How can I get better quality from my Dahua (Loryta) IPC-T5442TM-AS (moving objects)

[perfect777]

I have multiple Loryta IPC-T5442TM-AS cameras (3.6mm) around the exterior of my property. I love the low-light color resolution and they display nice clear video all around my property (day or night).

My only issue is that I get really bad streaking/tearing when cars drive by. It's to the point where I can't reliably tell the make/model of a car (I'm a car guy - I can name most cars from far away).

I've attached my Encode settings for this particular camera. Should I max out the Bit Rate (8192) and/or change the encode mode? The frame rate is maxed out at 30.

The camera firmware is currently 2.8.0.10.R

I'm using Blue Iris to record the videos (which I then review to obtain clips and images). I'm saving the video direct-to-disc. I have also attached the BI Video settings.

Should I set the max FPS to 30 instead of 15?

Thanks in advance!

 

[sebastiantombs]

First use H264, not H264A, H264B, H264+, H265 or any other variation.

Next get those cameras off of "auto" for everything other than the switchover from day to night. Daytime and night time settings need to be different to accommodate the tremendous differences in lighting. Exposure, shutter, need to be at 1/60 at night t the absolute slowest and preferably at 1/100 or higher to capture motion without blur or streaking. Keep gain and compensation as low as possible. If you're using WDR keep that as low as possible as well.

 

[perfect777]

First use H264, not H264A, H264B, H264+, H265 or any other variation.

Next get those cameras off of "auto" for everything other than the switchover from day to night. Daytime and night time settings need to be different to accommodate the tremendous differences in lighting. Exposure, shutter, need to be at 1/60 at night t the absolute slowest and preferably at 1/100 or higher to capture motion without blur or streaking. Keep gain and compensation as low as possible. If you're using WDR keep that as low as possible as well.

Thanks for the quick response.

I am using one of my cameras for testing. I changed the encode to H264 and notice that my BI is NOT happy about this change. When I try to view the feed in BI, the picture immediately turns grey and flickers about (see screenshot). Changing the encode back to H.264B immediately fixed that problem.

I also found the more advanced settings in the Amcrest Surveillance Pro tool. I set both the Day and Night profiles to "Shutter Priority" of 1/120. I turned off Auto on everything except for White Balance.

 

[sebastiantombs]

Why are you using an Amcrest utility to adjust a Dahua camera? While Amcrest is OEM Dahua they strip out too much. Simply log into the IP of the camera and make all adjustments directly.

I find it amazing that you have problem with H264 encoding. I'm running five 5442s all at H264, 15F/ps, iframe of 15, bit rate at 10240 and have zero problems with it. I am not using hardware acceleration so, if you are, that may be a problem. Blue Iris works best with H264 incidentally, and from your screen shot you didn't set the sub stream to H264. If you are using sub streams that will mess things up. Additionally, the frame and iframe rates need to match in both the main and sub stream for BI to work properly with sub streams.

The frame rate is too high. Hollywierd productions are filmed at 24F/ps and surveillance certainly isn't a Hollwierd production. 15F/ps gives the CPU a break, lower utilization, and saves a fair amount of disk space, as in 50% when compapred to 30F/ps. If you're concerned about clear captures of motion, the only factor that matters is exposure, shutter, speed. Frames per second won't help there. Many people here are doing LPR at 15F/ps and some at even slower frame rates.

Using "shuter priority" basically allows the camera to over ride what you set it to. It needs to be on manual and then you set a range, say 0.0 to 16.66 (1/60) or 0.0 to 10 (1/100). The "manual setting is all the way at the bottom of the list of exposure settings.

 

[kobebeef]

General_SMARTPSS-Win64 and Amcrest Surveillance Pro-Win64 look similar.
but there are actually some differences.

 

[samplenhold]

At night with the amount of white light you have, you will not get perfect frozen motion in color. What I do with my B5442 Z4 that I use for my intersection overview cam is set the exposure as below for night.



The important part is to set the anti-flicker to 60HZ, Mode to Manual, and Shutter to 1/120. That is the fastest you can go to freeze motion at night. You can muck around with everything else to try and get better definition, but the shutter speed is the only thing that will help freeze motion. Iris and exposure compensation will help with depth of field and light/darkness.

Use H.264 or H.264H and set the frame rate and I Frame interval to be the same with no reason to go more than 15fps. Set the bit rate type to CBR and the Bit Rate to 8192 for the mainstream.

Here is a guy that was moving along this evening. This is about as best you can expect with just streetlights.

 

[perfect777]

At night with the amount of white light you have, you will not get perfect frozen motion in color. What I do with my B5442 Z4 that I use for my intersection overview cam is set the exposure as below for night.

View attachment 134077

The important part is to set the anti-flicker to 60HZ, Mode to Manual, and Shutter to 1/120. That is the fastest you can go to freeze motion at night. You can muck around with everything else to try and get better definition, but the shutter speed is the only thing that will help freeze motion. Iris and exposure compensation will help with depth of field and light/darkness.

Use H.254 or H.254H and set the frame rate and I Frame interval to be the same with no reason to go more than 15fps. Set the bit rate type to CBR and the Bit Rate to 8192 for the mainstream.

Here is a guy that was moving along this evening. This is about as best you can expect with just streetlights.

View attachment 134078

Thanks for the advice as well. I assume that you have different settings for both Day and Night and automatically switch between them (via Profiles)?

 

[wittaj]

When you change the coding of a camera, the BVR file continues under the previous and whacks it all out. You need to force close the active BVR file, but it is best to simply reboot the machine after making a change in the coding.

 

[samplenhold]

Thanks for the advice as well. I assume that you have different settings for both Day and Night and automatically switch between them (via Profiles)?

Yes, I use the Dahua Day/Night Utility.

Dahua day/night switch utility - DahuaSunriseSunset

I wanted to use stronger noise reduction at night and weaker during the day, but Dahua seems to have made a mess of the profile management. On most cameras, there doesn't seem to be a way to have the camera switch automatically between Day and Night profiles when the camera changes between...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[CCTVCam]

Quick question, from the above screenshots is he using sub stream because I can't see it mentioned or a tickbox, and yet the video is force resized down to 848 x 480 which will absolutely destroy the resolution unless that's the substream and not the recorded stream.

 

[looney2ns]

As others have stated, use the cameras own web interface directly for any settings. Not SmartPSS or Amcrest's version of it.

 

[looney2ns]

Use H.254 or H.254H and set the frame rate and I Frame interval to be the same with no reason to go more than 15fps.

I'm certain @samplenhold intended to say:
Use H.264 or H.264H

 

[perfect777]

Quick question, from the above screenshots is he using sub stream because I can't see it mentioned or a tickbox, and yet the video is force resized down to 848 x 480 which will absolutely destroy the resolution unless that's the substream and not the recorded stream.

I am using the sub stream 1 for my cameras:





Maybe I'm not doing it right? I'm not sure why it says force to 840 x 480 (anamorphic). This has always been checked - is that a problem?

 

[samplenhold]

I'm certain @samplenhold intended to say:
Use H.264 or H.264H

Yes, thanks. I corrected it.

 

[Eagle29]

seems good post, thanks.

 

[Eagle29]

To save the bandwidth, why you guy are not using H.265?

 

[wittaj]

To save the bandwidth, why you guy are not using H.265?

This will explain H264 versus H265 a little better.

H265 in theory provides more storage as it compresses differently, but part of that compression means it macro blocks big areas of the image that it thinks isn't moving. However, it also takes more processing power of the already small CPU in the camera and that can be problematic if someone is maxing out the camera and then it stutters.

In theory it is supposed to need 30% less storage than H264, but most of us have found it isn't that much. My savings were less than few minutes per day. And to my eye and others that I showed clips to and just said do you like video 1 or video 2 better, everyone thought the H264 provided a better image.

The left image is H264, so all the blocks are the same size corresponding to the resolution of the camera. H265 takes areas that it doesn't think has motion and makes them into bigger blocks and in doing so lessens the resolution yet increases the CPU demand to develop these larger blocks.

In theory H265 is supposed to need half the bitrate because of the macroblocking. But if there is a lot of motion in the image, then it becomes a pixelated mess. The only way to get around that is a higher bitrate. But if you need to run the same bitrate for H265 as you do H264, then the storage savings is zero. Storage is computed based on multiplying bitrate, FPS, and resolution.



In my testing I have one camera that sees a parked car in front of my house. H265 sees that the car isn't moving, so it macroblocks the whole car and surrounding area. Then the car owner walked up to the car and got in and the motion is missed because of the macroblock being so large. Or if it catches it, because the bitrate is low, it is a pixelated mess during the critical capture point and by the time H265 adjusts to there is now motion, the ideal capture is missed.

In my case, the car is clear and defined in H264, but is blurry and soft edges in H265.

Digital zooming is never really good, but you stand a better chance with H264 rather than a large macroblocked H265. I can digital zoom on my overview camera and kinda make out the address number of the house across the street with H264, but not a chance with H265 as it macroblocked his whole house.

H265 is one of those theory things that sounds good, but reality use is much different.

As always, YMMV.