Review-SD4A425DB-HNY 1/2.8" CMOS 4MP 25x Starlight Auto-tracking MiniPTZ

[marklyn]

That makes me think more something related to the card then, either directly or how the cam handles moving data from it. You said you tried another card so unlikely the specific card itself.

Does anyone else have a card in theirs they could test? I'd try it but mine didn't work with the card I put in it and I haven't had a chance to pull it down yet.

Yep, I had a 256Gb class 3 card in it and specifically went out and bought the fastest new sd card I could find. 256g Samsung Pro Plus, U3, V30, 4K (read 180mbs/write 130mbs)
For the moment I'm leaving it at H264, General Encoding, 15 fps, CBR 3840. This seems to provide the best, smoothest. I'd never changed the FPS from 30 to 15 until very recently. Maybe that was part of my issue.
Either way, I thank everyone for reading and helping out with suggestions and ideas. You guys are great and no one yelled at me to RTFM.

 

[wittaj]

Try a 128GB SD card. Some cameras have problems with larger than 256 even though it says it can handle it.

 

[Mike A.]

Try a 128GB SD card. Some cameras have problems with larger than 256 even though it says it can handle it.

Didn't like the 256GB Samsung card I tried for whatever reason. Formatted it but came out to something like 28GB and showed as full.

 

[Mike A.]

You are telling that the problem is related to the sd card

- direct network connection of camera to pc = no problem viewing recordings on webinterface of camera

- connection to router = choppy video

.. ok i go to sleep now

Maybe I missed something but I thought that he said that it was fine viewing live video either way and F'ed up viewing recorded video from the card either way?

 

[marklyn]

Actually I did, yesterday. I had a class 3 128gb laying around and a 64gb, tried both, same results.
However, I just discovered that changing my fps higher/lower coupled with my bitrate higher/lower seems to make the playback video choppy vs smooth!? I don't understand how this can happen since the recording has 'already happened' under the fps/bitrate, but, when I change the fps to 30 and bitrate to 6144 it is definitely choppy playback for videos that were recorded hours earlier or just now. Lower the fps and the same video plays smoothly!? This just doesn't make sense to me.
So I could leave it at 30fps/high bitrate to get details of a passing car from downloaded video or I can bring the fps down to 10-15 and watch the video directly from the camera playback.

 

[marklyn]

Maybe I missed something but I thought that he said that it was fine viewing live video either way and F'ed up viewing recorded video from the card either way?

That is correct. Live video viewing is ok. It's only F'd up when I view recorded video from the SD card with a frame rate higher than 15fps (recent discovery). But again, recorded video downloaded and viewed with 3rd party is ok too, no issues there.

 

[Mike A.]

Camera's working harder at 30 FPS and a higher bitrate so maybe doesn't have the overhead to do other things like moving video from a recorded file well.

Try setting it to 10 FPS and 2048 and then try to view one of the same files from the card that weren't good before.

 

[marklyn]

Camera's working harder at 30 FPS and a higher bitrate so maybe doesn't have the overhead to do other things like moving video from a recorded file well.

I like that idea, seems almost plausible; however it would make me feel better if another person who has this camera could verify this. Whatever the reason, if something like this is really happening, I'd think it's a bug. I have other Dahua cams set to 30 fps that are recording to SD card and the video playback from their cards is always fine.

 

[Mike A.]

They probably don't have the same chipset/signal processing this does. I've had other cams that start doing flaky stuff when pushed.

 

[wittaj]

I like that idea, seems almost plausible; however it would make me feel better if another person who has this camera could verify this. Whatever the reason, if something like this is really happening, I'd think it's a bug. I have other Dahua cams set to 30 fps that are recording to SD card and the video playback from their cards is always fine.

Yeah but are they PTZ cams? It takes more processing power, especially if tracking.

 

[marklyn]

Yeah but are they PTZ cams? It takes more processing power, especially if tracking.

Fair point. Yes, both of them are PTZ cameras (42212TNI and SD49225T-HN) one is 12x, other is 25x.

 

[Mike A.]

Those are both 2MP cams. That's a fairly big difference.

Given what you've said here, my bet is that this one is just kind of running out of gas at higher rates. You've got it streaming at 30 FPS/whatever higher bitrate, plus recording to the card at the same high rates, plus trying to play back from the card, plus whatever motion processing, etc. going on all at the same time. Probably good with any two of those unless you reduce the load in some way, e.g., reducing the FPS/bitrates. Maybe try leaving things relatively high and turning off recording to the card as a test to see if you can play back an earlier recording OK then.

Curious to see if anyone else has the same. If the above is the case, should be able to replicate it by loading it up.

 

[marklyn]

Those are both 2MP cams. That's a fairly big difference.

Given what you've said here, my bet is that this one is just kind of running out of gas at higher rates. You've got it streaming at 30 FPS/whatever higher bitrate, plus recording to the card at the same high rates, plus trying to play back from the card, plus whatever motion processing, etc. going on all at the same time. Probably good with any two of those unless you reduce the load in some way, e.g., reducing the FPS/bitrates. Maybe try leaving things relatively high and turning off recording to the card as a test to see if you can play back an earlier recording OK then.

Curious to see if anyone else has the same. If the above is the case, should be able to replicate it by loading it up.

Except that when I was testing out the playback from the SD card there was no active recording or even movement on the camera field of view. Essentially the camera was idle.
Additionally, in one of my tests, I lowered the main stream resolution with no effect.
I too would be curious if anyone else experiences choppy playback under the same circumstances as what I've written.
Maybe this is an issue that I should mention to Andy. I would for sure if someone else experiences the same thing.

 

[Mike A.]

When I have a chance to pull mine down and get the card working, I'll give it a try.

 

[tigerwillow1]

Could somebody explain about the near and far IR, what it is and how it works? In case I need to get flamed for not searching, my defense is that the search function says near and far are too short or too common to search for.

 

[wittaj]

Could somebody explain about the near and far IR, what it is and how it works? In case I need to get flamed for not searching, my defense is that the search function says near and far are too short or too common to search for.

Basically the near is not as powerful and aimed more for close distances and the far is higher power aimed more for distance.

Kind of like regular headlights and brights on a car LOL.

Every camera is different, but with this one I found that the near is good to about 25 feet or so and the far after that.

 

[tigerwillow1]

What causes the switch from near to far? Are they ever both on at the same time?

 

[Mike A.]

They can be set manually and I think they're varied in Zoom Priority mode depending on available light and zoom level. Yes, they can be on at the same time and at different levels.

ETA From Dahua:

Zoom Priority
The system adjusts the illuminator intensity automatically according to the change of the ambient light.
● When the ambient light turns darker, the system turns on the low beam lights first, if the brightness is still not enough, it turns on the high beam lights then.
● When the ambient light turns brighter, the system dims high beam lights until they are off, and then the low beam lights.
● When the focus reaches certain wide angle, the system will not turn on high beam light in order to avoid over-exposure in short distance. In the meantime, you can configure light compensation manually to fine-tune IR light intensity.

 

[tigerwillow1]

Figured something out finally! The camera won't let the sum of both the near and far IR exceed 100%, and when setting the intensity manually, one is not forced down when the other is raised. In other words:

1. If Near Light is set to 100%, the Far Light slider is dead.
2. If Far Light is set to 100%, the Near Light slider is dead.
3. If one of the settings is more than zero but less than 100%, the other cannot be raised past the point of making the total of the two equal to 100%.
4. If the sum of the two settings is 100%, one of them must be lowered before the other can be raised.

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

Defect with protective dome Pulled off
View attachment 167781

After cleaning - there are some specs inside the lens. Maybe even a defect in the glass.
View attachment 167780

Reinstalled - Same defect
View attachment 167782

Looks to be a glass/lens issue.

Dan returned the camera to the Warranty center. they replace the whole lens, camera should be back to normal now. Thanks a lot for waiting.