Ubiquiti and Dahua IP CCTV Issues

[CandyMan_ZA]

I am reaching out to the MB community in the hopes that there is an expert out there who can assist me. I have tried contacting Dahua directly but had no response yet. The kit was recently purchased from TopCCTV, who are trying to resolve the issues but have not managed to do so yet.

I am experiencing a few problems with my Dahua CCTV System. Let me explain.
This is what I have;

NVR DHI-NVR4116HS-8P-4KS2
System Version: 3.215.0000000.4, Build Date: 2018-01-19

Litebeam LBE-5AC-Gen2 (x1)
Firmware version: WA.v8.4.2

Litebeam LiteAP AC LAP-120 (x1)
Firmware version: WA.V8.5.11

LiteBeam M5 (x2)
Firmware version: XW.v6.1.8

4MP (x4)
Device Type: IPC-HDW4431EM-AS
System Version: 2.460.0000.15.R, Build Date: 2017-09-07

5MP (x2)
System Version: 2.622.0000000.18.R, Build Date: 2017-11-10

These are the issues I am experiencing, any advice will be greatly appreciated.

1. The live video feed, in particularly from CAM5 on the NVR is still laggy with as much as 7 seconds sometimes between one frame and the next

2. The Motion Detect Email Events are very unreliable. Sometimes there is no Event with a Snapshot sent (yet there is one without the Snapshot) or sometimes there is a corrupt Snapshot attached or a Snapshot from the wrong camera or sometimes only 1 or 2 Snapshots are attached where all 6 cameras have been selected. It is extremely unreliable.


Below image is corrupt.


3. A question I have asked Dahua is why are there 3 emails for every Motion Detect alert (GMail and MWEB have already blocked sending via their SMTP servers due to excessive email)? Why send one email for a Motion Detect Event and then another with the attached Snapshot? And surely a "Clear" event is pointless on a Motion Detect?

Something of interest is when reviewing the live video on the NVR as compared to the same live video on my PC in Internet Explorer there is a clear difference, the live video on the NVR is laggy and breaks up but not so in Internet Explorer (on a slow PC)?
Compare this,

The compression is set to H.264H. I have changed it to H.265 with no difference.
Currently I have the Bit Rate set to 4096Kb/s and Frame Rate set to 20FPS. I have tried setting the Resolution to the lowest on all the cameras, ie. 720P, it made a little difference but still not smooth video, not near 20FPS. I also have not enabled the Sub Stream.


According to the Litebeam on my premises incoming bandwidth used is about 50Mbps.


This is what the layout is, note the 4 Litebeams (.21, .22, .23 and .24) and the 6 cameras. Take note how the AP at .23 is being used to 'relay' the signal from .22 and .24 to .21 at my unit.


Any advice is hugely appreciated, I am at my wits end, we have spend days trying to resolve these issues.

Thank you
Kevin

 

[access]

is this only happening at cam5?

 

[CandyMan_ZA]

is this only happening at cam5?

Yes and no. The corrupt Motion detect Snapshot images were only from CAM5, I did previously also get them from CAM6 but haven't seen that for a few days. Here is some stats since midnight last night, I have disabled Motion Detect and only using Tripwires and Intrusion Detect. Out of the 12 attached Snapshots from CAM5 none were corrupt.

CAM4 CH1 (192.168.1.34)
22 Tripwire Events received
22 had Snapshots attached
100% reliability

CAM3 CH2 (192.168.1.33)
111 Tripwire Events received
73 had Snapshots attached
66% reliability

CAM2 CH3 (192.168.1.32)
78 Tripwire Events received
41 had Tripwire Snapshots attached
52% reliability

CAM1 CH4 (192.168.1.31)
31 Tripwire Events received
7 had Tripwire Snapshots attached
23% reliability

CAM5 CH5 (192.168.1.35)
84 Tripwire Events received
4 had Tripwire Snapshots attached
5% reliability
76 Intrusion Events received
7 had Intrusion Events attached
9% reliability

CAM6 CH6 (192.168.1.36)
17 Intrusion Events received
17 had Intrusion Snapshots attached
100% reliability

 

[carstensdj]

Out of interest, with regards to the latency issue with the streams, do you have the same issue when viewing sub stream or only main stream?

Also, what switches are being used? Do you go down to a 10/100Mbps at any point along the network between camera and NVR?

 

[CandyMan_ZA]

Out of interest, with regards to the latency issue with the streams, do you have the same issue when viewing sub stream or only main stream?

If the Substream is set to very low resolution and low FPS then the video feed does not break up. I initially had the Substream disabled to save bandwidth.

Also, what switches are being used?

3x Dahua DH-PFS3005-4P-58 10/100Mbps PoE Switches (at each remote Litebeam)

Do you go down to a 10/100Mbps at any point along the network between camera and NVR?

From the local Litebeam at my apartment (3rd floor) the ethernet runs to the PoE adapter, then the other port on the adapter connects to a port on my MWEB Zyxel Fibre Router. Another port on this router connects to another switch in my server cabinet, a Toto Link 10/100Mbps 5-port switch. (I have tested by eliminating this switch and connecting the cable directly to the NVR)

The total bandwidth coming in as displayed on the NVR is a mere 20Mbps, and no flat-lining.



What is interesting though is this, check out how much thruput is being sent from the AP at 192.168.1.23 to the AP at my flat at 192.168.1.21? ie. it says it is sending a mere .87Mbps? I for a moment I thought it was bypassing this beam and somehow I was receiving a signal from the far beams so I rebooted it to see if I was still getting live video, all the video feeds dropped

192.168.1.21



192.168.1.23


Ok, I figured it out, it's a bug in the code of the LiteAP AC, it is displaying the RX thruput instead of the TX thruput

 

[CandyMan_ZA]

I had to change the compression back to H.264H as the Snapshot was giving an error, it seems it cannot use H.265 to take a Snapshot

 

[carstensdj]

I'm struggling to believe that 4x 4MP cams and 2x 5MP cams are only streaming 20Mbps worth of Bandwidth. I can see your screenshot from the NVR saying that they are, but don't really believe it, lol.
From past experience, I'd highly recommend using a gigabit network throughout, due to the fact that you're running high MP IP cams with fairly high Frame Rates.

Can I suggest changing the following settings for each cam, just to test if there are any changes at all? You don't have to keep these settings but it could assist with finding the problem:
- Change the Constant Bitrate to a Variable Bitrate and select medium quality
- Lower that resolution to 720p (or 1080p MAX)
- Lower the Frame Rate to 12fps
- Keep compression at h.264 for now

Again, I will stress the point of a gigabit network when using high Megapixel cams. I've been 'bitten' twice by trying to get away with a 10/100 when in theory it should've worked and my bandwidth usage was less than 100Mbps, yet, I still got cams dropping on and off for a split second, intermittent delays and lots of jitter. On both occasions this was remedied by having a better network in place.

Lastly, (sorry if you mentioned this) have you put the latest firmware on all cams and the NVR?

 

[killerbyte]

From that spectrum band I notice that the 40MHz channel you are in is very busy. Try changing the channel to something less congested.
I will look over the specs of your network equipment later today and suggest any changes I believe might resolve your issues.
Please confirm that all the Ubiquiti equipment is running the latest firmware.

 

[CandyMan_ZA]

Lastly, (sorry if you mentioned this) have you put the latest firmware on all cams and the NVR?

I was under the impression the Litebeams were on the latest firmware but just checking now,

The 5AC Gen 2 is on v8.4.2 but on ubnt.com the latest is v8.5.11
The M5's are on v6.1.8 but on ubnt.com the latest is v6.1.9
The LiteAP AC is on v8.5.11 on ubnt.com the latest is v8.5.11

I have some work to do this weekend

 

[CandyMan_ZA]

Can I suggest changing the following settings for each cam, just to test if there are any changes at all? You don't have to keep these settings but it could assist with finding the problem:
- Change the Constant Bitrate to a Variable Bitrate and select medium quality
- Lower that resolution to 720p (or 1080p MAX)
- Lower the Frame Rate to 12fps
- Keep compression at h.264 for now

I have done exactly that already, dropped the resolution of all the cameras to lowest and frame rate down to I think it was 5FPS, it did make a difference on the live video but not much and still got those corrupt attachments but that was also before we re-enabled the Substreams, I will test again this weekend and report back.

Again, I will stress the point of a gigabit network when using high Megapixel cams. I've been 'bitten' twice by trying to get away with a 10/100 when in theory it should've worked and my bandwidth usage was less than 100Mbps, yet, I still got cams dropping on and off for a split second, intermittent delays and lots of jitter. On both occasions this was remedied by having a better network in place.

It's difficult when I have to get 4 gigabit switches (just to test)

 

[CandyMan_ZA]

I was under the impression the Litebeams were on the latest firmware but just checking now,

The 5AC Gen 2 is on v8.4.2 but on ubnt.com the latest is v8.5.11
The M5's are on v6.1.8 but on ubnt.com the latest is v6.1.9
The LiteAP AC is on v8.5.11 on ubnt.com the latest is v8.5.11

I have some work to do this weekend

All firmware has been updated, I will monitor and provide feedback, my bad I should have checked this first

 

[access]

how long are your poe cable runs, are they within limits, whats the amp output on the poe adapter/port

have you reterminated and retested the cables.

also, that zyxel router.... why. what model is it. seen weird network problems with some of those things.

killerbyte has a good point there too, i wanted to ask about channel details. it might just be that. actually i think it is.