Review-I'll be the guinea pig for the new SD59225U-HNI PTZ.

[dabossc7]

Thanks! But I dont understand it. Seconds is how long the auto tracking tracks the moving object?
Oderare the seconds the time to go back to preset? Or how long a abject has to be moving before it tracks it?

Thanks a lot

You set it to how long it tracks objects then when time is up it returns to preset and if that object is still moving in cameras view it will track it again for the time you set

 

[looney2ns]

Thanks! But I dont understand it. Seconds is how long the auto tracking tracks the moving object?
Oderare the seconds the time to go back to preset? Or how long a abject has to be moving before it tracks it?

Thanks a lot

Post a screen shot of what section of setup you are looking at.

 

[dabossc7]

I also downloaded this and it did fix ir cutout at 9x zoom now it stays on all the way up to 25x zoom but I now have focus issue from around 14-25 zoom sometimes it just won’t focus and I have to manually focus other times it focuses for a second then gradually degrades then tries refocusing then in and out and usually settles on very un focused image did initializing lens at different zooms didn’t help tried auto zoom,low mid high sensitivity no luck. I noticed a new adj for pfa what is this? in focus and zoom menu but didn’t seem to do anything. 1st photo is auto focus zoom 2nd is me manually adj focus

Seems to be more of a night issue day focus on fence working ok

 

[Frank van der Heide]

Thanks! But I dont understand it. Seconds is how long the auto tracking tracks the moving object?
Oderare the seconds the time to go back to preset? Or how long a abject has to be moving before it tracks it?

Thanks a lot

I think it's the max time tracking a subject. I have mine set to the max 300 seconds, but it never waits that long. Mostly it gives up after maybe 20 seconds at most. I hardly ever get it to track longer than that.

 

[Darkflame808]

Well I just wanted to share some insight about the new firmware.

1. Upon first login, you are presented with a basic software licensing terms and conditions page that you have to agree to first before you can login.

• It makes a few disclaimers about the camera being able to phone home to check for updates and I they also make claims that your email will not be shared with any third parties.
  • When signing up, it takes you to a walk through to set up EZ-IP and also your email if you wish to reset your password via email.
    • You can uncheck these options and skip them (a nice feature to allow you some privacy in your camera setup.)
• The optimized zoom is a solid feature and I am honestly happy to have to on this camera. I've been flip-flopping through the september firmware and a firmware from june with the help of Frank (Thank you Frank) and I've been torn because Franks firmware handled tracking better than the September firmware but it also had a few bugs like failing to return to home after tracking sometimes.
• I don't know if I'm still high on the firmware giddy's or if it's a placebo but auto tracking seems to have improved...This is due to two things i'm noticing (not sure if this was present in other firmwares)

1. Auto tracking is able to maintain focus better because the zooming function maintains better focus. Previous firmwares would lose tracking as the camera got blurry for a second.
2. Auto tracking is able to zoom and move the camera at the same time. It felt like previous firmwares would do one or the other. (I think the camera lost focus during zooms and this was why it didn't pan and tilt during the zoom function, again possibly a placebo effect)

I have only had it installed for about an hour but so far I am confident I plan to keep this as my primary firmware.

Only issue I have is the email portion. I opted to not enter my email (Thank you for giving us the option), I tried to do a forget password action but it scolded me for not having my email entered. But I was wondering, does this email reside on the camera or does it phone home. Who does the email reset? Dahua? or the Camera?, what if you don't have SMTP enabled? etc...

I'm wondering if that function means dahua can initiate the password change when you click that link since they talk about not sharing your email with any third parties. I have too much network rules in place to drop my camera out of the secured zone for me to test that function. If anyone else wants to take a swing at it please let us know!

Update: Three hours into usage. I've been watching the camera and generally it's been a better experience as a whole. I've discovered however that when zoomed in to distant objects with horizontal planes (lots of floors on a building, fence lines etc) it has a "focus flutter" type effect where it refocuses every second or two, the flutter is very minute but it's noticeable)

 

[dabossc7]

2nd night testing and definitely a focus issue at high zoom 20-25 it will auto focus but slowly de focuses sometimes it try’s and refocus but then slowly de focuses and stays unfocused so a manual focus is needed I tried every option in menu only thing that helps a little is putting de fog in manual low/mid, I also noticed with the new 11/21 update is getting locked out of browser using IE every 30 minutes before you could just log back in now if you try to log in on same screen it just hangs and if you try again it says maximum on line users in use so you have to close out browser and re start dmss this happens about 50% of the time

 

[Frank van der Heide]

This firmware is definitely the best i've seen so far. The following issues (at least what i experienced) seem to be resolved:

1. serious video/network lag with higher than 20 fps and higher than 6K bitrate -> I can now set it to 25 FPS at 8192 kbps again with no noticable lag
2. focussing is much more stable now -> i can actually zoom in to 25x and get a good focussed image, even at night set at full colour
3. IR lighting now going all the way up to 25x zoom -> this is a definite big improvement
4. overall image clarity seems to be better, but maybe that's in my head ;-)
5. exposure at low light conditions has improved slightly -> before i needed to set it at 50% esposure -> now i can bring that down to 25%!
6. fast focussing while zooming (PFA feature under Focus & Zoom conditions) is also a major improvement -> this really helps with tracking subjects!

So far i'm pleased with the improvements. Hoping future firmware releases help solve all the issues (especially a more reliable autotracking, which still sucks imho).

 

[looney2ns]

@Frank van der Heide
I agree with your points. The only remaining complaint I have is that the distance IR still turns on too soon, compared to earlier firmware's. Thus creating a hotspot from zoom 2-5. The distance IR shouldn't turn on until around zoom 5-6, which is where it did in previous firmware's.
I also see the focusing problems at night at full zoom, which wasn't there before.

A side note, in my opinion this is ridiculous, the camera is a year old this month, and they still have not released a bug free firmware. Nor a firmware that supports all the advertised features. Contrary to their PR, I swear they do very little testing on firmware releases'. /Rant.

@EMPIRETECANDY Please report these remaining issues to Dahua, the issue's are listed starting from post 1870. Thanks Andy.

 

[dabossc7]

This firmware is definitely the best i've seen so far. The following issues (at least what i experienced) seem to be resolved:

1. serious video/network lag with higher than 20 fps and higher than 6K bitrate -> I can now set it to 25 FPS at 8192 kbps again with no noticable lag
2. focussing is much more stable now -> i can actually zoom in to 25x and get a good focussed image, even at night set at full colour
3. IR lighting now going all the way up to 25x zoom -> this is a definite big improvement
4. overall image clarity seems to be better, but maybe that's in my head ;-)
5. exposure at low light conditions has improved slightly -> before i needed to set it at 50% esposure -> now i can bring that down to 25%!
6. fast focussing while zooming (PFA feature under Focus & Zoom conditions) is also a major improvement -> this really helps with tracking subjects!

So far i'm pleased with the improvements. Hoping future firmware releases help solve all the issues (especially a more reliable autotracking, which still sucks imho).

How is your auto focus working @ 20-25 zoom with b/w and smart ir on does it lock in a good focus or does it drift out

 

[Frank van der Heide]

How is your auto focus working @ 20-25 zoom with b/w and smart ir on does it lock in a good focus or does it drift out

I have never been a fan of B/W, so i never use it. But i tried what you asked: IR with smart-IR doesn't give me a solid focus at 20-25x. When i switch to colour i get a reasonably quick focus lock.

 

[Darkflame808]

@looney2ns have you tried zooming to the area where you feel the ir is creating a Hotspot then turning down sensitivity in settings? My camera tried to burn a hole in my car till I turned it down to like 5 then it would kick in for darker areas.

@Frank van der Heide if you turn in color does the ir still function? I think this would be interesting what settings do I need to make that combination happen? I would love to lose B&W too.

 

[dabossc7]

@looney2ns have you tried zooming to the area where you feel the ir is creating a Hotspot then turning down sensitivity in settings? My camera tried to burn a hole in my car till I turned it down to like 5 then it would kick in for darker areas.

@Frank van der Heide if you turn in color does the ir still function? I think this would be interesting what settings do I need to make that combination happen? I would love to lose B&W too.

I have never been a fan of B/W, so i never use it. But i tried what you asked: IR with smart-IR doesn't give me a solid focus at 20-25x. When i switch to colour i get a reasonably quick focus lock.

yea my focus was fine until I did the 11/21 update

 

[Frank van der Heide]

@Frank van der Heide if you turn in color does the ir still function? I think this would be interesting what settings do I need to make that combination happen? I would love to lose B&W too.

It's either B/W or colour. IR doesn't work in colour mode. I bought this Starlight camera so i can keep it at full colour at all times. My area is reasonably covered with streetlights. Besides my camera is there mostly for identification purposes (skin tone, hair colour, clothing, shoes, etc), so i need full colour. B/W doesn't do much for me for identifying subjects.

 

[Darkflame808]

It's either B/W or colour. IR doesn't work in colour mode. I bought this Starlight camera so i can keep it at full colour at all times. My area is reasonably covered with streetlights. Besides my camera is there mostly for identification purposes (skin tone, hair colour, clothing, shoes, etc), so i need full colour. B/W doesn't do much for me for identifying subjects.

Ah right on. I was hoping that there was a *remove ir blocking filter but still leave color on* function. I know the colors would be wonky but it would still give some type of hues to the scene. Thank you for clarifying.

 

[Frank van der Heide]

Sample: Autotracking in full color under low (street)light conditions. I'm using two intrusion boxes. One across the road and one across the sidewalk. This is the result. Any comments?

Both recordings are at 1080p, so best to set Youtube at that resolution.


I have the time for tracking set to the max 300 seconds, but i still cannot figure out why it doesn't track that full time. It seems to loose the subjects too soon. Any ideas?

 

[bigredfish]

Looks pretty damn good @Frank van der Heide

 

[dabossc7]

Sample: Autotracking in full color under low (street)light conditions. I'm using two intrusion boxes. One across the road and one across the sidewalk. This is the result. Any comments?

Both recordings are at 1080p, so best to set Youtube at that resolution.


I have the time for tracking set to the max 300 seconds, but i still cannot figure out why it doesn't track that full time. It seems to loose the subjects too soon. Any ideas?

Yea nice and smooth I wouldn’t complain at least it it didn’t get possessed and start randomly tracking invisible birds, mine felt like it was possessed yesterday I couldn’t even control it with ptz control had to reboot it and today I zoomed in to 25x and hit a preset that’s 3x and it went to preset but stayed at 25x stuck there wouldn’t un zoom with zoom button had to reboot again, what fps are you using? I do 10fps so your video is smoother when it auto tracks but it is 15’ Fahrenheit here and I noticed it’s slower to respond while auto tracking and sometimes misses a car going by because it notices the car but then sluggishly shifts a little behind it however direction it’s going and by the time it zooms the car is out of the view but when it was +60’ Fahrenheit it tracked fine. I have video on my iPhone but it won’t let me upload saying file type not supported

 

[Frank van der Heide]

what fps are you using? I do 10fps so your video is smoother when it auto tracks

I'm using 25 fps and CBR at 8192 kbps. If i set it to 30 fps the camera also acts like it's possessed sometimes. I found that 25 fps is the highest that i can get a reasonable tracking with.

 

[looney2ns]

I agree with @bigredfish, @Frank van der Heide .
That's darn good with forced color at night.
I would chalk the rest up to firmware issues that still need ironed out.

 

[Cameraguy]

You set it to how long you want in ptz settings

Question: If you are using ivs do you just leave the PTZ auto tracking box unchecked?
Another question.. If you want to track all motion no mater where on preset, can you just use the auto tracking check box instead of ivs? Id like to track any motion what so ever on my camera.