Pixelation problems with live view stream from IP cameras

[absolute2070 0]

Hi all,

 

I am having issues with a IP camera system I installed at a client's location. The camera images in live view pixelate with motion (when someone passes through the camera's field of view). The recordings are rock solid. The system consists of:

31 Messoa IP cameras ( a mix of NDF821, NDF891 and NDF875 Pro).

Cisco Catalyst 2960 Series SI Switches

3U Rackmount server with I7 2600K, Supermicro C7P67 Motherboard, 8 GB of RAM, SSD for OS and Alnet Netstation software, Windows 7 Professional 64 bit, Adaptec 6805 PCI-E RAID controller card

 

Alnet server is set up with H.264 1080P resolution for the recording stream and VGA MJPEG for the live view stream (again, the recording stream is fine, the issue is with the live view stream). Both steams are set up for 15 fps.

 

The cameras are connected to 4 different 2960 switches which home run back to the server room via fiber gigabit uplinks. The switches are the customer's; they have set us up with a VLAN for the cameras and server.

I attempted to zip and upload an image, but got an error that the file was too big.

 

Thank you

[vin2install 0]

Well obviously your two streams are going to be different, your recording is at H264 1080P is going to look a lot different than you VGA Mjpeg stream.

[absolute2070 0]

No, I'm not talking about resolution. Copy and past the link into your browser to view an example.

 

 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/l2bxaecu2t1rkje/cbE032nJvQ

[gringo 0]

What is the distance between the cam and the power supply ?

Check the camera power supply (PoE or 12v). I have the same issue with one Sanyo HD2100P. I just have to replace the old Canyon CNP-POEI PoE injector.

[absolute2070 0]

That particular camera is about 40 feet from the dedicated power supply (not using PoE, and yes the PoE is turned off on the ports that the cameras are using. Remember that the images that are recorded are perfect; no pixelation whatsoever.

[MaxIcon 0]

What you're seeing there is frame coding issues, related to updates between key frames. You may be dropping or corrupting packets. It looks like it's missing frame updates between the key frames, leaving behind partial images that should have been overwritten with new frame segments.

 

I'd expect it to clear up when it receives a key frame, then start over. With my Messoa, it gets a key frame every 30 frames, so at 10 fps, the corruption builds for 3 seconds, the resets to a clear pic.

 

My Messoa NCR870 has a lot of trouble with that, and Wireshark shows a lot of corrupted packets coming from it. I'll have 2 NVRs recording with the exact same settings, and one gets corrupted streams, the other is fine. Likewise, my current setup is recording with no problems, but watching on my phone gives frequent corrupted images. I also tried both DC, POE (my normal setup), and both on at the same time, with no change.

 

I've never been able to clear it up, and it takes getting all the settings just right so that I can record ok. Not too happy with my Messoa, I'm afraid.

[ak357 0]

No, I'm not talking about resolution. Copy and past the link into your browser to view an example.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/l2bxaecu2t1rkje/cbE032nJvQ

 

I would start with network stress test

[thewireguys 3]

I have not used Messoa but they my not like 2 NVRs pulling from the same stream. Arecont only can have one stream connected at a time.

 

 

What you're seeing there is frame coding issues, related to updates between key frames. You may be dropping or corrupting packets. It looks like it's missing frame updates between the key frames, leaving behind partial images that should have been overwritten with new frame segments.

 

I'd expect it to clear up when it receives a key frame, then start over. With my Messoa, it gets a key frame every 30 frames, so at 10 fps, the corruption builds for 3 seconds, the resets to a clear pic.

 

My Messoa NCR870 has a lot of trouble with that, and Wireshark shows a lot of corrupted packets coming from it. I'll have 2 NVRs recording with the exact same settings, and one gets corrupted streams, the other is fine. Likewise, my current setup is recording with no problems, but watching on my phone gives frequent corrupted images. I also tried both DC, POE (my normal setup), and both on at the same time, with no change.

 

I've never been able to clear it up, and it takes getting all the settings just right so that I can record ok. Not too happy with my Messoa, I'm afraid.

[thewireguys 3]

Does Alnet use dual streaming?

 

*Edit sorry I missed the fact that you have one stream setup for H.264 and the other to MJPEG.

 

Good to know about the Alnet is a CPU killer.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Guest

[absolute2070 0]

Gringo - Since my last post I have been to the client's site and rebooted my power supplies; I noticed when I did that 3 ports on one Catalyst and 3 ports on another Catalyst still showed activity even though the power supplies were shut down. This would indicate that the switches were still supplying PoE even though PoE was disabled on those ports. Messoa is funky in that when offered PoE while connected to dedicated power supplies, the camera will default to PoE. This caused problems previously (cameras disconnecting for no reason) , so I had my client disable PoE to my camera's switch ports. I will revisit the client's site today.

 

Wireguys - The camera's are not connected to two NVR's; just one. And yes, Alnet uses dual streaming. When using the Alnet Configuration Wizard, you have a choice of High Resolution streams only or High and Low. I initially set up High Resolution only but, that setup slammed my I7 to the ground; 100% CPU usage in Task Manager. I changed my settings to High and Low; 1080P for recording and VGA for live view; Task Manager now shows around 25% CPU usage.

 

MaxIcon - Thank you; your analysis sounds logical. Sorry to hear that you have not been able to work around it. I will try manipulating the frame count settings if possible; also a call to Messoa and see if I can get this issue kicked up a notch. I will keep you all informed of any progress I make.

 

Thanks for everyone's input; you folks are great!!!

[vin2install 0]

Does your cameras have an option of viewing the VGA Mjpeg stream through the browser?

It also could be your NVR having problems transcoding and displaying the lower quality stream for live views.

[absolute2070 0]

PROBLEM RESOLVED

Apparently, the Alnet Configuration Wizard is only half of what has to be done in order to get a lower resolution live stream. The second part is done in the Alnet CMS Professional software (the client software for connecting to the servers and viewing cameras/recordings). When using the client on the server (yes, I know that is a no-no) the CPU spiked with only a few cameras up (4 or 6). Same thing when viewing the cameras through the Server software. In order to get a lower resolution stream for the live view you have to:

Be Logged in with Admin privileges in the Alnet softwart

Open the client software

Connect to the server

Click on the Menu "Settings" Tab at the top of the screen

Select "Camera and Motion"

The "Display Settings:" field will pop up

The server and camera you are changing will appear in dropdown lists at the bottom left hand corner

Under the "Picture Quality" field you will see "Use settings when camera:"

"Selected" will aready be populated; leave it at "full" in the video steam tab

Hit the dropdown for the "Use settings when camera:"; the choices will be "Selected" (the default) "large picture" and "small picture".

Select "large picture" then click the dropdown on the "Video stream: tab; select "secondary" (this will enable the VGA stream)

Do the same for the "small picture"

Click "Apply to All" in the bottom left hand corner so you don't have to go through each camera, then "Apply to Server" and click OK

NOW CLICK ON THE SETTINGS TAB AND SELECT "SAVE SETTINGS"

Disconnect from the server, close the client, reopen the client and reconnect to the server. Now, the CPU should be fine with up to 64 cameras showing on either the client or the server. And no more pixelation on the live view.

We're pretty dissapointed that Alnet Tech support was unable to solve this issue.