I saw this thread and grabbed a Amcrest IP8M-T2499EW on sale for $88. This thread has been very helpful to me so I would like to share some observations to help out other IPCAMTALKers. I've owned a couple of Dahua bullet cameras for about 2 years, they are solid and reliable. Also owned a few Amcrest IP2M-841 (cheap I know) but they have also been reliable. So the idea of changing an Amcrest into a real Dahua intrigued me.
The IP8M-T2499EW arrived with the 2.622.00AC000.0.R Build Date 2019-04-15. When using Chrome as a browser a pluggin is required to view the video. I dislike pluggins so I skipped the pluggin and went straight over to the Setup tab and looked around. Yep, looks like much like a Dahua layout alright.
With the
2.622.00AC000.0.R Build Date 2019-04-15 firmware:
Main Stream resolutions are:
3840*2160 (3840x2160) at 15 fps max
3072*2048 (3072x2048)
3072*1728 (3072x1728) at 25 fps max
2592*1944 (2592x1728)
2688*1520 (2688x1520)
2304*1296 (2304x1296)
1920*1080 (1080P) at 30 fps max
1280*960 (1.3)
1280*720 (720P)
There are 2 Sub Streams available. Sub Stream 1 is enabled by default but Sub Stream 2 is disabled by default (must check the Enable box). Sub Stream 1 is 640*480 (VGA) and Sub Stream 2 is 640*480 (VGA), that's it, so the available Sub Stream resolutions are extremely limited with this firmware.
Motion triggered videos that are uploaded to my local FTP server (hand-me-down Windows10 PC running Filezilla) are MP4 format which I much prefer over the DAV format.
So the next step was to upgrade the firmware. With the Amcrest
V2.622.00AC000.0.R Build Date 2019-10-24 firmware I not longer needed a pluggin to view the video using Chrome.
Main Stream resolutions are:
3840*2160 (3840x2160) at 15 fps max
3072*2048 (3072x2048)
3072*1728 (3072x1728) at 25 fps max
2592*1944 (2592x1728)
2688*1520 (2688x1520)
2304*1296 (2304x1296)
1920*1080 (1080P) at 30 fps max
1280*960 (1.3)
1280*720 (720P)
The good news is that both Sub Streams now have several resolutions to pick from.
Sub Stream 1 resolutions are:
704*480 (D1)
640*480 (VGA)
352*240 (CIF)
SubStream 2 resolutions are:
1920*1080 (1080P)
1280*720 (720P)
704*480 (D1)
The rest of the menus and sub menus look about the same, no extra added feature. FTP uploaded videos are still MP4 format.
Now its time to try the
Dahua IPC-HX5X3X-Rhea_MultiLang_NP_Stream3_V2.800.0000014.0.R.191203 firmware which installed with no problem and after a reboot the Amcrest logo is gone and its a Dahus logo now. I could still view the video in Chrome without the pluggin. The Main, Sub 1 and Sub 2 Streams are all exactly the same as before. However, under the Event menu Smart Plan, IVS and Face Detection have been added. I need to understand these better before I can comment on these new additions.
A downside to the Dahua firmware is the FTP uploaded videos are no longer MP4 format, they have changed to DAV format. Is DAV inherently better than MP4? I tried to go back to the previous Amcrest firmware to get the MP4 format back but it would not accept the Amcrest firmware. Does anyone know a way to go from the Dahua firmware back to the Amcrest firmware?
Thanks,
SRV