Would appreciate a quick primer for Dahua settings please

[marklyn]

Coming from Hikvision, Vivotek cameras, this is my first Dahua (42212TNI) camera. Many of the features are similar enough that I understand and the manual is a big help but some of the explanations of some features are still leaving me a bit unclear. I would appreciate some validation or additional explanations for the following settings I've encountered below.
Regarding the "Profile Management" screen, I have ticked off the day time hours vs night time hours (roughly 6:30am-6:45pm for daytime, rest is night) and set the schedule button & saved.
Does this mean that under the "Condition" tab, when I click on the day profile and make changes to any of the settings there and then save, that all of those settings kick in when the scheduled "day" time profile kicks in?
Same thing with night, if I click on night profile, make changes and save, then those settings take effect at the night schedule?
Last question. On the conditions tab, backlight setting choices, I don't see WDR as a choice, only BLC and HDC. I'm under the day profile if that helps. Why don't I see the WDR there.

Thanks for any insight. I've learned a lot so far from playing with the camera, searching through the manual and of course the forums but I think I need validation that I'm on the right track or someone to help me get there

 

[looney2ns]

You are correct about the profile and day/night settings.
You can also use this if you have a computer running 24/7, and it will base the changes on sunset/rise.
Dahua day/night switch utility - DahuaSunriseSunset

Not sure why you don't have WDR available, do you have Smart Codec enabled maybe? When it's enabled, it disables some options.
That's just a guess on my part.

 

[marklyn]

Thanks looney. I will look into the day/night switch app, as I do have a weather computer that runs 24/7 but it sure would be nice if Dahua incorporated this into their firmware, lesser known camera makers do (Hikvision for example) and it's a nice feature I think.
At one point I was trying out H.265 with smart codec turned on but since then I've been running just with h.264 and smart codec off so it doesn't appear that is why I don't see WDR. I'll keep looking in the settings. I'm sure I've seen it before when I first powered up the camera after I got it this week but I obviously have set something where it's not there. Any other ideas are always appreciated.

 

[marklyn]

So, I ticked the (night/day) dropdown profile while at the backlight settings and then WDR is one of the choices (along with BLC and HLC). Does this mean that WDR is only available for night time profile use?
I could have sworn I've seen it available the other day when I was adjusting daytime profile settings. WDR can be used for day or night, right?

 

[bigredfish]

WDR is typically used in daytime...at night, along with too much DNR, my experience is that is creates motion blur..

 

[looney2ns]

So, I ticked the (night/day) dropdown profile while at the backlight settings and then WDR is one of the choices (along with BLC and HLC). Does this mean that WDR is only available for night time profile use?
I could have sworn I've seen it available the other day when I was adjusting daytime profile settings. WDR can be used for day or night, right?

I would set the cam back to defaults and start over.
WDR as fish says is for day time. Something is wonky that you see it in the night profile but not the daytime.

 

[marklyn]

looney, I think I'm ok on the wdr issue. Best I can tell from all of the documentation and research I've done is that it's only relevant (used) for day profiles, which seems to make sense I guess.
So on to another question that I have not been able to find an understandable answer for.
This cam doesn't have IR but has day/night profile settings, which I've already configured each.
Right now I only have profile management options of: Normal, Full time, Schedule
I'm using the schedule now to manually tell the camera when it's day vs night for my area (of course that alters throughout the year)
I am assuming if I switch to Full Time and choose one of the profiles (day/night) it stays on that profile no matter what. Is this correct?
I can't find a good explanation of what "Normal" means and any examples of how I would use that profile.
Dahua has some nice features but their explanations are very generic, succinct, and offer no real examples of some of the more unusual features.

Thanks for everyone's help in getting my feet wet with Dahua. A lot of stuff I understand from other cams I have but some things seem to be Dahua centric and slightly confusing to me.

 

[looney2ns]

Full Time-Yes.
Normal is just a 3rd profile that can be setup, just like day/night. But it only comes into play when you select "Normal" in the Profile management.

In most case's, it's probably never used if you are using day/night profiles.

 

[teamRAVEGREEN]

Hi there - rather than make a new thread I figured my question would go perfectly in here. I've searched the forums some and even read some Dahua documentation, but I'm not finding what I'm looking for... Or i'm not finding it in terms my dummy brain can process right now. The problem I have is that one of my cameras is way too over exposed with the settings that I'm currently using. It's weird though because the 5231r-z seem to take the Manual > 1/100 mode fine, but the other camera, my 4231f-as is blown-out.

Can someone please try to explain to me some of the Exposure settings? Mainly things like:

Mode > Gain Priority? - What is Gain?
Mode > Shutter Priority? - I would have figured this would have allowed me to set a minimum shutter? So I choose 1/100 that would be the minimum shutter the camera would use. That doesn't appear to be the case.
Mode > Manual? - Ok, so maybe manual customized range will do it, but shutter isn't referenced here as 1/10, 1/100... what is 0 - 333.33 ms?

 

[teamRAVEGREEN]

Ok, continuing to search and find bits of info... hopefully someone can confirm this.

If you choose a manual, customized exposure range Shutter 0 ~ 10 (ms) should equal 1/100 or faster?

 

[teamRAVEGREEN]

I'm curious - in the Dahua settings the two types of cameras I have were both automatically set to reboot/reset on a daily basis. Is this needed? Do most disable this?

Thanks

 

[looney2ns]

I'm curious - in the Dahua settings the two types of cameras I have were both automatically set to reboot/reset on a daily basis. Is this needed? Do most disable this?

Thanks

Disable it, it will just cause Murphy to appear.