Review - Dahua IPC-HFW7442H-Z 4MP Ultra AI Varifocal Bullet Camera

@xtropodx assume you mean of the mount itself. Took the cam down and mount and here are some more pics. HTH

Inside of mount
Inside of Mount.jpg
Close up of top inside of mount
Mount 2.jpg

Top of mount showing conduit hole that you can use the included rubber grommet to seal off if mounting from the back
Mount 1.jpg

Back of mount
Back of Mount.jpg

Camera base
Camera Base 1.jpg

Back of camera with the connectors
Back of Camera 1.jpg



xtropodx said:
Is that the base in the 2nd Install Location Pic? Any more pics of it, different angles etc.
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Yes the mount, thanks.

How is this with capturing plates at 2am with vehicles with their high beam lights on?
 
as long as you dial in your image based on lightening conditions, distance, angle to target and any choke points you will be fine regardless of time of day :)

ANPR / LPR is an art as @bigredfish, myself and others have detailed many times in the LPR forum but you can get some amazing caps even with poor weather conditions like I show in my vids earlier in this thread.

Remember that depending on whether the vehicle is coming straight at your cam, exposure setting etc that you may also need to experiment with using HLC but there is zero reason you cannot get great caps from this cam.

xtropodx said:
Yes the mount, thanks.

How is this with capturing plates at 2am with vehicles with their high beam lights on?
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I’m wondering if somebody might have some suggestions. I’m having a difficult time setting up A.I. with my camera.
Background:
I bought the IPC-HFW7442H-Z 4MP with the main reason to record and capture vehicles in my neighborhood. In addition, was trying to see if I could get it to work as an LPR (already have two dedicated HFW5241E-Z12E for that purpose)
So far, I can’t seem to get the software to give images of car’s or people.
I was able to get the people counter to work. So far not having much luck.

I thing maybe it’s due to that I running blue Iris instead of NVR.

Here is what I done,
-set up smart plan to image structuralizing
-Selected IVS rules, Max/min, intrusion and tripwires
-Video structuralizing, and set up rules for Motor vehicle.

Tried all sorts to combinations. So far, nothing but frustration.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Usually, I’m pretty good at figuring computer software out, but so far not having much luck
 
Thought I read somewhere that some features require having onboard storage, on the cam itself.

@Wildcat_1 just re-reading your OP's, have you done any testing with BI?
 
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Do you have Video Structuralization or ANPR setup in cam ? Need to ensure you are using either of those, personally I prefer idea Structuralization UNLESS I am using blacklist and whitelist filtering in which case I switch to ANP for those setups.

feel free to DM me and can take you through the setup.

DRZmaui said:
I’m wondering if somebody might have some suggestions. I’m having a difficult time setting up A.I. with my camera.
Background:
I bought the IPC-HFW7442H-Z 4MP with the main reason to record and capture vehicles in my neighborhood. In addition, was trying to see if I could get it to work as an LPR (already have two dedicated HFW5241E-Z12E for that purpose)
So far, I can’t seem to get the software to give images of car’s or people.
I was able to get the people counter to work. So far not having much luck.

I thing maybe it’s due to that I running blue Iris instead of NVR.

Here is what I done,
-set up smart plan to image structuralizing
-Selected IVS rules, Max/min, intrusion and tripwires
-Video structuralizing, and set up rules for Motor vehicle.

Tried all sorts to combinations. So far, nothing but frustration.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Usually, I’m pretty good at figuring computer software out, but so far not having much luck
Click to expand...
 
The ANPR / Car Captures and associates metadata need to go somewhere so onboard storage IF you are not sending to an AI NVR for example. If you are using an AI NVR can let that process the AI against the Vehicle caps and store on the NVR.

xtropodx said:
Thought I read somewhere that some features require having onboard storage, on the cam itself.

@Wildcat_1 just re-reading your OP's, have you done any testing with BI?
Click to expand...
 
Do you know if it's possible to configure the camera & point storage elsewhere like to BI server/PC?
 
Absolutely, you don’t need onboard storage although for most installs I prefer it for backup etc (unless you have dark site situations etc). As soon as you link your cam to BI or an AI NVR and setup event based recording/IVS rules etc those devices (BI/AI NVR) will start recording to their associated storage.

Also in the cam itself you can point storage to a NAS for backup as well if you wanted to

xtropodx said:
Do you know if it's possible to configure the camera & point storage elsewhere like to BI server/PC?
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Wildcat_1 said:
Do you have Video Structuralization or ANPR setup in cam ? Need to ensure you are using either of those, personally I prefer idea Structuralization UNLESS I am using blacklist and whitelist filtering in which case I switch to ANP for those setups.

feel free to DM me and can take you through the setup.
Click to expand...
wow that was fast. Yes, I did setup video Structuralization set up in the camera.also tried setting up the ANPR, but don't seem to get 'capture' I want (car description).
 
Just an update.
Still can’t figure out how to get a snapshot of vehicle description.
Think I’m getting closer. Have but in a Mirco memory chip. Setting up storage designation for Local (Sand DisK). Some of the car detection are being recorded to the chip, but still having accessing anything.
Pretty difficult so far. Usually I'm pretty good at this stuff.
 
As I mentioned, DM me and send me some of your settings pages and will take you through how to setup.

Definitely good idea to setup in cam first with local storage. Make sure that for attributes you have all enabled, similar to people and face detection. You can also test live by logging into the web GUI turning on video Structuralization overlay and drive by the cam as well.

Reach out directly with settings caps and will take you through.


DRZmaui said:
Just an update.
Still can’t figure out how to get a snapshot of vehicle description.
Think I’m getting closer. Have but in a Mirco memory chip. Setting up storage designation for Local (Sand DisK). Some of the car detection are being recorded to the chip, but still having accessing anything.
Pretty difficult so far. Usually I'm pretty good at this stuff.
Click to expand...
 
Also remember that when looking for recorded caps in camera to use the JPG option and filter to CarDetect to see those metadata embedded images. Then depending on what attributes you’ve chosen, will see those displayed on the image header as well

Wildcat_1 said:
As I mentioned, DM me and send me some of your settings pages and will take you through how to setup.

Definitely good idea to setup in cam first with local storage. Make sure that for attributes you have all enabled, similar to people and face detection. You can also test live by logging into the web GUI turning on video Structuralization overlay and drive by the cam as well.

Reach out directly with settings caps and will take you through.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the offer.
Defiantly having some difficulty setting up this camera.
As you mentioned, I set up the parameters in the web GUI, but still having trouble accessing the embedded images.
Maybe just need to go back to the basics. Been working on this most of the day. Very frustrating, but I’m pretty stubborn. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
 
DM me your Event and other settings pages (JPGs are fine) directly. That way I can review outside of the thread (Rather than throw tons of JPGs here :) and give you some suggestions based on what I see.

DRZmaui said:
Thanks for the offer.
Defiantly having some difficulty setting up this camera.
As you mentioned, I set up the parameters in the web GUI, but still having trouble accessing the embedded images.
Maybe just need to go back to the basics. Been working on this most of the day. Very frustrating, but I’m pretty stubborn. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
 
I read through this thread quickly and I read Wildcat_1 mention a few times about an "AI NVR". Wildcat_1, what equipment are you using to run these cameras? Great detailed review. Do you install surveillance equipment for a living?

You answered someone above who asked about testing in Blue Iris but you mentioned the AI NVR again, so it looks like you need an AI NVR for these feature.
 
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Hey @Oceanslider thanks for the message and kind words.

Let me clarify, as Dahua’s AI algorithms are proprietary and classed as their IP they generally don’t make these available in addressable SDK form. Therefore the AI NVRs are needed when AI processing or interfacing of AI functionality in configuration are needed and recording back to an NVR platform. Now with that said, as the cam can also process all AI functions (with exclusion of black and white list filtering of ANPR/LPR) you can get away with onboard storage (now supported at higher capacities) and benefit from the processing that way as well.

Now this doesn’t mean you cannot use these cams with BI or non AI NVRs BUT generally functionality is limited to what has already been processed by the cam or features that are available openly via protocol or open SDK. BI and non AI NVRs have their own processing options and algorithms to offer similar features (BI is a nice platform). Just remember though that for these Ultra AI cams you will need an AI NVR to unlock all these new AI options offered by these cams, again unless you want to record locally to SD etc.

HTH



Oceanslider said:
I read through this thread quickly and I read Wildcat_1 mention a few times about an "AI NVR". Wildcat_1, what equipment are you using to run these cameras? Great detailed review. Do you install surveillance equipment for a living?

You answered someone above who asked about testing in Blue Iris but you mentioned the AI NVR again, so it looks like you need an AI NVR for these feature.
Click to expand...
 
Wildcat_1 said:
Just remember though that for these Ultra AI cams you will need an AI NVR to unlock all these new AI options offered by these cams, again unless you want to record locally to SD etc.
HTH
Click to expand...

I have to assume from other reviews I have seen of yours that you do have at least one of these AI NVR’s?

Im really new to all this surveillance camera stuff. Can you do both, record locally if you want people count and license plate capture, and continuous record via BI?
 
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