Is this as good as it gets?

[Eric]

So the LTS LTN8708-P8 NVR and my LTS CMIP3042W turret cameras have been delivered and installed over the weekend and so far so good. I have a few things I still need to do, such as tidy up the cables coming into the NVR as well as run another CAT6 cable.

That said I'm looking at the video feed and just curious if the attached photo is as good as it gets? Not that I'm complaining but if I can change a few settings to further improve the quality then I'm all for it.

I currently have the resolution set to 1920x1080p, 15FPS, and 4096 max bitrate.

 

[ruppmeister]

You have a 4MP camera and NVR that supports up to 5MP, yet you set it to 2MP? If you are looking to improve the picture at all, that would be where I would start. Bump the camera resolution up to 2688x1520.

 

[djangel]

During the day picture quality is not going to change much at your current resolution, even at different exposure settings. Night picture quality is the tricky one, so that's where the challenge really is. Chances are you will need to fine tune night settings, based on area lights, IR lights, exposure, and others. When possible, post a night picture with current settings and I'm pretty sure we can help you fine tune it.

 

[Eric]

You have a 4MP camera and NVR that supports up to 5MP, yet you set it to 2MP? If you are looking to improve the picture at all, that would be where I would start. Bump the camera resolution up to 2688x1520.

I'm guessing setting the resolution to 1920x1080p downgrades the quality from 4MP to 2MP? If that's the case then I certainly didn't realize that. I could have sworn in one of the dozens of threads I've read here so far that someone had suggested settings the cameras to 1080p. I'll try cranking up the resolution now.


EDIT:

I actually changed two things in this capture below. First the resolution from 1920x1080p to 2688x1520 I also changed the video quality from "Higher" to "Highest".

 

[Fruit]

Make sure the bit rate is up to too ~ to like 6000-7000 Kbps

 

[djangel]

Make sure the bit rate is up to too ~ to like 6000-7000 Kbps

I would double it to 8192 kbps.

 

[Eric]

During the day picture quality is not going to change much at your current resolution, even at different exposure settings. Night picture quality is the tricky one, so that's where the challenge really is. Chances are you will need to fine tune night settings, based on area lights, IR lights, exposure, and others. When possible, post a night picture with current settings and I'm pretty sure we can help you fine tune it.

So I've made the suggested changes... 2688x1520 resolution, 8192 bitrate, video quality "highest" and now here is a night shot capture.

 

[djangel]

That looks pretty good to me. Have you played with backlight settings yet? WDR might make it a little better, but don't go too high on it. Do you have it setup for day/night auto-switch? If so, you might want to consider changing it to schedule and play with the night settings options for more flexibility. What are your exposure settings set to? 1/30? When I configure my cameras the main goal I try to achieve is being able to identify someone's face at night, so as long as you can do that you'll be good. Test walking by the camera at normal speed and around the area, look at the camera, get close to it, go to the street, maybe some quick running, etc and review the recordings. You'll know if you need to increase/decrease exposure, gain, and others. If your recordings are good, and you can easily identify someone in the area, then just leave it as is.

 

[zero-degrees]

Everything looks pretty good! I don't know that you can dial in much more. You reference reading about dropping to 2mp in some threads and that is regarding 3mp cameras and the lines of resolution actually are better at the 2mp size. This does NOT apply to 4mp cameras, the resolution evens out unlike at 3mp. Also you have the turrets with .01 lux so you can't ask for much more out of the night vision. You are getting some IR reflection off the siding and eve but with your placement I don't know if there is much you can do about that however that is what is causing a little bit of the IR wash out.

 

[Eric]

That looks pretty good to me. Have you played with backlight settings yet?

I have not but will try it out.

Do you have it setup for day/night auto-switch? If so, you might want to consider changing it to schedule and play with the night settings options for more flexibility.

Currently set to Auto. I'll see if anything can be gained by setting a schedule.

What are your exposure settings set to? 1/30? When I configure my cameras the main goal I try to achieve is being able to identify someone's face at night, so as long as you can do that you'll be good. Test walking by the camera at normal speed and around the area, look at the camera, get close to it, go to the street, maybe some quick running, etc and review the recordings. You'll know if you need to increase/decrease exposure, gain, and others. If your recordings are good, and you can easily identify someone in the area, then just leave it as is.

I haven't tried walking in front of it, just been sitting here watching the live feed and watching cars go by. Haha, that's certainly a good point.

Everything looks pretty good! I don't know that you can dial in much more. You reference reading about dropping to 2mp in some threads and that is regarding 3mp cameras and the lines of resolution actually are better at the 2mp size. This does NOT apply to 4mp cameras, the resolution evens out unlike at 3mp. Also you have the turrets with .01 lux so you can't ask for much more out of the night vision. You are getting some IR reflection off the siding and eve but with your placement I don't know if there is much you can do about that however that is what is causing a little bit of the IR wash out.

Okay, I knew I wasn't going crazy and that I had read that somewhere. Just happened to be applying that info to the wrong cameras. Placement wise, you are correct about the siding, but for this location there isn't much I can do. If I move it to the left it's only going to catch the garage door. Giving the location I'm actually rather impressed with the night shots. I have a camera in the back yard that does a pretty good job but I believe I'm going to need an external IR lamp to improve the night vision a bit more as there really isn't any light back there unless the motion light is set off.

 

[Del Boy]

Post your settings. If these are 2332 replicas then WDR at 10 seems to work well. Put noise reduction at 100 and see if any ghosting. If so then lower to 50. Trial and error on that I'm afraid.

 

[ruppmeister]

Like others have already pointed out, changing the 3MP cams to 2MP can sometimes get you a betting image, and certainly changes the viewing area from tall (3MP mode) to long (2MP mode). This shouldn't be any concern to you since you have the 4MP camera though. Only reason to drop it down from 4MP at this point would be to conserve on both bandwidth and storage space, but then again, go full speed until you have to make those changes.

As for the recommendation to turn on WDR, folks are having some mixed results with it. Some think the picture color and clarity become washed out with these new 4MP cams and turning on the WDR. Your mileage might vary.

And like Del Boy said, the night image settings are something you are just going to have to play with until you are happy with them. Each install is just a touch different depending on the camera, settings, and environment installed in.

Good luck and congrats on the camera purchase. Those are some nice cameras for sure.

 

[Del Boy]

Like others have already pointed out, changing the 3MP cams to 2MP can sometimes get you a betting image, and certainly changes the viewing area from tall (3MP mode) to long (2MP mode). This shouldn't be any concern to you since you have the 4MP camera though. Only reason to drop it down from 4MP at this point would be to conserve on both bandwidth and storage space, but then again, go full speed until you have to make those changes.

As for the recommendation to turn on WDR, folks are having some mixed results with it. Some think the picture color and clarity become washed out with these new 4MP cams and turning on the WDR. Your mileage might vary.

And like Del Boy said, the night image settings are something you are just going to have to play with until you are happy with them. Each install is just a touch different depending on the camera, settings, and environment installed in.

Good luck and congrats on the camera purchase. Those are some nice cameras for sure.

Oh crap, these are 4MP cameras. Don't do what I said, copy the settings I set in the other thread. Putting the ones in this thread will make your camera ghost and look horrible!

Edit: https://www.ipcamtalk.com/showthread.php/5531-4mp-cams/page2