Firmware 129 Plus

Are you only viewing this on Apple devices?
Nope.
Tried only on Windows 10 (2700x @4GHz all core / 16GB DDR4 3200 / RTX2700 Super), my LG 65GX & my Galaxy S8.
My Card Reader is a Sony MRW-S1 and i'm using the original SD-Card Adapter that came with the cards.
 
Here is a screenshot regarding the damaged? files.
The video is playing. Watch resolution (lower left corner) and duration (in the popup upper right corner).
 

Attachments

  • Files from the RO folder (lower left corner showing 0x0 resolution as well).jpg
    Files from the RO folder (lower left corner showing 0x0 resolution as well).jpg
    154.2 KB · Views: 20
By the way, the pixelated/blocky image i would rather expect or tolerate if it was recorded in Low Bitrate.
Never tried anything else than High Bitrate so i can't tell the difference.
To be honest, if my videos look that bad alreay using High Bitrate i don't even wanna know what it would look like using Low Bitrate. :eek::LOL::cry: ... emotional rollercoaster.
I uploaded a few more clips for comparison.
The first 4 are in 60fps and 5-6 are in 30fps.
Number 6 is only trimmed/cut with Dashcam Viewer. No editing or whatever.

Here you go: https://www.magentacloud.de/share/ro7hrxhip9
 
- using the H.265 codec = 1440p60 records much better with almost no stutter
I uploaded a few more clips for comparison.
Yes, the H264 60fps in clip 1 has missed some of the frames (recorded duplicates), while the H265 looks good.

I haven't been following the A129 Plus closely, so don't know if others are seeing the same or if maybe it could be something like a slower memory card.

To be honest, if my videos look that bad alreay using High Bitrate i don't even wanna know what it would look like using Low Bitrate. :eek::LOL::cry: ...
Which clip do you think is badly blocky?

Low Bitrate is fine for lower speeds and simple scenes; when parked it can look very good, but the high bitrate is there for a reason, some people want movie quality, wouldn't be any point having it if it didn't do better!
 
Yes, the H264 60fps in clip 1 has missed some of the frames (recorded duplicates), while the H265 looks good.

I haven't been following the A129 Plus closely, so don't know if others are seeing the same or if maybe it could be something like a slower memory card.


Which clip do you think is badly blocky?

Low Bitrate is fine for lower speeds and simple scenes; when parked it can look very good, but the high bitrate is there for a reason, some people want movie quality, wouldn't be any point having it if it didn't do better!
Check Clip 6 again from the WeTransfer Link I posted earlier, not the Magenta Cloud link.
https://we.tl/t-JqQcn76cYk
You should see the bad quality with closed eyes.
Even the dashboard. I can play Minecraft with all the blocks (I know it's pixels ).
Another good example is Clip 3 from the MagentaCLOUD link.
The footage I've seen from other A129 Plus users looks much better and like what I expect of 1440p in High Bitrate.
Other clips look blocky as well but not as bad.
Though bad enough for me to be unsatisfied with the quality.
As long as the car isn't moving it's great quality. But as soon as it's moving Minecraft is on.
By the way, "every" H.264 60fps clip is skipping frames / stuttering constantly.
 
Last edited:
Guys, if you concidered to watch the clips, please give me some feedback if it's the same with your footage or if it's different.
Appreciate it.
Thanks and enjoy the evening.
 
Check Clip 6 again from the WeTransfer Link I posted earlier, not the Magenta Cloud link.
Yes, when you have a million tree leaves in the image and you are updating their temporal locations 60 times a second, even the high bitrate can run out!

But it would on almost any video recorder, only difference is in how it handles running out of bitrate, and for dashcam evidence purposes, this is reasonable.

In this situation, 30fps can be better, but there are still limits.

The A129 Pro with its 70 Mb/s does better, but even that can run out of bitrate.
 
Yes, when you have a million tree leaves in the image and you are updating their temporal locations 60 times a second, even the high bitrate can run out!

But it would on almost any video recorder, only difference is in how it handles running out of bitrate, and for dashcam evidence purposes, this is reasonable.

In this situation, 30fps can be better, but there are still limits.

The A129 Pro with its 70 Mb/s does better, but even that can run out of bitrate.
Like I mentioned I've read about the limits when trees and stuff are in the frame but still, can't remember seeing it that bad in other A129 Plus footage so far.
I mean if even the dashboard looks blocky, even without trees involved, I'm very suspicious if this is how it's supposed to look.
Have to admit that I care a lot about quality and whenever I know how good something can be or look i have a hard time accepting that my version of the same thing isn't as good. ‍♂️
 
Like I mentioned I've read about the limits when trees and stuff are in the frame but still, can't remember seeing it that bad in other A129 Plus footage so far.
I mean if even the dashboard looks blocky, even without trees involved, I'm very suspicious if this is how it's supposed to look.
Have to admit that I care a lot about quality and whenever I know how good something can be or look i have a hard time accepting that my version of the same thing isn't as good. ‍♂️
I think most people are using 30fps, which means less bitrate is used to store temporal information so more is available for avoiding the blocking.

Your clips are only 25Mbps which is not very high for 2K video. At that bitrate with lots of trees with new leaves, I would expect what we can see in your videos. Some of the other Viofo cameras do have more bitrate, including the A119 and A139 which use the same sensor but have more processing power per channel, and the A129 Pro which has a 4K sensor, a lot more processing power per channel and nearly 3x the bitrate. These do have less blocking, but still have some, depending on how much detail there is in the image. The A129 Pro with 2K and dual channel is getting a lot from a fairly cheap processor, it is good value, but it does have limits.

Your videos are nice and sharp with lots of detail, and the blocking is only when there are lots of tree leaves to be recorded. Normally blocking does not have much effect on number plate reading.

Yes, the start of clip 6 does not look great, but it is a reasonably cheap dashcam providing 2 channels, not a movie camera or GoPro with 100+ Mb/s for a single channel, and most of the time, when you are not traveling fast under trees, you do get good video quality.

I mean if even the dashboard looks blocky, even without trees involved, I'm very suspicious if this is how it's supposed to look.
It is trying to use the bitrate for important information like number plates, the dashboard is not important.

Have to admit that I care a lot about quality and whenever I know how good something can be or look i have a hard time accepting that my version of the same thing isn't as good. ‍♂️
I think yours is normal, away from the trees it has a very good image, better than many 2K dashcams I have seen, and under trees all dashcams have difficulty, some have terrible image quality if you go fast under trees, yours still looks quite good apart from the blocking, which is not affecting its purpose as an accident recorder.
 
I think most people are using 30fps, which means less bitrate is used to store temporal information so more is available for avoiding the blocking.

Your clips are only 25Mbps which is not very high for 2K video. At that bitrate with lots of trees with new leaves, I would expect what we can see in your videos. Some of the other Viofo cameras do have more bitrate, including the A119 and A139 which use the same sensor but have more processing power per channel, and the A129 Pro which has a 4K sensor, a lot more processing power per channel and nearly 3x the bitrate. These do have less blocking, but still have some, depending on how much detail there is in the image. The A129 Pro with 2K and dual channel is getting a lot from a fairly cheap processor, it is good value, but it does have limits.

Your videos are nice and sharp with lots of detail, and the blocking is only when there are lots of tree leaves to be recorded. Normally blocking does not have much effect on number plate reading.

Yes, the start of clip 6 does not look great, but it is a reasonably cheap dashcam providing 2 channels, not a movie camera or GoPro with 100+ Mb/s for a single channel, and most of the time, when you are not traveling fast under trees, you do get good video quality.


It is trying to use the bitrate for important information like number plates, the dashboard is not important.


I think yours is normal, away from the trees it has a very good image, better than many 2K dashcams I have seen, and under trees all dashcams have difficulty, some have terrible image quality if you go fast under trees, yours still looks quite good apart from the blocking, which is not affecting its purpose as an accident recorder.
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.)
 
Speaking of 30fps, I couldn't see a big improvement over the 60fps Minecraft wise.
It should be better under the trees, but that is hard to tell without 2 cameras side by side because the quality varies so much depending on the amount of trees!

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?
I've not done enough testing with 60fps to know what the current firmware does.
I do expect the 30fps to be optimised for best plate reading, but that is difficult because it depends so much on closing speed.

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.
Those should be good cards, especially the Samsung, I don't think it is worth trying another.
Why not use h265 since it works OK?
Although it does give less bitrate, and that might be a good reason! Under trees, I don't think the H265 actually saves any bitrate, the extra optimisations do not work on trees, so I expect the H264 will be the better quality because of the higher bitrate, it is not a big difference though.
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.
I don't know if other owners have the problem, it would be good to hear from some, but maybe they haven't been trying 60fps?...
 
First of all i'd like to thank you, Nigel, for your detailed responses. (y)

Now the BREAKING NEWS. :eek: ... pure excitement.
Viofo was so kind to provide me with a new BETA Firmware 1.5

I'm in a rush so i need to make it brief and they didn't give me any kind of Changelog.

1.) There's a 21:9 1440p60 Option
2.) THIS OPTION DOESN'T SKIP FRAMES / STUTTERS, SO DOESN'T 1920x1080p60

:eek:IT'S:eek:UNBELIEVABLE:eek:


In other words, only the native 16:9 1440p60 resolution still stutters in H.264 like it did before.
Now the question is still and even more so why?
Why isn't the/my camera able to record the native 1440p60 resolution free of skipping/stuttering but it can do so using the cropped 21:9 resolution or any other 60 fps resolution except for 1440p???
Yesterday i did a quick night time test and to my surprise to me it looked as if the 16:9 1440p60 picture wasn't sipping frames either or at least much less than in daylight conditions like today.
On the other hand the 60 fps are destroying the amount of light the lense can capture.
It never occured to me that obvious.
Another drawback is that in 60 fps the video is way noisier though i could live with that in exchange for the way less motion blur compared to 30 fps.
(After analysing the night time footage i was so exited 'cause i thought the stuttering at 16:9 1440p60 was history in general. But.....meh.)
I'll try to upload some clips soon.

Will stick to the 21:9 1440p60 resolution for now to see if it'll stay as smooth as i witnessed it today. :unsure:


Have a nice evening everyone.
 
Last edited:
I would like to test this BETA Firmware 1.5 too.
I most likely use the 21:9 1440p60 Option.
Thanks in advance if someone share this FW with me!
 
Can i upload the Firmware here using the "Save Draft" Option?
Never tried it so far.
Or how is it done?

@pnguyen ... by the way, my best friends last name is Nguyen. Good first impression buddy. (y)
 
Can i upload the Firmware here using the "Save Draft" Option?
Never tried it so far.
Or how is it done?

@pnguyen ... by the way, my best friends last name is Nguyen. Good first impression buddy. (y)
If you have Google drive, please upload it to your Google drive, copy it and send me the link using "Start conversation" with me.
 
If you have Google drive, please upload it to your Google drive, copy it and send me the link using "Start conversation" with me.

FIRMWARE 1.5

Let me try this here, so it's accessible for everyone.
By the way I rechecked my mail and I must've misread it first, cause it doesn't say that it's BETA.
Just saying it's the new firmware.

Here you go lads 'n gents.


Let me know if it doesn't work.

But if it does i'm even excited about being my first time i could help like this.


Anytime GIF by memecandy



EDIT

Just rewatched some clips and yes, occasionally there're a few frames skipped as well in 21:9 1440p60 and 1920x1080p60 for example but in general it's running as smooth as it's never been seen before.....in my case at least.
Have fun exploring the 1.5 yourself.
 
Last edited:
Some Clips testing the FW 1.5

For comparison i added the clip Day-03.
There you can see the (in my opinion) big difference regarding fluid motion/stuttering/skipping.

 
FIRMWARE 1.5
Let me try this here, so it's accessible for everyone.
By the way I rechecked my mail and I must've misread it first, cause it doesn't say that it's BETA.
Just saying it's the new firmware.

Here you go lads 'n gents.


Let me know if it doesn't work.

But if it does i'm even excited about being my first time i could help like this.


Anytime GIF by memecandy



EDIT

Just rewatched some clips and yes, occasionally there're a few frames skipped as well in 21:9 1440p60 and 1920x1080p60 for example but in general it's running as smooth as it's never been seen before.....in my case at least.
Have fun exploring the 1.5 yourself.

I use firmware 1.6TST and there is a resolution 2560 x 1080 (21:9), 60 fps. Is there now 3360 x 1440 with 60 fps???
 
FIRMWARE 1.5


I use firmware 1.6TST and there is a resolution 2560 x 1080 (21:9), 60 fps. Is there now 3360 x 1440 with 60 fps???
Not that I'm aware of.
The Res you mentioned 2560 x 1080p (21:9) 60 fps was added and finally almost 0 skipped frames using 2K 21:9 or lower in 60 fps.
Unfortunately still frame skipping/stuttering image in 2K 16:9.

After further tests i'm still not quite sure if i'll stick with the 2K 21:9 60 or go with the 30 fps since 60 fps produce a more "pixelated" image and at night it's much dimmer compared to 30 fps.
But at least now the 60 fps option is usable without getting headaches watching the footage.

Another thing i noticed is that i don't have corrupted/broken/damaged files anymore.
To be honest i don't have a clue what's different now.
Maybe it's the new firmware but maybe it's due to the fact that i low level formatted the card once and since i always use EaseUS Partition Manager to format the card every time after using it in my PC to transfer the files.
All in all i'm pretty happy about it.

Would appreciate if more users would share their experiences with the new FW.

One last thing, @exciter ,what is FW 1.6TST? Is that a modded one? How does it compare to the 1.5 or even 1.4?

Have a nice evening, everyone.
 
Not that I'm aware of.
The Res you mentioned 2560 x 1080p (21:9) 60 fps was added and finally almost 0 skipped frames using 2K 21:9 or lower in 60 fps.
Unfortunately still frame skipping/stuttering image in 2K 16:9.

After further tests i'm still not quite sure if i'll stick with the 2K 21:9 60 or go with the 30 fps since 60 fps produce a more "pixelated" image and at night it's much dimmer compared to 30 fps.
But at least now the 60 fps option is usable without getting headaches watching the footage.

Another thing i noticed is that i don't have corrupted/broken/damaged files anymore.
To be honest i don't have a clue what's different now.
Maybe it's the new firmware but maybe it's due to the fact that i low level formatted the card once and since i always use EaseUS Partition Manager to format the card every time after using it in my PC to transfer the files.
All in all i'm pretty happy about it.

Would appreciate if more users would share their experiences with the new FW.

One last thing, @exciter ,what is FW 1.6TST? Is that a modded one? How does it compare to the 1.5 or even 1.4?

Have a nice evening, everyone.
1.6TST is a test firmware with HDR implemented, released in February. Take a look from page 5: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/firmware-129-plus.43215/page-5
I don't have comparison to beta 1.5. From February I still use 1.6TST.
 
Back
Top