Review - Dahua NVR5216-16P-4KS2E - AI NVR With 4.0 FW Flashed

[Wildcat_1]

I mentioned in my latest Dahua cam review I just started that I am attempting something different this time around. Specifically reviewing both the SD49225 PTZ in that review located here AND at the same time cross reviewing the 5216. This is in efforts to show features of the cams via their respective web GUI as well as the features and setup on the AI NVR. This will include deep dives into AI configuration, capture etc. Hopefully people like this approach and find it useful in configuring a system end to end, let me know with any questions as I go through.

Ok lets get started here as well. All, thanks to Andy (@empiretecandy) we have a NVR5216-16P-4KS2E AI NVR that I flashed with NVR 4.0 for testing. This NVR has been provided by Andy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is a 16 channel NVR flashed to 4.0 which enables AI features. However an important 1st note as I mentioned in other reviews before, the AI NVR only supports features that the camera supports. For example if a cam doesn’t support SMD the AI NVR cannot enable it. It reads features afforded by the device on the channel to enable those features. If features aren’t supported by the cam you will receive an error.

2ND NOTE: BEFORE WE GO ON THAT THE ‘STANDARD’ SPEC SHEET DOES NOT MENTION AI ETC, THAT IS ENABLED WITH THE 4.0 FW THEREFORE I SPECIFICALLY PULLED OUT THE RECORDING TYPES ETC BELOW AS THEY ARE NOW DIFFERENT WHEN USING 4.0 (I’LL GO THROUGH ALL OF THESE IN THE REVIEW). HOWEVER I AM ATTACHING THE DATA SHEET FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN RUNNING LOWER FW REVISIONS.

Ok with those out of the way, let’s start with the specs.

Andys links will be posted shortly


NVR5216-16P-4KS2E




> 16/32Channel 1U 16PoE 4K&H.265 Pro Network Video Recorder
> Smart H.265+/H.265/Smart H.264+/H.264/MJPEG
> Max 320Mbps Incoming Bandwidth
> Up to 12MP Resolution for Preview and Playback
> HDMI/VGA simultaneous video output
> 1-8 PoE Ports Support 800m ePoE & EoC

System
Main Processor - Quad-core embedded processor
Operating System - Embedded LINUX

Audio and Video
IP Camera Input - 16/32 Channel
Two-way Talk - 1 Channel Input, 1 Channel Output, RCA

Display
Interface - 1 HDMI, 1 VGA
Resolution
HDMI: 3840 × 2160 , 1920 × 1080 , 1280 × 1024, 1280 × 720 , 1024 × 768
VGA: 1920 × 1080 , 1280 × 1024, 1280 × 720 , 1024 × 768
Decoding Capability - 4-ch@8MP(30fps), 16-ch@1080P(30fps)
Multi-screen Display
16CH: 1/4/8/9/16
32CH: 1/4/8/9/16/25/36

Recording
Compression - Smart H.265+/H.265/Smart H.264+/H.264/MJPEG
Resolution - 12MP, 8MP, 6MP, 5MP, 4MP, 3MP, 1080P, 1.3MP, 720P, D1 etc.
Bit Rate - 16Kbps ~ 20Mbps Per Channel

Third-party Support
Arecont Vision, Airlive, AXIS, Canon, Dynacolor, JVC, LG, Panasonic, Pelco, PSIA, Samsung, Sanyo, Sony, Watchnet and more

Network
Interface - 1 RJ-45 Ports (10/100/1000Mbps)
PoE
16 ports (IEEE802.3af/at)
1-8 ports support ePoE & EoC

Network Function
HTTP, HTTPS, TCP/IP, IPv4/IPv6, UPnP, SNMP, RTSP, UDP, SMTP, NTP, DHCP, DNS, IP Filter, PPPoE,DDNS, FTP, Alarm Server, IP Search (Support Dahua IP camera, DVR, NVS, etc.), Easy4IP

Interoperability
ONVIF 2.4, SDK, CGI

Storage
Internal HDD - 2 SATA III Ports, Up to 10 TB capacity for each HDD
eSATA - N/A

Auxiliary Interface
USB - 2 USB Ports (1 Rear USB 3.0 , 1 Front USB 2.0 )
RS232 - 1 Port, for PC Communication and Keyboard
RS485 - 1 Port, for PTZ control

As always, I will be adding initial pics & vids in post 2, AI feature breakdown and testing in post 3, tips and tricks on how to make these features work and other settings / menu functions in post 4 and a summary of findings / recommendations in post 5.

Remember to ask any questions as I go through the review.

 

[Wildcat_1]

Post #2

 

[Wildcat_1]

Post #3

 

[Wildcat_1]

Post #4

 

[Wildcat_1]

Post #5

 

[Chris J LaBoda]

I have a NVR5216-16P-4KS2E running System Version V4.000.0000001.2 Build Date: 2019-11-01 along with 8 IPC-T5442TM-AS 2.8MM cameras, along with 1 SD22404T-GN camera.

Looking forward to the review.

 

[Wildcat_1]

Post # 7 - AI NVR Menu Structure Deep Dive & Tips

Intro

So as promised, in keeping with the dual overlapping reviews of the SD49225 & the 5216, after going over the menu structure on the PTZ yesterday, we’ll be taking a look at the NVR menus today. Will be going through this covering all levels which I hope people will find useful as I know a lot on this forum are confused by elements of the 4.0 update and specifically where to find things. After this post on the menu structure and items within it, we’ll then look at How To sections such as Adding Cameras (we’ll add the cross posted SD49225), Configuring AI etc through video. Hopefully the mix of review / tutorial will help. Then as stated actions I take or captures etc from the PTZ we’ll review its handling within Web GUI in that review and in the AI NVR here.This is a detailed look so be prepared for a lot of information.

First, I think its key to point out that the 5216 was never advertised as having AI features BUT they are unlocked when you load 4.0 onto it and the NVR handles these features well. Also a HUGE caveat/warning - NVR 4.0 requires Internet Explorer to run. Not only are other browsers not supported at this time for 4.0 BUT even though others such as Firefox & Chrome ‘work’, you lose features, buttons etc in doing so. Therefore Internet Explorer all the way for now. A quick example of this below, look at the Playback screen cap (left) from Safari & Firefox and you’ll see no Clip or Save option on the bottom right by timeline. Now look at the IE screen grab on the right and those buttons and features are present again. Similarly things like 2 way talk and local play from Live menu are available in IE but not in Firefox. The Backup menu disappears completely on Firefox so be warned and plan accordingly.





Ok lets go…….MENU TIME



Top Navigation Bar
Top navigation bar features a number of icons and options so we will touch on a few of those first.

Located in the top left of the main display is Management, when you click this you will be presented with your choice to configure / manage the physical connection to the camera, NVR to the network and camera image / encoding setups. The camera Registration sub menu also has the Upgrade option where you can upgrade your cams in bulk by loading the FW file to the NVR, great feature.




On the top right of the main screen you will notice the Square with arrow icon that lets you control Logout, Reboot & Shutdown functions.
All the way to the right, the monitor icon is for getting back to your main dashboard screen


The Main Dashboard Layout (initial screen on login)

Front and center when you login we have the main menu screen which is featured across 2 pages by default. As each page is opened they appear tabbed within the GUI, nice update in my opinion as very easy to switch between the tabs, very similar to SmartPSS in this respect.



Quick rundown of what each is used for and some little tips:

Live Main Menu

As its name suggests takes you to the Live view of each of your cameras, allows instant recording and PTZ controls



Playback Main Menu

This allows you to review footage from each camera or a set of cameras and gives you the opportunity to watch these cams in sync, similar to V3 in that respect. HOWEVER, not all aspects of playback are available here. Specifically, any AI related caps (where AI processing has been setup) are available in the AI menu and not here. Therefore think of Playback menu as covering Motion Detection, IVS Triggers, Regular (24x7) recordings, POS recording etc and AI menu for AI captures.




Next we’ll jump into AI & Alarm menus.


AI Main Menu

This is where you will setup and or playback all things AI & IVS rule related (Motion Detection is separate). As this is quite an in depth section with a lot of areas to configure, lets spend a little time here. Now I do want to remind people that the AI NVR can only read AI attributes from AI enabled cameras. The #1 question I get asked is ‘does the AI NVR enable AI on my cams’ and if your cams don’t feature AI, the NVR cannot/does not enable them, you will receive an error.




AI Menu - Smart Search Sub Menu

This sub menu is where you can perform AI related searches. You have the option to Smart Search in a number of ways and I’ve included screen grabs of each menu for you below. As mentioned though, this NVR can be daunting and confusing for a number of people and one of those areas is Smart Search. Let me explain and try to assist.

TIP #1 - When you look at the list below you may think great, my Pro AI cam supports Human & Vehicle filtering so I can choose Vehicle Detection below and that would work right ? Unfortunately NO, it won’t return any results. The Human Body, Vehicle, Non-Motor Vehicle sections specifically relate to Video Structuralization AI. Now that doesn’t mean you are left out if your cam doesn’t have Video Structuralization. Instead cams such as the B5442 / T5442 have their Object Filtering in IVS rules therefore in the 5216 you navigate to IVS (see pic below), select your cam channel(s) of interest then Event Type and you will then see a set of check marks for Effective Target which is the AI NVR’s verbiage for Object Filter.​

In the case of Face Detection, Face Recognition, Human Body, Vehicle, Non Motor Vehicle & SMD you can leave search open or define by attributes to refine

• Face Detection
• Face Recognition
• IVS
• Stereo Analysis
• Human Body Detection (think ‘Human’ Ultra AI cams)
• Vehicle Detection (again ‘Vehicle’ in Ultra AI cams)
• Non-Motor Vehicle (you got it ‘Non-Motor Vehicle) in Ultra AI cams)
• People Counting - Allows you to report out on people captured AND pull the pics it captured of them hyperlinked to the CSV, very cool
• SMD (Smart Motion Detection) - Worth pointing out that early versions of 4.0 did not have SMD whereas now they do.

When you have selected your chosen parameter(s) and click Smart Search, you are presented with the matching results and can Backup (video to DAV/MP4), Export (to CSV) or tag




AI Menu - Parameters Sub Menu

This is another key sub menu and specifically this is where you will configure not only the Smart Plan’s for each camera (including the non AI cameras, confusing I know) but also the parameters for each IVS or AI rule. Note: In the current FW version you cannot draw Detect Regions for Video Structuralization in the NVR, you must do this in the camera web GUI for now.

As this section takes on a slightly different structure as you can see below, we will dive into it more but first a few tips:

Tip #2 - PTZ Activation - In these menus you will see PTZ Activation. Lets go into what this is for those that have never configured it or understand what it is. This is available on the Parameters sub menu of AI and the Alarm Menu sub items. If you have a PTZ in your system then you can use another camera (say LPR cam, overview etc) to spot or watch out for a rule trigger that when ‘PTZ Activation’ is configured will also trigger your PTZ to move to a Preset, Tour or Pattern that you have configured. This is a great feature that the AI NVR (any Dahua NVR in this example) will give you and enables a more dynamic and in some case critical capture environment. For me I use the 7442 or 5231/5241 for LPR duties (7442 also for human detection etc) and when a car hits a certain tripwire, the PTZ will move to a set preset for further closeup of the vehicle and occupant, really works well for a triangulated capture. For ANPR, you can also configure PTZ activation down to Black & Whitelist entries which is very cool​

​

Tip #3 - When you choose a channel that does not have the AI features supported (for example, Face Recognition for me) it will error with a popup BUT display the cam feed anyway, don’t get confused it will not let you enable on a non feature supported cam. ​

​

Tip #4 - I did find bug where when you are switching between camera channels above it doesn’t always refresh the actual cam features therefore you sometimes have to manually refresh using the button in the bottom right (bug has been reported along with others).​

AI Menu - Parameters Sub Menu Continued

• Smart Plan
• Face Detection
• Face Recognition
• IVS
• Stereo Analysis
• Video Structuralization - Cannot setup rules here yet, need to configure in web GUI. Reported to Dahua
• People Counting
• Heat Map
• ANPR - Note: does not work with Ultra AI cams currently, returns an error, reported as bug for more info
• SMD (Smart Motion Detection) - As you can see, when searching on this pulls back which channels featured SMD events and what the target type was it captured

AI Menu - Database Sub Menu

Lastly in the AI menu we have the Database sub menu. This is where you have 2 options. Face library is only supported by Face Recognition cameras so think cams ending in ZFR such as the 7442-ZFR. B/W list is where you can import (or export) Excel CSV’s with plate info into Black & White lists for monitoring and alarming against your AI caps.

• Face Library
• B/W List

Alarm Main Menu

This one is also a little confusing as some may think that this is related to all things related to Alarm In & Out BUT its more than that. This is also where you configure Motion Detection & Audio Detection related recordings. The menu structure screen grabs are below:

• Alarm Info
• Alarm Subscription
• Alarm Input
• Alarm Output
• Video Detection
• Audio Detect
• Thermal Alarm
• Abnormality - Think environmental alarms, HDD, Network etc

POS (Point of Sale) Main Menu

I don’t have any cams for this specific setup but am including the menu screen grabs for those interested

• POS Search
• POS Setup

Operation Main Menu

This is where you’ll find your system details pertaining to Logging, Information on the NVR, Network configuration and System Maintenance (Upgrades and ability to default not just the NVR but all cams attached)

• Log
• Information
• Network
• System Maintain

Backup Main Menu

This menu allows you to backup multiple captures from multiple cameras in 1 go. You can have it search for particular Record Types (Alarm, MD -Motion Detection, Alarm & MD, General, IVS, POS, PIC - Pictures) for exporting locally to an SD card or if connecting to the NVR via web GUI then a PC, MAC, network device etc. IMPORTANT NOTE & TIP #5: In the current FW versions this is the ONLY place (other than Smart Search results though these are limited to Smart AI caps, don’t include motion detection) where you can select MP4 as an export option. The playback menu automatically defaults to DAV format with no opportunity to change to MP4. Therefore if you need MP4 exports in bulk from your NVR then this is the place to do it. Reported this as a bug & feature request to Dahua. Just remember AI events cannot be backed up from here.






Display Main Menu

For configuration of screen output and tour options for your video wall.






Audio Main Menu

This is where you can import audio files to have play at set times on the NVR for things like voice prompts etc


Ok that concludes our in depth menu portion. Hope everyone found this useful in understanding not only how the AI NVR 4.0 is structured but some initial tips on how to use, where to find etc.

More to come........

 

[jaybowee]

I aslo find that the pre-record fuction doesn't work in schedule.

 

[Wolf4Ever]

On Tip #2 - PTZ Activation I have been trying to get that to work but haven't had any luck and not sure what I maybe doing wrong. As there have been issues of people climbing and hanging on the balcony. It will show in IVS on the camera but the PTZ never goes or returns from the preset. I haven't updated to V4 yet as there where some issues when I tried it awhile back so went back to V3.216 but if its better for the most part I can try it again if that could be the cause.

 

[Wildcat_1]

Wolf

One of the How To’s I’m going to build will be around PTZ activation so hopefully that will help. If you still have issues after that then absolutely reach out again and I’ll see if I can help you further. For clarity, you are setting up PTZ activation in your NVR right ? Just want to make sure that you aren’t relying solely on the cam settings as some people have done that in the past and that won’t work.

On Tip #2 - PTZ Activation I have been trying to get that to work but haven't had any luck and not sure what I maybe doing wrong. As there have been issues of people climbing and hanging on the balcony. It will show in IVS on the camera but the PTZ never goes or returns from the preset. I haven't updated to V4 yet as there where some issues when I tried it awhile back so went back to V3.216 but if its better for the most part I can try it again if that could be the cause.

View attachment 51333View attachment 51334View attachment 51335

 

[Wolf4Ever]

Yes, it's in the IVS on the NVR not the CAM. I'll await your how to and then let you know.

 

[Chris J LaBoda]

When using Internet Explorer 11 and setting Video Detection, Motion Detect, Region Setting, Internet Explorer will lock up. Only fix I found is to close Internet Explorer and restart it. No issues with changing these settings when doing it directly from the NVR.

 

[BORIStheBLADE]

I might have missed it in this thread but do we k ow which NVRs are getting this update?

 

[weigle2]

I might have missed it in this thread but do we k ow which NVRs are getting this update?

@Wildcat_1 - Is this the version of 4.0 you are using for this writeup?

Big update!! NVR5XXX-4KS2_MultiLang_V4.000.0000000.0.R.20190713

Hey guys, Will make some testing , and then release the firmware to update. The NVR5xxx-4ks2 has big update now. The firmware suits these models, please check very carefully before updating, if NVR buy from us, no problem to update it. Attention: If your system has hacked cheap DAHUA models...

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