whats bad: camera, setting, or interference?

[cjowers]

camera works fine for 10-15s, then has 2-3s of noise. Not always, but most often like this.

dahua 4631c turret
I'm pretty sure it did this before I installed it, so I think it is the camera.... it is also from ebay, chinese I think.
But I also had to run my cat5e in the vicinity of AC power cables, due to the setup. I know this is not ideal, but would AC interference look like this? (the power cables are usually off when this happens too)

I've tried to disable all alert/motion/etc settings in case the camera is overheating or pausing to perform other actions.

Any ideas?

 

[sebastiantombs]

Is that a screen between the camera and the porch area? If so, the camera could be trying to focus on the screen periodically.

 

[Sybertiger]

Kind of looks like IR overexposure...certainly a possibility if there's a screen door directly in front of the cam.

 

[cjowers]

hmm... no screen door, except on left and right sides (not really visible).
the brick wall it is mounted to in the foreground is visible, and it does focus pretty much solely on that....
is that the reason you think? i dont think i can change focus or mask the camera sensor at all...

 

[sebastiantombs]

Just to give it a try, point the camera a little higher to try to minimize the reflected IR. See what happens then. The over exposure in the lower corners might., and I stress"might", be causing problems. It would also improve the rest of the frame. Out of curiosity, what are the frame, iframe and bit rates set to?

 

[cjowers]

Just to give it a try, point the camera a little higher to try to minimize the reflected IR. See what happens then. The over exposure in the lower corners might., and I stress"might", be causing problems. It would also improve the rest of the frame. Out of curiosity, what are the frame, iframe and bit rates set to?

not sure about iframe... I had tried to look for and set this manually, but didnt have much luck from memory. Do dahuas allow you to set iframe? Looking in Blue iris v5, actual fps is 20fps, and key frames is around 0.1, which i think is = to iframes? Any idea how to set manually?

problem definitely appears regularly at night now that ive been monitoring. day seems ok. so you're probably onto something. I'll fiddle with some more setting in my night configuration.


I overexpose the brick because I don't need to see any detail there, but i want to see detail of a poorly lit face (at a further distance). maybe its too high still, but i think I had it configured decently...
It is possible to remount the cam a further distance from the walls, but definitely not ideal...

Anyone had luck setting or adjust the focus on this camera? it focuses mainly on the adjacent wall.

 

[sebastiantombs]

Over exposing the brick "blinds" the camera in less well illuminated areas.

Dahua cameras are configured by using a browser, Edge will work but Chrome with the IE plug-in works best or Pale Moon 32bit is also good. Enter the IP of the camera in the address line and log in. Go to "settings", then "video".





This is from a 5442 but is the same in all my Dahua cameras. iframe is at the very bottom.

 

[djernie]

And always set the iframe the same as the frame rate. You will need to have to log into the camera with the password you used when setting the camera up.

 

[sebastiantombs]

Thanks. Fergot to add that "little" detail.

 

[cjowers]

Over exposing the brick "blinds" the camera in less well illuminated areas.

Dahua cameras are configured by using a browser, Edge will work but Chrome with the IE plug-in works best or Pale Moon 32bit is also good. Enter the IP of the camera in the address line and log in. Go to "settings", then "video".



View attachment 55301

This is from a 5442 but is the same in all my Dahua cameras. iframe is at the very bottom.

Thanks sebastian,

I double checked and there is no i Frame interval on my main stream. Everything else is the same as yours though, except i have a quality setting (using VBR bitrate type) instead of Iframe. I do have i frame on the sub stream, but i am not using that.. I set the sub stream iframe anyways though (just in case).


Some other things I notice:
-it happens during the day as well
-it happens less frequently with VBR bitrate type / low frame quality (4) / low frequency snapshot interval / watermark settings off

 

[sebastiantombs]

All I can suggest, then, is take the camera down and test it using a known good cable. Another thought might be to look at WDR and reduce that as well and try different settings for backlight and gain. Incidentally H264, without the "+" is the recommended encoding. What specific model number is it? Since the iframe is missing from the main stream I suspect it's a hacked Chinese firmware although I have never fooled with the 4631 series.

 

[cjowers]

model is:

Dahua POE 6MP IP Camera IPC-HDW4631C-A IR 30m H.265 Built-in MIC IP67 Full Metal

I'll try the H264 as well, in addition to repositioning camera direction.

I'm 98% sure I saw the noise prior to installation, and tested multiple cables, when I was tring the camera in a dark room. The current cable connected is a new cat5e as well (although it is 20m long).

I tried some of the WDR / HLC / BLC settings last night, and did see changes in noise interval frequency, but never went away fully. And I guess my issue there is that, unless I do have everything fairly cranked up (brightness, IR intensity, gain, exposure, etc), the image of the porch area that I need to see appears very poor (too dark, grainy noise, motion blur, etc.)

 

[sebastiantombs]

Without knowing the exact model number, I did look at that series and the sensor size is kind of small, especially in todays world of low light stuff, to support 6MP at night with any real results. 20m isn't long at all. Some of my overview cameras are running at 60-70 meters with no problems at all, CAT5E.

 

[cjowers]

OK, sanity check please! I've been looking for another turret cam, and I just came accross this video of a new hikvision cam online which seems like it has the same noise startin around 18s, and then many times after. Do you see the noise, or is it just my computer / video card?


DS-2CD2365G-I

With my 4631c, im actually pretty happy with image quality at night for my little porch area, (so long as I can overexpose the brick). What is a good mid-price turret for night (2mm lens, 4-8MP, fixed)? HDW5442TMP-AS-0280B ?

 

[sebastiantombs]

IPC-T5442TM-AS, 3.6mm, Streetlight about 200 feet away, shadows from moonlight. About $160USD through Andy at Empiretech. No tearing even with vehicles at 50MPH the video is crisp and clear. It's running at 10FPS, 10 iframe, 8192 CBR.