A129 Pro jerky video playback on MacOS with Quicktime Player

So A119v3 footage I took before the A129 Pro arrived is fine on MacOS - one down.
 
Downloaded the samples TonyM had shared 2 months back, playback is jerky. They ran fine when I'd downloaded them back then.
 
I've had this issue on my 2009 MacBook Pro. I figured it was a hardware issue considering the age of my laptop, but sounds like it is a software problem with QuickTime. I just upload to YouTube and view it from there. Would be nice to view locally on the laptop so I don't have to suffer video quality with YouTube compression. Keep us updated if you hear anything from Apple or find a solution yourself :)
 
Downloaded the samples TonyM had shared 2 months back, playback is jerky. They ran fine when I'd downloaded them back then.
Now that's very interesting thank you - if they work fine it at least proves something changed in the firmware between then and now [emoji106][emoji106]

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Now that's very interesting thank you - if they work fine it at least proves something changed in the firmware between then and now [emoji106][emoji106]

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk
I think he means that the exact same files that played OK before now play jerky, something has changed in the Apple stuff.
 
In my case(windows PC and laptop) the only one that play the file correctly is MPC...VLC,WMP and others are jerky..
 
I think he means that the exact same files that played OK before now play jerky, something has changed in the Apple stuff.
Possibly - to be fair though if MacOS had an issue for weeks with some dashcam video not playing right in the MacOS or default media player you'd have seen it all over the internet by now as a lot of creative types use it and would be shouting about it - it's very strange if it's just affecting the A129 Pro.

I've tried those files thank-you @gabilondo77 and they at least still have the same problem so firmware 0924 is the same.

It's interesting you say on Windows the other players are jerky - maybe hardware acceleration related?
 
In my case(windows PC and laptop) the only one that play the file correctly is MPC...VLC,WMP and others are jerky..
Might be a good idea to update your codecs with the K-Lite Codec Pack.
I guess it is just the front 4K video that is jerky?
Luckily we no longer need to use quicktime on PCs!
 
I have installed the K-Lite Codec Pack 3 months ago for the A129 Duo,Full HD is playing fine on all players,but 4K plays fine only with MPC,strange things of nature I think...seems to be codec problem..
 
I've just tried the raw files from @TonyM from early August in the post below and to be fair same problem there too on MacOS.

 
OK, a quick recap - so far on MacOS I've had issues with A129 Pro videos generated from 3 different units now but other dashcam footage is fine.

Not OK
Viofo A129 Front (4k) and Rear (1080p) on firmwares 0916, 0920, 0924 and early August version

OK - Novatek
Viofo A119v3 (1440p)
Viofo A129 Duo Front Camera (I haven't tried the rear yet) - tried firmware 1.3 & 1.9 (1080p)
Street Guardian SG9665GC (1080p)
Mini 0906 Front (1080p)

OK - Ambarella
Street Storm CVR-A7810-G (2560x1080)

OK - unknown
Mavic 2 Pro (4k)

So far the problem only manifests itself on MacOS with A129 Pro video files - the other video files from the other cameras have all been fine.

I don't know if the same SDK is being used for the A129 Pro, A129 Duo & A119v3 but at least this has shown that only one of them is affected.

@traveler do you have any extra insight into the MacOS playback at all please from your software?
 
Work fine on my iMac 2019 with Catalina
That's bizarre thank-you - so the same file causing issues on other Macs is working fine on your iMac in Quicktime at full 30fps?

Just to double check which file were you testing please?

Is the iMac using an external GPU or discrete GPU or just the builtin Intel iGPU?

I did notice the A129 Pro is using a slightly different colour space which is flagged as yuvj420p(pc, bt709) - most of the other test files I have are
yuv420p but the latest A129 Duo firmware also uses that and the files from that work fine in QuickTime.

I also noticed when testing with the A129 Duo that on the shipping firmware it came with (I think 1.2 or 1.3) that was using yuv420p but then when I upgraded to 1.9 it also changed to yuvj420p(pc, bt709) so either a design choice or a default changed in the SDK.

I got some debugging output from Quicktime and for whatever reason the A129 Pro files are reporting various parse errors that the i frames are out of range.

Screenshot 2019-10-11 at 05.54.08.png

It's going to take time but hopefully this will be sorted at either the QT end or the Novatek end in the future.
 
Sorry I should have been clear the files that my A129 Pro generate at max bit rate and either H264 or H265 play flawlessly in QT or VLC. The bit rate is up over 50 so not sure whats different, but that file I downloaded that you linked to plays as a horrible choppy mess. My A129 came with the 0924 firmware preinstalled.

just to add this is file from my A129 Pro

https://mega.nz/#!a0sSXKQK!Ijm7K3J38RokoMCFnRvA3TK3wZs94QekgBl4IEIxhoM
 
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I did notice the A129 Pro is using a slightly different colour space which is flagged as yuvj420p(pc, bt709) - most of the other test files I have are
yuv420p but the latest A129 Duo firmware also uses that and the files from that work fine in QuickTime.

I also noticed when testing with the A129 Duo that on the shipping firmware it came with (I think 1.2 or 1.3) that was using yuv420p but then when I upgraded to 1.9 it also changed to yuvj420p(pc, bt709) so either a design choice or a default changed in the SDK.
Colour space hasn't actually changed, it is just now flagged correctly. Before some players and a lot of editors were losing the shadow detail due to reading it as yuv420p when it was actually yuvj420p.

I can't imagine that change would cause your playback problem.

Your logfile looks more interesting though...
 
Ok, so just before I boxed the cam up to send back I've had a proper look through my SD Card to see what the files are on there and what I've got recorded. It looks like I've got a mix of H264 and H265 files. The H264 files show a 59Mbps and the H265 HEVC at 51Mbps. The H264 play as a slide show whilst the H265 work perfectly. So maybe an issue with the way the files are encoded at H264?
 
Ok, so just before I boxed the cam up to send back I've had a proper look through my SD Card to see what the files are on there and what I've got recorded. It looks like I've got a mix of H264 and H265 files. The H264 files show a 59Mbps and the H265 HEVC at 51Mbps. The H264 play as a slide show whilst the H265 work perfectly. So maybe an issue with the way the files are encoded at H264?
If you can play the H265 files OK then use H265, it should be the better option, and gives longer loop recording time due to lower bitrate, but a lot of people have computers that are too slow to play it so the default is H264.

Not sure if the H264 issue is a recording issue or a playback issue with Quicktime, but most devices play the H264 files OK.

Note: To switch between H264 and H265, long press the "Mic" button.
 
Ok, so just before I boxed the cam up to send back I've had a proper look through my SD Card to see what the files are on there and what I've got recorded. It looks like I've got a mix of H264 and H265 files. The H264 files show a 59Mbps and the H265 HEVC at 51Mbps. The H264 play as a slide show whilst the H265 work perfectly. So maybe an issue with the way the files are encoded at H264?
How come you're sending it back?

The h265 file did work here so more testing to be done.

Just testing onto an exFAT card at the moment as Novatek have support in the SDK now and it may work better than the fudge of formatting cards larger than 32GB as FAT32.

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The GPS module has been very very poor at getting and holding a lock, its taking 10s of minutes. My wifes Nextbase has been tried in the same car and gets a lock within about 30s and then holds it.
 
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