Is A129 Duo still worth it 15 months after release with new 4K version out?

[dashcamnewbber]

Hello everyone,

long story short I use a crappy non-branded dashcam for £15 which is only good to show the vehicles crashing but plates are very difficult/impossible to be read. I wanted a new dashcam for a while but kept putting it off due to realising that it's not a need but a want. I had firmly decided that I want a two-channel camera and Viofo was what I wanted.

I managed to grab the A129 Duo yesterday for £70 from Amazon and was happy with it until I started looking at videos of the new 4K A129 Duo on the forum which look great. I am now tempted to buy it as it is on sale and works out to £184 on Amazon.

My needs are a rear-facing camera (two-channel) and a good parking mode. I know that the answer is, yes, obviously the new one is better so my question is rather, is the A129 worth £70 having in mind that it is approaching two years from release? Could I get anything better that fits my requirements for £70? I think not but thought of asking the pros before deciding what to do with it.

 

[kamkar]

I think so.
The 4K model will of course have nice daytime footage, but at night it will struggle.
The A129duo will be a excellent first camera.

 

[dashcamnewbber]

I am torn between the two of them...

I found it on Viofo's website for $202 or roughly £155 so a very good price. https://www.viofo.com/en/black-frid...080p-rear-dual-channel-wi-fi-dash-camera.html

I just think it might be overkill for a first proper dashcam. Tough decision.

 

[Zbiniek]

I don't know which threads you were browsing, but take a look at this -> A129 PRO comparison with A129
I recently had a similar dilemma. However, I decided on the Pro version. I should receive a shipment today.

Remember, it's your money, so you'll have to make the decision.

Good luck

 

[HonestReview]

Hello everyone,

long story short I use a crappy non-branded dashcam for £15 which is only good to show the vehicles crashing but plates are very difficult/impossible to be read. I wanted a new dashcam for a while but kept putting it off due to realising that it's not a need but a want. I had firmly decided that I want a two-channel camera and Viofo was what I wanted.

I managed to grab the A129 Duo yesterday for £70 from Amazon and was happy with it until I started looking at videos of the new 4K A129 Duo on the forum which look great. I am now tempted to buy it as it is on sale and works out to £184 on Amazon.

My needs are a rear-facing camera (two-channel) and a good parking mode. I know that the answer is, yes, obviously the new one is better so my question is rather, is the A129 worth £70 having in mind that it is approaching two years from release? Could I get anything better that fits my requirements for £70? I think not but thought of asking the pros before deciding what to do with it.

Go with the 4K. As of this writing, it doesn't suffer from the duplicate frames on front camera and random dropped frames on rear. Think I have the order right, either way those problems exist.

 

[Nigel]

I just think it might be overkill for a first proper dashcam. Tough decision.

Definitely not overkill.

A dashcam is only useful if it captures the required information, it either does or doesn't, you need something good enough that it does, otherwise it is useless, better to spend £70 and save £250 when it successfully captures a culprit than to spend £15 and have the camera fail to do the required job. Also better to spend £70 on a camera that will last 10 years than to spend £15 on a camera that will probably die before 2 years (most battery based cameras do).

The real question is how much is a camera going to save you, the better cameras have a better chance of saving you money after an incident.

There are not many dashcams which are excessive, I would only include the $500 dashcams from Thinkware and Blackvue, since for me I don't believe their cloud features would save me any money. For some people the cloud features may genuinely be useful, but it does depend on your use of your car and where you leave it parked. There are also some cameras which are just bad value because you can get something better for less, I'm thinking Vantrue for that category.

The A129 is both good value and effective, the A129 Pro is even more effective and also good value for what it gives. The usefulness of the extra resolution is debatable, it certainly helps if you want to report someone for bad driving and they didn't get close enough to your car for the 1080 camera to read their plate (seems to be quite common in my experience), in a crash it is maybe not necessary.

Go with the 4K. As of this writing, it doesn't suffer from the duplicate frames on front camera and random dropped frames on rear. Think I have the order right, either way those problems exist.

For most people these issues are of no significance, and right now both cameras have some issues. Both are likely to get a firmware update soon based on a new Novatek SDK which should solve most issues.

 

[joe384]

For most people these issues are of no significance, and right now both cameras have some issues. Both are likely to get a firmware update soon based on a new Novatek SDK which should solve most issues.

There hasn't been much traffic on the A129 forums lately, I was wondering if people are not having as many issues now or some people have just given up?

The A129 was quite cheap in the sales and an extra one would have made a decent 360 setup for me, I am getting really frustrated with all the cables lying around in my car but I just want to get a setup that works..!

 

[Nigel]

The A129 was quite cheap in the sales and an extra one would have made a decent 360 setup for me, I am getting really frustrated with all the cables lying around in my car but I just want to get a setup that works..!

Don't think the A149 is due for a while, A139 hasn't arrived yet.

 

[HonestReview]

Definitely not overkill.

A dashcam is only useful if it captures the required information, it either does or doesn't, you need something good enough that it does, otherwise it is useless, better to spend £70 and save £250 when it successfully captures a culprit than to spend £15 and have the camera fail to do the required job. Also better to spend £70 on a camera that will last 10 years than to spend £15 on a camera that will probably die before 2 years (most battery based cameras do).

The real question is how much is a camera going to save you, the better cameras have a better chance of saving you money after an incident.

There are not many dashcams which are excessive, I would only include the $500 dashcams from Thinkware and Blackvue, since for me I don't believe their cloud features would save me any money. For some people the cloud features may genuinely be useful, but it does depend on your use of your car and where you leave it parked. There are also some cameras which are just bad value because you can get something better for less, I'm thinking Vantrue for that category.

The A129 is both good value and effective, the A129 Pro is even more effective and also good value for what it gives. The usefulness of the extra resolution is debatable, it certainly helps if you want to report someone for bad driving and they didn't get close enough to your car for the 1080 camera to read their plate (seems to be quite common in my experience), in a crash it is maybe not necessary.


For most people these issues are of no significance, and right now both cameras have some issues. Both are likely to get a firmware update soon based on a new Novatek SDK which should solve most issues.

From what I understood, the duplicate / dropped frame issue did not affect the A129 4K. Has the issue reappeared via a firmware update for the A129 Pro 4k?

 

[jdct]

There hasn't been much traffic on the A129 forums lately, I was wondering if people are not having as many issues now or some people have just given up?

I've given up

 

[TheGhost31]

@jdct, is it about your specific usecase with WiFi? When you said, you've given up?

Otherwise, my question is maybe not appropriate to be here, but for the author of this thread, maybe the answer to my questions can help to choose between the devices.

What are the features that fully works on the A129 Duo 1080p using the latest stable version V1.9?

The parking mode with low bitrate? Switch between parking mode and normal mode with 3 hardwire kit?

Gsensor module, does it works well during impact when driving in case of accident ?
Same thing in parking mode with impact?
Recording is it OK everytime when we driving?

What are the problems with images or videos recording that's people have?

Honnestly, I don't see any problem, I got it since two weeks only, but I don't understand yours issues when you talk about duplicate and drop frames. If someone can explain to me with a picture or something?

What is fixed with version in 4K that it was in 1080p?
What are the new problems with the 4K version?

Thanks, hopping this can help

 

[DashCamKing]

I've been happy with my 129 Duo. None of the issues mentioned bother me, but I can see why they would others. For the price I paid I'm happy enough. I read someone got it for £70 which is a bargain, as I paid over £100. Maybe if people who aren't happy could link to an alternative product that has better performance vs price, that would be helpful.

 

[joe384]

Price vs performance is irrelevant if the software has bugs.

For me the deal breaker was the beeps during normal recording where you would loose 20secs of footage

I also had issues in buffered parking mode, it would stop writing to the card randomly. Low bit-rate did always work though.

I recently bought a refurbished Blackvue DR490-2CH for the same price as the A129 Duo is now. It hasn't got wifi or GPS but it seems stable so far. If the A129 Duo firmware worked well, it would obviously blow the blackvue out of the water!

 

[dashcamnewbber]

I've been happy with my 129 Duo. None of the issues mentioned bother me, but I can see why they would others. For the price I paid I'm happy enough. I read someone got it for £70 which is a bargain, as I paid over £100. Maybe if people who aren't happy could link to an alternative product that has better performance vs price, that would be helpful.

I got it for £70 - Cyber Monday deal.

I've decided to keep it. Can't justify the extra cost for 4k. I've bought a fast (U3, V30) 256GB micro SD so when the time comes I'm ready to go to 4k - perhaps next year or maybe in a few.

I do not report people for driving - can't be bothered. I do, however, appreciate a good parking feature as I like to know what has happened whilst I'm away.

 

[LMN]

Price vs performance is irrelevant if the software has bugs.

For me the deal breaker was the beeps during normal recording where you would loose 20secs of footage

I also had issues in buffered parking mode, it would stop writing to the card randomly. Low bit-rate did always work though.

I recently bought a refurbished Blackvue DR490-2CH for the same price as the A129 Duo is now. It hasn't got wifi or GPS but it seems stable so far. If the A129 Duo firmware worked well, it would obviously blow the blackvue out of the water!

Your issues are more likely due to a bad/incompatible or improperly formatted SD card, not the firmware.

If it was the firmware all users would be experiencing the same problems. I don't have the issue you mentioned...

 

[DashCamKing]

Price vs performance is irrelevant if the software has bugs.

For me the deal breaker was the beeps during normal recording where you would loose 20secs of footage

I also had issues in buffered parking mode, it would stop writing to the card randomly. Low bit-rate did always work though.

I recently bought a refurbished Blackvue DR490-2CH for the same price as the A129 Duo is now. It hasn't got wifi or GPS but it seems stable so far. If the A129 Duo firmware worked well, it would obviously blow the blackvue out of the water!

That does sound like a dodgy card but it could be a faulty unit. Mine doesn't do that. I forget about mine until I want to save/retrieve some footage. I have the Bluetooth button to lock footage. I can go weeks before I try to pull some footage and it and it has worked every time without fail.

VIOFO would really do themselves a favour if they just sold this unit with a known compatible microSD card and made it clear not to use any other card. Or maybe make it clear there is a card writing issue on screen, rather than random beeps. There are so many iffy brands and fakes out there.

 

[Nigel]

You issues are more likely due to a bad/incompatible or improperly formatted SD card, not the firmware.

If it was the firmware all users would be experiencing the same problems. I don't have the issue you mentioned...

Some cards do appear to work better than others with this camera but the ones that don't are not necessarily bad cards. Hopefully the next firmware release will allow all the good cards to work reliably. I believe the next update will use an SDK update from Novatek so there is a good chance of improvements, but having an SDK update means it may take a while for it to arrive, which is probably why there is no news from Viofo at the moment.

 

[joe384]

I had a 64GB viofo branded card that I got with the camera, it seemed to pass all tests that the forums suggested. The problem was it might work ok for 2 weeks and then randomly the beeps would happen. It even happened the day after formatting the card.
In hindsight I should have tried another card (I have plenty) but I had already replaced the unit (and redone the cabling) and how long do you wait until you you know the issue is solved? It's very difficult to make a call as to whether you should just continue troubleshooting or waiting for an update or whether you should try another camera.

It's a shame the manufacturers are at the mercy of the novatek sdks somewhat, but I guess that's the tradeoff for cheap cameras.

One good thing to come out of all this is that I have a good idea of what features I really need and what to test etc.

 

[HonestReview]

I had a 64GB viofo branded card that I got with the camera, it seemed to pass all tests that the forums suggested. The problem was it might work ok for 2 weeks and then randomly the beeps would happen. It even happened the day after formatting the card.
In hindsight I should have tried another card (I have plenty) but I had already replaced the unit (and redone the cabling) and how long do you wait until you you know the issue is solved? It's very difficult to make a call as to whether you should just continue troubleshooting or waiting for an update or whether you should try another camera.

It's a shame the manufacturers are at the mercy of the novatek sdks somewhat, but I guess that's the tradeoff for cheap cameras.

One good thing to come out of all this is that I have a good idea of what features I really need and what to test etc.

Go for the Sandisk A2 cards. I've had zero problems what so ever.

 

[joe384]

Yeah, I always go for Sandisk if I'm buying cards separately, in fact I bought a Sandisk A2 for my mini 0906 a few months back.