shuttered in 2014 and is currently in the process of being dismantled. As a result natural gas has been used to make up the shortfall in what had been essentially emission free power generation. In the meantime the state has been replacing much of this energy with power imported from the Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant in neighboring New Hampshire.

It was a quote, I can't change a quote! And I very rarely use "i.e.", although I do use "eg", generally as a word without the "."s.

What an ABSURD denial! You use Latin expressions like that all the time! You think because you don't use proper punctuation it's not Latin derived anymore? Or that because you posted a quote it exists in some alternative universe? If you don't think people should be posting commonly used Latin phrases in this forum then don't quote them and then act like your own complaint doesn't apply to you! "eg"=exempli gratia.


The wind power capacity of the whole of New England is only 22% of Denmark's wind capacity for nearly 3x the population, hydro is a bit more, but still not a major source, majority of your electricity comes from gas.

What is your point exactly? Comparing an entire nation with a very long tradition of wind power to a small US region in an entirely different economy and industrial environment that only in recent years began to adopt it is another false equivalency. You know, Nigel your earlier remarks about incandescent light bulbs were merely another one of your regular negative swipes at the USA, yet rather than take issue I said I agreed with you and attempted to engage you in conversation but apparently, you just can't help yourself, so here we are with another one of your usual snotty attempts to engage in a gratuitous, pointless pissing match, much the same as your complaint about my use of a very commonly used Latin phrase was also one of your manufactured pissing matches.

It must very so very stressful for you to attempt to maintain your status as our self appointed "House Know-it-All". You're slipping!
 
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Blimey ... ^ ... could someone please switch off 'Scorpion mode' and flick on some Christmas cheer, love ... and well wishes for the festive season(y)

Merry Christmas folks :D
 
Well OK, but if I go into a store and hear one more cheesy Christmas carol, I swear, I'll go postal! :woot: But hey, Merry, Merry and Happy, Happy Joy Joy to all!

Scorpion Mode? Is that in the A119 V3 menu settings somewhere? Maybe we're still on topic? :smuggrin:
 
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