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Review-Dahua IPC-K42A 4mp Indoor Cube cam 2.8mm

looney2ns

looney2ns

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Dahua IPC-K42A 4mp Indoor Cube cam 2.8mm from @EMPIRETECANDY

Review unit courtesy of Andy (@EMPIRETECANDY) in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Andy's ipcamtalk store: link
Andy's AliExpress store: link
Andy's Amazon store: link
Andy's Email: kingsecurity2014 (at) 163 (dot) com

Price Approximately US $75-$80 shipped.
Purchase from Amazon here: Link
Andy's Aliexpress store here: Link

Dahua's Product Page for this camera: Link

(prices and links valid 9/18/20)

Please try to keep this thread on topic

Firmware as shipped dated 6/16/20
First up, I notice that the factory defaults are different than what we are used to seeing.
Here is what defaults are different:
IP is set for DHCP not static, so the Ipconfig tool comes in handy.
H265, 2048 CBR 30FPS mainstream
H264, 265 not available substream.
Audio set to AAC 16k sample rate main and substream
This cam has Smart motion, for Human only.

Power is POE or 12vdc adaptor, no Wifi.

I have two other new cams yet to review, interesting to see if the new defaults have showed up in them.

When viewing recordings in the web gui that are recorded on an SD card are MP4, not dav files.
While using the interface, without any plugin, it was very flaky and over poor performance. Locked up the browser when making changes at times.
Installing the plugin cured all of that.
Smart motion works as designed. Smart IR works as it should. Two way sound works fine. The incoming audio is excellent with the AAC codec.

When I first added it to BI, it had an awful pulsating picture in recordings, after trying all the usual cures, (spent half a day on that) I gave up and deleted the cam from BI and added it again. That solved it. Weird.

Overall, very nice indoor camera for the price.

IMG_20200918_143202.jpg IMG_20200918_143211.jpg IMG_20200918_143231.jpg IMG_20200918_143239.jpg IMG_20200918_143323.jpg

Be sure to choose 1440p in YT.

I just noticed there is slight tearing at the bottom in the YT video. That does not appear anywhere in the source videos. So must be a YT rendering effect.
 
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Arjun

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How is the build quality? Is it similar to it's 2MP predecessor?
 
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Fotosonic

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Hi Andy,

I bought this camera for testing since I was curious about the alarm outputs of this small camera to use with my Ajax Alarm. However, I can't figure out how to tighten the wires going into the alarm inputs on the camera. Usually, there are small screws you can tighten to hold the small wires of the alarm in place but I can't seem to figure this out. Can you please help me with this?
 
DsineR

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From the pic - looks like the alarm connections are spring tension...
1614200034227.png
 
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Fotosonic

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Hi all, thanks for the replies. Indeed the connections are spring tension and I have managed to connect the small alarm wires of my Ajax sensor to the camera.

The only issue I have is that it seems I can only activate the alarm relay out function manually to trigger the alarm. I have tried several times to activate the relay out alarm automatically with the motion sensor video detection but it doesn't seem to work. I can only trigger the alarm relay out function on the camera live view in the alarm button next to the snapshot. Perhaps this could be a firmware issue but just wanted to ask if anyone has the same issue.

In terms of performance, the camera seems to be good for what it does. It is a very simple camera but for the price point you have good quality video and some basic motion functionality. Also, the internal siren of this alarm is quite loud so I like this as well.
 

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Deckerlogan

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I can't seem to figure out how to enable two-way audio on these cameras. I bought two of them, have it set up via PoE, I'm on the web interface, but there's no "microphone" button on the live display. I feel like I've been through the settings up and down and can't find anything relating to audio "output" from the built in speaker. @looney2ns Did you have to do anything specific to enable the two-way audio? For reference, the camera info page says my version info:
Device Type: IPC-K42A
System Version: V2.800.15OG003.0.R, Build Date: 2020-09-19
(If this is clearly outlined in something I should have been able to find on my own, like cliff notes or something, please let me know and I'll go find the answer.)
Thank you!

Edit: Update! I never found a way to enable it with the web interface, but downloading their app (DMSS) and connecting to the local IP address with that to view the camera allows you to use that to speak through the speaker. I don't really want to use that app, but the main point was just verifying that the speaker even works at all.
 
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looney2ns

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Deckerlogan said:
I can't seem to figure out how to enable two-way audio on these cameras. I bought two of them, have it set up via PoE, I'm on the web interface, but there's no "microphone" button on the live display. I feel like I've been through the settings up and down and can't find anything relating to audio "output" from the built in speaker. @looney2ns Did you have to do anything specific to enable the two-way audio? For reference, the camera info page says my version info:
Device Type: IPC-K42A
System Version: V2.800.15OG003.0.R, Build Date: 2020-09-19
(If this is clearly outlined in something I should have been able to find on my own, like cliff notes or something, please let me know and I'll go find the answer.)
Thank you!

Edit: Update! I never found a way to enable it with the web interface, but downloading their app (DMSS) and connecting to the local IP address with that to view the camera allows you to use that to speak through the speaker. I don't really want to use that app, but the main point was just verifying that the speaker even works at all.
Click to expand...
What browser are you using? If it's not Internet explorer be sure and try to Internet explorer and when asked to download the plug-in, install it. Or you can use Chrome with ie tab extension installed.
 
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debonoantho

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Hi, looney2ns, i got an issue with the two-way audio with this camera. If I reboot the camera I can use the microphone on the DMSS app and people on site can hear me correctly (it means the speaker works well) but after 30sec I cannot use the microphone on the app. I got the following message displayed Talkback Failed. It's the same with DSCam application, it works after a reboot for about 30sec and then nothing... can you please help me ?

Thanks
 

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teredactle

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Good thread and I'm glad I found it. I was looking at the Dahua IPC-K22A but wasn't able to find it anywhere on sale.
Is this the predecessor that is mentioned here in this thread?
I'd like to get one as it's small enough to replace the EZVIZ C1C I am now using as the baby monitor, and use it via POE for better reliability (connection).

Is it possible to know how many concurrent streams the K4A supports? The C1C has a max of 4 video streams, only 1 of them can have audio which sucks.

Looks like Dahua no loner carries this camera, not is it on Aliexpress....
Bummer
 
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