Need help adjusting Acti TCM-7811

[kifaru 0]

I did my IP camera install this past weekend. But my Acti TCM-7811 PQ is not the best. Day time pics are so so & night time pic are completely snowy. I have been playing around with the settings but need help from the experts. What settings to I need to enable/disbale to get a decent PQ??

[kifaru 0]

Current Camera settings

[kifaru 0]

more settings

[shockwave199 0]

I'm not sure, but it sure does look like a simple matter of a filty dome. Have you cleaned it since installing?

[kifaru 0]

I use lens cleaners for my glasses, I am assuming I can use these same wipes to clean the inside of the dome & the lens...

[SEANHAWG 1]

looks like a bad case of IR reflection. Make sure the gasket IR seperator is pushed up against the glass. Also, it just looks like it needs a good re-focusing. The top part of your picture is out of focus while the bottom part is not. Bring your laptop out with you to focus it in the evening when the sun is low and not glaring off your laptop.

[Korgoth Of Barbaria 0]

Just like SEANHAWG said, check that IR separator.

Also change video bit rate mode from CBR to VBR for your main stream.

[vector18 1]

That is definitely IR reflection. Make sure the ir board is seated correctly in the housing and make sure all the IR's are not blocked by the housing or you can see them through the dome. I had one customer that angled the camera so high that the IR's were covered by the housing and the IR light was going into the lens. You can look at it at

night when they the IR's are glowing and make sure you can see every single one of them clearly.

[kifaru 0]

I am not sure what the IR separator is..

Switching to Variable Bit Rate yielded the same results

I can see all the IR lights in the camera when I stand in the middle of the drive-way

I will confirm that IR board is seated properly tomorrow

[kifaru 0]

I refocused the camera, the day time shots look better but the night time shoot is still way too snowy

[buellwinkle 0]

First, load the lastest firmware as there has been many enhancements made to the light metering. It came out about a week or two ago. It will make your daytime images much better. Just go to http://www.acti.com, log in (or register if you haven't), go to support and product support matrix, find the camera and click on firmware button. Then unzip the file and load the firmware in the camera from the setup menus.

 

Second, there's no IR light bleed on these cameras as it's not a traditional old school LED ring around the lens with a foam or rubber donut to seperate the lens from the LED ring. The IR LED's are embedded in pockets in the plastic. Same design that Axis seems to be using in their new P33 out next month. It appears as there may be a light source that's too close to the camera causing reflections against the dome or like previously said, there's dirt on the lens or dome. Is the dome facing down or facing out. If it's facing out, it maybe getting reflection from the street light. I have mine under an eave that shades the dome from the street light reflection. Not as much an issue on a bullet camera.

 

As for noise, there's two schools of thought. There's those that hate noise and buy cameras with noise reduction but at the expense of detail. There's people like me that embrace the noise as I rather have the detail and can de-noise the image later in photoshop which has more finese at de-noising that most built in de-noising in cameras. But you should not have a lot of noise, for example, I would say the noise difference between their ACTi 1231 bullet cameras and the 7811 is maybe 1/2 to 1/4 the noise but certainly not noise free.

[shockwave199 0]

Considering those images, there's a third school....

 

Analog

 

 

Seriously though, I hope you get it sorted

 

[ando 0]

more settings

 

Good evening!

It seems to be IR light being amplified due to Auto exposure reference target is set too high for night profile. While limiting auto shutter speed to 1/30 and iris is already at the max by then, the camera will apply auto gain to achieve the target exposure, thereby magnifying the IR light reflection that originally was totally invisible. Actually, that camera does not need so high exposure target level.

 

My suggestion:

1. Reduce AE reference target of night profile to somewhere 10~20, and you will find that IR reflection goes away, while the image is still nicely exposed (it is a megapixel CCD sensor after all).

2. Maybe also consider 1/15s shutter speed for such a static scene if you need better exposure. If you get nice exposure at AE reference target 10~20 together with shutter 1/30, then leave shutter at 1/30 to capture fast moving objects.

 

As for the compression quality, the bitrate of 2Mbps should be optimal for 1.25 Megapixel resolution. Having 1.2Mbps may influence the video quality.

 

If you need more assistance, please visit http://www.acti.com/chd for online technical support.

[vector18 1]

I would like you to try taking off the cover at night and just see if it is still noisy or not......

[SEANHAWG 1]

Your previous pictures looked better when you had IR reflection. Now it appears you have adjusted some type of video setting.

[kifaru 0]

I am currently on the latest firmware for the camera. The camera is mounted upside down under the eaves. I have used lens cleaners to make sure the dome is clean both inside & out. There is a motion light below to the left of the camera. Even with that light off, the picture is still snowy

[kifaru 0]

I have reset the camera back to factory defaults, reload the latest firmware & is going to refocus the camera

[kifaru 0]

I re-focused the camera, cleaned it again & reloaded the latest firmware. The day-time picture looks much better now .

Will wait & see the night shot

[shockwave199 0]

MUCH better now! Nice! Post that night shot.

 

[kifaru 0]

Nite shot......Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

All camera settings are at factory default

[kifaru 0]

I am assuming these are the settings page I need to focus on to get the night shot better.....

[vector18 1]

Can we see the day/night tab? And just curious, why did you go the route of an expensive IP fixed dome plus the cost of a POE switch rather than a sony effio varifocal 700tvl eyeball camera with 2dnr and 42ir's which produces a super clean daytime image and a sharp night time image and costs around 80 bucks?

[shockwave199 0]

Are both cars purple? Looks like the color may be off, now that I look at that day shot.

 

You should also consider improving your exterior light out there on the driveway. That one little fixture isn't cutting it. Cameras love additional light at night. The night shot in your first post was actually the least noisy image, save the IR smear. Maybe cleaning the dome did the trick. But you had something set better for less noise. When changing settings you are unsure of beyond defaults, keep notes to find your way back.

[vector18 1]

The question is, why would there even be a setting that produces noise to begin with! Lol!

[kifaru 0]

Both Trucks are maroon in color. I have generally left the settings at default & have been adjusting the focus more than anything else.

I also have a ticket with Acti but have not gotten any response/feedback for several days