Hikvision bitrate settings - 4k/8mp h.265 - I'm confused

[DaveGee]

Hello!

I am confused by the Hikvision GUI - please help!

Questions:
- what is the ideal bitrate setting to have, with a focus on image quality over bandwith. I have a setting of 16384 as max bitrate. Keeping in mind I am running 4K on H.265. Is this way still way too high?
- What is the point of the 'video quality' setting, when you still have to manually enter a max bitrate as well. I thought that was a dumb way of selecting from a pre-defined list of bitrate settings?

Here is my setup:
- Hikvision 8 cam NVR DS-7608NI-I2 / 8P
- 3 x 8mp turrets
- 1 x 4mp indoor cube cam

Attached is an image with my settings. I have also marked up some other questions!

Thank you!

 

[GCoco]

Download Hik’s Network and Storage Calculator program here ——

Tools

The max bitrate doesn’t mean it will record a great picture at a low quality setting. Frame rate is typically 12 to 15 to get fluid motion. Use the calculator to determine the typical bitrate for your settings. H265+ does use a lot of processing power but saves on bandwidth and storage. I have had issues with the + and decided to stick with the straight H265.

 

[DaveGee]

Download Hik’s Network and Storage Calculator program here ——

Tools

The max bitrate doesn’t mean it will record a great picture at a low quality setting. Frame rate is typically 12 to 15 to get fluid motion. Use the calculator to determine the typical bitrate for your settings. H265+ does use a lot of processing power but saves on bandwidth and storage. I have had issues with the + and decided to stick with the straight H265.

Thanks, I'll try that.

 

[DaveGee]

Thanks for the tip but that app didn't ease my confusion. It just calculates hard drive space, time or bandwidth required, and I actually think the calculations were wrong. It said with three 4k cams operating on h.265 at 6fps and bitrate of 16384 that I would need 2TB per day, so I'd only get two days footage out of my current 4TB. Whereas I actually have three months worth saved right now.

Either way, I'm still wondering - what is a good bitrate for a 4k camera on h.265, with a LOW complexity scene - i.e. it's the exterior of my house (drive way, back yard and side lane), where basically nothing moves all day.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[alastairstevenson]

bitrate of 16384

Fixed or variable? An important distinction in terms of space consumed.

 

[GCoco]

Three months? You must not be continuously recording. The Hik calculator is fairly accurate, it is not precise to the byte. I am now confused as to what you are really asking. If you want high quality recording, set video quality to highest. If you want close to fluid motion, set frame rate to either 12 or 15. Use VBR to save space. Set the I-frame to 2x frame rate. H265+ can cause recording issues.
Best bitrate for your application can only be determined by you. Start at Hik’s recommendation and lower it and decide what works for you. The bitrate of a static scene can be lowered greatly, but if suddenly there is a lot of activity you may not capture the quality you want.

 

[DeeO]

Look for the Hikvision Technical Bulletin called the TB Bit Rate Chart dated December 01, 2015 Technical bulletin.

Or look below...

 

[DaveGee]

Thanks for the technical bulletin link. Yes, that’s exactly the information I am looking for. However I am looking for a H.265 version as I believe the bitrates are different. Have you or anyone else seen something like that?

 

[DeeO]

I glanced over all the TB's & found nothing current. Try calling or emailing their tech support. Good luck to you.

 

[GCoco]

This is all very confusing. The chart above and the calculator I spoke of earlier use the same calculations.

You said you have (3) 4K cameras and are storing 3 months on a 4TB drive. Working backwards the 4TB drive is 32Tb. 90 days will give you 355Mb per day. That is about 15Mb per hour or 4Kbps. So unless you are using motion detection, then you are only recording each camera at 1.4Kbps. That is barely enough for the secondary stream.

You must have entered something wrong in the calculator to get a result saying you need 16384bps at 6fps for a 4K camera with H265 encoding. You would have needed 531MB per day. I used the calculator and it gave me a bitrate of 8192bps for a 4k, highest quality and 15fps with H265 encoding.