Thank you for this response. I am slowly walking through each and every setting, painstakingly changing just one measure at a time, then capturing a video, and then changing the next setting to see the results.
Luckily (or unluckily), I have quite a bit of traffic in and out of the neighborhood, so I am able to capture the next video quickly as I go through this.
NOTHING I have done is able to capture the high quality and clear nightime views of the both the vehicle and the plates like you have. I can get the setting so that it looks like a dark screen, then when the vehicle enters or exits, I am able to clearly see the license plate, but so far I haven't been able to get the grey scale looking views you have achieved. I will keep trying different combinations of settings though.
Also, a quick question: Dusk and Dawn provide grainy images that do not clearly show the license plate numbers, no matter if I am using the NIGHT settings to cover that span or DAY settings. Are you having the same experience?