A129 DUO poor quality? Why?

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43576

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I have purchased a A129 DUO, from Amazon, for highest quality video of 1920 x 1080P 30fps. Today I don't seem to be impression with quality when I drove through countryside, sometimes lose picture quality like 720p with lots of square. My setting it on the maximum picture quality 1080p and rear 1080p, I thought it is supposed to be 1920 x 1080P 30fps. What is wrong? Cheap memory card? My is SanDisk 128gb v30 High endurance white SD card.

Here my video link two clips.

I never own 1920 x 1080P 30fps before. Previous used is 720p. I don't know if it is normal? What you think?

Thanks
Fab.
 
The Viofo A129 Plus is 1920x1080 resolution. The regular A129 Duo I believe is at 1080, front and back. I'm pretty sure the front camera is 60 frames per second and the rear camera is probably 30 frames per second.

But I agree with you, the video looks terrible! A dumb question, but did you take off the plastic from the lense.

Viofo mentioned compatability issues with Samsung's white sd card with blue writing, but I do not believe The SD card you're using (SanDisk) should be giving rise to terrible video quality.

You mentioned you just purchased your dash cam; how long have you had it? I assume you have never had good quality video yet... that's very unusual!
 
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I had them for three days this is a new from Amazon £156.00. I have removed stickers on both lens. I was wonder if the memory is too slow to record 60 frames per second? Which do you recommend SD card? To try and see if is running properly.
 
If you use 60 frames per second, your moving video should be smoother.

The SD card Viofo seems to be recommending is the Samsung EVO 128 gb; (see pic attached). Be careful if buying on Amazon; if "sold by" and "fulfilled by" Amazon, you should be fine. There are lots of fake sd cards out there so you need to be careful. Btw make sure you do NOT get the White Samsung SD Card with blue writing - there seems to be a compatibility issue with that card. Good luck!
 

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Make sure WiFi isn't turned while recording video...
 
Best to post raw video. Youtube is not a good way for others to judge quality.
 
Set Bitrate to High and try again. On low bitrate mode this camera has a lot of compression artifacts. Updating firmware may also help. If you use wetransfer, google drive or dropbox send us an original clip and that can help to diagnose more.

I don't believe A129 Duo can do 1080p60 unless it's in front camera only mode.
 
Today received a new SD Samsung card, I am to try again tomorrow to see if is works clear picture. I will update a video again if the SD card not make any improves.
 
You are driving in a high detail area, that do make dashcams cough up blocking to some degree, it is a simple effect of the moderate bitrates the cameras use.
You should always use the highest bitrate / image quality on a dashcam.
Uploading strait to youtube will often / always aggravate any problems, i have often upscale to 4K in post production as youtube tend to be more gentle with 4K footage.
No matter what the system can handle, you should only use 30 FPS video, if you double frame rate you also half your bitrate so to say as there are more footage it have to be spread over.

In rough terms for a camera to handle high information footage ( just a 1080 / 30 camera ) you need the bitrate to be up around 30 mbit, but then the camera generate about 330 MB large 1 minute files or 1 GB large 3 minute files,,,,,, and the camera also generate more heat, though that is rarely a problem while driving.
Problem is dashcams ( 1080p ones ) are only around 20 mbit, to go more easy on the memory card.

There is a reason action cameras, though 4K / 60 now are using bitrates around 100 mbit. make one of those do 20 mbit and take it to a high detail / action environment, and you will see minecraft like footage even if the brand on the camera are gopro.

Try to look at the footage where you are not in between hedgerows or trees, and it should be much better.
 
I have solved the bad picture quality. It is the option of loop, I set to 5 minute, it was too long for the Samsung microSD. When I have inserted Sandisk Extreme Pro 128GB with 170MB/s the picture become pure clear on 5 minute of recorded.
When I set back to 2 minute with Samsung microSD, no issue with picture.

So the Samsung card was a poor performance on long record.

Now pleased with it.
 
43576 said:
I have solved the bad picture quality. It is the option of loop, I set to 5 minute, it was too long for the Samsung microSD. When I have inserted Sandisk Extreme Pro 128GB with 170MB/s the picture become pure clear on 5 minute of recorded.
When I set back to 2 minute with Samsung microSD, no issue with picture.

So the Samsung card was a poor performance on long record.

Now pleased with it.
Click to expand...

That's not a solution I would ever have thought of.
Perhaps Viofo added a"feature " so it wouldn't loose footage?

Note another reason could have been wifi has been left on. It was a problem on this model. This decreased video quality for some reason. Perhaps firmware programming not written efficiently or overloading of the uP which really comes back to programming.
 
My firmware is 2.1 something, is this the latest?
 
43576 said:
My firmware is 2.1 something, is this the latest?
Click to expand...
The latest firmware is V2.2_20201217. I believe you can get it here...


However check with some of the guys above. I recall people saying one might lose buffered parking on some of the latest firmware. So, "I think" some of the guys are sticking with FW 119 due to buffered parking working better...?

The guys above will know for sure. Good luck!
 
I have looked at the list of firmware, it says 1.8 was the best so far till 1.9 and 2.0 it starts cause few issues. I was wonder if I can downgrade from 2.1 to 1.9 or 1.8? I will wait for experience person to confirm me which firmware should I go for it.
 
43576 said:
I have looked at the list of firmware, it says 1.8 was the best so far till 1.9 and 2.0 it starts cause few issues. I was wonder if I can downgrade from 2.1 to 1.9 or 1.8? I will wait for experience person to confirm me which firmware should I go for it.
Click to expand...
You can change between any firmware version at any time. Just be sure to manually default the cameras settings in the menu then press and hold the hard reset button on the side of the camera for about 5 seconds after each firmware change.
 
43576 said:
I have looked at the list of firmware, it says 1.8 was the best so far till 1.9 and 2.0 it starts cause few issues. I was wonder if I can downgrade from 2.1 to 1.9 or 1.8? I will wait for experience person to confirm me which firmware should I go for it.
Click to expand...

I checked my A129 Duo and it's running firmware 1.9

I run it from the cigarette lighter using either the Viofo or an unbranded usb converter(supplies 1.5Amps), and the A129 Duo works reliably from either, via Viofo cables.

I've been using the A129 Duo in the car for 2 years.
 
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