Dahua cams. What is changing the time on some cams?

G

grimm

n3wb
Mar 2, 2023
9
9
ireland
Hey,


I have 4 dahua cams and a dahua NVR. Any time i check the cams i notice the times are different between cameras and time is off by an hour on 2.

Currently it is 7.50pm in ireland yet 2 of my cameras show correct time and 2 show incorrect time. If i go to settings on the camera and do pc-sync and save the cams will all show correct time and then in a minute or so the same 2 will be behind an hour again.

At first i thought this was a DST(Daylight savings issue) so configured it the same on all camera and on the NVR and i can see the time stamps in the video feeds reflect this and the time is correct but within a minute time is behind an hour on the two cam. I also tried to configure NTP on all cameras and NVR with same settings but same thing still happens.

These are my cameras

IPC-HDW4631C-A - front - this works with tripwire on NVR - System Version 2.622.0000000.23.R, Build Date: 2018-11-10, WEB Version 3.2.1.561950, ONVIF Version 16.12(V2.4.1.513183)
IPC-HDW4431C-A-V2 - side - this does not work with tripwire on NVR - Software Version 2.420.0000.21.R, Build Date: 2016-07-24, WEB Version 3.2.1.364036, ONVIF Version 2.42
IPC-HDW4431C-A - back - this does not work with tripwire on NVR - Software Version 2.420.0000.21.R, Build Date: 2016-07-24, WEB Version 3.2.1.364036, ONVIF Version 2.42
DH-SD22404T-GN - ptz - this works with tripwire on NVR - System Version 2.623.0000000.7.R.R4.495, Build Date: 2018-11-24, WEB Version 3.2.1.662493, ONVIF Version 16.12(V2.4.3.580229

NVR - Dahua NVR NVR4108-8P-4KS2/L

here is screenshots of my config
nvr-config.png

time change issue
Screenshot 2023-08-17 at 7.54.08 p.m..png
Screenshot 2023-08-17 at 7.54.24 p.m..png

This is driving me insane. Can anyone advise what is changing the time like every minute?
 
The only difference I can see there is the incorrect cams have date set as year-month-day and the correct cams have yyyy-mm-dd.

None of those cameras have got ntp turned on.
Also try using just pool.ntp.org.

Edit: I should also add that my cameras (not dahua) pick up their times directly from the NVR (also non dahua). The exception being the 3 cameras (two of them are dahua) I have which are not plugged directly into the NVR.
I have them configured to sync to pool.ntp.org.
 
Last edited:
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+1^^.
Have the NVR sync to NTP, cams sync to NVR.
 
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++1 ^

In general settings you should set the NVR to 'IPC' (IP Camera) time sync.
I set mine to update their time from the NVR every 1 hour.
1692346789428.png


Set the time NTP server on the NVR.
NTP is not ticked in your screenshot!

1692346867694.png
 
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I just paid attention to my system ....The Xvr cams (3) were off by 3 minutes. The NVR cams were right on.....
although the seconds tick away about 1 second delayed from cam to cam if both timestamps are on screen.
This could be network lag...
or the fact that I'm trapped whizzing around the Sun at 67,000 miles per hour on a magnetic ball of iron, being dragged by the Sun, which is hurtling thru the Galaxy at 560,000 Mph.....And the Galaxy is hurtling thru Space at 1.3 Million miles per hour,
and the Judge wants to know what time the incident occurred ffs.
...So yeah shit could be a second off. Case dismissed. great.
Shoulda got the Reolinks...cuz who cares anymore....LOL :)
 
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First off thanks for all the replies.

looktall said:
The only difference I can see there is the incorrect cams have date set as year-month-day and the correct cams have yyyy-mm-dd.

None of those cameras have got ntp turned on.
Also try using just pool.ntp.org.

Edit: I should also add that my cameras (not dahua) pick up their times directly from the NVR (also non dahua). The exception being the 3 cameras (two of them are dahua) I have which are not plugged directly into the NVR.
I have them configured to sync to pool.ntp.org.
Click to expand...

i tested with ntp turn on and get the same result.

the time date format is different on some cams as it has different firmware. The format year-month-day is the same as yyyy-mm-dd.

TonyR said:
+1^^.
Have the NVR sync to NTP, cams sync to NVR.
Click to expand...

I tired this and get the same result. I dont see an option on the cams to sync time from NVR just on the NVR to sync time to cams and that has always been enable and set to 24 hours.

MC1987 said:
just go into NVR System > Basic and set IPC Time Sync to 1 Hour
Click to expand...

i did this as it was set at 24 hours but still the same result.

Mark_M said:
++1 ^

In general settings you should set the NVR to 'IPC' (IP Camera) time sync.
I set mine to update their time from the NVR every 1 hour.
View attachment 170341


Set the time NTP server on the NVR.
NTP is not ticked in your screenshot!

View attachment 170342
Click to expand...


tired this and tried disabling sync and the problem still persists. it couldnt be the NVR thats syncing wrong time as interval for that was 24 hours but time on the device is changing back like every minute or so


something else on the network must be syncing time to the cameras or there must be an issue with the firmware where it thinks gmt 0 = gmt -1.


I going to do a network capture over the weekend and see what else is communicating with the cams. its really weird its only happening to two cam but they are the oldest 2.

any other suggestions or advice in mean time is appreciated
 
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grimm said:
something else on the network must be syncing time to the cameras or there must be an issue with the firmware where it thinks gmt 0 = gmt -1.
Click to expand...
Change the zone to something else and see if they all stay the same.

As for something else on the network setting the time on the cameras how have you got these set up?
Are they plugged into Poe ports on your NVR?
Those ports are typically on their own subnet which is isolated to the NVR only.
 
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looktall said:
Change the zone to something else and see if they all stay the same.

As for something else on the network setting the time on the cameras how have you got these set up?
Are they plugged into Poe ports on your NVR?
Those ports are typically on their own subnet which is isolated to the NVR only.
Click to expand...

i have these set up in bridge mode so they are plugged into nvr but i have access to the cams directly from my lan also
 
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looktall said:
All of them or just the ones with the issue?
Click to expand...
all of them.

i set the two cams that were off by an hour to timezone gmt+1 and they seem to be showing correct time since.

ill do network capture over the weekend to figure whats causing them to change time.
 
Last edited:
looktall said:
You said they're on a different firmware.
It's possibly buggy.
Click to expand...
If that was the case, my first thought is that the bug is related to the DST mechanism.
 
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I meant the DST mechanism bug comment in a high-level sense, in the spirit that turning off human/vehicle detection does not turn it off. Sorry if I missed it, I couldn't find which two cameras have the time bug. Is it the 4431s, or the other two. I'm assuming the two 4431s behave the same.
 
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If you want to try a slightly newer .22R firmware in the 4431s you can find it in the first post here Dahua Firmware Mod Kit + Modded Dahua Firmware . It would be the first one on the list. Aside from the normal risk of bricking the camera with any firmware upgrade, I have a couple of other cautions. Check the model list in the spoiler to verify the 4431C-A is on it. I think I saw it there, but not the V2 specifically, so that one is a bit of an unknown. I've used this firmware successfully on the chinese market 4431M, K, and R-Z, but not the C-A, so no actual experience on your model. As opposed to the usual chinese firmware hacked to use english, this is claimed to be international firmware hacked to ignore the camera's location info. I was assuming your 4431s are chinese market cameras, but chinese market cameras aren't supposed to work with v4 firmware on the nvr, so maybe yours are international versions. This shouldn't matter, just an observation. I've never seen the one hour problem with the .22R firmware, but I never saw it with the .21R firmware either, so it's not a slam dunk that .22R would fix your problem.
 
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