Can't get cameras to work reliably.....

[Crumpy]

Hi All,

I have about 10 or so Hikvision cameras, plus a couple of Doorbirds.

Whilst the HTTP requests to the cameras that I have entered in HS4 all work reliably in a browser, I cannot get them to work reliably in HS4, either in the interface or the app. Sometimes no images load, sometimes some of them, and occasionally, although rarely, all of them.

I haven't for the life of me been able to find anything that makes a difference.

And to be fair, I had a similar problem in HS3, which I never got to the bottom of. But I was hoping HS4 would be different.

The cameras are set to 1280 × 720 resolution, so not that high. Images load at that, when they load. And video is set to 640 × 360.

I'd appreciate any suggestions on how I can get them loading - I really want to be able to load them in the app.

Thanks,

Dave

[concordseer]

A process of elimination would be the way to go. You’ve a lot of cameras on your network so maybe you could eliminate a few at a time to see if the load on your system might be the issue. What hardware are you using to run your HS4 server.

[Crumpy]

HS4 is running on Windows 10 Pro on a Gigabyte Brix, Intel J3160 4 core, 1.6 GHz, 8GB RAM. Benchmark wise, probably more powerful than an SEL S6 Pro. So it doesn't lack power.

Reducing the number of cameras and seeing if it is better might be worthwhile. But it seems to be more of an all or nothing issue - no cameras at all come up, or those that are going to do so come up pretty quickly.

[Demusman]

Whilst the HTTP requests to the cameras that I have entered in HS4 all work reliably in a browser, I cannot get them to work reliably in HS4, either in the interface or the app. Sometimes no images load, sometimes some of them, and occasionally, although rarely, all of them.

What URL are you using?
What "app"?

[Eman]

Could be also something always overlooked in the design of an NVR system. I hold on my judgement on this one due to observation of my tablets, one self built Ordroid C2 running Android and Tiny cam Pro, is very sluggish compared the newer 8 core Tablets from Chaina

I haven't read all this document but there is something in there : https://www.google.com/url?q=https:/...1FpRJsXfXPrej5

Eman.

[Crumpy]

For photos I am using: http://<username>:<password>@192.168.X.XX:80/Streaming/channels/2/picture

For video I am using: http://<username>:<password>@192.168.X.XX:80/Streaming/channels/2/httppreview

The above is for most of the hikvision cameras - some use slightly different URLs. And the Doorbirds ones are different. But remember, they all work, just not reliably.

As for apps, I have used HSBuddy and HomeSeer Mobile - same issue with both. Seems to be reflective of what is seen in the main interface - if the cameras are working in the interface, they are seen in the apps.

Thanks for the reference Eman - I'll have a look.

Dave

[Demusman]

Try the rtsp stream.

rtsp://<user>:<pass>@<cameraip>/Streaming/channels/0101

[Crumpy]

Thanks - I didn't think rtsp worked in HS - I'll give it a try.

[mterry63]

I have rtsp streams setup in my HS3 manual camera configs and can confirm they work for both HSTouch and HS Buddy.

[Crumpy]

Great thanks - I'll have a go at getting them set up. Have a few different camera type, all which seem to use slightly different URLs, so I'll have to start hunting them all down.

One question - where I can test the HTTP streams in the browser, how do I test the rtsp streams outside of HS?

[Demusman]

VLC viewer

[mterry63]

Or HS Buddy or HSTouch.

[Crumpy]

Thanks - I have VLC viewer.

[RebelT]

Not a HomeSeer expert by any means, but I deal with video systems as part of my day job -- so take this how you please...

You may be right that your machine doesn't lack power as it relates to HS4 overall, but your machine absolutely lacks power when it comes to handling the video that you're pushing into it.

I don't know the specifics of how video is handled in HomeSeer, but I know that above all, you're asking HomeSeer (and thereby the machine you listed) to process and ultimately render 10 streams of 1280x720 video. For an optimized VMS to render that much video at those resolutions would take a fairly beefy Windows machine, preferably with a GPU. For a platform like HomeSeer, which is doing zero optimization and is just spitting out the video that's being blasted towards it, it would take even more. Long story short -- there is zero chance your machine can render that much video.

There are a couple of ways you could approach it to try and solve it --

1. Calculate the resolution you're trying to display the cameras at on whatever viewing device you're using, then lower the resolution coming into HS4 to that. From a simplistic perspective, if you're trying to display a 3x3 grid on a 1920x1080 screen, you'd be at roughly 640x360 per camera (1920/3 = 640, 1080/3 = 360). If you're only displaying on a phone, drop it even more. You want the resolution coming in to be as low as possible and still be able to see the cameras.

2. Reduce the number of cameras. At 1280x720, i'd be shocked if you can consistently render 4 streams with that machine, but who knows.

3. Get a substantially more powerful machine to run HS4. A full-blown desktop PC is likely your only hope, but you'll need substantially more processing power.

Again -- I'm no expert on HS4, and maybe there is some level of optimization happening with the video -- but I highly doubt it. This is almost certainly a rendering issue.

[Pocster]

I had a similar issue .
I couldn’t get the sub stream to work .
Reduced my camera resolution to 1200 x 800
But I have 3 cameras . I ffmpeg each frame to 640x480 8bpp in a batch file .
I get a cruddy frame rate of 1 frame every 4 seconds . But it doesn’t burden Hs clients .
So I have ip cameras in Hs clients with little cpu hit - but at a low FPS 😐