Lost - With Dahua Smart PSS

[virtua.jdub]

Hello fellow members! I recently received my Dahua IPC-HFW5231E-Z - and I've been trying to figure out how to set them up. I've changed the IPs on all the cameras per instruction and changed the password. I can successfully login to each cam and adjust the various settings.

That said, I'm trying to setup the Smart PSS software to get a sense of how to manage the camera content. I was planning on using Blue Iris, but I wanted to test out the IVS funcitonality first.

I followed the Dahua Wiki and Youtube guides on how to setup the Smart PSS software, but I can not seem to get it to record to my computer. It appears the NVR has allocated space on HD to record content, but nothing is recording. Any thoughts on what I'm missing?

I've included images of my setup for convenience.

Thanks for your assistance in advance.

J

 

[virtua.jdub]

Holy smokes. Alot of trial and error to debug this issue - Smart PSS 2.00.1. By all accounts I followed the guide properly and the software was configured properly. However, it turns out the camera I was testing was "buggy". The camera was corrupted by the SD Card. I reloaded the firmware multiple times to restore camera. I changed the IP address multiple times. I tried installing and testing on another computer which used Windows 7 instead of Windows 10 - still no luck. I ended up simply trying a another one of my cameras - and the recording/playback worked. I tried another camera, and that also worked. So it turned out the issue was related to the one camera. Restoring the firmware is only part of the solution. I had to restore "default" by logging into the camera - and that fixed the issue.

Setting up Smart PSS 2.00.1 is relatively straightforward :

That said I would avoid using SD Cards altogether - the cards get corrupted easily - and ends up corrupting the camera as well. If you run into issues with the camera, be sure to reload a working Firmware and restore Default.

 

[aristobrat]

If you have a chance, I'm curious about the brand/size of the SD cards used. I've seen others have problems with some SD cards, while other SD cards run perfectly.

 

[virtua.jdub]

Hi @aristobrat, I had a 64GB Lexar, and 2 x 64GB Silicon Power Elite. I think toggling between H265 and H264 encoding methods, as well as trying to format the cards from within the camera were part of the problem. @EMPIRETECANDY also indicated to me there were some problems using SD Cards.

If you're new to all of this, like me, test the setup first before installing everything. The last thing you want to be doing is climbing up multiple times, to take down the cameras to uninstall the SD Cards later. Until Dahua can get the SD Card issues sorted out - its best to test and configure without the cards installed first.

 

[virtua.jdub]

@aristobrat, I see that you use Smart PSS as well. Do you have your setup working with your mobile phone? I can get LIVE VIEW working properly by adding the cameras using the QR code (P2P). Were you able to add your PC NVR - and get notifications and playback working on your mobile device?

Conversely, I was wondering if there's a way to access view content remotely from another computer?

 

[aristobrat]

To view from another computer (on the same network), you should be able to install the SmartPSS client and just add the IP address of the PC-NVR in the Devices area.

I never found a way to get P2P to work with PC-NVR. It worked great with a real NVR and the family loved it for live views. Viewing clips of was next to impossible (in terms of hassle).

The suggested alternative to P2P is to setup a VPN back to your house, at which point the smartphone apps should work (with the same configuration they use when you're at home), but that got a huge thumbs-down from the rest of the family. The other alternative is to port forward the ports used by PC-NVR. I wasn't comfortable with this at all (because I don't trust Dahua's code that much).

I'm now on Blue Iris, and other than the iOS app being $9.99, I find being able to do playback of clips is a ton easier than with the Dahua smartphone apps. I am doing port forwarding with Blue Iris. I feel way more comfortable with its author, how quickly he patches things, as well as the connection monitoring that shows me all of the IPs that connect.

 

[virtua.jdub]

Hi @aristobrat, thank you for your insight. When I first got into this whole setup, I was planning on going with Blue Iris. But because I wanted to take advantage of the IVS functionality, I decided to give the Dahua software a try first. That said, although it works for my needs in the most generic sense - I think Blue Iris will be the path forward for me based on your comments. Do you have some tips or advice with starting up with Blue Iris?

Thanks
J