Intermittent frames dropping

Hi,

I've set up the Hikvision 2432 which I'm overall very happy with. Occasionally though, I notice that some frames are dropping. That is, if I have the date/time showing up on the image, it will jump a few seconds forward (e.g. from :03 to :06). That happens when I access the main stream via ONVIF using a baby monitoring app for iOS. I can also reproduce this with the official Hikvision app. However, if I use the app to view a lower resolution version of the feed, it seems to be much smoother.
Any ideas why I'm seeing this? I'm assuming the usual suspect is WiFi, though the camera is getting a pretty good signal (approximately -47dB).

Its most likely the wifi...you can check by wiring it up for a day and see if anything changes....wifi signal strength and quality varies throughout the day...

Would you say it's the camera, client (iphone) or possibly both? Any tips on mitigating the issue other than wiring it up? I really wish these IP cams came with 5ghz...

dannydandan said:

Would you say it's the camera, client (iphone) or possibly both? Any tips on mitigating the issue other than wiring it up? I really wish these IP cams came with 5ghz...

Click to expand...

2.4 is better than 5 in almost every situation...2.4 has much longer range because it penetrates obstructions better. The only time 5ghz would have the upper hand (at least with ip cameras) is when you live in a very wifi congested area.
To see if its your phone, try monitoring the feed on a wired device like a pc...Also, you can adjust the feed on the app (if its currently set to clear, change it to balanced..if its set to balanced change it to fluent)...
Also, if you have no wireless G devices on your network, set your router to N only...check the channels for the clearest channel, using something like wifi analyzer (mobile app)

I get way better throughput on 5 ghz when I'm within range. It is magnitudes better than my 2.4ghz (in the suburbs), but its range is so horrendous that I only use it on 1-2 devices that never move and are within 15' of the router. In its current implementation I think 5 ghz is more or less terrible and I'm really disappointed that it is the "next best thing" in wifi. Its range is just absolutely ghastly. Even on 2.4 GHZ to get decent coverage in my house I've got three routers going now (one on each floor), one of which is wired back to the primary router with a powerline adapter (one wired back with cat5).

Definitely for now wire the thing in and see if you get the same problem.

If you determine that wifi is the problem you could use a powerline adapter to wire it up.

I agree it is almost certainly the wifi. I tried a 2432 on my relatively-well-behaved WiFi first, and even though it was fairly close to my access point it would not stream reliably. I installed powerline adapters instead and it has been fine ever since.

Thanks. Unrelated question - if I want to record to a microSD, what is the average size per second of recording?
I'm trying to get a hunch of how long a recording would fit in a 16GB SD card.

Any experience with PowerLine adapters? Would those give me a more stable connection?

There should be a few threads on power line...it can provide a very stable connection depending on your electrical wiring...

Interesting how nobody makes a Power Line adapter that combines POE. Would seem ideal for an IP Cam use case.

There is a unit that does this...I just dont recall the name..it is expensive though compared to regular powerline..have you tried reducing the bitrate a bit to see if it helps?

dannydandan said:

Any experience with PowerLine adapters? Would those give me a more stable connection?

Click to expand...

Powerline adapters have their own complexities, but they usually work better than WiFi.

They work best when the physical wire path between them is simpler (i.e. best if they are on the same circuit though this is not strictly necessary).

Powerline adapters do not work well (if at all) when installed behind a UPS or surge protector, as these tend to filter out the networking signals.

Some electrical devices put noise on the power line which hinders speed and can even cause (temporary) connection loss. It can be hard to identify offending devices.

More reading: http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/20233/~/product-faq:-powerline-adapters


My personal experience with these is limited, but I run some "500 Mbps" adapters on different circuits that were on different phases. I only got a stable 40 Mbps link at the time of install and have not measured since. It was more than adequate for the single Hikvision 2432 camera I needed to put on it. My electric furnace, refrigerator, freezer, hot tub are often running and do not eliminate the connection. However this particular camera is not monitored unless I am away from home so I don't know if other things will disconnect it (like the oven or microwave or vacuum cleaner). I just know the cam has always been online when I looked for it, and there are no streaming problems since moving that cam off WiFi.

dannydandan said:

Interesting how nobody makes a Power Line adapter that combines POE. Would seem ideal for an IP Cam use case.

Click to expand...

I have only ever seen these on ebay and they are expensive. $80+ each now and they say they are only the 200 Mbps variety.

I used this Asoka Powerline POE on a unit outside my house instead of running 150 feet of cabling through a path that will require me a day or two of work. Fortunately I was able to find an outlet nearby (pool lights). I've been running it for a week now and was getting around 50 Mbps which is good enough for my purpose.

I'm also thinking of using this Zyxel or TPLink to hook up a NAS remotely installed in a pool house for redundancy (aside from a pc nvr). I'm currently in the process of testing the NAS for instability. Hooking it up remotely will be the next step.

Hope this helps.