EZVIZ DB1 Pro
- Thread starter uvjustin
- Start date
jvrobert
n3wb
I have one arriving today.. will let you know.
jvrobert
n3wb
OK, after some confusion with some weird old EZlink app that didn't work, I got it working.
So far, two issues. First, wifi5 is garbage, don't know why they even added it. I had to add a 2.4 only wifi config for it to work.
Second, I can only get the thing to spit out h.265 on the RTSP URL. This is not good. I will ping the vendor and see if I'm missing something, it seems I can put any garbage on the end of the URL and it always gives the h.265 stream. So H.264, h264_stream, give_me_garbage it doesn't matter - h.265 stream. That's going to cause problems.
So far, two issues. First, wifi5 is garbage, don't know why they even added it. I had to add a 2.4 only wifi config for it to work.
Second, I can only get the thing to spit out h.265 on the RTSP URL. This is not good. I will ping the vendor and see if I'm missing something, it seems I can put any garbage on the end of the URL and it always gives the h.265 stream. So H.264, h264_stream, give_me_garbage it doesn't matter - h.265 stream. That's going to cause problems.
Yeah, I agree 5Ghz doesn't make sense for a doorbell - the range is already lower in the higher frequency range, and you'll get more attenuation through the heavy materials like your walls/doors. But I guess it's another feature you can market.
As for H.265 it makes sense to use a better compression codec if they're increasing the resolution, although I'm keenly aware of the compatibility problems H.265 can present (I'm the guy who rewrote a lot of the Home Assistant stream component to handle H.265 and just contributed some PRs to Frigate to do the same).
So the main benefit of this camera over the DB1C is just the increased resolution? Same FOV/fisheye?
jvrobert
n3wb
I didn't have the Db1C before, so not sure how compares. Video quality is pretty crisp and it does have fisheye.. Stream resolution shows up as the widespread, usual, and totally very common 2544x1888.
I'm using Frigate and the 265 is not working well at all, video is all mangled. Ezviz app, or VLC looks fine. In addition, Linux is a horrible mess for 12th gen Intel graphics drivers, they don't work at all and I've tried everything including various GUC/HUC settings in the kernel along with latest linux-firmwares from Intel, and hand-compiling and installing the whole absurd libva/mediasdk/etc.. stack.
Man, that stuff is silly, I don't know how they can present "here are the 230 steps required to maybe get video acceleration working on Linux" with a straight face, then turn around and swear "2022, finally the year of the Linux desktop!".
Just played with it a bit more.. The cloud connection is surprisingly good, but the RTSP stream isn't good which is weird. Even in VLC it hangs and drops out quite a bit, while the app on my phone shows good, low lag video even when I shut off wifi and go over LTE.
Another edit - just confirmed the RTSP stream is busted, both VLC and tinycam on android and VLC on Windows show the stream as constantly dropping out, going gray, garbling, then coming back for a second or two, then corrupting again. Disappointing - I will mail the vendor and see if they can fix, otherwise it's going back to Amazon.
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Re: Frigate, the H.265 stuff I added wasn't available until 0.11.0 RC2 of the container (and for Home Assistant v3.0.0 RC4 of the integration and v4.0.0 RC3 of the frontend card). It should work fine given browser support, and additionally H.264+ and H.265+ clips should work better now.
However, browser support is still lacking especially on Linux and Android WebView. It's definitely not a priority for Google as the whole reason for the lack of support is Google's war on MPEG LA. In the meantime, you can find third party chromium builds with built in H.265 support while awaiting the resolution of this Chromium issue: 1311349 - Enable enable_platform_hevc_decoding support for Linux. - chromium
Sucks to hear about the camera. I have the DB1C and it's been surprisingly reliable. It was available at great sale prices ~2 years ago. Was hoping the DB1 Pro could be an upgrade.
Re: the poor RTSP stream, is it possible that is due to poor wifi? Does the substream exhibit the same issue?
However, browser support is still lacking especially on Linux and Android WebView. It's definitely not a priority for Google as the whole reason for the lack of support is Google's war on MPEG LA. In the meantime, you can find third party chromium builds with built in H.265 support while awaiting the resolution of this Chromium issue: 1311349 - Enable enable_platform_hevc_decoding support for Linux. - chromium
Sucks to hear about the camera. I have the DB1C and it's been surprisingly reliable. It was available at great sale prices ~2 years ago. Was hoping the DB1 Pro could be an upgrade.
Re: the poor RTSP stream, is it possible that is due to poor wifi? Does the substream exhibit the same issue?
jvrobert
n3wb
Yeah, runnning 0.11RC2 of Frigate, and actually now that I see VLC/Tincam show same bad stream I guess it's not Frigate.
The App's cloud-based view of the stream is great - low lag, no dropouts, etc.. so I know it's not wifi.
I'm not sure there is a substream.. Would be different URL, right? No matter what I put on the end of the rtsp:/...:554/ I get the exact same h.265 stream.
I'm kind of annoyed because the cloud/app stream looks great and is surprisingly low lag, so why can't I get that straight out of the cam lol.
I am also playing with their studio app, and that annoys me too. My cameras are on a VLAN and I see no way to do something that, to me, seems glaringly obvious as a feature - let me type in a stupid IP address, don't just "scan my network". So I can't add the camera by IP, only the cloud instance shows up and I don't see how to do advanced settings on that.
I mailed the vendor, we'll see if they ever reply - I'd like to give it a chance but I'm not going to deal with it if they aren't responsive or I can't hack my way into it working. Like many of these products, seems great hardware developers and abysmal software developers got together and released a product.
The App's cloud-based view of the stream is great - low lag, no dropouts, etc.. so I know it's not wifi.
I'm not sure there is a substream.. Would be different URL, right? No matter what I put on the end of the rtsp:/...:554/ I get the exact same h.265 stream.
I'm kind of annoyed because the cloud/app stream looks great and is surprisingly low lag, so why can't I get that straight out of the cam lol.
I am also playing with their studio app, and that annoys me too. My cameras are on a VLAN and I see no way to do something that, to me, seems glaringly obvious as a feature - let me type in a stupid IP address, don't just "scan my network". So I can't add the camera by IP, only the cloud instance shows up and I don't see how to do advanced settings on that.
I mailed the vendor, we'll see if they ever reply - I'd like to give it a chance but I'm not going to deal with it if they aren't responsive or I can't hack my way into it working. Like many of these products, seems great hardware developers and abysmal software developers got together and released a product.
For my DB1C, the streams are available at:
rtsp:/admin:[PW]@[IP-ADDR]/Streaming/Channels/10[n] where n is 1 for the main stream and 2 for the substream
I was thinking that the cloud view might still be using the substream - might be hard to tell the quality difference on a phone.
Yeah, a lot of these products do seem like that, but I'm surprised they would introduce such a serious regression since they already have functioning software on a very similar product.
rtsp:/admin:[PW]@[IP-ADDR]/Streaming/Channels/10[n] where n is 1 for the main stream and 2 for the substream
I was thinking that the cloud view might still be using the substream - might be hard to tell the quality difference on a phone.
Yeah, a lot of these products do seem like that, but I'm surprised they would introduce such a serious regression since they already have functioning software on a very similar product.
jvrobert
n3wb
Gave that a try, but same stream. Any string I add on the end of the URL gives me the same stream:
I will try moving the doorbell directly under my Unifi AP6 access point and turning back on 5GHz and see if it makes any difference, what will tell me if it's network and maybe cloud uses some internal weird stream that's lower bandwidth. But it would be weird.. I have a pretty strong wifi network.
Edit: Same..same stuttering, hanging, corrupted RTSP stream
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jvrobert
n3wb
Good idea, thanks for suggestion, gave it a try but same.. also TinyCam is setup for RTSP/TCP and shows the same bad stream.
Well, hopefully I hear back from EZVIZ but I won't hold my breath, and I guarantee if they do their first reply will be a generic "check your wifi" type troubleshooting, even though I clearly indicated my issue and that the app's stream doesn't have the issue, lol.
If you can get it escalated properly they can probably eventually get a firmware update out. They're a hikvision subsidiary after all. It's a new product so it's not inconceivable that they just accidentally messed up something there.
jvrobert
n3wb
I hope so.. I want to like it, and the app video quality seems good, and like I said surprisingly low lag for a cloud service. Haven't tried it in the dark yet, so far just on a transformer in my office for testing.
jvrobert
n3wb
Well, back to Amazon it goes.. their reply, when it, umm, clearly does support RTSP at least to some degree since the stream is there.
Thank you for contacting EZVIZ Tech Team, we value your business.
Regarding your request, We’re sorry that things aren’t going smoothly.
Unfortunately, our devices (DB1 Pro as well) do not support RTSP and cannot be used as web cameras, as features like two-way audio, alarm notifications all require network connection.
Thank you for contacting EZVIZ Tech Team, we value your business.
Regarding your request, We’re sorry that things aren’t going smoothly.
Unfortunately, our devices (DB1 Pro as well) do not support RTSP and cannot be used as web cameras, as features like two-way audio, alarm notifications all require network connection.
That stinks. I do remember seeing something about how they don't support RTSP, but I thought that was just a disclaimer to avoid support. That's bad if they don't want to support a basic feature like RTSP - perhaps they're still trying to focus on their cloud offering. Good that you were able to return it.
I do wonder what's up with the US branch of the company. I think they reevaluated things in the past few years, perhaps with the US Hikvision blacklisting, as they had a fire sale on some of their existing devices, cut all their distribution except Amazon and their new product offerings dried up.
Unfortunately I got roped into their ecosystem by my DB1C, and I bought two of their PTZ cameras for the garage which I didn't want to wire. The products and app work fine, although their product range/naming is a bit confusing and there seems to be a minor bug with their RTP implementation. I had previously recommended their cameras on the HA discord. However, given your experience/their tech support response, I will steer people away from them or at least this doorbell model.
Best of luck finding another doorbell solution.
I do wonder what's up with the US branch of the company. I think they reevaluated things in the past few years, perhaps with the US Hikvision blacklisting, as they had a fire sale on some of their existing devices, cut all their distribution except Amazon and their new product offerings dried up.
Unfortunately I got roped into their ecosystem by my DB1C, and I bought two of their PTZ cameras for the garage which I didn't want to wire. The products and app work fine, although their product range/naming is a bit confusing and there seems to be a minor bug with their RTP implementation. I had previously recommended their cameras on the HA discord. However, given your experience/their tech support response, I will steer people away from them or at least this doorbell model.
Best of luck finding another doorbell solution.
jvrobert
n3wb
well, they later emailed me again with this (h264/ch1/main/av_stream).. I was about to run it down to Kohls to return, but I will give it one last try.. I don't have high hopes since any string I put on the URL directed to (bad) 265 stream, but I'll give it a quick whirl.
Thank you for contacting EZVIZ Tech Team.
But if customer insists on using RTSP, they can follow below steps:
1 download and install VLC software on PC
2 ensure your camera and your PC are in the same network
3 click Media > Open Network Stream
4 In Network, input the URL and click Play:
rtsp:/admin:verification code@device ip/h264/ch1/main/av_stream
Thank you for contacting EZVIZ Tech Team.
But if customer insists on using RTSP, they can follow below steps:
1 download and install VLC software on PC
2 ensure your camera and your PC are in the same network
3 click Media > Open Network Stream
4 In Network, input the URL and click Play:
rtsp:/admin:verification code@device ip/h264/ch1/main/av_stream
jvrobert
n3wb
Well, didn't work (as I expected it wouldn't). I get the same crappy HEVC h265 stream.