IPC-Color4K-X S2 - Motion Stutter Despite Extensive Troubleshooting

[lotwizard]

Hi Andy,
I'm hoping someone can help me determine whether this is a configuration issue or a hardware problem with my IPC-Color4K-X S2.

The issue is a subtle but noticeable motion stutter. It feels like the camera randomly drops frames or momentarily slows its frame cadence. The image quality itself is excellent—the problem is purely the smoothness of motion.

The important part is that I've confirmed the same behavior in:

Camera web interface
VLC
Blue Iris
OBS
So I don't believe this is an OBS or Blue Iris issue.

Things I've already tested:
Updated to latest S2 firmware
H.264 and H.265
CBR and VBR
4K, 1440p and 1080p
24 FPS and 30 FPS
Bitrates from 4 Mbps to 12 Mbps
50 Hz, 60 Hz and Outdoor anti-flicker
Manual exposure (0–4 ms shutter)
Smooth Stream settings
Disabled metadata tagging
Different Ethernet cable
Different PoE switch port
NVIDIA Studio driver
I also have two EmpireTech turret cameras on the same TP-Link TL-SG1005P PoE switch (65w with up to 30w per port), and those cameras are smooth.

The bullet camera is the only one exhibiting this motion behavior.

I have a short video demonstrating the issue if that would help.

I'm at my wits end, and I'm starting to believe I have a defective camera. A smooth 30fps is important to me because not only do I use these as survellance cams, but I stream online. (they are mounted all around my semi truck)

Best Regards,
Paddy
Homestead Express LLC

 

[tmxv4128]

Since you have checked drivers and cabling, the next thing I would check would be the software settings. Here is what I use:
H.264.H (works best with this camera)
Encoding: General
CBR (don't use VBR)
3840x2160 resolution
15 frames/sec.
15-iFrame
16384 Kb/s (although you could drop it to 12288 if 16384 is too high)
Smooth stream set at "50"
Audio AAC encoding
64000 sampling rate
exposure 0-4 (day) 0-8.33 (night)
gain 0-50
3D NR 30 (day) 39 (night)
2D NR 29 (day) 35 (night)

If these settings look ok, then you can increase the frame rate up to 30fps. Also, you said you are using the latest firmware. This is the newest update: DH_IPC-HX5(7)XXX-Meta-Taurus_MultiLang_PN_Stream3_V3.140.0000000.81.R.260508

 

[JDreaming]

Since you have checked drivers and cabling, the next thing I would check would be the software settings. Here is what I use:
H.264.H (works best with this camera)
Encoding: General
CBR (don't use VBR)
3840x2160 resolution
15 frames/sec.
15-iFrame
16384 Kb/s (although you could drop it to 12288 if 16384 is too high)
Smooth stream set at "50"
Audio AAC encoding
64000 sampling rate
exposure 0-4 (day) 0-8.33 (night)
gain 0-50
3D NR 30 (day) 39 (night)
2D NR 29 (day) 35 (night)

If these settings look ok, then you can increase the frame rate up to 30fps. Also, you said you are using the latest firmware. This is the newest update: DH_IPC-HX5(7)XXX-Meta-Taurus_MultiLang_PN_Stream3_V3.140.0000000.81.R.260508

Agree. using VBR plus too low of a Bitrates was probably the problem.

 

[Flintstone61]

When you say " motion"..is that Playing back a clip?
Is this happening in the "Live Console" on a PC?\
look up the serial number of the drive and see if it is a SMR drive or a CMR drive?
My Color 4K 180 turret can playback a little choppy once in awhile.
Try bringing it inside and plugging it in on a short cord.
and monitor the results.
if the problem persists in Playback of a Motion clip, then you know
What is your storage drive type? Western Digital, Hitachi, Seagate?
Is there free space on the drive? has the drive been excluded from Virus Scan?

 

[bigredfish]

Can you show a sample clip?

 

[lotwizard]

Thanks everyone.

I've tried all of the variables y'all suggested.

One important thing I probably didn't make clear is that this is not just a playback issue.

The same motion stutter is visible in:

• the camera's own web interface,
• VLC using the RTSP stream,
• Blue Iris live view,
• OBS.
• Recorded direct to disk produces the same result (compute isn't the issue as the results are produced on camera's interface BEFORE hardware decoding etc etc, - ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 Laptop, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop, Intel CPU in case you're curious)

I've also tested:

• H.264, H.265, H.264H, and B
• CBR and VBR (I know to keep this on CBR, just trying to turn over EVERY stone)
• 1080p, 1440p, and 4K
• multiple bitrates from 2k all the way up to 16k
• firmware updated
• different Ethernet cables
• different PoE switch ports
• another EmpireTech turret camera on the same switch that is noticeably smoother.
• multiple web browsers
• different "receive" buffer sizes

Since the camera's own web interface exhibits the same motion stutter, I'm beginning to suspect either a camera-specific issue or a setting I've overlooked.
I've attached a short iPhone (4K/60 FPS) video of the camera's web interface showing the issue.
My goal is a dual-purpose system for surveillance and YouTube livestreaming, so smooth, natural motion is important. As far as I know, there really isn't another PoE camera at this price point that offers this level of image quality, so I'm hoping to get this one dialed in. For comparison, my two EmpireTech IPC-T54IR-AS-S3 turret cameras on the same system do not exhibit this motion stutter.
Thanks again to everyone who's taken the time to help. As a newcomer here, I'm genuinely impressed by how knowledgeable and welcoming this community has been.

 

[Flintstone61]

Nothing wrong with that video for security purposes, You can live stream at 14-16 fps. 30fps 24/7 will have some minor issues because the Laptop processor variants of the Same desktop part #'s are tuned to save energy and will vary in speed when system isnt busy or Windows thinks its idle
has anyone thought about a giant idling Diesel reverberating thru the whole cab making the shakey video? just sayin.