there are serious bug in Viofo G1W-S wifi

pppp

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  • very low video bit rate. A lot of details is lost by artifacts. Quality is much worse than in Viofo G1W-CB
  • customized wifi network name cannot use character "-" in spite default network name uses "-".
  • when wifi is enabled and recording is stopped then warning beeps are muted. Generally saying all beeps are muted in spite of ones are enabled in the menu.
  • bitrate selector (high/low) in the menu does not work. On both settings 1 minute long, static video takes exactly 83,5MB.
It was tested on firmware signed as 2019.12.02 (out-of-box)

I have compared also video stream of G1-WS wifi vs. G1W-CB and in W-S the stream has 280MB size when in W-CB has 430MB size. The same 3 minutes length of recording. G1W-S seems useless :(

Quick calculations tells me that G1W-S wifi has only stream 11-12Mbit and older G1W-CB has excellent 17-19Mbit.
So, where is declared 17Mbit?
Where is famous quality improvement regarding older G1W-CB?

I have checked also another firmware (signed as 2019.06.03) and there is the same situation. Stream has 11Mbit in each setting of bitrate.

Firmware taken from www.viovo.com (signed as 2019.04.17) and wifi does not work at all!

version 2019.12.02 out-of box is not even distributed!

What is the reason that Viovo distributes old and faulty firmware?
 
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They don't sell that model in most markets so you might not find too many users here that know much about it
 
I suspect similar bugs in Viofo G1W-S (without wifi)
 
It's an older model which probably isn't going to see any updates or upgrades at this point in time. That's something to keep in mind with any cam selection as it's usually the way things go with dashcams (and other devices too). It's industry-wide, not just an issue with Viofo ;)

The GiW/S was innovative in it's time, bringing good low-light performances to the masses at an affordable price because of the IMX323 sensor, which is still found in many older and cheaper cams but has been well surpassed with newer and better sensors which have become more affordable in general. I still have one in use as a secondary cam but it's not a choice I'd make today as there are much better cams to be had in it's price range now.

Phil
 
In theory G1WS WIFI is still on market and still supported. The latest firmware out-of-box I saw was from 2019.12.02. Most of reviews in the internet comes from 2019.

Fortunatelly in Poland we have good Consumer's Law and I can return any good to the seller without giving him any reason within 14 day after buying plus 24 months of seller's warranty everytime. I am waiting for the answer of Viofo support. I have still 12 days to decide.
 
You'll probably end up returning it. But as to your questions, the G1W/C types used the AR0330 sensor which was a good match for the NT96650 processor. That sensor has a higher pixel count than the IMX323 which went into the G1W/S types. The more pixels, the better the vid quality and sharpness can be in good lighting, but the less brightness and sharpness you can get at night since each pixel receives less light in comparison. And the NT96650 isn't as good with the IMX323 as the newer NT processors are, which is why the newer cams using the IMX323 are generally better- sometimes a lot better.

I can't say about the wifi- mine doesn't have it. But in general, dashcasm wifi is almost never completely satisfactory. I feel it's best use is for controlling cams without screens, and even then most apps are bug-ridden or only partially functional. Downloading files is painfully slow and some apps attempt to improve this by lowering the vid quality/resolution levels of the exported files, but the originals will DL from the card with full performance. You might wish to see if there's any difference in a file size done both ways.

Bitrate differences are beyond me- it's been so long ago that I can't recall what the early G1W/S cams did (but I'm sure it's here in the forums somewhere). I do remember that the overall vid quality wasn't great daytime and I think part of the reason was low bitrates.

It was the "last hurrah" for the G1W series of cams which were already quite old at the time. It brought good low-light performance to the low-budget end of dashcamming, which was once the exclusive territory of higher cost cams. Consider it to be a piece of dashcam history and go for newer and better; there's a lot of those to choose from now.

signed Phil-
The last G1W fanboy left alive :cool: :LOL:
 
Checkmate!
I have found somewhere how to change bitrate in Novateks. It works. Now I have every bitrate I want. If someone interested I could explain.
Regading values taken from original firmware bitrate in G1W-S wifi was 11Mbit - terribly low value
 
For peoples interested in bitrate modyfing.

Necessary tools are there:

Main idea is:
- download original firmware for G1S-W WIFI with .bin extension.
- unpack one by means of ntktool.jar tool - on the left hand side of window load original firmware and press "unpack". G1W-S WIFI is "One partition" and "FullComp" type. Unpacking takes several seconds. You will get output file with .rbn extension
- edit bitrate values in .rbn file by means of NtkMPE.jar tool.
- save modified .rbn file with new bitrate values by pressing "apply modifications". The value of bitrate is divided by 2 relating to real bitrate. For instance the value 9000 (in kbit) means 18Mbit. You can also modify FPS onto 60 for lower resolution as 1280x720
- compress customized firmware and recalculate checksums by loading of modified .rbn file back into ntktool.jar tool - On the right hand side load .rbn into "pack + calculate checksum". Select mode "C" and press "run".
- wait several second until calculation will finish and output file .bcl will be generated.
- rename .bcl onto .bin. In case of G1W-S WIFI valid name of update is : G1WSW.bin
- update dash cam as usually by means of sd card.

Quite easy procedure.
I was trying also to unpack and to see bitrate values in my old genuine G1W-C with success.
For your G1W-S it should be very similar.
 
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