Firmware 129 Plus

Thanks a lot for your feedback.
Hoping for some A129 Plus owners sharing their thoughts in comparison.
Speaking of 30fps, I couldn't see a big improvement over the 60fps Minecraft wise.
Yesterday I tested night quality again and noticed, though 30fps doesn't look as noisy it certainly has much more motion blur. But i guess that's normal too, right?
Don't know what I'll go with. More noise but "clearer" image or less noise but lot of motion blur.

Generally speaking my biggest issues are the broken files and the poor/skipping video in native H.264.
Drives me crazy why the native codec performs so bad.
In case other owners don't have this problem maybe my unit is a faulty one after all and I'll need to replace it.
Waiting for the next Viofo Support response.
Regarding the broken files I really don't think my cards are the issue.
Both are tested several times and okay, have a write speed of 44 MB/s (Samsung Pro Endurance) and 89 MB/s (Sandisk Extreme Pro) and working fine in every device so far.
Still I was thinking about testing one more.
A SanDisk Max Endurance 128GB but it'd be another ~40€.
If it shouldn't do the trick I don't know if I could send it back, 'cause usually you need to destroy the packaging to get to the cards. (Whoever came up with the idea packaging cards like this.)
Hi @Dash_vs_Evil

I have been using/testing my a129 plus duo for the past few weeks, and so far I have been satisfied with the video quality and smoothness at 30fps. I checked out your videos and I did see some of the pixelation that you were describing. I reviewed some of my initial recordings, and I was only able to notice some very slight pixelation at 30fps along the very left and right edges of the video, and only when driving by very thick foliage/treeline under late afternoon early evening lighting. The majority of the central view of the video was clean and stutter free. I have not tried recording on 60fps though. My system is on the 1.4 firmware for the front and the default/out-of-box 1.0 firmware for the rear, recording in the default H264 system.

Partially similar to your experience, I have been having intermittent issues with broken/corrupted/pixelated/missed recording files, but only from my rear camera, particularly whenever parking mode is involved. (I have held off from installing the HWK until I can resolve the stability issue.)

Before installing the system in my car, I connected and tested both cameras via an external battery pack. Both units connected and recorded as expected (testing time was very limited though, only ran it for a few minutes of full resolution recording to wait until the system switched to low-bitrate parking mode). My settings are pretty close to default (1-min loop recording, 2560x1440 front, 1920x1080 rear, 30 fps, high bitrate, 5-second startup delay, motion detection OFF, g-sensor LOW, parking mode motion detection LOW, parking mode g-sensor MEDIUM). I am using a Sandisk 256GB High Endurance microSD card, with a Sandisk 64GB Max Endurance as backup. Both cards were formatted in the camera/front unit and performed flawlessly during the first week of testing. Regular files for front/rear cameras appear with the F/R at the end of the filenames, and parking files appear with the PF/PR endings.

I updated the front unit to firmware version 1.4 before installation. During my first week of testing, I ran the front unit in my car as a single-channel system only (rear camera not yet installed, rear cable not connected yet). I am pleased to report that the front unit (working solo) functioned flawlessly during that first week. It was powered via the included usb cable and the 12V/cigarette lighter adapter. Whether it was plugged directly into the unit or via the GPS mount, the front unit was stable and functioned as expected. To use LOW BITRATE parking mode at work, I use an external battery pack. The front unit successfully operated via the battery pack and recorded in full resolution for the first 5 minutes until no significant motion was detected. Then it would switch into low-bitrate parking mode and record. When significant movement was detected in/near the camera’s field of view, it switched back to full recording until the required window of time for non-detection was met again. As a single-channel system, it was able to cycle in and out of parking mode without hiccups in this setup.

The week after, I then installed the rear camera. My first few drives with the 2-channel system went smoothly, with full resolution recording (1440 @30fps, 1080 @30fps). The system would start up after the 5-second Startup delay, then proceed to go into normal recording with the screen turning off 15 seconds after boot up. In normal driving mode, the rear camera seems to be able to function quite flawlessly.

The instability issues started when I began using parking mode with the 2-channel system. (Parking Settings: LOW BITRATE, 1-minute loop, parking motion detection LOW, parking g-sensor MEDIUM, system powered by an external 9000mAh battery pack). Inspecting the files nightly throughout the week and weekend, I noticed a couple of things:

  • multiple rear parking files show severe pixelation, with some becoming almost completely black (or with pink/green/white pixelation scattered either throughout the video, or at the beginning/middle/end sections)
  • Gaps in recording time have started to appear, particularly for the rear camera. There have been days when only front parking files are saved. On other instances, the rear camera stops recording when the system transitions back to Parking mode from Full recording due to motion detection during the previous parking mode session.
  • Parking mode time frames differ when comparing the timestamps of the front file with the associated rear file. Rear parking files are almost always 1 to 2 seconds late/behind the corresponding front parking file, with some instances becoming almost a full 45 seconds late compared to the front. Again, there have also been instances when the rear camera stops recording/saving, exhibited by missing rear files in the middle of the whole file number sequence.
  • Last week, the system’s operation in regular driving mode took a few hits when the rear camera seemed to struggle to startup and stay connected to the front camera after autoboot-up when the car was started. Inspecting the parking files saved before these boot-up connection ‘fails’ revealed damaged/pixelated rear parking files as described in the paragraphs above. Cycling the boot sequence (turning the system OFF, then ON again) seems to enable a more stable connection for that drive.
  • To rule out power supply instability during Parking mode, I have also tested running parking mode while powering via the car’s usb 12V charger (keeping the car in Ready mode, which is essentially Ignition ON but on EV mode for my Corolla hybrid). After 5 minutes of no motion detection, the system would switch to low bitrate parking mode and would cycle in and out of parking mode depending on motion detection. Reviewing the recorded files revealed the same intermittent rear camera image breakdown/pixelation.

Going back to driving mode, the rear seems to function without any hiccups. As a final test, I have NOT been using parking mode this whole week, just regular full resolution recording in drive mode. There have been no instances of dropped recording, and both cameras boot-up, connect and stay connected and stable during the daily drives so far.

This leaves me questioning if there might be some issues with the rear camera’s software/firmware, particularly when in parking mode (and coming out of parking mode)? Could it be a controller or processor issue? I have reached out to Viofo and hopefully they get back to me with some suggestions. I bought my unit directly from the the Viofo Benelux, and they have been quite responsive to customer issues (they mistakenly sent me the wrong fuse taps for my order, which they quickly sorted out by sending me the correct ones within a few days).

I hope this helps provide some more user experience regarding this system. Cheers!
 
Does anyone here have any experience with the camera getting frozen over time? Sometimes at random the camera LCD stays stuck on and stops recording, this has been an issue since I first had this camera. Running latest firmware 1.4 with time lapse parking mode on, hard wired.

SD card is a Samsung EVO Plus 256GB.

I have to pull the power and reconnect after 15-20 seconds to let the cap drain out, then it'll work properly for another 3-7 days before it freezes again.
 
Thanks!

Do you know if buffered parking mode is working now? I'll be able to test it after 2-3 days.
 
HDR test firmware - the first from VIOFO, of course, not ice yet, but(y)

 
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Version: V1.6_20220115
I see "HDR" now available in the setting.
Is there anyone who knows the changelog ore release notes?
 
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Hi @Dash_vs_Evil

I have been using/testing my a129 plus duo for the past few weeks, and so far I have been satisfied with the video quality and smoothness at 30fps. I checked out your videos and I did see some of the pixelation that you were describing. I reviewed some of my initial recordings, and I was only able to notice some very slight pixelation at 30fps along the very left and right edges of the video, and only when driving by very thick foliage/treeline under late afternoon early evening lighting. The majority of the central view of the video was clean and stutter free. I have not tried recording on 60fps though. My system is on the 1.4 firmware for the front and the default/out-of-box 1.0 firmware for the rear, recording in the default H264 system.

Partially similar to your experience, I have been having intermittent issues with broken/corrupted/pixelated/missed recording files, but only from my rear camera, particularly whenever parking mode is involved. (I have held off from installing the HWK until I can resolve the stability issue.)

Before installing the system in my car, I connected and tested both cameras via an external battery pack. Both units connected and recorded as expected (testing time was very limited though, only ran it for a few minutes of full resolution recording to wait until the system switched to low-bitrate parking mode). My settings are pretty close to default (1-min loop recording, 2560x1440 front, 1920x1080 rear, 30 fps, high bitrate, 5-second startup delay, motion detection OFF, g-sensor LOW, parking mode motion detection LOW, parking mode g-sensor MEDIUM). I am using a Sandisk 256GB High Endurance microSD card, with a Sandisk 64GB Max Endurance as backup. Both cards were formatted in the camera/front unit and performed flawlessly during the first week of testing. Regular files for front/rear cameras appear with the F/R at the end of the filenames, and parking files appear with the PF/PR endings.

I updated the front unit to firmware version 1.4 before installation.

The instability issues started when I began

I hope this helps provide some more user experience regarding this system. Cheers!
Hi, have you considered using the 1.5 linked earlier??
 
My 129 plus duo arrived last week, updated to the latest v1.6 firmware and tried HDR.
Unfortunately it's disappointing..., I get a lot of motion blur so I can't read number plates anymore when I pause the video (daylight), so I turned it off again.
Anybody got the same experience?
I'm using 2560*1080 21:9 30fps / high bitrate which gives me the best results.
I also noticed my rear cam stops recording, a lot, parking (timelaps 2fps) as well as driving mode. Any idea what could be the issue? (used 2 different sd cards and now a brand new original High endurance Sandisk)
 
My 129 plus duo arrived last week, updated to the latest v1.6 firmware and tried HDR.
Unfortunately it's disappointing..., I get a lot of motion blur so I can't read number plates anymore when I pause the video (daylight), so I turned it off again.
Anybody got the same experience?
I'm using 2560*1080 21:9 30fps / high bitrate which gives me the best results.
I also noticed my rear cam stops recording, a lot, parking (timelaps 2fps) as well as driving mode. Any idea what could be the issue? (used 2 different sd cards and now a brand new original High endurance Sandisk)
When you update the firmware, 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.

HDR is usually only better at night.
 
I already did a reset as well as a hard reset on the device, but the next day it's the same issue again.
I tried lowering the bitrate again to medium now, we'll see if this helps something.
 
I already did a reset as well as a hard reset on the device, but the next day it's the same issue again.
I tried lowering the bitrate again to medium now, we'll see if this helps something.
How are you powering the camera? Are you using the HK3 hardwire kit?

Try re-seating the rear cable connections.
 
Yes, using the HK3 hardware kit (12v)
Also checked connections, all ok.

Today I checked and same issue again, at some point it forgets there's a rear camera too.
So I did a reset and a format of the card (weird that when I did a hard reset with the pin on the side, it still remembered all my settings after reset? don't know if that is normal? tried it 2 times, but it keeps remembering the settings I choose, so I did a reset in the menu too)

Also I noticed later today my dashcam stopped entirely from working, checked everything, still nothing, but with the USB 12V cigarette plug it did work
So turned out the HK3 kit got no red light anymore, (I got it on 12.0v setting), not with contact off and not while driving around.
I drove around for 50km highway but still nothing. Only after reattaching and attaching the red wire again, the red light came on again and I could start the camera.
(my car is volvo from 3years old and it's driven daily for at least 50km, so my battery is fine)

So I'm starting to think the HK3 might be to blame? Could it be that the kit somehow restricts proper power?
I'll have to check the next day's... Tomorrow I'll try it a few days with just the 12V cigarette plug, see if this is better.
 
Yes, using the HK3 hardware kit (12v)
Also checked connections, all ok.

Today I checked and same issue again, at some point it forgets there's a rear camera too.
So I did a reset and a format of the card (weird that when I did a hard reset with the pin on the side, it still remembered all my settings after reset? don't know if that is normal? tried it 2 times, but it keeps remembering the settings I choose, so I did a reset in the menu too)

Also I noticed later today my dashcam stopped entirely from working, checked everything, still nothing, but with the USB 12V cigarette plug it did work
So turned out the HK3 kit got no red light anymore, (I got it on 12.0v setting), not with contact off and not while driving around.
I drove around for 50km highway but still nothing. Only after reattaching and attaching the red wire again, the red light came on again and I could start the camera.
(my car is volvo from 3years old and it's driven daily for at least 50km, so my battery is fine)

So I'm starting to think the HK3 might be to blame? Could it be that the kit somehow restricts proper power?
I'll have to check the next day's... Tomorrow I'll try it a few days with just the 12V cigarette plug, see if this is better.
Reset button on the side just power cycles the camera and clears the memory buffer (from my understanding), so settings should hold. Only when you default the cameras settings in the menu do the settings reset.

I would definitely run with the 12V car adapter and Viofo power cable for a few days and see how it goes.
 
From the front camera just remove the cable for the rear camera.
Use your dashcam with only the front camera and see how your problems will disappear.
 
still the same issue, missing rear camera footage, and often front camera too, camera was still powered when I got to the car, so turned on wifi to check footage but the unit froze on the wifi screen forever so had to unplug the power and restart.
I also noticed the last rear cam parking video is very choppy in the last few minutes. (I got it on 2FPS timelapse but the last minutes it looked more like 1 frame per minute)

So since then removed the rear cam it and looks like everything works like it should now for the last 15h, drove around 2 times and it went in and out parking mode normally.
Conclusion= attaching the rear camera makes my dashcam crash after a few hours.:bored:

any advice? sent my unit back? I could try a downgrade to v1.5 again?

Update: Ok checked my footage again with only the frontcamera and it still looks normal after 48h. went in and out parking mode 3 times, all looks good.(y)

So in order to get my rear cam working stable too, I did a downgrade to v1.5. to see if it could be a firmware issue.
- Turned the cam off took the card out, did a format on the pc with the Fat32 format tool of Viofo. Put the V1.5 firmware on it.
- Attached the rear camera again and put the cam on to verify if connection with rear cam is ok, it was.
- Turned it off again, inserted the sd card, blinking red light, looked good.
- Once startup was complete, it asked me again to format the card which I did, afterwards I went back to default settings and did a hard reset with the pin on the side.
-After that I only changed the resolution to 1440px1080 21:9 30fps front 1080p-30fps rear, adapted correct time and put the parking mode to timelapse 2FPS. (left the rest on default)

So let's hope it stays stable now(y)

Update2: It was not... 3h later, I got in the car and noticed the rec led was blinking. I pressed the button but nothing, unit was frozen completely... had to get the power off to get it restarting again.
So now I contacted the seller for a replacement.
Update3: Seller recognized the problem and thinks it's the rear cable, (or the sd card, but since I got the same issue with another card it's most likely the cable). No physical damage , just a "bad" cable I guess?
 
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FW V1.8_20220704
Change log:
1. Adjust Stamp position
2. Fix bugs when switching from parking mode to normal mode
3. Refine the stability of the whole camera including the rear camera.
 
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