VIOFO A229 Duo Review - 3-Month Follow-Up
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- Опубліковано 15 лип 2024
- I update you on how the VIOFO A229 Duo has performed over the past three months. I give you an update on the out of focus rear camera, an important firmware update, hot weather performance and compatible memory cards.
Use promo code Retro10OFF to receive 10% off when you purchase a VIOFO A229 Duo dash camera until 30-Oct-2022.
✅VIOFO A229 Duo Affiliate Links:
🔷VIOFO A229 Duo Dash Cam (VIOFO): shrsl.com/3oefj
🔷VIOFO A229 Duo Dash Cam (Amazon - US): amzn.to/3waifc4
VIOFO provided the A229 Duo dash cam to RetroCarGuy530, LLC free of charge for this review, but the opinions expressed in this video are the opinions of RetroCarGuy530, LLC.
After watching my video, check out the VIOFO A229 Duo review(s) from the following channel(s):
@PanzerPlatform A229 Duo Review: • VIOFO A229 Duo (2022) ...
⏲ Video Chapters ⏲
00:00 - Intro
01:07 - Out Of Focus Rear Camera
02:32 - Firmware Update Fixes
03:40 - Hot Weather Performance
04:23 - Memory Cards
05:36 - Final Thoughts
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🔷RetroCarGuy530 VIOFO T130 3-Channel Videos: bit.ly/rcg530-viofo-t130
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🔷VIOFO Help & Support Page: bit.ly/rcg530-viofo-helpandsu...
✅VIOFO Affiliate Links:
🔷VIOFO A229 Duo Dash Cam: shrsl.com/3oefj
🔷VIOFO A119 Mini 1-Channel QHD 60 fps: shrsl.com/3kje1
🔷VIOFO Type-C HK4 Hardwire Kit: shrsl.com/3kje7
🔷VIOFO CPL Filter For A139/T130/A229 Duo/A119 Mini: shrsl.com/3kjei
🔷VIOFO Bluetooth Remote Control: shrsl.com/3l7nf
✅Amazon Affiliate Links:
🔷VIOFO A229 Duo Dash Cam: amzn.to/3ebOgKC
🔷VIOFO A119 Mini 1-Channel QHD 60 fps: amzn.to/3AdyAPV
🔷VIOFO Type-C HK4 Hardwire Kit: amzn.to/3oMJKFc
🔷VIOFO CPL Filter For A139/T130/A229: amzn.to/3oNuacC
🔷VIOFO Bluetooth Remote Control: amzn.to/3EQRHiq
🔷VIOFO T130 3-Channel 1440P+1080P+1080P Dashcam: amzn.to/33mBrrv
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This is a follow-up review to my June 2022 review of the VIOFO A229 Duo dash camera. If you haven't watched the my full review of the A229 Duo, you may want to watch that video first before watching this video.
VIOFO A229 Duo - Review: ua-cam.com/video/-B_GkjUyGLw/v-deo.html
The VIOFO A229 Duo was recently (August 2022) made available on Amazon. Shortly after the release of this video, the A229 Duo sold out on Amazon. It should come back into stock within a week or so. You can also purchase the A229 Duo directly from the VIOFO website. Look in this video's description section for links to both Amazon and VIOFO if you're interesting in purchasing this dash camera or its accessories.
Yes, the new stock is arriving this Friday on Amazon US. Thank you for the kind elaboration!
Hey RCG, thanks for this and the previous careful and comprehensive examination of the A229. Very well done. And good quality, especially in relation to your subs count.
Awesome job sir! Well done. 😀👍
Looking for a good dash cam and this looks very good. Very nice video, thanks.
Right on Robert,
Wow, the screen blanking out when left running in extreme high temps is something I've never seen before.
Good thing it goes back to normal when it cools off.
Good job capitalizing on our heat waves. lol
Good work on finding all the firmware bugs on the pre-production model.
When I received my production model with updated firmware in made my testing uneventful, and almost boring. lol
Thanks again for all your hard work, and helping with this collab.
-Chuck
Installed one recently. So Cal also. Pretty happy with it so far, rear camera and hardwired. Just wish it were 60fps.
It would be nice to have the option of selecting 60fps for at least the front camera. The VIOFO T130 3-channel dash camera has a separate processor in the rear camera to handle the processing load for that camera's video, but the T130 front unit has two cameras to handle (so again no 60 fps). If there's ever a VIOFO A229 Pro Duo dash camera, maybe we'll get the 60 fps option.
I’m either getting the VIOFO A229 or Thinkware Q1000! Thinkware is higher priced but it’s made in Korea! I can’t wait to see a head-to-head review on these latest 2K models!
Back in June 2022, I sent an inquiry to Thinkware to see if I could get any of the current generation dash cameras to review. To date, I have not received a response from them. The Q1000 is a bit pricey for me to purchase to do a review, so I'll have to wait and see if Thinkware will finally add me to their list of dash camera reviewers.
@@RetroCarGuy530 I heard from Vortex Radar that Thinkware are expected to bring new dashcams into the market during the SEMA Show in Las Vegas!
I'll be stopping by their booth at SEMA 2022. This week, I confirmed that I'll be getting a Thinkware 5-channel multiplexer along with a F200 PRO 2-CH dash camera from BlackboxMyCar. I should be getting that dash camera and multiplexer after I return from the SEMA show next week.
Well this sure looks promising. I'm looking at pre-ordering the a229 Pro which comes out in about 10 days time, and based on this review of the Duo I think it looks good.
Very curious to see how it handles the Australian summer heat over the next few months haha. Quite typical to see temps around 36C (97F)
I'm attempting to put together a review of the A229 Pro and A229 Plus dash cameras. I'm posting my findings for the A229 Pro on in a thread on the DashCamTalk website.
dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/viofo-a229-pro-plus-testing-review-rcg.49777/
I had the A229 installed last week. The only problem so far is it stopped recording about every 2 minutes. Reformatting the memory card seems to have taken care of the issue. Not sure about heat yet. Its only been in the 90's here in Southern Arizona. Still cool. I see everyone talking about 4K, 2K, 1080P, 60fps. All I want is a reliable camera to document crashes.
The A229 Duo that I've used in my car has worked very well. The only "issue" I've had with it is the screen will have blacked out sections when its temperature gets very hot. This occurred during the 115F summer days last year. That behavior is "normal" and when the A229 front camera cools down a bit the screen returns to normal functionality. I've successfully used a VIOFO 128GB microSD card and I'm currently using a SanDisk 128GB Max Endurance card without any problem.
Thank you for this review. I think one of the more important matters with all dash cams is if you can make out license plates. Linus over at LTT did a dash cam run down for that exact thing and he wasn't too impressed with all the top cams, including Viofo, to pick up clear license plates. Do you believe the different sensor in this A229 can do a better job at license plates than the 4k sensor in the A129 Pro?
The 4K sensor in the A129 Pro might capture a plate during daytime driving that the 2K sensor in the A229 Duo might not catch. I just pulled the microSD card from the A129 Pro Duo that's installed in my wife's car. Looking at the A129 Pro footage (daytime), I don't see a vast improvement over the A229 Duo footage (license plate related). I've not had the A229 Duo and A129 Pro Duo installed in the same car at the same time for a side-by-side comparison. My wife doesn't want more than one dashcam in her car.
I do have a VIOFO A229 Duo video samples UA-cam video (part of my A229 Duo UA-cam video playlist) where I show license plates captured by three different dash cameras. ua-cam.com/video/u5h0dOee7RI/v-deo.html
Good video. Very informative. Thanx.
Can you use the CPL Filter on the rear camera?
No, there is no CPL filter that fits the rear camera at this time.
thanks for the video. can i use an external battery to connect the camera during parking mode or does it work only with the wiring kit? does the parking mode have a maximum time limit and then turn off? (4, 8, 12, 24 hours)
The use of the VIOFO 3-wire hardwiring kit (HK4) is the official method of supporting parking mode with this VIOFO dash camera. The 12-volt power for the HK4 can be sourced from the vehicle's fuse box or from a dash camera battery pack. There is a "Parking Recording Timer / Duration" firmware setting that allows you to define the amount of time to recording in parking mode and when that timer expires, the dash camera turns off. The setting values are Off, 30 mins, 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours, 6 hours, 8 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours and 48 hours.
You posted the same question on two other videos. I'm deleting those duplicate question posts.
Which would you recommend for someone on the east coast that doesn't deal with extreme heat, looking for front facing dash cam, A229, A119 Mini?
I like the larger screen on the A229 Duo because I'm older and my vision struggles a bit more with the A119 Mini's smaller screen. If you only need a front facing dash camera, then the A119 Mini should work just fine for you in areas without extreme heat during the summer. The next production batch (no I don't know when that is available) of the A119 Mini was to have additional tweaks to the internals of the camera to better handle dissipating the heat generated by the dash camera. HDR support was just added to the A119 Mini. HDR support should result in better nighttime video footage when dealing with a wide range of brightness levels in the field of view. In the end, I believe the A119 Mini should do well for you if all you need is a front facing dash camera.
@@RetroCarGuy530 thank you for the reply!
Is the display useful as a live rear view monitor, is it visible from the driver seat?
IMO, it would be difficult to use this as a full time rear view monitor depending on the angle of the front windshield in your car. The other problem is that the "Screen Saver" firmware setting which defines the amount of time the screen is left on only has settings of 3 secs, 15 secs, 30 secs, 1 minute or 3 minutes. There is no "Off" setting so the screen will turn off at some point with the longest time being 3 minutes.
Would you recommend this or the newer A139 pro? I know that it has the starvis 2 sensor but I like the design of the A229 more :D
The A139 Pro's HDR feature is still being worked on by VIOFO. They promised some sort of "update" after their Chinese New Year holiday break. The A139 Pro drops the bitrate of the video as the number of channels goes up. I like the concept of a large video screen on the camera, but in practice it's not all that useful unless you mount it in a location where you can view it with a straight line of sight to it. If you want a 4K UHD front camera and limit it to a 2-channel installation, then the A139 Pro will eventually be a better choice (IMO) when VIOFO works out the kinks in the HDR support of the new Sony STARVIS 2 IMX678 image processor.
@@RetroCarGuy530 I could not agree more. I had the A129 Pro before and was happy with the screen however it was not used very frequently, so in the end there is no need for one. The only positive I see in the A229 is the wedge style. In my honest opinion it is better because it can be hidden more under the windshield. I hope that viofo will fix some issues with the A139 pro so it gains some performance also when used in 2CH. To be sure, do you think that the license plate readability (in europe) is overall better on the 139 pro (2CH) than the 229? I want to buy the "better" cam and forget about it for at least 4 years :) . Thank You
From the posts on the DashCamTalk website from people in Europe, the A139 Pro seems to do a decent job of capturing European license plates. The smaller style of plates (like the ones used in the U.S.) it still seems to struggle with those. Futureproofing your dash camera purchase, I would think the A139 Pro might be the better choice in the 2CH and 1CH configurations. VIOFO has some work to do on how it performs in a 3CH configuration (would be nice to have 30 fps in 4K 2160p video resolution). VIOFO has suggested they're releasing some major updates for the A139 Pro firmware after their return from the Chinese Spring Festival break holiday. So in very late January or early February 2023, there should be some sort of major update for the A139 Pro firmware. I just discovered that the v1.0_1217 firmware now has a HDR timer feature like the A119 Mini has in its firmware.
Yesterday, I released my A139 Pro dash camera review video. If you haven't already watched that video, I would suggest taking a look at that video for my insights into the A139 Pro. ua-cam.com/video/Ajw1CUwi0_4/v-deo.html
Question is this like the dual camera model for the A119 v3 and mini?
It has 2.4/5 GHz Wi-Fi support, a 2K rear camera and a larger screen than the other two models. The A119 Mini cannot have a rear camera connected to it.
@@RetroCarGuy530 thanks just ordered one
Would you choose this over the A129 Plus Duo. They seem similar except the A129 Plus offers 2k/60fps front, but 1080p rear.
The A129 Plus Duo does have support for 2K 60fps for the front camera, so that is an advantage for the A129 Plus Duo. The things I see the A229 Duo has over the A129 Plus Duo are: 2.4 & 5 GHz Wi-Fi support, 2K 30fps rear camera, 5-Pin GPS module connection allowing the GPS module to be powered down to save power in parking mode (when enabled in the firmware for the A229 - that's being added to the A119 Mini firmware right now).
If the 2K 60fps video resolution is your main feature requirement, then the A129 Plus Duo is a good choice, especially with it being cheaper than the A229 Duo.
@@RetroCarGuy530 how about in comparison to the A129 pro dual?
The 4K sensor in the A129 Pro might capture a plate during daytime driving that the 2K sensor in the A229 Duo might not catch. I pulled the microSD card from the A129 Pro Duo that's installed in my wife's car. Looking at the A129 Pro footage (daytime), I don't see a vast improvement over the A229 Duo footage (license plate related). I've not had the A229 Duo and A129 Pro Duo installed in the same car at the same time for a side-by-side comparison. My wife doesn't want more than one dashcam in her car. The A129 Pro Duo 4K UHD front camera will have slightly darker video footage compared to the 2K QHD A229 Duo front camera. All current 4K UHD dash cameras tend to have darker nighttime video than 2K QHD or 1080p FHD front cameras.
The A129 Pro Duo only has a 1080p FHD rear camera while the A229 Duo has a 2K QHD rear camera. The A229 Duo also has the newer 5-pin GPS connection which will allow the A229 Duo to turn off the GPS module in more situations than the older 4-pin GPS module with the older VIOFO dash cameras.
I do have a VIOFO A229 Duo video samples UA-cam video (part of my A229 Duo UA-cam video playlist) where I show license plates captured by three different dash cameras. ua-cam.com/video/u5h0dOee7RI/v-deo.html
@@RetroCarGuy530 thank you for the response. deciding on a dashcam is so hard! I’ve been researching for weeks but am unable to decide on one. Am unable to decide between A229, A129 pro, and A129 plus. Mainly from paranoia. Especially since I was nearly tboned from a red light runner and side swapped by a truck not checking their blind spots the other day. I guess since I live in a state where we don’t have front license plate . a better front camera maybe more useful for me since if someone were to back up into my parked car either camera (a229 or A129 pro) would likely be able to read the plate. There’s so much that goes into shopping for these things and it’s lowkey stressful
I have an A129 Pro in my wife's car now for a couple of years. It works well. I have tested the A229 Duo (as you can see in the review videos) and so far it works well too. I have not owned/tested an A129 Plus dash camera yet. I really like the fact that the A229 Duo's rear camera is a 2K camera vs the others have a 1080p rear camera. If it were me making that type of decision today, I would likely decide to purchase the A229 Duo because it has the 2K rear camera along with the 5-pin GPS module connection which can make it use less power in some situations. I think any of those three would be a decent choice, it just depends on what your minimum set of feature requirements are for the dash camera you want to purchase.
Would a 64gb card be enough or would you recommend getting a larger capacity?
It depends on how much you drive your car and how much video you want to retain on the microSD card until it gets overwritten by new video files. I personally tend to use 128GB microSD cards in any dash camera that supports that capacity microSD card. I've been using a SanDisk Max Endurance 128GB microSD card in my A229 Duo.
Do you recommend Dash Cam Battery Packs
I like the BlackboxMyCar PowerCell 8 dash camera battery pack since it has 25% more battery capacity then others from BlackVue and the Cellink Neo series of battery packs. I have a review video of the PowerCell 8 ua-cam.com/video/Joa0fiKZY-o/v-deo.html
What are you viewing these videos on? Is there a free laptop viewer that you would recommend?
I use "Dashcam Viewer" Plus edition. There is a free version is fully functional but it has a limitation of loading only two videos at a time. dashcamviewer.com/free-trial/
You also have to download a K-lIte Codec Pack (free) to handle the video codecs used in the dash camera video.
I have purchased the A229 Duo, the quality of vidoes are extreamly good, but unfortunatly I am suffring from SD card error problem;
SD card: SanDisk Extream 256 GB, U3, micro V30, XC1
after 2 weeks of using the camera; that blue massege appears (memory error); and stoped recording.
I tried to formate on the dashcam itself, it faild.
the deler sent to me another SD card with same specs. then it works for one week then the same issue appears.
after checking the 2 Sim cards I found out the dashcam is not able to make loop recording ( once the memory is full it stoped recording and it dosn't delete old file to give space for the new recordings).
it happen for both memories.
I am not sure if the size of 256GB is the reasons , or the momory brand , or something els.
any advice?
The SanDisk Extreme microSD card is listed on the VIOFO A229 compatible list of cards. I don't have a 256 GB card to try in my A229 Duo. I have successfully used the VIOFO brand and SanDisk Max Endurance 128 GB microSD cards with my A229 Duo. Make sure the "Loop Recording" setting is set to something other than "Off". The settings of "1 Minute" or "3 Minutes" are typical for that firmware setting. My A229 Duo has firmware version v1.2_20230413 installed. If your A229 has an older version of firmware, you should try updating it. I've not tried a firmware update with a 256 GB card, but it should work. I typically use 64 GB or 128 GB cards when updating my VIOFO dash camera's firmware.
When I format the microSD card, I typically use my Windows 11 laptop. There's a guiformat utility that can be used on a Windows computer. VIOFO has a support page showing the various options to format the microSD card. The one thing I usually make sure is in the guiformat utility, I make sure "Allocation unit size" is set to 65536 instead of the default value. There's a link on the bottom of the VIOFO support page to download their suggested guiformat program for Windows. Here's a link to the VIOFO support page for formatting microSD cards. support.viofo.com/support/solutions/articles/19000046583-why-should-i-format-the-card-and-how-to-do-that-
@@RetroCarGuy530
Thank you for your fast reply.
I will do all solutions you recommended.
Is this the 4 k or 2 k front Camara model,
The VIOFO A229 Duo is a 2K QHD front and 2K QHD rear dash camera. VIOFO just released their A139 Pro dash camera which is offered in a 1-channel, 2-channel (second camera can be an interior infrared camera or a rear camera) or a 3-channel configuration. The A139 Pro front camera now has the brand new Sony STARVIS 2 IMX678 image sensor for 4K UHD video.
Does A229 support 256 or 512 SD Cards?
It supports up to 256GB microSD cards
Product is u available?
It would appear the VIOFO A229 Duo has sold out at some point in time today on Amazon. It is still available for purchase on the VIOFO website.
@@RetroCarGuy530 would you happen to have a promo code since you’re an affiliate?
No I don't have a promo code. I just checked on the site where I would get a promo code and there is not one available to me. Right now, the A229 Duo is on sale for $40 USD off on the VIOFO website. My affiliate link for that page on their site is: shrsl.com/3oefj
Hello, the new stock will be arriving this Friday on Amazon US.
@Jacky Chen just yesterday I was able to obtain a promo code for my viewers to use when purchasing the A229 Duo from the VIOFO website and in theory the Amazon US website when the A229 Duo is back in stock this Friday. Use promo code Retro10OFF to save 10% off of the purchase price. The promo code is good until 30-Sep-2022.
Just want to say I am using a 512 sd card with no problems.
Thanks for letting me know. The VIOFO official statement of support is for microSD cards of up to 256 GB in capacity.
@@RetroCarGuy530 well it doesn't say what the remaining capacity is in the software but the card hasn't had any hiccups. I'm assuming it's using all of it.
If you connect to the A229 with the VIOFO app and go into the Settings page, down towards the bottom of the listing of settings (just above the "Other" section of settings) it will show a "Free Space on Card" entry with that info.
@@RetroCarGuy530 thank you.
Well, the dash cam I recieved is a piece of crap. Video quality - ZERO. It has blown out highlights, and shadows are almost non-existant and I have the polarizer on too which does absolutely nothing. The clock always displays 23:15 - no matter how many times I reset and configure. In camera menu no longer works, so I have to use the APP but once connected, no settings I set in app are retained by the camera. I can truthfully say, this camera is a complete piece of crap.
I'm sorry to hear that your experience with the VIOFO A229 has been a bad one. The symptoms you described certainly seem to suggest the unit you received was defective. I would return it for a refund or exchange. My experience as well as most A229 users has been positive. The CPL filter does in fact work since it reduces the number of windshield reflections in my car by 95%. It does need to be installed paying attention to the alignment mark on the CPL filter and the one on the front camera lens. I actually needed to rotate the CPL about 5 mm to get the best reflection reduction. I used a white piece of paper on the dashboard and used a flashlight to create the reflection of the paper in the windshield. I rotated the CPL filter in small increments until it reduced the reflection of the paper the best in the video image using the app's live view feature. Again, I'm sorry your experience was not the one you deserve when spending your money on a product.
Your original review and this has to be a paid review. There is no way you can say this camera is a “good” dash cam. It’s cheap for a reason. Anyone reading this, trust me, my camera was not sent to me for review, it was a go to website, throw down money and pay for it myself. This camera is junk, including associated app. And another thing, if you sell a 256 card but recommend a 128 - then remove the 256 card as a purchase option! Want a real world review, strap a flip phone on your vehicles roof, it will be 100% better than any VIFO made dash cam.
As I disclosed in the very beginning of the original video and this video, VIOFO sent me a preproduction version of the dash camera to test and review. I spend a large amount of time testing features and collecting video footage for any dash camera I review. I've never been paid to make a review and I never will. The number of hours put into each and every review I make ends up making the dash camera reviews a money losing situation for me. I do it to let people know how good or bad a dash camera is based on my testing. Most are good, but a few don't make the cut and I don't even make a review video for them, but I do discuss all of my findings on the DashCamTalk website. I'm not sure what you're stating about the memory card, VIOFO sells the 256GB memory card and it's an option right on the dash camera purchase page (checked 17-Oct-2022). While I understand the VIOFO A229 Duo did not work out for you, you're making assumptions about me and how I conduct my business and they are not correct.
Bad review
bad feedback