No the camera setting...it happened to all 5 cameras I bought(empiretech)...it's a serious bug
T54IR-ZE-S3 Proper way to set auto IR for inside use? Day/night Switch, Customized Scene, BI PTZ presets day/night
- Thread starter chileaquiles
- Start date
No the camera setting...it happened to all 5 cameras I bought(empiretech)...it's a serious bug
guykuo
Getting comfortable
Is it not storing the new settings or rather the camera's (normal) behavior of always switching from profile being adjusted back to the profile that was set as the active profile.
Remember, selecting a profile and making adjustments to its settings does so with the profile being edited temporarily activated during adjustments. Once you leave the web GUI adjustments page, the active profile takes back over.
The active profile is the one that is current scheduled.
BTW: If you use day/night utility with the new Web GUI, you also must perform the work around dance of selecting "self-adaptive" profile in the GUI before leaving the page. Doing so, enables the API calls that day/night uses to set profile. Otherwise, the commands from day/night utility are ignored. The camera will be in the wrong mode, but be responsive to day/night commands. Finally let day/night to activate the desired day or night profile.
Remember, selecting a profile and making adjustments to its settings does so with the profile being edited temporarily activated during adjustments. Once you leave the web GUI adjustments page, the active profile takes back over.
The active profile is the one that is current scheduled.
BTW: If you use day/night utility with the new Web GUI, you also must perform the work around dance of selecting "self-adaptive" profile in the GUI before leaving the page. Doing so, enables the API calls that day/night uses to set profile. Otherwise, the commands from day/night utility are ignored. The camera will be in the wrong mode, but be responsive to day/night commands. Finally let day/night to activate the desired day or night profile.
Björn0815
Young grasshopper
Thanks for the advice, I checked the settings but its already on 24h
Where is that utility ? I don't think I use that. I use the camera over Blue Iris so not with an specific NVR maybe that's also an imported information ? As far as I know, I don't work with API's in my case either, I think.
Attachments
guykuo
Getting comfortable
Björn0815, you are not using it. It is an app that can be downloaded, but you can also let BlueIris send the CGI commands. See here...https://ipcamtalk.com/threads/dahua-day-night-switch-utility-dahuasunrisesunset.18205/
Be aware, the timed schedule stuff is suited for outdoor usage, where there are a distinct day and night lighting conditions that start and end at sunrise / sunset. Your installation is inside a garage. There the lighting is completely unpredictable and subject to people turning room lights on/off. You can't match that with a timed schedule to change profiles. Therefore you are limited to using a single profile and letting the camera switch between color & b/w on its own within that one profile. Because it will be a single profile, it will be challenging to get exposure values optimized for both lights on / lights off conditions.
I would do all your settings under the self-adaptive mode's profile. That will automatically lock your camera into using that single, self-adaptive profile and you don't need to bother with day/night profiles. Those simply don't apply well in your indoor situation.
Be aware, the timed schedule stuff is suited for outdoor usage, where there are a distinct day and night lighting conditions that start and end at sunrise / sunset. Your installation is inside a garage. There the lighting is completely unpredictable and subject to people turning room lights on/off. You can't match that with a timed schedule to change profiles. Therefore you are limited to using a single profile and letting the camera switch between color & b/w on its own within that one profile. Because it will be a single profile, it will be challenging to get exposure values optimized for both lights on / lights off conditions.
I would do all your settings under the self-adaptive mode's profile. That will automatically lock your camera into using that single, self-adaptive profile and you don't need to bother with day/night profiles. Those simply don't apply well in your indoor situation.
Björn0815
Young grasshopper
ok thanks for these further hints, I will use the self-adaptive mode for this camera.
The actual problem with the manual exposure times and switching to black and white still exists here of course, but then I'll probably have to accept that the camera has to stay in automatic mode (where the change between black and white and color works properly) which will lead to poor still images again like in this example image
The actual problem with the manual exposure times and switching to black and white still exists here of course, but then I'll probably have to accept that the camera has to stay in automatic mode (where the change between black and white and color works properly) which will lead to poor still images again like in this example image
Attachments
guykuo
Getting comfortable
Yes, I'm afraid that is a limitation with how Dahua implements its profile system within the camera. It doesn't change profiles based on what the camera sees or senses. It is a real pity they won't program them to work that way.
If one was seriously in need of Dahuas changing profiles in an indoor environment with artificial llights turning on and off, an external sensor and controller solution would work. A light sensor connected to a mini-controller could send day and night profile change CGI commands to the camera. That would be a trivial project for an arduino or pi enthusiast.
Another solution is possible if you have a home automation system and smart light switches. The light switch could signal your home automation control computer that lights are turned on/off. Your home automation program could then send the appropriate CGI commands to the camera. Hmnnn..... I'm have to give that a try on my system Indigo / Insteon system here for my garage camera.
If one was seriously in need of Dahuas changing profiles in an indoor environment with artificial llights turning on and off, an external sensor and controller solution would work. A light sensor connected to a mini-controller could send day and night profile change CGI commands to the camera. That would be a trivial project for an arduino or pi enthusiast.
Another solution is possible if you have a home automation system and smart light switches. The light switch could signal your home automation control computer that lights are turned on/off. Your home automation program could then send the appropriate CGI commands to the camera. Hmnnn..... I'm have to give that a try on my system Indigo / Insteon system here for my garage camera.
guykuo
Getting comfortable
Woohoo! It worked. Having my Indigo Domotics home automation program trigger on garage light changing on/off state. When Indigo sees that light turn on or off, it now runs appropriate Python to send profile change CGI command garage camera. I had not thought much about fixing this until now.
Probably need to also set both day and night profile to automatically change color mode or have wide enough exposure latitude for because garage door can open or sunlight come in window during day. For those reasons, this is a partial solution.
Probably need to also set both day and night profile to automatically change color mode or have wide enough exposure latitude for because garage door can open or sunlight come in window during day. For those reasons, this is a partial solution.
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Any indoor camera you do recommend that wouldn't run into the issue Bjorn explained above? I would just move these to go outside.
Hello, I would like to join this thread. I also have the IPC-T54IR-ZE-S3
My question is, what would be useful parameters for day and night (except for the moon, no or very few other light sources) in order to always obtain sharp images of movement?
Currently, I have the “working mode” set to “customized scene” with a schedule, as the ‘mode’ is grayed out for “day/night switch.”
I would actually prefer it if the camera switched itself based on the lighting conditions.
Should the shutter be set to a fixed value (e.g., 1/100), or should a range in ms be specified for custom?
During the day in strong sunlight, 1/100 is very long. Can the camera compensate for this with the aperture (there is no auto ND filter)?
Or is it better to enter a range (e.g., 1/100 - 1/10000) so that the camera can select the appropriate setting? (0.5 - 8ms)?
How have you set your cameras to always get the best possible image?
Thanks!
My question is, what would be useful parameters for day and night (except for the moon, no or very few other light sources) in order to always obtain sharp images of movement?
Currently, I have the “working mode” set to “customized scene” with a schedule, as the ‘mode’ is grayed out for “day/night switch.”
I would actually prefer it if the camera switched itself based on the lighting conditions.
Should the shutter be set to a fixed value (e.g., 1/100), or should a range in ms be specified for custom?
During the day in strong sunlight, 1/100 is very long. Can the camera compensate for this with the aperture (there is no auto ND filter)?
Or is it better to enter a range (e.g., 1/100 - 1/10000) so that the camera can select the appropriate setting? (0.5 - 8ms)?
How have you set your cameras to always get the best possible image?
Thanks!
To the second part of your question:
I typically run a range of say 0-3ms during the day. This allows the camera to adjust somewhat to sun/cloudy conditions
I typically run a range of say 0-3ms during the day. This allows the camera to adjust somewhat to sun/cloudy conditions
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Ok, so thats "as short as possible" so 1/333 as longest - right?
and what do u use for night conditions?
Is there a reason (or bug) for greyed-out ‘mode’ for “day/night switch.” ? Do you also use the “customized scene”?
and what do u use for night conditions?
Is there a reason (or bug) for greyed-out ‘mode’ for “day/night switch.” ? Do you also use the “customized scene”?
You do not want to use 1/333 shutter LOL
The greyed out mode is dependent on which mode you are using.
In terms of getting the most out of the camera, here is my "standard" post that many use as a start for dialing in day and night that helps get the clean captures and help the camera recognize people and cars.
Start with:
H264
8192 bitrate
CBR
15FPS (or 30FPS if using Dahua branded NVR)
15 iframes
Every field of view is different, but I have found you need contrast to usually be 6-8 higher than the brightness number at night.
We want the ability to freeze frame capture a clean image from the video at night, and that is only done with a shutter of 1/60 or faster. At night, default/auto may be on 1/12s shutter or worse to make the image bright.
In my opinion, shutter (exposure) and gain are the two most important parameters and then base the others off of it. Shutter is more important than FPS. It is the shutter speed that prevents motion blur, not FPS. 15 FPS is more than enough for surveillance cameras as we are not producing Hollywood movies. Match iframes to FPS. 15FPS is all that is usually needed.
Many people do not realize there is manual shutter that lets you adjust shutter and gain and a shutter priority that only lets you adjust shutter speed but not gain. The higher the gain, the bigger the noise and see-through ghosting start to appear because the noise is amplified. Most people select shutter priority and run a faster shutter than they should because it is likely being done at 100 gain, so it is actually defeating their purpose of a faster shutter.
Go into shutter settings and change to manual shutter and start with custom shutter as ms and change to 0-8.3ms and gain 0-50 (night) and 0-4ms exposure and 0-30 gain (day)for starters. Auto could have a shutter speed of 100ms or more with a gain at 100 and shutter priority could result in gain up at 100 which will contribute to significant ghosting and that blinding white you will get from the infrared or white light.
Now what you will notice immediately at night is that your image gets A LOT darker. That faster the shutter, the more light that is needed. But it is a balance. The nice bright night static image results in Casper blur and ghost during motion LOL. What do we want, a nice static image or a clean image when there is motion introduced to the scene?
In the daytime, if it is still too bright, then drop the 4ms down to 3ms then 2ms, etc. You have to play with it for your field of view.
Then at night, if it is too dark, then start adding ms to the time. Go to 10ms, 12ms, etc. until you find what you feel is acceptable as an image. Then have someone walk around and see if you can get a clean shot. Try not to go above 16.67ms (but certainly not above 30ms) as that tends to be the point where blur starts to occur. Conversely, if it is still bright, then drop down in time to get a faster shutter.
You can also adjust brightness and contrast to improve the image. But try not to go above 70 for anything and try to have contrast be at least 7-10 digits higher than brightness.
You can also add some gain to brighten the image - but the higher the gain, the more ghosting you get. Some cameras can go to 70 or so before it is an issue and some can't go over 50.
But adjusting those two settings will have the biggest impact. The next one is noise reduction. Want to keep that as low as possible. Depending on the amount of light you have, you might be able to get down to 40 or so at night (again camera dependent) and 20-30 during the day, but take it as low as you can before it gets too noisy. Again this one is a balance as well. Too smooth and no noise can result in soft images and contribute to blur.
Do not use backlight features until you have exhausted every other parameter setting. And if you do have to use backlight, take it down as low as possible.
After every setting adjustment, have someone walk around outside and see if you can freeze-frame to get a clean image. If not, keep changing until you do. Clean motion pictures are what we are after, not a clean static image.
The greyed out mode is dependent on which mode you are using.
In terms of getting the most out of the camera, here is my "standard" post that many use as a start for dialing in day and night that helps get the clean captures and help the camera recognize people and cars.
Start with:
H264
8192 bitrate
CBR
15FPS (or 30FPS if using Dahua branded NVR)
15 iframes
Every field of view is different, but I have found you need contrast to usually be 6-8 higher than the brightness number at night.
We want the ability to freeze frame capture a clean image from the video at night, and that is only done with a shutter of 1/60 or faster. At night, default/auto may be on 1/12s shutter or worse to make the image bright.
In my opinion, shutter (exposure) and gain are the two most important parameters and then base the others off of it. Shutter is more important than FPS. It is the shutter speed that prevents motion blur, not FPS. 15 FPS is more than enough for surveillance cameras as we are not producing Hollywood movies. Match iframes to FPS. 15FPS is all that is usually needed.
Many people do not realize there is manual shutter that lets you adjust shutter and gain and a shutter priority that only lets you adjust shutter speed but not gain. The higher the gain, the bigger the noise and see-through ghosting start to appear because the noise is amplified. Most people select shutter priority and run a faster shutter than they should because it is likely being done at 100 gain, so it is actually defeating their purpose of a faster shutter.
Go into shutter settings and change to manual shutter and start with custom shutter as ms and change to 0-8.3ms and gain 0-50 (night) and 0-4ms exposure and 0-30 gain (day)for starters. Auto could have a shutter speed of 100ms or more with a gain at 100 and shutter priority could result in gain up at 100 which will contribute to significant ghosting and that blinding white you will get from the infrared or white light.
Now what you will notice immediately at night is that your image gets A LOT darker. That faster the shutter, the more light that is needed. But it is a balance. The nice bright night static image results in Casper blur and ghost during motion LOL. What do we want, a nice static image or a clean image when there is motion introduced to the scene?
In the daytime, if it is still too bright, then drop the 4ms down to 3ms then 2ms, etc. You have to play with it for your field of view.
Then at night, if it is too dark, then start adding ms to the time. Go to 10ms, 12ms, etc. until you find what you feel is acceptable as an image. Then have someone walk around and see if you can get a clean shot. Try not to go above 16.67ms (but certainly not above 30ms) as that tends to be the point where blur starts to occur. Conversely, if it is still bright, then drop down in time to get a faster shutter.
You can also adjust brightness and contrast to improve the image. But try not to go above 70 for anything and try to have contrast be at least 7-10 digits higher than brightness.
You can also add some gain to brighten the image - but the higher the gain, the more ghosting you get. Some cameras can go to 70 or so before it is an issue and some can't go over 50.
But adjusting those two settings will have the biggest impact. The next one is noise reduction. Want to keep that as low as possible. Depending on the amount of light you have, you might be able to get down to 40 or so at night (again camera dependent) and 20-30 during the day, but take it as low as you can before it gets too noisy. Again this one is a balance as well. Too smooth and no noise can result in soft images and contribute to blur.
Do not use backlight features until you have exhausted every other parameter setting. And if you do have to use backlight, take it down as low as possible.
After every setting adjustment, have someone walk around outside and see if you can freeze-frame to get a clean image. If not, keep changing until you do. Clean motion pictures are what we are after, not a clean static image.
I use customized scene. Set the approx sunset/sunrise times in the 12 month schedule. Complete control over day/night profiles.
On some I force it to Color or B&W based on the scene. On others I set day/night tab under conditions to be in “Auto”. This way if say a floodlight is activated at night, the camera can switch to color based on its internal light sensor.
At night its much more scene dependent as well as how fast your targets are moving. Faster moving needs faster shutter.
Most of my nighttime settings are in the 1-6 or 1-8ms range in IR.
Some specific cams I run in fixed 1/120 where I have good light
View attachment SneakAttack-192.168.1.110_ch4_20250208185801_20250208185901.mp4
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sorry, I got confused with the ms and shutter speed notation , I got used to from photography.
Thank you very much for the valuable information!
It is important to use completely manual settings so that the camera does not use a faster shutter speed than necessary, as in shutter priority mode, and thus a higher ISO than necessary.
The shortest time is set to something around 6 (1/167s), 8 (1/125 s), 10, or 12 ms. (1/83s).
If you want to observe flowing traffic, you will of course need to go even shorter.
If, for example, you also have a motion detector floodlight at the entrance to your house, you can set day/night to auto in order to also have color images, but in case of a fallback (if the LED spotlight does not work), you will at least have a good black and white image.
PS: I'm not used to shutter speeds being given in milliseconds (ms) at all. It confuses me.
What's more, it's not treated consistently in the camera configuration either, with different settings sometimes requiring ms and sometimes 1/x values.
Shutter is 1/x in the selection list, but ms in custom mode.
Is there any reason for this? Except that it's easier to work with numbers when you can specify a value range in ms. But converting it in my head is a big “stopper.”
What's more, it's not treated consistently in the camera configuration either, with different settings sometimes requiring ms and sometimes 1/x values.
Shutter is 1/x in the selection list, but ms in custom mode.
Is there any reason for this? Except that it's easier to work with numbers when you can specify a value range in ms. But converting it in my head is a big “stopper.”
Guess that Dahua had too many digital cooks in the kitchen and no one could agree on a 'standard'. Thus we have cameras that use both in different places. Confusing, yes!!!
You have most likely already done this but just in case here is what I do for ms to shutter speed conversion.
Divide 1000 by ms then make it a fraction with a 1 for the numerator (top number).
Example 1000/50ms = 20 Change to a fraction 1/20. Shutter speed is one twentieth of a second. 1000/4ms = 250 Thus 1/250 of a second.
You have most likely already done this but just in case here is what I do for ms to shutter speed conversion.
Divide 1000 by ms then make it a fraction with a 1 for the numerator (top number).
Example 1000/50ms = 20 Change to a fraction 1/20. Shutter speed is one twentieth of a second. 1000/4ms = 250 Thus 1/250 of a second.
Confusing at first but essentially they use ms to specify a range (0-6ms or 2-7ms) to allow for changing light conditions.
They use the more common to photogs 1/x to specify a fixed speed
Fixed 1/120 can also be expressed 833ms-8.33ms
Is there any way to display the current parameters? For example, as POI/variable?.... In particular, the shutter speed used, but also noise reduction, aperture,...
Check the API to see if there are any GET statements that will display the needed info.
As an example, for a PTZ, the following can be used to display 'status' of certain camera parameters. This most likely will not apply to other non PTZ Dahua cams.
status.AbsPosition[0]=16556
status.AbsPosition[1]=300
status.AbsPosition[2]=1340
status.Action=Unknown
status.ActionID=0
status.Focus.FocusPosition=1922.336722
status.Focus.Status=Idle
status.FocusMapValue=10825
status.Iris.IrisValue=7.000000
status.Iris.Status=Idle
status.MoveStatus=Idle
status.PanTiltStatus=Idle
status.Postion[0]=165.560000
status.Postion[1]=3.000000
status.Postion[2]=68.608000
status.PresetID=0
status.TaskName=Unknown
status.TrackStatus=Idle
status.ZoomMapValue=14471
status.ZoomStatus=Idle
status.ZoomValue=1090
As an example, for a PTZ, the following can be used to display 'status' of certain camera parameters. This most likely will not apply to other non PTZ Dahua cams.
Code:
http://admin:[email protected]/cgi-bin/ptz.cgi?action=getStatus&channel=1status.AbsPosition[0]=16556
status.AbsPosition[1]=300
status.AbsPosition[2]=1340
status.Action=Unknown
status.ActionID=0
status.Focus.FocusPosition=1922.336722
status.Focus.Status=Idle
status.FocusMapValue=10825
status.Iris.IrisValue=7.000000
status.Iris.Status=Idle
status.MoveStatus=Idle
status.PanTiltStatus=Idle
status.Postion[0]=165.560000
status.Postion[1]=3.000000
status.Postion[2]=68.608000
status.PresetID=0
status.TaskName=Unknown
status.TrackStatus=Idle
status.ZoomMapValue=14471
status.ZoomStatus=Idle
status.ZoomValue=1090
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I found these values at this URL, but I'm not sure if they are the current values or values stored for the configuration.
/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=getConfig&name=VideoInOptions
So normal.options, night.options, etc. are of course the profile values.
But 0 can't be right. It's a bit sunny here at the moment...