Unbranded IP cameras, help please

[guk]

Hi, I recently purchased 2x 1080p IP cameras and installed them ok outside, and can view them live via IE, but I never set them up to record, as all the instructions are in Chinese, I figured I’d try to do that another time. I’m trying to get this sorted out today but am having all sorts of problems working it out, the problem is I don’t know the name of the camera and I can’t find any info about the software online, so it’s making looking for help extremely difficult.

Here is the auction page on ebay: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2MP-IP-Camera-2-8mm-12mm-VF-50M-IR-Nightvision-POE-P2P-ONVIF-1080P-Full-HD-CCTV-/261832101721?

I contacted the seller and even he doesn’t know the name of it.

I took a couple of screenshots, perhaps it matches other ones:

I have a camera at the front of the property, and another at the rear. I set up identical options on both cameras for motion detection, but only the camera at the rear is detecting any motion, the camera at the front detected motion once when I first changed the settings, and has not detected anything since, even on the highest sensitivity.
The camera at the rear seems a bit hit or miss too, it bombarded me with motion detection for a minute then it stopped detecting it too.

I don’t have a DVR with the cameras, as I have a microserver at home, which I was planning to use instead of an NVR since it’s on all the time anyway.

The ideal setup would be that the cameras take a snapshot every X seconds 24 hours a day and upload to a remote FTP, but on top of that save a proper video when motion is detected, and perhaps mirror that video remotely too. I did manage to get the rear camer to upload a few snapshots to the FTP server but then it stopped.

Any advice, or help, or links to any help on this camera software would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Zorac]

whats your microserver running as an OS? might make sense to have the server do the pulling rather than have the camera push to an ftp.

you can try this as a manual: http://www.tatsch-it.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/General_IPC_MANUAL_EN_R3.pdf

 

[guk]

Thanks for the response, I'll have a good look through the pdf when I get home.

My server is Windows Server 2012

I've tried various bits of 3rd party software but the footage is always covered in artifacts and running like a slide show, but when I view the footage on IE it's smooth and crisp with no delay. Perhaps a codec issue I'm not sure?

I was rather hoping the IP camera itself would do the leg work and copy files directly to network drives so I wouldn't need software running 24/7 on the server and the cameras could work independently.

Surely there will be much more bandwidth used on the network if 3rd party software is having to constantly monitor all the camera streams rather than the camera sending motion itself and sending the video only when needed.

 

[Sparkey]

That's the same interface as the cheap cam in this thread.

http://www.ipcamtalk.com/showthread.php/1812-Review-TOP-201-Super-Mini-720P-HD-IP-Cam-(The-Cheapest-IP-Cam-So-Far-!!)

It'll probably work with Blue iris.

 

[fenderman]

I would return the cams...seems like a high price for what it is..there are known quality reliable brands like hikvision and dahua..its not worth your time to hassle with it..

 

[Zorac]

mine work with blueiris, there are a pile of no name cameras runing the same firmware. you could do something with ffmpeg to script grabbing jpegs from the rstp stream as well (if you can't get the camera to do it, or it doesnt have a jpg grab url). these no name cameras are a bit quirky. sparkey refernces a good thread, lots of good info in there.

 

[guk]

Thanks for the replies, I'm experimenting with Blue Iris now, but I find the video quality is not as sharp as viewing the camera directly in IE, I don’t want to compromise on image quality if I can help it. I have Blue Iris set to the RTSP stream, is that the best way of doing things for maximum image quality?

It’s a shame I will have to look in to 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] party software as my server is already low on resources and barely meets the min requirements for Blue Iris, so it’s less than ideal. I can’t imagine the seller helping me though, as I didn’t complete the purchase through eBay in the end, I dealt with him direct, live and learn.

 

[Zorac]

there shouldnt be any difference between viewing in IE and blueiris (via rtsp). make sure your using direct to disk recording and not re-encoding in blueiris. this will also help your resource issue.

 

[fenderman]

make sure you are using the correct url and not pulling the substream..set blue iris to direct to disc so there is no encoding going on...

 

[guk]

The URL I’m using is this one: rtsp://192.168.1.101:554/user=me_password=mycam123_channel=1_stream=0.sdp?real_stream

It’s not the recorded video that I’m seeing a difference on, I haven’t checked that, but rather it’s when I view the cameras live, in IE it’s a sharper image in the distance, I can make out detail on my vehicle that I can’t make out on Blue Iris, there is a slight blur to everything on Blue Iris. The colour is also slightly different between Blue Iris and IE.

I have the sub stream disabled completely on the cams, and now have it set as direct to disc, all though I wouldn’t think that setting would affect the live stream?

The camera has RTSP on one port, but also lists a “media port” too. I don’t really understand the difference.

 

[fenderman]

The URL I’m using is this one: rtsp://192.168.1.101:554/user=me_password=mycam123_channel=1_stream=0.sdp?real_stream

It’s not the recorded video that I’m seeing a difference on, I haven’t checked that, but rather it’s when I view the cameras live, in IE it’s a sharper image in the distance, I can make out detail on my vehicle that I can’t make out on Blue Iris, there is a slight blur to everything on Blue Iris. The colour is also slightly different between Blue Iris and IE.

I have the sub stream disabled completely on the cams, and now have it set as direct to disc, all though I wouldn’t think that setting would affect the live stream?

The camera has RTSP on one port, but also lists a “media port” too. I don’t really understand the difference.

Blue iris may be displaying the processed image, change it to direct to disc and see if there is any changes...

 

[Zorac]

you can use the default 'Netsurvellience' camera profile in blueiris as well, the url is a little different

/user={id}&password={pw}&channel={CAMNO}&stream=1

 

[guk]

It's the same with either URL, and direct to disc is selected too.

Even the time overlay from the camera is noticeably not as sharp and not as white as it is in IE.

If you look at the text its sharper in the first image which is IE, the 2nd image is which has some blur to it, is Blue Iris.

I notice there is a slight border down the right of the Blue Iris window, it’s not big, only 5pixels but I'm wondering if that border causing a slight resize could be enough to distort the image and not give me a true 1:1 pixel image.
I’ve looked everywhere but can’t seem to disable that border to test. Will keep poking around!