A139 Pro 2ch issues (bad GPS lock, bad motion blur, hot camera, ...)

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UserDashCam

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Hi,
for more than a year I'm owner of A129 Plus 2ch and I was satisfied with everything but low light picture.

Now I bought A139 Pro 2 ch and installed it on the same place that I had A129 Plus before. My experience is negative. I was more satisfied with A129 Plus than A139 Pro. If I would not need to replace cable to back camera, I would put A129 Plus back.

My issues with this camera (tested with and without HDR, always maximum bit-rate, also upgraded with last firmware from official page):
1.) Very bad GPS signal.
I mounted front camera on the same place that I had A129 Plus (which got GPS lock in cca. 10-20s after start). New A139 Pro takes few minutes to get GPS lock. After that it show speed OK for few minutes and then speed is completely wrong. Driving through woods or very short tunnel (cca. 50-100m) looses signal again for few minutes. I have mounted it on the top middle part of windshield directly under darker part beside rear mirror.
Is this known issue?

2.) Very bad motion blur
I'm very disappointed with motion blur of new A139 Pro main front camera. If the weather is not sunny (clouds, fog) or at mornings/evenings you can not read licence plate of car driving to you even if both cars go cca. 45 kph (cca. 25 mph). Every frame has blurry license plate. On regional roads there is no way to read license plates if it is not middle of sunny day.
A129 Plus has no issue with readable license plates at same conditions.

3.) Main unit gets hot
After 1h drive on cloudy day (no direct sun) with temperatures around 10 deg C (50 deg F) main unit was pretty warm / much hotter than A129 Plus. I'm a bit worry how this unit will work in summer on direct sun.
Does anyone uses this camera in hotter weather? Is it OK or are there any issues regarding temperatures?

Thank you for answers.
 
Did you ever contact Viofo about this, and if so, did they respond?
 
UserDashCam said:
Hi,
for more than a year I'm owner of A129 Plus 2ch and I was satisfied with everything but low light picture.

Now I bought A139 Pro 2 ch and installed it on the same place that I had A129 Plus before. My experience is negative. I was more satisfied with A129 Plus than A139 Pro. If I would not need to replace cable to back camera, I would put A129 Plus back.

My issues with this camera (tested with and without HDR, always maximum bit-rate, also upgraded with last firmware from official page):
1.) Very bad GPS signal.
I mounted front camera on the same place that I had A129 Plus (which got GPS lock in cca. 10-20s after start). New A139 Pro takes few minutes to get GPS lock. After that it show speed OK for few minutes and then speed is completely wrong. Driving through woods or very short tunnel (cca. 50-100m) looses signal again for few minutes. I have mounted it on the top middle part of windshield directly under darker part beside rear mirror.
Is this known issue?

2.) Very bad motion blur
I'm very disappointed with motion blur of new A139 Pro main front camera. If the weather is not sunny (clouds, fog) or at mornings/evenings you can not read licence plate of car driving to you even if both cars go cca. 45 kph (cca. 25 mph). Every frame has blurry license plate. On regional roads there is no way to read license plates if it is not middle of sunny day.
A129 Plus has no issue with readable license plates at same conditions.

3.) Main unit gets hot
After 1h drive on cloudy day (no direct sun) with temperatures around 10 deg C (50 deg F) main unit was pretty warm / much hotter than A129 Plus. I'm a bit worry how this unit will work in summer on direct sun.
Does anyone uses this camera in hotter weather? Is it OK or are there any issues regarding temperatures?

Thank you for answers.
Click to expand...
About the GPS, does it happen at the same place compared to the A129Plus? It will need more time to get a signal when it is used for the first time and then it will become faster to gain signal.
For the motion blur, we noticed that it happens at nightfall, which cannot be solved as this special lighting condition actually. It is too bright to turn on the HDR at this time, but it is also too dark to get a very clear image. Besides, please update the latest firmware which has improved a lot in exposure: https://viofo.com/content/75-A139-Pro-Support/#Firmware
The A139Pro is the 4K camera that requests more power consumption and will cause more heat than A129Plus(2K). We suggest turning off wifi when there is no need to check footage or change settings. The recommended card is also needed to decrease heat. Please rest assured that there is a protection mechanism inside, so it will turn off automatically when it is too hot to protect the machine. The configuration of A139pro to dissipate the heat is very good already in the dashcam market actually.
 
Last edited:
1.) Very bad GPS signal.
I mounted front camera on the same place that I had A129 Plus (which got GPS lock in cca. 10-20s after start). New A139 Pro takes few minutes to get GPS lock.
Click to expand...

For godsake never switch to blackvue then mine can take 10-15 minutes to get a lock

3.) Main unit gets hot
Click to expand...
4k unit will produce heat
 
My A139 pro is finding the signal before I drive off.
I plug in the camera, then seat belt, engine, *recording - 2 channel*, handbrake.
GPS tracking according to dashcam viewer from the first meter.

About heat: yes, 4k cameras in that small size always become quite hot. But you have to remember:
If the camera feels hot in your hands, it just means that the heat dissipation from the heat source to the ambient air is working well.
Also: plastic can vary a lot, some has a critical temp beyond 250°C and electronics usually work well until the chips become unstable, which usually only happens towards 200°C.

Some graphics cards run "fine" and won't throttle down before reaching 110-120°C on their memory hotspot sensor.

But we're not used to such temps due to the energy efficiency being better at lower temps and also because dust particles etc start to smell towards 80+°C.

Imo: nothing to worry about as long as you don't burn your skin when touching the camera.

Motion blur: update to the latest firmware and if that doesn't help, disable HDR via the HDR timer setting until it's darker than in your example.
Low light is the weak spot for HDR. Scenes look beautiful, but have quite some blur. There's a compromise to be made between readability of plates and good looking footage.
You could also set the exposure setting to -0.3 or -0.6. Video becomes darker, but the exposure time gets shorter and the frames sharper.

Also:
To be fair you can still read B or D, T 555, white modern Audi station wagon.
So if something would happen, the police might still be able to track the car down.
One has to remember that in most accidents, there will be at least one frame, where the car doesn't just swoosh past you.
 
Try 2K with HDR on the timer, so it only turns on when it is very dark, is my suggestion.
 
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