Video clean up request

[zikronix 0]

So last night someone knifed some tires at my house...I got a video and some pics...but they are kind of grainy.

 

Im asking two questions here. Would some one be willing to look at them and see if they can clean them up.

 

Second question. I had messed with the noise reduction and sharpness. Can some one advise how I should set it so it doesnt look so soft.

 

 

Heres the video in question

http://tinyurl.com/cwnvw4p Google drive link

http://tinyurl.com/c859a5e Dropbox

[PluffMud 0]

What kind of cameras are these out of curiosity?

[Peter_ 2]

Man, that's rough! Who does stuff like that?! Is this Arizona? If so, I should probably be concerned!

 

I tried sharpening/brightening them in photoshop, but I couldn't get any noticeably better images. These are pretty good, I mean you could get a good description of the guy. Curious, what shutter speed are you set at? For some of the best shots he was right at the edge, probably some lens distortion there as well that didn't help.

[zikronix 0]

Arizona yes...no idea what the shutter is...this is the swann nvr.. I adjusted the settings on the camera in regards to noise reduction.

 

gonna play with it some more.

 

what should the shutter speed be at?

do you see this dick head run from down the street. 20 plus cars in our neighborhood. there were two dudes.

[Peter_ 2]

1/30 at a minimum. What about aiming the cameras a touch more toward the sidewalk? Are they already prefocused?

[shockwave199 0]

As far as I could tell, this was your best capture. Could be enough, maybe not. I tried to clean it, but there's only so much you can do. Outstanding quality- possibly big side burns. Good luck to you.

 

[zikronix 0]

1/30 at a minimum. What about aiming the cameras a touch more toward the sidewalk? Are they already prefocused?

 

 

Ill check that tomorrow. As far as aiming more at the sidewalk is then i dont capture the part of the front window. I can definitly move it though. I want to try to tweak these things to get the best quality. My flood lights are a double edged sword. they light up everything but then the camera is grainy because of the low light condition.

 

Rumor has it there is some smart ir tech for these cameras in an upcoming firmware....but idk

[ssmith10pn 0]

Looked like he dropped the knife when he was running away.

[zikronix 0]

he didn't...cause he went on to slash more tires

[Peter_ 2]

Looked like he dropped the knife when he was running away.

 

I thought that's what it was too, but I think it was a seedpod/leaf that fell off the tree as he ran by.

[zikronix 0]

I had the guys on reddit do some post processing and they came up with some great pics...they are still working the video. and im adjusting camera settings today

[Peter_ 2]

I had the guys on reddit do some post processing and they came up with some great pics...they are still working the video. and im adjusting camera settings today

 

Have a link to the thread? I'm curious.

[zikronix 0]

I had the guys on reddit do some post processing and they came up with some great pics...they are still working the video. and im adjusting camera settings today

 

Have a link to the thread? I'm curious.

 

Heres a link to the pics they did

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/numjtaile1k3n7g/xVivp0FmuX

 

and here were the threads

 

 

[shockwave199 0]

The next time you request an attempt to clean up a photo and I actually hunt through you photos and work on trying...I'll remember to ignore you.

 

[MaxIcon 0]

That's actually pretty good night video quality, in general. I don't think you can get a lot more out of these cameras without improving the lighting.

 

There are a couple of problems here, and they're the basic tradeoffs of layout, lighting, and resources:

 

- Field of view vs detail. This is a problem on surveillance cams in general, and is much improved over the analog days. To get better detail, you'd need to be zoomed in, but then you're more likely to miss out on parts of the action. More pixels per foot give better recognition, but either give a smaller field of view or require more expensive gear.

 

- Lighting. Your lighting is good in general, but he's in the darker areas. If he had come to the front of the truck, with more light and more pixels per foot, you'd have an excellent shot of him, but he didn't.

 

- Your coverage is quite good, too. You have 3 cams that caught the action. Again, better lighting would be your single best improvement with the existing cams.

 

There are a few ways to improve results with this kind of monitoring.

 

- Better cameras. These are great cams for the money, but you'd have much better results with high end cameras, more MP, better low light sensitivity, 1/2" sensors, etc. Most non-corporate people aren't up to spending $1000 and up for each camera, though, and having higher MP resolution requires more expensive NVRs, more disk storage, whatever. If you do go that way, Avigilon has some great technology, but for a lot more money.

 

- More lighting. If the other end of the driveway had been lit as well as the house end, you'd have better shots. This would require more lights, maybe motion detect at the end of the driveway, and too many lights can create tension with the neighbors, as well as increasing power usage and costing more to install.

 

An easy change that would have helped in this situation would be to take the camera that's focused on the side of the truck and rotate it more towards the street. The light on the house is causing it to increase the exposure speed, which darkens the rest of it. Since you've got some focus on the front of the trucks, this would give you better exposure and coverage of the rear of the trucks and the street.

 

You might want to chop that tree down that's in the way of the camera watching the front of the trucks . That, or re-position the camera. Not only does it block some of your view, the lit-up tree affects the exposure for the overall scene. Again, this is a tricky set of tradeoffs, and you may already be in the best position.

 

Of course, even if you had an awesome picture of the guy, it wouldn't help unless the cops recognized him or he was someone local and recognizable. The good news is that you know exactly what happened, so there's no guessing about what went on. It may not help unless they can catch the guy and use your footage in the case, but it's better than nothing.

Edited May 11, 2013 by Guest

[zikronix 0]

The next time you request an attempt to clean up a photo and I actually hunt through you photos and work on trying...I'll remember to ignore you.

 

 

 

I posted it on reddit and here at the exact same time. The reddit thread dindt come though until way later. your picture was great. and the police have that which they said was a great shot...but every little bit helps.

[zikronix 0]

That's actually pretty good night video quality, in general. I don't think you can get a lot more out of these cameras without improving the lighting.

 

There are a couple of problems here, and they're the basic tradeoffs of layout, lighting, and resources:

 

- Field of view vs detail. This is a problem on surveillance cams in general, and is much improved over the analog days. To get better detail, you'd need to be zoomed in, but then you're more likely to miss out on parts of the action. More pixels per foot give better recognition, but either give a smaller field of view or require more expensive gear.

 

- Lighting. Your lighting is good in general, but he's in the darker areas. If he had come to the front of the truck, with more light and more pixels per foot, you'd have an excellent shot of him, but he didn't.

 

- Your coverage is quite good, too. You have 3 cams that caught the action. Again, better lighting would be your single best improvement with the existing cams.

 

There are a few ways to improve results with this kind of monitoring.

 

- Better cameras. These are great cams for the money, but you'd have much better results with high end cameras, more MP, better low light sensitivity, 1/2" sensors, etc. Most non-corporate people aren't up to spending $1000 and up for each camera, though, and having higher MP resolution requires more expensive NVRs, more disk storage, whatever. If you do go that way, Avigilon has some great technology, but for a lot more money.

 

- More lighting. If the other end of the driveway had been lit as well as the house end, you'd have better shots. This would require more lights, maybe motion detect at the end of the driveway, and too many lights can create tension with the neighbors, as well as increasing power usage and costing more to install.

 

An easy change that would have helped in this situation would be to take the camera that's focused on the side of the truck and rotate it more towards the street. The light on the house is causing it to increase the exposure speed, which darkens the rest of it. Since you've got some focus on the front of the trucks, this would give you better exposure and coverage of the rear of the trucks and the street.

 

You might want to chop that tree down that's in the way of the camera watching the front of the trucks . That, or re-position it. Not only does it block some of your view, the lit-up tree affects the exposure for the overall scene. Again, this is a tricky set of tradeoffs, and you may already be in the best position.

 

Of course, even if you had an awesome picture of the guy, it wouldn't help unless the cops recognized him or he was someone local and recognizable. The good news is that you know exactly what happened, so there's no guessing about what went on. It may not help unless they can catch the guy and use your footage in the case, but it's better than nothing.

 

 

I have a flood that I can adjust that might help that area at the rear of the drive way...I cant chop the tree down, I already thinned it out. There really isnt a better position for that particular camera. I might be able to adjust the flood to where it doesnt bounce off the tree, maybe i can light from above higher up on the peak. With the lighting, the floods are tied into existing circuits. On the first circuit I have porch light and two double floods the second garage "pillar" lights and two double floods. I could move to a 300W halogen, but there are other things on that circuit that im un aware of. so im unsure if i could do that or not.

I live in an HOA and i cleared this with my neighbors but never the hoa. I cant blind people passing the house, so i gotta keep the bleed from the street.

 

I think if i make sure the shutter is at 1/30 and tweak the lights and cameras then maybe that would help.

 

Ill move the one camera thats focused on the side of the truck closer to the street. The problem I see with that is then I loose what little bit of that window I have and any vehicle that is parked in that location

 

Im not really in the position to spend 4k or more on a camera system. I want to find some nice signs like the alarm companies use that say this area is under video, to deter them

[Kawboy12R 0]

This is one of those times where you're glad you've got cameras up but wishing you had a specialized camera to get one closeup face shot. The cams are doing a good job for what they were designed for (broad overview shots or closeup ID) but begin to fall down on the job as distance increases, especially at night.

 

I'm not sure what those cams have for exposure zones and adjustment, but the one looking directly out of your driveway is having all kinds of trouble with that tree. I'd either cut it down, which'll save you some HD space for false positive motion detection hits , or maybe move the camera to the right as it's looking out into the corner of the walk and try to miss the tree as much as possible. That'll give better face shots of those using the walkway and probably minimize the tree problem.

 

With good coverage of the front of your house, you might want to look into maybe a longer lens on one of the cams (maybe the one with the tree in front of it?) for better distance ID, but it's also one I'd like for a wide angle cam at my front door. Tough choice. It's always easy AFTER the fact to pick where you wish you wanted a long zoom and better lighting.

 

The bright spots of light on the ground are causing darkening of the distant bits in the pics. I wonder if more diffuse lighting would be possible? Wider floods rather than spots?

 

I find it bizarre that he'd go on a dead RUN and stab a bunch of tires. It's hard to imagine what's going through his mind while he's doing that. If he hadn't done a bunch of others it looks like he was on a fast mission to just slash YOUR tires and get out of Dodge quickly.

[zikronix 0]

This is one of those times where you're glad you've got cameras up but wishing you had a specialized camera to get one closeup face shot. The cams are doing a good job for what they were designed for (broad overview shots or closeup ID) but begin to fall down on the job as distance increases, especially at night.

 

I'm not sure what those cams have for exposure zones and adjustment, but the one looking directly out of your driveway is having all kinds of trouble with that tree. I'd either cut it down, which'll save you some HD space for false positive motion detection hits , or maybe move the camera to the right as it's looking out into the corner of the walk and try to miss the tree as much as possible. That'll give better face shots of those using the walkway and probably minimize the tree problem.

 

With good coverage of the front of your house, you might want to look into maybe a longer lens on one of the cams (maybe the one with the tree in front of it?) for better distance ID, but it's also one I'd like for a wide angle cam at my front door. Tough choice. It's always easy AFTER the fact to pick where you wish you wanted a long zoom and better lighting.

 

The bright spots of light on the ground are causing darkening of the distant bits in the pics. I wonder if more diffuse lighting would be possible? Wider floods rather than spots?

 

I find it bizarre that he'd go on a dead RUN and stab a bunch of tires. It's hard to imagine what's going through his mind while he's doing that. If he hadn't done a bunch of others it looks like he was on a fast mission to just slash YOUR tires and get out of Dodge quickly.

 

 

Ill try adjusting the camera...ill look at replacing the one flood with halogens

[kifaru 0]

That is really a senseless crime....

You may also want to consider adding white light IR units

[dexterash 0]

Quick question: CBR or VBR? If CBR, bitrate?

[zikronix 0]

Quick question: CBR or VBR? If CBR, bitrate?

 

Constant @ 3072 vs 6122 like it should have been

WDR was enabled on the camera, and it was set to 30FPS

[zikronix 0]

That is really a senseless crime....

You may also want to consider adding white light IR units

 

Douche bags.Thats all i deal with...do you have a link to said item...Oh and i like how he has to hold his pants up!

[dexterash 0]

I've seen some square boxes while encoding, that's why I asked.

 

Since it's 1080p (or, at least, that's what I think) you should have a bitrate of about 8Mbps (btw, lower bitrate gets you lower details - hence the pixels on the guy's face)

 

WDR is wide dinamic range and it's how the camera(actually the image sensor) reacts on differences between well-illuminated and low-illuminated areas (much like AWB) and should have nothing to do with fps (which is a parameter of encoding)

[zikronix 0]

I've seen some square boxes while encoding, that's why I asked.

 

Since it's 1080p (or, at least, that's what I think) you should have a bitrate of about 8Mbps (btw, lower bitrate gets you lower details - hence the pixels on the guy's face)

 

WDR is wide dinamic range and it's how the camera(actually the image sensor) reacts on differences between well-illuminated and low-illuminated areas (much like AWB) and should have nothing to do with fps (which is a parameter of encoding)

 

 

Yea i knew about wdr and the fps just thought i would toss that info in there.

 

The nvr only allows a setting of 6122 max bit rate. I know i can modify the cameras directly and and put it in there. I think their pc software will also let me put it in there