Hikvision video format - video not recognized ?

[Arn0]

Hello,

I was about to post a sarcastic message and footage in the video section, but the upload failed:

Rare footage of an Empire Tech Color4K-T failing to stop at the delivery address ... ....

Hum, the forum does not recognize my video as a valid one... "The uploaded file was not a video as expected."

Hosted there: mp4: ch01_00000000023001713.mp4 (and their player seems to make the same diagnostic...)

Any idea why my hikvision does not seems to export event recording in a "standard way" ? It's a mp4 that I manage to read locally using VLC (Windows 11 media player fails to read it).

Video format : H265. Camera : DS-2CD2347G2-LU ( This camera has been recently installed, and won't stay there, it seems obvious that the parameters are not correct? Vehicle plate is not recognizable... ?! )

(And apparently I'm not the only one to face this format issue ?)

Thanks,

 

[alastairstevenson]

Any idea why my hikvision does not seems to export event recording in a "standard way" ? It's a mp4 that I manage to read locally using VLC (Windows 11 media player fails to read it).

The video will generally be exported in the format that the camera encoded it.
I downloaded the video and it plays OK in all 3 players on this Linux box, though VLC doesn't play the sound channel. But what VLC does can vary over different platforms.
mediainfo shows the file to be encoded as a standard HEVC (h.265) stream with an MPEG audio track included.
The bitrate is quite low at 2.8Mbps, 25fps, 4MP.
edit But I see in your screenshot you have h.265+ enabled. That could give compatibility issues, it's a Hikvision proprietary extension to the h.265 standard.

Windows 11 media player fails to read it

I've not used Windows 11 - but a Google search suggests Win11 media player doesn't support the h.265 codec out of the box.
Maybe try installing a suitable codec to get the video to play.

Below is a screenshot of the number plate - not that recognisable.

 

[paul@austins.tv]

I would personally advise to use H264 and definitely not the so smart "+" codec on.
Also crank the bitrate up as much as possible via constant not variable.

 

[Arn0]

Thanks for the feedback.
"Plus" was not active at the moment of the recording (I modified that right before the screenshott). So that's not the reason of the strange rejection of the format by this forum (and hosting website). I'm also not having sound locally
So you suggest to revert to H.264 ? 265 is supposed to be a most recent/ efficient standard ?!
I'll adapt bitrate to constant with a high value.

Thanks for the tips.

 

[wittaj]

Running higher bitrates and CBR instead of VBR usually results in better images.

8192 is a good bitrate to start for a 4MP camera. 4096 is a good starting point for 2MP, and 16,384 is a good starting point for 8MP.

The lower the bitrate, the less the quality of the image, and the higher the bitrate, the higher the quality, but to a point.

Sure you can run a 2MP at 16,000 bitrate but to most people they won't see a visual difference between that or 4,000, but the higher bitrate will consume storage at 4 times the rate.

So it is a balance act for your field of view to go up and down the bitrate until you find the sweet spot where increasing it doesn't show an improvement and decreasing it would show a degradation.

Many here will prefer H264 over H265.

This will explain H264 versus H265 a little better.

H265 in theory provides more storage as it compresses differently, but part of that compression means it macro blocks big areas of the image that it thinks isn't moving. However, it also takes more processing power of the already small CPU in the camera and that can be problematic if someone is maxing out the camera in other areas like FPS and then it stutters.

In theory it is supposed to need 30% less storage than H264, but most of us have found it isn't that much. My savings were less than few minutes per day. And to my eye and others that I showed clips to and just said do you like video 1 or video 2 better, everyone thought the H264 provided a better image.

The left image is H264, so all the blocks are the same size corresponding to the resolution of the camera. H265 takes areas that it doesn't think has motion and makes them into bigger blocks and in doing so lessens the resolution yet increases the camera CPU demand to develop these larger blocks.

In theory H265 is supposed to need half the bitrate because of the macroblocking. But if there is a lot of motion in the image, then it becomes a pixelated mess until the codec catches up to the motion. The only way to get around that is a higher bitrate. But if you need to run the same bitrate for H265 as you do H264, then the storage savings is zero. Storage is computed based on multiplying bitrate, FPS, and resolution.

In my testing I have one camera that sees a parked car in front of my house. H265 sees that the car isn't moving, so it macroblocks the whole car and surrounding area. Then the car owner walked up to the car and got in and the motion is missed because of the macroblock being so large. Or if it catches it, because the bitrate is low, it is a pixelated mess during the critical capture point and by the time H265 adjusts to there is now motion, the ideal capture is missed.

In my case, the car is clear and defined in H264, but is blurry and soft edges in H265.

Digital zooming is never really good and not something we recommend, but you stand a better chance of some digital zoom with H264 rather than a large macroblocked H265. I can digital zoom on my overview camera and kinda make out the address number of the house across the street with H264, but not a chance with H265 as it macroblocked his whole house.

H265 is one of those theory things that sounds good, but reality use is much different.

Some people have a field of view or goals that allow H265 to be sufficient for their needs.

As always, YMMV.

 

[paul@austins.tv]

Indeed try H264.
H265 is not a efficient standard, apart from saving storage. It's compatibility alongside the not so smart + codec is likely to cause the issues you have experienced.