Dahua camera freezing on motion detect?

It still drops out, but not as much. You would think if it was the POE switch, that I couldn't access any camera from the browser, or you'd think the substream would be dropping out also. Very odd, but I'm going to order that POE switch from amazon soon and see what happens. I hope that fixes it, even thought I would hate that because the switch I have now is useless then.
 
It hasn't dropped out ANY today. I've changed nothing in the last 2 days. I don't understand why it drops out. The cameras have had as much traffic "people" walking around and vehicles coming and going just as much as any day it drops out. Maybe even more traffic today. It's a gremlin that I can't catch..... ...yet!
:mad-new:
 
I think I may have figured it out, I believe it may be something to do with the hard drive. I have a 2TB WD Green drive in the NVR. (I was going to swap the hard drive with a different type soon after I did other testing)

But a camera dropped out again, so I played back to see when it dropped out. It dropped out exactly at 11:00am. I have it set to start a new recording every 30 minutes. So I believe it's something to do with the hard drive not being able to keep up.
 
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Maybe even more traffic today.
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A feature of 'Green' drives has been the spin-down after a fairly short (a few seconds) period of no activity.
The spin-up takes around 2-3 seconds. You're probably familiar with how your PC (which is where 'green' drives were aimed at) 'freezes' for a few seconds after a period of idleness.
This may be the cause of the symptoms you are seeing.
If the real-time data that is needing to be stored exceeds the size of the buffer that must hold it until the drive becomes ready, then an error condition must be handled. How this is handled depends on the system that's using the disc.
Non-fatal on a PC, troublesome in a RAID set in a NAS, and troublesome in a real-time environment such as an NVR.
Also, in an environment with frequent stop-starts, the 'load cycle count' can fairly quickly reach the end-of-life counts of a few hundred thousand, leading to much reduced lifetime.
Some drives (I'm not sure about the WD Greens) allow a firmware mod that inhibits the frequent spin-downs.
If your NVR has the ability to see the S.M.A.R.T HDD detail, you should be able to see the load cycle count, and other counters that may be indicative of error conditions.

But the bottom line is - you should probably install a drive that's designed for continuous streaming use such as WD Purple / Red or Seagate Surveillance etc.
 
Thanks for the info, yes I agree. I've read others using WD Green Drives... BUT, it may have been in their Blue Iris "NVR" I'm not sure. Also, it could depend on the type of NVR hardware like you say. The green drives are great though, but in this case it may not be. Very low heat. (I hope it's the issue and I believe it is, like I said before I was going to swap the hard drive out after I finished a few more testing of things) But today I've concluded that it is probably the hard drive.

There are mods for the WD Green Drives to modify the spin down times. My NVR does show the S.M.A.R.T. information of the drive, all read OK this morning. I am going to save some data from my old analog NVR hard drive and then swap it over into the Dahua NVR and see how it goes. (To speed up the testing, I'm going to bump up the bitrate and see what happens)

Thanks, will keep updated :)



alastairstevenson said:
A feature of 'Green' drives has been the spin-down after a fairly short (a few seconds) period of no activity.
The spin-up takes around 2-3 seconds. You're probably familiar with how your PC (which is where 'green' drives were aimed at) 'freezes' for a few seconds after a period of idleness.
This may be the cause of the symptoms you are seeing.
If the real-time data that is needing to be stored exceeds the size of the buffer that must hold it until the drive becomes ready, then an error condition must be handled. How this is handled depends on the system that's using the disc.
Non-fatal on a PC, troublesome in a RAID set in a NAS, and troublesome in a real-time environment such as an NVR.
Also, in an environment with frequent stop-starts, the 'load cycle count' can fairly quickly reach the end-of-life counts of a few hundred thousand, leading to much reduced lifetime.
Some drives (I'm not sure about the WD Greens) allow a firmware mod that inhibits the frequent spin-downs.
If your NVR has the ability to see the S.M.A.R.T HDD detail, you should be able to see the load cycle count, and other counters that may be indicative of error conditions.

But the bottom line is - you should probably install a drive that's designed for continuous streaming use such as WD Purple / Red or Seagate Surveillance etc.
Click to expand...
 
My NVR does show the S.M.A.R.T. information of the drive
Click to expand...
If the drive was new when installed in the NVR, the load cycle count (ID=193) could be a good indication that the drive is often spinning down, therefore subject to the spin-up delay.
 
The 2TB WD Green drive had been used in a PC before a good bit.
The S.M.A.R.T. info in the NVR for the drive says: Load/Unload Cycle Count Value: 199 | Worst Value: 199

I'm moving old video data that I need saved from the analog DVR's hard drive right now, and then I will be swapping it into my 16ch Dahua NVR and see if the cameras still drop anymore.
 
If 199 is the 'raw value' then it does indicate that the disc isn't being kept busy enough that it does not power down, assuming you've had the disc in and powered for some days.
So depending on what's happening to trigger the spin-up - it could be a read operation as opposed to a video write operation - the delay could upset the NVR firmware.
 
The hard drive had been used for a couple years in a computer, and has been in the NVR since Sept 2nd. I'm getting ready to swap the other hard drive in and see what happens. The WD Green drive is from 2010 I think the year on it said when I last looked at it. I have so many 2TB WD Green drives around here. I was going to get 2 new hard drives eventually and add to the NVR once I got all up and running. This camera dropping issue has slowed progress.
 
Okay, bare with me fellow gremlin hunters!!
I have another theory.....

I added a different hard drive to the NVR, 1.5TB Samsung 5400rpm hard drive. About an hour or so after adding it, 2 cameras dropped. 1 Camera dropped, and then after it came back, a few seconds later another camera dropped. I looked at the LOG on the NVR, I've attached a picture. If you look at LINE 14, it shows where CAMERA 4 drops out (Camera 4 User Logged out)

Next LINE 15, if shows when the camera image came back (remember, when the "camera drops out" the mainstream drops out, but the substream still continues fine viewing on the NVR. Also, if you are logged into the camera on your web browser, it still works on the mainstream even when the camera mainstream is dropped out on the NVR)

LINE 16 shows where Camera 3 dropped out, and LINE 17 shows where Camera 3 returned.
LINE 20 hows Camera 2 dropped out, LINE 21 shows Camera 2 returned.

LINE 22 is where I unplugged the cable from the POE switch for Camera 4, so that means power was removed from the camera, and no data transferring. So as you see, when a camera loses power, is says "OFFLINE"
LINE 23, about 30 minutes later, I plugged Camera 4 back in, you see where it says Camera 4 User logged in.


Any ideas? A couple of questions, on the cameras themselves, I am using "admin" as the username, is that a problem? Should I have made a different username for the cameras? Is there a timeout period that automatically logs out and back in a user account on the cameras? It seems to me for some reason the cameras are logging out the user account "username: admin"

I still want to swap out the POE switch to test, but money is tight right now.
Thanks




IMG_20150922_193806.jpg
 
Use a proper drive..either 7200rpm or a drive meant for streaming...buy a proper switch....worst case return it or keep it as a backup...you are spending way to much time trouble shooting without the correct replacement parts...it may ultimately be the camera or NVR, but give it a fair shake.
 
It's very odd, I hope it's the switch, and I hope it's not. I guess i'll keep it simple, do some tweaks and not dive too deep into it any further until I get a replacement POE switch from amazon.

Thanks, until then, if anyone has any ideas I'm open for testing.
 
I think it may be the hard drive. I switched the "Pack Duration" to 10 minutes, and every 10 minutes 2 cameras drop out. I had it set for 1 hour earlier and it was every hour a cameras would drop out. I had it set for 2 hours, and every 2 hours cameras would drop out, sometimes more in between the 2 hours.

It seems if the HD video is being written from more than 2 cameras at once the hard drive gets choked. Makes complete sense. I think I'm going to go with a 4TB WD Purple once I confirm 100% it's the hard drive.

I think I have a 7200rpm drive around here I can test with to see if it drops out any or not with it to narrow the problem down further. So many variables, until you tweak them all, test and re-test, and re-test, it's hard to pinpoint.

EDIT: Thinking now, the cameras SUBSTREAM still plays fine when the cameras "drop out", the MAINSTREAM is what disappears. Well, the MAINSTREAM is the one that is being recorded to the hard drive. Strange that it makes the whole mainstream drop out when the hard drive can't keep up, but kind of makes sense. It's like the image goes from the camera, through the hard drive and then to the screen, and when the hard drive can't keep up, the image doesn't make it through. Oh well, odd things can happen.
 
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I swapped in a 2TB WD20EURS which is an AUDIO VIDEO hard drive, and it still drops a couple of cameras. It happens 99% of the time when the "pack duration" time comes.

If I have it set for 10minute pack duration, it will drop a couple cameras at that time. If the pack duration is at 2hours, when the 2 hours comes, it drops a couple of cameras (random which 2) 1,2,3,4 total cameras.
What is going on with that? You would think it's the hard drive not being able to keep up, but this is a hard drive meant for DVRS/NVRS

The only other thing left is the NVR itself and the POE Switch.
 
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Just for the information, when I'm logged into a camera on the webportal, when I'm changing settings for the video on 1 camera; brightness, sharpness, gamma, etc. After a couple minutes of changing settings, a couple of the other cameras will "drop out" Very weird.
 
I got the TP Link 8port POE switch, I have it hooked up now. I will be testing it to see if I still have the same issue. It has to have been my POE switch, I have eliminated EVERYTHING about the setup, except for the NVR itself.

I'll post back what I find out! I'm scared, I hope it fixes it lol!
 
UPDATE: As of now, it's still doing the same thing.. I swapped out the WD Green drive a long time ago, I have a WD Black in there for a few weeks now. It still does it, new POE switch and all.

Anybody else have a last ditch idea?
 
badmop said:
UPDATE: As of now, it's still doing the same thing.. I swapped out the WD Green drive a long time ago, I have a WD Black in there for a few weeks now. It still does it, new POE switch and all.

Anybody else have a last ditch idea?
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Have you tried recording to pc? It may be a bad NVR...or in need of a firmware update..it could also be your router...have you tried going direct from the camera to NVR? if you NVR has no ports for the cams you should be able to plug a switch into the lan port.
 
No, I haven't tried direct recording to a PC setup, I dread doing all that. I have so many issues with the neighbor that happens almost daily. I will end up trying it soon, I'm thinking again based on a couple things that have happened that it HAS to be the darn hard drive. The only 2 things left are the hard drive or NVR itself. I have swapped the hard drive with 3 different drives, the latest current one being a WD BLACK drive. I thought it'd be fast enough, especially only 4 cameras at 2048 bitrate.


I've posted earlier in my long conquest here that I removed the router and only the NVR and POE switch hooked together and it did the same thing. I still think sometimes it could be the router, but I already tested that. GREMLINS!


The reason I think it's the hard drive, as the other day 2 cameras dropped out and showed "0 BPS" on the NVR menu screen, so I immediately went into the NVR recording settings and lowered the bitrate and 1 second later the camera I lowered the bitrate came right back.

99% of the time when a camera drops out it does for exactly 10 minutes. This one with the lowered bitrate had only dropped out for less than 2 minutes, before it came back after lowering the bitrate, so I know it wasn't just a coincidence that it came back right then.


4 Cameras at 2048 bitrate, 2TB hard drive = 22 days of recording.
 
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Okay check out this deal...

I have (4) cameras set at 1080p, 2048 bitrate, 15FPS.

I log into camera (1) and view the stream through VLC (main stream) It plays fine with audio. I go into the NVR and change the bitrate from camera (1) from 2048 to 8000. After a few seconds 1 camera of the 4 drops to 0 BPS on the NVR screen. The VLC stream is still playing fine for camera (1). A few seconds later camera (1) drops to 0 BPS on the NVR screen, BUT the same camera is playing fine with audio through VLC!

I then went into the NVR settings and disabled recording on the NVR, a few seconds later the cameras that dropped to 0 BPS on the NVR come back on the NVR.
It HAS to be the hard drive based on this right? I can't believe the drive I have now is struggling with (4) cameras, 1080p, 2048 bitrate, 15FPS.

_________
I guess unless I encounter some other ideas, this is the final conclusion and I will see about affording a PURPLE Western Digital hard drive.
 
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