Review Sunba Tedh 507-20XC

BobW55

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
163
Reaction score
46
This being my first ever IP camera it is hard to make any comparisons.

I bought this camera off Aliexpress: http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/S441t9A
It took 14 days to arrive.
Inside the box are:

The camera already fixed to the wall mount. Camera is about the size of a softball.
120VAC/ 12VDC 2 amp power supply with about a 6' cord (camera has a label on it stating 12 volts 4 amps) DO NOT PLAN ON USING POE it requires too much power.
A powered speaker/mic combination that looks like a golf ball.
a very poorly written quick start guide.

When I bought the camera, they emailed me a link to download the software.
The software is horrible, things are hidden in places you would not expect. To turn the IR leds off/on/auto you actually use one of the presets. To turn off/on the IR Cut filter is in yet another place. NOTHING is documented as to what does what. there is NO help file contained in the CMS software. Very hard to figure out for a novice like me. While they have been very quick to answer any questions I have had, the language barrier makes it very challenging.

I have been able to get Blue Iris to connect to it, as well as Ispy, although neither package 100% supports the camera as of yet. Ispy does have it on their list though.
I have it temporarily mounted on the side of my radio tower, about 25 feet in the air. If I have the resolution set to 1920x1080 the controls are very sluggish, I am not sure if this is due to my PC not having enough guts or not. If set at 704x480 the PTZ is very quick.
Night time images are clear I did manage to snap one last night of some people walking by. I have not yet tested the motion tracking, only cause my novice brain has yet to figure out how to make it go. When waving a hand in front of the camera, there is a 1/2-1 second delay in what you actually see on the screen. I do not know if this is normal, but I suspect it is.
PTZ movement is very smooth and quick, probably would rate in between Medium and high speed. The lens auto focus works very quickly and even on a quick zoom 0-20X only takes a split second to dial in. The camera is fairly quiet, and I don't hear it where I have it mounted. The IR leds are very noticeable at night.
Here are some sample photos, will post a video soon as I get that part figured out.

This building is 1500 feet away.


Here it is at 20X zoom:


My Cat on the back deck:


People walking by was playing with the IR so not so good:


My Neighbors truck:


And the IR Leds:


I am happy with the camera for a camera, the supplied software and documentation suck. But the price was right.

Bob
 

Attachments

bp2008

Staff member
Joined
Mar 10, 2014
Messages
12,666
Reaction score
14,005
Location
USA
In your picture of the people walking, I think the roof reflecting all that IR back is half the problem.

A friend of mine got this camera a few days before you did (must have chosen faster shipping) and, having tried it, I did not experience extra lag using it in 1080p mode. If you are using it over WiFi or if your computer is particularly old or slow, that could explain the delay. 0.5 to 1.0 second delay is quite normal for a PTZ using h264 compression. Some cameras can do better (maybe even this one, with the right settings) but at the cost of more video glitches whenever the network conditions are not quite perfect. Longer delays like this are often necessary to keep the video smooth and stable.

I found the PTZ controls to be slow to medium speed, even when you choose the maximum speed from the dropdown in the web interface. I have some high end Dahua PTZ cameras that can move 2 to 4 times faster, but they also cost 2 to 4 times as much and really for manual camera movements you don't want the camera to go too fast anyway.

Bob, have you been able to use the camera's presets from ispy or from Blue Iris?
 

BobW55

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
163
Reaction score
46
I have gotten Blue Iris to work pretty well, using any of the cameras that use port 34567. And yes presets work.
I am still trying to learn my way around BI. I have gotten Ispy to connect, but have not played with it much. I have 12 days left on BI to see of it will do what I want. I am more interested in pictures of the sky/weather than security. So I need still pictures and time lapse over video.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

bp2008

Staff member
Joined
Mar 10, 2014
Messages
12,666
Reaction score
14,005
Location
USA
As I recall, your goal (described in other threads) is to have the camera move to a bunch of preset positions, FTP upload a picture from each of them, and repeat this periodically. I'm still fairly sure you will need a custom script for this. The script will require two things. 1. The ability to save a snapshot from the video stream. 2. The ability to tell the camera to move to a preset position.

Blue Iris can provide the snapshots through its web interface. Can it also do the preset positions?
 

BobW55

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
163
Reaction score
46
Yes,
My ultimate goal is to be able to go to preset positions, take a still photo, FTP the photo, repeat about every 10 minutes or so.
I would also like to use one of the positions to build a time lapse.
I just need to read up on the BI help file some more.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

BobW55

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
163
Reaction score
46
I have found that when I use the supplied CMS software, some of the settings must be stored into the camera. I had problems with the PTZ controls in Blue Iris until I went back to CMS and set everything back to Default. Then BI would function. I have been able to take Snap Shots with and manual video with BI. I can not get BI to control the IR leds, but this may be due to my camera not being 100% supported. The PTZ controls in BI are slow, but I think this is a setting problem that I have yet to uncover.
BI will allow me to set presets, and tours and follow them. I think I am also suffering from a low power situation that I am going to correct today.
 

fenderman

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
36,897
Reaction score
21,250
I have found that when I use the supplied CMS software, some of the settings must be stored into the camera. I had problems with the PTZ controls in Blue Iris until I went back to CMS and set everything back to Default. Then BI would function. I have been able to take Snap Shots with and manual video with BI. I can not get BI to control the IR leds, but this may be due to my camera not being 100% supported. The PTZ controls in BI are slow, but I think this is a setting problem that I have yet to uncover.
BI will allow me to set presets, and tours and follow them. I think I am also suffering from a low power situation that I am going to correct today.
Keep in mind that blue iris doesn't set any presets in the camera, it simply tells the camera to go to a preset that has been previously designated in the camera itself..
 

fenderman

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
36,897
Reaction score
21,250
Blue Iris can set presets. I believe you just long-press the preset button.
Are you sure? What cameras are supported? According to the help file
"Many network cameras allow you to create PTZ preset positions--select an exact coordinate and zoom setting by name or number. You should first use the network camera's web interface directly to create the presets and/or set them to the desired PTZ positions."
 

bp2008

Staff member
Joined
Mar 10, 2014
Messages
12,666
Reaction score
14,005
Location
USA
Hikvision and Dahua PTZs are supported, at least. I have not tried others.

Much of BI's help file is a bit out of date.
 

BobW55

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
163
Reaction score
46
Pre set positions are easy.
Move the camera where you want, click and hold The pre set number 1-5.
Shift adds 5 to each number, and control adds 10.
If my memory is correct.
 

fenderman

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
36,897
Reaction score
21,250
Pre set positions are easy.
Move the camera where you want, click and hold The pre set number 1-5.
Shift adds 5 to each number, and control adds 10.
If my memory is correct.
This would only work on a supported camera, because blue iris would actually have to change the preset in the camera itself, blue iris does not know the position of the camera at any given moment...
 

BobW55

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
163
Reaction score
46
WOW, interesting to know. Would explain why I had problems when I went from CMS to Blue Iris.
Really leads me to believe I can get some scripts and Blue Iris to do what I want, using some scripts.
Would not having enough processing power also be why I see so much lag? Although my computer is running Win 7 Pro (64bit) the processor is 3 years old and I think only dual core.
 

fenderman

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
36,897
Reaction score
21,250
WOW, interesting to know. Would explain why I had problems when I went from CMS to Blue Iris.
Really leads me to believe I can get some scripts and Blue Iris to do what I want, using some scripts.
Would not having enough processing power also be why I see so much lag? Although my computer is running Win 7 Pro (64bit) the processor is 3 years old and I think only dual core.
I dont really use ptz, so i cannot comment on the lag...is your processor maxing out?
Make sure you are using direct to disc recording...
 

BobW55

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
163
Reaction score
46
Not using any recording. Still trying to decide if this is where I want the camera mounted. Still trying to find my way around BI.
When I used the CMS software, at H264 resolution things were really sluggish, If I dropped it down 1 notch in resolution things were almost instantaneous in all modes of PTZ
 
Last edited by a moderator:

BobW55

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
163
Reaction score
46
Oh yeah, Using it on my laptop right now, Better on my desktop, but still lags.
 

BobW55

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
163
Reaction score
46
Did a small experiment, Using XMEye on my android phone, Controls are nice and smooth, but it also uses less resolution I think.
On my desk top, Press a pan or tilt button, it is several seconds before you see the change on the screen, even though the camera is physically moving.
Leads me to believe I just don't have enough of a CPU to handle the high end graphics.
 

fenderman

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
36,897
Reaction score
21,250
Did a small experiment, Using XMEye on my android phone, Controls are nice and smooth, but it also uses less resolution I think.
On my desk top, Press a pan or tilt button, it is several seconds before you see the change on the screen, even though the camera is physically moving.
Leads me to believe I just don't have enough of a CPU to handle the high end graphics.
You dont have to guess, simply look at your cpu usage....Is it pegging at 100?
If you know the url for the substream, you can pull the substream via blue iris ....
Also, even if you are not recording change the recording settings to direct to disk it may help (because depending on your settings it may be encoding pretrigger frames)..see if that helps..you can also reduce the frame rate to 10 and see if it helps..
 
Top