Viofo A119 M2 HDR poor vs old A119 v1 WDR (low light/day)

[Kremmen]

I use the standard 264 .MP4 because the people who may need to view it want the original footage, not converted, edited or otherwise changed, and as posted above, a lot of these agencies have old kit or cheap kit that doesn't have the processing power or fancy graphics cards to handle 265

 

[speedingcheetah]

I use the standard 264 .MP4 because the people who may need to view it want the original footage, not converted, edited or otherwise changed, and as posted above, a lot of these agencies have old kit or cheap kit that doesn't have the processing power or fancy graphics cards to handle 265

Yes. ok, but, even h.264 mp4 files, the high resolution/high fps files, need decent hardware to play.
U can't play the 1440p or 4K files on the Win XP Core2Duo PCs that your local police or coutroom still uses.
It will need to be converted to lesser quality, or a newer device be brought in to play it on.... other wise, sticking to h.264 mp4 at 720p or lower is your safest bet for max compatibility then.
But, then it potato video quality.
(I have worked on PC's for 30yrs now...so, I know hardware)

 

[Kremmen]

My previous PC, about 5 years old running Win10, the 5 year old Nvidia graphics card struggled with 265, if it loaded was choppy, but 264 was smooth

Also having been in the IT industry for over 30 years I know that most company PC's are lower tech for long term reliability and are expected to last up to 10 years

But, if 265 works for you then go for it

 

[speedingcheetah]

But, if 265 works for you then go for it

I would, but can't. VIOFO does not offer it on the A119 Mini2.

 

[speedingcheetah]

Last i will say about this topic of h.264 vs h.265...

Having a old Dell Latitude laptop, with a 4th gen 2 core cpu, Intel HD Graphics, that is left over unit, from my local city Governments Center upgrade, who donated their old computers to the repair shop i worked at, it IS playing 4K h.265 video, smooth as butter (using VLC of cource) on its 1336x768 lcd.
Edit: Plays smooth in default WMP, after install HEVC plugins from Win Store.
This is the kinda old hardware that many courtrooms use today still.

A much older thing to test on, Also, from same donation, but had been de-commissioned years ago, a Late 2011 Macbook Pro, 15in running i7-2675 with AMD dedicated GPU, MacOS High Sierra.
Native Quicktime player, can NOT even play 1440p 30pfs h.264, forget h265 or 4K.
Using VLC, it can play 1440p h.264 & h.265 30fps smooth, no dropped frames.
Can not play h.264 or h.265 1440p 60fps, or 4K 30fps.

The only real "issue" that i will only slightly concede to, clean install, non-oem (Retail) Windows10/11 does not support native playback of h.265 in default Windows Media Player app unless u download and install/pay for the hevc plugins via the Windows store, which it pops up directing you to.
OEM, ie Brands like Dell/.HP etc, include these plugins in their factory system OS image already.
However, It takes less than 30 secs to download and install VLC or any 3rd party player in these cases to achieve playback on non-oem systems.

Point is though, computer hardware supports h.265 playback fine, even 4K, since many years, and many generations ago.

 

[Nigel]

Point is though, computer hardware supports h.265 playback fine, even 4K, since many years, and many generations ago.

But why do you want to use H265 when there is no advantage?

Our dashcams work fine with H264, and when using the same bitrate, H265 does not save any memory space.
If you use H265 at a lower bitrate then you do save on memory space, but you also reduce the image quality, and you could make the same reduction using H264. There is no advantage to H265.

• If the dashcams would work with variable bitrates then maybe there could be some significant savings made by using H265, but they don't.
• If the dashcams would output 10bit HDR video then there would be good reason, since standard H264 does not support that, but currently they don't.
• If H265 didn't have a whole pile of licensing issues then maybe there would be no reason not to use it, but it does have.
• AV1 is the future, clear license plates at very high compression levels, no blocky skies and road surfaces, no licensing issues, and your test computers can probably manage to play it?

 

[Dex_]

• Dashcam may work with variable bitrates, all Novatek chipset support it. But more comfortable for regular users then CBR used and same video length files take up same bytes size. But some Viofo FWs still use VBR for some resolutions.
• H265 allows a bit more powerful algorithms - that's why previous Viofo dashcam models with H265 support has less bitrate values for H265 than for H264 - same image quality as on H264 but with reduced file size for H265.

But I'm do not worried now for H265 support anymore cause image quality not hard depends on codec or bitrates - you may check my 2 video files from Vantrue N4 Pro cam, FW mod with improved setting of H265 codec (less GOP and quantization parameters than in default FW) and very high bitrates - 133279 and 160155 kbps compared with default 31200 kbps. This video does not shown any significant improvement in image quality. My post with video available here Yandex drive allow to download original video to see it in 4K quality

 

[ozguy]

It's a shame they don't get more publicity and sales to be honest,.they 100% deserve it.

They need to have an Australian warehouse and supplier DESPERATELY. Returns go back to china at a customers cost? seriously. They would kill it in the aussie market if they had an australian seller and distributor.

 

[Agie]

They need to have an Australian warehouse and supplier DESPERATELY. Returns go back to china at a customers cost? seriously. They would kill it in the aussie market if they had an australian seller and distributor.

Agreed. Harvey Norman used to sell them that's where I got my A119 v3 from.

 

[VIOFO-Support]

They need to have an Australian warehouse and supplier DESPERATELY. Returns go back to china at a customers cost? seriously. They would kill it in the aussie market if they had an australian seller and distributor.

This is our dealer's website in Australia: https://www.viofo.com.au/

 

[ozguy]

This is our dealer's website in Australia: https://www.viofo.com.au/

Thanks, but is the stock actually IN the australian warehouse?
Or does it come from China?
It would be good to have AUSTRALIAN stock IN Australia and if something needs to be returned, we can send it BACK to Australian warehouse...instead of waiting for the long turn around times shipping back and forth overseas.

 

[VIOFO-Support]

Thanks, but is the stock actually IN the australian warehouse?
Or does it come from China?
It would be good to have AUSTRALIAN stock IN Australia and if something needs to be returned, we can send it BACK to Australian warehouse...instead of waiting for the long turn around times shipping back and forth overseas.

There is no need to return the defective one to China as we have a partner in Australia and you can send it to him. But the replacement will be shipped from China. If you buy a new one from our dealer's website, the product is shipped from him not from China.

 

[ozguy]

There is no need to return the defective one to China as we have a partner in Australia and you can send it to him. But the replacement will be shipped from China. If you buy a new one from our dealer's website, the product is shipped from him not from China.

Thanks, who is your reseller/dealer in Australia?
I went to https://www.viofo.com.au/authorised-re-sellers/ but most of the links goes nowhere, and one site is a malicious site and is mostly amazon.
Who is the best dealer to go to in Australia. It shouldn't be this hard. I am ready to buy an A229 Plus Duo.
Is the A229 Plus DUO on the Australian website and available in Australia or do we need to order from viafo.com site?
Even the previous model a229 duo is out of stock. https://www.viofo.com.au/product/viofo-a229-duo/

 

[VIOFO-Support]

Thanks, who is your reseller/dealer in Australia?
I went to https://www.viofo.com.au/authorised-re-sellers/ but most of the links goes nowhere, and one site is a malicious site and is mostly amazon.
Who is the best dealer to go to in Australia. It shouldn't be this hard. I am ready to buy an A229 Plus Duo.
Is the A229 Plus DUO on the Australian website and available in Australia or do we need to order from viafo.com site?
Even the previous model a229 duo is out of stock. https://www.viofo.com.au/product/viofo-a229-duo/

The link we sent to you is the website of our dealer. The link you sent is our dealer's reseller. Yes, we have stopped producing the A229 Duo.

 

[speedingcheetah]

Can for sure say i prefer the Ultra wide (2560x1080 60fps) setting with the A119 Mini2.
I wonder if VIOFO did not re-calibrate the thing after the changed over to the new lens?
Perhaps that may account for the slight distortion/compression/stretching i notice, mentioned before.
It a minor thing...

I for sure seeing vertical stretching in the 16:9 2560x1440 60fps footage.
And, small amount, of vertical compression in 21:9? 2560x1080 60fps.

The ultrawide looks more "natural" looking to me. More to what i see when driving. And less fish eye, with the least amount of distortion.
And in a few cases, seems to actual have tiny bit more horizontal field of view.

I do not need so much of the sky, or tall buildings, or to see 95% of my dash....

Too bad they can't add a custom crop/resolution feature, so the user can set a crop to what they want, or what ratio they want too. but, i can imagine that would be much more complex and risky developmental wise to program, and support. Not seven sure if the chipset and encoder etc would even support something like that...

 

[Kremmen]

I'm sure I ran my V3 in letterbox mode in my Civic

Check all the options

 

[Karagandinez]

I wonder if VIOFO did not re-calibrate the thing after the changed over to the new lens?
Perhaps that may account for the slight distortion/compression/stretching i notice, mentioned before.
It a minor thing...

The compression/stretching is not from the lens, but from the firmware.
Squeeze/stretch is present at 2560x1080 resolution on the Mini, on the Mini 2 with the old lens, and on the Mini 2 with the new lens.

 

[speedingcheetah]

Just noticed, the A119 Mini 2, not have a AV Out port?

Was just looking at my old A119 V1 and noticed it has one... never used it. I have a 3.5mm AV cable, somewhere, but no devices that can accept Composite (RCA) video in.,