Viofo has since upgraded the heatsink over the first few A119 Minis. The version you buy now should handle heat better than the one I tested in this video. 👍 geni.us/ViofoA119Mini
I have 2 of the VIOFO 129 duo pros in my semi truck for over 2 years based on your review of them in 2019 and living here in central Florida both of my VIOFOS OVERHEAT and SHUTDOWN then restart within 5 secs when it reaches about 100 degrees outside while I’m parked/it doesn’t happen when I’m driving and the ac keeps the inside cool. It’s a great camera so I just deal with it. I have both of the smaller rear facing cams mounted on ram mounts to the upper corners of my windshield to view out the driver and passenger side windows for any side impacts or burglary(my semi has no rear window).I also have 2 of the buttons u talked about, both mounted on my steering wheel. Best thing about the viofos is that u can set ur cams to motion detection (high med or low). Both my cams have picked up small branches of trees blowing in the wind and cats walking to the front and sides. All 4 cams are motion detection capable that I use when parked with no issue of vehicle battery drain ever. Great review and I’ve been subscribed to ur channel for over a year.
You are undoubtedly a talented reviewer and know how to describe a product’s ins and outs. I appreciate all your reviews and look forward to watching more videos by you. Thank you very much for your helpful advice-greetings from Verona - Italy.
Great review, have bought the mini off your recommendation. My unit is hotter than other dash cams I've had, looking forward to any updates. Two things I've noticed out of the box: 1) the moving g sensor is really too sensitive. It will activate seemingly randomly on dirt roads without anything unique occurring. I'm on the lowest sensitivity setting, and would like an even lower setting. My previous Costco Cobra unit was on a stalk,maybe that gave it more flexibility than this one connected directly to the windshield. 2) Wi-Fi playback on Android is silent even with sound recording switched on. I haven't seen any settings to enable sound on playback, maybe this is a bug.
Another advantage of the V3 is that if you already have an old dashcam it'll probably also be a USBmini powered one so you won't need to mess around with new wiring if you need to buy a new one.
FIRST! (Edit) Thank you vortex for you informative videos, because of your channel I now have a Uniden R8 with a mirror tap and blend mount and a viofo t130 dash cam that I'm getting installed. I wouldn't have known about any of these options without your channel!
Opinion; I think the Viofo is an excellent Dash Cam. 1st No battery, which prevents the Camera from Imploding in the Hot Southern Arizona Sun{my 1st cameras did just that}. the A119 which is a bout 8 years old, is still going strong as my Rear Camera, I also Have 2 A119S Cams, that are approx 6-7 years old{1 went bad, BUT the Factoring sent me a New improved one). Now I just purchased a A119V3, and yes the Video is Sharper, and if your a Night time driver this unit Really shines.and its a 2K.. Oh as a Reminder, While recording, if you If you quickly push the Menu button it takes a Photo like of a License Plate.
That Mini sliding to the right and SD card on the right will be a right pain in the butt for Right Hand Drive cars, where the dashcam is mounted to the left of the mirror housing.!
I have A119 V3 but looks like usability is significantly improved in Mini.- Emergency button, mount, etc And Mini 2 with IMX675 and Voice Control should be even better! Thanks for the review
Great review thanks! It would be great if you can compare parking mode g g-sensor sensitivity. I have A119 V3 and my car was slightly hit and scratched few times already but that was not enough to trigger the recording. I have set to high sensitivity and have to hit my car pretty strong to activate it.
I would have liked you to go more in depth into the differences between the cameras. Was there any difference in low-light performance and motion blur?
Still not sure if opt for mini or v3. Its a 30 bucks difference. Wifi would be nice and also usb-c. But overheating concerns me. Anyway i am not living in a constant hot environment. Its just a few months so.
Thank you so much for the in-depth review, one thing I was lacking was no video comparision. From those little clips I didn't find it as great as A119v3 at all. I'd also like to know, what is the main selling point of this instead of the ''mini'' aspect, when you can buy A129 Plus (single), which is by comparision basically A119v3 but with WiFi and possibility to add rear cam and even works with that BT button. Or am I missing something?
Oh yeah I ran both cams at the same time, but forgot to add clips of both at the same time, lol. The two cams looked very comparable though. That’s a really good point about the A129 Plus. IIRC the Plus lacks buffered parking recording, but otherwise yeah it’s very similar…
@@VortexRadar True I forgot about buffered parking recording. So it looks like it depends on which set of features does one prefer... Cheap, great video, but lacking WiFi, BT and only few parking modes - A119v3 (around 99USD) A bit more expensive, great video, with WiFi, BT and a bit more parking modes, possibility to add a rear cam in the future, newer chipset - A129 Plus (around 120USD) Adding a bit more to the price, comparable video quality as previous ones, WiFi, BT, all the parking modes, ''mini'' aspect, USB-C connector, even newer chipset - A119 mini (around 140 USD)
Привет! Спасибо тебе за этот прекрасный обзор! Ты- лучший! Отличные и грамотные обзоры! Я определился, какой регистратор я куплю! Из России 🇷🇺 with love!
My GPS mount 4 prong connectors failed and eventually it stopped sending power through the GPS unit to the dashcam. I then had to plug the power directly into the dashcam, effectively removing the GPS function all together. I hope the mini connectors are more robust.
AUG 2023.. my A119V2 just failed... had a good run and might be my SDcard.. Does one need to buy the hard wire kit to be able to engage the parking mode? Or does the capacitor hold power to run the unit while parked for an hour? Great video BTW! I will probably go with the V3.
I’ll go for the A119 V3, Bigger screen & No wifi or Bluetooth interference with other wireless connections inside vehicle. Also Viofo app has the majority of reviews very Low.
You said at 2:40 that A119 mini has longer parking record time because 5 pin connector, but test showed a 2,5W consumption compared with 2W consumption for A119 V3 in parking mode.
Thanks for the excellent review. May a stupid question but has the mini a internal battery that is in use when the car cuts the power supply? If no, can I put a powerbank in between to use the cam for longer parking recording? I don't want to to use the additional hardware cables to connect power supply directly from car battery.
Heat temperature rating is???? Bc it's getting hot as fk here in florida!!! Inside a Car temperature is hitting 112+ degrees , which one is rated for 165 to 200 degrees??? THKS I need 2 great front and back dashcams and second 1 for both sides. which ones do you recommend?? THKS
I live in central Florida and my 129 pro duos shutdown when it reaches 100+degrees outside and im parked due to overheating but then start right back up. It’s annoying but it’s such a good 4k cam that I just deal with the minor inconvenience. They never shut down if I’m driving with the ac keeping the interior cool.
I will be in Arizona this month for vacation with temperatures reaching 117 outside. I’m afraid to even have my dash cam installed cause inside the car when parked gets to oven cooking temperatures
@@jordyworley91 I have a BlackVue and NextBase dashcam installed in my cars w/o any issues here in AZ. I just thought it would be a true test to see if the nini overheated.
Can the Viofo A119 video recording be flipped 180 degrees? I want to mount the dash cam on the dashboard rather that the windscreen to be able to hide it more easily when parked.
The new layout of the mount and sliding mechanism isn't great for us in Australia with RHD cars as I usually mount the camera on the passenger side of the mirror which this is all wrong for.
I just posted a direct comparison of the V3 vs Mini. Lemme know what you think if you have the time. Uploaded without waiting for processing but should support 1440p60 which is what I used for the Mini.
Well I was thinking about getting the mini, but I live in Houston tx, my electronics over heat in the winter time as well lol. So I wonder how well this would work for me.
I’ve done that before, but it’s very easy to forget to plug it back in next time you drive and then you have no camera protection, so be careful if you try that. Personally I’d rather adjust the timer and voltage cutoff settings to not drain the battery much if that’s a concern.
@@Tristand09 not sure, but I assume that's an option. My casual research on these devices is that most of them default to fifo hierarchy on the files, unless you opt for "no overwrites", which may be a requirement for commercial vehicles.
Right, rec starts/stops recording. The exclamation button is the emergency record which protects the clip from being overwritten once the card gets full.
What if you press emergency button just one second after the new clip was started recording? The event was recorded in previous file and you save only videos after the event? in couple of hours the event video will be overwritten.... Is there any safety feature so that this situation never occurs?
It varies between dashcam models. Some will save two full clips, before and after, to cover the whole event. Other dashcams create brand new clips just for the event, covering X seconds before you press and Y seconds after.
When you connect phone to the dash cam, aren't you loosing mobile internet connection? As far as I am concerned, you either use wi-fi or mobile data with your phone. Isn't it?
Sure but just for a moment. U wont be connected for long. But anyway in preferences in ur phone it might be possible to activate data while connected to wifi.
What exactly does the emergency record button do? Does it save something that happened in the previous 5 minutes? Does it just start saving an ongoing recording?
Correct. Depends on each manufacturer’s implementation. There’s not one way to do it. Please read your specific dashcam’s manual to learn more details.
