Color Camera DVR Adjustments

[rory 0]

Just a FYI on some simple adjustments you can make with your cheap color cameras for night time apps.

 

This is just a basic OEM color Bullet camera ...

 

Image 1 is the default image settings, Image 2 is with the Hue and Sat turned right down, and the Brightness turned up, as well as Contrast turned up just a little. Judge for yourself which looks better at night ...

 

(now my monitor may be a little dark as its an old POS, so excuse me if image 2 is too bright .. but i think you may get the point, and what you see will depend on your monitor's brightness settings, mine's not turned right up)

 

Ofcourse Day time will be too bright for sure, but if your DVR can allow seperate settings for day and night, then wouldnt life be sweet

 

[msecure 0]

Does Geovision version 7.0 have this function? If not what other DVR have?

[rory 0]

Nope, none that I know of, yet, unless someone else knows?

Just it would be a nice feature right

 

Though I was playing with some code tonight, that lets you adjust the video like this, problem is im not writing code for the actual DVR cards yet (the server) .. just the remote video side, but ill try to implement it at least into the remote video software .. somehow.

 

I believe there is a DVR that has something called Xray vision, a cheap DVR also, cant remember off hand what it is though.

[rory 0]

--sorry electric going off too much, leaving the DVR off now indefinately--

Edited September 12, 2005 by Guest

[cctvfan 0]

Too bad while most DVRs have schedule-driven motion settings, none offers schedule-driven image settings. Maybe Extreme is banning (legally) all DVR manufacturers from putting in this feature

[Thomas 0]

It's an implementation issue. The sun doesn't always set at 5:22 every night.

[cctvfan 0]

I agree it can never be an ideal solution. Yet I think it is a nice feature worth implementing. Most people won't mind if there's an hour or so slip during day/night transitions, as long as for 90% of the nighttime when it's truly dark they're getting more useful pictures. The benefit simply outweighs the problem you've noted.

 

BTW why should image settings be singled out ----- other parameters like motion detection activation & frame rates that currently enjoy schedule-based day/night behavior run into the same issue anyway (the sun won't rise at the same time everyday just for these features

 

Anyway, just my humble opionions. Would love to see Video Insight being the first product to offer the feature

[rory 0]

thomas, no but it could let you adjust to do so, set times for switchover, or even implement it automatically when the image picks up low lighting, or even use the input from a photo cell. There are many ways to do it ... dont think anyone just ever thought about it. Basically its the same way digital day night cameras work, but this way it would be in the actual software and you save a couple hundred $$ a camera.

 

Now that my electric is back on (went off again for 3 hours just now - last night was off all night - electrical company union strikes), ill play some more with that imaging code.

[cctvfan 0]

Rory, I like both your innovations -- automatic switchover & external photocell.

 

Speaking of the latter (photocell), although an unrelated topic, I always believe alarm inputs are under-utilised by DVR software. One of my dream features would allow me to, with a single button press, acativate or deactivate the recording schedules on selected cameras (e.g. alarm sensor #1 triggers cam 1, 3, 4, 5, etc.).

 

Example scenario: for cameras covering house interior (not exterior) such as hallway, foyer, stairs, etc., house owners don't want any recording while they're home for obvious reason, but otherwise once they're stepping out ---- kind of like "arming" the DVR.

[qman 0]

It would be simple to set a exterior light sensor outside, and have it connected to the DVR via a relay (like those alarm relays), thus telling the DVR to switch from daytime to nightime operation.

[cctvfan 0]

Hey Herm, true that it's easy to hook up external sensors to a DVR, but we need people like you and Rory who can influence DVR software developers (in the example of I-View) to throw in features that make use of the sensor inputs in more intelligent ways than we're seeing today

[qman 0]

Well, unfortunately, it's not that easy, I mean, I dropped I-VIEW for that same reason, my customers wanted something, and when the idea was given, all I heard was "next version next version".

 

There is something better coming along, supposed to be out around late this month, and we'll see how it works out.

 

hermin.