My experience using a229 so far...

hyzer said:
I agree there is a lot of motion blur and i dont understand why, with a119 V3 i did not have that, and the car is the same.
Sure, once I have more time I can try to put back a119 V3 on the windshield and go for a drive, then I will share the footage here for comparison.
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For comparison, shoot from two DVRs at the same time.

hyzer said:
Regarding the horizon, do you mean I should raise the lenses to show more of the sky?
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Yes
 
I saw A229 vs A129 Plus video comparison- and the A129 Plus was better on license plates reading 90% of the time.. very frustrating.

This is not ok.

 
It is " funny" a newer camera from a brand can be " worse" than a old camera from the same brand.

But things often never go as planned.
For instance i am backing a Israeli " made " dashcam on kickstarter, it should have released a year or so ago, but still not there. and while it is a 4K camera it is on the old IMX 415 sensor used by so many other 4K cameras for a long time.
But now 4K cameras based on Starvis 2 sensors are releasing, so the camera i back if it ever release it will be obsolete more or less ( cuz any dashcam are better than no dashcam )
I am however happy that the reason i got in with this kickstarter project is to "cheap" get to try a smart camera, and in smarts in dashcams things dont get obsolete so fast.

Also while i test plate capture on dashcams i am sent, then really it is a "bad" thing to test on, CUZ in the daytime with some light, almost any dashcam will do that, when the light fade so do the number of dashcams that can do plate capture, but the difference between a cheaper camera and a expensive camera have to give up are very short, i would guess if you are on a long drive around sunset, it is within the same 1 hour all dashcams go from capturing plates to not at all.

I have often on 2 days, with what i feel are the same amount of light gone from capturing almost every plate, to barely capturing any the other day, i think it is a matter of the actual light there and the human eye, but i have also contemplated if dashcams are able to with their automatic settings ( ISO and exposure time ) choose a unfortunate setting in regard to plate capture.

Personally i do not look for plates at night or low light, i dont think that will be doable in my lifetime ( i am 56 years old )
 
kamkar said:
Also while i test plate capture on dashcams i am sent, then really it is a "bad" thing to test on, CUZ in the daytime with some light, almost any dashcam will do that, when the light fade so do the number of dashcams that can do plate capture, but the difference between a cheaper camera and a expensive camera have to give up are very short, i would guess if you are on a long drive around sunset, it is within the same 1 hour all dashcams go from capturing plates to not at all.
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That is generally correct, but if you are doing an evening commute from work then that time around sunset can be very important so fairly small differences can be considered significant. The IMX414 compared to the IMX335 can definitely lose half an hour of readability around sunset, that is quite a lot. Not sure why the IMX414 has so much difference, maybe it has just been poor optimisation, but it is the same in all the cameras I've seen it. The IMX515 however, which is a direct replacement, is really good - I suggest they do an easy upgrade before production!

kamkar said:
Personally i do not look for plates at night or low light, i dont think that will be doable in my lifetime ( i am 56 years old )
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The Starvis-2 sensors do quite a good job of reading plates at night, as long as you have good headlamps to go with them. You won't have to live long to see those in quite a few dashcams.
 
Turbine said:
I saw A229 vs A129 Plus video comparison- and the A129 Plus was better on license plates reading 90% of the time.. very frustrating.

This is not ok.

Click to expand...
They are small differences, sometimes one will do better than the other, other times it will be the other way around, if he had swapped the cameras over so that the worse one had the better windscreen position then maybe he would get the opposite result, especially when there was a big reflection of the sun on the road surface that was more visible from one position than the other and closer to the auto exposure area for one position than for the other! They use the same sensor and similar firmware, there are differences but it is hard to say which is the best image quality. Overall the A229 is the better camera, it has new features like voice announcements and external microphone socket, and a bigger screen and buttons, and better heat resistance...
 
Despite what Youtubers say in their reviews, As a real owner of an A229 duo, in my honest opinion for license plate capturing I do not recommend this camera until VIOFO does something in the firmware to improve/optimize its video performance.
in the current state, older Viofo models outperform the new one.
 
hyzer said:
Despite what Youtubers say in their reviews, As a real owner of an A229 duo, in my honest opinion for license plate capturing I do not recommend this camera until VIOFO does something in the firmware to improve/optimize its video performance.
in the current state, older Viofo models outperform the new one.
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Maybe it's only your copy of the problem with the readability of the numbers of oncoming cars?
 
hyzer said:
Despite what Youtubers say in their reviews, As a real owner of an A229 duo, in my honest opinion for license plate capturing I do not recommend this camera until VIOFO does something in the firmware to improve/optimize its video performance.
in the current state, older Viofo models outperform the new one.
Click to expand...
Can I see the original of your video where the numbers are not readable?
Tell me what exposure you have set, bitrate, WDR is on or off
 
Karagandinez said:
Maybe it's only your copy of the problem with the readability of the numbers of oncoming cars?
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No, it's not. I've been having the same poor performance with my 2 units of A229.
I actually just returned one of them a few days ago only because of the performance.
 
gse said:
Can I see the original of your video where the numbers are not readable?
Tell me what exposure you have set, bitrate, WDR is on or off
Click to expand...

Exposure: Default settings
Bitrate: Maximum
WDR: Off

It happens often, here is one example of not readable license plate, Original video:

hyzer said:
Hi Karagandinez

True.

The raw clip here:

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Access Google Drive with a Google account (for personal use) or Google Workspace account (for business use).
drive.google.com

For some reason the license plate of the Mercedes Minibus is blurred, in daylight conditions. Is my understanding a229 shares the same sony image sensor as the older a119 V3, and for some reason a229 performs worse. No lessons learned from the older model to the new one? In this forum I remember seeing comments from VIOFO in other posts, I would like if Viofo could comment on this.

As of now this camera retails for around 240€ (Euros) well above the price of many other dashcams brands in the market.

DashCam time is CEST
Lithuania Time was at 17h43 (+1 hour)
Location:
https://goo.gl/maps/7Wo2jtDY6ndVyBBN6
A10/E67
Click to expand...
 
hyzer said:
Exposure: Default settings
Bitrate: Maximum
WDR: Off

It happens often, here is one example of not readable license plate, Original video:
Click to expand...
If you wouldn't mind, may I have access to download your A229 video from your Google drive?

I would like to see what it looks like.

Currently using a Viofo A129 Duo. Was considering upgrade to A229 until I read this. If the resolution is increased (2k vs 1080) but the image quality is worse, it's useless.

What is the default recording bitrate of the A229? Maximum possible with factory firmware? This information does not seem to be available anywhere, or at least I haven't found it so far.

Thanks!
 
For v1.0_10.10 firmware:

Resolution: 2560x1440x30
Front camera:
16 000 kbit/sec - Low
19 200 kbit/sec - Standard
23 200 kbit/sec - High
30 400 kbit/sec - Maximum
Rear camera:
12 000 kbit/sec - Low
15 200 kbit/sec - Standard
18 400 kbit/sec - High
24 800 kbit/sec - Maximum

Resolution: 1920x1080x30
Front camera:
12 000 kbit/sec - Low
13 600 kbit/sec - Standard
16 000 kbit/sec - High
19 200 kbit/sec - Maximum
Rear camera:
8 000 kbit/sec - Low
12 000 kbit/sec - Standard
13 600 kbit/sec - High
15 200 kbit/sec - Maximum

Parking mode with low bitrate:
4 000 kbit/sec - Front
3 840 kbit/sec - Rear
 
Thanks for posting those numbers. I assume this is using H.265 (HEVC) yes?
 
A229 does not support switch from H.264 to H.265 codec. So this bitrates for H.264 codec.
But I'll check it again in latest FW tomorrow.

Add:
On latest V1.1_0105 firmware H.265 codec can't be enabled too.
 
Last edited:
If you can take the time, it would be most informative to see stills from the h.264 1080 vs 2k videos, and the same comparison using h.265.
 
Karagandinez said:
This applies to the A229 too.

Viofo A119 Mini - Single channel 2K mini dashcam with Wi-Fi

Video Codec H.264 / H.265 So it's fake here? :unsure:
dashcamtalk.com dashcamtalk.com
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WTF? Why are they dropping H.265 support? hardware can't actually handle it?

If it doesn't do H.265, I have less reason to consider an A229. It would have been nice to have smaller files without reduced image quality. I suppose I'll stick with H.264 and two 1080 cameras (Viofo A129 Duo) for now.
 
DesertBike said:
WTF? Why are they dropping H.265 support? hardware can't actually handle it?

If it doesn't do H.265, I have less reason to consider an A229. It would have been nice to have smaller files without reduced image quality. I suppose I'll stick with H.264 and two 1080 cameras (Viofo A129 Duo) for now.
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Viofo A119 Mini - Single channel 2K mini dashcam with Wi-Fi

I haven't tested wakeup on the A139, maybe that does just turn off? When it stops raining... On the A229, it is currently a little difficult to wake it up again, needs a hammer! But the A119 Mini will definitely get woken up again by a reasonable impact, needs more than just wind, but a...
dashcamtalk.com dashcamtalk.com
 
Licensing cost eh?

Unofficial/custom firmwares it is, then!

Assuming someone makes one, or I get smart enough about firmwares to roll my own H.265 implementation.
 
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