Blue Iris Trial?

The easy way is to use this in the address bar of your browser =

site:ipcamtalk.com 5442

That will list every thread where the 5442 is mentions. Replace the 5442 with the specific model to limit the search.
 
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wittaj said:
As mentioned, the settings are unique to each field of view and available light.

Surveillance cameras rarely do good on default auto settings like exposure/shutter at night. Any camera can be forced in color and look great for a static image, but motion is a blur.

In my opinion, shutter (exposure) and gain are the two most important parameters and then base the others off of it. Shutter is more important than FPS. It is the shutter speed that prevents motion blur, not FPS. 15 FPS is more than enough for surveillance cameras as we are not producing Hollywood movies. Match iframes to FPS. 15FPS is all that is usually needed.

Many people do not realize there is manual shutter that lets you adjust shutter and gain and a shutter priority that only lets you adjust shutter speed but not gain. The higher the gain, the bigger the noise and see-through ghosting start to appear because the noise is amplified. Most people select shutter priority and run a faster shutter than they should because it is likely being done at 100 gain, so it is actually defeating their purpose of a faster shutter.

But first, run H264, smart codec off, CBR, and 8192 bitrate to start, along with 15 FPS and 15 i-frame.

Go into shutter settings and change to manual shutter and start with custom shutter as ms and change to 0-8.3ms and gain 0-50 (night) and 0-4ms exposure and 0-30 gain (day)for starters. Auto could have a shutter speed of 100ms or more with a gain at 100 and shutter priority could result in gain up at 100 which will contribute to significant ghosting and that blinding white you will get from the infrared.

Now what you will notice immediately at night is that your image gets A LOT darker. That faster the shutter, the more light that is needed. But it is a balance. The nice bright night static image results in Casper blur and ghost during motion LOL. What do we want, a nice static image or a clean image when there is motion introduced to the scene?

In the daytime, if it is still too bright, then drop the 4ms down to 3ms then 2ms, etc. You have to play with it for your field of view.

Then at night, if it is too dark, then start adding ms to the time. Go to 10ms, 12ms, etc. until you find what you feel is acceptable as an image. Then have someone walk around and see if you can get a clean shot. Try not to go above 16.67ms (but certainly not above 30ms) as that tends to be the point where blur starts to occur. Conversely, if it is still bright, then drop down in time to get a faster shutter.

You can also adjust brightness and contrast to improve the image.

You can also add some gain to brighten the image - but the higher the gain, the more ghosting you get. Some cameras can go to 70 or so before it is an issue and some can't go over 50.

But adjusting those two settings will have the biggest impact. The next one is noise reduction. Want to keep that as low as possible. Depending on the amount of light you have, you might be able to get down to 40 or so at night (again camera dependent) and 20-30 during the day, but take it as low as you can before it gets too noisy. Again this one is a balance as well. Too smooth and no noise can result in soft images and contribute to blur.

Do not use backlight features until you have exhausted every other parameter setting. And if you do have to use backlight, take it down as low as possible.

After every setting adjustment, have someone walk around outside and see if you can freeze-frame to get a clean image. If not, keep changing until you do. Clean motion pictures are what we are after, not a clean static image.
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Why not H265 and why not VBR? JW
 
Unless you have a lot of light that camera won't do well at night. 6MP on a 1/2.9" sensor is not a good combination. Blue Iris should work with that camera with no problem since it is ONVIF compliant. It may not list as that exact model or eve a Dahua when doing a "find/inspect" but it should work with no problem.
 
sebastiantombs said:
Unless you have a lot of light that camera won't do well at night. 6MP on a 1/2.9" sensor is not a good combination. Blue Iris should work with that camera with no problem since it is ONVIF compliant. It may not list as that exact model or eve a Dahua when doing a "find/inspect" but it should work with no problem.
Click to expand...

Is there a good low cost varifocal camera that you can recommend?
 
Aronder said:
What feature is needed for the camera to do well at night?
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Big sensor, Sony starvis "starlight" sensor. The 5442 cams are the best bang for your buck. 4MP and 1/1.8" sensor are the specs of this cam. Before this cam came out it was the 5231 cams with 1/2.8″ 2MP sensor. The more MP the worse the low light performance is, if all other things like sensor size is equal. Don't chase MP's. For me it's 5442 or bust...
 
Philip Gonzales said:
Why not H265 and why not VBR? JW
Click to expand...

The problem with VBR is that in some field of views the bitrate will drop tremendously and then can't ramp up quick enough when there is motion.

When I tested it, I would set my my bitrate to 8192, but with CBR and no motion, it would drop to 100 or so. Then there is motion and it can't ramp up quick enough and then it looks like a substream.

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. Mine was 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.

1662176732951.png

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 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.

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

As always, YMMV.
 
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I'd say that overall the 3241T-ZAS is the best bang for the buck 2MP camera. Good low light performance and can hold color if there's at least some ambient light. I like this one over the 2231-Z because it has basic AI and a built-in mic.

The 5442T-ZE is the best bang for the buck 4MP camera. Again, good low light performance and can hold color with at least some ambient light. Also has basic AI and a built-in mic.

These are based on my own experiences. YMMV.
 
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The 2231 is on par with the 3241 and 5442 in terms of low light performance. It lacks basic AI and doesn't have a built-in microphone which is why it's less expensive.
 
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