Dahua IPC-HDW5442T-ZE 4MP Varifocal Turret - Night Perfomance testing

The thing to keep in mind as well is that the camera needs time to process what it is seeing and then determine if it meets the criteria and then should it trigger, so too tight a field of view can cause that, too dark an image, etc.

I am sure you have, but make sure if you use intrusion zone that you have entering and appearing checked. That can help quite a bit.

For a tripwire, many here will go with a tripwire in a Z pattern to insure it is picked up.

And IVS will not work at night for LPR cameras LOL...or at least not very consistently.
I'm using the fixed 6mm model so there is no adjustment to be made with zoom.

Here is what I'm talking about. Look at my triplines in the picture and then look and see when it actually snapped the snapshot. This was last night. The truck is out of the frame almost entirely. I have several snapshots from last night that took a picture of a blank road because the vehicle moved out of the frame. I actually had to search and find one like this that at least caught some of the vehicle.

Now not every snapshot is like this at night. Sometimes the car/truck is actually centered in the frame. But I'd say about 50% of them are not. I've put up with it since day 1 I've had this camera. I think it’s a night time issue. IVS seems to work better with more lighting.


.Screenshot from 2021-01-30 07-06-19.pngexample.jpg
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: sebastiantombs
Just my two cents. I'd set up separate zig zag trip lines at each end rather than one continuous trip line. Maybe even add an intrusion box in the middle. I use that combination on a T-AS and it works pretty well with occasional multiple trips day or night, but better to have multiple than none.
 
Just my two cents. I'd set up separate zig zag trip lines at each end rather than one continuous trip line. Maybe even add an intrusion box in the middle. I use that combination on a T-AS and it works pretty well with occasional multiple trips day or night, but better to have multiple than none.
Ok, I'll try that. Yeah, I have no problem with multiple trips. So long as the vehicle is in the frame I'm fine with several.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sebastiantombs
Yeah, I can see how vehicles moving right to left especially could have trouble at night. That looks like a lot of light, but a vehicle moving at a faster clip can get through it quickly.

Do you have an SD card in there that you could play back with the IVS lines on and see which one it triggered on? I am guessing it is fairly late.

I agree, go with the intrusion box - I have found that one to be very good. Just make sure you also check the appears box - most of these are unchecked by default, but a vehicle on the ends could be in the middle of that box before it is recognized and then you miss it.
 
I'm using the fixed 6mm model so there is no adjustment to be made with zoom.

Here is what I'm talking about. Look at my triplines in the picture and then look and see when it actually snapped the snapshot. This was last night. The truck is out of the frame almost entirely. I have several snapshots from last night that took a picture of a blank road because the vehicle moved out of the frame. I actually had to search and find one like this that at least caught some of the vehicle.

Now not every snapshot is like this at night. Sometimes the car/truck is actually centered in the frame. But I'd say about 50% of them are not. I've put up with it since day 1 I've had this camera. I think it’s a night time issue. IVS seems to work better with more lighting.


.View attachment 81081View attachment 81082
You have pre trigger buffer set to a few seconds?
 
My issue is just camera enabled snapshots. No middleman NVR. The camera dumps the snapshot directly to the NAS folder when an IVS rule is met. Works great in the day, not so good and night.

I put an intrusion box in the middle of the road with zig zag trip lines on both side of the box. We will see if that helps.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sebastiantombs
I think I have given this camera more than a fair shake to prove itself over the last 6 months but I have to rate it as a big Fail. I've had similar Dahua cameras before so I know what to expect and I know how to set them up, but this camera is not delivering. This camera has good optics but that's where the good ends. Specifically the onboard IVS is hopeless. No amount of configuring has enabled me to get it to detect anything reliably. I am now reduced to using simple Motion Detection and the limitations that come with that. The frustrating part of this is I don't see any "official" acknowledgement here that there is a problem, and without that acknowledgement I don't see much hope of a fix. If this were a Covid thing and was just a matter of waiting until things got back to normal I would buy that, but I'm not hearing that. I'm not hearing anything.

And just to be clear, if you are using this camera with Blue Iris or some other smart NVR and are not having problems because you are not using the camera's logic, then good for you. I bought the camera because it was advertised as having onboard intelligence and I expect it to do what it says on the box. And before anyone asks, yes, I am using the latest firmware "2020-10-19".
 
I think I have given this camera more than a fair shake to prove itself over the last 6 months but I have to rate it as a big Fail. I've had similar Dahua cameras before so I know what to expect and I know how to set them up, but this camera is not delivering. This camera has good optics but that's where the good ends. Specifically the onboard IVS is hopeless. No amount of configuring has enabled me to get it to detect anything reliably. I am now reduced to using simple Motion Detection and the limitations that come with that. The frustrating part of this is I don't see any "official" acknowledgement here that there is a problem, and without that acknowledgement I don't see much hope of a fix. If this were a Covid thing and was just a matter of waiting until things got back to normal I would buy that, but I'm not hearing that. I'm not hearing anything.

And just to be clear, if you are using this camera with Blue Iris or some other smart NVR and are not having problems because you are not using the camera's logic, then good for you. I bought the camera because it was advertised as having onboard intelligence and I expect it to do what it says on the box. And before anyone asks, yes, I am using the latest firmware "2020-10-19".
Its odd because some have excellent results with IVS while some have mediocre. I'm in the mediocre category but only for night. IVS during the day is excellent.

It has to be a mixture of lighting conditions, camera settings, and distance to the target area that gives the wild results.
 
I think I have given this camera more than a fair shake to prove itself over the last 6 months but I have to rate it as a big Fail. I've had similar Dahua cameras before so I know what to expect and I know how to set them up, but this camera is not delivering. This camera has good optics but that's where the good ends. Specifically the onboard IVS is hopeless. No amount of configuring has enabled me to get it to detect anything reliably. I am now reduced to using simple Motion Detection and the limitations that come with that. The frustrating part of this is I don't see any "official" acknowledgement here that there is a problem, and without that acknowledgement I don't see much hope of a fix. If this were a Covid thing and was just a matter of waiting until things got back to normal I would buy that, but I'm not hearing that. I'm not hearing anything.

And just to be clear, if you are using this camera with Blue Iris or some other smart NVR and are not having problems because you are not using the camera's logic, then good for you. I bought the camera because it was advertised as having onboard intelligence and I expect it to do what it says on the box. And before anyone asks, yes, I am using the latest firmware "2020-10-19".


@Zimberto if you want me to setup some time with you, jump on your system and look to dial in, I'm happy to do it. Just DM me if interested and I'll help where I can
 
I think I have given this camera more than a fair shake to prove itself over the last 6 months but I have to rate it as a big Fail. I've had similar Dahua cameras before so I know what to expect and I know how to set them up, but this camera is not delivering. This camera has good optics but that's where the good ends. Specifically the onboard IVS is hopeless. No amount of configuring has enabled me to get it to detect anything reliably. I am now reduced to using simple Motion Detection and the limitations that come with that. The frustrating part of this is I don't see any "official" acknowledgement here that there is a problem, and without that acknowledgement I don't see much hope of a fix. If this were a Covid thing and was just a matter of waiting until things got back to normal I would buy that, but I'm not hearing that. I'm not hearing anything.

And just to be clear, if you are using this camera with Blue Iris or some other smart NVR and are not having problems because you are not using the camera's logic, then good for you. I bought the camera because it was advertised as having onboard intelligence and I expect it to do what it says on the box. And before anyone asks, yes, I am using the latest firmware "2020-10-19".
Just curious, have you performed the "Global Setup"?
 
@Wildcat_1 thank you for your kind offer. I may take you up on it sometime but am tight for time these days.

@looney2ns I have not performed the Global Setup other than trying with "Anti-Disturb Enable" off.

Previously I used a HDW5231R-ZE in the exact same position and had great results with IVS without a lot of configuration. The HDW5442T-ZE however literally can't detect a dump truck with IVS even after months of trying a multitude of different settings. It does detect some things but it's just not reliable.

At this point I'm giving up complaining. There are a ton of settings that could affect detection performance and maybe it's me and maybe I have missed something. I'll keep trying and post back if I get a result.
 
@Wildcat_1 thank you for your kind offer. I may take you up on it sometime but am tight for time these days.

@looney2ns I have not performed the Global Setup other than trying with "Anti-Disturb Enable" off.

Previously I used a HDW5231R-ZE in the exact same position and had great results with IVS without a lot of configuration. The HDW5442T-ZE however literally can't detect a dump truck with IVS even after months of trying a multitude of different settings. It does detect some things but it's just not reliable.

At this point I'm giving up complaining. There are a ton of settings that could affect detection performance and maybe it's me and maybe I have missed something. I'll keep trying and post back if I get a result.
I would try setting the cam back to factory defaults. Then setting it back up from scratch. I would also try setting up the Global Setup, that is basically doing a calibration for the IVS AI.
IVS/Global Setup - Dahua Wiki
 
"It does detect some things but it's just not reliable"

Exactly what i found with the various 5442 Models i tried.

Switched to a Hikvision DS-2cd2347G2-LU and will See how this one performs with LED off. The min Lux with 0.0005 seem to be a Lot better in theory and people seem to be very happy with that Cam overall.
 
OKAY! After configuring the Global Setup tab for IVS everything seems to be working great. Thank you @looney2ns . I think that my previous camera did not have this which is one reason I missed it. The other reason is that there are a ton of settings that just aren't very well explained in the manual.

My faith in humanity has been restored... for 5 minutes! LOL!