(8MP) IPC-HFW1831E Review

Burton_Flooring

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(I consolidated my posts from another thread to make info on this camera a little easier to find. Please check out the video clips towards the bottom of the post.)


I'll post more pictures later, but here's some to wet your whistle. I found that enabling WDR on the 1831E is neither very helpful, nor as necessary as it is on the Pro Series, because it has pretty good WDR out of the box. The night shots below are with WDR OFF on the 1831E and @ 100 on the 5831R-ZE. Shutter speeds are the same.

Day:

5831R-ZE


1831E


Night:

5831R-ZE (WDR @100)

5831R-ZE (WDR @100 Forced Color w/ same settings)


1831E (No WDR same settings)

1831E (No WDR Flip-Flops between Color and B&W)


IPC-HDW2531R-ZS (WDR @10, other settings the same)


5231R-ZE (WDR @10 same settings) ...and this is why I left the starlight up where it was...lol.


Some observations:

1) This camera does excellent in color for some reason. (firmware update for noise while in B&W, or lens might need re-focused while in B&W mode to help w/ clarity at distance)

2) @ $135 this camera is an outstanding deal compared to the $240 5831R-ZE

3) This does really well when decoding in H.265 (nice clean image) BUT...the image is a little soft compared to H.264

Ok here's a video clip of the 4231EM-ASE and 1831E.

BOTH ARE AT THE SAME SETTINGS (Shutter @ 1/100, Gain 100, WDR 100) UNLESS NOTED.

INFRARED IS OFF ON BOTH CAMERAS! (much more difficult lighting situation than I would normally have the cameras set to)

4231EM-ASE (Gamma @ 50, 3DNR @ 20)



Still Image:


1831E (Gamma @ 100, 3DNR @ 50)



Still Image:


What's really interesting, is how this performs in color compared to the 4231EM-ASE...see for yourself.

1831E (Shutter @Customized Range 0-14ms / WDR @1 / 3DNR @50 / Gain @50 / Gamma @35 )

4231EM-ASE (Shutter @Customized Range 0-13ms / WDR @10 / 3DNR @20 / Gain 50)


I still think the 4231EM-ASE has a slight advantage (it can become MUCH brighter when you raise the GAMMA than the 1831E) but overall image quality is very, very close when you tweak the settings a little bit (just raised the Gamma and 3D NR).

I find it very interesting that you can raise the 3D NR so far. On nearly all of my other cameras, raising the 3D NR to values above 10-15 result in MAJOR GHOSTING in moving objects.

The 1831E can maintain a MUCH HIGHER NOISE REDUCTION RATE W/OUT GHOSTING. So, there must be some kind of new-fangled wizardry at play here. Very impressed.

Once again, this is running the 1831E w/ newest firmware that allows you to set the bitrate to 15104kbps (as opposed to the 8192kbps officially stated) and only @ 7fps (the 4231EM-ASE I ran @ 22fps and 10240kbps)

I definitely think this, hands down, outperforms the existing 8MP "Pro/Eco-Savvy" line of cameras. I would personally, not buy any other 8MP than this one. And for that matter, any other camera EXCEPT the Starlights (and of course the ULTRA series, but who has that kind of dough ;-) )

@EMPIRETECANDY Any rumors about them making a Turret design? Anyways, here's hoping :).

P.S. - Just lost power here and when everything boots back up, neither this camera, nor the other 2MP, 6MP, Cameras hold their "Customized" bitrate. FYI

Has anyone done real comparisons w/ H.265 vs. H.264H to test image quality between the two? Because you can at least get decent frame rates out of H.265 at it's "Reference" bitrate as opposed to H.264H
 
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wopi82

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Unfortunately no. I have serious issues with getting a proper video material for moving objects comparison, to put into editing program (After Effects). This cam has no SD card slot. So the only option for me is too sit in front of the PC screen and "catch" some situations with live recording. The biggest problem is that I have all material in DAV files. There are lot of errors during live recording. The files are often corrupted. Even on i7700/32GB RAM/GTX1050 Ti PC there are still some errors. With 5831R-ZE I could just download mp4 files from the SD card and it was fine.
Converting DAVs to AVI and than to some editable format also sometimes works and sometimes fails. I use dhavi.exe and than avidemux. This works fine for lossless conversion to mp4 but dhavi fails from time to time. I even tried VLC for stream capturing. I works for 720p but at 1080p it already has problems. Forget about 4K.
And so, at that moment I have no idea what to do. Maybe someone can help? BlueIris? A Dahua recorder?

The good news is that the image from this camera is awesome. It is even sharper than 5831R-ZE during the day. And during night... it equal to or even outperforms 4231EM-AS!! :) In terms of image quality it is my favourite one. I would love to show it to you. Any idea how to do that?
 

Burton_Flooring

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Unfortunately no. I have serious issues with getting a proper video material for moving objects comparison, to put into editing program (After Effects). This cam has no SD card slot. So the only option for me is too sit in front of the PC screen and "catch" some situations with live recording. The biggest problem is that I have all material in DAV files. There are lot of errors during live recording. The files are often corrupted. Even on i7700/32GB RAM/GTX1050 Ti PC there are still some errors. With 5831R-ZE I could just download mp4 files from the SD card and it was fine.
Converting DAVs to AVI and than to some editable format also sometimes works and sometimes fails. I use dhavi.exe and than avidemux. This works fine for lossless conversion to mp4 but dhavi fails from time to time. I even tried VLC for stream capturing. I works for 720p but at 1080p it already has problems. Forget about 4K.
And so, at that moment I have no idea what to do. Maybe someone can help? BlueIris? A Dahua recorder?

The good news is that the image from this camera is awesome. It is even sharper than 5831R-ZE during the day. And during night... it equal to or even outperforms 4231EM-AS!! :) In terms of image quality it is my favourite one. I would love to show it to you. Any idea how to do that?
If you don't have a Dahua NVR and no SD Card storage; here's what you can do.

You can use the SmartPSS software to setup recording on your Windows PC. When you go to the playback tab of SmartPSS (after setting up PC-NVR) you can click on the tab on the right side to pop out a list of the recorded files. You just check the box on the recordings you want and in the window that pops up it lets you choose what format you want the video in.

You can download the latest SmartPSS from this link: https://dahuawiki.com/images/Software/SmartPSS/DH_SmartPSS_International_Win32_IS_V2.02.1.R.180619.zip

Capture1.PNG

Capture.PNG

Capture2.PNG
 

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EMPIRETECANDY

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Unfortunately no. I have serious issues with getting a proper video material for moving objects comparison, to put into editing program (After Effects). This cam has no SD card slot. So the only option for me is too sit in front of the PC screen and "catch" some situations with live recording. The biggest problem is that I have all material in DAV files. There are lot of errors during live recording. The files are often corrupted. Even on i7700/32GB RAM/GTX1050 Ti PC there are still some errors. With 5831R-ZE I could just download mp4 files from the SD card and it was fine.
Converting DAVs to AVI and than to some editable format also sometimes works and sometimes fails. I use dhavi.exe and than avidemux. This works fine for lossless conversion to mp4 but dhavi fails from time to time. I even tried VLC for stream capturing. I works for 720p but at 1080p it already has problems. Forget about 4K.
And so, at that moment I have no idea what to do. Maybe someone can help? BlueIris? A Dahua recorder?

The good news is that the image from this camera is awesome. It is even sharper than 5831R-ZE during the day. And during night... it equal to or even outperforms 4231EM-AS!! :) In terms of image quality it is my favourite one. I would love to show it to you. Any idea how to do that?
@fenderman told me the same result 2 weeks ago, daytime sharp, night time nearly same sharp as the HDW4231EM-ASE one. Dahua no turret one is the main problem right now.
 

rflagler

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Have any of you opened this camera? I'm curious if I could get a 25mm lens in there. I have a Hikvision DS-2CD2385FWD-I I was able to get a 25mm lens into and this camera would be a welcome upgrade. I'm trying to use it for an LPR camera and need the best low-light performance I can. I'm hoping the 1/1.8" sensor in this Dahua would help.
 

Burton_Flooring

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Have any of you opened this camera? I'm curious if I could get a 25mm lens in there. I have a Hikvision DS-2CD2385FWD-I I was able to get a 25mm lens into and this camera would be a welcome upgrade. I'm trying to use it for an LPR camera and need the best low-light performance I can. I'm hoping the 1/1.8" sensor in this Dahua would help.
Scroll towards the bottom of this page. I have pictures of it taken apart. (You have to gently pry off the plastic cover on the front to get to the screws).

Dahua 4k Starlight with 1/2 sensor (CVI only for now)
 

Burton_Flooring

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Yes, I would be much happier with turrets than either bullet or bubble dome.
I agree, but as far as bullets go, this isn't a terrible design (referring to IR placement). I put up turrets thinking that would solve my spider problem and it helped, but they still crawl around on the lens looking for the IR light/heat.

I wish for a turret design as well though, for the mounting and "pointing" process is ginormously easier. :) That alone is reason enough to switch, because the bullets are hard to keep "on target" before locking them in place.
 

Burton_Flooring

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I did not, however, it is a much bigger lens than any of the other common cameras discussed on these forums (5831R-ZE, 5231R-ZE, 4831EM-ASE, etc.)
 

rflagler

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I did not, however, it is a much bigger lens than any of the other common cameras discussed on these forums (5831R-ZE, 5231R-ZE, 4831EM-ASE, etc.)
That's what I was afraid of. @EMPIRETECANDY You don't happen to know what size aftermarket lens would fit in this camera do you? I was hoping to get a 25mm or larger in it.
 

Roger

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Is this the same 4k camera IP8M-2496E rebranded by Amcrest here in the USA?
Also interested in this question. If it is, would you I be able to flash it with Dahua firmware and thereby enable features like tripwire, or is that likely implemented in hardware as well?
 

wopi82

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@Burton_Flooring
Thanks a lot. It worked. I still have lot of glitches in recorded files, but at least it's mp4 and I have a working motion detection.
I actually used smartPSS for a long time for downloading timelapse snaps from 4231, but I didn't know it can act as a PC-NVR. Now I can do some comparisons. Just give me some more time :)
 

wopi82

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Is it possible do downgrade the firmware? I've updated from 2.622.0000000.4.R to 2.622.0000000.8.R and lost high bitrate settings. The reseting time stamp has been fixed but now even if i set a custom bitrate to maximum 15104kbps the real bitrate is around 9000kbps and the image really suffers from that. Previously I could set it much higher, and it really worked. If this is possible, where can I find previous firmware?
 
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