1080p cameras with poor image.

ipnoob

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I'm new to IP cameras, I have a hikvision PTZ and an amcrest little indoor thing and am planning to get a lot more. Both are 1080p, but the hikvision image quality is way way lower. I assume this has to to with the compression at the camera and the hikvision being under powered in image processing.

The question is, how do I avoid buying cameras that are "1080p" but not really outputting a 1080p stream for the rest of my purchases?
 

fenderman

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I'm new to IP cameras, I have a hikvision PTZ and an amcrest little indoor thing and am planning to get a lot more. Both are 1080p, but the hikvision image quality is way way lower. I assume this has to to with the compression at the camera and the hikvision being under powered in image processing.

The question is, how do I avoid buying cameras that are "1080p" but not really outputting a 1080p stream for the rest of my purchases?
Post a screenshot of the image...its likely a settings issue...
 

bp2008

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1) Make sure the camera is set to output 1920x1080
2) Use CBR (Constant Bit Rate) encoding
3) Max out the bit rate
4) Do not set FPS over 15 unless you really can't stand less fluid video.
 

nayr

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Looks like the Amcrest has real WDR enabled, and thats helping that scene alot w/all the shadows... the hikvision is trying to keep that sun spot and the sky in balance and its adding noise to the low light areas as a result..

See if the hik has WDR or DWDR, betting its a digital wdr sensor.. its clearly got a pretty crappy sensor in it.
 

bp2008

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I am fairly sure the smear along the top of the Hikvision video is caused by a bubble dome- I've seen this on all bubble dome PTZs when they are looking near horizontal. Otherwise it looks normal to me. One comment though, with a frame rate of 4 and iframe interval of 50, you'll only have one iframe every 12.5 seconds which is quite a bit longer than normal. Usually people set iframe interval between 1 and 4 times the frame rate.

The Amcrest looks like it has its sharpening setting rather high.
 

ipnoob

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Looks like the Amcrest has real WDR enabled, and thats helping that scene alot w/all the shadows... the hikvision is trying to keep that sun spot and the sky in balance and its adding noise to the low light areas as a result..

See if the hik has WDR or DWDR, betting its a digital wdr sensor.. its clearly got a pretty crappy sensor in it.
I gave that a go, it *looks* a little better for sure, especially in the shadows, but it's still definitely still lower quality.

I am fairly sure the smear along the top of the Hikvision video is caused by a bubble dome- I've seen this on all bubble dome PTZs when they are looking near horizontal. Otherwise it looks normal to me. One comment though, with a frame rate of 4 and iframe interval of 50, you'll only have one iframe every 12.5 seconds which is quite a bit longer than normal. Usually people set iframe interval between 1 and 4 times the frame rate.

The Amcrest looks like it has its sharpening setting rather high.
Yea I know the blur is the dome, that's not what I was concerned with. I tried lower I frames as well and sharpness doesn't have any real effect either.

If you focus on the wood grain of the power pole, that's one of the easiest places to see the difference in quality, especially when you consider the hikvision is more zoomed in on it than the amcrest, although honestly, I'm a little disappointed with both images, I expected to be able to read a license plate at the point where the driveway straightens out (about the middle of the image height) and I don't think that would happen with either of these. I'm planning on adding a second camera out there for a wide view, and using the ptz to zoom in on the driveway, but yea.
 

nayr

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license plates are extremely difficult; pretty much have to dedicate a camera to the job..
 

ipnoob

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license plates are extremely difficult; pretty much have to dedicate a camera to the job..
Yea which is pretty much the plan. I need some indoor PTZ and came across a thread of yours and looked at the video (SD29204S), can tell you with certainty it's putting out a way better picture. Also, I would have sprayed those salesman with the hose.
 
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