Disappointed with Viofo for Abandoning A129 Duo Owners

[kamkar]

You will want a larger memory card for sure, really it is only camera compatibility and the price that should hold people back from getting large memory cards.
I am personally leaning more and more towards recommending 128 GB memory cards ( for each camera in a system ), not least if you are running any form of parking guard + possible drive a lot too.

 

[Sdeel7491]

This should be BMW normal behavior, I personally use HK3 with A129 on BMW, If use parking mode over the night, it will display low battery warning.
It wants to notify there is another electronic products use the battery while the stopped.

Are any of the other Viofo cams any better for Bufferd Parking Mode? More control on what it's recording! Today in 5 hours of parking 216 files!! It's ok being told better having more than not enough! But who wants to spend their time looking for something in that lot ! I think I'm reaching the time that I'm flogging a dead horse with this camera!!!

 

[Gooffeyguy]

If your car gets hit while parked, hopefully the new sensitivity of the g-sensor will lock the file in a RO folder. No need to watch through all the clips

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[minc3]

Are any of the other Viofo cams any better for Bufferd Parking Mode? More control on what it's recording! Today in 5 hours of parking 216 files!! It's ok being told better having more than not enough! But who wants to spend their time looking for something in that lot ! I think I'm reaching the time that I'm flogging a dead horse with this camera!!!

I can see from the Thinkware forum, even the top thinkware u1000 is reporting false events as well?

 

[jokiin]

I can see from the Thinkware forum, even the top thinkware u1000 is reporting false events as well?

any camera will, parking mode isn't black magic, expecting it to only register actual events that hit the car is not going to happen

 

[Mtz]

The "old" Livue LB100 had parking mode based on motion detect or shocks. Or both.
I think this is easy to implement also by Novatek.
@Sdeel7491 is acting like a 5 years old boy which cannot understand technology because it is too little, no book read.
Why is so hard to understand that if an object or person is moving in front of a camera set in motion detect mode (parking mode) will record that moment even it is needed by the owner or not.
If you want to be recorded only the interesting events for you, the only way is to hire a cop which will stay in the car when it is parked and press on the event button when he will see only suspect cars or suspect people.
Best is that after pressing the button, the cop to verify at the police data base and if is something dangerous to make the file read only and call 911.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[SawMaster]

Much better to have too much video than too little!

This exactly is the reason I record constantly. I'd like to do a low-bitrate mode here which I think is more ideal for parking, but the most important part is to have whatever vids you need no matter what. The only way to be certain of that is constant recording.

Phil

 

[Nigel]

This exactly is the reason I record constantly. I'd like to do a low-bitrate mode here which I think is more ideal for parking, but the most important part is to have whatever vids you need no matter what. The only way to be certain of that is constant recording.

Phil

I don't think I've ever met a CCTV system that doesn't record most of the time, they all record in low bitrate, and if the recordings are not required they get overwritten. Viofo's low bitrate mode does the same, if you need the recording it is there, if not it is overwritten. No chance of missing that Vandal wearing camouflage clothing sneaking up very slowly and spaying graffiti all over your car bonnet without triggering the motion detection or g-sensor until after covering the dashcam's view in paint!

 

[TonyM]

Despite all the testing of buffered parking mode FW versions I've done for 10 months this year, whenever I'm not testing I switch back to FW V1.50 and use low bitrate parking mode. It just works, and that's all I ever need.

 

[HonestReview]

What is everyone's aversion to low bitrate mode while parked? Seriously, I'd rather have the camera run 24/7 while parked. Not event detection. Not Motion Detection. For love of god it's almost 2020. Shell out the $$$ or Euros for a 256 GB + SD card.

Flaws ignored, I'd rather have everything record and live with too much video, than chance missing an important event.

 

[Sadoka]

All are still in use, just no longer depended on. My crew now use action cams to record their drive and parking. All cars will be parked in a very spacious but expensive non-public parking lot. After a few years, these cars except for 2 will be replaced by Tesla’s and they do not have a need for dash cams.

We found that whenever the dashcams beep while driving, it is simply the dashcam finishing 1 3 minute recording segment and starting another 3 minutes. Meaning that in between it is not recording and thus beeping. And that means you lose around up to 10 seconds of footage.

We use Samsung Evo U3 256GB SD cards in all cams and they’ve worked without issue before. After issues, all cards were tested, formatted and found to be pristine still. Nevertheless, we replaced all of them with Sandisk U3 V30 A2 SD cards just to be safe but sadly the problem persists with at least 2 cams.

 

[Sadoka]

In most situations I am unable to decypher license plates in low bitrate mode in the nightly hours. Rendering the footage infuriating to watch but ultimately useless.

 

[kamkar]

decypher license plates in low bitrate mode in the nightly hours

To do that, you also need a full blown license plate camera, with flash backup, and that's a whole other ballgame and price bracket.
To me a dashcam are still a non cinematic drive recorder, nothing more, at least not something i would rely on or base my purchase upon.

What is next, people wanting the dashcams to look up plates in plate registers, find the owner, then look him / her up on social media and flame the person.

 

[Sadoka]

Ok cool story. When the cam is set to event detection, it records a lot clearer video and I am able to read the license plates. Which is why I do not prefer the low bitrate mode, is what I was saying.

 

[kamkar]

Okay.
I did not expect the footage to take such a hit, and surely not in the nighttime.
My greatest fear regarding low bitrate parking have always been in relation to fast moving traffic, maybe i will have to revise that now, or at least when i get to actually try and use parking mode myself.

I should maybe have added a smily or 2 to my post above to indicate it was not to be taken too seriously.

 

[Nigel]

Okay.
I did not expect the footage to take such a hit, and surely not in the nighttime.
My greatest fear regarding low bitrate parking have always been in relation to fast moving traffic, maybe i will have to revise that now, or at least when i get to actually try and use parking mode myself.

I should maybe have added a smily or 2 to my post above to indicate it was not to be taken too seriously.

There is not much of a hit, the difference is more likely due to different lighting conditions.
And for the A129 Pro, the low bitrate increases to about the same as event detection bitrate while there is a lot of movement, so on that camera I don't think there is a hit.

Low bitrate is a good solution, the only real issue is that when you do need some video it can take some time to find the right bit, but you should not be needing that video every day, or every week, or every month, or even every year! A bit of searching once per decade should not be an issue, especially if it can be found in just a few minutes by loading the audio into Audacity and scanning quickly for the bang.

 

[SawMaster]

I can appreciate wanting motion-detect to work flawlessly, but so far nobody has been able to achieve that Blackvue seems to have come closest to that goal but still there have been a handful of missed events with car damage spoken of here on DCT with Blackvue cams. Even good security cameras struggle with this. The cams which use 'radar' like Vantrue T-2 may be the path to improvement but even they aren't perfect and have had failures to activate noted. Maybe a blend of visual motion detect with radar, and then programming to compare and decide when to activate from that data? You're not going to get that without a lot more computing power in the cam; no current SOC design is even close to being able to handle that.

You can want anything, but you can only get what's available So until such time that motion-detect is perfected, only some form of continuous recording can do the job. With any method there will still be raindrops, snow and ice, fog, darkness, glare, and other issues involved which no camera can fix. So kamkar1's perspective is mine too- these are essentially cheap devices meant to give you pretty basic recordings as you drive, and anything else you might get is a bonus if and when you get it. Don't expect more.

Phil

 

[HonestReview]

In most situations I am unable to decypher license plates in low bitrate mode in the nightly hours. Rendering the footage infuriating to watch but ultimately useless.

You're asking way to much of any Dash Camera. Dash cameras dont use 1000s of dollar / euro lenses with pristine night vision capabilities....And you risk event detection or motion detection on ANY CAMERA missing an event.

 

[HonestReview]

I can appreciate wanting motion-detect to work flawlessly, but so far nobody has been able to achieve that Blackvue seems to have come closest to that goal but still there have been a handful of missed events with car damage spoken of here on DCT with Blackvue cams. Even good security cameras struggle with this. The cams which use 'radar' like Vantrue T-2 may be the path to improvement but even they aren't perfect and have had failures to activate noted. Maybe a blend of visual motion detect with radar, and then programming to compare and decide when to activate from that data? You're not going to get that without a lot more computing power in the cam; no current SOC design is even close to being able to handle that.

You can want anything, but you can only get what's available So until such time that motion-detect is perfected, only some form of continuous recording can do the job. With any method there will still be raindrops, snow and ice, fog, darkness, glare, and other issues involved which no camera can fix. So kamkar1's perspective is mine too- these are essentially cheap devices meant to give you pretty basic recordings as you drive, and anything else you might get is a bonus if and when you get it. Don't expect more.

Phil

Exactly. And the higher the quality (720p---->1080p --->4k), the worse night vision gets, because the pixels size is decreased to create an increase in video quality.

I doubt anyone wants to spend thousands on professional grade lenses for their dash camera that may then address some of our concerns.

 

[HonestReview]

Ok cool story. When the cam is set to event detection, it records a lot clearer video and I am able to read the license plates. Which is why I do not prefer the low bitrate mode, is what I was saying.

True, but event detection also isn't without risk. I'd rather a blurrier picture and capturing the event, than completely missing the incident all together. Most Hit and runs in a parking lot aren't going to be at record speeds. It'll be someone backing into your car or vandalizing your vehicle. The chances that someone drag races down a supermarket parking lot and rams into your vehicle are quite slim.