Some experiences with new Axis m1114-E camera

[StanLee2066 0]

Overall quite pleased with this camera. Picture quality/low-light performance, and the total functionality/features provided by Axis make this a great buy. I love the multiple streams! That being said, I will likely be selling this camera to upgrade to another higher end Axis model. Here's why:

 

1. NAS recording.

My whole home network is gigabit - except for the m1114 which is 100mbps. Video, when viewed at 1280x800, low compression (H264) and 30fps, is nice and smooth. Recording directly to local PC also works well with smooth playback of recorded file. However there are some issues recording to the NAS. I have the DNS325, which is also gigabit but only has about 30mbps write speeds (tested myself). This should be plenty, as I’ve also tested a max 8mbps video bandwidth from the m1114 under worst case conditions – all video at max settings and late evening when picture is getting noisy. Recorded video under these conditions will freeze for 1-2 seconds about every 30 seconds. If I change the video settings in the camera so the bandwidth is less than about 4-5mbps it actually improves to the point where it is quite acceptable – just the fraction of a second pause every once in a while. There are still non-perfect recordings even lower thans 1mbps. Although very acceptable, annoying to my picky eyes. I’ve come to the conclusion that the problem is very likely due to the NAS only having 128mb of RAM for buffering – or a bug in the 325 NAS firmware that needs to be corrected.

 

Solution?: Get a camera with on-board SD. I can only assume this will do the trick since recording to local hard drive is fine.

 

2. Motion detection.

A lot has been said on how motion detection is done in-camera, so that it does not put stress on a PC and you can even turn the PC off. Unfortunately (at least for m1114), recording to file – even directly to a PC – works well if only one Motion Detection window is selected. I had two windows setup, one for email notifications and the other for video recordings. The recorded video freezes like crazy! Much worst that mentioned above. One Motion Detection window running at a time is fine. This leaves me to believe the processor on the m1114 is not powerful enough to handle more than one window of detection. Makes sense. If a powerful PC can begin to get bogged down with motion detection how can it be expected for a tiny micro on the camera to handle it!

 

Solution?: Just use the one window and/or external PIR – unfortunately m1114 does not have hardware input detection.

 

Anyways, I thought I’d bring this up because after many months of ready articles/forums, I’ve never noticed anyone mentioning the issues I’m experiencing. The workarounds are such that I would not feel the need to replace the camera except that I’ve also decided on more features such as audio input and definitely want the PIR to reduce stress on camera and also for more accurate motion detection.

 

I’m leaning on the AXIS P3364-VE since it appears to have even better low light capabilities than the m1114 with some nice extra features – although for more than 2x the price!

 

Thanks for listening!

[buellwinkle 0]

The M1114-e is a good camera, but no IR cut filter. The P33 will be a good camera, solidly built, day/night IR cut filter, motorized varifocal and focus, WDR, audio in/out, alarm i/o. They are coming out soon with a version with built in illuminators. At about the same time, ACTi will have their low-light dome with similar features but will be 1080P, double the Axis dome and probably priced in the M1114-e range. Hopefully I can get both at the same time for a bake-off.

[voip-ninja 0]

I don't have any direct experience with the M1114, but I do have a pair of P3364-VE installed so I can make a few comments.

 

I do not run full 30fps video when recording my cameras because I simply don't see the point of it.... so I can't comment if there are hitches in the video when a lot of things are going on. When I initially set the Axis cameras up and was using live view they were doing 30fps and I can say that the video was fluid and simply rather amazing to look at (almost like looking at a TV broadcast)... however, 30fps even at a resolution like 1280x960 uses a LOT of bandwidth and chew up a ton of storage space on the NAS. Something like 150GB per day. It's simply nuts. I think you will find that most people who do 24 hour continual recording will use something like 5-8 fps.

 

Having said that there should be no issue with 100 megabit for even a 5MP camera feed, so not sure why you are running into issues at 30fps.

 

I have four motion detection windows defined on one of my P3364 and it has never proven to be a problem.

 

I have no direct experience with the ACTi cameras, but I chose the Axis because they have a longer warranty, amazing low light performance, and they are weather rated to -40F using regular mid-span PoE (a lot of cameras require 24 or 48V DC for heat ers to operate). The ACTi cameras might also work at low temperatures, but if the manufacturer does not rate it then I don't trust it to operate trouble free long term.

 

It's been in the single digits temperature wise at night for the past couple of weeks and my cameras have not had any trouble.

[StanLee2066 0]

You have a very valid point about 1280x720@30fps - for 24/7 recording. That would be nuts. But my recordings are activated on motion, and basically set on a 9-5 weekday schedule when I'm not home. I'll just get a handful of ~5 minute recordings of the mailman, kids getting home from school etc. So I'll just get a handful of small daily recordings. With a fast LAN and terabytes of storage...why not? If I do get some 'bad guy' activity, I'll have the best quality available. All set to auto delete after 7 days.

 

As I mentioned, it gets bad and ugly with high bandwidth video recordings (over 5mbps), freezes for seconds at a time, but gets fine below that.

 

However I'm begining to notice if it's normal (at least for Axis?). When I look at footage on buellwinkle's review site, just noticed I see some of the same thing! It's on his review if the p1344. The 'Daytime' footage, where you watch a couple of vehicles doing a turn on the street. The video is basically smooth, but freezes slightly a few times.

 

buellwinkle, if you read this reply can you please confirm this? Thanks!

[buellwinkle 0]

I agree it's not perfectly smooth, but honestly, have not found a camera that's perfect in this area. It could just be the way they convert from their proprietory format to a common format. When you watch the cameras live, it's perfect.

[StanLee2066 0]

I'd like to clear up some items in my original post in case someone reads it in the future while researching their own issues.

 

I confused Mb/sec (bits) with MB/sec (bytes). At 1280x720, 30fps and no compression, m1114 bandwidth is ~45Mb/sec (about 6 MB/sec). My DNS325 has a measured write speed of 12 MB/sec, so why it freezes (major dropped frames) is not clear, but I'm not worried since as soon as compression is increased to 5, everything works as expected (I keep it at 20 anyways).

 

But to move on to something that has kept me experimenting for awhile and I've definitely been able to prove...

 

That slight freezing...or frame dropping that I've noticed on my m1114 is positively caused by a weak camera CPU that cannot handle it's own motion detect monitoring - has nothing to do with recording to my NAS or bandwidth. If I have two motion detect windows open, recorded video freezes so much it's unacceptable. With one window it's just slightly annoying - only for fast movement. With no windows active it's smooooth as silk! Axis also clearly notes this in their manuals: 'Use of motion detection may affect camera performance'. I don't see this in the manual for the p33 series cameras, and the fact that voip-ninja mentions four such motion detect windows being active on one of his p33 cameras with no issues also proves that Axis have installed much more powerful CPUs in their newer cameras and/or overall better design for performance.

 

Anyways, I'm glad I've eliminated any possible bandwidth/NAS related issues in my setup and am now ready to upgrade to a newer more powerful camera. Watch for a m1114 for sale on eBay soon!