I would like Dahua product management to hear this feedback on possible improvements.
What I have read and heard:
Users report:
UI of NVR - we should be able to set up a way to have the NVR automatically switch day / night profiles - currently many are using a hack, a script to do it. Most users just suffer poor image quality using one configuration.
Numerous issues with "excessive noise" from NVRs making finding locations for NVR challenging, especially in smaller houses / apartments. Some NVRs with only 1 fan and an external power supply can especially be noisy due to what appears to be poor harmonics from the case grill.
ONVIF issues - would like to see products meeting 2.4+ ONVIF specs.
UI of NVR - for many new users they just want to simple way to turn on motion detection and alerting features.
Security - should consider enabling the NVR to run openVPN as a service
Open Source - the software based on open source, if available to us will allow the community ( us ) to advance some of the features.
That they actually test firmware before release, not using the consumer as beta testers. Some times, updated firmware fix's some issues, and then breaks other items that had been working.
There is a frame rate issue with the firmware version 2.460.0000.16.R, that wasn't present in the 2.460.0000.14.R firmware for the IPC-HDW5231R-Z and the ipc-HDW5231R-ZE. the frame rates will exceed what they are set at in setup.
The now 1 year old SD59225U-HNI and it's brothers that use the same firmware, has never been without multiple bugs in the firmware. Including the current version [NTSC]DH_SD-Eos_EngSpnFrn_N_Stream3_V2.622.0000000.1.R.171121. The focus does not work well at all past zoom 20, especially at night. Auto tracking has been very poor to non-existent since cam's release, and remains so. With the current firmware, the IR for zoom turns on too early when zooming. Turns on at zoom 2 or 3 which cause's a severe hotspot. This used to come on at zoom 5 or 6 which was good. This has been broken since the July '17 firmware.
Their PR on the website talks about all the research and testing they do, but it does not appear that same dedication applies to the firmware.
@john-ipvm Looks like I opened a can of worms. We should probably separate enhancements from defects (hardware/firmware bugs) and provide evidence for the defects since eventually someone will probably ask for it unless ..... Dahua already knows about it.
I have a firmware defect on the latest firmware version for the IPC-HFW5231E-Z12 where frame rate reverts to 25 FPS after setting it to 5 in the web client and then rebooting the camera. Initially it was thought to be a browser cache issue but I can reproduce it. Workaround is to use the version that came with the camera. Once I've properly documented it I'll post it here.
I understand the basic premise of the science and sincerely appreciate your well done post explaining it. Thank you.
The fact is the camera in question has this natural phenomenon to such a degree as to be unusable as it is intended by the manufacturer (that being able to zoom to a spot and capture moving video that is still within reasonable focus both day and nightwithout the need to intervene manually or with 3rd party software). Others here have experienced the same thing, and have resorted to correcting the phenomenon with the aid of a 3rd party script to make the camera perform as expected.
Other cameras I and others own seem to have discovered how to correct for and/or mitigate this phenomenon.
Example: This Axis camera (1364 1MP) is zoomed the same amount (approx 120 ft) with a 60mm lens and is set to allow normal color operation during the day and switch to B&W IR at night automatically based on its light sensor. While not perfect, it does continue to provide good license plate recognition both day and night at 120 ft without the aid of any 3rd party software. I'm sure there are others...
Have you asked the company you bought it from? Dahua really does not want to work with the end users, they leave that up to their Authorized re sellers for support. If you did for some reason speak to somebody they would want the model and s/n and would most likely tell you so sorry but that camera you bought is a Chinese or International model and you bought from a unauthorized reseller and we do not support it, see our website and policy about purchasing from unauthorized resellers . To Quote their Policy " Any product purchased through an unauthorised source will void the product warranty. "
That Statement gets them off the hook however they know darn well tons of cams are pouring into other countries going out their back door. For the Jobs I have to do for my Employers, I have to buy from USA resellers only. They have given me Really good support on most of the equipment I have bought from them. I would most likely have bought From Andy for price and variety if it was for me . This being said I think Dahua is starting to tighten up their business model and support on the hardware. I started a thread on the 24 channel NVR I bought and was liking what I was seeing in new features and security upgrades.
The new GUI (if opted) will check for firmware updates and do them for you instead of guessing and bricking or messing up features on your NVR or camera.
That seems to be The major issue with firmware updates, Its almost who's on first when it comes to upgrades, so many models, and firmware versions it hard to keep up.