Newbie Help needed for Night time LPR

passat774

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I purchased the Lorex system 4k, 6 camera system with the Lorex LNB8005B cameras.

I have set up one camera in my cul-de-sac in a tree about 4' high so I can read the plates. During the day I can read plates all day long. At night, I get nothing just a blur.

Being just a basic system, is it possible to adjust the camera at all so I can have any chance of reading a plate at night?

Thanks
 

mat200

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I purchased the Lorex system 4k, 6 camera system with the Lorex LNB8005B cameras.

I have set up one camera in my cul-de-sac in a tree about 4' high so I can read the plates. During the day I can read plates all day long. At night, I get nothing just a blur.

Being just a basic system, is it possible to adjust the camera at all so I can have any chance of reading a plate at night?

Thanks
Welcome @passat774

Night time capture of license plates is a bit of an art form - please see the LPR section for more info
 

richardgohth

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Can the camera's shutter speed be configured?
Else point the camera to where the car is slowest.
 

passat774

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I did more research and logged into my cameras directly tonight.

I turned on HLC which stands for highlight compensation, the camera can detect the strong spots (the over-exposure portion of image), then reduce the brightness of the strong spots to improve the overall images. This function is designed to allow camera capture vehicle plate license.

This should do the trick, did a quick test tonight and it seems much better.
 
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Some people run into problems with nighttime LPR operation because they try to capture details about the car as well as the license plate using the same camera. That works fine for daytime operation, but not nighttime.

Don't try to capture anything besides the license plate at night with your LPR camera. Set the shutter to 1/1000 or 1/2000 seconds for night mode, and all you'll see are the head / taillights and the reflected license plate. However, the quality of the captured plate should be quite good.

If you also want to capture details about the automobile itself, you'll need a second camera with a shutter speed of 1/60 to 1/180 seconds.
 

passat774

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I can not figure out how to adjust the shutter speed on my Lorex camera and NVR :(

I tried logging in directly to the camera and can not find a place to adjust it...
 
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I can not figure out how to adjust the shutter speed on my Lorex camera and NVR :(

I tried logging in directly to the camera and can not find a place to adjust it...
It looks as if this model of camera is essentially a rebranded Dahua camera, possibly the IPC-HFW4830E-S or some variant. If so, you should be able to log in using a web browser, and configure it directly. Can you do that?

If you can, click on the "Settings" menu, then "Camera", then "Conditions". Click the "Exposure" bullet item, then switch Mode to "Shutter Priority" or "Manual".
 
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Hmm. The Lorex interface is quite a bit different that the Dahua interface, but there's enough similarity to make me think there may be some way to manually adjust the shutter time. I'm afraid I don't have any suggestions, beyond you trying the "Recording" tab, or changing the "Configuration Files" selection.

But it could be that the Lorex firmware won't give you control over those settings, because it's designed to work strictly with the Lorex NVR. In that case, you may be out of luck.
 

Burton_Flooring

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You're in the recorders web UI, which will not let you adjust shutter speeds. You need to access the camera directly.

Option 1: Plug the camera into the same router/switch that your computer is plugged into.

Download ONVIF Device Manager ONVIF Device Manager and install.

It will show you the IP Address of the Camera and NVR connected to your router, then all you have to do is login to the camera's IP address and you should see the CAMERA'S WEB UI (which hopefully includes the option to adjust the shutter speed).

Option 2: Plug your computer into the NVR. If the NVR assigns you an IP address automatically, you should be able to simply open a browser and type in the Camera's IP Address. Go to the "Remote Device" (which is probably analogous to "Registration" in Dahua) to view the connected cameras and their respective IP Addresses.Capture.PNG

Does the Lorex WebUI for the NVR have the "WEB Browse" Column that's in this screenshot? If so you can simply click the blue "E" Icon to open up the camera's UI directly. Let me know.
 

passat774

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Ok, finally over the huge hurdle of getting logged into the camera.. Thanks guys for all the help, finally plugged into an additional open channel turned off Wi-Fi and now can adjust the shutter speed!!

Now onto the settings, I set the camera to 1/2000 for nighttime any other suggestions?

The camera looking at the plates is only needed for just that, I have other camera covering the complete area to get a description of the car.
 
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Ok, finally over the huge hurdle of getting logged into the camera.. Thanks guys for all the help, finally plugged into an additional open channel turned off Wi-Fi and now can adjust the shutter speed!!

Now onto the settings, I set the camera to 1/2000 for nighttime any other suggestions?

The camera looking at the plates is only needed for just that, I have other camera covering the complete area to get a description of the car.
Check the frames per second setting. I find that 20 fps works well for me, where cars pass my house traveling at about 30 mph, with the cameras mounted about 60 feet from the road.

Next, check to see if you can read plates at night. Depending on the angle and the distance of the camera, you may want to try different shutter speed settings to find the optimum balance between image brightness and readability of the plates. One issue you'll be dealing with is that you don't have the luxury of optical zoom with your cameras. I assume you must have them mounted quite close to the road if you're able to read plates with them.
 

passat774

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Thanks, cars come close enough, zoom has not been an issue. I just need to drive around and test myself, my car count is so low I typically do not see any cars most nights.
 
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