Revisiting the dahua 4k NVR's Video playback issues(lost frames)

c hris527

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Hi all,
There is quite a few different threads here about dahua nvr's, and smart pss having issues playing back videos. I have had these issues and still do to this date. Here is what Is going on in my world and what I have found on this issue. As I see it right now, this issue is only effecting the dahua 4k NVR's as far as I know. I have plenty of other dahua tribrid and non 4k NVR's that have been rock solid to date. Chime in if you are having issues with non 4k NVR's please. Here is a list of what is happening.

1. If you have motion detection enabled on top of 24-7 recording you will get a pause, a hangup a dead spot in your video and loose perhaps 2 to 3 seconds of video, i have seen this as high as 5 or 6 seconds in smart pss.
2. Major issues and lock ups trying to view video or do encoding on cameras through the web gui or smart pss. The administration side of things will freeze and you will be locked out remotely and have to go on site and manually re-boot the system. This is a major issue for me because the end users are bitching to me about getting locked out from their desktops. When this is happening the system is still running and recording normally. The logs indicate NOTHING only that that user is still logged in. A restart will fix this issue. When this happens I cannot even ping the system.

I have contacted the sellers of these NVR's and they have been pretty good with me about some of these issues and have tried a few things about making sure your streams in 24-7 and motion detection are the same, seemed to help some but the issues are still here. Now the beef.
I have a 4k NVR at home and have had the lost frame issue and skipping video for awhile. I Installed a new camera this weekend(dahua IPC-HFW4431R-Z) and things went all bad really fast with the motion detection and skipping frames and hanging up my nvr, losing video and locking up the nvr. I had time to roll up my sleeves last night and found some really eye opening things about this NVR.
Here is what I did, I first thought the new camera was the bogie here but when running tests side by side with the NVR, The web gui and smart pss I noticed something I never caught before.
I had the nvr open and the web gui side by side and noticed a rather big difference in the times?
WAIT WHAT?? umm ok lemme check this again. YES.. its was true. The time in the web gui was 8 seconds ahead of the NVR. If you log on to the web gui you should be able to set your time on the NVR.Correct? Are there two different system clocks on the NVR?
I next opened camera live view on the nvr, I was watching the camera clock and the NVR clock and sure enough a 8 second difference. I then opened the web gui and it seemed the cameras were syncing off the clock on the web gui clock and not the NVR clock. Long story short I synced the nvr with windoze time server, it corrected it, then logged on the the web gui , did the same, and checked my computer clock and all three were good.
I did some recording and NO issues with lost time on motion detection or skipped frames. WTF

Where is the web gui pulling its time from? you would think from the nvr right? I guess not because when I checkd it tonight it was gaining time ahead of the NVR again or the NVR clock is losing time.
Not sure whats going on here but having two different system clocks in one NVR is raising hell with playback and recording here is a pic.the clock in the web gui was one second ahead of the nvr again.

all three.jpg

In the pic 1.Is the NVR clock 2. is a camera live feed clock 3. is the web gui.
If there was a lag issue you would think the web gui clock would be behind the nvr but this is not the case.
Before you say maybe the web gui is pulling its time from the PC(I wish I took a screen shot of this). The pc clock, the web gui clock and the nvr clock were all different times last night.
Can anybody else check this and see what they find. I synced all of them again to-nite with windows time server and there is still a difference.

Thanks
 
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alastairstevenson

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Long story short I synced the nvr with windoze time server, it corrected it, then logged on the the web gui , did the same, and checked my computer clock and all three were good.
I did some recording and NO issues with lost time on motion detection or skipped frames. WTF
Interesting - and puzzling. Especially if the skipped frames 'fix' is repeatable.
 

c hris527

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UPDATE: I took the time today to look at another 4k NVR I knew was having skipping issues. It is a 8 port POE type and is running (4) 3mp dahua bullet cams. Only one of the cams is set for 24-7 and motion. I grabbed my laptop and a spare switch and set it up so I can be logged in to the web gui and watch the nvr at the same time. Before I did anything I watch video from this morning viewing through the NVR directly. All transitions from green(24*7) to yellow (motion) were smooth with absolutely NO lost time or skipping and that is a good thing. I then logged on to the web Gui and watched the same footage. Every single transition from regular to motion would skip 1 second and loose frames, I checked this a few times and had the same 1 second loss on the transition.
I then went to the NVR and opened the settings and had the screen where you can watch the date and time, I then did the same on the laptop and opened the settings for the time also. I watched them side by side and sure enough the the time on the nvr was 1 second behind the web gui time. Could this explain the one second loss while viewing remotely through the web gui? I then used the feature to sync the web gui to my laptop and it changed the NVR and web gui times Instantly. I watched for a few mins and then walked in front of the camera to get the motion activated. lets say that the time and frames were there now on playback but a little fast or hurried but they were in fact there once i got the two times the same.
I took a 15 min phone call and came back and tested it again, this time when I played it back on the web gui would skip 3 seconds and lost frames again. I went back and checked the two times and they were off by 3 seconds. Ok so there is really two clocks here someplace on that nvr. This has to be a bug in the firmware. If you run SmartPss it does the same thing but the screen will go blank on those 3 seconds where the web gui will just stitch it together with net frame. Right now I guess the good thing about this if you need to see the money shot, go directly to the NVR. The bad thing is I think this clock issue might be causing more issues just than remote viewing. As I have stated before, remote management has been crappy with these 4k NVR's.
I have lost the ability to remote in after either viewing or changing camera settings and this is over a LAN on this setup. So far two for two on the clock Issues. I have 2 more to check but It might not be this week. If anybody has a Idea about the clocks please chime in or perhaps do a test yourself and see if the times are different. Does anybody think this could be a javascript issue with the web gui? I just read on another thread the web gui is done this way(thanks NAYR)
 
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roryk

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Old thread, but what I have noticed is the issue is playback from SmartPSS and Web UI. If you download each file - the Continuous record and the Motion event, then put them together using AVI demux or similar, it runs smooth without skipping time. Agree its a PITA and it does not happen on Tribrid DVRs for example - only experienced this with Dahua NVRs.

Other question, did you get the part sorted yet where it locks up and needs a reboot or has to wait a while to reset itself? I am seeing this with 4K NVRs also, and its a pain.
 

c hris527

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That still happens if I push remote playback on the older rebranded units over a network, I have 2 that I pussyfoot around if I need to remote into. I think its a firmware issue and the last firmware I got for them (from a dealer) made it not better but now I cannot upgrade or downgrade so I have what I have for now.
 

tigerwillow1

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The lost frame issue went away when I put this firmware on the 5216-4ks2 nvr: 3.210.0003.0, Build Date: 2017-04-18.

The only issues I have now are when replaying with smartPss 2.01.0:

1) Playback "stutters" when an event is triggered.
2) Cannot single step through an event trigger.

The web interface has neither of these problems. I don't use the direct interface, but would expect it to be at east as good as the web interface.
 
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The lost frame issue went away when I put this firmware on the 5216-4ks2 nvr: 3.210.0003.0, Build Date: 2017-04-18.

The only issues I have now are when replaying with smartPss 2.01.0:

1) Playback "stutters" when an event is triggered.
2) Cannot single step through an event trigger.

The web interface has neither of these problems. I don't use the direct interface, but would expect it to be at east as good as the web interface.
I also am using the same version of the firmware, and it has solved all my issues with lost frames. And the worst problem of the rebooting automatically every time a tripwire or intrusion event was triggered. I got the firmware from Andy. Many thanks for resolving the issues and making the NVR a dream to use.

I am going to see if I have the time issues, today. Will advise if I do.
 

ZuperMario

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Hello everyone.
Well, i had an intrusion try today, and i'm here on this old thread guess why.... why the face of the intruder is on the gap between the 24h recording and the motion detect recording :banghead:
The DVR is DH-NVR1104-P and the firmware is:
Web:3.1.0.5
System Version:3.200.0000.4.R
Build Date:09-05-2015

I'm doing some last try to fix this bug; if not, i'm looking for dahua alternative... any suggestion? Thanks.
 

fenderman

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Hello everyone.
Well, i had an intrusion try today, and i'm here on this old thread guess why.... why the face of the intruder is on the gap between the 24h recording and the motion detect recording :banghead:
The DVR is DH-NVR1104-P and the firmware is:
Web:3.1.0.5
System Version:3.200.0000.4.R
Build Date:09-05-2015

I'm doing some last try to fix this bug; if not, i'm looking for dahua alternative... any suggestion? Thanks.
Yes, use a pc with a vms like blue iris. A new firmware update my resolve it.
 
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