New member with ANNKE and DAHUA system

[prxchain]

Hello,

I'm new here, I'm setting up the camera system in my house.

After some problems with a Dahua NVR (NVR5216-4KS2), I purchased the NVR4116HS-EI and it works perfect.

I currently have the ANNKE AC500 cameras (4 in total with 4 more to install)

I know they are not the best cameras, but at the moment I was clear that I wanted to be able to install all the cameras I wanted without going over budget, and those fit the bill.

My intention is to replace them with better models in the points where I see that they are weak. There is no problem because I have somewhere to mount the AC500 cameras that will be removed.

I also have a Dahua video intercom mounted, the VTO2202F-P with its VTH.


Currently I would like to be able to adjust the image quality to have a good vision both during the day and especially at night. The location of some cameras causes them to focus towards lights that are on at night and that makes the image very bad, any recommendations for this?



All the best

 

[wittaj]

In terms of getting the most out of the camera, here is my "standard" post that many use as a start for dialing in day and night that helps get the clean captures and help the camera recognize people and cars.

Start with:

H264
8192 bitrate
CBR
15FPS
15 iframes

Every field of view is different, but I have found you need contrast to usually be 6-8 higher than the brightness number at night.

We want the ability to freeze frame capture a clean image from the video at night, and that is only done with a shutter of 1/60 or faster. At night, default/auto may be on 1/12s shutter or worse to make the image bright.

In my opinion, shutter (exposure) and gain are the two most important parameters and then base the others off of it. Shutter is more important than FPS. It is the shutter speed that prevents motion blur, not FPS. 15 FPS is more than enough for surveillance cameras as we are not producing Hollywood movies. Match iframes to FPS. 15FPS is all that is usually needed.

Many people do not realize there is manual shutter that lets you adjust shutter and gain and a shutter priority that only lets you adjust shutter speed but not gain. The higher the gain, the bigger the noise and see-through ghosting start to appear because the noise is amplified. Most people select shutter priority and run a faster shutter than they should because it is likely being done at 100 gain, so it is actually defeating their purpose of a faster shutter.

Go into shutter settings and change to manual shutter and start with custom shutter as ms and change to 0-8.3ms and gain 0-50 (night) and 0-4ms exposure and 0-30 gain (day)for starters. Auto could have a shutter speed of 100ms or more with a gain at 100 and shutter priority could result in gain up at 100 which will contribute to significant ghosting and that blinding white you will get from the infrared or white light.

Now what you will notice immediately at night is that your image gets A LOT darker. That faster the shutter, the more light that is needed. But it is a balance. The nice bright night static image results in Casper blur and ghost during motion LOL. What do we want, a nice static image or a clean image when there is motion introduced to the scene?

In the daytime, if it is still too bright, then drop the 4ms down to 3ms then 2ms, etc. You have to play with it for your field of view.

Then at night, if it is too dark, then start adding ms to the time. Go to 10ms, 12ms, etc. until you find what you feel is acceptable as an image. Then have someone walk around and see if you can get a clean shot. Try not to go above 16.67ms (but certainly not above 30ms) as that tends to be the point where blur starts to occur. Conversely, if it is still bright, then drop down in time to get a faster shutter.

You can also adjust brightness and contrast to improve the image. But try not to go above 70 for anything and try to have contrast be at least 7-10 digits higher than brightness.

You can also add some gain to brighten the image - but the higher the gain, the more ghosting you get. Some cameras can go to 70 or so before it is an issue and some can't go over 50.

But adjusting those two settings will have the biggest impact. The next one is noise reduction. Want to keep that as low as possible. Depending on the amount of light you have, you might be able to get down to 40 or so at night (again camera dependent) and 20-30 during the day, but take it as low as you can before it gets too noisy. Again this one is a balance as well. Too smooth and no noise can result in soft images and contribute to blur.

Do not use backlight features until you have exhausted every other parameter setting. And if you do have to use backlight, take it down as low as possible.

After every setting adjustment, have someone walk around outside and see if you can freeze-frame to get a clean image. If not, keep changing until you do. Clean motion pictures are what we are after, not a clean static image.

 

[prxchain]

In terms of getting the most out of the camera, here is my "standard" post that many use as a start for dialing in day and night that helps get the clean captures and help the camera recognize people and cars.

Start with:

H264
8192 bitrate
CBR
15FPS
15 iframes

Every field of view is different, but I have found you need contrast to usually be 6-8 higher than the brightness number at night.

We want the ability to freeze frame capture a clean image from the video at night, and that is only done with a shutter of 1/60 or faster. At night, default/auto may be on 1/12s shutter or worse to make the image bright.

In my opinion, shutter (exposure) and gain are the two most important parameters and then base the others off of it. Shutter is more important than FPS. It is the shutter speed that prevents motion blur, not FPS. 15 FPS is more than enough for surveillance cameras as we are not producing Hollywood movies. Match iframes to FPS. 15FPS is all that is usually needed.

Many people do not realize there is manual shutter that lets you adjust shutter and gain and a shutter priority that only lets you adjust shutter speed but not gain. The higher the gain, the bigger the noise and see-through ghosting start to appear because the noise is amplified. Most people select shutter priority and run a faster shutter than they should because it is likely being done at 100 gain, so it is actually defeating their purpose of a faster shutter.

Go into shutter settings and change to manual shutter and start with custom shutter as ms and change to 0-8.3ms and gain 0-50 (night) and 0-4ms exposure and 0-30 gain (day)for starters. Auto could have a shutter speed of 100ms or more with a gain at 100 and shutter priority could result in gain up at 100 which will contribute to significant ghosting and that blinding white you will get from the infrared or white light.

Now what you will notice immediately at night is that your image gets A LOT darker. That faster the shutter, the more light that is needed. But it is a balance. The nice bright night static image results in Casper blur and ghost during motion LOL. What do we want, a nice static image or a clean image when there is motion introduced to the scene?

In the daytime, if it is still too bright, then drop the 4ms down to 3ms then 2ms, etc. You have to play with it for your field of view.

Then at night, if it is too dark, then start adding ms to the time. Go to 10ms, 12ms, etc. until you find what you feel is acceptable as an image. Then have someone walk around and see if you can get a clean shot. Try not to go above 16.67ms (but certainly not above 30ms) as that tends to be the point where blur starts to occur. Conversely, if it is still bright, then drop down in time to get a faster shutter.

You can also adjust brightness and contrast to improve the image. But try not to go above 70 for anything and try to have contrast be at least 7-10 digits higher than brightness.

You can also add some gain to brighten the image - but the higher the gain, the more ghosting you get. Some cameras can go to 70 or so before it is an issue and some can't go over 50.

But adjusting those two settings will have the biggest impact. The next one is noise reduction. Want to keep that as low as possible. Depending on the amount of light you have, you might be able to get down to 40 or so at night (again camera dependent) and 20-30 during the day, but take it as low as you can before it gets too noisy. Again this one is a balance as well. Too smooth and no noise can result in soft images and contribute to blur.

Do not use backlight features until you have exhausted every other parameter setting. And if you do have to use backlight, take it down as low as possible.

After every setting adjustment, have someone walk around outside and see if you can freeze-frame to get a clean image. If not, keep changing until you do. Clean motion pictures are what we are after, not a clean static image.

Wow, thanks for the advice, I'm going to try configuring what you told me tonight and see how it goes!


Regarding the video configuration, I do not have 8192 bitrate available, I understand that it is best to set the maximum available, 6144 in my case?

Would this config be ok for the main and sub stream?



All the best!

 

[wittaj]

That should work!

 

[prxchain]

Hello, me again!

After the adjustments recommended by @wittaj I have greatly improved the image quality both during the day and at night, thank you!


Now I am with the issue of recording on the NVR where I have a lot of sweat and problems.

After reading several posts with the available parameters, there are still topics that do not fit me.


When the camera is connected to the NVR and I set up motion detection on the NVR, who actually does the motion detection? When the cameras were not in the NVR and I used the ANNKE app, the detection was accurate and the videos started at the right time.

Now with the NVR there are areas where movement is not detected or it only detects it if it is people and not cars.



On the other hand, I have also seen that it is better to use IVS instead of MD? Does it work well if the cameras are not DAHUA? I understand that the IVS is done by the NVR and not the cameras, right?


Currently I have the configuration as follows:

STORAGE RECORD:



ALARM MOTION DETECTION:



As I say, when a car passes in front of the camera it records but if I walk by it does. Will it have to do with human/car detection?



CAMERA MD SETTINGS:



Here the doubt arises again, seeing the "Notify surveullance Center" flag, is this what makes the camera notify the movement to the NVR and it starts recording?


Well, I'm probably asking some "stupid" questions but I would really like to finish understanding everything well and configure it to taste.

 

[wittaj]

I don't have your specific NVR or camera, but generally you want to set all the motion up within the camera not the NVR.

Then in theory for the mix-match brand the NVR should pull the ONVIF triggers from the camera into the NVR.

Whenever you start to use the NVR motion, especially if it has AI attached to it, the bandwidth and overall capabilities of the NVR are reduced in order to accommodate the AI motion, which is why we say to try to do it within the camera GUI so that the camera is doing the heavy lifting.