These 2 Latest Lorex 4k Cams + Ubiquiti (UniFi) 4k Cam?

[ArmoredDragon]

Got mine, going to do some bench testing. Meanwhile, is there a firmware release for this that can show video without stupid internet explorer?

EDIT: And without the chrome extension, which never seems to work for me. The Dahua 5442T works without it, not sure why this lorex needs it.

 

[WileECoyote]

Got mine, going to do some bench testing. Meanwhile, is there a firmware release for this that can show video without stupid internet explorer?

EDIT: And without the chrome extension, which never seems to work for me. The Dahua 5442T works without it, not sure why this lorex needs it.

I first used a browser (firefox) for this Lorex camera and my Dahua 5231 just to see it's initial config, etc...

But you can download a free 15-day trial version of BlueIris (it will just put a 'BLUE IRIS DEMO' in blue lettering across your video output, but otherwise you can see everything as normal)....

I've been using this to bench test my cameras...I would suggest you just install that, I'm using it on my laptop right now just for testing, it's fine as far as cpu usage goes when you're just testing a camera..


One thing I'm not sure of if there is a way via the Lorex Camera's web interface to change the trigger mode of the 'security LEDs'... it's says in the manual you can set them to 'auto', or 'schedule' or 'manual' enabling/disabling, via the NVR... so not sure if we can control these security LEDs without an actual LOREX NVR?


Here's the main camera interface... not sure what the 'WB' is? I would think White Balance... but it was just a drop down menu of things like 'day', 'night' something else I forget..

 

[fenderman]

I first used a browser (firefox) for this Lorex camera and my Dahua 5231 just to see it's initial config, etc...

But you can download a free 15-day trial version of BlueIris (it will just put a 'BLUE IRIS DEMO' in blue lettering across your video output, but otherwise you can see everything as normal)....

I've been using this to bench test my cameras...I would suggest you just install that, I'm using it on my laptop right now just for testing, it's fine as far as cpu usage goes when you're just testing a camera..


One thing I'm not sure of if there is a way via the Lorex Camera's web interface to change the trigger mode of the 'security LEDs'... it's says in the manual you can set them to 'auto', or 'schedule' or 'manual' enabling/disabling, via the NVR... so not sure if we can control these security LEDs without an actual LOREX NVR?


Here's the main camera interface... not sure what the 'WB' is? I would think White Balance... but it was just a drop down menu of things like 'day', 'night' something else I forget..


View attachment 60384

The leds will be controlled by the ir settings in the web interface. The white light leds simply replace ir.

 

[WileECoyote]

The leds will be controlled by the ir settings in the web interface. The white light leds simply replace ir.

Ahh...interesting... I'm not sure I want bright white LEDs on at night once it get's dark... so I'l see how bad it is with no white LEDs on....

would be better suited with this camera if they had put IR LEDs on it along with the White LEDS as a security feature, for the bright light... but only using them as a light source when wanted, not as an insane illumination backdrop for night vision...


I may take it apart after I test it out, and see if I can find a couple of strong IR leds to replace them with...

 

[fenderman]

Ahh...interesting... I'm not sure I want bright white LEDs on at night once it get's dark... so I'l see how bad it is with no white LEDs on....

would be better suited with this camera if they had put IR LEDs on it along with the White LEDS as a security feature, for the bright light... but only using them as a light source when wanted, not as an insane illumination backdrop for night vision...


I may take it apart after I test it out, and see if I can find a couple of strong IR leds to replace them with...

That camera is designed as a color night cams. Dahua has other cams that have one ir and one led used as a warning alarm but not with that sensor.

 

[WileECoyote]

BTW,

Someone already did take a look, took the front cover off one of these, it does actually have a single IR LED in between the two White LEDs...

New Lorex system at Costco - What do you guys think?

I was just in my local Costco and saw they have a new Lorex system they are selling. I picked up a kit to possible replace the Lorex system I got from Costco a year or 2 ago. The system isn't listed on the US Costco website but is on the Canadian one. It was $799.99 plus tax in store...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[ArmoredDragon]

These cameras do remarkably well in black and white at night. Is there a way I can adjust when it does black and white? The position I put it in, there's a porch light far in the background that I think is just bright enough that it goes to color mode, and everything else turns black with just that one spot lit up, so basically useless.

 

[fenderman]

These cameras do remarkably well in black and white at night. Is there a way I can adjust when it does black and white? The position I put it in, there's a porch light far in the background that I think is just bright enough that it goes to color mode, and everything else turns black with just that one spot lit up, so basically useless.

look at the dahua sunrise sunset tool by bp2008, should work on these cams.

 

[mat200]

These cameras do remarkably well in black and white at night. Is there a way I can adjust when it does black and white? The position I put it in, there's a porch light far in the background that I think is just bright enough that it goes to color mode, and everything else turns black with just that one spot lit up, so basically useless.

Hi @ArmoredDragon

I recall seeing some settings on a camera that you can adjust the IR Leds a bit. Try to log into the camera and check if there are settings there. If you find them on the camera, then go back and check the NVRs interface if the settings are carried over to the NVR.

 

[ArmoredDragon]

I don't have the NVR, I bought these individually. The ones I bought previously that came with the NVR worked differently. That NVR was crap though, you had to have a monitor connected directly to it, and the cameras were definitely worse than these, though they do look similar physically. Different different firmware maybe? Image was a lot grainier for sure.

 

[WileECoyote]

Hi All,

Just wanted to post some initial images... One of us can do a review at some point, ArmoredDragon, you want to do a review thread on this camera? I haven't finished fully testing yet... but here's some night shots...


1) The 'target' in my test was a color 'Math' Poster from my wife's school stuff, it's about 38ft or so away from the cameras under test.

I took a couple initial pics from the Dahua 5231 zoomed fully out and zoomed fully in (since it has a true optical zoom capability), so you can see the poster from fully zoomed out and fully zoomed in... this was during evening with full sun still in the sky.

 

[WileECoyote]

And the same poster zoomed in...

 

[WileECoyote]

Here's the 5231 at 8:30pm, fully dark here, no lights around except for neighbors house through the trees....

Note: I think there were a couple of small dirt specs on the lens, but not where you see all of these reflections that look like 'spots'? unless maybe they are on the actual camera lens inside the glass.. I may need to open it up and clean the optical lens...

 

[WileECoyote]

And here's the LOREX at the initial evening shot..

 

[WileECoyote]

And here's the LOREX at the same dark time (8:30pm)

 

[ArmoredDragon]

Hi All,

Just wanted to post some initial images... One of us can do a review at some point, ArmoredDragon, you want to do a review thread on this camera? I haven't finished fully testing yet... but here's some night shots...


1) The 'target' in my test was a color 'Math' Poster from my wife's school stuff, it's about 38ft or so away from the cameras under test.

I took a couple initial pics from the Dahua 5231 zoomed fully out and zoomed fully in (since it has a true optical zoom capability), so you can see the poster from fully zoomed out and fully zoomed in... this was during evening with full sun still in the sky.

I would but honestly I don't know much about cameras beyond things like video codecs or networking (though I can tell you just about anything you ever wanted to know about networking.) Also physical security is more the territory of this forum, where I'm cyber security.

See the very first post I ever made to this forum for an example of where my talents are

 

[WileECoyote]

So, my initial thoughts are this:

1) The Dahua 5231 seems to have a bit better night vision coverage at the target range of about 38 feet or so, as you can clearly see the sign still visible and the tree above it.. but notice the clairity of all the grass and closer objects within the main FOV... they are not nearly as clear as the LOREX is in the under 38' range.

2) The LOREX seems to lose it's IR coverage around the 36' mark or so, you can still see the sign but it's dark, and then the trees behind it are real dark... But, look at the clarity of the objects closer, ie the grass, the cement slab at the right....

The overall clarity of the LOREX just seems to be much better? maybe I need to tweak things in the 5231 to get a better picture? I kept everything stock on both cameras, FYI.. I didn't change anything...

Also, Note, the LOREX does indeed have that IR LED right in the middle, it was clearly visible once dark out, you could see the glowing RED.. and the security WHITE LEDS were NOT ON at all... so they are totally separate from the IR electronics.


So far I am quite impressed, I like this lorex bullet.....you do lose some night vision range when compared to the Dahua, but under that 36' or so, it seems rock solid. I'll have to do some more tests with some targets like this again, but in a closer range at maybe 20' or something...

 

[fenderman]

So, my initial thoughts are this:

1) The Dahua 5231 seems to have a bit better night vision coverage at the target range of about 38 feet or so, as you can clearly see the sign still visible and the tree above it.. but notice the clairity of all the grass and closer objects within the main FOV... they are not nearly as clear as the LOREX is in the under 38' range.

2) The LOREX seems to lose it's IR coverage around the 36' mark or so, you can still see the sign but it's dark, and then the trees behind it are real dark... But, look at the clarity of the objects closer, ie the grass, the cement slab at the right....

The overall clarity of the LOREX just seems to be much better? maybe I need to tweak things in the 5231 to get a better picture? I kept everything stock on both cameras, FYI.. I didn't change anything...

Also, Note, the LOREX does indeed have that IR LED right in the middle, it was clearly visible once dark out, you could see the glowing RED.. and the security WHITE LEDS were NOT ON at all... so they are totally separate from the IR electronics.


So far I am quite impressed, I like this lorex bullet.....you do lose some night vision range when compared to the Dahua, but under that 36' or so, it seems rock solid. I'll have to do some more tests with some targets like this again, but in a closer range at maybe 20' or something...

You need to redo the testing with the camera mounted higher or at least pointed higher, the camera is capturing way too much ground and therefore adjusting to the ir reflection.
Also, ensure blue iris is set to direct to disk so there is no reencoding going on .
Finally a static image tells you little about how it will look with a moving object. The lorex has dahuas 1/1.8" sensors so its not surprising it will do well at night, in IR mode, it wont work as well as dahuas with that sensor as there is only 1 ir led on the lorex.

 

[ArmoredDragon]

Why doesn't blue iris accept AAC audio from these cameras? Or at least, it doesn't show it as an option.

 

[hadberz]

Why doesn't blue iris accept AAC audio from these cameras? Or at least, it doesn't show it as an option.

Just got this camera and was curious about that too, but it seems to be working fine. Getting 2 way audio to work was trial and error, but found a Dahua (IPC-HFW4431) setting that seems to work. Selecting the audio format RTSP is a big improvement over using G 711 u-law (this was the default when installing the camera on my system). I didn't see anything in the manual about the audio format, but may have missed it.