IR Exposure Problems

[mkjr75]

Hi All,
New to BI so I’m still feeling things out. Also, my first home IP camera. It’s a generic Chinese PTZ camera with the “IP Camera” web interface.
It is installed to look down my lane and is focused about 250 feet out - the IR is quite powerful and delivers surprisingly decent video.
There is a motion flood light that comes on to light the parking area just under the camera. When the flood lights come on, it is enough light to turn off the IR lamp. I’m playing with BI schedules to turn the IR on/off relative to sunset/rise so I think I have the IR on all the time as desired.
My problem now is that when the flood lights come on, it seems to be forcing the camera to compensate by adjusting the exposure (I think) and I wind up with a very dark image as the camera must still be in “night mode”.
Does any of this sound familiar? Am I missing some setting that might help? There is little to no help with the very few camera settings so I’m not sure what else I could do.
Please don’t suggest a new camera or that I should’ve not cheaped out on the Chinese one. It is what it is and I’m trying to make the best of it.
Thanks!
Mike

 

[Flintstone61]

BI schedules: you can set those back to previous settings.
dont fuck with those.
the IR settings are inside the camera.
there is a web based menu.....
what is the IP address of the camera?
surf to it...and login....

 

[mkjr75]

BI schedules: you can set those back to previous settings.
dont fuck with those.
the IR settings are inside the camera.
there is a web based menu.....
what is the IP address of the camera?
surf to it...and login....

I've been in the camera web menu - it sucks. What I'm asking, is if you have any suggestions to help with this problem.

 

[wittaj]

A camera web menu that sucks and does not offer the ability to dial in parameters is what happens with cheapened out no-name cameras.

BI simply takes the video feed that fed to it from the camera. Yeah with some cams you might be able to have BI send commands for a few things, but that doesn't fix the inherent problem with the camera.

Every camera suffers from exposure issues when a motion light comes on. Some do better than others, but all suffer from it.

The ability to actually adjust the parameters in the camera like shutter speed, exposure, etc. is what mitigates the issue and BI does not control that.

It is why we recommend that people either leave the lights on all night or not on at all. Motion activated lights have been proven time and time again here and just about everywhere else that they are not a deterrent to perps and they don't even flinch. Plus it ruins the exposure as you have seen. We have a post just this week someone made where someone didn't flinch when the motion lights came on. It wasn't until an audio siren that they fled.

But giving a link to Amazon or AliExpress or wherever you bought it from can help because maybe someone has that camera and knows what settings to adjust, or it may simply be a consumer grade junk camera that gives you zero ability to adjust for situations like that.

 

[mkjr75]

Thank you for this response. Here is the camera I purchased -

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0894HGCRB?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

I'm willing to accept the limitations of the camera, I knew that when I purchased it there would be some. It's a cheapo camera for sure with a very generic interface. There are a few options related to exposure etc, but not much. See the clip below from the "Image" menu.
Your comment regarding the motion lights being on or off all the time is helpful. My purpose for having them is not for security but for visibility when we come home, but I might make some adjustments using other lighting.
It also seems that BI is unable to control the IR light on the camera from what I can tell, so that's probably not going to be an option.



Thanks again.

 

[wittaj]

OK that looks like a version of the JideTech, among other brands. One of the things you will see is that there are not a lot of unique manufacturers out there, and one company may produce as OEM dozens of cameras for other companies.

Some of the JideTech cams have some abilities to change more parameters than others. Post a few screenshots of the web GUI and we can see if there is a feature that might mitigate it some.

With the exposure issue - is it the initial bloom with the lights come on and then it settles down, or does the exposure stay whacked out the entire time the motion lights are on?

Yeah, not surprising that BI won't control the IR lights. Some brands it will, but most it won't. Limitation of the camera more than it is BI.

 

[mkjr75]

Here are the other 2 menus on the camera that have anything to do with camera operations. I have been playing with these to try to dial in the frame rate etc, so feel free to make recommendations. I can't seem to get the Key above .25. Framerate stays steady at 15.
As for the light issue, when the flood lights come on, the camera seems to switch to color or "daytime" mode so then the exposure is very dark and doesn't seem to correct. Once the lights go off and it switches back to BW/night the IR lights come on and all is good.

 

[wittaj]

Oh wow you have nothing for exposure/shutter/brightness/gain, etc.?

OK if you want the best image and to work with BI, try the following:

Mainstream
H264
6144 bitrate (although even that is low for that MP, but you are limited)
15FPS
15 key frame (BI works best when FPS and key frame (iframes match)) If they match, then in BI, the KEY shows 1.00 which is ideal. This camera may not let you do that.
CBR

Substream
512 bitrate
15FPS
15 key frame
CBR


But if you don't have a screen for exposure/shutter/white balance/ day/night then you are limited.

 

[mkjr75]

I do have those options, I put them in my earlier post. Not sure if you see that, so I'll post again.

 

[mkjr75]

I also have 3 h.264 options: baseline, mainprofile, highprofile

 

[wittaj]

OK I see it now.

use H264 baseline.

So you will have to test what Imgmode and IR LED Control do. What are the drop down options?

Perhaps changing one of those will force it to stay B/W and IR when the floodlight kicks on and that may help with the dimming you get.

 

[mkjr75]

First, I now have the keyframes at 1, so thanks for those adjustments. I think it was the bitrate, but regardless, it's working with H265. I'll try the H264 baseline next.
The options look like this:
Aemode: auto/indoor/outdoor
Imgmode: Frame rate/Illuminance
IR LED Control: Auto/On/Off

I can set the IR to On and it stays on but it forces the camera to black/white mode.

 

[wittaj]

Yeah try it to on and see if that forces it.

 

[mkjr75]

Yes, setting the IR Mode to ON forces the camera to BW mode. Confirmed.

 

[wittaj]

Cool. Hopefully that helps with the exposure when the motion light kicks on.

 

[mkjr75]

I believe that it will, but it does make the camera black and white 100% of the time now.

 

[wittaj]

It probably won't work but see if the IR control in BI will flip that?

Or see if the camera has a schedule in it that you could set it up for auto during day and ON at night?

 

[mkjr75]

unfortunately no schedule in the camera. I was hopeful I could do it in BI.
Maybe I can do something in Home Assistant if I can find the right commands.
Thanks again - you've been very helpful!