Howdy!

[philhockey13]

Figured I should start here and say hi!

I have played around with security camera for a little while now and I need some assistance to fulfill my tinkering itch. I'm currently using a solution that is auto-configured but locks down the nitty gritty. Its a great solution for some people but the quality doesn't cut it for me. My biggest gripes are that my video is either pixelated or motion is blurry.

I have a some background in IT/Networking so I should be able to pick up the configuration side of things pretty quick but I will likely need a little guidance. I'm willing to put in the time to actually read articles so I understand what I'm actually doing so don't feel bad dropping links. If anything I encourage it! I think my biggest struggle will be image and compression settings.

Here is what I have going on wand what I want to do.

I want a camera(s) to record the wildlife behind my house and eventually some security cams(are my priorities mixed up? :laugh. Things get ugly quick (pixelation/artifacts) when there is low light or the camera is in night mode w/ IR. Daytime is what I would consider OK but the motion is far from fluid.

Here's an example.




This was recorded from one of my Vivotek cameras that I dont have full access to. I want something much better than this. I'm guessing the big question is how much I want to spend. To that I would say I'm willing to look at anything from 100-300 for the camera. Maybe a little more if its really worth it.

I also have a few Axis cameras I can play with. They are connected to a service as well but if disconnected I can do as I please.

Axis:
M1025
M3024-L
M7014
M3004

These are pointed to a NAS - ix2-dl

Anyway, glad to be here. I'm looking forward to scoping out the scene and learning about whats available.

 

[fenderman]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[bp2008]

In that video above it looks like the exposure time is too long, which causes that blur. See if you can increase it. 1/30th of a second is usually a decent balance though in some cases with slower moving subjects 1/15 is acceptable. 1/60 would produce much sharper images but of course it would not work well at all in low light.

Sadly, not all cameras have user-configurable exposure time options so you just have to live with their autoexposure. The only way to know is to look in the camera's web interface.

Just FYI, most exposure time options do not strictly enforce the specific exposure time you set, but instead act as an exposure limit. For example if you set the camera to 1/30 then it should never do longer exposures like 1/15 or 1/4. But it would move to shorter exposure times throughout the day, like 1/60, 1/120, 1/2000, or whatever is necessary for the current lighting conditions. I actually have some silly chinese cameras that can't reduce the exposure time far enough to not overexpose on a bright sunny day with snow on the ground.


For your pixelation and artifacts issues, these are often caused by some factor in your system being inadequate. And it could be a lot of things there. Maybe the cameras run on WiFi and like most WiFi it underperforms, causing data loss (or delayed video packets which is effectively the same thing as loss when you are doing real-time streaming). Maybe the CPU is overburdened on the camera or on the decoding device. Maybe the bit rate is just set too low. Maybe the firmware is buggy. If your camera has an i-frame interval option in the encoder settings, set it to match the frame rate so you get one i-frame per second. This helps in some cases.

Anyway, for good cameras under $300 look no further than Hikvision and Dahua brands. You can get 3MP cameras from both of them for $100, give or take, with or without any kind of warranty depending on where you buy them from. Dahua's cameras are usually better in low light but I personally have always had better luck with Hikvision's firmware than with Dahua's. In the end, both are great choices and will save you money that you can use to install extra IR illuminators for better night vision.

 

[philhockey13]

Thanks for all the info!

This is in fact a wireless camera. However, the other 2 POE cameras that are practically identical in specs have the same kind of issue.

I do have the option to go from CBR and VBR. I need to do a little more research but it sounds like I would need to play with it to dial it in.

As far as the exposure, I know there is an option to set exposure levels at different times of the days. I'll have to dig in and see how this works. I do have a 48 ir led external illuminator. I also think another one of my problems is that I have a photoelectric beam sensor http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008G6NLGK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 connected to the IO port but the reflector create a hot spot in the middle of the image at night. I think the camera is trying to auto adjust the image to this hot spot. This is just a guess though.


After lurking the forums for a few hours last night I decided to go with a hikvision 2032. The image quality that other 2032 owners look great. I will be setting this up to my PC using blue iris.