A329 Improvement Wishlist

Nigel said:
It is smoother to watch, so good for making road trip movies.
Lots of people want to buy 60fps, just because it is "better".
On a race track, it is good for accident footage, when you want to see the details of the accident taking place.

For normal dashcam use, I don't see much benefit, although if the chips are capable of it then why not?

Hopefully A329 has enough bitrate that it is reasonable to "waste" a bit on 60fps. For lower bitrate cameras, and normal dashcam use, it is better to use the bitrate on extra 30fps image quality than on the extra frames.


No, but if a Sony CMOS is only capable of 4K60 then you can't have 4K60 HDR, so there is a definite advantage of using 4K30 - you get HDR.

As Paul says, for dashcams, DOL-HDR is better than Clear HDR, except maybe for your road trip movies.


So I guess most people will use the A329 at 30fps HDR at night, but 60fps during daytime, except maybe in hot weather. We will have to wait a little longer for a 60fps HDR dashcam...
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We are entering the summer months here in Australia, so will be interesting to see how it holds up with the increased bitrates at both 4k30 and 4k60. Have high hopes though considering there's increased ventilation this time around, and more efficient processors...
 
Just got the email from @viofo announcing the A329 coming soon...
 
Agie said:
Have high hopes though considering there's increased ventilation this time around, and more efficient processors...
Click to expand...
I don't expect the ventilation will make much difference, but the processor should :)

I see on the teardown images that there is some spare space inside, the heatsink isn't enormous, and it goes on top of the ribbon cable, so they don't seem to have been too worried about heat on this camera!
 
Nigel said:
I don't expect the ventilation will make much difference, but the processor should :)

I see on the teardown images that there is some spare space inside, the heatsink isn't enormous, and it goes on top of the ribbon cable, so they don't seem to have been too worried about heat on this camera!
Click to expand...
Airflow has an effect on the heatsink so they would be banking somewhat on that to help out cooling. Moving to a newer chipset with a more efficient node should also lead to decreased heat too, wonder if they're going with Novatek or someone else this time

Either way, heat testing time will tell ..
 
Agie said:
wonder if they're going with Novatek or someone else this time
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Novatek are the only SoCs that can manage good DOL-HDR, it will be Novatek!
 
TonyM said:
Is there any practical benefit to 4K 60fps over 4K 30fps for dashcam use?
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I’ve been asking Viofo for 4K60fps since the A129 Pro 4K (2019).
Even after I learned 60fps will not increase license plate capture I still want the camera to be capable of it.
Why?
For a camera to support 60fps it needs to be built to higher specification with more advance components;
1.) More processing power
2.) Better heat dissipation
3.) Overall more robust design to cope with extra work load / stress

If a consumer never uses the 60fps option they still reap the benefit of increased reliability, durability, longevity of the heavy duty design structure, and components.
It’s similar to the design philosophy of “headspace” or “underdriven”.
Of course it sounds like a waste of money, and resources to build a device to heavy duty standards, and then use it for light duty service but, what you get is increased reliability, durability, longevity.

Let’s say you have a 1.5L turbo charged inline 4 cylinder engine capable of 250HP.
Let’s say you have a 4.6L naturally aspirated V8 engine rated at 250HP.
Which engine to do think will last 30 years?
Keep in mind the 4 cylinder engine needs to operate in high RPM range to make it’s power.
The V8 makes it’s power in low-medium RPM range.
 
Things I need to test, confirm, and verify;

1.) If a current A229 Pro / A229 Plus owner wants to upgrade to the A329 can they use the existing USB Type-A to Type-C power cable, and Viofo car charger D5000?
Or do they need to remove the old cable, and install the A329’s all-new Type-C to Type-C power cable, along with the new Type-C car charger?

1 .png
2 .png

2.) Exactly how many seconds faster is the A329’s new Wi-Fi 6 at downloading a 1 Minute (430MB) clip compared to previous models?

13.5MB/s (433MB) 32 Seconds A129 Pro (2019)
11.8MB/s (437MB) 37 Seconds A139 Pro (2022)
10.9MB/s (219MB) 20 Seconds A119 Mini 2 (2023)
10.8MB/s (226MB) 21 Seconds A229 Duo (2022)
10.7MB/s (192MB) 18 Seconds A119 Mini (2022)
9.8MB/s (430MB) 44 Seconds A229 Pro (2023)
8.7MB/s (208MB) 24 Seconds A229 Plus (2023)
2.8MB/s (196MB) 70 Seconds A129 Plus (2020)
2.8MB/s (200MB) 72 Seconds WM1 (2023)

3 .png

3.) Side by side comparison (2 units required) of daytime test footage 4K60fps vs. 4K30fps.
Does 60fps increase license plate capture?

4.) Is the NIGHT TIME HDR performance better than the;
A229 Pro
A139 Pro
A119 Mini 2

5.) Side by side comparison of heat signature of the A229 Pro vs. A329.
The A329’s new Quad Core ARM Cortex A53 chipset should run cooler right?

5.) Low Bitrate Pro .jpg6.) Low Bitrate Plus .jpg

6.)
 
Nigel said:
Novatek are the only SoCs that can manage good DOL-HDR, it will be Novatek!
Click to expand...
You may need to calibrate your Magic 8 Ball.
 

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...and will it sit in the A229 Pro mount?
 
Panzer Platform said:
You may need to calibrate your Magic 8 Ball.
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Great find.
I was hoping they would move away from novatek as it seemed to be a limiting factor.
Every time I see the insides of a mobile phone and realise what it can do I wonder what the possibilities will be when dashcams make the jump to other processors.
Looks like that time may have come.
 
Panzer Platform said:
You may need to calibrate your Magic 8 Ball.
Click to expand...
Interesting :cool:

But what is it that contains the ARM Cortex A53?

Everyone has heard of ARM, with well over 230 billion processors having been produced, the most successful processor company ever.
Almost nobody has heard of Novatek, and if they have then they probably know it as a Russian oil/gas company that used to do very well, but now makes huge losses.

ARM don't actually manufacture processors, they are a design house in Cambridge England. Their designs are manufactured by companies like Novatek.

Novatek make SoCs, which contain everything needed for the System on a Chip, including several ARM processor cores.

Wikipedia said:
The Cortex-A53 is the most widely used platform for mobile SoCs since 2014 to the present day making it one of the longest-running ARM platform for mobile devices. It is currently featured in most entry-level and lower mid-range SoCs
Click to expand...
 
Paul Iddon said:
...and will it sit in the A229 Pro mount?
Click to expand...
Mount is compatible, but the A329 antenna is optimized.

The A329 can use the A229 Pro car charger.
The A329 car charger is a dual type-c version, another type-c port can fast charge the mobile phone.
 
Panzer Platform said:
Things I need to test, confirm, and verify;

1.) If a current A229 Pro / A229 Plus owner wants to upgrade to the A329 can they use the existing USB Type-A to Type-C power cable, and Viofo car charger D5000?
Or do they need to remove the old cable, and install the A329’s all-new Type-C to Type-C power cable, along with the new Type-C car charger?

View attachment 74106
View attachment 74107

2.) Exactly how many seconds faster is the A329’s new Wi-Fi 6 at downloading a 1 Minute (430MB) clip compared to previous models?

13.5MB/s (433MB) 32 Seconds A129 Pro (2019)
11.8MB/s (437MB) 37 Seconds A139 Pro (2022)
10.9MB/s (219MB) 20 Seconds A119 Mini 2 (2023)
10.8MB/s (226MB) 21 Seconds A229 Duo (2022)
10.7MB/s (192MB) 18 Seconds A119 Mini (2022)
9.8MB/s (430MB) 44 Seconds A229 Pro (2023)
8.7MB/s (208MB) 24 Seconds A229 Plus (2023)
2.8MB/s (196MB) 70 Seconds A129 Plus (2020)
2.8MB/s (200MB) 72 Seconds WM1 (2023)

View attachment 74108

3.) Side by side comparison (2 units required) of daytime test footage 4K60fps vs. 4K30fps.
Does 60fps increase license plate capture?

4.) Is the NIGHT TIME HDR performance better than the;
A229 Pro
A139 Pro
A119 Mini 2

5.) Side by side comparison of heat signature of the A229 Pro vs. A329.
The A329’s new Quad Core ARM Cortex A53 chipset should run cooler right?

View attachment 74109View attachment 74110

6.)
Click to expand...
Nice move by Viofo for the included charger, 45W charging for the other port saves me the hassle of running a separate car charger like I've had to in the past lol. Then again my phone charges at 90W normally so it's kinda lost on me except for emergencies....

A53 architecture is old news for cell phones at this point, and there's been plenty of inefficient processors in devices. Yes I know dashcams are different because they only have a limited number of tasks to complete, but I wouldn't get my hopes up that it's going to run substantially cooler than the A229 generation....
 
Nigel said:
Interesting :cool:

But what is it that contains the ARM Cortex A53?

Everyone has heard of ARM, with well over 230 billion processors having been produced, the most successful processor company ever.
Almost nobody has heard of Novatek, and if they have then they probably know it as a Russian oil/gas company that used to do very well, but now makes huge losses.

ARM don't actually manufacture processors, they are a design house in Cambridge England. Their designs are manufactured by companies like Novatek.

Novatek make SoCs, which contain everything needed for the System on a Chip, including several ARM processor cores.
Click to expand...
 
viofo said:
Mount is compatible, but the A329 antenna is optimized.
Click to expand...
Does that mean the A329's new GPS mount is backwards compatible with the A229 Pro & A229 Plus?
 
Agie said:
Nice move by Viofo for the included charger,
Click to expand...
What I'm really waiting for is Viofo to finish making the OBD2 Power Cable to enable parking mode without hardwiring.
Once they get that figured out it should be easy to make a car charger version.
Of course this will only be useful for cars with constant power cigarette lighter power ports.
Then we will have 3 "reliable" options to enable parking mode;
1. Hardwire
2.) OBD2
3.) Cigarette Car Charger
 
Agie said:
I wouldn't get my hopes up that it's going to run substantially cooler than the A229 generation....
Click to expand...
That's why we test, confirm, verify with thermal imaging cameras. lol
 
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