Great, I'm glad that it was helpful! The second picture looks nice. WDR changes the picture too much to use the same settings for comparison. That's why it doesn't look right at first when trying WDR with normal settings. The WDR does seem to work, it does the same here as on your second picture, better sky, improved shadows. It will be interesting to get comparisons with the Hikvision 4MP to see if it's the same.
I'm pleased with the results, the only issue really is that the IVS Tripwire detection doesn't seem to work. I drew lines, adjusted the min and max size for the moving object, it works fine on the live preview (moving objects are detected with a green rectangle and the trip lines flash in red) but it just doesn't produce any event in the log and doesn't record anything. The motion detect works fine though.
Here's the Night profile I use for now:
Brightness 54, Contrast 60, Saturation 0, Sharpness 50 (it produces too much noise during the night when enabled higher than 54, it kicks in at 55), Gamma 50, Exposure Low Noise Gain 60, White Balance Auto, Day & Night Black & White, BLC Off, 3D NR On 60