Video corruption on IPC-HDBW4433R-ZS

[dinth]

Hi. I have already searched the forum looking for other people with similar issue, so i know that many, many people advise against buying those cameras, but when i am on very tight budget and i already purchased them.
Anyhow, i have encountered a very weird issue. Literally every 5 minutes the image coming from all my cameras gets corrupted. This corruption lasts for about 30-60 seconds and then everything goes back to normal for another 5 minutes.
Im using MotionEye NVR software, but i believe that this also happens when playing stream in different apps (VLC, Home Assistant).
Cameras are powered using PoE using cat6 cable and the switch doesnt report any corrupted/missing Tx or Rx pockets anywhere on the network.
I tried different encoding options: smart codec on/off, h264/265, different resolutions and frame rates.

It's hard to believe that this is an factory issue with this model, as this is probably the most popular Dahua model on eBay. On the other hand all my cameras have this issue (they have been bought at different times from different suppliers). And the regularity of corruption (it happens every 5 minutes sharp) is really weird. Has anyone seen similar issues with this model?

Kind regards

 

[awsum140]

What is the iframe rate? It should match the frame rate, not higher and not lower. That is set in each camera. From the sound of things, where you bought them, they may very well be "hacked" cameras that originally had Chinese firmware that have been "converted" to English. That can cause all kind of problems. I ask this specifically because I have a Reolink clone that experiences the same symptoms and there is no way to control the iframe rate which has been traced as the source of video tearing in that specific camera.

Keep the codec as basic as possible, H264 and no smart codecs.

 

[dinth]

Right now (ive been gradually decreasing quality, hoping that the issue will disappear) frame rate is set to 15 and iframe interval also to 15 (lowest value with selected framerate)
I have been purchasing my cameras from various eBay sellers & aliexpress throughout last one and half year.

 

[awsum140]

Out of curiosity, how about a shot of the system info for one of the cameras showing the firmware version, a shot of the video configuration for one of them in BI and a shot of the cameras page from the main window drop down?

I'd up the bit rate, but that's just me. I run at 10fps, 4096 max, vbr and iframe at 10. So far I still have a feeling it's firmware related but that's just a guess.

 

[fenderman]

Out of curiosity, how about a shot of the system info for one of the cameras showing the firmware version, a shot of the video configuration for one of them in BI and a shot of the cameras page from the main window drop down?

I'd up the bit rate, but that's just me. I run at 10fps, 4096 max, vbr and iframe at 10. So far I still have a feeling it's firmware related but that's just a guess.

He is not using bi

 

[awsum140]

OH well, I'm out of guesses and suggestions then other than the root being hacked firmware.

 

[pozzello]

something on your network is using up bandwidth every 5 minutes that causes issues with your streams during that time. If your router's GUI has a 'current connections' page, you might watch that for a while and see if you can detect what is regularly spiking bandwidth usage... (eg, do you have some sort of 'backup to the cloud' enabled that moves a bunch of data every 5 minutes, that sort thing...)

 

[bigredfish]

Agree with @pozzello , when Ive seen this it always turned out to be a bandwidth restriction somewhere. Could also be a device that cant handle the load....such a low bitrate

 

[SouthernYankee]

1) what are you using to look at the video ,PC,MAC, PHONE,TABLET
2) are the cameras hardwired to the network or wifi ?
3) is the device used to look at the video hardwired or wifi to the network?
4) if totally hardwired , does the traffic flow go through the router ?

 

[dinth]

1) MotionEye NVR software running on Dell PowerEdge R210II server. Although that screen corruption happens on different viewers (VLC on phone, VLC on desktop, HomeAssistant running on another server), the main problem is with NVR detecting this corruption as motion.
2) Cameras are hardwired and powered over ethernet. Cat 6 cables connected to HP ProCurve 3500 PoE switch.
3) NVR server is hardwired.
4) This may potentially be an issue, my pfSense router is currently connected only through 1Gbps connection, although theres no other load in the network than CCTV - the house is still an unhabitated building site.

5) While all 4433-R-ZS outside of my house are affected, I also have few hacked HDW4433C-A inside of the house - they are all streaming with on full resolution and there's no issues with them.

 

[IAmATeaf]

Do you get the same when directly connected to the cams?

 

[VorlonFrog]

If you have a choice of H.264 or H.264H (as shown) take the first option H.264 WITHOUT the 'H'. Try bitrates of 2048, 3072, or 4096.

 

[pozzello]

so all the outdoor cams (4433-R-ZS) have the problem, but none of the indoor HDW4433C-A ?
how many of each? and are they all wired to the same switch connected to your router?
does your switch have gigabit poe ports? or at least a gigabit uplink port? or all 10/100?

 

[dinth]

so all the outdoor cams (4433-R-ZS) have the problem, but none of the indoor HDW4433C-A ?
how many of each? and are they all wired to the same switch connected to your router?
does your switch have gigabit poe ports? or at least a gigabit uplink port? or all 10/100?

All are wired to the same switch, gigabit poe ports (although cameras use juz 100mb connection anyway according to switch control panel). 3 outside cameras, 4 indoor cameras.

Do you get the same when directly connected to the cams?

This is actually an interesting experiment, unfortunately i wont be able to perform it anytime soon (the house is in a different town)

 

[pozzello]

ok, so it's probably not network congestion. i would carefully compare the video config settings on your outdoor vs indoor cams, especially the encoding. as suggested, straight h264 is your most compatible setting... no + or h or 265...

 

[alastairstevenson]

Im using MotionEye NVR software, but i believe that this also happens when playing stream in different apps (VLC, Home Assistant).

So you get this problem when accessing the video streams from the NVR software (running on a PC? How are you accessing the PC?) and also using other apps to access the cameras directly? Or are the other apps accessing streams provided by the NVR software?

This is actually an interesting experiment, unfortunately i wont be able to perform it anytime soon (the house is in a different town)

Are you accessing the NVR software remotely, over the internet?
If so - what's the upload bandwidth?

 

[SouthernYankee]

Off the wall comment.... could the problem be caused by running 4MP cameras at 1290x720 or 720P.

I am not familiar with MotionEye NVR software.

You will need to access each camera directly on to see if it has problems. If the cameras look good , then loo at the memory and CPU load on the NVR PC.