Some Dahua Camera settings don't persist after reboot

[Buttan Butt]

Hi there! I post this information here in case someone else is experiencing the same problem. Who knows, with a little bit of luck maybe someone can suggest a solution.

I prefer to set encoding for both the main strean AND the substream to H.265 and and I want to have the Iframe interval set to the same as the frame rate (25).
Like this:


It works well to set the wanted values and they are effective immediately.

Unfortunately the cameras reverts to the old values (for the sub stream only) every time it's rebooting. Like this:



It's a bit annoying to having to repeatedly having to set the same values over and over.

It occurs for 2 of my older camera models

• IPC-HDW4231EM-AS
• IPC-HDW5231R-Z

Installed version is V2.800.0000016.0.R, Build Date: 2020-06-05


Is this a known problem or am I doing something wrong?

Cheers!

 

[wittaj]

It is a problem with some cameras to not hold a setting after a reboot.

I also have one that will revert the bitrate to a lower number.

Nothing that I have found we can do other than check it after a reboot or setup a task scheduler to send an API to change it periodically.

 

[bigredfish]

I’ve seen this when making changes to the camera settings via the NVR instead of directly on the camera. One of the reasons I recommend making all changes on the camera.

If using a Dahua NVR, reset it to factory, only make recording schedule changes on it, and do everything else on the camera.

 

[Buttan Butt]

It is a problem with some cameras to not hold a setting after a reboot.

I also have one that will revert the bitrate to a lower number.

Nothing that I have found we can do other than check it after a reboot or setup a task scheduler to send an API to change it periodically.

Thanks! I'll probably set up a cron task for that then.

I’ve seen this when making changes to the camera settings via the NVR instead of directly on the camera. One of the reasons I recommend making all changes on the camera.

If using a Dahua NVR, reset it to factory, only make recording schedule changes on it, and do everything else on the camera.

Thanks! No NVR here. I'm using Blue Iris so all changes are made on the cameras.

 

[Buttan Butt]

After studying the DAHUA IPC HTTP API, this API call will do the trick:

http://CAMERA-IP/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&Encode[0].ExtraFormat[0].Video.Compression=H.265&Encode[0].ExtraFormat[0].Video.BitRate=512&Encode[0].ExtraFormat[0].Video.FPS=25&Encode[0].ExtraFormat[0].Video.GOP=25

Cheers!

 

[quade]

If you have a Dahua NVR then this will be the issue
If you goto Settings/Camera/CameraList - at the top of the page you will see H.265 Auto Switch - this needs to be turned off

 

[tigerwillow1]

I had a weird thing happen a few days ago. I was having problems accessing one camera's UI so went into the NVR's web interface instead. I enabled substream2 on the camera in question. This worked, and when finished, substream2 got turned off on 10 other cameras.

 

[bigredfish]

That was @wittaj messing with ya. Shouldnt port forward

Seriously has anything changed in your system? Perhaps then NVR is shutting down streams because its Max'd out on bandwidth? That is a documented thing...

 

[CCTVThomas]

If you have a Dahua NVR then this will be the issue
If you goto Settings/Camera/CameraList - at the top of the page you will see H.265 Auto Switch - this needs to be turned off

Thank you, this fixed the same issue for me

 

[Braap]

I'm having a similar issue where every time my camera (IPC-HDW5231R-Z) reboots, it loses the Time Zone, Current Time, and NTP Server. Anyone have any ideas how to fix this?

 

[bobloblaw23]

It's weird, i have a bunch of cameras i'm helping someone with (kind of learning as I go) and they won't hold IP config changes. The change takes effect immediately and begins working on the new IP, but come reboot / power loss, the camera reverts to the previous subnet (10.1.1.x) configured 8 years ago when it was installed. 8 cameras (OEM, can't see the model no.) and 3 of them suffer from this. Only seen similar thing years ago where EEPROM was corrupt on a network card, and it lost the MAC address, halting the network.

wonder if this is EEPROM related...

 

[tigerwillow1]

I've been bit a few times by not pressing the "apply" or "ok" buttons after making a change. As something else to try, make the changes using configTool.

 

[bigredfish]

I've been bit a few times by not pressing the "apply" or "ok" buttons after making a change. As something else to try, make the changes using configTool.

This and/or browser issue. I've seen this plenty of times using an not so compatible browser, like Firefox,

 

[bigredfish]

It's weird, i have a bunch of cameras i'm helping someone with (kind of learning as I go) and they won't hold IP config changes. The change takes effect immediately and begins working on the new IP, but come reboot / power loss, the camera reverts to the previous subnet (10.1.1.x) configured 8 years ago when it was installed. 8 cameras (OEM, can't see the model no.) and 3 of them suffer from this. Only seen similar thing years ago where EEPROM was corrupt on a network card, and it lost the MAC address, halting the network.

wonder if this is EEPROM related...

Are these cameras plugged into the NVR PoE ports? Then yeah

 

[bobloblaw23]

I will try configTool now and report back.

Are these cameras plugged into the NVR PoE ports? Then yeah

They were taken from an 8-port NVR (OEM dahua) and plugged into just a PoE switch standalone. It was there i found they had been originally set up with static ips in the 10.1.1.x range. From here, i used a laptop with chrome and logged into each one of the cameras and changed the static address to a new scheme. I then rebooted them all by simply unplugging the PoE switch for 60 seconds and then repowering on. Only 5 of 8 kept their new ip range, the remaining 3 reverted back.

I just logged into one of the troublesome 3 via its webUI, and any changes (e.g. untick enable Sub stream, hit 'Save', reports back 'save succeeded') take effect, but then "system >> automaintain>>> manual reboot" and the camera comes back up with the changes not kept.

 

[bobloblaw23]

I will try configTool now and report back.

No luck.

I installed configtool from the Dahua wiki, found the camera no problem. did the Modify IP operation, got the green tick, did a re-scan/refresh and it showed up under new IP. then did System settings, ticked the camera (with its new IP), clicked the Reboot tab, hit the manual Reboot button and received green tick. Waited a bit, camera came back up under the old IP still.

Right now I'm tempted to hit the factory reset just to see what happens, but i have a feeling if it somehow managers to clear NVRAM, i think i might be left with a camera that doesn't accept any changes from default.

edit: of the 8 cameras, 6 are of the same type from 2017, all running the same firmware. there are 3 of these that exhibit this "no longer saves settings on reboot" issue. 2 cameras were added to the system in 2020, and these are i think different models/different firmware and don't have any issue.

I think it might be time for some new gear anyway

 

[bigredfish]

Weird

I have 2 2016-2017 Dahua cameras that we’re plugged into a 2018 NVR that had assigned them 10.1.1.x addresses which is assigned by the NVR automatically, as expected and desired. (It’s an built in security measure)

I logged into them, changed the IP to a STATIC 192.168.1.x address, saved, immediately unplugged as they were rebooting, (which they will typically do when you change the IP) and plugged into an external switch. They keep the assigned 192 address and reboot/unplug etc doesn’t effect this.

Browsers can play a role here. Try using IE or even Pale Moon 32

 

[bobloblaw23]

I know where you're coming from, but in this instance wouldn't using configtool rule it out that it's due to a browser?

At this stage i will wait until the neighbour gets new cameras/NVR and pulls down the old ones, and then i'll try factory resetting them to see if they then hold changes. I'll update this thread, but it might be a few weeks before he pulls the trigger on new gear.