dahua settings and general approach to recording

[sdipcam]

Hi I all, I recently got three IPC-T5442T-ZE's from empiretech andy and am a bit lost on the settings. I looked around here a bit and didn't see any general tutorials on settings. The wiki on camera setup and choices is great, but I have some mroe questions and i didnt see a guide so I'll just ask what's on my mind. I plan to try out shinobi soon and don't have any plans for BI atm.

1. I think I've asked this before, but I still don't get it. What is the point/purpose of shinobi/BI? My old guess is that its just a way to put multiple cameras from different manufacturers into one "live view." On this forum I read posts about setting up BI for triggering and recording, but that is a bit confusing because the cameras can do that themselves. A bit more specific question would be, should I setup the cameras individually to trigger, record, and save recordings to my network? Or should I be ignoring the cameras and just start setting up shinobi so it can manage the recordings?
2. Should I go h265 or h264? I did see a post saying h265 can be bad due to its ability to block part of the picture. And I saw another post that h264 does that too. So that all went above my head.
3. I noticed for Dahua the files are saved in .dav and .idx format, do I want that? I have the cameras save the files to a network location and I will want to play them back in windows. I haven't tried to play them yet.
4. Should I and how do I setup the camera to record humans and vehicles? I see "motion detection" under Alarm. I see motion detection under Event->video detection. I see smart motion detection. I see smart plan.Smart object detection, etc.... This is too many options for me at this point, what should I start with in order to get basic recording of humans and vehicles? And is that working well in this camera? IF not, then should I just be recording any motion movement? Is this why you guys use BI, just so you dont have to set this up for every single camera?
5. Under storage->destination, I can chose local, ftp or nas. Can I chose both local and FTP? It seems to only let me pick one row.
6. Under storage->record control. Should I be recording main stream or sub stream? I have a decent amount of space, and plan to run a crontab to cleanup files older than 30 days. So I am guessing I should do the main stream to get the best possible picture. I'm just a bit confused since I read a lot of posts suggesting to record sub stream under BI.
7. What kind of safety settings should I have? I know I shouldn't have p2p enabled, but I cant even find that setting right now. I do let the cameras access the internet as im inclined to setup a vlan without internet access. But maybe ill figure out a way to firewall block the cameras. For now, I have them behind pihole and I hope that is helping me avoid trouble.
8. What video settings for getting a clear picture for human and vehicle motion? I saw some posts about fps, bit rate, etc... I guess I have to play with it and see what works best. But is there a starting point though?

 

[looney2ns]

Dahua 4MP IP Camera setting look poor

I’ve just been checking my IP Cameras they are on my OLED TV and they are not that great. Can anyone help with setting?

ipcamtalk.com

 

[looney2ns]

Read everything in the Wiki.

 

[samplenhold]

What is the point/purpose of shinobi/BI?

I know nothing about shinobi, but I use BI (Blue Iris). BI is a total security camera management software that runs on a Windows PC. To get a better understanding of that, read the WIKI like @looney2ns stated above.

If you only use the cam's storage functionality, you will not have an easy time of reviewing any footage. I recommend BI and to record 24/7 AKA Continuous recording. Relying on camera or software detection for starting recordings can be problematic on getting all of the information from an issue.

Why I like Continuous Recording (aka 24/7)

So a guy came to the door yesterday, and while my wife did not open the door, it kind of spooked her out. She said he seem suspicious saying he found a driver's license on the lawn and wanted to know if it belonged to her. So when I got back from the range, I checked out the cams. This is one...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[sdipcam]

I know nothing about shinobi, but I use BI (Blue Iris). BI is a total security camera management software that runs on a Windows PC. To get a better understanding of that, read the WIKI like @looney2ns stated above.

If you only use the cam's storage functionality, you will not have an easy time of reviewing any footage. I recommend BI and to record 24/7 AKA Continuous recording. Relying on camera or software detection for starting recordings can be problematic on getting all of the information from an issue.

Why I like Continuous Recording (aka 24/7)

So a guy came to the door yesterday, and while my wife did not open the door, it kind of spooked her out. She said he seem suspicious saying he found a driver's license on the lawn and wanted to know if it belonged to her. So when I got back from the range, I checked out the cams. This is one...

ipcamtalk.com

Thanks for the insight on continuous recording. One big thing I learned from reading BI info on the wiki is that you can have motion markers even during continuous recordings. If I can have those markers without BI, then I will do that.

I started reading more of the wiki as you and @looney2ns suggested. I had skipped a lot of stuff that I didn't think applied to me, but I did find a couple of interesting things. For future readers, here are some of the answers I found.

1. first, Do i really need an NVR? Second, I am still working on this, but I know how to find my answer. I'll try recording on the cameras standalone and recording with shinobi and see which I find easier to manage. I did also discover that BI has a remove management option, so I might be able to run it on a windows VM, which I previously didnt think was possible.
2. Still working on this, but I see more posters recommending h264.
3. The wiki has a tool called dahua smart player. Camera Software (PC & MAC)
4. Haven't found it in the wiki but i found Smart Motion Detection generating a lot of false positives I see posts with BI settings and I am not sure many people do anything with the standalone cameras here. I will read up mroe on BI settings and try to see if it carries over to standalone camera settings.
5. Haven't found answer yet. Probably most people here store from BI and not standalone cameras, so I might just have to figure this out on my own.
6. Sub Stream Guide Turns out the main stream is the one recorded. The HD size calculator is also handy.
7. I am beginning to understand how an nvr/BI can help cameras avoid the need for internet access. I will look more into this on my own.
8. Dahua 4MP IP Camera setting look poor And some stuff on the wiki. Looks like I have a starting point and its just a matter of trial and error now.

 

[looney2ns]

Blue Iris - Video Security Software

 

[Rob2020]

I recommend you read and reread the wiki and posts related to your specific cameras, optimize blue iris settings per the recommendations, get everything up and running, and slowly make changes as you observe recordings that you feel need improvement (motion blur, night images, FPS, Etc).

 

[sdipcam]

I recommend you read and reread the wiki and posts related to your specific cameras, optimize blue iris settings per the recommendations, get everything up and running, and slowly make changes as you observe recordings that you feel need improvement (motion blur, night images, FPS, Etc).

One of my main problems is that I don't use Blue Iris, and I am having trouble distinguishing BI advice from Dahua advice on this forum. I took the approach of just ignoring anything related to BI. But that didn't work, so I am going to try to assume that whatever works on BI will work on Dahua and start with that.

 

[samplenhold]

having trouble distinguishing BI advice from Dahua advice on this forum.

As far as camera video quality adjustments, that is ALWAYS done on camera. It makes no difference what the recording hardware/software is. Things like exposure, bit rate, FPS, IR, etc. are made from within the cam's GUI. This is what we call 'dialing in' the cam.

As far as triggers/alerts are concerned, there are options to do this in the cam GUI. There are also options to do this within BI. While the settings will be different, the concepts are the same.

FWIW, several folks use a VM to run BI.

 

[wittaj]

One camera using DMSS and the sd card is fine, but once you get 2, 3 or more cameras you will wish you had a VMS, either NVR or BI or some other platform.

Most have found that IVS rules are better than SMD. Best practice is to only run one of them and not both.

The camera itself will only let you store to one device, which is why most use a VMS to allow them to store video in other places.

Mainstream is the preferred video to store.

All of the settings can be done within the camera GUI, so you just need to hang them up and point them in the direction you want the field of view.

Make sure you use dielectric grease on the connections and waterproof/protect the connections.

Then go into the camera settings and start dialing it to your field of view.


Now in terms of getting the most out of the camera, here is my "standard" post that many use as a start for dialing in day and night that helps get the clean captures. These are done within the camera GUI thru a web browser.

Every field of view is different, but I have found you need contrast to usually be 6-8 higher than the brightness number at night.

We want the ability to freeze frame capture a clean image from the video at night, and that is only done with a shutter of 1/60 or faster. At night, default/auto may be on 1/12s shutter or worse to make the image bright.

In my opinion, shutter (exposure) and gain are the two most important parameters and then base the others off of it. Shutter is more important than FPS. It is the shutter speed that prevents motion blur, not FPS. 15 FPS is more than enough for surveillance cameras as we are not producing Hollywood movies. Match iframes to FPS. 15FPS is all that is usually needed.

Many people do not realize there is manual shutter that lets you adjust shutter and gain and a shutter priority that only lets you adjust shutter speed but not gain. The higher the gain, the bigger the noise and see-through ghosting start to appear because the noise is amplified. Most people select shutter priority and run a faster shutter than they should because it is likely being done at 100 gain, so it is actually defeating their purpose of a faster shutter.

Go into shutter settings and change to manual shutter and start with custom shutter as ms and change to 0-8.3ms and gain 0-50 (night) and 0-4ms exposure and 0-30 gain (day)for starters. Auto could have a shutter speed of 100ms or more with a gain at 100 and shutter priority could result in gain up at 100 which will contribute to significant ghosting and that blinding white you will get from the infrared or white light.

Now what you will notice immediately at night is that your image gets A LOT darker. That faster the shutter, the more light that is needed. But it is a balance. The nice bright night static image results in Casper blur and ghost during motion LOL. What do we want, a nice static image or a clean image when there is motion introduced to the scene?

In the daytime, if it is still too bright, then drop the 4ms down to 3ms then 2ms, etc. You have to play with it for your field of view.

Then at night, if it is too dark, then start adding ms to the time. Go to 10ms, 12ms, etc. until you find what you feel is acceptable as an image. Then have someone walk around and see if you can get a clean shot. Try not to go above 16.67ms (but certainly not above 30ms) as that tends to be the point where blur starts to occur. Conversely, if it is still bright, then drop down in time to get a faster shutter.

You can also adjust brightness and contrast to improve the image.

You can also add some gain to brighten the image - but the higher the gain, the more ghosting you get. Some cameras can go to 70 or so before it is an issue and some can't go over 50.

But adjusting those two settings will have the biggest impact. The next one is noise reduction. Want to keep that as low as possible. Depending on the amount of light you have, you might be able to get down to 40 or so at night (again camera dependent) and 20-30 during the day, but take it as low as you can before it gets too noisy. Again this one is a balance as well. Too smooth and no noise can result in soft images and contribute to blur.

Do not use backlight features until you have exhausted every other parameter setting. And if you do have to use backlight, take it down as low as possible.

After every setting adjustment, have someone walk around outside and see if you can freeze-frame to get a clean image. If not, keep changing until you do. Clean motion pictures are what we are after, not a clean static image.