Review- EmpireTech IPC-T54IR-ZE-S3 4mp Varifocal Turret

[H. Swanson]

NVR fw works great so far. Animal detection now baked in the IVS rules just like with the camera.

 

[alekk]

Yes, May.16th is the latest new one, we made some update on it this week, but still keep the fw date as the original one.

So just to be clear, the May 16th includes some updates from this week?

I.e. you won't be releasing newer firmware in the next week or two?

 

[alekk]

I went ahead and applied the firmware from @EMPIRETECANDY's site. Remember there are two .bin files to apply (in order - they are labeled as such) as all went uneventful and camera seems to be working fine. FYI that after the first .bin file, the (new) Maintenance Center has a Red "1" (number) on it letting you know that you "Algorithm version does not match. Please update firmware.bin."


Clicking on System Info, I saw the following changes going from his firmware from late last year, to the "test" version, and to the latest from his site:
Device: IPC-T54IR-ZE-S3 SAME SAME
SN: 9F0EA64P####### SAME SAME
ONVIF: 22.12 (V3.1.0.1403710) 23.12(V3.1.0.1734191) SAME
System Version: 3.100.15OG000.0.R Build Date:2023-11-27 V3.142.0000000.0.R, Build Date: 2024-05-16 V3.142.15OG000.0.R, Build Date: 2024-05-16
Web Version: V5.01.0.15332205 V5.01.0.1879124 SAME
Algorithm Version: V3.5.26.0 V4.5.9.0 SAME
Security Baseline Version: V2.3 V2.4 SAME
This was new
H5Player Version V3.01.1 SAME

I.e. the only that changed from the test version a few weeks back was the System Version with the "150G" ... which I presume is something specific to @EMPIRETECANDY's builds.

I'm kinda curious to play around with ABR - per @EMPIRETECANDY post here:
Supports ABR when AI Coding is selected. This is a new thing, so i asked for some further explainaton .
ABR is a bitrate strategy that saves bitrate in simple scenes and improves image quality in complex scenes. Ultimately, the storage space is guaranteed not to exceed the value set for the average bitrate within 24 hours in a single cycle.
It sounds like this is an "improved" version of VBR?

 

[TheDogee]

This is awesome. Any chance of an animal firmware for the IPC-Color4k-T?

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

NVR fw works great so far. Animal detection now baked in the IVS rules just like with the camera.

The NVR update is so huge, make it a new NVR, the log can make some watching, they have very details for the update and using guide.

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

ABR is also a new thing for the S3 camera.

ABR is a new bitrate strategy. It will save bitrate in simple scenes and improve image quality by using the saved bitrate in complex scenes. Ultimately, the storage space is guaranteed not to exceed the value set by the average bitrate within 24 hours in a single cycle.

 

[StevenFromTexas]

I installed the two new firmware .bin files in the order indicated from here -- Download Firmwares -- on several IPC-T54IR-ZE-S3 cameras on June 22, 2024. I added a rule for Intrusion, set the Sensitivity at 7, Action boxes checked for Appear and Cross, Direction set on Both, Target Filter is On, Effective Target checked for Animal, Time Plan set on Full Time, Record Enabled, Post Record set at 100, and Snapshot Enabled.

Below is the Device Info after the two .bin files installed:

Device Model: IPC-T54IR-ZEB-S3 (the "B" represents the black model)
SN: 9M0486FPXXXXXXX (the last seven numbers/letters have each been replaced with an "X")
Audio Input: 1
ONVIF Version: 23.12(V3.1.0.1734191)
System Version: V3.142.15OG000.0.R, Build Date: 2024-05-16
Web Version: V5.01.0.1879124
Algorithm Version: V4.5.9.0
Security Baseline Version: V2.4
H5Player Version: V3.01.1

It didn't take too long for two different cats and one fox to be recorded this evening. It is going to make things much easier for me to watch for pit bulls, Rottweilers, and German Shepherds.

This is a major ungrade!

 

[alekk]

FYI that I just upgraded camera #2 (from @EMPIRETECANDY's original software) and don't appear to have any issues.
Based on my limited testing (and what others have said), it looks like a solid release - nice work @EMPIRETECANDY

One thing I noticed (before doing the upgrade) is under "Storage", the new software has two new columns for the SD Card that say "File System: Private File System" and "Level: U3" which I assume is just a little more information rather than anything truly new. I did click Format to see if anything new there (didn't actually do it) but it just asks you to confirm to format it.

Also, under Camera->Encode, this camera had settings of H.264H, Smart Codec, 15 FPS, VBR, Quality 5, 8192 Max Bit Rate
The new software changed that to AI Coding (Smart Codec doesn't exist anymore) using ABR with 6144 Max and 8192 Average (LOL that Average is higher than Max) - there is no Quality option for ABR.

I'm going to play around with this a bit more - I reverted back to VBR on camera #1 because the SD card was filling much faster with ABR ... and it looks like here it is at least double the size.

 

[bigredfish]

Nope, this is a first.*

* Except cats of course. Cats have always had a special power to trip camera alerts.

As I was saying...
(4 year old PTZ DH-SD6AL445XA-HNR-IR)

View attachment Screen Recording 2024-06-24 161758.mp4

 

[bigredfish]

Wow it does birds too. This is mounted right next to the 5442 S3 I just hung Thursday with the new FW.
Osmosis?

View attachment Screen Recording 2024-06-24 172534.mp4