Dahua NVRs motion record with scheduled record skips frames

oh6hfx

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Jun 26, 2016
Messages
113
Reaction score
36
Location
Lohtaja, Finland
I have installed now around 16-17 Dahua systems with NVRs 4108 and 4116, couple with 5276 NVRs too.

Normally I set them to record all channels 24/7 plus motion detection to record the channel where motion is detected.
That way I can see continuous green timeline with yellow marks where there has been motion. This is useful when you can spot the
motion and easily play all the video before and after - because motion detection does not detect everything.

The problem seems to be, however, that when NVR starts recording motion over normal record, it sometimes skips frames, even
1-2 seconds may be off.

Anybody found a cure for this or do I have to switch off motion record and just search "blind" over the timeline?

Example video, skipping 06:12:10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZOk9tVN5x8&feature=youtu.be
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Fastb

Known around here
Joined
Feb 9, 2016
Messages
1,342
Reaction score
934
Location
Seattle, Wa
oh6hfx,

I have a Dahua 4216, so it's a little different.

I'm puzzled by what you describe. I record 24/7. If MD in the camera is enabled, and when the camera detects motion, the timeline in "Playback" will show yellow instead of green.

The above timeline coloring doesn't require the NVR to be configured for "motion record"

I don't use the camera's MD feature. I get too many false alarms. Instead, I use dual technology motion sensor (PIR + Microwave) as an alarm input.
So in my timeline, you won't see yellow. Red for my seperate motion sensor, and orange for the camera IVS feature of "tripwire"

ivs.jpg

I suggest disabling "motion record", to see if your timeline still contains yellow.

Another option:
Instead of searching the timeline for color changes, have the MD event set an alarm. Then use the "File List" in the playback screen to see the list of all events.

ivs1.jpg

By double-clicking on a particular event in the file list, playback will start exactly at that point. It seems faster than navigating using only the timeline. If this works for you, you can disable "motion record"

Good luck,
Fastb
 

oh6hfx

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Jun 26, 2016
Messages
113
Reaction score
36
Location
Lohtaja, Finland
Thanks Fastb!

I tried to turn off motion record in two of NVRs installed by me - first is 7246 and another 4116H. Cannot see yellow on the timeline anymore.
For me it should indeed make better sense not to "record over record", but just marking motion on the timeline. I will study a bit more if I can get it to set an alarm.
 

JimandYen

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Jul 13, 2015
Messages
224
Reaction score
28
Location
DFW
Don't know if this is helpful but I had a similar prob with skipping frames. Turned out I had "snapshot" turned on which caused a conflict with recording motion also. I didn't really understand but it fixed the problem when I turned snapshot off. (QCNVR8816)
 

oh6hfx

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Jun 26, 2016
Messages
113
Reaction score
36
Location
Lohtaja, Finland
Thanks for pointing that out JimandYen, but just checked that I haven't snapshot checked. Here are my present settings for channel 3 event now. I cannot see yellow marks anymore, nor red alarm marks, don't know if "alarm upload" means that there will be red alarm marks on the timeline? Also in schedule settings I cannot check MD&alarm.

Screenshot 2016-07-01 10.37.51.jpgScreenshot 2016-07-01 10.42.28.jpgScreenshot 2016-07-01 10.47.21.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:

c hris527

Known around here
Joined
Oct 12, 2015
Messages
1,782
Reaction score
2,066
Location
NY
I have a few of them out there that are doing the same thing, seems to be camera related in my case because all my indoor domes are great, all the out door bullets have this issue from time to time. I wish I had more time to test my theory. What kind of cameras are you running? The bullets I have the issue with are Dahua IPC-HFW2320RN-ZS.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

oh6hfx

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Jun 26, 2016
Messages
113
Reaction score
36
Location
Lohtaja, Finland
Well, my own system has 9 cameras with NVR4116H, 3 X HFW4300S, 3 X HDB3200CP, 1 X HDBW4300ES, 1 X HDB4200CP, 1 X Zavio B5120.
Haven't looked so carefully if all the channels do the same, but at least HFW4300S motion recordings are skipping frames.
Systems I have installed for my clients have included many HFW4300S and HFW4221E bullets, latest is with two PTZ-IR domes SD59220T-HN and
same issue happens...
 

Fastb

Known around here
Joined
Feb 9, 2016
Messages
1,342
Reaction score
934
Location
Seattle, Wa
@oh6hfx,
Upon further examination, I have dropped frames. I lose about 1 second worth of video, judging by the time stamp displayed in the video.
To investigate, I turned off snapshot, email, and alarm upload. No difference.
The camera is an outdoor dome, IPC-HDBW4421E-AS, with IVS.

Drops.jpg

The drops occur when an "IPC External Alarm" event occurs. I have a Bosch Tri-Tec motion/radar detector connected to the camera's "Alarm In" line.
Drops also occur when an "IVS Tripwire" event occurs.
It seems that Events cause the dropouts. Not sure why.

My HDD is 100% full, and it's in overwrite mode. Maybe putting markers into the file, to identify when the event occurs, is making the NVR stutter while building the file to be put onto the HDD.
This model camera is capable of local storage. I haven't installed an SD card yet.
Not that this will solve the problem - but it might indicate if it's the camera or the NVR that's causing this....

I stand corrected about "Record Channel". It must be enabled to get the coloring in the timeline.

Fastb
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Fastb

Known around here
Joined
Feb 9, 2016
Messages
1,342
Reaction score
934
Location
Seattle, Wa
All,

I thought some more about the recording activity, and how it might cause drops.

Events cause separate files to be created. It seems each colored segment on the timeline represents a file. You can see these files listed in the "Download by File" screen. Pay attention to column 3 (file size) and column 6 (File Type);
drop.jpg

Which makes sense somehow.
In Playback, at the bottom of the screen, you can select what to see.

files.jpg

If you uncheck "Regular", you can play back just events (the red and orange parts on the timeline). See image.

Conclusion: Events cause the current "Regular" file to be finalized and written to the HDD. Then a new file is created, to record the "IVS" or "Alarm" info. Then a short while later, that file is finalized and written to HDD. Then a new "Regular" file is created, etc, etc.

This represents a processing burden on the NVR, and could cause the dropped frames?

I may be making matter worse by recording thee main stream AND the substream. (see Column 7, "Bit Stream Type" in the download file list jpg above)
Which doubles the processing burden.... Are you guys recording both streams?

Fastb
 

oh6hfx

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Jun 26, 2016
Messages
113
Reaction score
36
Location
Lohtaja, Finland
Thanks for your investigations Fastb, that is what I thought also: file procedures make sometimes delay.

I'm recording only the main stream.

I'll try to report this to Dahua also so they could update the FW to have "mark on the timeline" option so NVR should not stop regular record to get markings on the timeline...

Another thing (maybe better to make another thread) is that some of Dahua NVRs installed by mine are rebooting randomly. Sometimes 3-4 times a day..
 

oh6hfx

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Jun 26, 2016
Messages
113
Reaction score
36
Location
Lohtaja, Finland
Found something new! I noticed that I can see the gap only when I view the NVR playback with browser UI. I use Firefox, haven't tested IE yet.
When viewing straight in the NVR with its own display and mouse, I see pause of 1-2 secs when motion is triggered, but to me it looks that no
image information has been lost. It just pauses that point and continues after 1-2sec. So maybe this is a playback problem, not a record problem?
Anyway, when I download a video clip via NVR Ui there is gap also. Haven't yet tried what happens when I put an USB stick in the NVR and save clip there.

I have mailed all this info to Dahua and got even answer from them couple of times. Looks promising :)
 

Anto

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Mar 1, 2016
Messages
138
Reaction score
16
Over the weekend I added 2 cameras to my new NVR4208-4K with no problems...I uninstalled SmartPSS on my PC. I think it was a mistake. This morning I noticed the skipping frame problem others have been experiencing. In my situation 4 seconds of video disappears when a motion is detected. I tried everything from disconnecting and adding the cams back, reducing frame rate, reducing bitrate, and also formatting hard drive again, no good.
So what I did was reinstall SmartPSS on my PC. I added the cams, and the NVR. Interesting results. Playing back motion detected video clip from NVR on SmartPSS, frames skipping (see video 1). Playing back motion detected clip on NVR, downloading video from file list, frames skipping (see video 2), but when I downloaded video clip which was recorded on the SmartPSS's PC-NVR, video played perfect (see video 3). This would indicate the problem must be in the NVR, if PC-NVR is able to record and playback the file with no problem there must be something in the NVR software which needs fine tuning.
Hope I didn't confuse too many people with my post.
 

JimandYen

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Jul 13, 2015
Messages
224
Reaction score
28
Location
DFW
FYI. On a Dahua NVR the motion detect pre-record setting is 4 seconds.
 

Anto

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Mar 1, 2016
Messages
138
Reaction score
16
FYI. On a Dahua NVR the motion detect pre-record setting is 4 seconds.
I changed the prerecord setting in NVR to two seconds this morning. If set to zero would that help?
 

JimandYen

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Jul 13, 2015
Messages
224
Reaction score
28
Location
DFW
I don't know if that would help but it would give you some clues to help figure out what is causing the frames skipping.. If you set it to 2 secs then see if the NVR skips 2 secs instead of 4 secs.
 

Anto

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Mar 1, 2016
Messages
138
Reaction score
16
No, it still skips 4 secs when set 2 seconds. Videos posted above setting for motion detect prerecord was 2 seconds.
 

c hris527

Known around here
Joined
Oct 12, 2015
Messages
1,782
Reaction score
2,066
Location
NY
That IS a very good catch ANTO, I was confused by your post but after I re read your post, I understood what you were doing. The take away here is if you need video to be viewed correctly..download it and view it. I just ran into a issue about a theft and some time and frames were missing in the video. I will have to re visit that event now and see if downloading the clip is better that trying to view in smart pss or logged on to the NVR native software. Thanks for the info. BTW the NVR native software and Smartpss are buggy for sure.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Anto

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Mar 1, 2016
Messages
138
Reaction score
16
That IS a very good catch ANTO, I was confused by your post but after I re read your post, I understood what you were doing. The take away here is if you need video to be viewed correctly..download it and view it. I just ran into a issue about a theft and some time and frames were missing in the video. I will have to re visit that event now and see if downloading the clip is better that trying to view in smart pss or logged on to the NVR native software. Thanks for the info. BTW the NVR native software and Smartpss are buggy for sure.
Sorry for the confusion. I am not good in writing stuff. Video clips show better what is actually happening.
I purchased the NVR42808-4K so I did not have to use the PC, but at this point I am going to have to continue using SmartPSS until there is a fix.

IMO if anyone has a Dahua NVR with this problem you should use SmartPSS as a back up for your security concerns. This morning I walked from the southern end of the yard into the home, the NVR skipped those 4 seconds. If I was a burglar there would have been no video clip of me entering the home.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

oh6hfx

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Jun 26, 2016
Messages
113
Reaction score
36
Location
Lohtaja, Finland
Thanks Anto for your investigations. Seems that the issue is really there and Dahua needs to check the NVR software. It was not stated in your post if you have continuous record running all the time and then motion
detection over it? I assume this was the case? Have you tried playback with NVR itself, with display and mouse connected and its own UI? Mine 4116H just pauses for 1-2 secs and seems not to skip frames. It is just when I do the playback
with web UI or SmartPSS...
 

Anto

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Mar 1, 2016
Messages
138
Reaction score
16
Thanks Anto for your investigations. Seems that the issue is really there and Dahua needs to check the NVR software. It was not stated in your post if you have continuous record running all the time and then motion
detection over it? I assume this was the case? Have you tried playback with NVR itself, with display and mouse connected and its own UI? Mine 4116H just pauses for 1-2 secs and seems not to skip frames. It is just when I do the playback
with web UI or SmartPSS...
NVR is set for continuous recording with motion detection which is displayed in yellow over the long green bar.

Yes I have played back the motion detect video clips on the NVR itself with it's own UI, same problem with skipping of frames.

What sucks about this is when reviewing a motion detect video clip, besides viewing the video I must now pay close attention to the time clock to see if the NVR recording skips any seconds.
 
Top