Viofo A329 Review

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Panzer Platform said:
I might try a Micro SD Card reader and measure the heat signature with my thermal camera to see if it lowers the temperature of the card.
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The memory card is much cooler while using with a card read adapter.
 
Panzer Platform said:
Average Consumer:
$400: A329 2-CH “OK, it’s the best of the best”
$130: Viofo 512GB SD Card “OK, sniper rifles need high quality ammo”
$305 + $17: 4TB SSD & Cable “Whoa, whoa, whoa, back the truck up”

Viofo have yet to published an official recommended list of SSD’s just like they’ve done for SD Cards.
I can't justify $305 for an SSD that’s not guaranteed to be compatible.
Maybe we need Viofo Brand SSD’s just like the SD Cards?
And tell me again why we can’t just use a 2TB Micro SD Card?
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This is a fair point :(, most people like you say won't want to fork out the extra cash - only power users will, that have a need for speed
 
Panzer Platform said:
Do you think this will increase reliability during parking mode?
I'm not worried about normal recording mode because there is air flow.
Parking mode in direct sunlight with an MTZ sunshade is really hot. lol
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Less heat = better reliability I think right

Crap, didn't realise the A329 doesn't come with the 1.8m SSD cable included in the box. Ordering here I come!
 
Panzer Platform said:
I might try a Micro SD Card reader and measure the heat signature with my thermal camera to see if it lowers the temperature of the card.
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If you already have this card reader, use a USB-C extension cable to physically separate the card from the DVR, any length will do.

If you need to buy one, the one I linked is the best one, it's high speed and supports a standard SD or micro SD up to 2TB
 
Panzer Platform said:
$90 2-Day Rental Car
$150 Gasoline 1200 Miles ÷ 40mpg = 30 Gallons
$50 Maggiano’s
$100 Spearmint Rhino
$25 Stimulants to keep me awake for 36 hours straight
$415 Total
I’m short by $300.
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Or airline ticket $75...

Think of Viofo who have 11,723 Km of water to fly over, if they fly straight!
 
Panzer Platform said:
Flying will cost more.
$110 Super Shuttle Airport pick up / return
And I still need a rental car when I land.
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I'm not familiar with the location, or the country, but I did note that they don't want you to take a car "as parking will be impacted by construction at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) during the event".
and
"Free hotel shuttle service will be available to and from the LVCC and more than 45 hotels, and discounted tickets are available to Showgoers for the Monorail, which will operate at extended hours during SEMA Show week."
 
Panzer Platform said:
Parking mode in direct sunlight with an MTZ sunshade is really hot.
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The car sunshader is destroying the thermal paste between the chipset and the radiator. It is losing its elasticity, become hard and will start detaching from the chipset metallic cover. During summer can still work because the high temperature will steel keep some elasticity but when the camera will cool down or when autumn will come the thermal paste will contract and the radiator will be not in contact anymore with the chipset, the chipset will stop transferring the heat from it to the camera case thru thermal paste and radiator.
This is why Viofo will receive many returns in the start of cold weather compared to spring or even summer. People will be surprised that they camera was dying in winter because of heat. Their camera was dead from the summer but some lucky factors managed to keep it working until the radiator lost the contact with the chipset.
So, it is non an overheated card problem but the interruption of heat transfer from the chipset to the camera case. The sun-shaders are destroying most of the Viofo dashcams, not the cards. But the cards are usually destroyed first because of the heat. Lucky, Viofo have good quality cards and they are good against overheat, but the dashcams can not resist in such condition.
The sun shader is not destroying the camera but the thermal paste.
 
safedrivesolutions said:
This is not about the same unit comparison. This is about whether HDR is worth it? It does not say comparison.
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HDR and no HDR comparisons should always be done using the same model at exactly the same time when you want to prove the HDR efficiency.
When you want to compare HDR of different cameras they always should be On on both or Off on both.

Comparing A229 HDR with A329 No HDR it is not correct, such video should be not allowed on forum.

Because you are in the USA you should focus more on the Telephoto camera and always HDR enabled. If you want to make a night comparison for car license legibility you should make one like: RTC300 HDR On, A229 Pro HDR On, A329 HDR On, A229 Plus HDR On. Or instead the A229 Plus HDR on to use any dashcam you want with HDR.

If I was american I would always install a telephoto camera with HDR in my car, such dashcams should be standard in the USA.

Right now there is no better camera than RTC300 for USA car registration plates and if you are also a seller of dashcams you should promote a lot this unique feature because until other dashcams manufacturers or other american sellers will see this opportunity you can have a lot of sales before them.
For you, the RTC300 or the A229 Pro Tele 3CH is more important than actual A329. Its a little better HDR compared to A229 Pro is too far away from the legibility of RTC300 which I am sure it is the king of american registration plates.
Because you already have some editing skills and you don't need many time to prepare a video, if I was you I would prepare in the car some 4 dashcams setup which will contain the RTC300 and the other three to be some very popular daschcams sold in USA but not sold by you, for example: Garmin, RedTiger, 70Mai, etc and release videos very often on YouTube, TikTok, to prove that the only dashcam which can read american license plates at night is the RTC300.

But! For the USA the limits of RTC300 should be pushed even more. Right now I consider the RTC300 to be very good for european plates and good for USA. The other cameras with Sony IMX678 are poor for american license plates and the dashcams with no Sony IMX678 are very poor for such USA requirement.
 
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20 years ago I had a friend of a restaurant with many many clients. I asked what is his secret. He told me that he make the food in the way the clients like, not in the way he like.
Sorry for offtopic!
 
Panzer Platform said:
It's because you did such a good job on the thumbnail. lol
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Yes, he posted a screenshot with the comment that the video will be available tomorrow. So I judged the snapshot because I expect it to reflect the situation in the future video.

About LTE, if Novatek will implement a good LTE idea I expect Viofo to follow it. Unfortunately there are too many messages from disappointed people because of LTE and I think Viofo will wait a little more than we want. But just think about power consumption: I want a 3CH dashcam with SSD support and LTE but unfortunately I am not driving too much time. For such situation the best is to have a good CCTV camera with some AI, pointed at the car. But in such situation I will want parking mode when I go out from home. In such situation, parking geo fencing could be great but unfortunately it was abandoned at A139.
 
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Mtz said:
....
Because you are in the USA you should focus more on the Telephoto camera and always HDR enabled. If you want to make a night comparison for car license legibility you should make one like: RTC300 HDR On, A229 Pro HDR On, A329 HDR On, A229 Plus HDR On. Or instead the A229 Plus HDR on to use any dashcam you want with HDR.

If I was american I would always install a telephoto camera with HDR in my car, such dashcams should be standard in the USA.

Right now there is no better camera than RTC300 for USA car registration plates and if you are also a seller of dashcams you should promote a lot this unique feature because until other dashcams manufacturers or other american sellers will see this opportunity you can have a lot of sales before them.
For you, the RTC300 or the A229 Pro Tele 3CH is more important than actual A329. Its a little better HDR compared to A229 Pro is too far away from the legibility of RTC300 which I am sure it is the king of american registration plates.
Because you already have some editing skills and you don't need many time to prepare a video, if I was you I would prepare in the car some 4 dashcams setup which will contain the RTC300 and the other three to be some very popular daschcams sold in USA but not sold by you, for example: Garmin, RedTiger, 70Mai, etc and release videos very often on YouTube, TikTok, to prove that the only dashcam which can read american license plates at night is the RTC300.

But! For the USA the limits of RTC300 should be pushed even more. Right now I consider the RTC300 to be very good for european plates and good for USA. The other cameras with Sony IMX678 are poor for american license plates and the dashcams with no Sony IMX678 are very poor for such USA requirement.
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I am an American, and I respectfully disagree.
The RTC300 is a narrow angle of view (AOV) camera, great for reading license plates from a distance, but it is just an add-on to the already good A229 Pro/Plus 4K/2K main camera, with a wide AOV.
In my opinion, it will have very limited sales, mainly to dash cam enthusiasts, especially considering that it uses the 2K rear camera port.
This is especially true in the US, where half of the US states do not have front license plates.
In my opinion, a good rear camera is more important.
Sure, enthusiasts can use a separate, say Mini2, for the rear camera, but not most customers.
Most people prefer simple solutions, and a modern 2CH, 4K/2K, front/rear camera is by far the most popular choice, in my opinion.
 
Mtz said:
.....
About LTE, if Novatek will implement a good LTE idea I expect Viofo to follow it. Unfortunately there are too many messages from disappointed people because of LTE and I think Viofo will wait a little more than we want. But just think about power consumption: I want a 3CH dashcam with SSD support and LTE but unfortunately I am not driving too much time. For such situation the best is to have a good CCTV camera with some AI, pointed at the car. But in such situation I will want parking mode when I go out from home. In such situation, parking geo fencing could be great but unfortunately it was abandoned at A139.
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I didn't know that parking geo-fencing was an option before A139.
For what reason did @viofo dropped parking geo-fencing?

Geo-fencing can help many customers with parking-driving(charging) balance, by reducing overall daily parking time.
Of course, we can manually turn off the dash cam in the garage, but being humans, we quite often forget about it, and then in my case it records an extra 6 hours in my dark garage for no reason.
Geo-fencing will make it "set it and forget it"
 
@Panzer Platform I don't have an SSD or an A329.

My daily travel is around 12 miles, and only occasionally do I do long journeys (for example, when off to fly my drone) so an SSD will never be a requirement.
 
Paul Iddon said:
@Panzer Platform I don't have an SSD or an A329.

My daily travel is around 12 miles, and only occasionally do I do long journeys (for example, when off to fly my drone) so an SSD will never be a requirement.
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Different stokes for different folks, totally get it
 
safedrivesolutions said:
I hope this clip art is better

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Your videos and testing are generally good and informative but testing HDR on/off with two different models show nothing. What you have done in this video is simply test two different models with a feature set disabled on one model. A test of the A329 only, with HDR on and off would have given a better example of HDR on a particular model.
 
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