struggling with set up dahua 3301

[DavidH 0]

Hi all,

I am really struggling with my setup of dahua 3301 http://www.dahuasecurity.com/products/ipc-hfw3301c-357.html I just do not have the knowledge to set them up no matter how much I seem to read just getting more confused and need HELP !

 

I installed 32gb micro SD cards in all 4 cameras. I have managed, with difficulty, to access the cameras with IE11 and can adjust most of the settings. Google Chrome has a lot of buttons missing so don't use it.

 

I have set the cameras for motion detection, masked off the areas which I do not want activation from. The software for this masking seems very poor and offset from where the mouse is pointing a bug of some sort here.

 

I have set the cameras for 3mp, low framerate and VBR to reduce the amount of data to the card. I have set it to pre-record 5 sec but I noticed that if I walk into view of the camera and then walk away again and access the footage using Dahua smartPSS or the smart Player software, both of which appear to have a lot of faults in them, the camera is recording but I am not in view. What am I doing wrong? I have set it to record 3 minutes, there are anti dither settings etc. as well but no matter what I try I don't spot myself in the footage.

 

Would I be better just setting the cameras to record all the time to my PC? I feel that may be more reliable. Do I need to set up FTP setting in the record section of the camera for this? I tried the setttings within Dahua smartPSS but I press local record and about 20minutes to 1 hour I come back and it has stopped recording again, that is with general not MD settings.

 

I feel that its all a bit hit or miss with my recordings and I would not like to rely on the footage.

 

Is there a good dummies guide to setting Dahua or any IP cameras up properly?

 

Thanks

 

David

[buellwinkle 0]

You can playback the video recorded on SD in the Playback tab if you have current enough firmware (mine is from May). All these cameras have a learning curve, just requires patience.

 

With 4 cameras, I would not use recording to SD card because you shouldn't have to login to 4 camera web interfaces to find what you want and likely slow and I'll be surprised if you get more than 2 days in a busy location. You may want to get a Dahua NVR since setting up NVR software may be harder than setting up cameras. Make sure you get a model that can record 3MP as the cheaper models only do 2MP.

 

FTP sounds easy, why not, just FTP to a NAS but you'll have tens of thousands of files for each camera and there's no management of the files, meaning if the disk is full, it just stops recording.

[DavidH 0]

spent 12 hours yesterday trying every setting I could think of. Moved away from the SD cards like you say not enough storage, that was a waste of 4 x 32gb cards !!

 

Going into IE11, set up only one camera to record on motion detection and put the path as my E drive on my PC. I have not set up FTP or anything. I then click local record on the live video feed. One file is recorded to the hard drive and thats it no more is recorded. If I set up to record on general, even if I set it to record for 15 minute packets it just keeps recording to around 500mb approximately 30 minutes then stops recording.

 

What am I doing wrong? What way do you guys set up your cameras what settings do you use and where am I going wrong.

 

Thanks for any help

 

David

[tomcctv 187]

David what part of Scotland are you in ???

 

also did you load recording software from disc or from dahua website

[DavidH 0]

I am in southside of Glasgow.

 

I installed the software from the disc the older PSS but it is dated around July 2012. I downloaded a much newer version from the website but even after working out how to change it from Chinese into English it did not appear to work very well. I noticed they had SmartPSS so downloaded and installed that along with PC-NVR it appears to pick up cameras etc. but again the recording side of things is strange. There does not seem to be any information about software version anywhere on that package which is strange.

 

I wonder if I need a camera firmware update and maybe up to date PC software. Getting to the point I am almost tempted to just buy an NVR to stop my headaches.

 

I placed the front of house camera on record via web interface on general record and went to the park for 2 hours with the kids. Came back and after approximately 1 hour and 1GB of recording my PC had frozen. Only built it around 10 months ago and its never done that before so I think that was probably caused by the camera.

 

What a headache this entire thing is.

 

David

[tomcctv 187]

hi. david.

 

I am in southside of Glasgow

 

am around androssan / pestwick area a few times a month.

 

I wonder if I need a camera firmware update and maybe up to date PC software. Getting to the point I am almost tempted to just buy an NVR to stop my headaches.

 

NVR is best if you just want to install and forget.

 

but also PC with the PSS is also ok ..... its just PSS needs to be learned which takes the time.

 

 

I placed the front of house camera on record via web interface on general record and went to the park for 2 hours with the kids. Came back and after approximately 1 hour and 1GB of recording my PC had frozen.

 

 

do you have another H/drive you can use for the PSS data. either in pc or external

 

if so. click on config ..... bottom then recording path then click and pick the drive. see if you have problems then with pc lock.

 

[DavidH 0]

I use the smart PSS so its a bit different

 

and for the schedule it looks like this

 

hope those appear using photobucket.

 

The E drive mentioned is my 2TB backup drive which I want to record the footage to. It all just seems a bit flaky. I am not sure if I am supposed to set up FTP to just get video onto the PC. I have set the 'packet length' which I presume means how long each file should be at 15minutes if I use general recording but it can record straight for an hour.

 

I think I may upload the original software from the disc again and see if I get any further with it or just buy something else like NVR+ or blueiris etc.

[tomcctv 187]

you will have problems with that software ....... its a 3rd party and not dahua

 

 

just click on file in your PM for latest download of pss

[DavidH 0]

Hi Tom,

 

Installed the PSS think that is the same version from 2012 that was on the disc with the cameras. Main reason I had moved away from it at the start was because I was trying to set up the cameras to only use the microSD cards but that idea just is not working and I forgot to go back to the PSS software as I had the smart PSS installed.

 

Can you set up motion detection in PSS? I can't see it. I have just pressed the 'start record plan' under tools and the PC did not explode, may have started a nuclear war somewhere maybe !! but so far so good. I will let it run for a few hours/ overnight and see what sort of quantity of data I am storing.

 

If I can get motion detection to work at a level were I am happy I can trust it to actually work then I can up the fps, bite rate etc. to record in the best quality possible. Interesting point about PSS V4.06 at the top of each channel it says I am streaming up to around 1000Kbps which is a lot less than under SmartPSS which said it was over 2500Kbps mind you that was in daylight its now dark so that may account for the drop off.

 

Do you have the same motion detection masking problem I mentioned earlier where I try and mask a box off but a box exactly 2 above is the one that is masked? I can try and put a screen grab up to show you if this does not make sense.

 

Cheers

 

David

[buellwinkle 0]

I've tried Dahua's PSS and was stumped by it and I've run about a dozen different NVR software solutions for myself and reviews I've done. It can be mastered given enough time.

 

You can try a few commercial solutions that may be worth it and most have a trial period to give you a chance to see if it's for you. Some like BlueIris, $37USD on U.S. eBay, simple to use and setup, good if you have just a couple of cameras as it's CPU intensive with 3MP cameras. Has smartphone apps at about $10 extra and a web interface that works with just about any browser, supports Dahua via RTSP. What I settled on personally is Milestone XProtect (free "Go" version or Essential version ($49USD/cam), good web interface that works on just about any browser, very good mobile smartphone apps that are free, supports Dahua via Onvif, finds and sets up Dahua cameras automatically (maybe the only cameras I have it does this with).

[MaxIcon 0]

One plus of Blue Iris is that it has pretty sophisticated motion detect algorithms. This can make it more complicated to set up, but once you figure out what the settings do for you, you can fine-tune it, and even select different profiles for day vs night or whatever.

 

It does require some CPU power, as BW says.

[DavidH 0]

so far so good. Why would Dahua put smartPSS on their website when it is rubbish and does not work !! PSS is working ok but can't see any option for MD so I may have to go for blueiris or might try milestone. I can mess around with the trail stuff before purchasing. At present I could in theory record 38 days at my 9fps VBR set at around 2000kbps and quality at max of 6. I have decided to up to max 15fps 4000kbps quality max 6 to see over 24 hours how much hard drive I use I can presume double.

 

If MD would work I could max all the cameras and still record weeks/ months on a 2TB drive.

 

Only strange thing I noticed is when I turned the monitor on this evening the picture was all messed up. It appears that the graphics chip is having problems probably as my PC is also connected to my TV.

 

I also noticed if I hit control F to find anything on a document that the PSS page comes up instead it must have altered the hot keys somewhere.

 

Any idea if PSS is optimised for 64bit PC's blueiris and milestone do mention they are suitable/ optimised for this which would certainly mean full use of 64bit CPU's.

 

I am so happy at least I appear to have started being able to use these cameras thanks to you guys.

 

Now if I can sort out MD, remote viewing, optimise settings, understand all terminology fix and sell the anran ones that I have been stuck with etc. I am sorted

 

Cheers

 

David