Help With Blurry Image

D

DavidDavid

Getting comfortable
Jan 29, 2017
604
266
Ohio
I exported a few IVS events that were captured on my NVR5216-4KS2 from my 5231 Starlights to my computer for review and noticed that the images are VERY blurry. Not what I was expecting AT ALL. I started to increase the shutter speed, but it didn't seem to help anything. The attached pictures are all from me running up the stairs (as fast as someone might normally go if it was raining...which it was)

Auto Settings:
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Changed WDR and shutter speed:
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Changed the Shutter Speed again even higher:
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Nothing I'm doing seems to have any effect on the paused exported video. Any suggestions on more tweaking I can do?

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Thanks
 

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I did notice that increasing the shutter speed really dulled up the video. The color of the grass looks way worse. And did nothing to help the blurriness. I think 1/250 is good for normal videos like this....but I'm missing something apparently.
 
DavidDavid said:
I did notice that increasing the shutter speed really dulled up the video. The color of the grass looks way worse. And did nothing to help the blurriness. I think 1/250 is good for normal videos like this....but I'm missing something apparently.
Click to expand...
lower the noise reduction..
 
I have a question about your Bit Rate (main stream).

If the reference bit rate shows up to 8444 kbps, but the actual bit rate is set to 8192, is anything lost there?
 
Ok, I cut the 3D NR down in half to 25, and it made no noticeable difference...It's done raining (for now) but it's still cold haha. My speed is increasing but I would still think that my face should be crystal clear.

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I've spent the better part of today trying to get this clearer. I am dreading doing this on all of the cameras. This is the first time I've checked the video.

And I'm not sure about the reference bit rate, but I chose 8192 from the drop down menu. Just the highest I could pick. It is within the reverence rate range so I think it should be ok....
 
I'm not sure what you mean by no improvement, I see a lot of improvement from your first photos to the last. You're going to need to up your shutter speed even more if you want "freeze action" images. Sports photographers typically start at 1/1000 and only get faster than that depending on the scenario.

Let's do a little math. I quick jog is around 10km/h, which is 2.78 meters per second. So a 1/250 shutter speed will have the subject moving a little over 1 centimeter while the shutter is open (that doesn't account for extremities which are moving even faster, but is about right for the face). 1 centimeter is enough to have discernable blur in your framing.

Try upping that shutter speed even more.

Edit: Never mind, I missed the settings screenshot showing the 1/2000 shutter speed, that should be plenty fast enough. You can try lowering the frame rate and/or increasing the I frame interval to see if it's the encoder being bit starved. Also try using a different backlight setting, WDR takes multiple exposures and combines them.
 
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What does a shot of same subject with no motion look like? Is that motion blur or just a zoomed out camera?
 
Try lowering WDR as much as possible. At night I've found there is no doubt about motion blur associated with WDR in color mode..so much so that Ive turned it off at night..likely to have some effect in daytime also..
 
Well, I guess there is improvement in the blurriness, but overall the quality of the video has dropped quite a bit. And considering that I can barely recognize myself in the last picture, I'd say for overall security purposes it is doing a poor job.

Here's a mostly still picture...

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And yes, it is all the way zoomed out, but I just put a tape to it and my face is only 9ft from the camera.
 
Didn't get the attachment.

Some good suggestions here. WDR and bit starved encoder due to low I-Frame interval are definately possible culprits.

Also was there any transcoding involved in moving the image from the NVR to the PC? I am not familiar with the nvr but if you view it there directly on the nvr does it look the same?
 
I thought the I-Frame was supposed to match the FPS?

And I exported it as an MP4. It actually looks worse on SmartPSS....not by much and maybe it's just paused at slightly different frame, but its definitely not better.
 
Maybe it's just the weather. It's been rainy and overcast here for the past 3 days. But on very sunny days I notice people's faces are very very dark (So I had been planning on playing with the WDR) but I just don't get much time ever to sit in front of the computer making changes and then running outside to see what it did.

This Sunday will be sunny, I'll see if I can get some time then to play more with it.
 
Well that does look better with less motion.

Yes on the I-Frame match but that is to minimize the "ghosting" effect. One of the consequences of the lower rate is a less efficient encoder stream. So less bits available. Might not be a factor but worth trying.
 
So the dark faces can be fixed by zooming in tighter, I think. The camera is trying to expose for the entire scene and you have a lot of bright areas in the background in direct sunlight. But the guy under the eaves is in the shade so the face will have less light on it.
 
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Wait till you see your perfect picture during the day looks like ass at night, lol. There's not much chance at perfection for all exposures so it's generally a compromise. Don't forget too, there's exposure settings like bight/contrast, etc. Sometimes if the technical settings can get you close, a little bump either way of the brightness/contrast can polish it off. If you have any halloween or christmas full size decoration, you might try putting that out there in place of you running around like a nut, lol. But be warned, don't just set and expose for one scene because night changes everything too. It takes quite a lot a tweaking to get images for a good compromised balance. I take weeks dialing in my new TV's too.
 
Lowering the contrast will help with better exposure of the shadows (ie. the face.)

Be aware that you've effectively locked the exposure permanently to the 1/250th in the set-up example you posted below @DavidDavid .
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You'd be better to specify Manual- Range and then select the lowest exposure speed desired and leave the highest range setting at 0 msecs. So specify a range of 4ms (1/250th) to 0 ms. That will give the slowest exposure time allowed as your 1/250th (in dark conditions) but the camera will automatically increase the speed when lighting conditions allow.

BTW 1/250th at night will probably not work well unless you've got very good light.
 
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There is something going on with focus also. The first image (with the beanie) and the last (still motion) are the only two that the door mat are clear enough to see the pattern, and it is clearly not in motion. I think the camera takes time to make tiny focus changes from wide angle far away to wide angle close up. I think it averages the frame, and thus until you dominate the window, you are not in perfect focus (just my assumption here since it is supposed to be fixed optically but maybe not digitally). What does it look like with some of the same settings, but zoomed in a bit with and without fast motion?
 
Thanks for the replies. Yes I'm running the latest firmware. Unfortunatly I really don't have a lot of spare time to sit and mess around with these things. I tried zooming in quite a bit (probably 1/3 of the way in on the zoom bar, maybe 4mm?) and that didn't help anything. I had all the exact same issues as I did when it was all the way zoomed out. The steps are only 9ft from the camera.

A couple days ago I moved the camera back to where it was before I zoomed in. I was tired of not being able to see the driveway. I pulled the footage from yesterday morning and now I'm getting this....


And when I was walking around near the steps, everything was so blurry I couldn't even recognize myself.

Everything is set to auto right now also.

I'm pretty disappointed with this view. It will do absolutely nothing for me if someone breaks in through the front door at night.
 
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