What would cause video brightness to change constantly?

[EvanVanVan]

As you can see in the attach video, the brightness constantly goes darker and then at some point lightens up again.

Could this be a firmware issue? The camera is a IPC-T5442TM-AS-6mm with a very old wildlife detecting firmware (DH_IPC-HX4XXX Volt_MultiLang_PN_Stream3_V2.800.0000000.8.R.190902.bin ).

Thanks

View attachment appletree2.20230814_050000_1.mp4

 

[gwminor48]

Is there another camera in the distance? I see light of some sort through the trees.

 

[IAmATeaf]

Is the cam set to auto or have you configured it for day and night settings?

 

[EvanVanVan]

Is there another camera in the distance? I see light of some sort through the trees.

Yeah there are a couple of other cameras (including a PTZ you can see swing) and IR floodlight. I guess it could be auto adjusting the brightness to the IR light swinging into view from the PTZ...

Is the cam set to auto or have you configured it for day and night settings?

I have configured it manually with day/night settings, but I'll double check them this evening. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[garycrist]

Like @IAmATeaf asked, do you have the scheduler set to day/night?

 

[EvanVanVan]

Day/night profiles are set up correctly (and configured with PTZ calls). Manual/customized range shutter speed, etc.

I forgot (it's been year since configuring this camera) is that the internal IR is actaully turned off completely. In the beginning of the video when it's bright, that's entirely off the external IR floodlight (that's located at an angle next to a different camera). I'm not sure how that relates, but I dont think it can't be an IR issue. I'll play around with it further tonight...

 

[wittaj]

Do you have backlight on like wdr?

 

[EvanVanVan]

Do you have backlight on like wdr?

No, I just checked, it's off both Day and Night profiles.

ty

 

[Mike A.]

Do you see any similar change from other cams looking that way?

 

[EvanVanVan]

Do you see any similar change from other cams looking that way?

No, but I actually just figured something out...

It must be related to when the camera triggers. It occurs at the exact time of the alert (according to BI), and lasts the 30 seconds I have it set to "End trigger unless re-triggered." I didn't notice it at first because I have BI set to a 3 sec "Pre-trigger record time," so it doesn't occur right at the start of playing any of the alerts.

I'll troubleshoot it tonight...I also don't think it's a new issue, I'm just finally trying to track it down right now after it ruined some bear videos last night lol.

 

[wittaj]

Oh that is almost like BI is sending a trigger to increase shutter or turn down brightness?

What if you delete the camera and add back? Or do you have an SD card in the camera that you could disable the cam in BI and trigger the cam and see if it does it. If it doesn't then you know BI is sending something.

 

[EvanVanVan]

Oh that is almost like BI is sending a trigger to increase shutter or turn down brightness?

What if you delete the camera and add back? Or do you have an SD card in the camera that you could disable the cam in BI and trigger the cam and see if it does it. If it doesn't then you know BI is sending something.

I'll give that a shot... FWIW this is what the BI status window shows:



Althought the status window does seem to be missing a lot of alerts.. Unless the # shown is combining them?

 

[Mike A.]

Yes, does combine them there. You can open the file (at bottom) to see better.

 

[EvanVanVan]

Oh that is almost like BI is sending a trigger to increase shutter or turn down brightness?

What if you delete the camera and add back? Or do you have an SD card in the camera that you could disable the cam in BI and trigger the cam and see if it does it. If it doesn't then you know BI is sending something.

Fortuantely, (as usual) the issue appears to user error lol. After deleting the camera and adding it back the brightness issue disappeared. It returned after importing the original camera settings though. Now to just painstankingly reconfigure the camera one tab at a time until I track down the issue lol.

 

[EvanVanVan]

I figured out the problem in case anyone runs into the same thing in the future. It was in fact related to PTZ presets changing the Day/Night picture settings. Since the camera is also a PTZ spotter camera, moving the PTZ to Preset 1 when triggered, it also inadvertently set itself to [PTZ] Preset 1 (Day profile). Changing the Day profile to Preset 11 fixed the conflict and the issue.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.