A129 Collision Footage Lost...

[teefdoc]

Hello,

my car got backed into by a truck at an intersection this morning. After we exchanged information, I flipped through the video clips on my A129 to try to find the collision footage. To my surprise, I could only find the a 1:50 long footage before the impact, and a 0:13 long footage after the impact (when my file size is set to 3 mins). I can't seem to find the 12 seconds buffered collision clip anywhere, even when I read the microSD card directly with my PC. Does anyone have any clue what happened to the footage, or how I can recover them? I literally bought a dash cam for these moments, but it failed on me when it counted...

thanks for your help

 

[LateralNW]

Is the dash cam hard wired in or cigarette lighter?
If cigarette light it may have been disconnected which may have either missed or corrupted that file. If the file was corrupted it may show as a file that can't be read. The good news in this case is if you attempt to play the video in the dash cam it may repair it.
If hard wired then I'm at a lose why you should loose footage. Shouldn't be happening like you said, you purchased it for this very reason.
Check that the file names are in succession. Check the date stamp on each file for sequential time stamps.

One other possibility among the thousands is if the usb cable dislodged on the unit of if a gps unit is involved it may disconnected the unit due to impact but is this is the case I would expect an corrupted file that should be able to be repair using the cameras playback feature.

Hope this resolve it for you. Good luck.
@viofo may be able to assist.

 

[teefdoc]

Thanks for your reply. It's hardwired to a dedicated external battery (Cellink Neo), that itself is wired to the car's battery. The dash cam is powered by the car's battery while moving, and powered by the external battery when the ignition is off. I haven't had any problem with its recording continuity until this point when a collision actually occurred. I've checked the folder multiple times sorted with "time created/modified", but fail to find the collision clip. I doubt the cable dislodged during the collision as I didn't hear any start up tone from the unit after the incidence.

 

[RavenManiac]

What firmware are you using?

 

[Gooffeyguy]

Maybe the g sensor detected it and it was saved in the "RO" folder?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[LateralNW]

Thanks for your reply. It's hardwired to a dedicated external battery (Cellink Neo), that itself is wired to the car's battery. The dash cam is powered by the car's battery while moving, and powered by the external battery when the ignition is off. I haven't had any problem with its recording continuity until this point when a collision actually occurred. I've checked the folder multiple times sorted with "time created/modified", but fail to find the collision clip. I doubt the cable dislodged during the collision as I didn't hear any start up tone from the unit after the incidence.

Maybe the g sensor detected it and it was saved in the "RO" folder?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Gooffeyguy makes a good point.
Yes assumed you would know the RO folder where impacts can be stored.

 

[teefdoc]

What firmware are you using?

I'm using V1.50

Maybe the g sensor detected it and it was saved in the "RO" folder?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Yea that was my initial assumption, but no RO folder was created...

 

[LateralNW]

I'm using V1.50...
Yea that was my initial assumption, but no RO folder was created...

While it doesn't help now FYI they just released 1.8

If you do find a solution please do let me know as I have tried many times without success. Eg data recovery sw, file recovery and other methods but never find the video portion that must have been created but never closed that I needed. I suspect it would get overwritten but not sure on that.

Good luck.

 

[Nigel]

Yea that was my initial assumption, but no RO folder was created...

Are you looking for it in the right place? The RO folder should be in the folder containing the normal video files.

 

[TonyM]

Hello,

my car got backed into by a truck at an intersection this morning. After we exchanged information, I flipped through the video clips on my A129 to try to find the collision footage. To my surprise, I could only find the a 1:50 long footage before the impact, and a 0:13 long footage after the impact (when my file size is set to 3 mins). I can't seem to find the 12 seconds buffered collision clip anywhere, even when I read the microSD card directly with my PC. Does anyone have any clue what happened to the footage, or how I can recover them? I literally bought a dash cam for these moments, but it failed on me when it counted...

thanks for your help

Were the 1:50 file and 0:13 file immediately before and after the incident? You say there is just a 12s gap between them?
Was the camera recording normal video files before the incident (subscript F and R), or was it in parking mode?

If it was in parking mode for some reason, it might have taken 12s to switch over from parking mode into normal recording mode.

Perhaps it would help if you can post a screenshot of your memory card folder so we can see the timings.

 

[LateralNW]

Were the 1:50 file and 0:13 file immediately before and after the incident? You say there is just a 12s gap between them?
Was the camera recording normal video files before the incident (subscript F and R), or was it in parking mode?

If it was in parking mode for some reason, it might have taken 12s to switch over from parking mode into normal recording mode.

Perhaps it would help if you can post a screenshot of your memory card folder so we can see the timings.

Hello,

my car got backed into by a truck at an intersection this morning. After we exchanged information, I flipped through the video clips on my A129 to try to find the collision footage. To my surprise, I could only find the a 1:50 long footage before the impact, and a 0:13 long footage after the impact (when my file size is set to 3 mins). I can't seem to find the 12 seconds buffered collision clip anywhere, even when I read the microSD card directly with my PC. Does anyone have any clue what happened to the footage, or how I can recover them? I literally bought a dash cam for these moments, but it failed on me when it counted...

thanks for your help

I missed the that you said "Buffered" good pick up @teefdoc
That changes things considerably.

 

[SawMaster]

Ouch It seems the buffered mode with this cam may still have some glitches- there have been issues reported with that in the past. But it might have been a power glitch too.

Even with this being one of the main reasons we have cams, there are plenty of instances which have been reported when a cam failed in some way when a crash occurred. It's not a certain thing but there's not really anything better made for the average person. If it really matters to you, having two cams covering the important areas doubles your chances for success; I think redundancy is the best answer we've got right now. I'm not a fan of USB connectors as I've had many of them loosen and become intermittent over time but it's become the industry standard and I don't expect that to change. I prefer some form of continuous recording to buffering as that eliminates one possible failure point but it's good when it works as intended.

If there's a cam-based problem I'm sure Viofo will find a solution as they are one of the more caring and more active developers of dashcams and their products are generally quite good That may not help much here, but again it's how things tend to go with dashcams- we are all something of beta-testers with them

Phil

 

[TonyM]

It's not clear whether @teefdoc was driving at the time of the incident, or the car was parked near the intersection. If driving, then buffered parking mode should have nothing to do with the lost footage.

 

[RavenManiac]

Does v1.5 firmware support buffered parking mode? I didn't think that was supported until v1.7 and above.

 

[HonestReview]

Hello,

my car got backed into by a truck at an intersection this morning. After we exchanged information, I flipped through the video clips on my A129 to try to find the collision footage. To my surprise, I could only find the a 1:50 long footage before the impact, and a 0:13 long footage after the impact (when my file size is set to 3 mins). I can't seem to find the 12 seconds buffered collision clip anywhere, even when I read the microSD card directly with my PC. Does anyone have any clue what happened to the footage, or how I can recover them? I literally bought a dash cam for these moments, but it failed on me when it counted...

thanks for your help

1. Is camera hardwired to record when car is parked or did this happen with you in the vehicle (car on)?

2. There should be a saved folder for incidences. Did you check that?

3. If you use parking mode, do you use low bitrate recording, buffered parking mode, or motion detection?

I always recommend low bitrate recording. It'll capture everything going on around your car. If you have a 128-256GB SD card, storage shouldn't be a problem.

 

[BCHobbyist]

my car got backed into by a truck at an intersection this morning. After we exchanged information, I flipped through the video clips on my A129 to try to find the collision footage. To my surprise, I could only find the a 1:50 long footage before the impact, and a 0:13 long footage after the impact (when my file size is set to 3 mins). I can't seem to find the 12 seconds buffered collision clip anywhere, even when I read the microSD card directly with my PC. Does anyone have any clue what happened to the footage, or how I can recover them? I literally bought a dash cam for these moments, but it failed on me when it counted...

Suggest you keep the memory card without changing any files for evidence just in case its recoverable, very doubtful see below. Your unfortunate collision had bad luck of total time stopped at intersection and firmware loaded.
Since A129 was connected to Hardwire Kit and Cellink Neo Battery and given Parking Mode was enabled, firmware v1.50 has zero parking buffer, missing the event. If vehicle was waiting at intersection for longer than 1 min Hardwire Kit triggers Advanced Parking Mode recording using selected option. During the automatic mode switching timer from Drive to Parking there is a GAP in recording when using older v1.50 firmware, this GAP also occurs in v1.80 switching but covered by buffering if it works correctly.
In a few cases i've tested, if impact is violent enough the Normal mode or Parking mode or Buffered mode can create a corrupt MP4 file of the event due to momentary power interruption but that file is easily recovered simply by viewing it from Dashcam repairing the corruption for later viewing on PC.

 

[teefdoc]

Sorry my post wasn't very clear. The 1:50 long footage starts from when I switched my ignition on in my garage, and ends when I just came to a stop at a good distance behind the truck, which is waiting at a stop sign. My car was still in "D", and the stop was brief, so I don't think the dash cam was switching to parking mode. After all I've had no problem with the cam until this incidence. The next clip I could find was the 0:13 clip, which starts some seconds after the impact. Both of these clips were regular clips recorded in full bitrate. The clip after this 0:13 clip was recorded in low bitrate parking mode, as I switched off my ignition to interact with the other driver.

Sorry by "buffered clip", I didn't mean buffer mode, I meant that the clip containing moments immediately before and after the impact was missing. In this case, there is a gap of 12 seconds. I flipped through the footages on the dash cam around 30mins later, but I couldn't find the impact clip. I initially thought, oh, that clip must have been moved to a safe folder ("RO folder"), however there was no such folder created when I read the microSD card on my PC.

 

[jdct]

There are far too many "my dashcam" didn't record" incidents reported here than I as a dashcam user myself am comfortable with. When we need video footage, it's often not to be found and then everyone who frequents this forum writes it off a a one time thing -- again and again and again and again. We deserve better. I should not need to have two dashcams from different manufacturers mounted on my windshield, but it's a necessity at this point and still not even a guarantee to have a proper recording should an event occur. And perhaps it may never be possible to use only one dashcam.

To be fair, @viofo is not alone in this regard -- and I do have several Viofo cameras in various cars as I hold them in regard. But most of them is sitting next to another brand of dashcam too because I cannot trust them exclusively. Viofo tries hard and is generally responsive to customer issues, but incidents like this that @teefdoc experienced simply should not happen in a well vetted piece of equipment being sold for this purchase.

 

[HonestReview]

There are far too many "my dashcam" didn't record" incidents reported here than I as a dashcam user myself am comfortable with. When we need video footage, it's often not to be found and then everyone who frequents this forum writes it off a a one time thing -- again and again and again and again. We deserve better. I should not need to have two dashcams from different manufacturers mounted on my windshield, but it's a necessity at this point and still not even a guarantee to have a proper recording should an event occur. And perhaps it may never be possible to use only one dashcam.

Most of this is attributable to user error and not a faulty camera.

A. User didn't hardwire their camera properly so parking mode doesn't work.
B. Firmware 1.5 and earlier didn't support buffered parking mode. So if you used motion detection, it wouldn't capture the event prior to the impact.
C. I recommend all users enable low bitrate parking mode. It's far more reliable. Even taking into account firmware 1.8 with buffered parking mode.
D. User doesn't follow recommendations and utilize a memory card that isn't supported. For instance, I had a Sandisk Ultra and camera would freeze at random. On a Sandist A2 Extreme 128 and 256GB, never once had a problem.

These the "unrealiable" stories are probably 90% user error and have little to do with the camera's functionality.

To be fair, @viofo is not alone in this regard -- and I do have several Viofo cameras in various cars as I hold them in regard. But most of them is sitting next to another brand of dashcam too because I cannot trust them exclusively. Viofo tries hard and is generally responsive to customer issues, but incidents like this that @teefdoc experienced simply should not happen in a well vetted piece of equipment being sold for this purchase.

My car was hit, captured the accident just fine. My camera is properly wired to the fuse box. I'm not using a cell link, which adds an extra layer of complexity. While it DID NOT mark the accident as a saved video, I have a 256GB SD card. Pulled it off immediately.

My one GENUINE complaint = G-Force High is WAY too sensitive (bit a pot hole and it marks an event) and Medium is not sensitive enough. I got rear ended and G-force didn't trigger.

 

[jdct]

@teefdoc , just ignore @HonestReview