Freezing problem with A 119 V3 on playback

S

Spardo

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Joined
Sep 7, 2019
Messages
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Location
Perigord Vert
Country
France
Dash Cam
Viofo A119 V3
Recently fitted I find the picture quality good but when I play it back on the computer it keeps freezing and pixillating, every few seconds. This is serious because it is still running and therefore does not show the missing bits and, as I need it for proof in certain situations, it is all but useless unless fixed.
Any thoughts please?
 
Are you using a card reader to play it from on your PC?
Try downloading onto the computer first.
What player are you using?
Try updating your codecs.
 
Yes I am using a card reader, the same one which I have successfully used for my now defunct Garmin 20
Not sure what you mean about downloading onto the computer. Do you mean directly from the dashcam? If so, that might be difficult as I tried very hard to separate the Viofo from its holder when I first got it. I gave up because the amount of force required might have damaged it.
I am using VLC Media Player
I barely know what a codec is, and certainly wouldn't have a clue as to how to update one. πŸ˜•
Does the fact that I am using a PC on Windows Vista matter?
 
Older, slower computer doesn’t help. Try copying the file from the card onto your PC hard drive, then playing it. VLC should be fine.
 
The latest range of dashcams have higher bitrates. This means there is more detail and as a result the files are larger.

Vista probably means an old graphics card and also what USB ports have you got for the card reader, USB1, 1.1 or 2 will also be a bottleneck and as mentioned by CYA above, it's struggling, so copying the files to the PC is the best action.
 
Big thanks to both of you, that's fixed it. I have been copying files to my 2 external drives for security, after first reviewing the ones I want to inspect, and, taking up my courage just now I forced the Viofo from its holder on the screen and plugged it directly into the computer after making a folder for it.

Rather than take the whole thing out of the car each time I'll now try just doing the same with the card.

I'll get back to you but, for the moment, I am more optimistic. Thanks again.
 
OK, well not straightforward but, for my purposes it will do. Transferring directly via the card reader would take ages so I plugged the Viofo back in and transferred some test files from that. A few seconds rather than several minutes.
On playback from the hard drive the movement does jerk and halt a bit but, the important thing is that the video is halting so that I don't miss any of the action. Before the video continued but the picture was frozen which meant that large chunks were missed.
I do a lot of mileage, 80,000 kms/year, and I record things of interest but also passing speed cameras etc and I later identify the files I want and take snapshots from them. I rarely, if ever, use the dashcam videos, I have a camcorder for that which suits me fine.
So, in short, I think this will do me fine and once again, thanks to you both. πŸ™‚
 
I would think transferring files from a dedicated card reader would be faster than using the A119 as the card reader. Odd if it's the opposite.
 
Yes, but using the card reader it would have taken 10 minutes for one file, whereas directly from the A 119 it was about 30 seconds. I'll try again tomorrow just in case I did something wrong. πŸ™„
 
Well good, and bad, news. This time the video transferred at lightning speed from the card reader, as you said it should, but now I am again experiencing the jerky freezes, pixxilating and missing small chunks of the video as before on play back from the hard drive, whether transferred direct or via card reader.

One more thing to try. I do have a laptop working on 10 but it is only for backup in case this ancient Vista PC goes belly up. And I prefer the PC for various reasons. So I will fire that up and see what happens with the videos. More later ;-)
 
Well I am thoroughly confused. The picture on the Dell Windows 10 laptop is perfect and seamless, no problem at all.

But it won't accept the card reader at all, only the dashcam and then when it plays it is in TS format(?) not MP4.

Also really difficult to operate. For instance I can't hover over an icon in my playlist and get an indication of the date and time, which I can do on the Vista PC. I have to open each file to see those details on the screen. A helluva nuisance.

Also, it seems to have lost a load of videos, for example it only has the journey I was doing on the 4th of September, no sign of the 6th and 7th. I know they haven't been deleted because I can still see them when I switch back to the PC.
 
Maybe the card reader is
Spardo said:
Well I am thoroughly confused. The picture on the Dell Windows 10 laptop is perfect and seamless, no problem at all.

But it won't accept the card reader at all, only the dashcam and then when it plays it is in TS format(?) not MP4.

Also really difficult to operate. For instance I can't hover over an icon in my playlist and get an indication of the date and time, which I can do on the Vista PC. I have to open each file to see those details on the screen. A helluva nuisance.

Also, it seems to have lost a load of videos, for example it only has the journey I was doing on the 4th of September, no sign of the 6th and 7th. I know they haven't been deleted because I can still see them when I switch back to the PC.
Click to expand...
please don’t take offense but those are signs that you need to upgrade your computer. Technology has moved so fast that it is hard for older equipment to keep up with today’s technology. From your description, it sounds like the older computer with windows vista, the graphics card is not fast enough to process so much data from the high resolution videos.
Maybe if the laptop is handling graphics fine, then getting a new card reader will probably be the way to go. Certainly cheaper than buying a new pc.
 
No offence taken to be sure, I was only thinking the same thing myself a few moments ago. But the whole thing is driving me mad. Both computers ar reading the card reader fine now, as fast as I write something on here they seem to be waiting to make me look a right prat.

I don't think a new card reader would do any better as the problem with the freezing occurs whether I use it or not. The laptop is definitely unfriendly whereas this old computer serves me very well. Apart from the graphics card it seems.

Is it possible, and financially feasible, to buy a new graphics card for this Vista PC, or is it more complicated than that?
 
It does sound like your facing a bottle neck somewhere on your Vista machine. You can do a few things to try to help without jumping onto replacing hardware.

Close any unneeded open programs
Copy files to your local hard drive for playback and make sure your drive is not fragmented.
Don't try to play them through your USB connected to card reader or cam, you may have USB 1, 2, 3 etc.. and all have different throughput.
Reset VLC to it's default settings if your using that.
Make sure your video card drivers are up to date.
Try different codec's
Try different media player that could be less resource intense.

You may have reached the limits of your hardware but it's also sometimes possible if you free up enough resources on your pc you may get it to work. GL
 
Thank you, it seems to me that the easiest one of your recommendations to follow is slimming down unwanted stuff while running the videos. I have just disconnected the 2 external drives I use for backup which are normally connected all day, but not until after startup.

I have just done that and run one of the videos that I had already transferred to my hard drive, and the result was dramatic. Good that is, but then yesterday merely transferring fom card or cam to my hard drive also had that effect but later reverted. So we will see how this goes.

If it works then it is the way to go, as the time I spend running videos is minimal, and I can quite easily run them in isolation from everything else.

But we will see. As for your other suggestions, a bit techie for me, and will necessitate some help from someone more savvy.

But thanks again, I will come back and let you all know how I get on.

Edit. Just tried a 2nd video and no change. I'm off to do a bit of defragging. πŸ™‚
 
The above apologetic suggestion to consider upgrading your PC is probably well worth considering if you intend to regularly watch Viofo V3 dashcam video.

Vista was only mainstream between 2006 and 2009, that is some time ago now in PC terms. At that time the graphics cards would be the Geforce 7 or 8 series that may struggle with modern dashcam video.

If you're not that techie then get some help checking your specs. Possibly a run of Driver Booster and see what it reckons is out of date. If you've never updated the graphics drivers or, if applicable, the Intel graphics drivers, then that can make a significant difference.

Then switching from HDD to SSD but we won't go there πŸ™‚
 
I cleared out some unwnanted and never used files and disconnected the external drives then ran one of the videos already copied to the hard drive and the result was good. But then I ran a 2nd video and there was no change, still freezing. I didn't defrag because it told me that it was done on a schedule and the next one due was only 2 days away on the 11th.

I tried using the Windows 10 laptop, the videos are really good and faultless but it is not straightforward to use and there are a couple of problems. My main use of these videos is, when I am on a journey if I see something of interest or suspect I may have passed a camera and want to know my speed. I flip open the camcorder on the dash and make a quick reminder to myself of time and date. . Then at home I get all the dashcam vids on the screen and hover over several of them till I find the files I want, then I know which to watch. The trouble with the laptop is this hover feature doesn't work and I have to open each video to see the time and date on the screen. Very time consuming.

Also for some reason it does not display all the videos that I know are on the SD card. For example, it only has all the videos that were recorded on the 4th of September, there are no more, yet if I go to the Vista PC it shows what I know are there, all the videos that were recorded on the 6th and 7th.

If only the laptop was more user friendly I could use it exclusively for watching the vids I need to see and carry on with everything else on the PC without doing anything complicated (for me) or expensive.

I have a friend in the village who knows more than me so I think the best course is to take the laptop round there and see if he can make it sing, because I cerrtainly don't have the song sheet. πŸ™„

Or perhaps have him come round here and check the PC for all the suggestions gratefully recieved above. πŸ™‚
 
Right, well I don't want to jynx myself, but I may have cracked it. πŸ€”

For some time now whilst playing videos on VLC I have been prompted by a panel exhorting me to upgrade it. As I always work on the principle of 'if it ain't broke don't fix it', and while I was using the Garmin 20, it certainly wasn't 'broke', I ignored it.

Just now running vids again I accepted the panel's advice and upgraded the VLC. Result almost flawless, only one freeze and that from the card rather than the direct from the Viofo, and using the vids from the hard drive, no problem at all.

It does now display using TS format rather then formerly, MP4. No idea why but it seems to have done the trick. Fingers crossed πŸ™‚

I have to go out in that car (it is normally only used for long distance runs but a short run to the shops will check saving new files) this afternoon so I will see when I get back if it works from record to playback. A plus, as we say in France. πŸ™‚
 
Final update. The run to the shops was encouraging, but the clincher was a journey of around 600kms that I did last Thursday. On my return home the replay of the videos was almost without a problem, one minor freeze for less than a second, but that was probably due to a bump in the road and I didn't lose any footage.

One thing I did notice though was that it had mysteriously returned from TS to MP4 format, all by itself.

I did get some advice from Viofo who asked me to run a test on the sd card and send them a video but when I told them of the success with the upgrade said it wouldn't be needed. I then gave the product a very favourable review on Amazon.

I give the same to this forum too. I only joined because of my specific problem, and, as I see from the various debates I am technically out of your league so may well not be posting again, but I will look in from time to time to see if there is something interesting that I can understand.

Once again, my thanks to you all for your readily given helpfulness. David.
 
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