AlienDroid 0 Posted September 11, 2013 Hi I've had my first CCTV DVR running for about a month or so now. Model; Raven HD 1000 H.264 960H From first use I have video corruption when playing back recordings. This happens with mostly bright daylight recording and never night time recording and only in Fast Forward or Fast Reverse never at normal play speed! Because of this I'm 99.9% sure this is not a hard drive problem but I would appreciate any replies into what it might be and any tests I can carry out apart from what I've already done? I've also swapped cams, cables and tested a new cam and cable plus new power supply with the same results. My guess it's the video chip or perhaps a firmware problem. I've asked the supplies to send me the current or an updated version so I can flash the DVR in hope this resolves the problem. If not I'll be sending it back as it's almost impossible to do a visual search. Thanx for any replies. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TakenItEasy 0 Posted October 12, 2013 I'm still fairly new to CCTV cams/dvr's so it's just a guess. Are these cameras IR or cameras capable of low light recording? IR cameras pack a bunch of LEDs around the lens. From what I understand, there is less data recorded under low light conditions for cameras without IR. I'm not sure about IR cameras. Perhaps it's just a band width issue with too much data for too many channels during daylight playback. Do you have the same issue when viewing a single channel vs multiple channels with daylight playback? Also if your playback is done remotely on a PC via LAN/WAN connection, the bandwidth issue is an even bigger problem for multi-channel playback. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AlienDroid 0 Posted October 13, 2013 I'm still fairly new to CCTV cams/dvr's so it's just a guess. Are these cameras IR or cameras capable of low light recording? IR cameras pack a bunch of LEDs around the lens. From what I understand, there is less data recorded under low light conditions for cameras without IR. I'm not sure about IR cameras. Perhaps it's just a band width issue with too much data for too many channels during daylight playback. Do you have the same issue when viewing a single channel vs multiple channels with daylight playback? Also if your playback is done remotely on a PC via LAN/WAN connection, the bandwidth issue is an even bigger problem for multi-channel playback. Thanx for the reply. I don't think it would make any difference if my cams were IR or not, but I would agree low light can mean less data! Mine are IR but the corruption can stop with low light but before the IR's are activated! There is also no problem at night when the IR's are on. It's an 8 channel DVR but I've tested it with only 1 cam connected, same result! I've purchased a 3rd cam and installed the new cam and tested it with old cable, new cable, news PSU, same corruption problem! This problem is very location specific, because when I test the cam I was having problems with in a new location all seems fine. So the position of the cam is part of the problem. Shaded area, dark spot close to cams, light area further away. Just tested at front of house and no apparent problem! I since found something that points to a data throughput problem. The default setting for the DVR is D1 – 25fps – Bit rate 2048 When I changed this to HD1 the corruption stops! The quality is reduced so I don't want to use that setting. What also backs up the date throughput idea is I get more corruption with the 600tvl cam than my 420tvl. That's why I purchased another 600tvl to test if it was a cam problem as corruption seemed to follow the cam! Of course the same problem with a new cam and by reducing the default back to DH1 on the DVR disproves that I think! The above is for non Network setup, it's straight from DVR into TV via HDMI. To add to my problems, the seller and the manufacture are not being helpful. The manufacture still hasn't even told my supplier I purchase from what Firmware it should have! The supplier has agreed a repair, then an exchange but will not let me keep the hard drive, and if I don't send it back, i.e. if I remove the hard drive they told me then I have no guarantee. That's a complete joke and a way for them to get out of dealing with it. I use to build Servers or even strip and put my bike engines back together, or build the odd website so changing a HD is sort of like blinking for me lol but they don't give a toss really, they never call me back, I always have to keep emailing and calling to get anything out of them. I rushed into buying a little and assumed the company who makes these was a reliable company from the US but these guys in the UK seem to be using the same name. My stupidity falling for that My feeling is this either company will never sort out the many bugs or the more serious problems, they probably can't find the problem due to lack of testing so assume I'm just an annoying customer perhaps! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ssnapier 0 Posted October 14, 2013 This is probably the hard drive not being fast enough to keep up when you speed up the video, either that or the video rendering hardware in the DVR is not up to the task. I would start by replacing the hard drive with a higher quality model. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AlienDroid 0 Posted October 15, 2013 This is probably the hard drive not being fast enough to keep up when you speed up the video, either that or the video rendering hardware in the DVR is not up to the task. I would start by replacing the hard drive with a higher quality model. Thanx for the reply ssnapier. Catch 22, if I change the hard drive and that is the problem great I've fixed it, but the supplier will not uphold the guarantee. If by changing the hard drive the problem persists they still wont uphold the guarantee! Think I'll just give it a go. Annoying as I they assured me before purchase that they only use top quality drives etc. We shall see. I've been testing the cam I removed from my garage at front of my place, no corruption in current position when I FF all 3 cams at same time, but the other 2 still have the problem. Like you said, drive or the DVR hardware. It's only a few months old and was the best spec of that model. Spec says it can handle a 700tvl but it doesn't seem happy with 480 and 600tvl cams as it is. Just a note on the corruption. It can happen only on x2 speed, seems same all way up to x16 speed. The cam 3 I'm reusing that was a problem on my garage is showing no corruption so far with FF at x2 or x16 speed! Are there any DVR's that allow you to play back vids backed up on an external drive? Mine doesn't, this might have been a good way to compare drives. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
