Upgrading cctv cameras

DrPhilG

listermint wrote: »

In terms of image quality. I'm unimpressed with what you posted above , it may be a case of playing around with Image resolution for each camera. But that image is much worse than my Amazon system that i bought 2 years ago on a deal.

Likewise. It seems worse than my 4 year old lower spec system.

I understand reducing the resolution for remote viewing, but those images are just for the camera plugged into the nvr and the nvr connected to the TV via hdmi.

DrPhilG

listermint wrote: »

Why wouldnt you record at full resolution. You are not keeping the footage it gets overwritten. Surely you would want the highest quality image stored. for playback ???

That was my thinking.

Unless I can get a much higher quality image than that, I'll be sending the whole lot back.

alta stare

listermint wrote: »

Why wouldnt you record at full resolution. You are not keeping the footage it gets overwritten. Surely you would want the highest quality image stored. for playback ???

Well it depends on how many days you want stored. For some people just having a few days is not enough and lowering the res would give you more days. Of course you could go out and buy another hard drive. Its down to personal preference i guess. In my experience i see people prefer to drop the res just a bit instead of buying another HD. The picture isnt going to change a whole load.

alta stare

DrPhilG wrote: »

That was my thinking.

Unless I can get a much higher quality image than that, I'll be sending the whole lot back.

What system did you buy?

DrPhilG

alta stare wrote: »

What system did you buy?

https://www.freetv.ie/ip-cctv-systems/

alta stare

DrPhilG wrote: »

https://www.freetv.ie/ip-cctv-systems/

To be fair that is a good system. As iv said before iv installed that HiWatch gear and not had a single problem with it.

Are the tv/hdmi cable/cat 5/6 cables all good quality?

Is it only at night that you find the picture isnt what you expected? Have you tried swapping out cameras?

DrPhilG

alta stare wrote: »

To be fair that is a good system. As iv said before iv installed that HiWatch gear and not had a single problem with it.

Are the tv/hdmi cable/cat 5/6 cables all good quality?

Is it only at night that you find the picture isnt what you expected? Have you tried swapping out cameras?

I did some side by side comparisons today, plugged the new cameras and nvr into the same monitor I use for the others and took some footage from the same camera position. Same FPS and resolution settings. The new cameras are the same quality or maybe a little worse than the old ones. Far from what I'd expect from a 4mp camera.

I'll do the same tonight for night settings and I'll upload the comparison shots in a while.

alta stare

DrPhilG wrote: »

I did some side by side comparisons today, plugged the new cameras and nvr into the same monitor I use for the others and took some footage from the same camera position. Same FPS and resolution settings. The new cameras are the same quality or maybe a little worse than the old ones. Far from what I'd expect from a 4mp camera.

I'll do the same tonight for night settings and I'll upload the comparison shots in a while.

I got the 2.8mm 4mp cameras recently enough for someone from that site and i have to say there is nothing wrong with the ones i got.

DrPhilG

alta stare wrote: »

I got the 2.8mm 4mp cameras recently enough for someone from that site and i have to say there is nothing wrong with the ones i got.

I'm not saying there is anything particularly wrong with them as such, but they are of a similar or slightly poorer quality than a 4-5 year old Qvis so certainly not worth the money.

alta stare

DrPhilG wrote: »

I'm not saying there is anything particularly wrong with them as such, but they are of a similar or slightly poorer quality than a 4-5 year old Qvis so certainly not worth the money.

As i said i installed some recently and had no issues. I dont know if you have other issues with your set up as i aint there to give it a professional going over. I think there is something in line on your system other than the cameras which are giving you an issue unless of course you have been unlucky and got a problematic batch. Iv seen one or two HIKvision turbos with image issues but not IP.

Have you logged into the camera itself with its ip and set the image to its highest setting? Not through the NVR but the camera itself?

DrPhilG

alta stare wrote: »

I think there is something in line on your system other than the cameras which are giving you an issue.

It isn't connected to my system. I just literally plugged 2 cameras into the nvr and the nvr into a monitor.

alta stare wrote: »

Have you logged into the camera itself with its ip and set the image to its highest setting? Not through the NVR but the camera itself?

No. Don't know how to. And I don't have the time to experiment more with it at the minute. I've emailed the company to return the kit. It's either faulty or just crap. I'll spend a bit more and get something that is an actual improvement in what I have.

alta stare

DrPhilG wrote: »

It isn't connected to my system. I just literally plugged 2 cameras into the nvr and the nvr into a monitor.




No. Don't know how to. And I don't have the time to experiment more with it at the minute. I've emailed the company to return the kit. It's either faulty or just crap. I'll spend a bit more and get something that is an actual improvement in what I have.

That is a pity. I know for sure that those systems are not crap so im surprised you are having issues with it. I understand and dont blame you for not being happy if it isnt what you thought you were getting. I still do think though it is some setting or hardware/cable which is causing your image issue.

DrPhilG

These are comparison shots. Similar position, same settings for FPS, resolution (although the new camera should be slightly higher).





No noticeable improvement at all.

DrPhilG

alta stare wrote: »

That is a pity. I know for sure that those systems are not crap so im surprised you are having issues with it. I understand and dont blame you for not being happy if it isnt what you thought you were getting. I still do think though it is some setting or hardware/cable which is causing your image issue.

Like I say, I wouldn't call it crap. But it's not very good either. If I was getting this as a first install I'd probably think it was quite good. But if I'm upgrading from a 4 year old system, with an inferior (Qvis) 3mp camera to a top brand (Hikvision) 4mp camera, I would expect a noticeable improvement and there isn't one.

alta stare

DrPhilG wrote: »

Like I say, I wouldn't call it crap. But it's not very good either. If I was getting this as a first install I'd probably think it was quite good. But if I'm upgrading from a 4 year old system, with an inferior (Qvis) 3mp camera to a top brand (Hikvision) 4mp camera, I would expect a noticeable improvement and there isn't one.

I have to disagree with you. I work in the security industry so i have come across and installed loads of cctv systems and that HiWatch range is good stuff for the money. Again as iv said i have installed it myself when doing work for family etc and i have never had an issue. If there was any problem around quality i would never install it as that isnt how id work.

Log into the cameras first and see what the image quality is set at. Have you a poe switch?

DrPhilG

alta stare wrote: »

I have to disagree with you. I work in the security industry so i have come across and installed loads of cctv systems and that HiWatch range is good stuff for the money. Again as iv said i have installed it myself when doing work for family etc and i have never had an issue. If there was any problem around quality i would never install it as that isnt how id work.

As I've said, I'm not saying that it is bad quality. Nor am I saying it's bad value.

What I am saying is that it is no better than my old system. So I'm getting rid of it. I don't have time to troubleshoot this further, nor should I have to on a "plug and play" kit.

Incidentally, I may not have said it was poor quality, but www.use-ip.co.uk (one of the UK's main cctv sites/forums) kinda have said that.

Use-IP wrote:

Although we have been Hikvision partners for 5 years or so at use-IP, we opted NOT to offer HiWatch/HiLook.

Basically, because the cameras etc. are dumbed-down to hit a price level (literally old/earlier tech) and we didn't think it was what our customers wanted.

That statement would fit in with what I've found, that the cameras are fine, but they are no better than the older tech that I already have.

alta stare

DrPhilG wrote: »

As I've said, I'm not saying that it is bad quality. Nor am I saying it's bad value.

What I am saying is that it is no better than my old system. So I'm getting rid of it. I don't have time to troubleshoot this further, nor should I have to on a "plug and play" kit.

Incidentally, I may not have said it was poor quality, but www.use-ip.co.uk (one of the UK's main cctv sites/forums) kinda have said that.



That statement would fit in with what I've found, that the cameras are fine, but they are no better than the older tech that I already have.

Ah yeah sure look if you arent happy send it back. If i can get a screenshot of the HiWatch system i put in a couple of months ago ill post it here for you and you can see how clear the image is day and night. Im sure you will have your own sorted by the time i get to take a shot of it either way I'll post it just for pig iron.

DrPhilG

OK I'll eat humble pie if needed.

I've spent the last 45 minutes testing out the cameras again and there may be hope.

They seem to be a very different setting with regards to the might vision. On the old cameras I checked the view across the back yard and it was pitch black apart from the car number plate.



On the new camera it was grainy, but it showed an actual night vision view of the yard.



When the security light went on it was actually much more clear and gave a pretty good image of me approaching.

DrPhilG

Sheer beauty captured on film...

uck51js9zml2yt

DrPhilG wrote: »

Sheer beauty captured on film...

Why have you no shoes on ?:)

Lucifer

Just something to consider on the last comparison, the old camera is not in night mode as there is colour in the picture so it doesn't have infrared on. It is pointed too close to the building also as the bright wall makes the rest of the image darker as the camera adjusts. Point it further out and make sure it goes into night mode.

alta stare

Do you have a poe network switch handy?

DrPhilG

alta stare wrote: »

Do you have a poe network switch handy?

Given that I haven't a bloody clue what that is, I don't think so.

uck51js9zml2yt

DrPhilG wrote: »

Given that I haven't a bloody clue what that is, I don't think so.

Here you go https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_over_Ethernet

DrPhilG

Lucifer wrote: »

Just something to consider on the last comparison, the old camera is not in night mode as there is colour in the picture so it doesn't have infrared on

I don't actually think that's colour, it looked plain white/grey on the monitor, I think that's just how the camera on the phone picked it up.

I'll rotate it tonight anyway and try to pull it away from the house a bit.

This is an image taken just now from the app from the early hours:

DrPhilG

Chloe Fierce Fleece wrote: »

Here you go https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_over_Ethernet

Sorry, I know what poe is, but I don't know what a poe network switch is. I can find out, but what mean is, if I had one I'd know, lol.

alta stare

DrPhilG wrote: »

Given that I haven't a bloody clue what that is, I don't think so.

Ok no panic. If you have a laptop and network cable connect them to the recorder via on of the network ports. Then whatever camera you want to log into put the cameras ip address into your search bar. Not the google search bar the one with http at the start.

This should bring you to the login page of the camera and input whatever details you set up for login.

If you get logged in you then have alot more settings on the camera itself that you can tweak and adjust. One of the options is for the image settings/quality and that is where you can set it to the highest.

DrPhilG

alta stare wrote: »

Ok no panic. If you have a laptop and network cable connect them to the recorder via on of the network ports. Then whatever camera you want to log into put the cameras ip address into your search bar

Gotcha.

So connect the laptop into one of the camera network inputs rather than the Internet input for the nvr?

alta stare

DrPhilG wrote: »

Gotcha.

So connect the laptop into one of the camera network inputs rather than the Internet input for the nvr?

Yep

DrPhilG

Just keep getting "this page cannot be displayed".