V1.3 beta firmware for A229Pro/Plus

[Vortex Radar]

Thanks for the feedback. I can try reloading the firmware and factory resetting again, as well as loading 1.3 into the 2CH setup in the other car.

 

[Panzer Platform]

Thanks for the feedback. I can try reloading the firmware and factory resetting again, as well as loading 1.3 into the 2CH setup in the other car.

@Mtz gave me a Pro Tip when using the V1.3 Beta firmware.
Change settings using the LCD menu on the camera, (do not use APP to change settings until firmware becomes official, and APP gets updated).
I've found this helpfully when adjusting HDR On/Off & 24/12Hr format, and a few other things.
I'm using the iOS 4.2.2 APP Version, (not the Android version).
If you want me to, I will configure both of my A229 Pro's in 3-CH configuration and see if I can duplicate your issue.
Just say the word.

 

[Vortex Radar]

@Mtz gave me a Pro Tip when using the V1.3 Beta firmware.
Change settings using the LCD menu on the camera, (do not use APP to change settings until firmware becomes official, and APP gets updated).
I've found this helpfully when adjusting HDR On/Off & 24/12Hr format, and a few other things.
I'm using the iOS 4.2.2 APP Version, (not the Android version).
If you want me to, I will configure both of my A229 Pro's in 3-CH configuration and see if I can duplicate your issue.
Just say the word.

Thanks for the tip. I can try that. As for testing the 3CH setup, ultimately this testing is for Viofo and what would be most helpful for them.

 

[Panzer Platform]

As for testing the 3CH setup, ultimately this testing is for Viofo and what would be most helpful for them.

Correct.
I debated over which firmware to use when testing the telephotos.
My gut told me to use the current official firmware on the public website.


But I need / want to disable HDR for the "rear" / telephoto camera when gathering daytime test footage to avoid that blurry ghosting effect, and you can't do that with the current official firmware.
To complicate matters each telephoto was delivered with two different firmware versions already installed in them.
One had the current official firmware (V1.0 231207).
One had the new V1.3 Beta.
So I just updated everything to the V1.3 Beta.

 

[ogzogz]

Correct.
I debated over which firmware to use when testing the telephotos.
My gut told me to use the current official firmware on the public website.

View attachment 72623
But I need / want to disable HDR for the "rear" / telephoto camera when gathering daytime test footage to avoid that blurry ghosting effect, and you can't do that with the current official firmware.
To complicate matters each telephoto was delivered with two different firmware versions already installed in them.
One had the current official firmware (V1.0 231207).
One had the new V1.3 Beta.
So I just updated everything to the V1.3 Beta.

@Panzer Platform
A solution to this will definitely be provided in the future.

Is the only change between the rear camera and the telephoto camera the lens? If it has a different feature or the types of lenses have changed (just like the a119 mini 2 original lens and the a129 plus lens), a separate software iq should be offered.
As you mentioned, the rear camera is always HDR enabled in the current software. and this doesn't work very well.
In the future, whether the rear camera entry in the menu is a rear camera or a telephoto camera; It will either be selected through a setting from the camera, or the camera will understand it automatically, or the software of the relevant camera will be offered separately. @viofo @VIOFO-Support

 

[Karagandinez]

As you mentioned, the rear camera is always HDR enabled in the current software. and this doesn't work very well.
In the future, whether the rear camera entry in the menu is a rear camera or a telephoto camera; It will either be selected through a setting from the camera, or the camera will understand it automatically, or the software of the relevant camera will be offered separately.

But in the test firmware v1.3 there is a choice of on/off HDR for the rear camera, just like on the main camera.

 

[ogzogz]

But in the test firmware v1.3 there is a choice of on/off HDR for the rear camera, just like on the main camera.

Yes, I tried turning HDR on and off for this rear camera. It works fine but I guess it's not the latest software in terms of image quality. It was said that it would be developed. In other words, in practice, only the closing or opening operation is currently processed.
I wanted to remind you that HDR for telephoto is always on if you test it with the current software. He knows this too.

By the way, I hope that more settings other than exposure can now be made on pro or plus cameras. i.e. brightness, sharpness, etc. Just like various adjustments can be made to the pro feature of phone cameras.

 

[Karagandinez]

We'll be waiting for new firmware with improved video quality. This is very necessary for the A229 Plus.
The A229 Pro's video quality is not bad at the moment, although there is still room for improvement.
My personal opinion.

 

[rcg530]

@Vortex Radar, I reconfigured my A229 Pro to a 3-channel configuration.

• Front FW: v1.3_240522
  • Test firmware with additional temperature logging info
  • Logging was disabled for this test
• Rear FW: v1.3_240513
  • Latest available v1.3 beta firmware from VIOFO website
• Channels: 3-channels
  • Rear camera is the standard rear camera (not a telephoto lens rear camera)
• Bitrate: Maximum
• Memory Card: VIOFO 256 GB
  • Contains enough video content to fill the card requiring video file deletions to make room for new files
• HDR
  • Front: Auto HDR
  • Rear: Auto HDR
  • HDR On = 20:00
  • HDR Off = 07:00
  • "Auto HDR" resulted in the HDR feature being turned off for this test.

Last Friday, this same A229 Pro was configured as a 2-channel (front / rear) dash camera running the same firmware versions, but with logging enabled. I could not find any rear camera video file that contained any dropped or duplicated video frames.

Today's 3-channel test resulted in the rear camera video files having duplicated video frames every 2 seconds. There were some dropped video frames as well at the same 2-second intervals. Near the end of the 1-minute video file, there was an extra dropped video frame. I was able to observe the dropped frames quite easily in VLC, MPC-BE and Adobe Premiere Pro. In Adobe Premiere Pro, I placed a green marker at each duplicated frame and a red marker at each dropped frame in the video timeline.

[click thumbnail to expand]


Looking at the front and interior camera video files from this same time period, there are no dropped or duplicated video frames.

The raw video files have been uploaded to a Google Drive folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xdc3etiZDEMlC_koRukUYog7l80M77oR?usp=sharing

 

[Vortex Radar]

Great news. @VIOFO-Support offered a few troubleshooting ideas (thank you!) and looking back through the dashcam, it looks like only the front camera updated to the latest firmware. I could have sworn that I added firmware files for both the front and rear cams (they were both downloaded on my computer), but maybe I didn't copy the rear one to the card? Either way, I reloaded the new rear cam firmware and looking through today's 1.3 sample clips, it looks like I'm now getting smooth 30fps footage from all 3 cams as expected. Woohoo!

 

[rcg530]

Great news. @VIOFO-Support offered a few troubleshooting ideas (thank you!) and looking back through the dashcam, it looks like only the front camera updated to the latest firmware. I could have sworn that I added firmware files for both the front and rear cams (they were both downloaded on my computer), but maybe I didn't copy the rear one to the card? Either way, I reloaded the new rear cam firmware and looking through today's 1.3 sample clips, it looks like I'm now getting smooth 30fps footage from all 3 cams as expected. Woohoo!

Good to hear your 3-channel setup is working correctly. My A229 Pro 3-channel did not since it was duplicating (or sometimes dropping) frames every 2 seconds.

 

[joshuaho96]

Is there a possibility to add more fine-tuning to parking mode recording for the A229 Pro? The 1440p resolution is extremely poor quality. I would be ok with a native downsample to 1080p or the ability to use 4K with a warning that it may overheat.

 

[Vortex Radar]

Oh, I think I might have figured out the rear cam not updating issue. I just went to update the A229 Pro 2CH in the other car. It updated the front cam, but not the rear cam, booted up and asked to format the card (which would erase the front and rear update files on the dashcam), and then I went back through the rest of the startup stuff and the camera was now running with beta front firmware, but old rear firmware. @VIOFO-Support

 

[Karagandinez]

Oh, I think I might have figured out the rear cam not updating issue. I just went to update the A229 Pro 2CH in the other car. It updated the front cam, but not the rear cam, booted up and asked to format the card (which would erase the front and rear update files on the dashcam), and then I went back through the rest of the startup stuff and the camera was now running with beta front firmware, but old rear firmware. @VIOFO-Support

You have the option not to format the memory card after updating the front camera.
Or load only the rear camera firmware onto the memory card and then your rear camera will be updated.

 

[Paul Iddon]

Oh, I think I might have figured out the rear cam not updating issue. I just went to update the A229 Pro 2CH in the other car. It updated the front cam, but not the rear cam, booted up and asked to format the card (which would erase the front and rear update files on the dashcam), and then I went back through the rest of the startup stuff and the camera was now running with beta front firmware, but old rear firmware. @VIOFO-Support

Last time I did the update a few days ago, both files were on the same SD card, but as I watched the screen, it never showed up as doing the rear, and checking the card it had of course had both file removed by formatting. I then put the rear cam FW back onto the card and it updated that when inserted, so it seems to me that the updates need to be done independantly.

 

[Vortex Radar]

You have the option not to format the memory card after updating the front camera.

Sure, and I understand the desire to format a card after an update, especially given the file name structure change, but UX-wise, formatting a card like the dashcam recommends shouldn't break the update process and cause issues with old firmware on the rear cam. If you want to prompt the user to format, by all means do so, but ensure that the rear cam gets updated too before you offer the option to format, you know?

Or load only the rear camera firmware onto the memory card and then your rear camera will be updated.

Sure that's fine if you know about the issue and how to work around it, but I don't think users should have to.

 

[Karagandinez]

Sure, and I understand the desire to format a card after an update, especially given the file name structure change, but UX-wise, formatting a card like the dashcam recommends shouldn't break the update process and cause issues with old firmware on the rear cam. If you want to prompt the user to format, by all means do so, but ensure that the rear cam gets updated too before you offer the option to format, you know?

After updating the rear camera, you will be prompted again to format the memory card.

Sure that's fine if you know about the issue and how to work around it, but I don't think users should have to.

The average user doesn't need to bypass anything, they just need to update each camera separately.

 

[Nigel]

Is there a possibility to add more fine-tuning to parking mode recording for the A229 Pro? The 1440p resolution is extremely poor quality. I would be ok with a native downsample to 1080p or the ability to use 4K with a warning that it may overheat.

Using 1080 seems more sensible than 1440, being exactly half the sensor resolution, so a nice neat rescale. There isn't really any need for full 4K for parking incidents, everything gets close enough to see at 1080, although I agree that the option would be nice.

But, I've not noticed parking mode being "extremely poor quality" on my A139 Pro, and I wouldn't expect it to be on an A229 Pro.
Presumably you are using low bitrate parking mode? I would be interested to see an example if you would like to share an original raw file...

 

[Panzer Platform]

Great news. @VIOFO-Support offered a few troubleshooting ideas (thank you!)

Oh, I think I might have figured out the rear cam not updating issue.

You have the option not to format the memory card after updating the front camera.
Or load only the rear camera firmware onto the memory card and then your rear camera will be updated.

Last time I did the update a few days ago, both files were on the same SD card, but as I watched the screen, it never showed up as doing the rear, and checking the card it had of course had both file removed by formatting. I then put the rear cam FW back onto the card and it updated that when inserted, so it seems to me that the updates need to be done independantly.

Glad you got it sorted.
Updating firmware on Viofo rear cameras have been a pain in my “rear” since A129 Plus, (October 2020).
Both my A129 Plus units are still on original firmware because I couldn’t figure it out, and gave up.
If only Viofo had OTA firmware updates just like Vantrue.
Wink, wink.
Nudge, nudge.
If us power users are having difficulty, the average first time Viofo customer doesn’t have a chance.
Just give us OTA, and we can be done with this nonsense. lol

 

[Vortex Radar]

The average user doesn't need to bypass anything, they just need to update each camera separately.

Again, in order to avoid customer service headaches, customers should be able to update both cameras together without issue. Simply copy both the front and rear files to the card and both cameras should update no matter what, especially considering that updating the front and not the rear will cause problems. I'm sure many people will run into the same issue I did. For that reason, I think that the dashcam should update front and rear cams before giving the user the prompt to format the card in the first place. Perhaps that isn't possible given the current public firmwares, but hopefully that functionality can be added to newer firmwares moving forward.