Dahua IPC-HDB3200C Daytime picture too bright

[BIGWRENCH40OZ 0]

Good morning!

I have 4 Dahua IPC-HDB3200C dome cameras controlled by an Dahua ESDV-NVR-16, which i believe is a re-branded Dahua NVR3216. They looked great during the day, but at night I was using 2 100w bulbs on my driveway just to get a somewhat useable picture. The company I bought the equipment from helped me out by getting me the latest firmware for the cameras and NVR. This helped the picture at night, but now during the day the picture on 3 of the 4 cameras is sometimes so washed out that it almost looks pure white. I looked through all the settings on the NVR but couldn't find a way to adjust this. There are brightness, contrast, saturation, and gain adjustments, but it does not fix the problem. The settings for all four cameras are the same, and are on the same side of the house, but only 1 works properly during the day. I have not been able to find any exposure settings on the NVR. I am hoping that there is some other adjustments or tweaks that i am overlooking that would fix this problem. I would appreciate any help on this. Thanks!

[MaxIcon 0]

If the brightness setting doesn't affect it, I'd check to see if you've got a fixed exposure set on the camera web interface. A good fixed exposure at night will be way too bright in the daytime.

 

When I updated my HFW3300C firmware, it messed up several settings, including the exposure - I thought I had bricked the camera because I only got white screens. Apparently, it changes some parameter locations such that some settings are incorrect after the update.

[BIGWRENCH40OZ 0]

Thanks for the info, MaxIcon. I was able to see the exposure settings using Web Service but everything is already set on auto. I moved some of the settings but it did not seem to fix it. I'm really hoping that there is a setting that i missed that will fix this. I will check more of the available adjustments when i get back from work. Thanks again!

[shockwave199 0]

It may be that adjusting any settings while in auto won't work. I'm assuming you'd have to change it to manual to affect change. And I'd change it to manual, save, and then switch back to auto and save just to see if that makes the setting take and work properly. Just as guess- I don't have this camera.

[BIGWRENCH40OZ 0]

I was finally able to fix the problem! This morning i decided i would get into the settings on the NVR and Web Service and manually move every single one till I found something that worked. In Web Service there was a setting called Anti-Flicker. It has three settings - outdoor, 50HZ, and 60HZ. It was set to outdoor by default, which made sense to me since the cameras are outdoors. Well, as soon as i changed it to 60HZ, the picture went back to normal! I am not sure why this fixed the problem, but it definitely worked for me! Hopefully if anyone is having a similar problem this will work for them as well.

[MaxIcon 0]

Interesting! My HFW3300C was also at outdoor after the software update, and is still there now, but seems to be working ok.

 

I wonder if you turned it back, if the problem would return? I'd bet not.

 

More of Dahua's flaky software. What's the version you're running?

[BIGWRENCH40OZ 0]

The software version is 2.103, build 2012-7-24. I actually tested to see if moving it back to the outdoor setting would change anything, so i put it back and restarted the system. Once it came back on the picture was back to being way too bright! I moved it back to 60HZ and it was normal again. I'm not sure if it is just my system, but it definitely works better for me at that setting!

[MaxIcon 0]

Mine's at the same software version. I'll double-check it next time I fire it up, as I didn't pay that much attention to that setting.

[MaxIcon 0]

OK, this is interesting. I'm running mine in outdoor mode, with low motion blur selected, and the longest exposure set for 17 ms (about the same as 1/60 sec).

 

When I switch to either 50hz or 60hz, the image flares white, then settles in to a decent exposure over 5-10 seconds - this appears to be the basic Dahua slow response to exposure changes. In either mode, the exposure selections are auto or manual, with manual being limited to a single shutter speed from the list - no range of speeds.

 

Switch to Outdoor mode, and it now has auto and manual, as above, but also has Low Noise and Low Motion Blur. Both of these, when enabled, bring up a new field for "shutter scope", or the exposure range, and both default to the same numbers, so I can't see any difference between them. When the numbers are changed in one mode, they change in the other too, which is goofy. Also, this screen doesn't have a Save button - changes apparently auto-save.

 

So, on mine, the only way to have a minimum exposure and variable exposure setting is to select Outdoor, either Low Noise or Low Motion Blur, and set the range from 0 to 17 ms (or whatever max and min are wanted).

 

Auto-iris is on for all of these. If it's off, and the exposure range or fixed setting is too high, it will white out and stay whited out.

 

More of that Dahua quirky software that is their biggest problem, IMO. Each rev is a little more ready for prime time, but they still have a ways to go to be up to my Vivoteks, and as always, it's hard-to-impossible to find out if there's a new rev out.