Dahua 5442 (IPC-T5442TM-AS-3.6mm) - need help for improving night performance

Pseudoreal

Pseudoreal

Young grasshopper
May 1, 2021
36
16
Germany
Hi,

I have used this forum the get the optimal settings and understanding about the Dahua 5442 cams. Now I am at a point where I am thinking if I should get some external light (LED or IR) or if there are more things to be tried out. I have attached two pictures - a daylight and a night picture. The night picture needs more focus / to get sharper and I am wondering if there are some parameters I could play with.

My video settings are:
  • Encode Mode: H.264
  • Encoding Strategy: General
  • Resolution: 2688*1520
  • FPS: 15
  • Bit Rate Type: CBR
  • Bit rate: 8192
  • I Frame Interval: 15
  • SVC 1
On Profile Management I have Day / Night. Here my first question comes in: Can I somehow make it more stable. When it is getting dark, I see that the camera is struggling to decide if it should be on color or on black/white, so it switches for some minutes, which leads to poor video performance during this time period.

On the conditions for night I have
Picture: Standard
Exposure:
  • Anti-flicker: Outdoor
  • Mode: Manual
  • Shutter: Customized range
  • Shutter: 0 ~ 12
  • Gain: 0 ~ 50
  • Exposure Comp: 50
  • Smart IR: Off
  • 3D NR: On
  • Advanced 3d: 40
  • Advanced 2d: 20
Backlight: Off
WB: Auto
Day & Night:
  • Mode: Auto
  • Sensitivity: Medium
  • Delay: 6s
Illuminator: Auto
Defog: Off
LDC: Off

As you can see on the video and the picture there is some room for improvement. What would you suggest?

Thanks
Einfahrt_main_20230317193552_@1.jpg
Einfahrt_main_20230318134659_@1.jpg
View attachment 192.168.178.4_ch1_20230317193552_20230317193608.mp4
 
The first obvious thing is having the building in the field of view is getting a ton of infrared bounce off the building and causing most of your issues at night.

It is better to use under profile management the time schedule opposed to the day/night - in many instances it simply takes the day profile and turns it to B/W if not enough light.

If you don't have enough light at night to run color, then force it to B/W so it doesn't keep hunting between color and B/W.

What about your other parameters as those impact quality as well. Are they all on default 50 (brightness, contrast, gamma, etc.). Contrast should be 6-9 points higher than brightness.

But even if you get it dialed in and that distance will be hard to IDENTIFY anyone beyond the mulch.
 
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Thanks, I will physically adjust the camera. How do I force the cam to stay in BW mode once it switched? I don’t want to have static times, so will have to check if there is a script possibility. I am already having a variable in iobroker, which gives me day/night for my shutters management
 
It is under Day and Night

1679234711999.png


Here is the script many of us use:

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 ipcamtalk.com
 
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Yep most of your problem is the IR reflection off the wall.
The other thing is, don't try to do too much with one camera.
If you are watching the window, that's fine, but don't expect to get good results in the area where the trashcans are.
Additional IR is never a bad thing.
 
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Thanks for the comments. I will check for an additional IR. Tendelux is a brand not available on the German market, so Ill be checking what the alternatives are.
Let’s see also how much improvement I will have when I move the camera. Of course, I would like to observe the window, but also the trash cans as there my property ends.
 
wittaj said:
It is under Day and Night

View attachment 157403


Here is the script many of us use:

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 ipcamtalk.com
Click to expand...

On Profile Day/Night you cannot change the settings. I switched back to Profile "General" and then could select Mode B/W. Now I switched back to Day/Night, it is grayed out again, but on Auto. Let's see. Otherwise I will have to use the script.

Thanks
 
Maybe trim the tree on the left a bit. Ideally, you don't want it in the image but it would be understandable if that would be too much.

Or trim it as much as you feel comfortable and adjust the camera slightly to the right as long as it doesn't bring the wall back into the image.

It's catching a lot of the IR and blowing out the picture leaving the street darker than the rest of the image.
 
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