Thin vertical line, what is it?

[ktiz81]

Hi!

I am just getting started into the world of IP Cams, with my first being a B54IR-Z4E-S3 i just got set up about a week ago. Below I am attaching a screen shot, that shows the "yellow/black vertical line" (left quarter of the photo, it's hard to see because of the brick and tree) I am referring to. What is this? I got up and made sure that I didn't leave anything on the lens and checked everything over on the Camera itself. I suspect that it may be an issue with the camera itself...but I wanted to be sure from the people who know first! What is this line, camera malfunction or some setting I have set poorly?

 

[wittaj]

That certainly isn't normal. Try a few factory resets.

Are you sure there isn't a string or something hanging lol

If still there then try moving it and see if the line stays at the same place and maybe also try taking a white piece of paper to the lens and see if it is still there.

 

[StevenFromTexas]

Could it be the Ethernet cable? Maybe try a different resolution on the camera and/or monitor and see what happens?

 

[ktiz81]

Could it be the Ethernet cable? Maybe try a different resolution on the camera and/or monitor and see what happens?

I have tried all different resolutions for the camera and the monitor, and it still appears...at night, in B&W it loses the yellow hue and just becomes a "line". I haven't thought of changing out the cable....I will have to try that (was a brand new cable, so I didnt think of that).

 

[fenderman]

I have tried all different resolutions for the camera and the monitor, and it still appears...at night, in B&W it loses the yellow hue and just becomes a "line". I haven't thought of changing out the cable....I will have to try that (was a brand new cable, so I didnt think of that).

Even if you had a defective cable it would not cause that line... The cable transmits data as zeros and ones....

 

[RWDY1]

I have seen lines like that on a LCD television (usually caused by dead pixels). Try a different monitor if you have one available. There are some fixes posted on google, whether they work or not, i don't know.

 

[ktiz81]

That certainly isn't normal. Try a few factory resets.

Are you sure there isn't a string or something hanging lol

If still there then try moving it and see if the line stays at the same place and maybe also try taking a white piece of paper to the lens and see if it is still there.

I did try moving it and the line stays in the same place (on the lens). I will try a different network cable today…if it’s still there I will assume it’s probably a bad image sensor.

 

[wittaj]

I would still try a few factory resets. You may have some phantom privacy mask displaying or something else weird that factory resets would resolve.

 

[ktiz81]

I will try a few resets as well, thank you! I’ll report back in case someone comes across this issue again

 

[StevenFromTexas]

I've had an HDMI cable cause problems before. If you're using one, unplug it on both ends and then reconnect. Better yet, if you are currently using an HDMI cable and have a spare one, try the spare one and see what happens.

 

[tibimakai]

If not the monitor/TV, then maybe a ribbon cable inside the camera?!

 

[ktiz81]

Just updating for anyone who comes across this later, it was in fact a bad camera. I tried different network cables and connected directly to my computer with several and it was still there. It’s either a bad image sensor, or a bad pigtail for the network cable on the camera itself (I think probably this).

Thanks for the help!

 

[fenderman]

Just updating for anyone who comes across this later, it was in fact a bad camera. I tried different network cables and connected directly to my computer with several and it was still there. It’s either a bad image sensor, or a bad pigtail for the network cable on the camera itself (I think probably this).

Thanks for the help!

A pigtail could not cause this problem. It's a sensor.

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

@ktiz81, any chance your camera is set for h.265? If so, try setting to h.264

edit: you'll need to login to the camera GUI to make the change

 

[bp2008]

This is almost certainly a sensor defect (a permanent defect, given that power cycling the camera didn't help).

Definitely not cable related. Any wire in or outside of the camera large enough to be seen without a scanning electron microscope is responsible for a lot more than one column of pixels.

It is clearly not a problem with display equipment because that is clearly a screenshot directly from the video feed, not a photograph of a monitor, and we all see the defect.

I would not expect it to be a corrupted privacy mask, because the colored tinting around the black line wouldn't have happened with a privacy mask. But it would happen if a column of blue/green pixels was reading 0, due to bayer filter processing, and the red/green pixels surrounding the dead line are being over-represented.

 

[ktiz81]

This is almost certainly a sensor defect (a permanent defect, given that power cycling the camera didn't help).

Definitely not cable related. Any wire in or outside of the camera large enough to be seen without a scanning electron microscope is responsible for a lot more than one column of pixels.

It is clearly not a problem with display equipment because that is clearly a screenshot directly from the video feed, not a photograph of a monitor, and we all see the defect.

I would not expect it to be a corrupted privacy mask, because the colored tinting around the black line wouldn't have happened with a privacy mask. But it would happen if a column of blue/green pixels was reading 0, due to bayer filter processing, and the red/green pixels surrounding the dead line are being over-represented.

thanks! This is helpful information (just for future purposes), I was leaning towards it being the sensor, but it’s good to know that is probably correct.

 

[StevenFromTexas]

Thank-you for updating your post, ktiz81. It's maddening when topics like this get started on a forum and the original poster never updates what did and didn't work to resolve their problem.

 

[ktiz81]

Just following up again on this topic for reference in the future.

I received a replacement cam yesterday, same cam, just a Turret style this time, and I can say that there was definately issues with the first camera, despite being the same camera, just different format (Turret vs Bullet), the FOV is significantly different (plus no line!). So was something wrong with the internal hardware/image sensor, confirmed.