SOLVED Acti E33 and Milestone SLOW

[RichardU 0]

I have now solved this problem by installing my camera on a separate network, and with better POE hardware. Thanks to everyone who helped.

 

 

I have a brand new Milestone installation (latest version) with one Acti E33 (latest firmware). The video I record is SLOW. At times only one frame per second or so. So what is the best way to diagnose the problem?

 

Here are some details:

Clean up-to-date Win 7-64 installation. Gigabite connection. 3.00 gigahertz Intel Core2 Duo. 4 gig RAM. System disk is SSD. Data disk is WDC WD6400AAKS-75A7B0. This is my test platform.

 

Are there tests that would help me narrow this down, or is more information needed, like settings from Milestone?

 

Thanks,

 

Richard

Edited October 27, 2013 by Guest

[buellwinkle 0]

What device pack are you using? I had issues with 6.7 and 6.8 only working with MJPEG but 6.9 fixed problems with that.

[RichardU 0]

I'm using 6.9. I think I've updated everything there is to update.

[buellwinkle 0]

Don't have an E33, but my E32 records fine, full 15fps at 3MP. What do you have the "slowest auto shutter speed" set to on the camera?

[RichardU 0]

I just tried the camera on a separate NIC with a short cable and I'm up to full 15fps goodness. So now I'll check the cable and if that's okay, it was the Network.

 

The NIC I'm now connected to is not connected to a router. Am I correct in thinking I could add additional cameras to it through a dumb switch as long as I manually set their addresses?

[RichardU 0]

The latest is: using a separate NIC helps, but when I connect to my cable (~100'), I get a lot of dropouts. So I'm wondering the best way to diagnose. Is that likely a POE problem, or cable ends, or am I simply asking too much from this camera/NVR?

 

Something tells me my network topology is likely the problem. I need to find the best practices for setting up a second NIC. Do I need a second router, etc.

[voip-ninja 0]

The latest is: using a separate NIC helps, but when I connect to my cable (~100'), I get a lot of dropouts. So I'm wondering the best way to diagnose. Is that likely a POE problem, or cable ends, or am I simply asking too much from this camera/NVR?

 

Something tells me my network topology is likely the problem. I need to find the best practices for setting up a second NIC. Do I need a second router, etc.

 

If it worked fine with a short direct cable then there's nothing wrong with the camera or the NVR. You should probably check the PoE injector, cable pairs (get a continuity tester) and the ethernet switch port. If you are getting a lot of dropouts one possibility is that the camera and port on your network switch are negotiating at the wrong duplex.

[RichardU 0]

You should probably check the PoE injector, cable pairs (get a continuity tester) and the ethernet switch port. If you are getting a lot of dropouts one possibility is that the camera and port on your network switch are negotiating at the wrong duplex.

 

I will try moving the PoE injector to the camera location. I already have a continuity tester. This is the first I've heard of duplex for ethernet. Where are the settings for that?

[RichardU 0]

What do you have the "slowest auto shutter speed" set to on the camera?

That raises another question, which is, where to set the settings. Do you use the Web Configurator to access the Acti Camera directly, or do you do it through the Milestone Management Application? There are some inconsistencies, for example, even though both programs report the video format as H.264, the main Camera Settings Summary of the Management Application shows it as MPEG.

 

To answer your first question, the Slowest Auto Shutter Speed is 1/30. I think I got that from one of your posts.

[buellwinkle 0]

The reason it tries to change the camera to mjpeg is because you are using an old version of what they call "Device Pack". Install the latest one, I believe I 6.9 and change it back to h.264 from Milestone.

[voip-ninja 0]

You should probably check the PoE injector, cable pairs (get a continuity tester) and the ethernet switch port. If you are getting a lot of dropouts one possibility is that the camera and port on your network switch are negotiating at the wrong duplex.

 

I will try moving the PoE injector to the camera location. I already have a continuity tester. This is the first I've heard of duplex for ethernet. Where are the settings for that?

 

If you have an un-managed switch then you can't change it, but that does not mean that there isn't a duplex mis-match.... which could be caused by cabling or an incompatibility between the switch and camera. You might be able to force the speed on the camera side to half duplex if that's what's coming up on the ethernet switch.

 

Google "ethernet duplex mis-match" to get an idea of what I'm referring to.

[RichardU 0]

The reason it tries to change the camera to mjpeg is because you are using an old version of what they call "Device Pack". Install the latest one, I believe I 6.9 and change it back to h.264 from Milestone.

I am using 6.9 and I have changed it to H.264, but even when Camera Properties says H.264, the Camera Settings Summary still says MPEG. It has a block for Video Format. When you open the Camera Settings Summary it says "Querying..." for a long time, and then it finally reads MPEG.

[skomo 0]

H264 is aka mpeg part 10.

 

So milestone may display mpeg as the setting but it could be using the h264 stream.

[RichardU 0]

H264 is aka mpeg part 10. So milestone may display mpeg as the setting but it could be using the h264 stream.

Excellent point. It's too bad they couldn't use the same term on both settings screens to reduce confusion.

 

Thanks.

[jscreed 0]

What POE equipment were you using before and what did you switch to if you dont mind me asking. Thanks

[RichardU 0]

What POE equipment were you using before and what did you switch to if you dont mind me asking. Thanks

Gladly. I had been trying a TP-Link POE150S POE injector. It worked mostly, but not well enough. So I dug out my old D-Link DES-1228P (which are somewhat notorious for failure). I don't trust it, but it's working for now.