PTZ5A4M-25X Tracking issues - Dahua SD5A425GA-HNR

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Ri22o said:
I just swapped my mini-PTZ out for one of these and have been less than impressed with the tracking and overall settings, with most of the same sentiments as you.

Mini-PTZ was 32-34 on ratio. With the new one, it makes no sense (Left FOV is 36, right call-to FOV is 60). It will start OK, then as the subject walks down the sidewalk, getting further away, it will zoom OUT. It is also nowhere near as smooth with the tracking as the mini was. It's almost as if it moves, stops, moves, stops and doesn't fluidly track the person or keep them in the middle of the FOV. It seems to do better with slightly faster moving targets and struggles with the slower ones.

Night focus has also been less than stellar.

Mini:





PTZ5A4M:







View attachment 225418
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing buddy, i will contact you via DM for collecting some infromation, no worry , if the firmware issue we surely will make a DIY fw to fix up it.
 
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steve1225 said:
one more time...
ask Andy for help...

Especially older / special (customs for specific customers) versions of firmware for it...
they are available on internal Dahua servers...
Click to expand...

I have, 2 days ago. I sent 7 sample .dav's they said they had to have, waiting on them to call
 
After reading through you thread I thought I would take a look at the 5A again to see if I was having the same issues as I didn't recall anything too wild when I tested this out a year ago.
This is the 5A4k25x with the same FW V3.200.0000018.2.R, Build Date: 2024-06-17
Everything is just about default with the size ratio at 51

It's not a fair compairson as you have a lot going on in the scene and I have a pretty blank view with no action.
One thing that I did different with this camera is that it mounted it much higher than a normal height, ~24' - I didn't install it here for the tracking but just for the view I needed.
I layed out the IVS after reading this to test.

Even when I did the test video last year I had it on pole mount that is also high up, but didn't notice any tracking issues.
It would occasionally break off from the tracking objects, but all of the PTZ's have done this for me.

Not sure what is going on with your rogue cams tracking as you said you have reset it several times.
Maybe this cam likes a high mount ??? I couldn't get it to wig out like yours is doing, but we have totaly different scenes.


20250730_122842.jpgIVS.jpg

 
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Thanks @jmcu and appreciate the call today.

Made some progress and some improvement.

Things I did different today:

  1. Enabled PFA (which on most Dahua PTZs isnt effective but it may have helped this one)
  2. Enabled WDR at a low level of 10-20 (Opposite of what you would think this actually adds some contrast to my scene as there are a lot of darker shady spots from trees so WDR tries to balance it out.)
  3. Did yet another full factory reset

  • Pleased to say Human tracking improved greatly. Its never been a matter of tripping, its been a problem of tracking and losing track.
  • Tracking was MUCH better today in the 0-250ft range) . Though as distance increases (300-450+ft) it still loses track after initial acquisition often, especially if the human target is near a vehicle.
  • It still likes vehicles, and still tracks them frequently, moving or parked, and mostly at distance (250-300ft+) even with Vehicle filter OFF
  • The tendency to float left and lose targets while floating left, is much improved. Its not a right wing PTZ yet but more like an Independent
  • It still wanders off too often (like all PTZs do once in a while) trying to find some target in the trees, but that could just be aliens fucking with me
  • Up close, from 0-100ft it does quite well. So if you're primary use case is a home in a normal neighborhood with short views and not a ton of distractions it should do fine.
Mine is a actually a fairy complex scene, and honestly it struggles with the various targets, dark shade, lots of vehicles on the street, garbage cans, houses packed in tight etc. As you can see with @jmcu 's scene, more open space, less distractions it does better.

As to height, its at the top of a 14ft pole so I don't have any more room to go up. But i do think this may be a factor. If I could get it to 20ft I do believe it would do better.

Its not a 6 or 8 series, but then again they are 2-3X the price and are awesome.



Much improved human tracking today under 250ft

View attachment Recording 2025-07-31 180621.mp4

View attachment HOARearP2P_ch1_20250731101858_20250731101934.mp4


In this clip it loses track, by design, as a spotter is tripped at a certain point
and tells the PTZ to go to Preset#2 where it indeed re-aquires the target perfectly

View attachment HOARearP2P_ch1_20250731104146_20250731104246.mp4



Two samples of distant targets which it initially acquires and then loses with a vehicle close by in the scene

View attachment Recording 2025-07-31 183641.mp4

View attachment Recording 2025-07-31 180827.mp4


Finally, it still loves vehicles even with the Vehicle filter OFF. Parked or moving


View attachment Recording 2025-07-31 194832.mp4


View attachment Recording 2025-07-31 182611.mp4
 
Last edited:
bigredfish said:
Thanks @jmcu and appreciate the call today.

Made some progress and some improvement.

Things I did different today:

  1. Enabled PFA (which on most Dahua PTZs isnt effective but it may have helped this one)
  2. Enabled WDR at a low level of 10-20 (Opposite of what you would think this actually adds some contrast to my scene as there are a lot of darker shady spots from trees so WDR tries to balance it out.)
  3. Did yet another full factory reset

  • Pleased to say Human tracking improved greatly. Its never been a matter of tripping, its been a problem of tracking and losing track.
  • Tracking was MUCH better today in the 0-250ft range) . Though as distance increases (300-450+ft) it still loses track after initial acquisition often, especially if the human target is near a vehicle.
  • It still likes vehicles, and still tracks them frequently, moving or parked, and mostly at distance (250-300ft+) even with Vehicle filter OFF
  • The tendency to float left and lose targets while floating left, is much improved. Its not a right wing PTZ yet but more like an Independent
  • It still wanders off too often (like all PTZs do once in a while) trying to find some target in the trees, but that could just be aliens fucking with me
  • Up close, from 0-100ft it does quite well. So if you're primary use case is a home in a normal neighborhood with short views and not a ton of distractions it should do fine.
Mine is a actually a fairy complex scene, and honestly it struggles with the various targets, dark shade, lots of vehicles on the street, garbage cans, houses packed in tight etc. As you can see with @jmcu 's scene, more open space, less distractions it does better.

As to height, its at the top of a 14ft pole so I don't have any more room to go up. But i do think this may be a factor. If I could get it to 20ft I do believe it would do better.

Its not a 6 or 8 series, but then again they are 2-3X the price and are awesome.



Much improved human tracking today under 250ft

View attachment 225649

View attachment 225652


In this clip it loses track, by design, as a spotter is tripped at a certain point
and tells the PTZ to go to Preset#2 where it indeed re-aquires the target perfectly

View attachment 225653



Two samples of distant targets which it initially acquires and then loses with a vehicle close by in the scene

View attachment 225655

View attachment 225654


Finally, it still loves vehicles even with the Vehicle filter OFF. Parked or moving


View attachment 225656


View attachment 225657
Click to expand...
It looks to me that you could still increase contrast some. I realize it depends on the monitor and it's settings, but It's rather contrasty on my laptop.
Look again at @jmcu video, it's not contrasty like yours.
My 2cents
Compare
1754074810097.png 1754074917097.png
 
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Mebbe.
Mine is a bit more contrasty due to the complex scene of shadows and sunny areas. Its not flat and open with zero human/car/tree/trashcan targets like his. The more washed out the worse mine performs. But I'll try it!

While close-in (under 200ft) human tracking in relatively wide open areas is improved, as I said yesterday,, it still has 4 issues

Based on where I'm so far at I recommend:
  • OK for non-busy non-complex scenes
  • Human tracking good out to about 200ft - past that its iffy (again complexity of scene makes a big difference)
  • Dont use it on trash day
  • Raising it higher would likely help. I'd estimate 20ft is ideal for it, mine is 13-14'


1- Sees Aliens - too often (all PTZs do, its the frequency that's the issue)

View attachment Recording 2025-08-01 140953.mp4



2- Still likes to track cars with vehicle filter OFF

View attachment HOARearP2P_ch1_20250801090614_20250801090632.mp4



3- Still loves trash cans

View attachment Recording 2025-08-01 140341.mp4



4-When it fails on human tracking, its almost always fails off to the left of target

View attachment Recording 2025-08-01 141251.mp4
 
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