Hi. I bought a PTZ1A225NHR-XA camera from Andy and I'm having trouble with the settings. There is a lot of image noise and ghosting. You can see it on the birds in this video. Anyone can help me with the settings?
PTZ1A225HNR-XA ghosting
- Thread starter lobudek
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It's usually related to using too much gain and too slow a shutter. Not familiar with the camera or sensor size but you may be asking it to provide a lighter picture in the dark than it's capable of when movement is involved.
Best way to get help is post a screenshot of your settings then those who are familiar with his can have a look for any mistakes.
Best way to get help is post a screenshot of your settings then those who are familiar with his can have a look for any mistakes.
I think you are maxing out the CPU of that camera.
H264 for both main and substream; 8192 bitrate mainstream and 1024 substream and 15 FPS and 15 iframes for both.
At night, those parameters will never work. Iris at 100 is killing you.
At night try
Shutter 0-16.67
Gain 0-50
Iris 0-65
2d NR 30
3d NR 30
No reason to run more than 15FPS, and many us have cams running at 10 to 12 FPS. Movies for the big screen are shot at 24FPS, so I do not think we need that for these cameras LOL. The goal is to get a clean image, not smooth motion.
Keep in mind that these type of cameras, although are spec'd and capable of these various parameters, real world testing by many of us shows if you try to run these units at higher FPS and higher bitrates than needed that you will max out the CPU in the unit and then it bugs out just long enough that you miss something or video is choppy or pixelated or you get lost signals. My car is rated for 6,000RPM redline, but I am not gonna run it in 3rd gear on the highway at 6,000RPM...same with these types of units - gotta keep them under rated capacity. Some may do better than others, but trying to use the rated "spec" of every option available is usually not going to work well, either with a car or a camera or NVR.
Look at all the threads where people came here with a jitter in the video or video dropping signal or IVS missing motion or the SD card doesn't overwrite and they were running 30FPS and when people tell them to drop the FPS and they dropped the FPS to 15FPS the camera became stable and they could actual freeze frame the image to get a clean capture. The goal of these cameras are to capture a perp, not capture smooth motion. When we see the news, are they showing the video or a freeze frame screen shot? Nobody cares if it isn't butter smooth...getting the features to make an ID is the important factor. As always, YMMV...
Further, these types of cameras are not GoPro or Hollywood type cameras that offer slow-mo capabilities and other features. They "offer" 30FPS and 60FPS to appease the general public that thinks that is what they need, but you will not find many of us here running more than 15 FPS; and movies are shot at 24 FPS, so anything above that is a waste of storage space for what these cameras are used for. If 24 FPS works for the big screen, I think 15 FPS is more than enough for phones and tablets and most monitors LOL. Many of my cameras are running at 12FPS.
In fact, many times if a CPU is maxing out, if it doesn't drop signal, then it will adhere to the FPS but then slow the shutter down to try to not max the CPU, which then produces a smooth blurry image..that is the video my neighbor gets who insists on running 60FPS. He gets smooth walking people but you can't freeze frame it cause every frame is a blur, meanwhile my 12FPS gets the clean freeze frame. Shutter speed is more important the FPS. We both run the same shutter speed by the way, but his camera CPU is maxing out and something gotta give when you push it that hard.
H264 for both main and substream; 8192 bitrate mainstream and 1024 substream and 15 FPS and 15 iframes for both.
At night, those parameters will never work. Iris at 100 is killing you.
At night try
Shutter 0-16.67
Gain 0-50
Iris 0-65
2d NR 30
3d NR 30
No reason to run more than 15FPS, and many us have cams running at 10 to 12 FPS. Movies for the big screen are shot at 24FPS, so I do not think we need that for these cameras LOL. The goal is to get a clean image, not smooth motion.
Keep in mind that these type of cameras, although are spec'd and capable of these various parameters, real world testing by many of us shows if you try to run these units at higher FPS and higher bitrates than needed that you will max out the CPU in the unit and then it bugs out just long enough that you miss something or video is choppy or pixelated or you get lost signals. My car is rated for 6,000RPM redline, but I am not gonna run it in 3rd gear on the highway at 6,000RPM...same with these types of units - gotta keep them under rated capacity. Some may do better than others, but trying to use the rated "spec" of every option available is usually not going to work well, either with a car or a camera or NVR.
Look at all the threads where people came here with a jitter in the video or video dropping signal or IVS missing motion or the SD card doesn't overwrite and they were running 30FPS and when people tell them to drop the FPS and they dropped the FPS to 15FPS the camera became stable and they could actual freeze frame the image to get a clean capture. The goal of these cameras are to capture a perp, not capture smooth motion. When we see the news, are they showing the video or a freeze frame screen shot? Nobody cares if it isn't butter smooth...getting the features to make an ID is the important factor. As always, YMMV...
Further, these types of cameras are not GoPro or Hollywood type cameras that offer slow-mo capabilities and other features. They "offer" 30FPS and 60FPS to appease the general public that thinks that is what they need, but you will not find many of us here running more than 15 FPS; and movies are shot at 24 FPS, so anything above that is a waste of storage space for what these cameras are used for. If 24 FPS works for the big screen, I think 15 FPS is more than enough for phones and tablets and most monitors LOL. Many of my cameras are running at 12FPS.
In fact, many times if a CPU is maxing out, if it doesn't drop signal, then it will adhere to the FPS but then slow the shutter down to try to not max the CPU, which then produces a smooth blurry image..that is the video my neighbor gets who insists on running 60FPS. He gets smooth walking people but you can't freeze frame it cause every frame is a blur, meanwhile my 12FPS gets the clean freeze frame. Shutter speed is more important the FPS. We both run the same shutter speed by the way, but his camera CPU is maxing out and something gotta give when you push it that hard.
Thanks for the reply. I generally use the camera as a spotting scope, not as typical surveillance. I happen to watch animals, planes at high altitude and the night sky. I care about the best possible image quality. I previously had a Hikvision DS-2DE7225IW and the image quality was much better. I replaced it because it did not allow to watch the sky.
I'm looking for settings that will give me the best possible picture, without ghosting or other artifacts.
I'm looking for settings that will give me the best possible picture, without ghosting or other artifacts.
My advice still stands regardless of the intended use. You may be able to slow the shutter down a bit more for planes at distance and the night sky, but if you try to push the limits of every parameter of the camera, it will give somewhere.
Try my suggestions and see what happens.
Try my suggestions and see what happens.
I tried your suggestions and unfortunately the picture quality didn't change much. Even on 12FPS h264 and 8000Kb/s.
Best settings so far:
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Personally I think that is what to be expected of an object that far away at that speed. I can read the airline. I can make out enough details to Identify the plane and airline.
That little "ghosting" (or halo effect) surrounding the object (as opposed to the ghosting where you can see thru the object) is somewhat common on an object with a contrast difference between the object and the background.
This camera is what like half the cost of your Hik camera?
You can try upping the bitrate more and lowering the NR as well and also try increasing the NR - at those distances it may not smear the plane but reduce that halo effect.
That little "ghosting" (or halo effect) surrounding the object (as opposed to the ghosting where you can see thru the object) is somewhat common on an object with a contrast difference between the object and the background.
This camera is what like half the cost of your Hik camera?
You can try upping the bitrate more and lowering the NR as well and also try increasing the NR - at those distances it may not smear the plane but reduce that halo effect.
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The Automation Guy
Known around here
I was going to be funny and say that the "trails" behind the birds from the first video are definitely artifacts, but the trails behind the plane in the second video are not! 
Follow wittaj's advice for your settings. Certainly the settings you posted first are not good. The shutter, gain, and iris settings all effect your exposure. The fact that you have your gain so low and your iris maxed out is not right. It seems that you understand you need to limit the gain setting (but 5 is WAY too low), but don't realize the iris setting is also related and probably shouldn't be maxed out either. By having the gain setting extremely low, it's likely forcing the iris setting to the max even in broad daylight.
I also agree that the second video is pretty impressive. Sure there are some artifacts in the sky around the plane and the plane doesn't have super details, but I think that is the limitations of the camera (sensor size and resolution) more than anything. Of course this is full daylight so most cameras will perform well and it doesn't mean your settings don't need to be tweaked further to maximize the low/no light performance.
Follow wittaj's advice for your settings. Certainly the settings you posted first are not good. The shutter, gain, and iris settings all effect your exposure. The fact that you have your gain so low and your iris maxed out is not right. It seems that you understand you need to limit the gain setting (but 5 is WAY too low), but don't realize the iris setting is also related and probably shouldn't be maxed out either. By having the gain setting extremely low, it's likely forcing the iris setting to the max even in broad daylight.
I also agree that the second video is pretty impressive. Sure there are some artifacts in the sky around the plane and the plane doesn't have super details, but I think that is the limitations of the camera (sensor size and resolution) more than anything. Of course this is full daylight so most cameras will perform well and it doesn't mean your settings don't need to be tweaked further to maximize the low/no light performance.
Off topic, sorry. In this video, are you manually following the plane or is it being tracked via the built in autotracking feature? I'm seriously considering replacing my old PTZ1A225U-IRA-N with this one, because of the autotracking features.I tried your suggestions and unfortunately the picture quality didn't change much. Even on 12FPS h264 and 8000Kb/s.
Best settings so far:
OK, thanks! Would love to hear from someone who has utilized the autotracking feature on this camera.