New Amcrest cameras, kind of smooshed video

pinkoos
pinkoos
edited September 2021 in SecuritySpy
Hi, I picked up a couple of these 5MP Amcrest cameras recently

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08K1M34ZQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Added them into SS with no problem whatsoever

Upgraded my license (since now I have 6 instead of 4 cameras)

Configured them through the Amcrest camera webpage

Set the resolution to 1080 since I don't think I really need 4K, but maybe I'll play around with it

Regardless, the video that the camera shows is slightly smooshed if you know what I mean - people look just a tad bit smooshed in the vertical direction, kind of 'squatty'

Anyway, I'm sure there's some setting that I didn't setup correctly and was just wondering if someone or @Ben knows what it could be that needs changing

Thanks in advance

Comments

  • Ben
    Ben
    edited September 2021
    If you try a few of the other resolution options in the camera, can you find one that produces video that looks correct? Does the full 4K resolution look correct? Sometimes the aspect ratio of some of the lower resolution options can be a little off if they don't match the ratio of the sensor's native resolution.

    Also, are you seeing this in both live video and captured movie files, or only in the captured files?
  • pinkoos
    pinkoos
    I'll try some other resolutions, including full 4K, and see what happens

    So far it's in both the live video as well as the captured files

    I'll report back

    Thanks
  • pinkoos
    pinkoos
    So I set it to the highest resolution and that seems to have fixed the issue - videos are no longer smooshed

    However, the new problem that creates is that the date/timestamp that I have at the top of the view is cut off in the thumbnail view - it’s there if I expand the view to full screen though

    However, playback of videos on Apple TV for example have the date/timestamp at the top cut off

    Wonder if there’s some setting within SS that I can change to allow the date/timestamp to be viewable regardless of what view I’m using at the time?
  • pinkoos
    pinkoos
    So both of these cameras lost connection during the night and I started getting a lot of SS error reports, for example:

    "Error communicating with network device "Front Yard". 5.3.4,10,835 Excessive packet loss from network device, the network may be too slow or defective, or this computer may be overloaded. Check the network and/or reduce this camera's frame rate."

    I unplugged both cameras from the POE switch and then plugged them back in - they got back online after this reboot

    I wonder if this has to do with upping the resolution like I did to get the cameras to show the non-smooshed view?

    Resolution options for these cameras are as follows:

    2592x1944 (this is what I set it to last night)
    2688x1520
    2048x1536 (3M)
    2304x1296
    1920x1080 (1080P) (this is what I had it set to previously...smooshed view but never lost connection)
    1280x960 (1.3M)
    1280x720 (720P)

    I've gone ahead and changed them both back to 1920x1080 for the time being, as having always connected but smooshed views is more important than non-smooshed views but dropping connections....

    @Ben - do you have a suggestion for a resolution better than 1080P but less than the full 4K that would make the cameras more stable but offer a non-smooshed view (or even just more stable, regardless of view)?
  • pinkoos
    pinkoos
    edited September 2021
    Oh yeah, my other settings based on the advice of the SS blog here:

    https://bensoftware.com/blog/setting-up-a-home-cctv-system/

    -H.265 (my other Lilin cams are set to H.264)
    -framerate 15 (my other Lilin cams are also set at 15, I think I tried 10 and didn't like the live view)
    -VBR (my other Lilin cameras are set to CBR)
    -encoding quality 5 (highest available is 6) (my other Lilin cams are set to 3)

    -I think my Lilin cams' resolution is set to 720P, but I'm not 100% sure about that

    I believe my Lilin cams were setup by my Control4 dealer, so he must have had a reason to set them the way they are to make them more compatible with Control4 (I'm guessing)
  • Ben
    Ben
    I would recommend always using the highest resolution offered by the cameras. If there are then any problem with resource usage on the Mac, or network issues due to high bandwidth, then reduce the camera's frame rate. Even if you have to reduce it down to 5fps or so, I think that is preferable to using a lower resolution at a higher frame rate.

    Another tip: If your Mac is an older model (pre-2017), then it's better to use H.264 video data, because these older Macs do not have hardware-accelerated processing for H.265 video. For more modern Macs, H.265 is the better option.

    As for the cropping, where are you seeing this? If it's in the SecuritySpy iOS app, then you can change the aspect ratio at which the app displays the video feeds, in order to prevent or minimise cropping. To do this, open the Settings app on your iOS device, and scroll down to the SecuritySpy options. There you will find some options to set the display aspect ratio.
  • pinkoos
    pinkoos
    Thanks Ben

    By reducing the framerate, does that make both the live video AND captures choppy, or only the live video feed (forgive my ignorance)?

    My Mac is an M1 mini, so it should be able to handle H.265

    I'm seeing the cropping on both the iOS app, Mac app and Apple TV app

    I will check the iOS app, but do yo have any suggestions for the Mac and Apple TV apps?

    Thanks

  • pinkoos
    pinkoos
    edited September 2021
    So the highest resolution of the Amcrest cam makes it a 4x3 aspect ratio rather than 16x9 so changing the aspect ratio in the app fixes that one cam, but then messes up the rest b/c those are 16x9

    I'm testing the two new Amcrest cams with different settings to see if either or both continue to crash and to see what the other differences are:

    -H.264 for both (I think H.265 was incompatible with viewing HD captures remotely at work on both Chrome and Edge for some reason)
    -default full HD resolution for one cam and 1080P for the other
    -default framerate of 20 for one and 15 for the other
    -CBR for both
    -default bitrate of 6144 for one and a 'customized' 3072 for the other

    So the one with the default settings (full 4K, 4x3) is the one that is 'cropped' when viewing while the one that I've customized (1080P, 16x9) is the one that is 'smooshed' when viewing

  • Ben
    Ben
    By reducing the frame rate, this affects both live video and recordings in SecuritySpy. But, since you're on a new M1 mini, you should be able to use a good frame rate (e.g. 10fps or a bit more) and H.265 video data. And definitely the highest resolution, since your Mac is so capable.

    When you say that the cameras are crashing, what is happening exactly?

    If you set all cameras to their highest resolutions (which I would recommend doing), you may have some that are 4:3 and others that are 16:9, and so when viewing in SecuritySpy (and via the iOS app etc) some will have black bars and/or some will be cropped so that they all fit in the same grid. This is unavoidable if your cameras produce different aspect ratios. In the iOS app you can set the aspect ratio to use in SecuritySpy's settings (available via the Settings app on the iOS device).
  • pinkoos
    pinkoos
    Hi Ben

    On my old Lilin cameras, I've been using 15 fps. On these new Amcrest, 20 seems to work fine without any issues

    I can't say for sure, but I think H.265 made it saw I couldn't pull up HD captures from my work computer (ie, away from the home network), though I could pull them up via the iOS app on my work network (and on LTE)

    By crash, I meant that they went offline and were not accessible without a hard reboot (ie, unplugged from the POE switch)

    There was a terrible rainstorm that night and so motion notifications were going out the wazoo - I'm wondering if that had something to do with them crashing

    For the time being, I've kept the Lilins at whatever resolution they were set at from the get go (which happens to be a 16:9 resolution)

    For the Amcrests, I've set them at the highest resolution (which is a 4:3), 20 fps, H.264 and CBR

    So far, so good...no crashes - only annoying thing is the 2 Amcrests date/timestamp being cropped in the SS iOS and Apple TV apps

    Thanks

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