T54IR-ZE-S3 substreams not showing in BI

[Virga]

Recently I added two new 54IR cams to my set up.
I just happened to look in my storage drives and noticed that I am storing large video files from those cams.
My pre-existing 5442 cams produce 220 MB plus/minus of video per hour, and the 54IR cams are producing more than 3GB per hour.

I first checked the basic parameters on the 54IRs, and compared them to the 5442s, by connecting to the camera directly via browser, screen shots attached. All fine. Next I checked BI.
BI does not see sub streams, and the main stream appears differently from how it looks for the 5442s.
I have already powered down and powered up the 54IRs, no change.
Device info screen shot for the 54IR attached.

Before I start resetting and/or messing with firmware updates (which may be unnecessary), is there something I am missing that I should fix?
Objective is for sub streams to be recognized by BI, and anything else that needs correcting.

 

[wittaj]

How did you add the camera to BI?

The correct procedure is:

Select add camera
Type in IP address
Type in username and password
Hit find/inspect and let BI do its thing.

And then a pop-up window will appear.

Post that screenshot. I suspect it will show invalid password.

These devices keep users and ONVIF users as separate and if the password doesn't match in the ONVIF manager list (which happens frequently when people start changing passwords or use the ConfigTool), then the cameras cannot be "seen". Or sometimes the firmware just goes wonky, especially if you did not do a factory reset as the first thing when you got the camera.

Log into the Camera GUI and under users you will see a tab called ONVIF User or ONVIF Manager or something like that.

Select it and then change the admin password for the ONVIF user to match your new password.

Or simply create a new user and password in ONVIF user (no special characters in password) and use that in BI and hit the find/inspect again.


Also, if you haven't done it, many of us have found these cameras with the new GUI are much better in BI if a factory reset was done with the camera first.

 

[Virga]

Thank for your response @wittaj.

That is the procedure I follow to add cams in BI, don't know another way.
Whenever I got the invalid PW error, it was because I mistyped the PW, and then the camera didn't install in BI until PW typed correctly, thereafter everything proceeds as expected.

I did miss these points
1. Didn't create an ONVIF user on any of my cams, excluding Hik 180's, though an admin ONVIF user is showing in that list.
2. Didn't factory reset new cam before setting it up

Fortunately a do-over will be simple, will try it out and report back.

I just tried to "update" the default admin ONVIF user PW to make sure it is the same as the regular admin user, but it wouldn't let me change it because it does not like what I am putting in for old PW and new PW (same as regular admin user).
The factory reset will fix all that anyways.
BTW, single factory reset or three times?

 

[wittaj]

I am a big fan of the 3 times reset.

 

[Virga]

Thank you @wittaj, the problem I posted above is resolved.

Based on your observation about regular user PW and ONVIF user PW, my conjecture is:
- I mistyped PWs while setting up the new cams, and ONVIF default admin user IDs got created with those incorrect PWs
- when I corrected PWs, I did so for the regular admin user, and didn't know to also correct the PW for the ONVIF default admin user that was created

I concluded the above thus:
Following discussion above, I did three resets.
I am a lousy typer, and made similar errors again as I had the first time around.
But this time, I caught the errors early.
Three resets again, super-careful typing, and for each of two cameras the substreams showed up in BI after "Find/Inspect" just as they are supposed to.
Possibly it is the resets that solved the problem, but I definitely had PW inconsistencies, and simplest explanations usually turn out to be right.

You have been helpful many times when I have got jammed up with something.
I also see that countless times, for countless people, you provide timely, useful, and helpful input.
I am glad you hang out in this forum.

 

[Virga]

I experimented to further test and validate above discussed regular user PW and ONVIF user PW conflict. Two recent additions to my cams are still on the test bench, so this was simple to do.

Starting with a normally working scenario, I changed the user PW.
The sub stream stopped coming through in BI, which is what we would expect.
Then, I also changed the ONVIF user PW such that it was consistent with the regular ID.
Went back to BI, but the sub stream did not come back.

I did what any ipct-er would do, deleted the cam in BI, and added it again.
Now the sub stream was showing in BI.
However, I got the yellow triangle, which I was not happy about.
So I reset both cams – thrice of course @wittaj.

When I added the first cam in BI, everything was as it should be, and no yellow triangle.
With the second cam added in BI, I got the yellow triangle, and it persisted.
It was still there after 15 minutes, and I started researching it.
Read many old threads on the yellow triangle and none of them offered a solution for this situation.
The yellow triangle persisted, even though I kept looking up hoping it would clear.
Around 45 minutes later I looked up and it was gone, and I quit the research.

A few minutes back I was cleaning up notes/procedures I keep for ipcams.
For my Hikvision 180 degree cams, I came across my notes on how to make the sub stream available in BI.
I think Dahua cams create an ONVIF user account by default.
For the Hikvison 180’s, the ONVIF account has to created manually, or no sub stream.
There is another thread on how to make Hikvision sub streams available in BI, and the steps seem rather long and convoluted.

I now realize that the heart of the matter, common to Dahua and Hikvision, is that for sub streams to show up in BI, there must exist a regular user account as well as an ONVIF user account with identical credentials.
The specific steps may vary by firmware, but this is a key point.
I am writing this post just in case it is useful for someone else.