So the firmware was updated by me around 3months back. The guy I had hired to do initial config spent 2 hours on it and wasn’t aware the firmware update for this particular NVR was on the Hik product page (neither was I until the supplier told me) and not on the portal. Upon him applying the one from the portal all the POE ports stopped working and the NVR appeared dead out the box. I will check the version I’ve got against the product page. This left me 2hours deep in labour and still didn’t have it working. He had 2 further hours on it once I’d done the update and got everything up and running myself.
Issues are largely around playback and vehicle detection.
Currently I have the NVR as mentioned. This running off a TP link Cat 6 router which is on the EE network. I’ve tested throughput on the router and packet loss. Even when running a packet loss test well beyond the level 4K a video would need, the loss rates are low. Furthermore I can use the WiFi from this router to stream full 4K video to a smart tv in another room without issue. The data speed are consistently above 25-30mbps both way, with a sub 30ms ping speed.
I’ll start with the ANPR. It’s a DS-2CD7A26G0/P-IZS-8-32MM and according to info posted on this site should be well capable of capturing and identifying plates on traffic doing above 100mph. In my case I’m not going ever have traffic passing that quick. But 80-90 isn’t unusual.
The camera will not detect above around 65-70 and will ping a ‘no plate’ email for traffic between roughly 55-65mph.
However, if footage is played manually by searching for it, the plate can always be read perfectly and car clear as day. This is a real jar off for me as I’ve always had issues with the 4K front facing camera not detecting passing cars at night. I was told an ANPR would be the only way to solve this issue.
The capture rates at lower speeds
Front facing cams are all 4K on the G2 platform; liveguard darkfighter, colurvu with audio record and liveguard colorvu.
All of them fail to detect fast traffic at night. And will often miss slower stuff. Have had several instances where for example the milkman backs on the drive. The footage in the notification will start with him already backed on the drive and out of his van.
All the cams are cracked up to run highest frame rate and video quality. I did also turn the bit rate right up on the liveguard colur by to try and get better video quality. The NVR should have enough capacity for near on 20kbps per channel. The playback of this cam however isn’t consistent. It will often playback fine when nothing is happening ing in the scene. But if a car comes by, you’ll hear it approach and just before it comes in to scene the footage will freeze and eventually display an error message. You can leave it it day and come back and try again and it’ll still not play. But other videos will play back fine on the cam immediately before and after trying the troublesome bit.
I tend to find the 4K darkfighter doesn’t give what I’d call a 4K image and isn’t anywhere near as good the Colorvu’s. A number plate in a notification from a colourvu will often be near on clear to read below 40mph. But just a blur on the Darkfighter.
The other real pain in backside is my PTZ. It’s a DS-2DE4A425IW-DE(S6). Now interestingly the one I’ve got was shipped from factory with smart tracking. It isn’t great however. It will often lose the target and the camera will spin around a few times and return to its preset. More often than not any notifications I get will, the footage will either freeze completely and show an error, or play one frame every 10-15secs.
