Issues wtih Image Quality and FPS rate on NVR System

[jdcaduceus 0]

I have the following setup:

 

1. Synology Disk Station DS1513+

2. 5 - WD Red NAS 2 Tb HD (Set to Raid 6)

3. Netgear Switch gs728tpp switch - 24 port POE

4. Cat 6

5. 2 Axis M1054 - IP POE

6. Using DS Cam App on iphone/ipad etc. for remote viewing etc. - No problems setting up

 

No problems setting up the Axis cameras and Synology NAS Surveillance System. Decided to LAG the 4 ports on the Synology with the Netgear despite the fact each Axis camera only connects at 100/Mb/s (Thought this might help with throughput). I had the system recording continuous for a 15 day period.

 

Issues on Quality - my biggest problem is the picture quality from the Axis cameras. First, I know it is the M line which is considered by Axis sort of middle of the road as far as cameras goes. However, the pictures on both Axis cameras are not crystal clear and are grainy. I have tried several settings on the cameras to see if the picture would be clearer and the streaming would reach 30fps (with little to no frame drop). However, nothing seems to work well. I have tried the following settings on the cameras:

 

1. MJPEG Compression - 1280x720 - 30 fps - variable bit rate - Highest quality - RESULT - Still grainy both on live view and recording (I know MJPEG compression is better picture but larger data than H264)

2. H264 Compression - 1280x720 - 30 fps - variable bit rate - Highest quality - RESULT - Still grainy both on live view and recording

3. Even alternating Compression between MJPEG and H264 with lower resolutions gives me a grainy picture and I am unable to achieve 30fps or close to it.

 

Now I have looked at the system and tried to figure out the bottleneck - is it the camera? switch? Synology? - Cant figure it out. So I need some help.

 

Eventually I wanted to add 9 outdoor cameras to this system - (probably need a separate rackstation Synology for the outdoor cameras as I wanted to increase their quality and looking at the Axis Q1765-LE model - which is a 1080i/720p bullet camera I really like).

 

However, I need to figure out if the issue on grainy picture is simply the M1054 camera quality itself or is it bottlenecking somewhere in the system. I looked at replacing the M1054 with the Axis Q1755 (since the Q model series of Axis is their top of the line). Can anyone share thoughts on what seems to be the issue with the grainy picture and the inability to get true clear HD quality picture with 30fps with little frame drop rate in my system?

 

Would enabling jumbo frame rates on the netgear help at all? I did not think it would since all the axis cameras are connecting at 100MB/s - wish some of these cameras would connect at 1gig/s.

 

I am truly at a loss here.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[SunnyKim 2]

Maybe lacking of processing power of your NVR.

Camera side would usually be OK.

You can get higher quality of video, by setting higher compressed bit stream to your camera.

JPEG creates a lot heavier bit stream to be passed over networking.

Network is to be limited under Max 100 Mega Bits, Not Bytes per second.

Actual data load can be under 30 Mbits for safe deliver to the processor inside NVR box or PC.

[jdcaduceus 0]

SunnyK

 

I understand where you are coming from using H264 and not MJPEG. I agree with you on the compression. But the picture is grainy either way. I have the Synology camera settings at variable bit rates set with highest quality. I can go into the camera settings and look at the output from the Axis settings. But that still leaves the issue of picture grain and not clarity.

 

Any thoughts on that?

[SunnyKim 2]

At the same file size of recorded bit stream, H.264 can give a lot better quality than JPEG does. When captured and viewed, a frame by frame basis, JPEG can be better. But it is an issue of Orange or Apple.

As you can afford more bit stream, what's left?

CMOS sensor has become very cheap, offering a good /sharp video quality, under well lighted condition.

A bit old CMOS sensor may be playing a trick by interpolating VGA quality resolution to HD1080P resolution.

But I always believe a good quality Lens decides everything of video quality.

[jdcaduceus 0]

Don't disagree - with you Sk. I had the Axis M1054 so I thought the CMOS in Axis cameras were good. I will play around with it some more - but I am hoping some others respond to see if they have had a similar experience and what (if anything) they can do to correct it.