VIOFO A229 Pro - Testing / Review - RCG

[a008]

This video contains daytime cloudy sky footage from a VIOFO A229 Pro front camera and a VIOFO A119 Mini 2. I use the raw audio captured by both dash cameras so you can hear the quality and volume differences.

Hi rcg530, thanks for the sample videos. Does the A229 pro or A119 mini 2 run hot? I am looking for a dashcam for road trip in the Summer, currently thinking about the 70mai A810, A229 Pro or the A119 Mini 2. I heard imaeg quality may degraded when the camera is hot, may even shutdown.

 

[rcg530]

Hi rcg530, thanks for the sample videos. Does the A229 pro or A119 mini 2 run hot? I am looking for a dashcam for road trip in the Summer, currently thinking about the 70mai A810, A229 Pro or the A119 Mini 2. I heard imaeg quality may degraded when the camera is hot, may even shutdown.

I have not had the chance to use the A229 Pro in a hot / summer temperature environment yet. I've upgraded my wife's car from an A129 Pro Duo to the A229 Pro 2CH (Rear). It will be another 6 months or so before the "hot" temps return to my location.

The A119 Mini 2 worked well during the hot summer days this past summer. The heat related focus issue I encountered with the A119 Mini 2 has been resolved when VIOFO changed the lens used in the A119 Mini 2 starting in July 2023.

 

[a008]

I have not had the chance to use the A229 Pro in a hot / summer temperature environment yet. I've upgraded my wife's car from an A129 Pro Duo to the A229 Pro 2CH (Rear). It will be another 6 months or so before the "hot" temps return to my location.

The A119 Mini 2 worked well during the hot summer days this past summer. The heat related focus issue I encountered with the A119 Mini 2 has been resolved when VIOFO changed the lens used in the A119 Mini 2 starting in July 2023.

thanks, does the A229 Pro has signficant better image quality due to larger sensor and the higher resolution?

 

[rcg530]

thanks, does the A229 Pro has signficant better image quality due to larger sensor and the higher resolution?

The A229 Pro 4K UHD video has somewhat better video quality during normal/driving recording. When in parking mode, the A229 Pro drops to 2K QHD video resolution for the front camera and that is not a native resolution for the IMX678 image sensor. I have a couple of videos on my channel with A229 Pro and A119 Mini 2 video footage. The A119 Mini 2 image quality and HDR implementation are pretty hard to beat right now. VIOFO's constantly working to improve the image quality and HDR quality in the A229 Pro/Plus series.

 

[rcg530]

ran a power consumption test with firmware v1.2_240227 installed using an A229 Pro 1CH configuration. I tested the four parking modes with and without the GPS enabled in parking mode via the new setting in this firmware version.



With the GPS configured to be left on during parking mode (old behavior), the power consumption results were much higher than my previous tests with firmware v1.0_230912 installed.

Comparing the power consumption results with v1.2_240227 firmware installed, when the GPS is disabled during parking mode, there was a reduction of about 0.10W to 0.14W (8 mA to 11 mA @ 12.6V). This increased the projected parking mode recording times by 46 to 67 minutes (96 Wh battery pack).

 

[jimmyh_]

ran a power consumption test with firmware v1.2_240227 installed using an A229 Pro 1CH configuration. I tested the four parking modes with and without the GPS enabled in parking mode via the new setting in this firmware version.

View attachment 71172

With the GPS configured to be left on during parking mode (old behavior), the power consumption results were much higher than my previous tests with firmware v1.0_230912 installed.

Comparing the power consumption results with v1.2_240227 firmware installed, when the GPS is disabled during parking mode, there was a reduction of about 0.10W to 0.14W (8 mA to 11 mA @ 12.6V). This increased the projected parking mode recording times by 46 to 67 minutes (96 Wh battery pack).

I'm a little confused about the motion detection in parking mode - I thought motion detection should be a power saving feature where the camera only records when motion is detected but it seems like that's the most power hungry. Is that not how motion detection works?

 

[forcefed]

I'm a little confused about the motion detection in parking mode - I thought motion detection should be a power saving feature where the camera only records when motion is detected but it seems like that's the most power hungry. Is that not how motion detection works?

The camera has to be on and processing the image to detect motion in it, that's why it's using up so much power.

 

[jimmyh_]

The camera has to be on and processing the image to detect motion in it, that's why it's using up so much power.

yes but why is motion detection mode a higher power draw than just regular parking AED recording? Does it mean that regular AED records only when impacts are detected, and AED + Motion records when either motion or impacts are detected?

 

[rcg530]

I'm a little confused about the motion detection in parking mode - I thought motion detection should be a power saving feature where the camera only records when motion is detected but it seems like that's the most power hungry. Is that not how motion detection works?

VIOFO dash cameras only offer Auto Event Detection (motion & impact), time-lapse and low bitrate parking recording modes. There is no "motion detection only" parking mode. AED parking mode creates buffered recordings for the triggering motion or impact event. That requires the dash camera to stay awake to detect visible motion activity and impacts and so it will have the 15 seconds of video/audio before the triggering event to write to the 45 second video files.