Viofo A129 Pro Duo - My thoughts so far

[Str8shooter]

Prior to the Viofo A129 Pro Duo 4K, I had been using a Thinkware F800 (front and rear) since about 2017. The VIOFO A129 Pro DUO is a much better Dashcam in every way.

I purchased the A129 Pro Duo off Amazon and installed it last week. The VIOFO A129 Pro Duo appeared to have firmware version 2.6 installed according to the VIOFO App that I am using on my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, and it looks like that the software may have been dated around Dec 17 2021. So, it looks like this Dashcam wasn't sitting on the shelf very long. I do not see any mention of firmware 2.6 on this forum and I have no idea what it does compared to other versions.

On to the good stuff.

The install manual was excellent and my phone always connects to the VIOFO A129 quickly and easily. In comparison for phone connection, Thinkware F800 was always a major pain (usually impossible) to connect the phone to.

Video quality is outstanding and it got even better when I enabled H.265 and set maximum bitrate. Also, the audio records clearly - excellent in my opinion.

I love that the A129 Pro Duo does not talk to me like the Thinkware Dashcam did. Do I really need a Dashcam (Thinkware) to chime when it turns on and off and tell me "GPS connected" after it boots up? - No, I don't! By the way, I like that the A129 allows me to set the screen saver to turn off quickly - mine is set at 1 second. I like that the A129 just does what it is suppose to do and it is out of sight and out of mind.

I love that there is an option to have a Bluetooth remote button. I just ordered one and I am looking forward to trying that out because I have my Dashcam on the passenger side on my F-150 pickup. It's too long for me to reach to hit the ! button on the camera.

 

[LAKKS]

Prior to the Viofo A129 Pro Duo 4K, I had been using a Thinkware F800 (front and rear) since about 2017. The VIOFO A129 Pro DUO is a much better Dashcam in every way.

I purchased the A129 Pro Duo off Amazon and installed it last week. The VIOFO A129 Pro Duo appeared to have firmware version 2.6 installed according to the VIOFO App that I am using on my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, and it looks like that the software may have been dated around Dec 17 2021. So, it looks like this Dashcam wasn't sitting on the shelf very long. I do not see any mention of firmware 2.6 on this forum and I have no idea what it does compared to other versions.

On to the good stuff.

The install manual was excellent and my phone always connects to the VIOFO A129 quickly and easily. In comparison for phone connection, Thinkware F800 was always a major pain (usually impossible) to connect the phone to.

Video quality is outstanding and it got even better when I enabled H.265 and set maximum bitrate. Also, the audio records clearly - excellent in my opinion.

I love that the A129 Pro Duo does not talk to me like the Thinkware Dashcam did. Do I really need a Dashcam (Thinkware) to chime when it turns on and off and tell me "GPS connected" after it boots up? - No, I don't! By the way, I like that the A129 allows me to set the screen saver to turn off quickly - mine is set at 1 second. I like that the A129 just does what it is suppose to do and it is out of sight and out of mind.

I love that there is an option to have a Bluetooth remote button. I just ordered one and I am looking forward to trying that out because I have my Dashcam on the passenger side on my F-150 pickup. It's too long for me to reach to hit the ! button on the camera.

Hopefully, you will not have any problems with pairing the Bluetooth remote. I tried several times without any luck, and the seller had to work with me as well. It looked like the Bluetooth on the dashcam wasn't working, so the seller sent me an already paired dashcam and remote! Buying from recommended sellers is a must! I used CaptureYourAction on ebay.

 

[Str8shooter]

Hopefully, you will not have any problems with pairing the Bluetooth remote. I tried several times without any luck, and the seller had to work with me as well. It looked like the Bluetooth on the dashcam wasn't working, so the seller sent me an already paired dashcam and remote! Buying from recommended sellers is a must! I used CaptureYourAction on ebay.

The bluetooth remote arrived today from Amazon and worked perfectly. Very happy! I installed it on the dash between my speedometer and air vent on my 2021 F150 pickup - It looks OEM in this location. Also, included a pic of the front Dashcam - the remote button is much easier to reach. If you look closely in the rear view mirror you can see the rear camera install location on the driver side since the middle rear window slides toward the passenger side.

 

[LAKKS]

The bluetooth remote arrived today from Amazon and worked perfectly. Very happy! I installed it on the dash between my speedometer and air vent on my 2021 F150 pickup - It looks OEM in this location. Also, included a pic of the front Dashcam - the remote button is much easier to reach. If you look closely in the rear view mirror you can see the rear camera install location on the driver side since the middle rear window slides toward the passenger side.
View attachment 59753
View attachment 59754

As other users here told me on this site, make sure you routed both cables behind the pillar airbags, not below. I made that mistake without realizing it, and the cables could snag the airbags during deployment.

 

[Str8shooter]

As other users here told me on this site, make sure you routed both cables behind the pillar airbags, not below. I made that mistake without realizing it, and the cables could snag the airbags during deployment.

I agree that it is important to get behind the airbags or route the cables in a way that can avoid the air bags completely during deployment. Snagging the cable probably will not impact the deployment of the airbag much, if at all, but the possibility of the deployment of the airbag yanking the cables out of the camera (s) too, depending on how much and where the cable slack is, creates more gambling with safety and recording. I think that even with cable slack over the top of airbag, the Dashcam might not be able to record what happens immediately after an accident - the speed of airbag deployment may be too much to overcome. Since mythbusters and the NHTSA hasn't done an episode/test about routing Dashcam cables on top of airbags to see what will really happen, I decided to use the foolproof method - route cable to avoid.

My method of routing and avoiding was to remove the passenger side A-pillar cover first - it came off easy with just two 10mm bolts holding it in place . That allowed me to run both the power and rear camera cable behind the A-pillar airbag. Then I removed the front door weather stripping on the A-pillar and ran both cables under the weather stripping and footwell door sill trim. For the rear camera cable I continued to route it under the backdoor passenger side footwell and then back up the C pillar trim at the back window.

Picture below shows my cable routing path (RED) in the A-Pillar. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.