Your thoughts on the Viofo A129 Pro Duo as it stands today? Should I buy now or wait for it to mature?

[jokiin]

use the WD purple or SanDisk high endurance 256GB cards

 

[ADashOfSpice]

While we're discussing buying it: I'm sold. I just need to know where people recommend. Any recommendations for those in the States as to which companies are best to deal with?

 

[mms1361]

OCD Tronic was a pleasure buying from before. He has an Amazon storefront and Is an active member here as well.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/B07Y7M4YNQ
(Make sure the listing says SOLD BY OCD TRONIC)

Dashcams, Motorcycle Cams, Action Cams & Accessories | OCD Tronic

OCD Tronic, for great prices on all your Dashcams for Car or Motorcycle, including parts and accessories. Also stocking a range of action cameras. Visit now

ocdtronic.com

 

[OzAdam]

use the WD purple or SanDisk high endurance 256GB cards

You seem confident jokiin in that recommendation and I trust your advice (I know of you from Whirlpool). I have had no experience with WD cards. I actually wasn’t aware they even made SD cards.

I am leaning towards the WD Purple. I keep hearing horror stories with Sandisk cards. Perhaps that is unwarranted though with the high endurance range.

The WD card is more costly at $150AUD vs $79 for the Sandisk in the 256GB range it seems. If the WD lasts, it’s worth it.

 

[Nigel]

The WD card is more costly at $150AUD vs $79 for the Sandisk in the 256GB range it seems. If the WD lasts, it’s worth it.

Under the SanDisk brand, Western Digital offers mobile storage products, cards and readers, USB flash drives, SSDs and MP3 players. Most of Western Digital’s consumer flash memory products are offered through SanDisk.

Western Digital - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[jokiin]

yes Western Digital owns SanDisk, that doesn't mean the cards are the same though, that said I have had very low failure rates with the new SanDisk U3 High Endurance cards and even though they are the cheaper option of the two doesn't mean they aren't good cards, have no hesitation recommending them

 

[Nigel]

yes Western Digital owns SanDisk, that doesn't mean the cards are the same though, that said I have had very low failure rates with the new SanDisk U3 High Endurance cards and even though they are the cheaper option of the two doesn't mean they aren't good cards, have no hesitation recommending them

New models of SanDisk cards do seem to have improved considerably since Western Digital bought it 3 years ago.

 

[OzAdam]

yes Western Digital owns SanDisk, that doesn't mean the cards are the same though, that said I have had very low failure rates with the new SanDisk U3 High Endurance cards and even though they are the cheaper option of the two doesn't mean they aren't good cards, have no hesitation recommending them

New models of SanDisk cards do seem to have improved considerably since Western Digital bought it 3 years ago.

So essentially either card is fine is what I am hearing. Just have to figure out if the price premium of the WD Purple is worth it over the Sandisk High Endurance card.

Flip a coin between the two I guess.

 

[Nigel]

So essentially either card is fine is what I am hearing. Just have to figure out if the price premium of the WD Purple is worth it over the Sandisk High Endurance card.

Flip a coin between the two I guess.

The endurance and warrantee for the WD Purple is a bit disappointing for the price, think I would go for the cheaper SanDisk which from memory has similar endurance specification.

https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library/en_gb/assets/public/western-digital/product/embedded-flash/surveillance-wd-purple-microSD/data-sheet-wd-purple-microsd-2879-810009.pdf

 

[OzAdam]

The endurance and warrantee for the WD Purple is a bit disappointing for the price, think I would go for the cheaper SanDisk which from memory has similar endurance specification.

https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library/en_gb/assets/public/western-digital/product/embedded-flash/surveillance-wd-purple-microSD/data-sheet-wd-purple-microsd-2879-810009.pdf

They seem to both offer 2 year warranty but the WD Purple doesn't list hours - just 'Endurance is up to 256 terrabytes written (TBW)' where as Sandisk only list "Designed to record for up to 20,000 hours" *Full HD video only; total hours less for 4K UHD video.

Why pay more for the same thing? Is WD that much better to warrant nearly double the price?

Yet I still have trouble accepting a Sandisk card due to constantly reading "avoid sandisk for dashcams!" and "my sandisk failed after 8 months".

EDIT:

Just came across this:

• "so there hasn't been a solid (256GB) endurance card so far. Sandisk's new High Endurance series goes up to 256GB but the reviews have been mixed - recently though they've been almost all positive. "
• "There's a lot of reported failures with the new generation of Sandisk High Endurance cards. I think it's best to hold off on buying them. You might as well go for the Samsung Pro Endurance instead." (refering to 128-64-32 GB).

- YouTube Best MicroSD Cards for Dash Cams in 2019 | Dash Camera 101 - Car Cam Central channel

Come on Samsung! Release a 256/400+GB Pro Endurance.

 

[jokiin]

Yet I still have trouble accepting a Sandisk card due to constantly reading "avoid sandisk for dashcams!" and "my sandisk failed after 8 months".

a large percentage of that was from people using the entry level SanDisk Ultra cards (that still applies by the way, they are not suitable for dashcam use) the other issue with SanDisk is because they are a market leader they are also one of the most faked cards so need to be careful where you're buying from

 

[bigjezza]

I have noticed this! 15% off a brand new just launched product - that's rather good. Looks like it ends on the 20th of October.

I have a feeling I know of which Viofo Authorised Reseller you are speaking of. I've ordered from them in the past and interestingly the PayPal payment went to the same company name listed on the official Viofo Australia website. Also the 'from' address on the package was the same as on the website also. Sounds like that seller is actually Viofo Australia themselves?

Its a1_electric_toys on Ebay AU and yes, paypal is the same as the aussie Viofo website. You got it first guess haha. They are brilliant! I ordered late Sunday afternoon and it was with me on Tuesday in SA... Couldn't be happier. They also combined multiple orders into the one express post bag so I am super happy.
Turns out the included 6m cord isn't long enough to go from the front of my Subaru Outback to the back along the floor/door sills. I didn't want to bring the cable along the top because of the curtain airbags.

 

[mms1361]

Turns out the included 6m cord isn't long enough to go from the front of my Subaru Outback to the back along the floor/door sills. I didn't want to bring the cable along the top because of the curtain airbags.

I'm running it on a Honda fit, a rather small hatchback. It was JUST barely long enough to run it across the windshield, down the b pillar to the floorboard, along the bottom of both door jambs to the rear and across to the center of the hatch. I have about a 8 inch slack loop on the hatch for opening closing without tugging on the camera. Running it across the headliner isn't viable because there's no where to tuck it besides obstructing the airbags.

 

[bigjezza]

Y

I'm running it on a Honda fit, a rather small hatchback. It was JUST barely long enough to run it across the windshield, down the b pillar to the floorboard, along the bottom of both door jambs to the rear and across to the center of the hatch. I have about a 8 inch slack loop on the hatch for opening closing without tugging on the camera. Running it across the headliner isn't viable because there's no where to tuck it besides obstructing the airbags.

Yeah I hate seeing them installed across the roof for this reason.

In Subaru’s tech manual they warn that any wiring in or near the roof has to basically be down the centre of the liner, and to do that i literally have to take out almost every bit of trim working from the bottom up to the roof! I pulled the weather seal back on the roof wondering if I could just ram it in from the side but I spotted the mysterious and scary airbag and thought yeah nah I best leave that resting monster as it is lol.

 

[Nigel]

and to do that i literally have to take out almost every bit of trim working from the bottom up to the roof!

For me, remove two bolts holding the interior light, drop light from the roof liner, remove rubber trim along the rear of the liner, insert a long stick, eg bamboo cane, into the rear of the roof lining and push it forward to the hole left by the light, attach camera cable to stick, use the stick to pull cable through from the interior hole to the rear, replace rubber trim, replace interior lamp. To go forwards from the interior light I need to loosen the sun visor fixings so that the cable can be pushed through above the liner, since the sun visors are holding the liner up.

 

[bigjezza]

For me, remove two bolts holding the interior light, drop light from the roof liner, remove rubber trim along the rear of the liner, insert a long stick, eg bamboo cane, into the rear of the roof lining and push it forward to the hole left by the light, attach camera cable to stick, use the stick to pull cable through from the interior hole to the rear, replace rubber trim, replace interior lamp. To go forwards from the interior light I need to loosen the sun visor fixings so that the cable can be pushed through above the liner, since the sun visors are holding the liner up.

Genius! Awesome method! I will try that tomorrow. Thanks for the tip! No need to remove the lining if it can be fed through. I have a long cable snake thing to feed wires up and down walls, I'm confident that this will get the job done.

 

[Nigel]

Genius! Awesome method! I will try that tomorrow. Thanks for the tip! No need to remove the lining if it can be fed through. I have a long cable snake thing to feed wires up and down walls, I'm confident that this will get the job done.

For larger roof liners, you may need to remove a few plastic "clips" from the centre of the roof lining to allow it to drop a little in the centre before your snake can get through. It almost certainly doesn't need to be take right down.

 

[I CU2]

Its a1_electric_toys on Ebay AU and yes, paypal is the same as the aussie Viofo website. You got it first guess haha. They are brilliant! I ordered late Sunday afternoon and it was with me on Tuesday in SA... Couldn't be happier. They also combined multiple orders into the one express post bag so I am super happy.
Turns out the included 6m cord isn't long enough to go from the front of my Subaru Outback to the back along the floor/door sills. I didn't want to bring the cable along the top because of the curtain airbags.

I was the one who messaged them to list it on their store on Saturday as I saw the rest of their store had the 15% off for Viofo haha. Didn't know they were the actual importers! Got mine yesterday and installed it, night vision isn't as good as I hoped but haven't tested it in the daytime yet - fingers crossed.

 

[OzAdam]

*********************
Update to my first post
*********************

After much deliberation I have decided to order an A129 Pro Duo instead of a Blackvue DR900S or Thinkware U1000. After seeing the video and frame samples by @Nigel located here, I was very impressed with what this camera can do. Seriously impressive and blows anything else away I’ve seen from any other manufacturer so far.

Only thing I crave is voice prompts / parking mode alerts like the DR900S. We got the buffered parking mode which is great! I recall @viofo mentioning it is possible to add voice alerts to the camera so that would be nice if that could be done.

Placed an order today including a CPL and the HK3ACC 3 wire hardwire kit. It should arrive overnight tomorrow. Hope I won’t be burnt by purchasing a brand new released device as experience tells me usually there are serious problems upon launch that are often rectified in time.

I am yet to still purchase a SD Card. @jokiin has given me two 256GB cards to consider – the Sandisk High Endurance range and the WD purple range. I guess it comes down to a coin flip to decide.

Many thanks for all the input!

 

[kamkar]

I don't think the viofo cameras are picky for memory cards, which both the other brands in consideration are as i understand it.
I think pretty much any endurance card will be good, a good thing about those are they are also warrantied for use in CCTV cameras and dashcams, which many regular memory cards are not.