Viofo A129 Duo - What Problems Have You Encountered With this Dash Cam?

[kamkar]

If viewing memory card on a Apple product, i think both phone/tablets with a reader or their MAC computers, you will be forced by Apple practices to do a in camera format after you have been reviewing files.
On the PC i have never encountered such problems, but as jokiin say you don't want to delete or move files off the memory card, but you can copy files off it as you please, and don't just pull the memory card out of your card reader, right click on the drive and select eject, and the pull card when the screen say its okay to do so,

 

[StrayCam]

If viewing memory card on a Apple product, i think both phone/tablets with a reader or their MAC computers, you will be forced by Apple practices to do a in camera format after you have been reviewing files.
On the PC i have never encountered such problems, but as jokiin say you don't want to delete or move files off the memory card, but you can copy files off it as you please, and don't just pull the memory card out of your card reader, right click on the drive and select eject, and the pull card when the screen say its okay to do so,

Thanks guys for the input! I do right- click on my E drive and do "safe-eject" when removing SD card. - - Now I have one more reason not to use Apple..lol ; )

 

[kamkar]

I have only touched a Apple product for the time it take to take a photo with one of their phones.
And even from before they made phones i have never liked them, but i must say in the same breath of air that my dislike for them are only a few % more than the likes of google and Microsoft, and other monopolies worldwide or just here in Denmark.
I think when i no longer need to carry a phone i will shed all my dealings with google, or should i say google products, the company are now unavoidable if you go online with something.
Microosoft / windows are a bit harder, but i am praying for a alternative,,,, but i am old and set in my ways, so while i do support change and in most cases are willing to try something new, i am also like most others inclined to fall back to the old and known some times.

 

[joe384]

Funny enough, or not, I had a similar experience yesterday. When I went into my car, the dashcam was beeping continuously. And the left light red led light (recording?) was flashing. When I reviewed my video footage later, I was missing about 3 hours of parking video just prior to that....? I assume because the hw3 kit was lit up and the A129 was flashing & beeping that it had not run into a power cut-off situation...?

I assume the hw3 kit is still working, if it had cut power I doubt the dashcam would stay on for longer than a minute.
On a couple of occasions I have left mine in parking mode for a few days and the hardwire kit hits the cutoff point as expected and the dashcam is off.

I tend to turn off the camera overnight but when I park at work I just allow the camera to go into parking mode (low bit-rate currently)
I think I must of had it in parking mode about 50-60 times by now (each time 8-9 hours) and I've had this problem happen about 3 or 4 times.

I am changing my SD card in my dash cam shortly to Samsung Evo Plus 128 gb...it will be interesting to see if doing so has any effect on this issue or the "Video Cut-Off Problem when driving".... I'll of course report back!

Good luck! It's a genuine Samsung card and a lot faster,so should be better.
I haven't had this problem happen again since I last posted.

 

[joe384]

@StrayCam @joe384 What devices do you use to review the video files? Do you reformat your card in-camera after reviewing the footage?

Phones, tablets and computers can sometimes leave hidden files on a card that cause a dashcam to stop working properly. I used to review files on my phone using a USB-C adapter, until I was told that could affect the dashcam reliability.

I tend to use the wifi app or if not, a Windows 10 laptop with an sd card reader built in (and a micro sd to sd card adapter)
I just view the files through the standard video player app with windows 10 (should probably start using dashcamviewer)

 

[StrayCam]

I tend to use the wifi app or if not, a Windows 10 laptop with an sd card reader built in (and a micro sd to sd card adapter)
I just view the files through the standard video player app with windows 10 (should probably start using dashcamviewer)

Yeah Joe384, pick up DashcamViewer...it makes viewing your A129 videos easy (front & back at same time). @Traveller - owner of DashcamViewer has made all updates necessary for the A129.

Because a consensus seems to be that viewing the A129 videos on a Win10 PC doesn't cause any harm/confusion to the sd card/dash cam, I'm going to forego formatting it every time I view video playback. My understanding is that SD card life is shortened by continuous formatting. - - I suppose if I had a mac or other "Apple Product", and it was causing problems, I suppose I would have no choice but to do more frequent formatting.

After my first journey out yesterday with new Samsung Evo Plus 128gb card, I did not hear any single beeps which would indicate "cutting videos short". I'll continue to monitor this over the next few days. Then I might just re-insert my Lexar Card to see if the single beeps return...just curious. - - All in all, I think the recommendation by Jokiin to upgrade the sd card was great advice!

 

[jokiin]

My understanding is that SD card life is shortened by continuous formatting.

do it every day for the rest of your life and the card will still outlive you

 

[Nigel]

do it every day for the rest of your life and the card will still outlive you

A full format every day is not a good idea since it adds write cycles to every memory cell, not sure how many write cycles, I would guess 2?

 

[jokiin]

A full format every day is not a good idea since it adds write cycles to every memory cell, not sure how many write cycles, I would guess 2?

was referring to formatting in the camera, it only resets the FAT, the controller will outlive all of us

 

[StrayCam]

do it every day for the rest of your life and the card will still outlive you

Well, I'm 14 years-old, so how many years do I have left? - I'm a big partier btw!!! - - I should make at least 60!!! So, that leaves 46 years...lol ...jk!!!

I just did a little research on this...Obviously, reformatting in the dash cam is a "quick format", not a "full-format". Based on my limited research, if the camera is used a lot (which all dash cams are) frequent formatting is probably a good idea. Now, is that "every time subsequent to viewing your videos", or how about "once a month"??? It seems that some "regular formatting" is a good thing to do. - - So Jokiin is right again!!!

And doing a "safe-eject" from your PC is probably also good to do....I'm not sure of the ramifications of not doing so, but just to be safe, I do it!

 

[Airborne]

Link to join DashcamViewer

 

[StrayCam]

Link to join DashcamViewer

Here you go!

Dashcam Viewer | Unleash Your Dashcam’s Full Potential

Dashcam Viewer is powerful, state-of-the-art software with unique and functional features that will unleash your dashcam’s full potential.

dashcamviewer.com

 

[StrayCam]

If you are interested in parking mode protection/surveillance, the biggest problem facing the A129 is that the the G-sensor in parking mode is useless! - - Although the g-sensor will trigger when you are in "driving mode", like you really need the camera to tell you you've been in an accident...lol, it will not trigger when your are in "parking mode"! - - - So if you have expectations that the g-sensor will work for you in Buffered-Parking Mode (or even low bitrate parking mode), you will be sadly disappointed.

I am re-posting a video here created by BCHobbyist wherein he shows a competitor's dash cam "working" in parking mode with the g-sensor. If you look at the times 4:00 & 4:55 on the video, you'll see how the g-sensor triggers when a shopping cart lightly bumps into a car and when a passerby merely bumps into the car. - - The A129 Duo does NOT do this. This is a major problem for those who are concerned about "parking mode protection".

 

[Sdeel7491]

If you are interested in parking mode protection/surveillance, the biggest problems facing the A129 is that the the G-sensor in parking mode is useless! - - Although the g-sensor will trigger when you are in "driving mode", like you really need the camera to tell you you've been in an accident...lol, it will not trigger when your are in "parking mode"! - - - So if you have expectations that the g-sensor will work for you in Buffered-Parking Mode (or even low bitrate parking mode), you will be sadly disappointed.

I am re-posting a video here created by BCHobbyist wherein he shows a competitor's dash cam "working" in parking mode with the g-sensor. If you look at the times 4:00 & 4:55 on the video, you'll see how the g-sensor triggers when a shopping cart lightly bumps into a car and when a passerby merely bumps into the car. - - The A129 Duo does NOT do this. This is a major problem for those who are concerned about "parking mode protection".

Just been on Viofo website and can't find any link to the Forum! Is it me .

 

[Airborne]

If you are interested in parking mode protection/surveillance, the biggest problems facing the A129 is that the the G-sensor in parking mode is useless! - - Although the g-sensor will trigger when you are in "driving mode", like you really need the camera to tell you you've been in an accident...lol, it will not trigger when your are in "parking mode"! - - - So if you have expectations that the g-sensor will work for you in Buffered-Parking Mode (or even low bitrate parking mode), you will be sadly disappointed.

I am re-posting a video here created by BCHobbyist wherein he shows a competitor's dash cam "working" in parking mode with the g-sensor. If you look at the times 4:00 & 4:55 on the video, you'll see how the g-sensor triggers when a shopping cart lightly bumps into a car and when a passerby merely bumps into the car. - - The A129 Duo does NOT do this. This is a major problem for those who are concerned about "parking mode protection".

I would hope the company will fix this situation, what camera was the competitors. I purchased this camera for buffered parking. You can pm me if you do not want to mention the other camera,I am interested. Come on Fiofo, we need this camera to be working correctly

 

[Sdeel7491]

I would hope the company will fix this situation, what camera was the competitors. I purchased this camera for buffered parking. You can pm me if you do not want to mention the other camera,I am interested. Come on Fiofo, we need this camera to be working correctly

You and everyone else want it sorted we've been waiting months it's getting beyond a joke!

 

[Airborne]

These are my settings,if they are messed up I would like to hear feedback. I found this some where on the forum
Bizrate.....high
Loop record.....2 min.
War .....enabled
Parking mode.......off...if needed select low bizrate
Parking g sensor ....high
Parking motion........middle sen.
Time lapse......off
Motion detection.........off
GPS.....on
Sensor.....low
WiFi ...off
Boot delay.......5 sec.
Image rotation.......off
Some other stuff but more of personal decision
I am not concerned about when I am driving, the main reason I purchased this camera was for parking and watch the idiots running their cart or door into mine,and now Straycam is saying ,Not going to happen?

 

[Airborne]

I would think this company Fiofo will make this right, they have too much on the line. Now they are probably spending all their time on the newer model. And they do not have this one correct. I have faith they will make it right, and will be willing to buy all the cameras back to make it right if they must. I would send mine back. If the parking mode does not work correctly.

 

[Airborne]

You and everyone else want it sorted we've been waiting months it's getting beyond a joke!

How is your camera programmed? I want to get as close as possible to correct parking mode

 

[StrayCam]

I would hope the company will fix this situation, what camera was the competitors. I purchased this camera for buffered parking. You can pm me if you do not want to mention the other camera,I am interested. Come on Fiofo, we need this camera to be working correctly

That particular model is an Arpenkin Mini Q9. It's only a single cam, but that g-sensor technology comes at a big price! $60 on Amazon...lol. I only posted the video because BCHobbyist shows an example of a g-sensor dash cam working in parking mode the way the "average consumer" would expect it to work. - - As I said, the Viofo A129 Duo will not do this!!!

Btw, your settings for your cam seem fine. I believe BCHobbyist recommended that WDR (Wide Dynamic Range) be turned-off, so I keep mine off. I guess that's all personal choice. And since motion detection in parking mode picks up too much stuff, I always kept it at "low"; but if you're using low bitrate parking mode, this is a moot point (doesn't apply).

What I've been doing recently with my dash cam is "always have it set to Low Bitrate Parking Mode", but merely push the button to turn if off when I don't want any parking mode. If you don't turn it off, say when you're out shopping, it will automatically be on. - - Then when you return to your car, make sure you take a cursory look at your car to make sure there was no obvious damage done to your car while you were away because you cannot count on the A129 to log what should be a triggered even to your RO (Read Only) file.

You and everyone else want it sorted we've been waiting months it's getting beyond a joke!

Yes, Sdeel7491 you are preaching to the choir when you tell me "...it's getting beyond a joke!" - - It's clear that Viofo has placed its present customers (A129 users) in a "low priority position"; they are instead "banking on getting new customers" with the A129 Pro so they are focusing on getting that out in the marketplace before Holiday Shopping starts....only 60 more days!!! - - And I've been told that the A129 Pro will probably face similar "parking mode issues" to what we A129 users have experienced. - - And then "the newest Viofo customers" (A129 Pro) will learn what it feels like to be ignored once they've already purchased their dash cams!

This is a repeating pattern of Viofo, Airborne....they have a predictable perfect record of releasing new dash cam models without fully testing hardware and firmware. - - That's how this Company operates. - - For those contemplating making a purchase of a dash cam, keep this in mind.