Viofo A329S Review

[Mtz]

Some things to know about the multiplexing feature:
- the 3CH multiplexed video resolution is 3840x3240. The 2CH is 7680x2160.
- the multiplexed file name will always end with F letter like the front single videos
- if you will disconnect one camera after enabling the Multiplexing, it will be disabled. So don't expect to enable multiplex on 3 channels, disconnect later one camera and then the multiplexing to remain on the other two channels
- the total bitrate of multiplexed video is smaller than the sum of separate videos
- as storage strategy camera function, it is better to use multiplexing instead of 3 separate videos
- on the multiplexed videos there will be always less details than separate videos
- if you are using 21:9 aspect ratio in camera settings, the multiplexed video will not have the correct display ratio because the multiplexed video resolution on 3CH, for example, is always 3840x3240, so if you plan to edit such a video you need to correct the aspect ratio. On a PC player like MPC-BE you can set a custom pan and scan and when watching 21:9 Viofo multiplexed videos you can set that custom pan and scan to watch the video at correct aspect ratio.
- my strong advice for the A329T model is to never multiplex the telephoto channel because you are losing the advantage of the telephoto lens. So if you will buy A329T and want to multiplex, just multiplex Front + Rear. If you buy A329T 2CH don't multiplex anything.

 

[TonyM]

Can the A329S multiplex files if any of the individual channels are not set to 30fps?

 

[TonyM]

I assume all the image processing, including HDR, is done before combining the files, so changes in brightness on one channel will not affect either of the other two?

 

[Mtz]

Yes, each file can have its own HDR or not and different white balance

The multiplexed FPS is 30FPS.

Don't speak for us Australians, you're not qualified to.

I think he is qualified because it is possible that he watched the first multiplexed video of Viofo A329S in March 2025. 🤓

 

[SafeDriveSolutions]

So we have daytime footage, night time footage of Las Vegas strip. With A329S front camera and telephoto camera.
Man do people in Vegas cut people off.

Hopefully we can have something out this weekend.

 

[lufa6977]

So we have daytime footage, night time footage of Las Vegas strip. With A329S front camera and telephoto camera.
Man do people in Vegas cut people off.

Hopefully we can have something out this weekend.

Will that be tomorrow? <cough, cough, cough> 😆

My favorite is when someone in the rear passenger hangs out the window and points to the lane the car wants to move into....as the car moves into the lane. 🤣

 

[musclesoh92467]

Does Anyone know if the fish eye interior camera will work on the A229 pro ?

 

[Nigel]

Does Anyone know if the fish eye interior camera will work on the A229 pro ?

It uses nice thin coax cables, the A229 Pro uses the cheaper and thicker USB-C cables, so no, it will not connect.

 

[viofo]

Does Anyone know if the fish eye interior camera will work on the A229 pro ?

Maybe we can release one for A229 Pro.

 

[PykeOPATHIC]

Hi Guys.

I just received my A329S today and I realized that you can't go 60fps with HDR on. With HDR on, you're stuck at 30fps.

Personally, which would you rather set it, 60fprs/HDR off or 30fps/HDR on?

 

[Nigel]

Hi Guys.

I just received my A329S today and I realized that you can't go 60fps with HDR on. With HDR on, you're stuck at 30fps.

Personally, which would you rather set it, 60fprs/HDR off or 30fps/HDR on?

I would use 30fps, for me, the extra frames are not worth the extra storage space.

Some people will set it to 60fps, and HDR Auto, then using the HDR Timer, it should be able to run at 60fps during the day and auto switch to 30fps/HDR during the night when HDR works best.

If I was making a movie instead of recording incidents, then 60fps is nice to have, but I also like the clouds to be nicely exposed, so normally I would choose 30fps + HDR still on sunny days, maybe 60fps on cloudy days when HDR isn't an advantage.

 

[PykeOPATHIC]

I would use 30fps, for me, the extra frames are not worth the extra storage space.

Some people will set it to 60fps, and HDR Auto, then using the HDR Timer, it should be able to run at 60fps during the day and auto switch to 30fps/HDR during the night when HDR works best.

If I was making a movie instead of recording incidents, then 60fps is nice to have, but I also like the clouds to be nicely exposed, so normally I would choose 30fps + HDR still on sunny days, maybe 60fps on cloudy days when HDR isn't an advantage.

Thanks for your input but I'm just curious and this might be a dumb question... Won't the CPL lens help in the absence of HDR?

 

[Nigel]

Thanks for your input but I'm just curious and this might be a dumb question... Won't the CPL lens help in the absence of HDR?

The CPL lens is for removing reflections off the glass and road surfaces, which gives clearer images, it also increases the contrast a bit.
HDR increases the dynamic range.
These are different functions, so the CPL will not be an alternative to HDR, in fact, because the CPL increases contrast a little, and higher contrast requires more dynamic range for the same detail, you need HDR more if you use a CPL.
Not a dumb question if you don't understand, everyone has to learn.

60fps gives twice as many video frames per second, this makes the video play more smoothly, smaller steps of movement between frames. It does not do anything else, other than make the files bigger because you need to store twice as many frames. Although it is often marketed as something you must have, and it is very desirable for action cameras, and quite desirable for phone cameras; when it comes to recording driving incidents for evidence purposes, there is little benefit unless you are on a race track, driving very fast, or you happen to have eyes that are particularly sensitive to non-smooth video. Most of us on this forum are very happy with 30fps HDR and see no real advantage of 60fps. If we could have both, then many of us would use both, others would prefer longer recording times on their limited size memory cards and still use 30fps.

 

[PykeOPATHIC]

The CPL lens is for removing reflections off the glass and road surfaces, which gives clearer images, it also increases the contrast a bit.
HDR increases the dynamic range.
These are different functions, so the CPL will not be an alternative to HDR, in fact, because the CPL increases contrast a little, and higher contrast requires more dynamic range for the same detail, you need HDR more if you use a CPL.
Not a dumb question if you don't understand, everyone has to learn.

60fps gives twice as many video frames per second, this makes the video play more smoothly, smaller steps of movement between frames. It does not do anything else, other than make the files bigger because you need to store twice as many frames. Although it is often marketed as something you must have, and it is very desirable for action cameras, and quite desirable for phone cameras; when it comes to recording driving incidents for evidence purposes, there is little benefit unless you are on a race track, driving very fast, or you happen to have eyes that are particularly sensitive to non-smooth video. Most of us on this forum are very happy with 30fps HDR and see no real advantage of 60fps. If we could have both, then many of us would use both, others would prefer longer recording times on their limited size memory cards and still use 30fps.

Thank you.. I appreciate this a lot. And you're right... A 3-minute video of the front camera at 60fps is around 2Gb while in my A229 Pro, a 3-minute video is just nearly 900mb.

 

[mikey94025]

Some people will set it to 60fps, and HDR Auto, then using the HDR Timer, it should be able to run at 60fps during the day and auto switch to 30fps/HDR during the night when HDR works best.

Thanks for all the info. For optimizing moving cars license plate legibility at nighttime, is 4K60fps better than turning on HDR+4K30fps? I ask because I don't use my dashcam for movies or to watch me driving; I only have it to record possible event details. (This question is independent of the new telephoto camera, which is great)

 

[Vortex Radar]

Thanks for all the info. For optimizing moving cars license plate legibility at nighttime, is 4K60fps better than turning on HDR+4K30fps? I ask because I don't use my dashcam for movies or to watch me driving; I only have it to record possible event details. (This question is independent of the new telephoto camera, which is great)

In certain select situations, it can, but that's pretty rare. When it comes to freezing license plates by reducing motion blur, what we need is shorter shutter speeds, not more individual frames of video. If the dashcam is exposing at 1/30th sec at 30fps, which may happen in lower light scenarios, then cranking up to 60fps will force a minimum shutter speed of 1/60th of a sec. You get half the amount of time to expose the image which can translate to less motion blur, but 1/60th is already still kinda slow, plus you're gonna have other trade-offs in terms of noise and overall exposure. In lower light scenarios, HDR is a much bigger help than 60fps, but yeah.

 

[Mtz]

60fps gives twice as many video frames per second, this makes the video play more smoothly, smaller steps of movement between frames.

I don't see jerky playback on 30fps videos but smoothly videos on 60fps. As a dashcam video, there is no real difference for me between 60fps and 30fps.

On action cameras I can agree sometimes with higher fps but when you want to make some slow motion effects in an edited. For example, at ski, jumping over some thing and when jumping the edited video to have slow motion for a nice effect.
But why to make a slow motion on a dashcam video?

For my eyes I can see jerky playback only when there are duplicate frames. They can be even 1 duplicate frame at 30 frames and most of the time I detect the jerky playback caused by just one frame each second.

In my opinion higher fps than 30fps are good only for the slow motion effect, in dashcam world on public roads 60fps is useless.

 

[SafeDriveSolutions]

 

[Nigel]

I don't see jerky playback on 30fps videos but smoothly videos on 60fps. As a dashcam video, there is no real difference for me between 60fps and 30fps.

People do have different speed eyes, I can easily see the steps in movement on 30fps video, 60fps does look smoother and nicer, but for me there is no problem watching 30fps video. A few people do find 30fps difficult to watch because it is too slow for them, I think most people don't notice the steps, and some people can't see them even if they look for them.

There was a reason why 24fps was chosen as the standard for film cameras, that is the point where most people see the film as continuous rather than a sequence of frames, but I think it only works well for fast action if there is plenty of motion blur. For dashcam video, we do not want any motion blur, and without motion blur, most people do see an improvement going from 24fps to 30fps, but there are some people who are quite happy with 24fps dashcam video. Less than 24fps and the dashcam does start to miss evidence though.

In my opinion higher fps than 30fps are good only for the slow motion effect, in dashcam world on public roads 60fps is useless.

For use as evidence, I agree with that. Logically, with more frames, there is more chance of catching something that happens very quickly, but I have never seen a genuine example of when 60fps would have helped with accident footage for evidence purposes.

Thanks for all the info. For optimizing moving cars license plate legibility at nighttime, is 4K60fps better than turning on HDR+4K30fps? I ask because I don't use my dashcam for movies or to watch me driving; I only have it to record possible event details. (This question is independent of the new telephoto camera, which is great)

"For optimizing moving cars license plate legibility", 60fps is never needed and has no advantage. As Vortex Radar points out above, it is the shutter speed that is most important, a fast shutter speed minimises, or eliminates, motion blur. Frame rate and shutter speed are independent, except that it is hard to have a shutter speed longer than the time between frames. Dashcams should always be using shutter speeds far faster than the frame rate anyway. With a frame rate of 30fps, a frame takes 1/30th of a second, while the exposure time for an HDR bright exposure will be faster than 1/2000th of a second, even at night, and if you turn HDR off at night, with a Starvis 2 sensor, you probably get faster than 1/200th of a second under city lighting conditions.

With older sensors, setting 60fps meant that exposure time was improved from 1/30th to 1/60th, so you did get half the motion blur, and also got a rather dark image, but our current dashcam sensors are much more sensitive, and using 60fps will have no effect on the exposure, at least as long as you have your headlamps on. I was testing a Vantrue E1 Pro recently, and that does go down to 1/30th second exposure at night, giving a lot of motion blur, but not if you have your headlamps on. Keeping your headlamps clean, and replacing the bulbs before they actually die, is probably more effective than using 60fps!

With movie cameras, shutter speed tends to be kept slow, in order to add motion blur and make the movie motion look smoother, so shutter speed is often linked to frame rate in a movie camera, but that should never be the case for a dashcam, where we do not want any motion blur. This is the reason a lot of people want 60fps, they have been taught in school that fps controls the amount of motion blur, but in a dashcam it doesn't.

 

[PykeOPATHIC]

Hi.

The Viofo website clearly stated that the A329s uses Wifi 6. But when I received the A329s I ordered, the box says it's only capable of 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. When I powered up the dashcam, I can only use 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. Did Viofo advertise something that isn't true?