Firmware suggestion : lock previous file

[uski]

Hi,

Here's a quick suggestion for @viofo

I recently extracted all my "read only" videos that I saved over a few weeks in order to do a quick compilation of some road events.

I noticed that on several occasions, between the time the event occured and the time I pressed the button, the dashcam switched to another video... so I locked the wrong one !

So here is my suggestion : It would be very useful if the dashcam would also lock the previous file, if the dashcam switched to a new file less than 15 seconds before the button press.

This can be made a configurable setting, like "Save previous" with options "Off" "5s" "10s" "15s" "30s" "1m"

Thanks !

 

[klatch]

This is a critique I've raised in the past too. I was told that the A119 (not the S), when in 1080p mode, will save a certain amount of time before the event and a certain after and copy that to the protected folder (ie: not just move the file). Not sure if that is true but I share your frustrations. I'd like it to have options or save something like 30 seconds before and 30 seconds after you push the button...

 

[uski]

My understanding is that the dashcam, in loop recording mode, simply records files of fixed length. When the card is full, it finds the oldest file, delete it, and creates a new file.

When you press the button (or the motion sensor detects a shock), it simply moves the current file to the RO folder. The dashcam firmware doesn't really have a notion of "before and after" the event. It's just dealing with short video clips. It doesn't have a circular buffer where, for instance, it would hold 30s of video in memory and dump it when an event is detected.

This is why I made my suggestion the way I made it : it's very easy to implement, given how the dashcam works currently.

They simply have to store the filename of the previous file in a variable. When the button is pressed, they look at the current time in the current file. If this time is less than, say 15s, they also move the previous file in the RO folder, in addition of the current one. I'm sure the logic itself is less than 20 lines of code, a bit more to add the menu for configuration.

They should really do it, including on older dashcams like the A118C (which I also use)

@viofo we count on you !

Thanks

 

[klatch]

To quote myself from a different thread:

According to @viofo here and here, the ermergency lock on the A119, when operating in 1080p 60fps mode, will "duplicate a 35s file, 15s before and 20s after the press" and when in 1440p 30fps mode, it duplicates the entire video file, regardless of where you are in it. I don't like the idea that I could miss the incident if the camera happens to have just moved to a new file when I push the button, so I tested the operation on the A119S on 1080p 60fps and it duplicates the entire file, not a portion before and after. Same thing happens when the g-sensor is tripped.

Is there going to be an update to have the emergency lock operate in the manner that the A119 (allegedly) does at 1080p 60fps (I don't have a A119 to confirm)? Or perhaps provide an option to choose what mode we want? On that point, I'd prefer more time before the press than after. If I had to work with 20 and 15 second increments, I'd rather the 20 be before the push and the 15 be after as I am generally pushing the button after something happens, not before. Even 30/30 would be fine - I just don't want to lose something from it not recording far enough back or not protecting the actual incident because it was on the previous file.

Any thoughts/preferences from others?

Note: I don't have an A119, so I've never been able to test to see if it does indeed function as they say it does in 1080p mode.

 

[uski]

Interesting. I don't have an A119 either.

To be honest I like my implementation better because it is safer. Moving a file is a very short operation whereas duplicating a file is a long one. As a result, if power is interrupted, it might not be done properly.

If Viofo does what I suggested, I'd simply setup for 1min files with 30s "Save previous timeout" setting. This way, I'll always have at least 30s before the event and always at least 30s after the event. That's plenty. And it's safe for a supercap dashcam because all these operations are very quick (moving files around instead of copying videos)

 

[5Cowbells]

Did two tests on an A119 V1 with FW2.0 at 1080P60 and 1 minute Loop Recording. During the first test, the ! event button was pressed at about 5 seconds after file start, and during the second test, the ! button was pressed at about 55 seconds after file start. The result was that only the 1 minute file being recorded at the time that the ! event button was pressed, was moved (not copied) to the RO folder (directory), which was the same result I got from similar tests of the A119S with V1.2 Firmware.

It may be simpler to implement a firmware change to just have the A119/S move the current file, preceding file, and the next file into to the RO folder when the ! event button is pressed or the G sensor activates, regardless of where you are in the Loop Recording cycle time-wise. It doesn't require more memory in the short term because you are just moving files to a different directory (RO versus Movie). In the longer term it would decrease the memory available for Loop Recording, especially if the user presses the ! event button often, uses long Loop Recording times, and/or doesn't often move the RO files to another memory device. To mitigate adverse affects, it might be helpful to provide the user options via the settings menu to choose which files to move to the RO folder, and/or just provide a warning when the RO folder gets too big relative to the memory card capacity.