VIOFO A129 Pro Duo 4K

[Das*]

So I pick up my new car on Saturday and its time to replace the Blackview 6502 2 ch I've had for 4 years. TBH I wouldn't recommend Blackvue again, but that's another story. So anyway is it worth the premium of the VIOFO A129 Pro Duo 4K Dual Dash Cam over the VIOFO A129 Plus Duo 2K or even the Dash Cam VIOFO A129 Duo Dual. £249, £169, £159 respectively.

Another quick question about the Viofo, can the screen be turned off during normal usage, or does it stay on all the time when powered up?

 

[Nigel]

Another quick question about the Viofo, can the screen be turned off during normal usage, or does it stay on all the time when powered up?

Most of the Viofo cameras can't have their screens turned on permanently, that would probably be illegal. The screen saver is configurable from 10 seconds to a few minutes.

So anyway is it worth the premium of the VIOFO A129 Pro Duo 4K Dual Dash Cam over the VIOFO A129 Plus Duo 2K or even the Dash Cam VIOFO A129 Duo Dual. £249, £169, £159 respectively.

If it is for accident recording purposes then no, the Pro is not really worth it, but it is for movie making.
Currently the 2K dashcams are the best for accident recording.

and its time to replace the Blackview 6502 2 ch I've had for 4 years.

If it is just "time", and not urgent, then I suggest waiting a few weeks to see what new models appear. The Sony Starvis-2 sensors are about to appear in new/upgraded dashcams, and they are a significant upgrade to all current dashcams.

 

[Das*]

Thanks for your reply @Nigel. Well I've been disappointed with the Blackvue pretty much since I got it, to many options you can use, wifi on all time so you have to turn it off on the phoneand although there is an option to turn it off the option is not available to access for some reason. The last year its constantly resetting itself, I've updated firmware, thats a nightmare on it own, but hasnt solved my issues. TBH I dont fancy fitting it and ripping it out again. Probably just go for the 2k version then, unless you feel there a better option out there? I like the slim design of the viofo's though.

 

[Nigel]

You could take a look at the A229 and A139. Both have similar image quality to the A129 Plus and are 2K, but they have more recent processors and are a bit higher spec. Nice coax cable to the rear instead of thick USB type cables, voice announcements for important info, etc. Not sure what the cost difference is at the moment, but they are worth a little more.

On all of them, you turn wifi on if you want to use it, otherwise it will leave your phone alone! Use a decent memory card and they are reliable (check the recommended memory card list for extra certainty.)

 

[rcg530]

Well I've been disappointed with the Blackvue pretty much since I got it, to many options you can use, wifi on all time so you have to turn it off on the phoneand although there is an option to turn it off the option is not available to access for some reason.

To follow up on the BlackVue Wi-Fi setting. There was a change in the BlackVue app within the past year that would block you from toggling the "Wi-Fi > Wi-Fi auto turn off" setting if the "Cloud > Enable Cloud service" setting was enabled. If the "Enable Cloud service" setting is disabled, the "Wi-Fi auto turn off" setting becomes settable again. I don't have a DR650S-2CH to test this with, but that's how the BlackVue dash cameras that I have behave with the recent versions of the BlackVue app. The "X" and "X Plus" dash cameras that I've tested will keep the dash camera Wi-Fi on when the cloud service feature is enabled (I believe despite what the "Wi-Fi auto turn off" setting is set to).

As Nigel pointed out, the VIOFO dash cameras have you manually enable/disable Wi-Fi when needed. If Wi-Fi is enabled when the VIOFO dash camera is powered off, Wi-Fi will be re-enabled during the next boot time. I can't say that I've found that to be too useful for real world usage, but it does sometimes help while testing certain feature while reviewing the dash camera. If you manually turn-on the VIOFO dash camera Wi-Fi and no client connects to the dash camera within 10 to 11 minutes, the firmware will auto turn-off the Wi-Fi on the dash camera.

 

[Deleted member 64174]

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[Das*]

To follow up on the BlackVue Wi-Fi setting. There was a change in the BlackVue app within the past year that would block you from toggling the "Wi-Fi > Wi-Fi auto turn off" setting if the "Cloud > Enable Cloud service" setting was enabled. If the "Enable Cloud service" setting is disabled, the "Wi-Fi auto turn off" setting becomes settable again.

I fitted my 650s while I wait on my new Viofo coming from the States. Followed your instructions and indeed that function now works perfectly. Cheers.