VIOFO A139 Pro - Testing / Review Info

[Mtz]

Wow! That is almost half compared to 3 CH version! Are you sure the result is correct? Is possible just the interior camera with IR lens to draw the same power or even much more power compared to front camera?
Please add values for 1 CH because Viofo is selling also this version.

 

[Deleted member 64174]

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[Deleted member 64174]

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[Deleted member 64174]

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[Nigel]

Well...the IR really sucks some power, that is for sure. Do you have any interior Field of View shots? With the camera mounted on the windscreen how much of the interior and driver/passenger window is seen. I am a touched bothered by there being no left/right swivel to the IR camera like the T130 IR.

The interior camera is the same as for the standard A139, so you can look that up for interior shots, but it is quite wide. How much of the driver's window you get depends a lot on how far forward you mount it. Mounting it on the mirror for cars where the mirror is mounted on the roof will miss the driver's window completely, while mounting it on the sensor pod of a car where the windscreen is a long way forward may get all of the driver's and passenger's windows. You can always mount it turned towards the driver's window a little, and it is possible to mount it on a ball joint mount for complete adjustability.

 

[Nigel]

Well....I ordered the two channel Front / IR from VIOFO. Since it was a pre-sale order VIOFO will include a 128 gig SD card. I also got the microphone, wiring kit and fuse adapters. Per VIOFO, pre-sale orders will ship on 15 November. I have no idea if VIOFO has a USA warehouse or if the order is shipping from China.

There may be better deals for Black Friday or from BBMC at a later date but...in the U.S. we are close to hitting some supply chain issues perhaps. The rail system may strike later this month and diesel fuel is at about a 21 day reserve supply. Most of my food and clothing/etc. shopping will be finished this weekend for the rest of the year, other than daily fresh veggies and breads. With the current situation in the U.S. and elsewhere...I am not betting on getting anything quickly or reasonably inexpensive after Thanksgiving.

These will probably ship from China since they are not in stock anywhere yet. I don't think they have actually been built yet! The most time consuming part of the journey is probably in the USA postal system though.

 

[Deleted member 64174]

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[Nigel]

Wow! That is almost half compared to 3 CH version! Are you sure the result is correct? Is possible just the interior camera with IR lens to draw the same power or even much more power compared to front camera?
Please add values for 1 CH because Viofo is selling also this version.

Seems the rear camera also draws a lot, my figures for 1 channel where a lot lower, wondering where all the power goes!

A fair amount is lost to the coax cable, not as efficient as the thicker USB cables on lesser cameras.

 

[Deleted member 64174]

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[Nigel]

Thanks Nigel. I am pretty sure I will need to mount on the windscreen and have already considered a ball joint mount of some type. I am not aware of any on the market...do you have any suggestions?

It has a fairly small sticky pad and is very light weight, so can stick to all sorts of mounts. I'd start by looking at GoPro style mounts.
But if you are mounting it on the glass, and below the mirror, then you may not need or want an additional mount.

Do remember that a little further forward can bring a lot of extra side window into view.

 

[Nigel]

They then hand off to DHL or Deutch Post and do manage to get it out of Europe really quick.

DHL will transport it from Hong Kong to my house the next day! It does normally take two or three days to get through Hong Kong though.

 

[kamkar]

Its that burned ship in the harbor with British spies inside.

 

[Lothar]

Interesting write up...thanks. First, the power usage is what will kill this purchase for a lot of people, at least using all three channels. Needing to install two or more battery packs is way too much effort and expense for most folks. I imagine this camera will see a lot of 2 channel use only, the front and interior cams only.

As for the SD and Win 10 / file system / SuperCap ... my A129 Pro has the same issue. I think I alluded to it being a VIOFO / file handling issue in another thread somewhere, but it was obvious to me the "experts" here were going to argue the point and I did not push anything. As long as I mount the SD on Linux there is never the "scan" issue that I get from Windows. So, three issues really, the power from the cam is not sufficient for proper file handling during shutdown, the file handling software is not robust either. Some of that loss of robustness may come from not enough onboard system memory to handle file swaps, etc. This is likely one of the reasons VIOFO recommends to format the SD once a month. That recommendation alone is telling of known file handling issues. Finally, VIOFO insists on a FAT that due to the size of the SD, Windows is not going to like. A lot of the SD issues, in my opinion, are due to using Windows to format, write to, or delete files. If using a SD on Windows, it is best, in my view anyway, to only copy from the SD. Use the dashcam to delete and format the SD.

I will very likely buy this A139 3 channel just for the front and interior cams. The parking mode I have no interest in so power usage will not be much of an issue for me. I will save myself the nightmare of SD card issues that for sure will pop up by buying an authentic SanDisk 256 gig Max Endurance.

Formatting the card once a month is not specifically a Viofo thing. It seems all dashcam manufacturers recommend doing that so this is something unique to dashcams, or maybe they only recommend that so that one does not have a false sense of security and end up finding out that their camera has not been recording for the past 3 months.
That said, I have been using the same 256GB SanDisk High Endurance in my Street Guardian SG9667DC2K and it has been working fine since I installed it in December 2021 which is almost a year now. I have never formatted the card since the initial installation in my camera. I remove the card every 2 weeks to retrieve video footage and in that process I'm also verifying that the card still works by playing a few clips of the video footage that I retrieve.

I always format first in Windows. Then run tests to check the card's allocation tables and verify that it meets or exceeds its advertised specifications.
Then I insert the card in dashcam and it asks me to format and I do it then.

I've never had any issues with any card that I formatted in Windows initially as long as I still format later in the dashcam prior to use.
Can't speak for Viofo as I only own a Street Guardian dashcam.

 

[Lothar]

In the U.S., we have rather poor policing that is driven by writing tickets for any minor infraction. I saw on Youtube one good use of an interior camera where some less than stellar police officer pulled over a driver for no seat belt usage. The cop was better than a block down a side street when the car passed him. He pulled the driver over and the driver showed him on his interior camera where he was wearing a seat belt. You could sense in the cop he knew he "had been busted" and could not write an unwarranted ticket. As well, the entire interaction with the cop and the driver were being recorded as well.

A couple years ago, we had this female clown cop who spent hours sitting in her cruiser with binoculars, looking at passengers driving by...she was looking for no seat belt usage. In a town that has a drug problem that is the best this clown cop could do. Later that year she got an award for writing the most tickets. She then left the PD and moved to another PD that paid more. She was possibly using those tickets and award as a stepping stone to another PD?

In the U.S. there are a lot of good reasons to have a interior cam. Just the interaction from people, usually aggressive, coming to your car window warrants having a camera.

This must be an issue specific/endemic to your area.
I'm in Maryland right next door to you and we don't have any of those issues. I've lived in Maryland for 27 years and I've never experienced any of these issues. I also don't know anyone personally that has.

 

[Lothar]

• 4K 2160P 24fps (Front) + 1080P 24fps (Interior) + 1080P 24fps (Rear)
• 4K 1600P 30fps (Front) + 1080P 30fps (Interior) + 1080P 30fps (Rear)

In this way hope people will be forced to understand that 3840x1600 is better than 3840x2160.
Just the 1600p definition is not correct for a 3840x2160 and is nice I see you used 4K 1600p and not just 1600p which is some 2K and not 4K.

The native resolution of the IMX678 sensor is 3840x2160.
Why is 3840x1600 better than 3840x2160?
My understanding is that it is always better to run at the native resolution of the sensor regardless of whatever upscaling or downscaling gimmicks that a manufacturer may use.

 

[Lothar]

Wow! That is almost half compared to 3 CH version! Are you sure the result is correct? Is possible just the interior camera with IR lens to draw the same power or even much more power compared to front camera?
Please add values for 1 CH because Viofo is selling also this version.

I agree that the values for 1CH (front camera only) can be added for completeness.
@rcg530 always does a thorough job in reviewing cameras.

 

[Dashmellow]

Formatting the card once a month is not specifically a Viofo thing. It seems all dashcam manufacturers recommend doing that so this is something unique to dashcams, or maybe they only recommend that so that one does not have a false sense of security and end up finding out that their camera has not been recording for the past 3 months.
That said, I have been using the same 256GB SanDisk High Endurance in my Street Guardian SG9667DC2K and it has been working fine since I installed it in December 2021 which is almost a year now. I have never formatted the card since the initial installation in my camera. I remove the card every 2 weeks to retrieve video footage and in that process I'm also verifying that the card still works by playing a few clips of the video footage that I retrieve.

I always format first in Windows. Then run tests to check the card's allocation tables and verify that it meets or exceeds its advertised specifications.
Then I insert the card in dashcam and it asks me to format and I do it then.

I've never had any issues with any card that I formatted in Windows initially as long as I still format later in the dashcam prior to use.
Can't speak for Viofo as I only own a Street Guardian dashcam.

I agree. Formatting the memory card constantly is basically a kind of techno Voodoo ritual designed to keep evil spirits away! Twelve years of dash cam use and I've rarely experienced memory card failures other than wearing out after thousands of hours of service. I reformat cards occasionally for good measure if the mood strikes when I check the footage but rarely has it ever really been necessary. It's more of a feel good thing. I've let cards record for ridiculously long times (side cams for instance) without reformatting them only to discover that they are still recording just fine. When there has been a recording failure, it's usually something else like a failed capacitor or a bad cable or connectivity issue but not the card.

Some of the new cameras with higher resolutions and bit rates may need closer attention to memory card condition but I've seen no definitive evidence to support that theory other than Voodoo logic.

That said, the nature of dash cams unfortunately is that one should always be vigilant and check your footage periodically to make sure everything is functional.

 

[kamkar]

I must admit that some times, it can be quite a while in between my in camera formats.

 

[DT MI]

The only time I regularly format my card(s) is when installing new F/W, and then only because there might be 'something' on the card from the old F/W that the new version might not like (I've never heard of that happening but it's conceivable). I've got cards in my digital cameras/camcorders that haven't been formatted in well over 10 years.

 

[rcg530]

I spent that past 8 hours rerunning my power consumption tests with A139 Pro firmware v1.0_1105 installed. I tested all camera combinations (3CH F+I+R, 2CH F+I, 2CH F+R, 1CH F). I created estimated dash camera battery pack runtime calculations as well for all camera combinations and parking mode types. The format of the time value is "d:hh:mm" for days:hours:minutes.

Do I know how to have fun on a Saturday or what! LOL

Check out post #2 for the updated information.