Review - Dahua SD49225XA-HNR 2MP 25x Starlight + IR PTZ AI Camera with Deep IVS & SMD Plus

[th182]

Just got one of these for testing. 5 minutes into testing the IVR indoors, the camera went into continuous spinning? I had to log back into the web interface and reset the PTZ to get it working again (or a power cycle would have done the same).

I haven't found anything about the cause of this? I have it being fed power from a poe+ switch, dedicated IP. The camera itself never lost power or the video signal. Just the stock cam purchase from Amazon, which says I'm on "the latest firmware" according to the built-in webserver - I imagine many have received the camera in the same state.

System Version2.800.1341000.0.R, Build Date: 2020-03-12
PTZ Version2.401.0000000.64.RHNZ_200219_34642
It is the latest version

Worried of it happening again after installation outside. Any known fix for this behavior that I'm not seeing in searching this thread and theipcamtalk forum?

Are you controlling it through Blue Iris? I’ve had it occasionally with mine where it’s like it gets stuck on the pan command and will do a few 360s. I either have to hit stop or another direction to get it to clear.. and sometimes a few attempts. Almost like Blue Iris tells it to pan right, then there is a communication glitch and it doesn’t get the command to stop panning.


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[Masejoer]

Is it continually spinning each time and how long have you left it ? Remember on boot up PTZs initialize which means they go through all orientations for about a minute or 2. If watching through the web gui (using IE remember) then you will see it in PTZ boot up phase when looking at the Live screen.

If you are seeing this and NOT at boot up we’re you controlling the PTZ at the time it started spinning I.e moving it left/right etc before it happened ?

Are you using a managed switch to provide power or not ? If managed what do the logs show if anything ? What is the latency to the cam and what we’re you using to view/control the cam ?

Let me know and then we can tackle the other questions RE: FW etc.

Hardware:

• I have it powered from a Netgear GS728TPP switch (no useful logging), which is powering 48W of other cameras (70W combined, out of rated 384W max poe). I also have a second GS728TP model. Just have my cameras split between them; in case one were to ever fail, I'd still have half my cameras and a second path to Blue Iris.
• Poe switches in garage, 30 foot distance in attic, 15ft in-wall cabling to my wall port (cat6). 10 foot cable from wall to camera.
• Reports 17.7W going to the camera when idle
• If I turn on continuous pan at a speed of "5", I get a reported 20.4W camera draw.
• There are no logs to look at continuous power draw, and near useless system logs - I must wait for the slow netgear interface to refresh to get updated figures, hence panning.

Below is my recollection of events:

• Initially setup camera in garage and configured from my desk PC
• Connected camera to Blue Iris with PTZ functionality disabled in BI, only testing auto tracking at this time
• Found that I can't get enough range in garage, moved camera into main room in house and made some IVR tweaks via web interface
• With phone connected to BI app, went out to camera and started "testing" IVR and its zoom
• Went back to PC and adjusted "tracking target size"
• Found what the lock/unlock buttons mean, which can prevent tracking (testing) while the webpage is open. Closed the dahua web interface
• Went to test more, monitoring tracking on BI phone client
• Moved around in front the camera a bit to test the tracking and zoom/"target size"
• As I was walking away (distance from camera), in view of the camera, I heard its motors starting to spin continuously. Looked back and the camera was stuck in a spin (to its right).
• Went and stood 15 feet in front of the camera, no response from camera.
• Opened Dahua web interface and clicked "left", which caused a small pause in the spin, then it resumed spinning right.
• Probably spinning for 2-minutes at this point
• In the web interface, clicked "PTZ Restart"
• Camera paused, then performed its power-on ptz calibration routine
• After PTZ restart completed, ptz controls from dahua web interface and auto tracking was working again.
• I stopped messing with the camera for the night, and it's still powered up in the room.

Blue Iris never lost its video feed during this. I have it all "recorded", but not comfortable uploading an interior video of my house to the web.

Attached photo of basic IVR settings at time of issue. Nothing else configured in the camera besides the basic camera "video" settings, clock, , networking setup, disabled watermarks, etc. Only have IVR setup for PTZ use.

And yes, I won't be planning on changing the firmware (before purchase, I had already read that I would lose auto tracking), but figured I'd look at that "manual check" button. I didn't know that it won't even report on firmware, and I'm fine with that.

 

[Masejoer]

Are you controlling it through Blue Iris? I’ve had it occasionally with mine where it’s like it gets stuck on the pan command and will do a few 360s. I either have to hit stop or another direction to get it to clear.. and sometimes a few attempts. Almost like Blue Iris tells it to pan right, then there is a communication glitch and it doesn’t get the command to stop panning.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nope, PTZ disabled in BI for this cam.

I know what you mean though by BI lagginess at least. I have a ptz outside that is manual-control only and I've seen it misbehave before when manually panning. I think it was clicking the web interface (pc browser) bottons, not the phone app or using the keyboard. At least in that case, I just tapped a direction again (or keyboard arrow) and it stopped. Maybe seen that twice in BI over the last 5 years with a couple different ptz cams. I don't use manual ptz much though - just needed the a long zoom range from a camera.

 

[looney2ns]

Nope, PTZ disabled in BI for this cam.

I know what you mean though by BI lagginess at least. I have a ptz outside that is manual-control only and I've seen it misbehave before when manually panning. I think it was clicking the web interface (pc browser) bottons, not the phone app or using the keyboard. At least in that case, I just tapped a direction again (or keyboard arrow) and it stopped. Maybe seen that twice in BI over the last 5 years with a couple different ptz cams. I don't use manual ptz much though - just needed the a long zoom range from a camera.

If you select Dahua V4 in the drop down, in BI PTZ setup, it will normally work smoother than the the default ONVIF.

 

[Masejoer]

If you select Dahua V4 in the drop down, in BI PTZ setup, it will normally work smoother than the the default ONVIF.

Perhaps, but that's outside the scope of this Dahua camera issue. I'm leaving BI PTZ disabled until I finish auto-tracking testing. I don't need any BI PTZ until the camera is installed outside anyway, as long as I can identify the cause of the continuous pan.

My other PTZ (telephoto-use) cameras which are currently installed aren't Dahua, so this itself isn't relevant to those when they got stuck panning. Those aren't being replaced either - just adding an additional dahua from this thread.

I was hoping these things did more auto-tracking than just human and vehicle - being able to track (larger) animals would give me a use case for installing more.

 

[wittaj]

I was hoping these things did more auto-tracking than just human and vehicle - being able to track (larger) animals would give me a use case for installing more.

I think with that firmware version you can turn off the AI and do track by a minimum size instead?

 

[Masejoer]

I think with that firmware version you can turn off the AI and do track by a minimum size instead?

I'll try to look into what you are describing - I just set it up based on DahuaWiki

There's a different way to use auto tracking?

 

[wittaj]

I'll try to look into what you are describing - I just set it up based on DahuaWiki

There's a different way to use auto tracking?

Some of the firmware (but I cannot recall if it was this PTZ or not) allows you to unselect human and vehicle and then have it track based on a minimum size. I just pulled mine up and mine doesn't allow me to uncheck it. But I know some have had success also putting in a min size to track some larger items.

 

[Masejoer]

Some of the firmware (but I cannot recall if it was this PTZ or not) allows you to unselect human and vehicle and then have it track based on a minimum size. I just pulled mine up and mine doesn't allow me to uncheck it. But I know some have had success also putting in a min size to track some larger items.

I saw discussions mention some "global auto-track" setting/configuration on the 59000 series, but not sure about the 49000, or some specific firmware.

 

[Wildcat_1]

I saw discussions mention some "global auto-track" setting/configuration on the 59000 series, but not sure about the 49000, or some specific firmware.

Worst case reset to FW tory default and see if you have the issue from scratch. You may need to do this approx 3 - 5 times consecutively to make sure it takes. Remember to do the full reset ( or just NW settings) and see if you still see the issue before we jump in further.

 

[Masejoer]

Worst case reset to FW tory default and see if you have the issue from scratch. You may need to do this approx 3 - 5 times consecutively to make sure it takes. Remember to do the full reset ( or just NW settings) and see if you still see the issue before we jump in further.

I haven't changed anything, but the camera issue hasn't occurred again. Just left it running and it follows us around in the room. Figured I'll let it do its thing for a week and will note anything I see.

 

[Wildcat_1]

I haven't changed anything, but the camera issue hasn't occurred again. Just left it running and it follows us around in the room. Figured I'll let it do its thing for a week and will note anything I see.

Just reach out if you need any help

 

[Masejoer]

Just reach out if you need any help

It hasn't happened again, so shrug. I just powered it down tonight and will give it a go outside when I can get it installed. It's a bit cold and wet right now, so maybe in a week.

Very slow (aperture) lens on the telephoto side, and with such a small sensor, this really is a daylight-only camera for color. Even with cloudy weather, it gets quite grainy at reasonable shutter speeds. I don't see anything else coming close with this level of tracking at this price though, so worth keeping.

I am loving that 1/1.2" UHD sensor camera that I also picked up and tested. It's about time to swap out half of my cameras with the new stuff from Dahua this last year. It's a great time to get equipment!

 

[lagvoid]

I recently picked up two sd49225xa's from Andy with auto tracking. Temporarily set it up for testing and the auto tracking appears to be working as described in this massive thread. I use Blue Iris and added the camera using find/inspect on the camera IP. I wanted to use the in camera Deep IVS AI to trigger BI to create alerts on trigger. No matter what I do, the camera's motion detection event option keeps enabling. I've saw this noted as a known problem, but is it a BI or a Dahua firmware problem? I tried the recommended fix of deleting the camera's motion detection schedule (Period) and/or adjusting the camera's motion detection area. I tried to adjust the area to remove all, delete, setting a small region and turning sensitivity all the way down, without any luck. Any adjustments to the camera from inside BI or just waiting will eventually turn the in camera motion detection back on.

For now, I'm turned off, "Get ONVIF trigger events" and all related ONVIF signals and in camera disabled motion detection sticks. I then have to use BI's motion sensor to trigger alerts. I get more false positives in BI compared to Dahua's Deep IVS which seems to work really well. I know I could fine tune BI to reduce the false positives or setup Deepstack, but I want to resolve this bug if possible to have both options available.

Tried BI stable release and latest update available with the same results.
5.5.1.16 (latest)
5.4.9.18 (stable)

 

[wittaj]

@Masejoer What shutter speed are you running at night?

Most of us have it working fine at night.

Plus most of us have found that since the camera moves with the subject you can actually slow the shutter down compared to a fixed camera. I can actually pick off plates at night in color with a shutter speed that a fixed cam would never get.

 

[wittaj]

@lagvoid are you using Internet Explorer? Any other browser and the settings won't hold.

Mine works just fine with the MD workaround above.

 

[Masejoer]

What shutter speed are you running at night?

Most of us have it working fine at night.

Plus most of us have found that since the camera moves with the subject you can actually slow the shutter down compared to a fixed camera.

Me? I won't have much tuned in until the camera is outside. Just messing with a basic 1/30 min shutter speed. I haven't changed much in regard to picture quality, as that wasn't my goal in testing. I just want to make sure it tracks well, and I've found that it can fill much of the frame with a person and still track quite well. It'll stop tracking if it loses legs in frame for too long, but not a concern of mine for outside - completely different environments and uses.

My current speed dome outside is almost 2 stops faster at max zoom than this one, between sensor size and lens speed, so this camera really can't replace that one for telephoto night duties. It will be supplemental, for different purposes. Mostly because I just like the camera and it's a new toy Many here know the dilemma of seeing new cameras and features, but in my case I still have the cams from nearly 10 years ago that I've decommissioned, but all still work. They begin to take up so much storage room!

 

[lagvoid]

@lagvoid are you using Internet Explorer? Any other browser and the settings won't hold.

Mine works just fine with the MD workaround above.

Yes, using IE and all settings save properly as long as ONVIF isn't enabled on the BI side. When I enable ONVIF settings in BI for the camera, triggers, or alerts, it turns the camera's MD on by itself.

What BI version are you using?

 

[lagvoid]

These are my BI settings that were able to pull alerts from the camera, but would turn the camera's MD on shortly after or after making any camera changes in BI and saving.

 

[wittaj]

@lagvoid - yeah, MD turns back on - it is an issue with BI, but as long as you do the work-around for when MD turns back on it shouldn't be an issue - turn sensitivity way down on MD and one tiny little block so that basically it won't trigger.