Hikvision System - Help with settings

Philth

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Hey guys. I have my system up and running now and it's time to start tweaking with the settings. For starters, here is my equipment, all Hikvision:

NVR: DS-7608NI-E2/8P w/ 2TB HDD installed
4 each: XC-2342WDI
One each:
XC-2542FWD-IS

I am somewhat familiar with resolutions but have some questions:

1) Please put to bed if I should have H.264+ enabled, or not.

2) I would like to take advantage of this system as much as possible. What is the max resolution I should record at? Only one is set to continuous record, the others are set to motion record.

3) Please advise the best settings for my system:
  • Resolution
  • FPS
  • Bitrate
  • Variable or Constant Bitrate?

Thanks!
 
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Hi

Answer to question 1 is NO as H.264+ only works on the new NI-I4 and NI-I8 Hikvision NVR models so this feature won't work on your NI-E2 model.
 

hiky

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I have a 7604 NI-E1 with H264+ working !

Trouble is everyone is getting different mileage with there settings, even on same machines

You can see in my sig what cam i have running off the nvr that i mess with most,the 2342 running at max resolution gave me issues so i have scaled back to these settings which, for me, give reliable results

1920 x 1080
variable
VQ highest
25 fps
H264+ on which saves me messing with bitrate

but everyone finds different settings suits them

Also it is not always about taking advantage of what you have but more getting reliable results from what you have, even if you have to scale back a bit, i will take reliability any day over maxed out settings that return lock ups and freezes

The 4mp 2342 cams can turn total black into day which is awesome to see but completely useless to use as everything becomes a blur, i have yet to know why such a low frame rate even exists
 
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CoreyX64

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1) I've heard a lot of people on here complain about H.264+, not that it doesn't work, but various video artifacts (flashing and fading, random image loss, dropped frames), etc. I've personally never tampered with the codecs on any of my cameras. I've left everything codec wise to its default and have had no issues. I have a mix of old and new 2032s (the classic Hikvision bullet) running on 5.2.0 (before + was implemented), some on 5.2.5 that might have it, and some brand new 3145 4MP domes which support up to H.265. However all of my cameras are grayed out at H.264 from the NVR (I can't change them), but they work perfectly fine. That is likely an issue with the recorder and not the camera.

Ideally, best settings Are going to be those that max out the capability of the camera with respect to image quality. The resolution you'll want to shoot up to 4MP as those appear to be 4MP bullets. There are some people on here who swear by 1080p and nothing more. The only reason I can see their point on this is aspect ratio, and you get your full 30FPS (I'm personally content with 25, but to each their own). 3 and 4MP is a square (4:3) while 1080p is wide (16:9). In my case, details are critical, and the ability to zoom in and see details (digital zoom, after the fact) trumps having a widescreen image that fits my TV monitor perfectly (it's stretched but that doesn't bother me). And that zoom feature works much better with more pixels. Even though depending on what you're objective is, more pixels does not necessarily mean better image quality overall.

I personally use VBR and not CBR because it helps to save space and extend time before my HDDs fill up. The difference is CBR will transmit a stream at a fixed bit rate that you determine regardless of motion activity in the scene. If it's variable, less activity means less storage consumed. It spikes only when their is an increase in pixel changes (motion). So it's generally more lean on bandwidth consumption. Also, if it's fixed, and your fixed bitrate is lower than what the camera might need for a high activity scene, you'll notice the image struggle a bit because it's capping the bandwidth lower than what is necessary. At the same time, idle scenes will waste bandwidth and make the video files much larger unnecessarily. That's why with variable you can set the image quality from lowest to highest and everything in between so the camera will adjust things as needed. I always set them to highest of course.


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Philth

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Thanks! When i try to change the resolution to anything higher than 1080P, the image on my computer screens become unviewable. I'm assuming its because the screens cannot support the resolution. The image appears fine when viewing directly from the NVR via HDMI to my TV, so I'm fairly sure they are still recording.

For the bitrate, got it; VBR. What is the bitrate you select? I'm reading anything over 5000 is not necessary at 4MP?

So you're suggesting running 25fps at 4MP resolution? I also would like to be able to zoom into an image if need be, which is why I would like to go to a 4MP resolution.

Thanks again.
 

CoreyX64

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My 4MP 3145s max out at 25, your 4MP cameras might too. Go with whatever frame rate is highest. When it comes to frame rate, unless your wiring is crap (could cause dropped frames) or you see major issues with video artifacts, always go the highest. 25-30 you won't really notice a whole lot of difference however.

All of my 3 and 4MP cameras are set to those respective resolutions and I don't have a problem viewing them on the computer, regardless of the resolution. I have a 15.6" Dell laptop at 1366x768 which does fine, and retina MacBook Pro at 2880x1800 that also works. How are you viewing them? iVMS or the web interface? Also, what happens when you try viewing from a mobile device? (iOS/android/windows phone) I know when viewing in remote locations, I absolutely must use the sub stream because the local cable company has horrible upstream speeds with which mainstream tanks. But it sounds like you're only working locally at the moment so doubt that has anything to do with it.

To check recording on the NVR, you will see a red video reel icon in the upper right corner of each camera that is recording. A bell indicates an event trigger, including but not limited to, motion.


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Philth

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Yeah I'm not too sure what's up with my Macs. I have a Macbook Air and a iMac Desktop. Both cannot stream or playback the 2688*1520 resolution. If I drop it down to 1080P, they playback and live view fine. I'm viewing them through the web interface. I'm not aware of IVMS working on a Mac?
 

CoreyX64

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iVMS of any flavor sucks in my opinion. It's poorly written software on both operating systems, but can be manageable under the right conditions. I've always stuck with the web interface or iOS. What I find with Hikvision (and almost every other chinese CCTV vendor out there): iOS apps work near flawlessly. Android, depends on the manufacturer. (Some are good, some are bad). Windows, usually requires IE, which is why I hooked onto Hikvision and have been happy with their cross-browser cross-platform support. (they even support Windows Phone!) Mac is usually a touchy subject across the board. However lately it's been going downhill due to plugin deprecation (NPAPI is being dropped in favor of PPAPI, not really a topic of discussion for your purpose). That's not their fault, that's a browser industry thing, however it IS their fault for not rewriting their NPAPI plugin in PPAPI. Again, not the issue to be discussed here. (unless of course it piques your interest; I am always happy to share more info when requested)

Check to make sure you have the latest OS X WebComponents plugin. This is the latest, released January 2016:
http://www.hikvisioneurope.com/portal/index.php?dir=Software/02 Web Components/Multi-brower web video componet for macosx v3.0.5.43/&file=WebVideoPlugin_V3.0.5.43build20160118.pkg

Ensure that all browsers are closed, install, and give it another go. I don't have a MacBook Air (which is a non-retina device, but that should have no bearing on anything), and the closest I come to a desktop is a Late 2012 Mac Mini Server. What version of OS X are you running? All of my stuff is bleeding edge at 10.11.4 beta. If it works on a beta version, it most certainly should work on production release software.

If you wish to try iVMS for Mac, you can fetch the latest version here:
http://oversea-download.hikvision.com/Uploadfile/USA/Software/Mac-v1.02.02.02.zip
However that's merely an alternative viewing window, it doesn't really fix the problem per se. Try updating the plugin from the first link above, and report back if that helped in any way. Their plugin always has been "special" and sometimes you need to give it a gold star for trying.
 

Philth

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I forgot I have Windows 10 installed on my Mac Air. Seems to work better with Windows, so it's something to do with the OS in Mac, I believe. What does work with my Mac is if I go to that specific camera and view from that IP address (and not through NVR IP), I can view the image in real time. It's odd for sure. Again, this is only if I set it to the 4MP resolution.

Something I've figured out with the 5 cameras I have; I can't run 4MP resolution on all of them at the same time or the NVR locks up. Might have something to do with the bitrate and FPS I have set, not sure. I've read that the NVR I have has trouble recording/displaying 4MP cameras, but 5MP and 1080P are fine? Is there any truth to this. I'm a little bummed at this point that the NVR keeps locking up.
 

CoreyX64

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Your max throughput on that recorder is 50Mbps. 50/8= 6.25x1024=6400Kbps. Make sure it isn't set higher than that. Sounds like it's being overwhelmed, tripping, and restarting.


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CoreyX64

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Sorry I missed that. That would be the max per channel assuming 8. What do you have them set at?


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Philth

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It was something ridiculous. Well over 10000kbps; I dont have the NVR in front of me, but at 4MP resolution, it was recommending 12000 kbps. Makes sense now. I'll go mess with it when I get home.
 

CoreyX64

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Mine are set to 4096, this is rather dated because the older 8 channel NVRs (SE models, not E2 models) had a max of 40. I could have gone higher but I always allowed for some overhead.


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Philth

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I enabled H.264+. Resolution is set to 4MP and 20 fps. The bitrate is grayed out with the H.264+ enabled but everything seems stable. If I'm reading the bandwidth being used, its somewhere around 33mbps total.
 

CoreyX64

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None of mine permit H.264+ and I'm not sure why. I never bothered with it since everything worked fine out of the box (to be investigated later on).

Assuming that is a variable bit rate, if you were to increase motion to any scene you should see the bandwidth increase a bit. I'm not up on the inner workings of that codec so it's hard to tell.

If it seems stable, run with it. Or are you saying its stable now, but at some random point in time could crash?


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