VIOFO A229 Pro / Plus Dash Camera Review

[@notjhoan]

16:06 dude just casually dropped the hardest transition of all time

[@LloydChristmas-vx2wh]

So true.

[@MHRDarkman]

Really good side by side editing, especially when switching between night & day while in motion. A lot of work went into creating this. Thank you.

[@RetroCarGuy530]

Many days of editing went into this video!

[@Shayxxx]

i can't believe this channel doesn't have over 1m subs. the most informative and brilliant dashcam reviews i've seen on youtube. good job hope more people will be exposed to your videos.

[@PanzerPlatform]

Excellent work Robert. 18:07 I like the additional “Yahoo” footage. Lol -Chuck

[@Turgineer]

VIOFO A229 Pro must be the best dashcam on the market right now.

[@RetroCarGuy530]

It is one of the best units right now. I want to see how it performs during the hot summer months where I live, but so far so good.

[@Qrvishon]

Very detailed and honest test. You halped me make my choice.

[@RetroCarGuy530]

Glad I could help

[@AbdoZaInsert]

You halped us all

[@just4therecord]

Great detailed review - thanks for that. With the auto event detection, does it gives any indication that it recorded some footage? How am I suppose to know something had happened? Thanks again

[@RetroCarGuy530]

There's no voice announcement from these VIOFO dash cameras stating anything was recorded during parking mode when it returns to normal recording mode. You would have to review the footage on the memory card.

[@just4therecord]

@@RetroCarGuy530 thank you for your quick reply

[@ikarugaxx3749]

@@just4therecord Of course you will review the footage if you see something's wrong with your vehicle.

[@SvenskaIdioterna]

What a great review. I'm pretty sold on the pro version, it's just hard to justify so much more money for what is essentially not a huge deal in 99% of cases. I will still see registration plates properly with the 2k, especially since I live in Sweden where they're made up of 6 big letters/numbers. But I also kind of want the dashcam to record nice footage and share with friends and family and maybe even catch some idiots in traffic live. I'll even get the button just to be able to quickly and efficiently start recording when necessary. And there's no doubt that the 4k is better when zooming especially, this isn't even the RAW footage after all. If I ever want to sell it, the 4k version will have better secondhand value too... A hard choice, but I will probably keep on regretting it if I go with the 2k version even though my wallet is weeping, especially with all the other stuff I bought for my new secondhand vehicle to make it a very pleasant car I'll drive for 5+ years easily. During the night, it was very clear that the 4k was the winner. During the day, it often seemed more tied. At all times, the 229 duo lagged behind, especially during the night. The 229 plus during the day was more even with this edited footage, it often seemed sharper, honestly quite jagged compared to the smoother 4k that looks more natural even if it did look rather washed out during the day with the cpl filter. I wonder if I care enough to remove the filter during the night or days where the sun isn't shining much. Even during the night, it helps with glare from other cars especially. But the 4k camera seems to deal pretty well with that. Oh well, I'll just have to weigh my options and see the absolute cheapest I can get each and then just click the buy button and not look back.

[@nitinkumar29]

Viofo is giving Starvis 2.0 but forgot to implement its core features and so there is motion blur during night time which making number plate not readable.

[@AbdoZaInsert]

I'll probably order the A229 Plus 3CH. Currently on sale & 140 USD cheaper than the A229 Pro 3CH (340 USD). So it seems like the A229 Plus has a much better value + I read it runs cooler, Which will probably be more suitable for my lovely lava hot Arabian peninsula.

[@speedingcheetah9001]

The A229 Pro 4K, night HDR still has issues. Its a crap ton of white snow specs, wich is also present in the A229 Duo 2K using WDR. The A229 Plus just seems the best at night. The 4K of the Pro, to me, does not seem significantly superior picture, even during the day. Marginal at best.

[@Juan1985g]

Great review. Question for you. A229 pro at $240 vs a229 plus at 160$ both dual channel. Is the pro model worth $80 more?

[@RetroCarGuy530]

The A229 Pro with its 4K front camera can be beneficial in some situations when you're trying to capture license plates. The A229 Pro does seem to run a bit hotter than the A229 Plus so if you're in a "hot" environment during the summer, the A229 Plus may be a slightly better choice.

[@Juan1985g]

@RetroCarGuy530 thank you for your reply I'm in southern California and is currently summer and we are hitting 100f. So, against the wall since I already ordered the a229 pro and really wanted 4k footage. But sounds like the a229 plus might suit me better given where I live. Also 80$ difference

[@zojirushi1]

Where are you finishing a229 plus by $160?

[@DownloaderVideo]

@@Juan1985gSame thing happened to me, ordered the A229 Pro 3 channel and the day I received found out it runs hotter that the Plus and I’m in Miami so gets scorching hot in summer. Did you ene up keeping yours and if so how’s been working for you?? Thanks

[@hellfireclub86]

So, this begs the question - Is 2K 60FPS Starvis 2 better at night than 4k 30FPS? I thought the sample footage was a bit inconclusive.

[@RetroCarGuy530]

I have not tried that combination of 2K 60fps vs 4K 30FPS at night. Running at 2K 60fps also means no HDR since that will drop it to 30FPS.

[@azrealtornick]

I live in the Phoenix Arizona area and have heard that the pro model May overheat a lot more than the plus model. What are your thoughts? Should I just stick with the plus model to avoid overheating?

[@RetroCarGuy530]

The A229 Pro does running hotter than the A229 Plus. I have the A229 Pro in my wife's car and my test car right now. It's starting to get warm in Norther California so I'll start to get much warmer temps in the during parking mode sessions. Since the A229 Plus does run much cooler than A229 Pro, I might suggest to use that in hotter climates such as your location.

[@abigailgonzales1545]

@@RetroCarGuy530Im still debating on which one to get, I live in San Diego and I feel like it’s very breezy here, it gets hot but it definitely gets hotter in NC, how did the PRO hold up?

[@Kman5777]

Is the A229 Pro really worth the price jump from the A229 Plus? From your analysis and awesome vid it doesn't look to be

[@RetroCarGuy530]

The A229 Plus should be sufficient for most users. The 4K front camera video and a slightly better HDR implementation in the A229 Pro does make it worthwhile for some users. The A229 Pro runs a bit hotter so if you live in an area where it gets really warm during the summer, the A229 Plus might be a better choice.

[@Kman5777]

@RetroCarGuy530 I'm in Toronto so it doesn't get that hot but I just need something that catches potential collisions and parking incidents. Someone recently hit my car while it was parked and falsely blamed me when I wasn't even at my car. It took me 6 months to finally clear my name (the other driver lied about having a witness, and their insurance company took their word on "good faith" with no proof) so I'd like to get a dash cam with parking mode to avoid that going forward.

[@RetroCarGuy530]

@Kman5777 Since you're located in Toronto, you might want to check out Safe Drive Solutions and speak with Ted in that office. safedrivesolutions.com I know Ted (Toronto) and Ben (Vancouver) from Safe Drive Solutions. They're a great resource for all things related to dash cameras.

[@iknowyounot88]

You should include a DL link of the comparisons so we can view without YT compression.

[@RetroCarGuy530]

I understand your request to have the raw footage. For the raw video files, there are a few hundred GBs of raw video that make up the video comparison section. It's not likely that I can dedicate that much of my Google Drive storage to that much raw video from one dash camera review video. I'm finding that video editing software (Adobe Premiere Pro 24.1) also is not helping in the exporting of the final video that I upload to KZbin. Adobe Premiere Pro is not obeying my export bitrate settings due to using a hardware encoder. I've tried a view different things with Adobe Premiere Pro to boost the exported video file bitrate (CBR, VBR 1 Pass, VBR 2 Pass, Software encoding), but I can't get it to a level that will make KZbin produce the very best quality in 4K. I may have to start using another video editor (testing a couple of things next week).

[@AbdoZaInsert]

@@RetroCarGuy530 Understandable have a nice day.

[@wasim92007]

Very Helpful!

[@wasim92007]

Watched 2nd time as I needed to calculate memory card size I will be needing. Thanks for the detailed work.

[@Sina-mt7zs]

thank you!

[@mikek753]

Bad motion blur for each. No improvement in new yet. Good review, tnx.

[@Brainiaccccc]

very good review

[@sushantnaik9318]

Viofo a229 pro 2-ch vs finevu gx1000.... which one is better ?

[@RetroCarGuy530]

The VIOFO A229 Plus is QHD Front / QHD Rear camera from VIOFO. The A229 Pro has a 4K UHD front camera with a QHD rear camera. The VIOFO units use the newer Sony STARVIS 2 image sensors while the FineVu GX1000 uses the older Sony STARVIS IMX335 image sensors. I have the VIOFO A229 Pro 2-channel in my wife's car and I have an A229 Plus in my other car. The FineVu GX1000 dash cameras that I used during my review of the GX1000 are sitting in a box in my storage cabinet. You might guess I like the VIOFO dash cameras better than the FineVu GX1000.

[@sushantnaik9318]

@@RetroCarGuy530 thank you for the quick reply.

[@nilaypatel3069]

Hey, nice video I had this doubt, I heard Viofo A119 mini 2 has a very good performance, I’m kind of confused between Viofo A119 mini 2 and A229 plus, can you recommend me one. I hard mini 2 has 60fps and is able to capture number plates correctly. Can you please share some of your experience, it’ll be really helpful in making me decide one Thanks in advance

[@RetroCarGuy530]

As I mentioned in the other question thread you created on the A119 Mini 2, when the HDR feature is enabled the A119 Mini 2 will drop from 60 fps (if configured that way) to 30 fps. The same is true of the A229 Plus. The A229 Plus 3-channel configuration does not support the front camera recording at 60 fps, but running in 2-channel mode (with rear camera) the front camera can be configured to record at 60 fps as well. The A119 Mini 2 firmware is a bit more mature at this point and its HDR implementation is better than the A229 Plus HDR implementation. You would think that since both use the same front image sensor (IMX675) that both would have the same HDR capabilities, but that is not the case (right now).

[@zojirushi1]

You should’ve shown how to install and set it up. And how to hide the wires under the seams of roof.

[@RetroCarGuy530]

My reviews require me to temporarily install a large number of dash cameras for the driving / parking mode tests. I don't install the dash camera cables behind panels in my car. If I constantly installed/removed dash camera cables behind the various panels in the car, many of the body panels would have broken clips from the constant removal or "bending" to install the camera cables.

[@JiaxinLiao-9531]

I hear Viofos might have a glitch that might cause it to freeze when in a high impact collision

[@RetroCarGuy530]

That incident of a driving impact event causing an A229 Pro dash camera to not record some number of seconds of front video footage appears to be an isolated case. Several dash camera reviewers have tried to replicate that behavior and it was not replicated. The other thing about the A229 Pro involved in the accident is that it was an early prototype dash camera with a old firmware installed. Prototype units may or may not have the same components as the production units. VIOFO is investigating the issue by having that dash camera sent back to VIOFO for diagnosis.

[@ikarugaxx3749]

"Funny" to see how the 2k Plus gives on average higher-quality picture than the 4k one. If we (if they) were serious, we (they)'d admit the kind of money these products sell for is miles away from prospects of real 4k video. A $1000 3 channel system would maybe start to provide real 4k on the front camera.

[@donlew8222]

Made in China.