IPC-HDW5231R-Z Grey screen on recordings

[Philip Gonzales]

H265 works fine on BI latest version with 6 Dahua starlight cameras. CPU only 16-20% recording on movement only and direct to disk hw decode no vpp on a i7 4700HQ laptop

So you have hardware decoding on? Maybe I need to enable this to get h.265 working? My CPU usage is less than 10% with 3 cheap 2MP cams and one Dahua Starlight. Do you have to have a certain CPU for hw decoding? Guess I need to read up on this. I have two Xeon E5520 Cpu's. I use an actual server because I already run it 24X7 and all it is is an SMB server and now Blue Iris. I'll look into enabling HW decoding, maybe this will be my answer.

 

[i286]

*Does NOT work after several hours longer testing...*

So, I think I'd like to report my findings so far, to be taken with a grain of salt.
Latest update of Blue Iris recently, and I think issue started around then, but I was also tweaking cam settings so?!?

Anyway I am getting the EXACT same symptoms on all 4 of my cams as per this thread. Live view is great... only on recordings... weird.
Today I noticed one of my recent changes was to the hardware decoding.

I returned each cam to Default (from No) and then set the global options to Yes (H.264) - from off.
This seems to have returned my (new) recorded clips play back properly without any black or grey screens. New clips work in Android app good again

Will update if it turns out it does not work, but so far seems solid as usual again.

EDIT: I should note I am using almost mirror identical settings to OP, apart from double bitrate/25FPS

Edit2: doesn't work as permanent solution. Lasted slightly longer then usual tho before back to black screens

 

[i286]

Also where did you get your firmware? I swear on the site, the latest is as per my cam firmware?!

Output from Blue Iris inspect cam, all are on same firmware.
Manufacturer: Dahua
Model: IPC-HDW5231R-Z
FirmwareVersion: 2.460.Dahua 00.7.R, build: 2017-03-06

EDIT...: Link to newer version firmware that is not available on their site...
Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z)

 

[Philip Gonzales]

So, I think I'd like to report my findings so far, to be taken with a grain of salt.
Latest update of Blue Iris recently, and I think issue started around then, but I was also tweaking cam settings so?!?

Anyway I am getting the EXACT same symptoms on all 4 of my cams as per this thread. Live view is great... only on recordings... weird.
Today I noticed one of my recent changes was to the hardware decoding.

I returned each cam to Default (from No) and then set the global options to Yes (H.264) - from off.
This seems to have returned my (new) recorded clips play back properly without any black or grey screens. New clips work in Android app good again

Will update if it turns out it does not work, but so far seems solid as usual again.

EDIT: I should note I am using almost mirror identical settings to OP, apart from double bitrate/25FPS

It doesn't look like this option will work for me since my CPU does not support Intel Quick Sync, so looks like I may need to just stick with H.265?

Also where did you get your firmware? I swear on the site, the latest is as per my cam firmware?!

Output from Blue Iris inspect cam, all are on same firmware.
Manufacturer: Dahua
Model: IPC-HDW5231R-Z
FirmwareVersion: 2.460.Dahua 00.7.R, build: 2017-03-06

Firmware came loaded on camera, received from Andy on 09/28/2017. I did find it weird that the website does not have any information about this firmware. I assume my camera is the PAL version based on the link?

DAHUA 2.7mm ~12mm motorized lens 2MP WDR IR Eyeball Network Camera IPC HDW5231R Z ,free DHL shipping-in Surveillance Cameras from Security & Protection on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

2017-10-05_8-19-19 by philipgonzales3, on Flickr

@EMPIRETECANDY how do you get such new firmware? Newer than the website?

 

[i286]

It doesn't look like this option will work for me since my CPU does not support Intel Quick Sync, so looks like I may need to just stick with H.265?

I am using a i7 4790 which I dont believe handles and H.265 support via Blue Iris. I don't actually understand why this worked for me, but may be worth checking on a problem camera, set the global option to Yes (H.264) and camera to default so it uses the global setting.
As I write, it is still working great, its been broken for a few days on all 4 cams :/

Firmware came loaded on camera, received from Andy on 09/28/2017. I did find it weird that the website does not have any information about this firmware. I assume my camera is the PAL version based on the link?

Yeah not sure how you get the new version but I edited my post about it, found a source of the firmware from another forum member.
Have not tried it yet, would love a change log for all firwares.

 

[i286]

Also I did notice this which prompted me to play with the hardware support options in Blue Iris today.
After I changed the global option to disable hardware support and each cam to No, my CPU went down to around 20-22%. I then upgraded to latest Blue Iris and noticed all the issues start.

After my changes above to re-enable hardware support it is now back up to its standard old 27-30% CPU usage with the existing 4 cams on H.265 and no more issues it seems.

 

[tspicer]

I too am getting the black screen on record playback but only on 2 of my 5 cams.. I will try and look into the settings.. All are on .265 . I found the issue this morning and Couldn't find a fix so I reset all cams by dropping power to the poe switch and all were playing back fine when I went to work. Come home for lunch and 1 has reverted to black. Started on 10/3.

 

[i286]

Bugger. While it lasted several hours longer then any other time, this morning, after sleep its back to usual black screens...

I'll edit my post above.
Now to find how to downgrade blue iris

 

[hevnsnt]

Bugger. While it lasted several hours longer then any other time, this morning, after sleep its back to usual black screens...

I'll edit my post above.
Now to find how to downgrade blue iris

When I moved all mine to H264 (see above) and forced all HW decode to off, mine is working perfectly. Make sure you try that first.

Camera Setup

Blue Iris

 

[fenderman]

When I moved all mine to H264 (see above) and forced all HW decode to off, mine is working perfectly. Make sure you try that first.

Camera Setup

Blue Iris

HW decoding works with this cam...you should not have to turn it off..

 

[i286]

When I moved all mine to H264 (see above) and forced all HW decode to off, mine is working perfectly. Make sure you try that first.

Hmm I do also believe H.264 will work around the issue but there is significant differences in file size H.264/H.265 of course. H.264 has benefits of hardware support of course but I think I'd prefer it to stay on H.265 as it was prior to whatever made this broken (presume the updates unfortunately going by the version information).

I am now trying to find 4.6.1, 4.5.9 and 4.5.8 to retest with. Any help anyone Ill be changing my upgrades procedure from now on and backup up update files etc but I do not have the old versions currently. Thanks!

HW decoding works with this cam...you should not have to turn it off..

Yep agree!

 

[i286]

I found a full install of 4.5.8.5 in my download folder in the server. Phew
Just installed it and will see how it goes... Ill see what my last version was before 4.6.2.1 a bit later

 

[i286]

Almost a full day now on 4.5.8.5 with no problem in sight. I'll try locate some later version to see where it starts. I have done some updates from this one but can't remeber what version I had last. Hopefully will be in Windows event history.

So good news. I'll email Ken about this thread. Can do some testing as required.

 

[Philip Gonzales]

Ken got back to me and is going to try to reproduce the problem using my 5231R. Funny thing is I set it back to h265 and haven't seen the issue in 24 hours so far. I guess it's kind of like when you take your car to the mechanic and it stops misbehaving. Hopefully I can reproduce the problem.

 

[i286]

If you fail to reproduce it, I'd be happy to offer assistance. Mine was constant. Took about 1 hour to 3 hours for it to break and no display. Im happy to go up down versions, work been a bit crazy so haven't had time to email Ken just yet.

Sounds like progress

 

[tspicer]

I'm Also really having a hard time with h265 now. Added a new 5231 camera last night and woke up to black recordings. reset it but on motion now goes to grey . Going to change them back to 264 i guess. Crazy thing is it is not all my cameras.

 

[Philip Gonzales]

Well the issue came back again. Here is the email that I sent Ken. See attached videos as I am sure you guys are having the same issue as me.

"Hi Ken,

So I watched closely for the issue to return. Seems to have taken about 24 hours to reappear.

At around 11:40 PM last night the video started going grey again. Here is an export of what it looked like. Although I didn't export a very long video the video goes back to regular and back to grey screen back and fourth for the next 20 minutes or so. The video below is during one of the grey screen moments.


Right at midnight (I have my clips set to cut every 2 hours) the new clip starts off completely black screen. at 11:59 the screen was grey. But on the new clip it starts out black. I believe all the recording after that until now is black.

Here is a clip of the black screen.


I also had the black screen during recording right when made the switch back to H.265 for you to test. I figured the camera just needed a reboot. After reboot it seemed the video recording did good for about 24 hours or so.

Let me know what you think.

Regards,

Philip"

 

[Philip Gonzales]

See Ken's reply below. Doesn't seem that he thinks it is a software problem.

"Hello Philip

OK so the software can decode the H.265 stream, it just finds trouble after 24 hours? This may not be a problem with the software then ...

Does it resolve if you right-click in the video window and select Restart? Or open camera properties and OK. If so, maybe you can use the option on the Watchdog tab to restart the stream each X hours.

Thanks

Ken"

See my response below. Hopefully this will help him find the issue.

""Hi Ken,

The amount of time it takes to have issues varies. It could be 24 hours or it could be one or two hours. The issue does resolve itself temporarily with a reboot. What's odd is that live view work during this time and so do the email alerts. I have my alerts set to send me 5 pictures on motion and those pictures still come through even when the recording has a black or grey screen.

It does indeed seem to be a problem with the software as the issue appeared for several people after the BI updates. user i286 was able to resolve his issue by downgrading to 4.5.8.5 another user reported that their problem started on 10/03.

I think you can see the forum as a guest, I'll include the link below just in case but I have quoted the people having the same issue as me.



hevnsnt: "I also had this problem after the latest update. My cameras (IPC-HDW5231R-Z) were configured for H.265 (see img below) and was getting black on record. I moved moved my encode mode to H.264 and it is now working as expected. What was changed in the BI H.265 decoding?"
"When I moved all mine to H264 (see above) and forced all HW decode to off, mine is working perfectly. Make sure you try that first."
tspicer: "I too am getting the black screen on record playback but only on 2 of my 5 cams.. I will try and look into the settings.. All are on .265 . I found the issue this morning and Couldn't find a fix so I reset all cams by dropping power to the poe switch and all were playing back fine when I went to work. Come home for lunch and 1 has reverted to black. Started on 10/3." According to his signature he has 6 Dahua IPC-5231HDWR-Z
i286: "*Does NOT work after several hours longer testing...*

So, I think I'd like to report my findings so far, to be taken with a grain of salt.
Latest update of Blue Iris recently, and I think issue started around then, but I was also tweaking cam settings so?!?

Anyway I am getting the EXACT same symptoms on all 4 of my cams as per this thread. Live view is great... only on recordings... weird.
Today I noticed one of my recent changes was to the hardware decoding.

I returned each cam to Default (from No) and then set the global options to Yes (H.264) - from off.
This seems to have returned my (new) recorded clips play back properly without any black or grey screens. New clips work in Android app good again

Will update if it turns out it does not work, but so far seems solid as usual again.

EDIT: I should note I am using almost mirror identical settings to OP, apart from double bitrate/25FPS

Edit2: doesn't work as permanent solution. Lasted slightly longer then usual tho before back to black screens"
After downgrading versions
"Almost a full day now on 4.5.8.5 with no problem in sight. I'll try locate some later version to see where it starts. I have done some updates from this one but can't remember what version I had last. Hopefully will be in Windows event history.

So good news. I'll email Ken about this thread. Can do some testing as required."

Let me know if you want me to leave my cam available for testing. ""

Maybe it may be best for others to email Ken regarding this issue also so he can troubleshoot?

 

[hevnsnt]

I just wanted to comment that the Grey/Black screen recordings (live is fine) shown here was exactly the same that I experienced. Since moving to H264 I have not had any issues. I agree I would like to move back to H265, but for now H264 has resolved my immediate issues.

Well the issue came back again. Here is the email that I sent Ken. See attached videos as I am sure you guys are having the same issue as me.

"Hi Ken,

So I watched closely for the issue to return. Seems to have taken about 24 hours to reappear.

At around 11:40 PM last night the video started going grey again. Here is an export of what it looked like. Although I didn't export a very long video the video goes back to regular and back to grey screen back and fourth for the next 20 minutes or so. The video below is during one of the grey screen moments.


Right at midnight (I have my clips set to cut every 2 hours) the new clip starts off completely black screen. at 11:59 the screen was grey. But on the new clip it starts out black. I believe all the recording after that until now is black.

Here is a clip of the black screen.


I also had the black screen during recording right when made the switch back to H.265 for you to test. I figured the camera just needed a reboot. After reboot it seemed the video recording did good for about 24 hours or so.

Let me know what you think.

Regards,

Philip"

 

[i286]

Update, I threw on the update 4.6.3.0 and the first recording after updates is black screen already :/ all of maybe 20 mins. Will email Ken separately and. Downgrade to 4.5.8.5 again. Was excited but turns out still issue in latest version.