Purchased this camera last month from Andy and have been testing it ever since. Bottom line: it's a great camera! By far my best. And most expensive.
Original firmware was:
- Device Type SD5A425XA-HNR
- System Version V2.810.0000001.3.R.P9.2519.UN.NR, Build Date: 2020-06-08
- WEB Version V3.2.1.905073
- ONVIF Version 19.06(V2.6.1.845389)
- PTZ Version V2.401.0000000.64.RHNAN_200219_34642
- Security Baseline Version V2.1
With this firmware it did an OK job of tracking people and was worse than useless for tracking cars. Too low of a <Tracking Target Size> and almost nothing happened. Too high a value and it usually panned to the sky, I asked Andy if he had a newer firmware and he send me a link. After installing I now have:
- System Version V2.810.0000017.0.R.P9.2519.UN.NR, Build Date: 2020-11-23
- WEB Version V3.2.1.984015
- ONVIF Version 19.12(V2.8.0.923968)
- PTZ Version V2.401.0000000.64.RHNAN_200219_34642
- Security Baseline Version V2.1
After upgrading both people and car tracking improved. Instead of zooming into where the object was originally detected, not finding it because it had moved, and panning to the sky, it now pans to the location and then gradually zooms in by steps. This tends to be much slower for getting to a detail view, but it works much more reliably. My guess is that something in between would work best - predict where the object will be by the time the panning to the new position should be done and simultaneously zoom halfway in. Also, the <Target Tracking Size> parameter does not seem to be as sensitive. I can now use values from 35-55 or more without gross tracking errors.
Currently, car tracking tends to start out OK but gets lost when the moving car passes in front of another prominent car. It seems to prefer the shiny parked car. When I use Internet Explorer to watch, I can see the outline box around the tracked car merge into the box for the parked car. Even if it regains the box for the moving car it usually sticks with the parked car. If there is something moving (like a flag blowing in the wind) near the parked car it often stays on the parked car for 10-30 seconds until finally giving up. Does not differentiate between a moving car and movement near a parked car.
I don't really care about tracking cars so I turned motor vehicles off.
The camera does an excellent job tracking people. If there are no interfering objects around it will track a person until they disappear from view. Smaller tree trunks are usually no problem. When a person passes behind our bigger tree on the corner, the camera gives up tracking about the time they reappear. More of a problem is cars. When the person walks behind a car with their head still visible the camera usually, but not always, loses track. Even with motor vehicle tracking turned off, the camera seems to fixate on the car.
I now have the camera zoomed out (wide FOV) looking at my front yard and driveway and on down the cul-de-sac. Anyone approaching my front door or on the sidewalk triggers the camera to start tracking. On the sidewalk. people are tracked until they pass behind a tree or cars. People approaching the front door are tracked right up to the door. I do wish that the tracking would prioritize peoples heads and not their center of mass. If the person keeps moving within the FOV for long enough I can often get a detailed image with the person filling the image. Even when tracking messes up it usually gives me a better view of the person than before trying to track.
Now for some questions
1) Anyone else see tracking switch from one object to another. Car to parked car? Person to car? Even when no motor vehicle tracking enabled?
2) <Max Size>, <Min Size>, and <Pixel Counter>. Any explanation what they do and how to adjust? I left them at their default sizes (8191^2, 0^2, and 0^2). Min Size and Pixel Counter seem redundant and presumably set the smallest object to track.
3) I am using
Blue Iris. Is <Face Detection> or <Video Metadata> usefull without a Dahua NVR? If so, how?
4) Is there a good browser to use on a Mac? The boxes drawn around objects in Internet Explorer are very useful and some controls just don't work in Safari or Firefox. When I use IE on my BI computer it usually drops the frame rate of all the cameras in BI to around 50% with lots of stutter. Does not improve after quitting IE.
5) Some new parameters in the web interface. What are they?
5.1) Camera - Conditions - Picture. What is <Picture Freeze>?
5.2) - Exposure. What is <AE Recovery>?
5.3) - Video - MainStream. What is <SVC>?
4.4) When setting up tracking I thought from the interface that I could setup two different Intrusions. One using human and one using motor vehicles. And then have different <Target Tracking Sizes> for each. Apparently not?
6) What effect does varying the frame rate, WDR, etc. have on tracking? Any other non obvious parameters thataffect tracking?
7) When setting up tracking should a border be left around the tracking region?