A229 Pro, when?

[wozzzzza]

anyone know a A229 pro release date?

 

[Mtz]

Maybe April 2023 October 2023

 

[Dex_]

Mtz, are you talked about pre-release batch for testers or release for anyone?

 

[Mtz]

Release for anyone I expect in mid-autumn of 2023.

 

[Dex_]

Thank you for info, really waiting test sample A229 Pro, because A229 already fully tested.
Arriving A299 from Viofo motivated me on creating Novatek-FW-info for all who likes coding and dashcam modding firmwares.

 

[Mtz]

With A229 Pro you will have a lot of work to do.

 

[Dex_]

I just hope that A229 Pro will be non-compromise device and not worse than A139 Pro but with same possibilities or even better.
I do not want same situation like was with A229 vs 119Mini - same processor and sensors but A229 does not supported 60fps and HDR

 

[Mtz]

A229 Pro will have 60fps and HDR.

 

[Vortex Radar]

A229 Pro will have 60fps and HDR.

4K60HDR with 2CH? That’s impressive.

 

[kamkar]

So in that case it will also be able to do 4K/120 then ( no HDR ) ?

As there are little difference between A139 and A229, i doubt there will be a big difference between A139 PRO and A229 PRO
I will have to see it before i believe it.

 

[Dex_]

Mtz did not write anything about 4K + HDR + 60fps in a same time

 

[Vortex Radar]

Mtz did not write anything about 4K + HDR + 60fps in a same time

I suppose that's why it'd be helpful to have some clarification.

There's already dashcams that can do 2K60 or 4K30HDR. The A139 Pro is one example. Getting 4K60HDR, even with a single channel, would be excellent.

Heck even 4K60 non-HDR would be a step forward. Usually we only see stuff like that with action cameras like GoPros or with DSLR's/mirrorless cameras. Off the top of my head I can't think of any 4K60 dashcams.

 

[kamkar]

No 4K/60 are a pipe dream in dashcams.
Personally i am not big on +30 FPS cameras, or that is if i get the chance sure i would like to try it, but 60 FPS are not really on my dashcam shopping list.
I would prefer if they could get that Sony clear HDR going instead, i mean judging from Sonys material on it, it should be able to produce razor sharp images, without the motion blur ghost of old style HDR with consecutive frames.

So the way i see it ATM with the A139 PRO, that ( Clear HDR )just are not working yet.
No HDR

DOL HDR

Clear HDR

 

[Mtz]

DOL HDR needs two frames. Clear HDR needs one frame.

I consider that 60FPS is good only for advertising, helping sales. For dashcam usage I didn't saw any video in latest 10 years to convince me that 60FPS is better than 30FPS.
But I just saw a video which is showing me that HDR is better than WDR. HDR is a real progress in dashcam world, I will never chose 60FPS or 120FPS instead of HDR.

Dashcam videos are not about beauty but about justice/truth.

 

[kamkar]

Yeah many people that get to dashcams, they have probably already been at action cameras or at the very least phone cameras.
So yes 60 FPS will probably sell just fine.

 

[kamkar]

I have been thinking, say like when you bin pixels on a larger sensor, like say 4 pixels into 1 virtual pixel 2 X 2 pixels in size.
Well if your pixels are light sensitive enough, you could say the upper Left pixel of the 2 X 2 Virtual pixel are a reference pixel ( reference color and EV 0 exposure ), and then you have the upper Right pixel be with EV+1
And the lower Left pixel EV +2 and the final actual pixel Lower Right EV - 1

This way you have 4 frames captures at the same time, but granted offset in relation to each other with 1 pixel, hense why the one are a reference pixel.
So as the remaining 3 frames from each of the other 3 pixels are with different EV values, you get the ability to tweak brightness from them, and if there is a color discrepancy the reference pixel will set that standard and the other 3 will tune color to that but maintain their over / under exposure values to be able to mix those up for that perfect 1 frame.

That would be one way to do HDR video, though of course it will require a larger pixel count sensor VS the resolution you actually want to output.

Of course you are then pretty much filming 4 streams on the same time + you need to combine those, so probably very intense on the encoding aspect.

It is things like that my brain often process while i lie in bed unable to fall asleep, or that is for a while until my brain deside " time to process garbage information again " even if i did the same data set 1 - 2 hours ago, anything to keep this old idiot from sleeping.

 

[MaXyM]

Yeah many people that get to dashcams, they have probably already been at action cameras or at the very least phone cameras.
So yes 60 FPS will probably sell just fine.

No. It's literally 2x sharper image for objects moving fast against each other.

 

[kamkar]

Yes if you use 60 FPS then your slowest exposure time can not be slower then 1:60 second to be able to capture 60 frames every second.
And yes that is 2 X as fast as 30 FPS would do, and yes if a dashcam are allowed to it will drop to a 1:30 second exposure time.
So yes 60 FPS / 1:60 sec footage will have less motion blur than 30 FPS / 1:30 sec footage, but unless you are right there and that would matter, well it dont matter CUZ you will still have a ton of motion blur

Ideally we would like the minimum exposure speed to be 1:500 second or faster,,,,,, and that is still slow, if you use that on a camera, and hope to be able to get a good photo at the race car as it zip past you, well you will be surprised, 1:500 are only fast enough for human generated speeds like walking and maybe running.
at least that is what i remember from Photography class in school way back decades ago.

I once tested 2 similar cameras side by side, only difference was 60 FPS and 30 FPS, it was extremely rare the 60 FPS camera got a plate capture and the 30 FPS one did not, CUZ even if its 30 FPS, most of the time due to lighting conditions it will still use a much higher exposure, and chance are the 60 FPS camera will use the same faster one, say like 1:1000 second or even faster.
I did not look at sharpness back then, but yes at the minimum exposure time there would have been a difference.

 

[MaXyM]

I'm describing my own experience after comparing footage from A129 Pro Duo. In this one my go to was lower resolution with 60fpsfps instead of 4K with 30fps.

BTW does A229 have 60fps already? Cannot find any info about it. Viofo page mentions 30fps at full res only. I'm about to buy new cam so considering A229

 

[Mtz]

You can tell the difference between 60fps and 30fps only if you have 2 dashcams, same model.
60 fps is good only for advertising and selling dashcam. In reality there is no evident advantage. Just wasted processing power, bitrate and space on card.
Maybe on Formula 1 it is needed 60fps to capture more details.
Right now the only thing that really matters about dashcams image is the size of the sensor. Then HDR.