Different settings to the Hik cams at sunrise/sunset using Blue Iris event schedule

[mcx]

As you know you can use Blue Iris event schedule to adjust brightness and few other settings to match with sunrise/sunset. Unfortunately you can not adjust WDR or noise reduction.

Probably there is many ways to adjust those settings - here is one quite simple:

1. Install curl. http://curl.haxx.se/download.html
2. Login to your camera and set it to day mode (important). Check if you need to adjust brighness, WDR, etc for best quality:

3. Open CMD, type (example): curl http://admin:12345@192.168.2.10/image/channels >cam1_day.xml . Now you have an xml file that contains the current day settings. You may move xml file to c:\
4. Open notepad, type: curl -T c:\cam1_day.xml http://admin:12345@192.168.2.10/image/channels/1 and save it (example): C:\cam1_day.bat
5. On Blue Iris options set your current latitude and longitude.
6. On Camera properties - PTZ/Control page do settings something like this:

7. Edit presets... should be something like this:

8. On camera - event shedule page click add and create something like this:

9. Best part - take few beers and wait until the darkness comes.
10. Login to your camera and set it to night mode, adjust settings and repeat steps 3 and 4. This time you may use cam1_night.xml and cam1_night.bat.
11. You know how to do the rest
12. For testing enable Show PTZ controls on Blue Iris main view.

At least this works fine with hik fw 5.1, Blue Iris 4.1.7.2 x64, Win 8.1



Edit: Here is link for downloading a docx-file of those instructions:

Different settings to Hik cam sunrise_sunset.zip

docx-file created by @Bradmph

 

[ruppmeister]

Re: Different settings to the Hik cams at sunrise/sunset using Blue Iris event schedu

Wow! much appreciated @mcx! I was just trying to get this to work this morning will little luck. I will give these steps a try with my Hik on 5.2.5 and my LaView (Hik clone) running 5.2.0 and report back.

 

[ruppmeister]

Re: Different settings to the Hik cams at sunrise/sunset using Blue Iris event schedu

This is working perfectly on both my cams that I tried it on!

This has to be the best working solution to my daytime/nighttime settings problems yet. Thanks for the write-up on how to do this @mcx

 

[gwminor48]

Re: Different settings to the Hik cams at sunrise/sunset using Blue Iris event schedu

Question @mcx or @ruppmeister are you still able to use profiles for day and night to change things like trigger sensitivity with this method?

 

[mcx]

Re: Different settings to the Hik cams at sunrise/sunset using Blue Iris event schedu

Question @mcx or @ruppmeister are you still able to use profiles for day and night to change things like trigger sensitivity with this method?

Absolutely yes.

 

[ruppmeister]

Re: Different settings to the Hik cams at sunrise/sunset using Blue Iris event schedu

Question @mcx or @ruppmeister are you still able to use profiles for day and night to change things like trigger sensitivity with this method?

The answer is yes weather the settings you are talking about are in the camera motion itself AND if you are using BI (not sure which you are using). Both ways should have no problems like @gwminor48 said.

 

[gwminor48]

Re: Different settings to the Hik cams at sunrise/sunset using Blue Iris event schedu

@mcx or @ruppmeister I have a question. Are you using this method to control just wdr, dnr or are you also controlling image, brightness, contrast, etc too? And are you doing this with it set to auto-switch? I finally got around to setting this up last night but I may have screwed up somewhere. This morning 2 of the 3 cameras were stuck in night mode even though the cameras showed they were in day mode. After trying a lot of things I finally double-clicked on the bat files for these 2 cameras and got them back to day mode. I had been playing around with BI around the time it was due to switch so I may have caused this to happen. Mainly, I'm curious if it will control image settings and if it's ok to do it in auto-switch mode.

 

[mcx]

Re: Different settings to the Hik cams at sunrise/sunset using Blue Iris event schedu

I control almost all image settings and I haven't had any issues whit curl method since I started using it for more than a week ago. Dumb question but are you sure that the settings are correct on edit preset page and event schedule page? You can also test how your settings work by using PTZ controls in Blue Iris main view. An hour ago (time is ~8pm here) I set one camera to auto switch mode and wait until Blue Iris ran the "night.bat" and I saw that it worked correctly.

 

[gwminor48]

Re: Different settings to the Hik cams at sunrise/sunset using Blue Iris event schedu

Dumb question but are you sure that the settings are correct on edit preset page and event schedule page?

I'll double check that. On your string example "curl -T c:\cam1_day.xml http://admin:12345@192.168.2.10/image/channels/1" will all camera strings end in "1"?

 

[ruppmeister]

Re: Different settings to the Hik cams at sunrise/sunset using Blue Iris event schedu

Both of my cams both end in 1. It is what is needed for Hik cameras. The difference is going to be in the IP address of the string.

 

[gwminor48]

Re: Different settings to the Hik cams at sunrise/sunset using Blue Iris event schedu

Well. I kept hands off everything this morning and all cameras switched to day mode with no problem, Thanks @mcx and @ruppmeister,

 

[aster1x]

Re: Different settings to the Hik cams at sunrise/sunset using Blue Iris event schedu

Is there a way to implement the same functionality of this thread with a camera like 2332 and an NVR like 7XXX unattended and without BluIris?

 

[djangel]

Re: Different settings to the Hik cams at sunrise/sunset using Blue Iris event schedu

Can someone who has done this post a before and after pictures of the improvement of night and day images please.

The image quality for day or night will depend on your individual settings. This is just a way to automatically switch day and night profiles on the cameras based on sunrise/sunset for your location. Typically you will set a specific time you want the cameras to switch and have to deal with having a camera in day mode settings when it might be too dark already or vice versa. Using this awesome work around, you can have BlueIris trigger a batch file to have the profiles switch accurately.

 

[gwminor48]

Re: Different settings to the Hik cams at sunrise/sunset using Blue Iris event schedu

The image quality for day or night will depend on your individual settings. This is just a way to automatically switch day and night profiles on the cameras based on sunrise/sunset for your location. Typically you will set a specific time you want the cameras to switch and have to deal with having a camera in day mode settings when it might be too dark already or vice versa. Using this awesome work around, you can have BlueIris trigger a batch file to have the profiles switch accurately.

+1 This works great for me.

 

[Kentg]

Re: Different settings to the Hik cams at sunrise/sunset using Blue Iris event schedu

The image quality for day or night will depend on your individual settings. This is just a way to automatically switch day and night profiles on the cameras based on sunrise/sunset for your location. Typically you will set a specific time you want the cameras to switch and have to deal with having a camera in day mode settings when it might be too dark already or vice versa. Using this awesome work around, you can have BlueIris trigger a batch file to have the profiles switch accurately.

Oh I get it. I just would like to see how much of a diff it makes in the middle of the night with the settings optimized for night instead of both.

 

[djangel]

Re: Different settings to the Hik cams at sunrise/sunset using Blue Iris event schedu

Oh I get it. I just would like to see how much of a diff it makes in the middle of the night with the settings optimized for night instead of both.

Results will vary depending on the camera's settings and what kind of camera/area/light source(s) you are working with. I have some of my cameras with only one setting for day/night, but others with individual settings. As an example, I have a camera recording with exposure settings set to 1/750 during the day to help capture license plates, but at night I have to lower it to 1/30. Overall, having a schedule for day/night most of the time will improve the picture, but it might not be enough to warrant having to worry about schedules. You just need to experiment with the settings and see what works for you.

 

[Kentg]

Re: Different settings to the Hik cams at sunrise/sunset using Blue Iris event schedu

Results will vary depending on the camera's settings and what kind of camera/area/light source(s) you are working with. I have some of my cameras with only one setting for day/night, but others with individual settings. As an example, I have a camera recording with exposure settings set to 1/750 during the day to help capture license plates, but at night I have to lower it to 1/30. Overall, having a schedule for day/night most of the time will improve the picture, but it might not be enough to warrant having to worry about schedules. You just need to experiment with the settings and see what works for you.

Thats what I thought. I dont have this on my computer and using google it seems that haxx hosts and I can download from there. This will be something totally new for me. Im on vacation for the next week and when have time I will try this with one of mine.

 

[gwminor48]

Re: Different settings to the Hik cams at sunrise/sunset using Blue Iris event schedu

Thats what I thought. I dont have this on my computer and using google it seems that haxx hosts and I can download from there. This will be something totally new for me. Im on vacation for the next week and when have time I will try this with one of mine.

Experiment with the settings at night if you have the time. I was frustrated with the quality of night time video and found I was able to improve it some changing things in the "Image" section of options in the camera, things like brightness, contrast, sharpness, exposure, dnr. If you are able to see enough difference from daytime settings then you might want to try this. There are a lot of variables so it takes some time experimenting. Each camera view is different but I saw enough difference that it made me want to have the ability to change day and night settings.

 

[Bradmph]

Re: Different settings to the Hik cams at sunrise/sunset using Blue Iris event schedu

Results will vary depending on the camera's settings and what kind of camera/area/light source(s) you are working with. I have some of my cameras with only one setting for day/night, but others with individual settings. As an example, I have a camera recording with exposure settings set to 1/750 during the day to help capture license plates, but at night I have to lower it to 1/30. Overall, having a schedule for day/night most of the time will improve the picture, but it might not be enough to warrant having to worry about schedules. You just need to experiment with the settings and see what works for you.

1/750 day to 1/30 for night? You must have a well lit area at night for the cameras if not using IR. I am working on trying to get my cameras to never go past 1/30 at night, but the lighting is just too dim.....damn, lol. I suppose a motion light could work or some more 12v low voltage walkway lights. I also have camera that settings are always fine day and night. Though this one is running IR at night at 1/30 both schedules.

 

[djangel]

Re: Different settings to the Hik cams at sunrise/sunset using Blue Iris event schedu

1/750 day to 1/30 for night? You must have a well lit area at night for the cameras if not using IR. ...

Actually I do have a combination of both (IR/motion sensor floodlight). Here is another forum thread with some pics I posted.
https://www.ipcamtalk.com/showthrea...h-Vision-Quality?p=54127&viewfull=1#post54127

And if you haven't seen it yet, an incident from a few months back (hopefully the last).
https://www.ipcamtalk.com/showthread.php/5005-Mini-movie-Get-your-popcorn!
Camera on the right is a DS-2CD2032 with 12mm lens, recording at 3mp, 10 fps/4096 bitrate normal & 20 fps / 8192 bitrate motion, 1/750 day - 1/30 night exposure.