Dahua NVRs motion record with scheduled record skips frames

Ok Anto, so there is something different here. I have same issue also with many systems I have installed for my clients, but will have to go on the site to check if the same happens also with NVR own UI. So far nobody of my clients have complained about the issue but it's good to prepare if that day happens... Worst case scenario would be that just those frames are missing what are needed (face or license plate...).

I have contacted Dahua with these online forms:

http://www.dahuasecurity.com/onlinesupport.html
http://www.dahuasecurity.com/online.html

I got email back after couple of days and they seem to be co-operating. I sent also a list of bugs and wishes for future FWs. Among them I proposed that they
would add "mark on the timeline" option in motion detection actions so stopping/starting record would not mess playback...

I think all of you who are bothered by this frame-skipping issue should send feedback to Dahua so they will take it more seriously. It should be quite easy to reproduce: just unbox an NVR and couple of cameras, set
them record 24/7 plus motion detection and it surely happens...
 
I did some checking, All the 4k NVR's I have out there are doing it. It seems to be loosing 2 to 3 seconds from the transition from green to yellow with a blank screen in between to boot. I believe its a firmware issue at this point, I will speak to my USA Dahua re-brander tomorrow about the issue. They are pretty good. IMHO 2 to 3 seconds is enough time to miss the MONEY SHOT so the issue is rendering the NVr useless for being accurate and when the customers are bitching now, its becomes a issue. Will report back soon I hope.
 
I called Nichelle at Nellys where I have purchased the majority of my equipment as of late and explained what was going on with the missing frames and time. She told me to make sure my bit rate and frame rate are the same in the motion stream and general stream. Setup--> Camera--->code stream type.
There is a drop down box for the two different streams.
cap 2.JPG

Now I have had this problem with multiple systems. I remoted in to one system I was having a issue with using the web interface. I have 2 cams recording 24/7 with motion. One had the issue the other was fine, sure enough the problem cam motion stream had a way different bit rate and frame rate. I re set so they both match. SOLVED. Remote viewing will give me a slight hesitation when it hits the yellow motion part but I loose NO seconds or video now and can live with it for sure. Now..I then for fun Tried to remote in with Smart PSS to see how it looked with the playback feature. Seems Smart has a little more hesitation when motion stream is activated but still loosing no video or time. I suspected its a network issue. The real test Is when I get home and try it on my pathetic system that was loosing 3 to 4 seconds everytime motion was activated.

I get home and before I make any changes I review video from last night and same old same old missing time and frames. Make the changes BOOM..done
You cant even tell that there is a transition from main to motion with playback running. NO more missing time. A few observations about viewing in my case.
When viewing I was using Smart pss hooked up to my pc on a wired lan. No issues, Web GUI on the lan NO Issues. Laptop with wireless, a hesitation ONLY with Smart Pss but still not loosing any video or time. Web GUi with wireless..NO hesitation whatsoever. My takeaway is using Smart Pss needs more bandwidth to operate smooth, I wired the laptop to the lan with NO issues with SmartPSS. I have 3 other systems out there with the same issue so I will let you know if this solves it, but right now I'm pretty happy the way things are working.
I have many years In the IT field but only a few years with IP cameras and NVR's so I consider myself a novice at best. There is a TON of detail to these systems and it really does help to have a good support staff you can call. I hope this will help others.
 
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somehow missed this thread, but I have never seen the behavior you guys are describing.. so I went and checked all my cameras and all the General/Motion/Alarm settings were identical across the board.. I guess that's something thats something I've been setting up all along and didnt even think about.

great work figuring it out, I think this is some often unused feature where you can configure events to crank the quality/framerate up higher than normal in response to activity.. it appears that doing this could result in dropped frames as the encoder is changing its configuration on the fly.. I wonder if VBR config for both Continuous and Events with different bitrates also has the problem.. It makes a little sense that a CBR stream changing its bitrate on the fly could cause some dropped frames while the decoders adjust to the unexpected change.

props to Nelly's for pointing you guys to the right answer.. pretty much every problem I've ever had with my Dahua's has been due to a bad config and tweaking things and resetting em to defaults on occasion resolved my issues.. so the issues were always PEBCAK, even when I was convinced it was a firmware bug.. just recently I had an issue where I was loosing motion/alarm/ivs events on timeline after NVR reboot, after banging my head against the wall forever I reset the EVENT and STORAGE settings on NVR to default and reconfigured em again and the problem went away entirely.. Its seems the NVR will gladly take a bad configuration and then make your hair turn grey with weird problems until you figure out what it was that was messed up all along.
 
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oh6hfx said:
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
Click to expand...

I have exactly the same issue and don't be quick blaming your NVR.

Here are my findings when the part where motion is detected or triggered is being played:

Using...

1. NVR's OSD (mouse and monitor)...it pauses momentarily.

2. WebUI...no pause, skip, or stutter...flawless.

3. SmartPSS (v1.15)...just like you described, it skips.

The bottom line is...the problem lies in the player side of the program. If only I could take the player module of the WebUI (the rest of it is crappy anyway) and just slap it on the SmartPSS, then I would be a very happy camper.
 
Tic said:
I have exactly the same issue and don't be quick blaming your NVR.

Here are my findings when the part where motion is detected or triggered is being played:

Using...

1. NVR's OSD (mouse and monitor)...it pauses momentarily.

2. WebUI...no pause, skip, or stutter...flawless.

3. SmartPSS (v1.15)...just like you described, it skips.

The bottom line is...the problem lies in the player side of the program. If only I could take the player module of the WebUI (the rest of it is crappy anyway) and just slap it on the SmartPSS, then I would be a very happy camper.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's what I think also, that it is the player which is faulty. By the way, same happens also when you download a clip from SmartPSS.
My Web UI does the skipping also (Firefox), the only one doing only small pause is NVR.
 
oh6hfx said:
Yes, that's what I think also, that it is the player which is faulty. By the way, same happens also when you download a clip from SmartPSS.
My Web UI does the skipping also (Firefox), the only one doing only small pause is NVR.
Click to expand...

Odd, I'm using Firefox too but my WebUI does not skip...could be a random thing. I'll try it again to see if I get the same result.

UPDATE************

Yep. Now it skips...I'll take back my 'flawless' rating from #25.
 
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Today tested also to save DAV files directly in NVR ui to USB stick. NVR saves continuous record and motion record in different files, but when played on PC with Armcrest SmartPlay, it goes flawlessly trough the
motion, does not pause, does not skip, just nice!
 
Mine just started doing the skipping video as well, I can actually watch it happen on the seconds of the clock of the cameras displayed in the top right corner.
 
idjmic said:
Mine just started doing the skipping video as well, I can actually watch it happen on the seconds of the clock of the cameras displayed in the top right corner.
Click to expand...
Did you make any changes before this started?
 
Is there any new info about this problem?

I have a 5216-4ks2 and have the exact frame skipping problem that this thread is about. I've read every post and tried every suggested fix, none of which help. The problem is seen when viewing with direct connection, web interface, and smart PSS. The frames are lost exactly when the continuous record file ends and the event record file begins. In one instance, I've got 2 cameras pointed at the same place. The 2nd camera has event detection off and its video is flawless. This means that one solution is to have 2 cameras at each location, one to trigger events and the other to get the full video.
 
I have played with this bug and have come to this conclusion, For some strange reason motion detection (yellow) is being picked up by the camera clock and regular motion by the NVR, I have proved this bug does exist. If your clocks are out of sync that is the amount of time you lose between them. I have a thread on this someplace here. Nelly fix did in fact fix the major issue but i found in time on some cameras it would happen again.It was happening only on the 4k NVR's. I think I made sure motion was turned off on the camera's and that they were syncing with a time server ,that has helped alot but in time it creeps back
.Revisiting the dahua 4k NVR's Video playback issues(lost frames)

Here it is, ok now I remember the web gui and the nvr seemed to have 2 different clocks.
 
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that might explain why I've not seen drops like this.. all my cameras sync to local NTP Server every 1min.. there usually pretty tightly synced.
 
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nayr said:
that might explain why I've not seen drops like this.. all my cameras sync to local NTP Server every 1min.. there usually pretty tightly synced.
Click to expand...
Nayr, I think you told us how to do that someplace, if not refresh me or send the link, i think it would be helpful to some here.
 
If your a Windows/Bi user run this tool on the network: NetTime - Network Time Synchronization Tool

configure it to allow other machines to request time, open your windows firewall to allow 123/udp and then give your cameras the local IP of that windows box as the NTP source.

If your a linux user you should already be capable of doing this with ntpd without my help.
 
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I set up the nvr and camera to sync with time.windows.com every minute and I'll see what happens. I'm a skeptic that the time difference between nvr and camera is the cause because mine are often off by more than a minute and I never have more than a couple of seconds of lost frames. NetTime isn't an option for me because there won't be a computer on the network 24x7. Isn't there a way to get the cameras to sync with the nvr? Nayr, what's your firmware version? Mine is 3.210.0002.2 build date 7-21-16.
 
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