Alert Security Systems

[Lane-G]

Can somone who is using a POE switch instead of the homeplugs post a HD clip to youtube or something? I just want to see what the framerate/smoothness difference is compared to my homeplug setup. I'm considering getting a POE switch and running CAT5 but I'm curious what performance gains I should expect to see.

My homeplugs are working ok but I have never been able to get 15 FPS. When I was testing w/ BlueIris, the program reported I was getting around 9-11 FPS with frequent periods of less. The bandwidth test to my cameras is reporting around 15,000 kbps for each of two cameras and the powerline performance for each unit has been hovering around 105.

I'll be putting a class 10 microSDHC in the outdoor camera later today to see if that makes any difference at all.

Thanks for any feedback.

[Lane-G]

Here is a sample clip off my garage cam w/ homeplug bandwidth reporting in @ 17,000 kbps. The video quality is not bad but it is not smooth either.

YOUTUBE

[jnoring]

The framerate is linked to how much light there is in the scene; think of it like exposure time on a point-and-shoot camera.  The longer the exposure time, the better the low-light performance (however, also more blur).  Using a PoE switch or faster SD card won't have any effect on your framerates.  For live streaming, I would expect a slightly "smoother" experience using PoE (but still same framerate).

Anyway, if the camera's running around 9-11 FPS, my guess is it's in a low(ish?) light situation?  Do you know what quicktime/vlc reports for the framerate from a few of your recorded clips?  And is this an indoor camera or outdoor (or both)?

[Lane-G]

Sorry, I added the clip after you responded but as you will see, it is in full sunlight. Do my rates look normal?  Anyone getting better?  I also wondered if the stock card was limiting the fraterate on recordings but you seem to have shot down that idea too. =)

[Lane-G]

Here is another clip w/ more sunlight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td7S-B1E4dA

On the PC running Commander, VLC reports the frame rate of the MP4 to be 10.4 FPS.

It also shows the content bitrate to be 1896 kb/s.

[Lane-G]

OK, so I turned off autoexposure and night vision off then set the brightless all the way to the left (DARK). I waited until the camera detected motion and recorded the clip below. This would use a very fast shutter and should produce a higher framerate. The resulting MP4 video file is 10.3 FPS.  I'm really starting to think it cannot write to the card fast enough.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6U8DOzjvPQ

Ironically, the clip of the UPS guy above was the Class-10 card being delivered.

[UselessS · Accepted solution]

Just for comparison, I have two cams...bought/installed about 3 weeks apart.  From what I can see, the framerate does track to the camera itself ( as expected ). 

Cam1 gets 10.44fps on clips in day, and 4.16fps at night. 

Cam2 gets 13.25fps in day, and 8fps at night.

( cam2 gets more IR reflections than cam1 at night ).

( neither camera seems to matter if very bright sunlight or kind of dreary in day...consistent fps ).

These frame-rates have been consistent using homeplug or POE, and using original 2gb SD or 16gb Class 6 SDHC ( I checked many many clips over time ).

If I was really curious and energetic ( which I'm not right now...energetic-wise ), I would swap cameras to see if the 3fps difference was location-centric ( which "should" be the case ) or followed the camera...maybe someday <g>

Edit:  Forgot to mention settings...

Cam1 = Brightness 70, Contrast 0

Cam2 = Brightness 80, Contrast 0

Edit again...Zoom is the difference answer

I remembered that Cam2 had a slight zoom vs Cam1 which is no zoom.  If I zoom Cam2 to 1.50x, then the clip frame-rate goe up to 15.7fps.  If I zoom Cam1 to 1.50x, the frame-rate there goes up to 15.7fps as well...so both cams behave identically.  Now, when Logitech advertises 15fps, I wonder if there should be a qualifier...as I think the default zoom upon install was at 1.50x ( as that is a digital zoom, that image is not at full resolution ).  Anyway, if you want more fps, just zoom <g>

[Lane-G]

Very interesting. Thank you.  I will have to play w/ that later on. I already bought the Class 10 card so I'm going to try that first, just to make sure it makes no difference.

Update: Class 10 card made no difference whatsoever. Apparently the only way to get 15 fps is to crop the viewable area with a 1.5X zoom setting.

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UselessS wrote:

Edit again...Zoom is the difference answer

I remembered that Cam2 had a slight zoom vs Cam1 which is no zoom.  If I zoom Cam2 to 1.50x, then the clip frame-rate goe up to 15.7fps.  If I zoom Cam1 to 1.50x, the frame-rate there goes up to 15.7fps as well...so both cams behave identically.  Now, when Logitech advertises 15fps, I wonder if there should be a qualifier...as I think the default zoom upon install was at 1.50x ( as that is a digital zoom, that image is not at full resolution ).  Anyway, if you want more fps, just zoom <g>

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