Hi,
Here is an update on my last post. Please bear with me because this is a bit of a saga but it will hopefully be of interest.
I initially got what appears to be a standard fairly nonsensical email reply from the seemingly Omni-present Tina, virtually word-for-word as per previous responses I've seen posted here and elsewhere.
Nevertheless I followed the main point made and contacted tech.sricam on Skype and there was an almost instantaneous response from Tina via the Skype IM system. This time her English was much more understandable so we were able to enter into a proper dialogue.
She informed me that for my version - Model SP015, Hardware Version 2.1, Firmware Version 13.00.00.96 - there is no firmware upgrade to fix the 720p over RTSP issue but if I granted her remote access she could nevertheless fix both my cameras.
She sent me 3 attachments via Skype:
1. A zip file containing 14_sricam_tool.exe plus it's dependencies.
2. An empty text file named Custom_Setting.ini
3. AA_V3.exe, which is a portable remote access client, "Ammyy Admin" [sic].
Needless to say I was rather cautious about deploying an unfamiliar remote access system on any of my computers so I decided to build something specially for the job that could be destroyed immediately in case of any "issues". I do have the luxury of access to suitable PC and networking hardware (whilst I appreciate many people don't) with which to build a "sandbox" environment so I was happy to give this a try.
By the way Ammyy Admin seems to have garnered some bad press, not because the product itself is dodgy but because it's one of the
tools sometimes abused by scammers to gain access to gullible owner's PC's - "It's Darren from Microsoft here (no it isn't!), we just need to access your computer to fix a problem (no he doesn't!)", you know the sort of thing I'm sure.
Anyway, thanks for reading this far because this is where it gets interesting.
So, having built my sandbox environment, Tina was duly granted temporary access. I'd had the foresight to utilise Windows 7's Problem Steps Recorder to capture the activity but I have yet to decipher all the key-strokes and button clicks so more on this later, but in essence this is what she did:
1. Ran 14_sricam_tool and extracted what appear to be startup parameters then pasted them into Custom_Setting.ini.
2. Edited a single parameter: Set_MD_Level_Support (old value = 3, new value = 1).
3. Saved Custom_Setting.ini then Dragged it on top of one of the many buttons in the tool (this is what I need to investigate further. I don't read Mandarin!)
The camera then did a reboot and following this, 720p became available via rtsp://xx.xx.xx.xx:554/onvif1. Et Voila!
So, no firmware upgrade/downgrade, just a single parameter change.
Now, I'm not saying that this is all that is required for every model of Sricam camera but it certainly worked for my SP015's and I suspect it would for some other models.
On the strength of that, I am inclined to procure (as cheaply as possible) something else from the Sricam stable just to experiment with. Yes I know some people here have very strong negative opinions about anything Sricam and will think I'm completely bonkers but hey-ho, why not? At the end of the day, I now have 2 useable cameras that now produce images on a par with other ones that are two or three times the retail price so I'm a happy chappy!
Once I have deciphered all the activity and maybe experimented a bit myself, I will share with whosoever may be interested.
Sricam owners, don't give up, there may yet be hope!
Regards,
Steve.