VIOFO A329 Testing & Review Europe

[Julian23]

Nice work.
1.) Can you add the firmware version of each camera?
2.) Just to confirm & verify is the A229 Pro Front camera operating with 60 Mbps, or 36 Mbps, (do you have the interior camera connected 3-CH)?

Sure, I will add the firmware versions tomorrow.
The A229 Pro is running at 60Mbps in 2ch mode. I do not have the interior camera.

Yikes, mine works OK, maybe you need a replacement.

I got it to work but this still shouldn't happen.
This will for sure happen again to me 🤣

 

[Chuck McCoy]

Sure, I will add the firmware versions tomorrow.

I meant edit the posts, by adding the firmware.
Does the A329 have a newer firmware than V1.0 241009?

 

[Julian23]

I meant edit the posts, by adding the firmware.
Does the A329 have a newer firmware than V1.0 241009?

I just checked for the A329.
It's the version you mentioned.
It's not newer.

 

[kamkar]

Ausgezeichnet 👍

 

[Julian23]

I gathered some more footage the last few days.
With the following clip I was wondering how far the A329 is able to read German plates.
A329: front: 4k30, HDR off, CPL on, highest bitrate, Firmware: V1.0_241009

The plate of the yellow truck and the Smart next to it can be identified with just around 22m distance.
The black car in the middle with about 28m distance can not be identified

Now about 12m to the truck and the Smart. Both plates are 100% readable.
The black car still isn't readable at around 18m distance.

At 14m the plate of the black car is visible.

I am pretty satisfied with the results, even considering the not perfect weather conditions.

 

[Julian23]

Night time screenshots with slightly dirty windshield.
A329: front: 4k30, HDR on, CPL on, highest bitrate, Firmware: V1.0_241009

The A329 was able to capture every plate of the oncoming traffic.

 

[Nigel]

The A329 was able to capture every plate of the oncoming traffic.

Plates are getting too easy, next challenge for dashcams is to capture the driver's faces in enough detail to recognise them!

 

[Chuck McCoy]

I gathered some more footage the last few days.
With the following clip I was wondering how far the A329 is able to read German plates.
A329: front: 4k30, HDR off, CPL on, highest bitrate, Firmware: V1.0_241009

Nice work.
Did you get a chance to update to the "new" unofficial V1.0 241118 firmware?
Also, if it's not too much trouble can you add the firmware version to the text stamp so it shows on the recorded footage?

Plates are getting too easy, next challenge for dashcams is to capture the driver's faces in enough detail to recognise them!

The Telephoto already does that. lol

 

[Julian23]

Nice work.
Did you get a chance to update to the "new" unofficial V1.0 241118 firmware?

Not yet, I have to contact Viofo to get it.

Also, if it's not too much trouble can you add the firmware version to the text stamp so it shows on the recorded footage?

Sure, can do that in the future to make it more clear.

 

[Chuck McCoy]

Sure, can do that in the future to make it more clear.

It's not a big deal, but whenever I see dash cam test footage and every available character / logo / information of the text stamp is not utilized the footage feels "naked" to me. lol
But, I understand why you don't include GPS coordinates.

 

[Julian23]

It's not a big deal, but whenever I see dash cam test footage and every available character / logo / information of the text stamp is not utilized the footage feels "naked" to me. lol
But, I understand why you don't include GPS coordinates.

I prefer to have a cleaner look on the video with less distractions.
Since the GPS coordinates are rarely needed and can easily be shown with Dashcam Viewer, I prefer to hide these.

 

[Bladex]

Do you mean like this?
Do I have to buy yet another piece of specialized test equipment just for testing dash cams? lol
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B07GQLYMR9

If you are interested in a device of this class.
I have bought this one that I show below, now with Black Friday it is almost half price with all the accessories and practically all the existing ports to be able to measure all kinds of devices, another of this type of portable devices is the one I have found the most complete .
I bought it on Aliexpress since they do not charge customs taxes thanks to an agreement they have with Spain not exceeding a purchase value limit.
It cost me €18 with discounts, I'm waiting for it to arrive.
My intention is to measure A329 consumption with dual channel and see the difference in consumption with Ugreen SD reader extender and 1TB T7 Shield SSD, which I got for €92 on Amazon with a black Friday offer.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005210545584.html

https://www.amazon.es/gp/B09SB38KMD

 

[Chuck McCoy]

If you are interested in a device of this class.
I have bought this one that I show below, now with Black Friday it is almost half price with all the accessories and practically all the existing ports to be able to measure all kinds of devices, another of this type of portable devices is the one I have found the most complete .
I bought it on Aliexpress since they do not charge customs taxes thanks to an agreement they have with Spain not exceeding a purchase value limit.
It cost me €18 with discounts, I'm waiting for it to arrive.
My intention is to measure A329 consumption with dual channel and see the difference in consumption with Ugreen SD reader extender and 1TB T7 Shield SSD, which I got for €92 on Amazon with a black Friday offer.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_EJ3UK3j

https://amzn.eu/d/bGVQSyE

That looks like it should work great.
Hopefully you can start an A329 thread to show your measurement results.
I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Julian23]

Unfortunately the weather hasn't been great the past few weeks to gather good footage comparing the A229 Pro @30fps vs the A329 @60fps. I'll have to wait until the weather is getting better.

What I did notice from checking several videos is a difference in audio quality.
With low frequencies the A329 seems to struggle a bit.
When playing bass heavy music, the A329 starts to sound distorted while the A229 Pro happily records it without any distortion.
A329 Firmware is V1.0_241126

Maybe this can be improved with a firmware update in the future?
@viofo

 

[Chuck McCoy]

What I did notice from checking several videos is a difference in audio quality.
With low frequencies the A329 seems to struggle a bit.
When playing bass heavy music, the A329 starts to sound distorted while the A229 Pro happily records it without any distortion.
A329 Firmware is V1.0_241126

Maybe this can be improved with a firmware update in the future?

Thank you for noticing.

Post in thread 'A329 Test & Review PP'

Nov 19, 2024

A329 vs. A229 Pro - Audio Comparison

I will recreate this comparison will actual driving test footage.
Just waiting on official public firmware for the A329.

Audio can also be improved in the future version.

• viofo

• 

 

[Julian23]

Thank you for noticing.

It was a bit surprising to me since the A229 Pro never had any issues with it.
I did see your videos but in my case the distortion with bass heavy music is easily noticeable.
Let's hope a simple update can improve it.

 

[Julian23]

Since it was a topic on the forum I checked the time it takes for the camera to switch HDR from on to off when using the HDR timer.
With the Firmware V1.0_241126, the A329 took 4 seconds to stop and start recording again.
For comparison, the A229 Pro took 12 seconds to switch.

 

[Julian23]

The issue with the distortion has been checked with Viofo.
This should soon be improved with a firmware update.

 

[Julian23]

The issue with the distortion has been checked with Viofo.
This should soon be improved with a firmware update.

The latest firmware FWA329_V1.1_241227, did improve the audio quality with low frequencies. The distortion was improved. However, with some songs, I was still able to get some distortion.
The A329 volume is still lower than the audio from the A229 Pro.
The A329 does overall sound better than the A229 Pro. When directly compared, the A229 Pro sounds muffled.

A229 Pro V1.3.1_241206

A329 V1.1_241227

As seen above the whole volume level of the A329 is more than 10db quieter.

If the volume in my car is high, both seem to handle this differently.
The A229 Pro does lower the volume level very noticeably while
Low bass then sounds much louder and treble detail is lost.
A229 Pro

Meanwhile, the A329 doesn't seem to lower the volume level but starts to distort.
The treble details aren't lost as much as seen in the graph.
A329

 

[viofo]

This is the first version for audio quality optimization. We will keep optimizing in the next version, which will take much more time.