buellwinkle

ACTi emailed me the link to the new firmware while I was there but I didn't get it so I'll check back on Monday. If you look on my blog post of the e33, one person put this on and made before/after videos from his e33. To do license plate recognition, you need a telephoto lens zoomed in and focused on the front or rear of the car as they pass a choke point. It's more than seeing a license plate in an overall picture. Look at demo videos on YouTube for various LPR products, you'll see that they mostly capture the front grill area maybe twice the size of the width of the bumper and from the ground up to maybe the hood line. That doesn't mean I haven't pulled plates for law enforcement. I'm 2 for 2 so far for being able to provide a clean license plate, one day, one at night at their request but not from my driveway shots.

Same chip as on my UGM802 PC that runs Android ICS I wrote about for live viewing your cameras.

I don't think it's practical to have a camera directly behind or in front of the vehicle. Our goal is to mount it at the roads edge in the center median and capture plates at maybe a 15 degree angle, a telephoto lens setting aimed at the plate area with a Axis Q1604E or a P3384-VE. The existing Mobotix, while they have great low light capability are easily blinded by brake lights My original idea is to use ipCongure which is an app that runs inside the Axis camera, much the same way Axis Camera Companion is an app that runs in the camera. No PC needed. But it only works with the Q1604E and that's going to be an ugly looking solution since the city turned down our application to put a camera pole there but the vandal dome I can mount on a pilaster. Don't know what the interface looks like yet to insert plate numbers and names. That's the problem, no product webpage I've been to shows that piece of the puzzle. I'm hoping worst case is they provide an SDK and I can write a Windows program to do this, probably in .net pretty quickly, how hard can it be? Keep a database of names, addresses and license plates and feed the plate numbers to store in the camera. What I like is then the cameras event handling can do what you want to do, send a text, trigger alarm output, email a picture based on a plate match.

He is bold, he's still trying to get his Dahua 3MP camera to record smooth video on BlueIris.

I have that available also, and that was my first reaction, run a solution directly on an Axis camera as an app and avoid a PC altogether that may still be the way we go, but looking at alternatives. At the time it only worked on a Q1604 and I really don't want a box camera at each entrance, but maybe it now runs on domes like the P33 series. It wasn't that expensive, about $1,500/cam retail for the software, so maybe $3K camera and software. The only problem is how do you sync the database of cameras across multiple cameras which got me thinking of a centralized solution. The local Sherriff told me the gun range has this, so I should stop by and see how theirs works if they will share. They must be hurting because it's nearly impossible to buy ammo these days.

Sweet. See, that's the difference between Dahua and HikVision, they are willing to help.

Looks good, a little soft on the left edge. Why is this 1.5MP? Where you able to get 1080P or 3MP or did you just do a screen grab?

Researching it further, found the following products and approx. price Geovision LPR - $900/camera Milestone XProtect LPR - $3,000/camera Luxriot LPR - $3,000/server (or $2,000 for 2 cams) Vigilant ALPR - ??? ISS LPR - ??? Visec - $2000/1 lane, whatever that means

Don't know. I have a Dahua 1080P camera here, so I can compare side by side and I have a Dahua 3MP so I can compare side by side with that if I get 3MP to work with it. The main advantage I see right away is that Swann and the manufacturer are both in the U.S., so I would expect there to be support as opposed to no manufacturer support or U.S. presence for Dahua.

I purposely did manually focus directly on the vehicle across the street and still not readable. What's funny is I'm testing a 720P camera from Axis and it produced the same results as the 5MP camera trying to read the plate. It has better low light capability with it's "dynamic capture" feature. Update on the E33. ACTi has beta firmware for the camera that greatly enhances it's low light sensitivity and noise reduction. Will post some pics when I get it and can remount the camera.

Funny you should say that because I have a couple of business cards of companies at ISC West I have to review to day to find one. The one that comes to mind is Geovision, spoke to them at the show. You get the normal Geovision NVR software and then they have a plugin for LPR. And yes, it has a database of plate numbers, when it gets a hit it can do some event processing and even trigger an alarm I/O back to the camera which is what I need. This way the camera can trigger an I/O to trigger a gate actuator. Usually this type of software keeps a picture of the car and the scanned output. The really good ones even tell you the state but that's not important for me. What camera are you using. Don't use one with built in IR as it will likely not be able to read the plate from the reflection. I'm going to test with an Axis P3384-VE, with it's dynamic capture feature for higher speed low light sensitivity. I was going to use the Q1604, but then this camera came out with the same specs in a dome shape.

From what I've been told is they drive the package across the border from Shenzhen to HK where it's cheaper/faster to ship. Once shipped, it usually take 2-3 days. I've tried different carriers and FedEx seems the fastest and most consistent with DHL a close second. Price is close, within a few dollars of each other with FedEx being less. EMS is a little slower and China Post comes to you on a slow boat from China as they say.

I think the Dahua image makes for a pretty picture. But no, not happy with it from a surveillance point of view. White balance is unpredictable, better than their 1.3MP sensor, but still not consistent like ACTi, Axis or Mobotix that I work with more often. Maybe there's new firmware with better image control, but the one I have is too contrasty for surveillance, supposed to have WDR but I don't see it. I had the same experience with Brickcom using the same Sony Exmor processor, so maybe it's just the sensor. It looks good to most at first glance, but not when I look deeper. What I learned from 5MP in general is that it's too much. At first I thought more pixels is better and the P3367 does provide pretty decent low light sensitivity, manages bright and low light and details with WDR turned off better than many cameras do with WDR on. Until 4K TV's are prevalent (meaning affordable), I'm stuck with 1080P monitor and TVs, so watching 5MP on 1080P makes no difference, actually I lose because 5MP is 4:3 and my monitor and TV are 16:9. Then I can get a 5MP snapshot off the video but like everyone says, doesn't really help me identify a person or plate that much further and I'm happy with 1080P or 3MP as being good enough, being able to identify a person or plate on my property. Besides, I don't need plate numbers, nobody can drive in the community without having their plates captured on better cameras than mine at our gates. I would recommend the E33 for someone that wants 5MP on a budget, and the P3367 for someone that wants a really good 5MP camera. But I think the sweet spot is 1080P or 3MP with the plus on 3MP being that you have choice of 1080P also. As for real plate capture, we are probably going to get a Axis Q1604 for testing. Seems to be popular with the LPR software folks. Which is ironic, using a 720P camera for plate capture when people are complaining they can't read plates with a 5MP camera. Kawboy, I purposely had the camera auto focus on that car, it's as focused as it can get, even tweaked it to get the absolute best focus on that car.

I tried to put it all on one video, simpler to find and get it all. They seem to come from the two persons but you are correct, one camera clearly has the problem, the other one does not, so it could just be a bad batch. Actually that would be a good thing because then you just call Swann and say it's bad, show them and they'll probably exchange the camera. This truly is a brand new product for HikVision and it wouldn't be the first time a camera company had some QA issues on the first batch. It's like buying a car the first year a new model comes out, cool to be driving the latest model, but I've learned my lesson there, now I buy the last year a car model is out.

I put them on YouTube to make them easier to view.

Here's a snapshot I just took from a Dahua IPC-HWF3300C, 3MP. I put it in my DropBox because it spits out uncompressed image and I got accused of tampering with the image when I converted it to JPG. Please tell what the plate number is on the SUV across the street. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29612389/20130418_150846.bmp

BTW, this must be an Avigilon, see how they zoom in to get the reflection from 70' away of a license plate screw to catch the murder

You guys are so funny, oh no, I can't see a plate 70' away with a 5MP camera, haha. So you blame it on the camera, of course it can't do it, it's a $350 camera, so that's the reason. So here's a $1,319 camera from Axis, 5MP, same "watercolor effect", same can't read a license plate head on at 70' (no, I did not retouch the photo, did not blur anyone's plates). Better low light sensitivity, better camera overall, but heck, it better be for 4x the price. Do you really want me to show you what a 3MP top of the line Dahua can do because it's not even in the same league as ACTi or Axis, but I have those images to.

The E53, I didn't know you wanted an indoor camera, my bad. Then get the D55, same camera without the WDR. In most cases WDR is not needed and you can turn contrast down to get a similar effect.

OK, here's the clips compiled into one YouTube video. Watch in 1080P mode so you get the full effect

I put the videos someone posted on YouTube to make it easier to view all of the clips -

I worked in sales, but they have these things called quotas that are annoying. I now work in marketing, it's like sales without the quota, lol. I buy my cameras through a distributor for projects, GSSDVR in Virginia, they carry all sorts of brands, Mobotix, ACTi, Vivotek, Messoa, Brickcom, Axis, Flir, Geovision, Arecont, Bosch, Sony.... You have to be an integrator or reseller to buy though. What's ironic is the owner is from China and he doesn't want to carry Dahua because support is so poor. So what ends up happening is only the really small guys carry Dahua because the larger distributors won't. Don't get me wrong, I like the cameras, but unless the company steps up and provides full factory service and support for the U.S. market, I won't use them.

Whoever gets these needs to contact Swann support and see what's going on. May be a bad batch. Also, these are brand new, so new that HikVision didn't even get a chance to put them on their website in time for ISC. I'm sure they will make them right as they don't want to get a bunch of them returned to Costco.

The D72 is an IR dome camera, has LED illuminators built in, day/night IR cut filter. Really not a bad value for 3MP IR dome. I did my review on the E32, which would have the same sensor, just in a dome shape. When you consider that it's day/night where the HDB3200C is not, it has LEDs which the HDB3200C does not, it has the choice of 1080P or 3MP where the HDB3200C is only 1080P, ACTi is a supported brand where the Dahua is not, it's actually a better bargain.

Dont' get Swann, order the HikVision version. HikVision is about double the sized company that Dahua is. But if you want Dahua, get the IPC-HFW3200S, you can get it for just under $200 + shipping, is small 1080P IR bullet like the Swann. If you want a dome, get an IR dome, the best value for a real name brand supported in the U.S. is the ACTi D72, 3MP, should get it for a few dollars more than the Dahua without IR and it comes with NVR software, free that's quite good.