looney2ns
IPCT Contributor
Every cam location will require it's own custom settings. One size does not fit all.
Leaving cams at factory default is rarely the best option.
Leaving cams at factory default is rarely the best option.
Review-OEM 4mp AI Cam IPC-T5442TM-AS Starlight+
- Thread starter looney2ns
- Start date
sebastiantombs
Known around here
I've even found that day to day setting changes can be necessary at times. The recent snow cover has made me adjust a couple for daytime and allowed full color at night because of all the additional reflected light in others.
Love this camera, chose and bought from Andy based on info in this forum, thanks! Hopefully will catch some car prowlers, test video below. I configured as per post 28: IPC-T5442T-ZE IPC-T5442TM-AS latest new firmware General_IPC-HX5XXX-Volt_MultiLang_NP_Stream3_V2.800.15OG004.0.R.201203 Played with the shutter and gain, ended up with shutter 15ms gain 50, I run in night mode 24/7, day footage looks great too. Area is lit by 2 x 100Watt equivalent standard Led bulbs.
Camera
IPC-T5442TM-AS 6mm fw: V2.800.15OG004.0.R.201203
Settings
Profile Management: Full time / Always enable night
Conditions
Profile=night
Picture: all defaults
Exposure: anti-flicker=outdoor, mode=manual, shutter=customized range, shutter=0~15ms, gain=0~50, exposure comp=50, smart ir=on, 3d nr=on, grade=50
Backlight mode=off
WB mode=auto
Day&Night mode=color
Illuminator mode=off
Defog mode=off
Camera
IPC-T5442TM-AS 6mm fw: V2.800.15OG004.0.R.201203
Settings
Profile Management: Full time / Always enable night
Conditions
Profile=night
Picture: all defaults
Exposure: anti-flicker=outdoor, mode=manual, shutter=customized range, shutter=0~15ms, gain=0~50, exposure comp=50, smart ir=on, 3d nr=on, grade=50
Backlight mode=off
WB mode=auto
Day&Night mode=color
Illuminator mode=off
Defog mode=off
Last edited:
EMPIRETECANDY
IPCT Vendor
Looks great for a 6mm, you are the 1st guy use 6mm at front foor 
bigredfish
Known around here
Looks good!
Schnoidz
Getting the hang of it
That does look great. I have the 2.8mm watching my van but only have IR lights. I need to add some LEDs!
added settings to the post
Am sorry if this has been asked & posted but I couldn't find it in this thread.
I have had mine for a little while and while I am happy with it, I feel it could do better, but for me I have no idea what most of the Letters/Acronyms in the Settings mean.
Am I able to find or download something that tells me what each and every Setting is and does please?
Thank you
I have had mine for a little while and while I am happy with it, I feel it could do better, but for me I have no idea what most of the Letters/Acronyms in the Settings mean.
Am I able to find or download something that tells me what each and every Setting is and does please?
Thank you
Google is your friend mate. While I am no expert I did save the following from another thread (apologies to the original poster I am not sure who it was) but I saved this in my notes and it has served me well so far so hope it might help you out a little.Am sorry if this has been asked & posted but I couldn't find it in this thread.
I have had mine for a little while and while I am happy with it, I feel it could do better, but for me I have no idea what most of the Letters/Acronyms in the Settings mean.
Am I able to find or download something that tells me what each and every Setting is and does please?
Thank you
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Daytime is generally easy. Any cheap 2MP+ camera will do reasonably well in daytime with out of the box Auto settings
1- Set bitrate and fps- I like to use 30FPS and max bitrate as shown on the camera specs (usually 6144 or 8192). Also match Iframe to FPS
2-Leave image settings (brightness, sharpness, contrast etc) alone at 50
3- Dont mess with DNR- 50 should be max in any scene otherwise you will induce motion blur. 20-30 will be fine if you have a decent lit scene
4- The 2 most often adjusted settings are backlight and exposure.
- Backlight- WDR is commonly used in a scene with a mix of shadows and bright areas to even out the image. On Dahua cameras I dont recommend anything greater than 20-25
- Backlight BLC- can be used when the background is much brighter than the foreground making your subject appear dark or backlit
- Exposure- generally with good light Auto will do fine. But to allow for overcast or darker areas you may want to use a faster shutter speed to reduce blur. 1/60 or 1/120 is usually enough and many use a range - say 0-2 to allow the camera to compensate for overcast vs sunny changes. (Faster exposure= smaller number. Auto is usually 1/30 max where 1/60 is double as fast. You'll commonly see 1/1000 or faster for fast moving objects and special applications like LPR a night)
Nighttime is where it gets tricky.
1- Decide if you have enough white light and a sensitive enough camera to run color at night. 90% DO NOT HAVE BOTH There's nothing wrong with running good clear crisp B&W with IR vs grainy blurry color when trying to force color at night
2- Test with a moving person in the video. Still shots that may be beautiful dont tell the story. Anyone can get a good night still shot.
3- Leave image settings (brightness, sharpness, contrast etc) alone at 50. Dont try and use brightness or gamma to lighten up an image at night. You just get a washed out image. You can use incresed GAIN to some degree to brighten the image, but at the expense of more noise.
4- DNR usually needs to be reduced at night to minimize blur. This is the number 1 cause of motion blur. 30-40 max is a good place to start
5- Backlight- - Rarely I'll use a small bit of BLC but WDR has NO affect in B&W so dont use it. In color it introduces blur in low light. HLC can be helpful to reduce the flare caused by bright spotlights, headlights, etc. But will reduce the overall image brightness if you go too far.
6- IR- requires some experimenting as mentioned by @biggen above, its a matter of adjusting to have enough while not blowing out the image. This is a process of test/tweek rinse/repeat. Reflective objects like soffit or close in landscaping can reflect the IR light and greatly reduce its effective range
7- Exposure- - with B&W/IR I typically run most cameras at 1/60 or so. In color its a tedious job of experimenting to get enough light while keeping motion blur and noise to a minimum. Again start with 1/60 but i find it takes 1/120 to 1/250 to freeze moving subjects. This means you need a shit ton of white light to run color at night. Again Gain can be helpful but the more Gain the more noise. Its a balancing act.
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Thank you very much mate and I think I also did see this post.
The issue I have and maybe I'm missing something is what the Acronyms and what they mean. ie: WDR, BLC, LPR etc etc.
That's what's confusing me as would like to know what they mean and what they are for.
bigredfish
Known around here
This is very good advice to get started
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Most of us here know that the Dahua and Hikvisions of the world do not cater to the "consumer" market - their target audience is professional installers, so we are considered "prosumer" and we are fortunate to get our hands on these types of cameras and NVRs instead of consumer grade junk and not having to go thru professional installers to get quality gear. Now the downside is we get them at a discount and without manuals and support and thus are on our own to figure it out. And we are just fine with that! That is what Google search and this forum is for!
We are fortunate a forum like this exists to help with that. We do not exist in their world and that is their business model and they made the business decision to not compete with the Rings and Nests and Reolinks of the world and as such to do offer these cameras at box stores for consumers to purchase directly. Dahua and Hik cater to the professional installers...and would tell you to contact the vendor you got them from if you have questions or need support...
Contrast that with consumer grade units. You can call a Night Owl or Arlo or Reolink or Lorex or Amcrest or DLink or Google Nest or Ring and speak to a representative (now whether they can help you or not is another story) and for most novice callers they provide good customer service, but they will not tell you to talk to Best Buy where you purchased it...and several of these cost the same or more as Dahua or Hikvision...
Personally I will take better quality cameras and no support and forums like this than crap cameras with customer support that I end up knowing more than the call center person I am calling...
We are fortunate a forum like this exists to help with that. We do not exist in their world and that is their business model and they made the business decision to not compete with the Rings and Nests and Reolinks of the world and as such to do offer these cameras at box stores for consumers to purchase directly. Dahua and Hik cater to the professional installers...and would tell you to contact the vendor you got them from if you have questions or need support...
Contrast that with consumer grade units. You can call a Night Owl or Arlo or Reolink or Lorex or Amcrest or DLink or Google Nest or Ring and speak to a representative (now whether they can help you or not is another story) and for most novice callers they provide good customer service, but they will not tell you to talk to Best Buy where you purchased it...and several of these cost the same or more as Dahua or Hikvision...
Personally I will take better quality cameras and no support and forums like this than crap cameras with customer support that I end up knowing more than the call center person I am calling...
I have to say this is a perfect response to those who are newly looking for a Video Security solution...
looney2ns
IPCT Contributor
Weird issue. I have 2MP (5231R-Z) varifocals and one 4MP (5442tm-as) varifocal cam from Andy. When setting the sub-stream the same as the main stream for Frame Rate and I-Frame, I get around 15/1fps main stream and around 12-14/1fps for the sub-stream.
However, I picked up a 5442 3.6mm and 6mm. The 6mm has same firmware as the varifocal (V2.800.0000000.22.R, Build Date: 2020-11-19), while the 3.6mm has a newer version. When setting up the sub-streams, it is around 12-14/0.5fps.
To ensure that the cam is set the same as the 5542 varifocal, I re-created them using a copy, with same result. In web interface, they are set the same. Is this normal for these non-varifocal cams?
Tried increasing sub-stream to 30/30, but doesn't change info on BI.
I plan to use the cam ONVIF/AI/IVS for triggering, so maybe it doesn't matter...compared to deepstack option.
Thanks.
However, I picked up a 5442 3.6mm and 6mm. The 6mm has same firmware as the varifocal (V2.800.0000000.22.R, Build Date: 2020-11-19), while the 3.6mm has a newer version. When setting up the sub-streams, it is around 12-14/0.5fps.
To ensure that the cam is set the same as the 5542 varifocal, I re-created them using a copy, with same result. In web interface, they are set the same. Is this normal for these non-varifocal cams?
Tried increasing sub-stream to 30/30, but doesn't change info on BI.
I plan to use the cam ONVIF/AI/IVS for triggering, so maybe it doesn't matter...compared to deepstack option.
Thanks.
sebastiantombs
Known around here
If you're referring to the "1" being from the "key" listing inthe BI console, that actually represents the ratio of frame and iframe rates. Since it's "1" it indicates BI is seeing an iframe for whatever the displayed frame rate is, which is exactly what is needed.