IPC-HDW4831EM-ASE stops recording every day, overwrite not working??

C

carteriii

Pulling my weight
Jan 8, 2016
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173
USA
I have a few IPC-HDW4831EM-ASE that I bought from Andy. Every day they stop recording, and typically re-start at midnight even though I don't have the camera set to reboot until 2am. I have a feeling that the "Disk Full: Overwrite" setting may not be working, but I don't know how to prove it or what to do about it.

Previously I saw a few events in the log that made me think it might be related to the SD card issues with other models, so I applied Andy's latest firmware (V2.800.0000005.0.R, Build Date: 2019-03-25) after he confirmed it was good for this camera. With the latest firmware, I see logs that show recording events are beginning and ending, even when nothing is stored on the card. I should note the cards are Samsung Endurance Pros 128GB, direct from Amazon and I believe them to be authentic (not an eBay fake). I have reformatted them in the camera with no change, AND I have done a factory reset of settings after updating the firmware. All cameras are hard-wired with POE to a Dahua switch.

Allow me to share a few screenshots from SmartPSS and the web UI to show what I am experiencing. First an image from SmartPSS showing that the recordings yesterday stopped at about 7am:

sjc-garage-stops-recording-yesterday.jpg

Next, the same thing happened again today, this time about 7:24am (it's almost 2pm now):

sjc-garage-stops-recording.jpg
You can see that the camera is set to record 24x7 . . .

sjc-garage-always-recording.jpg

Here is the disk full "overwrite" setting, image taken from web UI since SmartPSS does not expose this setting to me (at least not that I've found). Note also that Pack Duration (the length of the recording) is normally 2 minutes long:

sjc-garage-disk-full-overwrite.jpg

Here are now three images showing the log with gaps in the recordings. In this first image, note there is a gap today between 7:15 & 7:46am (remember the recordings stopped around 7:24am), and then the events restart at 7:46am, but for only 4 seconds, even though there are no recordings then. There's another big gap and then other events begin & end, each only for a few seconds. Normally the recordings are 2 minutes long, so this is what makes me think the SD card "disk full: overwrite" function simply isn't working:

sjc-garage-gap3.jpg
sjc-garage-gap2.jpg
sjc-garage-gap.jpg

I'm at a loss for any other explanation. I've searched these forums for other problems with the overwrite setting and haven't found any clues. I'm a little bothered that the setting doesn't exist, at least not in the same place, in SmartPSS as it does in the WebUI, implying there may be some newness or inconsistency in how it's implemented, but that's pure speculation on my part.

At one point I tried to auto-delete old files (from the System->Auto Maintain web page) but that is currently disabled. Do these cameras try to delete some amount of events automatically at midnight whenever this condition occurs, which might be the reason I can only record a few hours before the card is full again, overwrite is not working, and then I have to wait until midnight again to delete some older files?

As I said earlier, I did a factory reset after applying the new firmware. I did then re-import my settings, so perhaps there's something else going on and my next step is to do a factory reset and then manually re-create everything. I also re-formatted the SD card again, which did allow the camera to record for a much longer period that day, but it still stopped mid-day, well before the card was full. So perhaps there's a separate problem, beyond simply that the disk full overwrite setting isn't working.

I am recording the main stream with H.265, smart code=off, 15 FPS, VBR, quality=4, max bit rate=6144, iframe interval=30. I'm trying to provide as much detail as possible to give someone else a clue. I'm hoping this isn't simply a firmware failing.

@EMPIRETECANDY have you ever heard of this? I realize not many people may have purchased this specific camera model.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Oh, here's the version info:
sjc-garage-version.jpg
 

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I have a HDW4831EM-ASE and it is hooked up to an Amcrest NVR (which is a rebranded Dahua 4216). I have not seen this issue. But I have never ran using a memory card.

Is it possible that the memory card is slow/old and as the nand is trying to garbage collect, it can't keep up, so you end up losing data in the process.
 
That's certainly possible, but as I mentioned above all cards are Samsung Endurance Pro 128GB, all less than 3 months old, so they are in theory some of the best & most recent. I've seen another post that these are not the fastest cards for writing, and these cameras as recording 4k video, but the cards keeps up just fine, until it stops completely.
 
I'm not sure if this is new data or not. The disk is still full so the "overwrite" function still seems to be worthless, but I'll show a few slightly different log lines.

This morning the recording stopped just after 2am:

sjc-garage-stops-today-2am.jpg

That happens to be when I have the camera set to reboot. Upon checking the logs, I see "No Disk" in the memo just after the reboot. This generally makes sense after a reboot that the SD card has to be mounted, so I don't think this is the cause.

sjc-garage-no-disk-after-reboot.jpg

It just feels like the "Disk Full: Overwrite" setting isn't work. @EMPIRETECANDY would you please ask if they might have any issues with the setting to overwrite older SD card events when the disk is full? You can see my "Record Control" settings screen in the first post.
 
Noted i will check with them tomorrow, thank you!
 
Thank you. I just did a "Format" of the SD Card from the web setting screen and immediately after re-formatting, the recordings have started again. I'll see how long they continue.
 
Can you try a Sandisk Extreme Pro SD card? Seriously these are the gold standard with high write intensive usage. Best used for dash cams and web cams.
 
Great idea. I don't have one but will get at least one to test for any different behavior.

For what it's worth, after reformatting the SD card this morning, in just under 4 hours the recordings stopped again. This time the card is far from full (using only 12GB out of ~122GB). There is absolutely no indication of anything odd in the logs, and in fact another motion detection event started almost immediately after the recordings failed. I still feel like the disk full overwriting is a contributor, but this clearly shows something else is going on and a good reason to test another SD card.
 
I have older firmware than you (HDW-4831EM-ASE). I doubt that is the problem though.

System Version2.622.0000000.31.R, Build Date: 2018-08-13
WEB VersionV3.2.1.616707
 
Interesting new data point. I also have a IPC-HDW5231R-ZE, which I also updated to the same software version, V2.800.0000005.0.R, Build Date: 2019-03-25. Earlier today, it stopped recording as the card was/is almost full (120693.3M/122066.2M). Most of my recordings on the 5231 are 50MB, so there was still some room for another event.

The 5231 is not 4k, so the write through put of that is much less and shouldn't cause any issues on the Samsung Endurance Pro cards. I don't see anything abnormal in the logs, and if anything it's odd that the motion detection events keep showing up. Those should generate recordings even if the standard recordings weren't set. Since there's still a little bit of room at the end, I don't know if the "Disk Full: Overwrite" setting is relevant here or not. I'll let the camera run and see if it starts up again on its own after midnight (as the other cameras were doing) or at 2am when it's set to reboot.

@EMPIRETECANDY Now that this has happened on two different camera models, both with the same firmware, I'm a little worried. I'm willing to create a user for you if that would help get additional information to debug whatever is going on.
 
A few questions.

1. What version of SmartPss are you using? The newest one has an known issue. Go back to 2.002.0000007.0 and see if your video is there.

2. Have you tried logging into the WebGui using PaleMoom browser (32 bit) and checked for the video? I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
 
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carteriii said:
Interesting new data point. I also have a IPC-HDW5231R-ZE, which I also updated to the same software version, V2.800.0000005.0.R, Build Date: 2019-03-25. Earlier today, it stopped recording as the card was/is almost full (120693.3M/122066.2M). Most of my recordings on the 5231 are 50MB, so there was still some room for another event.

The 5231 is not 4k, so the write through put of that is much less and shouldn't cause any issues on the Samsung Endurance Pro cards. I don't see anything abnormal in the logs, and if anything it's odd that the motion detection events keep showing up. Those should generate recordings even if the standard recordings weren't set. Since there's still a little bit of room at the end, I don't know if the "Disk Full: Overwrite" setting is relevant here or not. I'll let the camera run and see if it starts up again on its own after midnight (as the other cameras were doing) or at 2am when it's set to reboot.

@EMPIRETECANDY Now that this has happened on two different camera models, both with the same firmware, I'm a little worried. I'm willing to create a user for you if that would help get additional information to debug whatever is going on.
Click to expand...
For the gap, have you ever check if the recording real lost?
 
Now I feel like a complete idiot. I used the web UI and I see video recordings/events during the time period which SmartPSS did not show them. That's a much better answer than finding out the cameras or SD cards didn't work, but wow do I feel silly, and frustrated at the hours I spent trying different configurations.

I am and have been running only SmartPSS 2.002.0000007.0, so apparently the lesson out of all of this is that SmartPSS simply doesn't show all the "playback" events, no matter what filters you put on it. I say that to clarify that it's not simply some limitation on the number of playback events that can be displayed. Even when I set the time of day to filter to only an hour, I get zero results during times that the lower bar shows no events. The right-side bar with individual events remains empty.

Thank you, @EMPIRETECANDY (& everyone else) for helping me out! I hope you will let Dahua know that some people (me) might think their cameras don't work simply because they can't display a list of all the events. I do feel stupid, but I'm also frustrated that such a basic function doesn't work.
 
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You are welcome, help each other make ipct great. ;)
 
So SmartPSS desktop app is bugged out?

I use Amcrest's View Pro on Windows and it works beautifully for all Amcrest and Dahua cams. Never missed any recording. I actually did try Dahua's Smart PSS but I did not like it's interface as much as Amcrest's.
 
SmartPSS works fine for what its meant to do. Their mobile app, iDMSS is borked.
 
I finally discovered that there are multiple versions of SmartPSS that are both V2.002.0000007. Below are the two install file names that I encountered. Note that one has "FLIR" in the name with a "T" in the name and date 190122. That one does not work properly and is the one I was using when I had all the problems. However, the second one with the "R" in the name and date 181023 works just fine.

I have tried re-installing these multiple times and the "T.190122" one repeatedly has the problems with searching for playback events. I hope this follow-up post saves someone else the headaches that I've had.

General_SMARTPSS-FLIR_Win32_ChnEng_IS_V2.002.0000007.0.T.190122.exe (bad, don't use this one)
General_SMARTPSS-Win32_ChnEng_IS_V2.002.0000007.0.R.181023.exe
 
I may have spoken too soon. At least one of my cameras is not showing all events even when queried by what I thought was the "good" version listed above. For what it's worth, version V1.x of SmartPSS definitely works on all cameras. So I'll keep investigating, but I'm convinced something in V2.002 has a problem when looking for all events.
 
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