Trying to set up 1 powered IP cam, recording to 1 laptop - configuring IP side is killing me. pls help

[Davidthomh]

SUCCESS !!!

Wow - you did it 'connect to router' - that was all it needed !!!...lordy. I would never have thought of that, because of wanting to keep the system down to the absolute bare bones, I'd never have factored in connecting to the ASUS router.

When I connected the ASUS router to the 2nd upload port of the poe box, the 'connecting' in the reolink software changed to 'camera not initialised' (got quite excited when I saw that) - I then clicked on the 'camera not initialised' text which then opened up a password creation/camera naming page - as soon as this page came up, a camera view picture appeared behind the password window in the main viewing screen of the software. Huge.massive. relief.

Now I'm going to open ASUS settings client status page to see what clients are there.....and along with some other devices, the camera is showing up. DHCP gave it 192.168.1.80. Has it's subnet mask, gateway, and MAC address. All good...and router connection was all it needed...dear god...the frustration, anger, feeling completely dumb when reading how easy it was for everyone else...glad it's over lol.

But all thanks to you and your patience and knowledge, I've learned a lot. I've actually been on YT looking at 'networking 101' and other vids to try and consolidate what you have guided me through. Apart from the soul crushing, hair tearing frustration of the experience, networking is actually pretty interesting.

So, is there anything you suggest I do in terms of cataloguing settings in Word - maybe, IP addresses, Mac addresses etc for all connections and devices ? - or knowing I can access them when I need them, just leave it alone ?

Are you ok for another question now that you've already done the 'heavy lifting' lol? ....

I now (thanks to you) have an image in the Reolink client software (yay), but when I move the camera, the camera view image hangs temporarily on it's initial view for several seconds. Then as I move the camera, the view halts/stutters a few seconds lag behind where I'm pointing the camera at. The camera catches up with itself when I bring the camera to rest. (managed to get it set up on samsung phone too (yay), but getting similar video lag)
In music recording it's called latency, but no idea if there's a name for it in video terms

Cheers
David

 

[Davidthomh]

Sorry again, but when I was looking in client list settings in ASUS - all were showing 2.4ghz, none were on 5ghz, would this be right ?

 

[David]

Sorry again, but when I was looking in client list settings in ASUS - all were showing 2.4ghz, none were on 5ghz, would this be right ?

Can you send me a picture?

 

[David]

Success indeed, took a while but we got there, now for the next steps.....

When I connected the ASUS router to the 2nd upload port of the poe box,

Did you mean the second uplink port on the poe switch?

So, is there anything you suggest I do in terms of cataloguing settings in Word - maybe, IP addresses, Mac addresses etc for all connections and devices ? - or knowing I can access them when I need them, just leave it alone ?

I would document it in word or excel, have you added the MAC addresses for the fixed IP addresses?

Then as I move the camera, the view halts/stutters a few seconds lag behind where I'm pointing the camera at. The camera catches up with itself when I bring the camera to rest.

This is normal, when you move the camera there is a delay as the camera has to process a lot of data. When the camera is in place and stable you'll be able to tweak the settings to get it right for your view.

 

[Davidthomh]

Hi David,

Here's a pic of the ASUS router client list showing 2.4ghz.
I did go to the web and found references on how to change settings to 5ghz in the Advanced Settings 'Wireless' page, which I did.
(in the General page, only the 'Band' setting had to be changed to 5ghz, and in the Professional page, 'Band' was changed to 5ghz and 'Enable Radio' was changed to 'yes')
As you see from the client page, nothing changed to 5ghz. I mean, everything is working ok with the 2.4ghz and if that's all we can have, it's ok.
But I was thinking, we don't need wifi over long distances, we're in an ex-council terraced house with thinnish walls, 5ghz could possibly work better.
(the ASUS router is a dual band but seems to favour giving out the 2.4 over the 5)


'Did you mean the second uplink port on the poe switch?' - yes

'have you added the MAC addresses for the fixed IP addresses?' I have

'This is normal, when you move the camera there is a delay as the camera has to process a lot of data. When the camera is in place and stable you'll be able to tweak the settings to get it right for your view' - excellent

Cheers

 

[David]

Hi David,

Here's a pic of the ASUS router client list showing 2.4ghz.
I did go to the web and found references on how to change settings to 5ghz in the Advanced Settings 'Wireless' page, which I did.
(in the General page, only the 'Band' setting had to be changed to 5ghz, and in the Professional page, 'Band' was changed to 5ghz and 'Enable Radio' was changed to 'yes')
As you see from the client page, nothing changed to 5ghz. I mean, everything is working ok with the 2.4ghz and if that's all we can have, it's ok.
But I was thinking, we don't need wifi over long distances, we're in an ex-council terraced house with thinnish walls, 5ghz could possibly work better.
(the ASUS router is a dual band but seems to favour giving out the 2.4 over the 5)


'Did you mean the second uplink port on the poe switch?' - yes

'have you added the MAC addresses for the fixed IP addresses?' I have

'This is normal, when you move the camera there is a delay as the camera has to process a lot of data. When the camera is in place and stable you'll be able to tweak the settings to get it right for your view' - excellent

CheersView attachment 5965

For ASUS, automatically moving clients from 2.4GHz to 5GHz is called Smart Connect and I don't think its an option on your router. You could change the wifi SSID to end with 24G and 5G like wifinet24G and wifinet5G. You could try disabling the 2.4GHz and see what the 5G coverage is like. Signal attenuation through walls for 5GHz is higher than 2.4GHz.

On the PoE switch connect the camera and laptop to the normal ports and leave the router on the uplink port.

 

[Davidthomh]

Hi David,
Indeed, Smart Connect isn't a option. I'll try the changes you suggest, and see if there is any difference.

I reconnected as you suggested regarding the poe - camera into port 1 of poe, laptop into port 2 of poe and cable from uplink port of poe to ASUS router. Workes fine but still 3-5 second video lag between moving camera and the software showing it

 

[Davidthomh]

David, would buying an external video card/unit help with the lag ?

I mention this because when I view the camera through the Xeoma software (the Reolink software offers very few settings adjustments), it shows the camera view ok and lags as per, but a message comes ip at the bottom of the software screen saying 'for enhanced performance of the program's interface, it is recomended to install/update video card or drivers'
So, maybe taking the video processing pressure off of an older laptop would be a way to go ?

 

[David]

David, would buying an external video card/unit help with the lag ?

I mention this because when I view the camera through the Xeoma software (the Reolink software offers very few settings adjustments), it shows the camera view ok and lags as per, but a message comes ip at the bottom of the software screen saying 'for enhanced performance of the program's interface, it is recomended to install/update video card or drivers'
So, maybe taking the video processing pressure off of an older laptop would be a way to go ?

What are the camera video settings?

 

[Davidthomh]

Hi David,
Have taken 2 screenshots of the settings. The Reolink settings page doesn't let you maximise page to see everything, it's a scrollbar at the side, so had to take 2 pics to show all settings :

 

[David]

David, would buying an external video card/unit help with the lag ?

I mention this because when I view the camera through the Xeoma software (the Reolink software offers very few settings adjustments), it shows the camera view ok and lags as per, but a message comes ip at the bottom of the software screen saying 'for enhanced performance of the program's interface, it is recomended to install/update video card or drivers'
So, maybe taking the video processing pressure off of an older laptop would be a way to go ?

checking the drivers for updates may help. Laptop graphics cards are usually integral to the motherboard or part of the main processor. Look at windows task manager and see what the cpu is doing.

 

[David]

Hi David,
Have taken 2 screenshots of the settings. The Reolink settings page doesn't let you maximise page to see everything, it's a scrollbar at the side, so had to take 2 pics to show all settings : View attachment 5966View attachment 5967

The old laptop may have problems. on the clear stream reduce FPS to 20 change max bit rate to 7168. You may have to reduce the resolution. If you are recording clear and fluent streams disable recording for the fluent.
try not to move the camera as a test, move your fingers in the field of view.

 

[Davidthomh]

Hi David,
Updated all drivers (used driver updater software to find what drivers were needing updated)

In Task Manager - Running only 1 Application (the Reolink software) and cpu usage is running between 87% to 100%.

56 Processes are running. 90% of them are showing 0% cpu usage and a few are showing 1% to 2% to 5%.
Reolink has 3 Processes listed, 1 running at 65%, 1 at 12% and 1 at 1% to 2%

Processor seems to be running hot to me, the fan air is at +/- 62c. No temperature warnings though, and this could be an ok running temp for a laptop. Normally I only use a PC.

Have made the suggested changes to FPS and bit rate and reduced resolution. Unfortunately, there is nowhere in any of the pages to disable recording of fluent or clear.

In the Reolink mobile app, there is only a 2 second screen lag in the 'Balanced' setting. In the mobile app, you can change video settings (only affecting mobile phone view) from Fluent to Balanced to 3MP (Balanced has the shortest lag). 'Clear' is in the Win laptop software but not available in the mobile app. The Reolink software doesn't really give you a lot of control options.

So, after changes, we have 10 second lag on laptop and 2 second lag on mobile. Seems like a very high laptop cpu usage rate for only 1 process running.

David

 

[David]

In Task Manager - Running only 1 Application (the Reolink software) and cpu usage is running between 87% to 100%.

56 Processes are running. 90% of them are showing 0% cpu usage and a few are showing 1% to 2% to 5%.
Reolink has 3 Processes listed, 1 running at 65%, 1 at 12% and 1 at 1% to 2%

Processor seems to be running hot to me, the fan air is at +/- 62c. No temperature warnings though, and this could be an ok running temp for a laptop. Normally I only use a PC.

It sounds as though the laptop is not powerful enough, I suggest that you record to the cameras internal micro sd card (256Gb) and use the laptop for live view / playback only. Do you plan to record 24/7 or motion detection only?
How much space is left on the laptop hard drive? delete any unnecessary files and then defragment (defrag) the hard drive.
I think task manager shows the hard drive and page file usage, if these are high then it will run slowly.

 

[Davidthomh]

H David,
Indeed, the processor seems to be hugely straining with all of the data coming in from the camera.
I did plan to record 24/7.

When I bought the laptop (used from a reseller) there was 60gb HDD in it - I swapped that out for a 256gb SSD. I cloned the old HDD which the reseller had taken back to a bare Win7 OS. So it was a clean OS install. There's 200+ gb free space on the hard drive

To the laptop, I added the cloning software program and 3 security camera software programs (to make sure I could use the camera in other software so I wasn't limited to using the Reolink software) and there were no other programs added. It's a very 'lite' system as I was going to use solely for recording camera footage.

I'm coming round to the idea that using the laptop was a big, time guzzling mistake and an NVR box might be the way to go, and a cheap monitor. The NVR would do all of the processing and there would be less chance of the lag I'm experiencing with the laptop - would that be correct David ?

 

[David]

@Davidthomh I agree, the laptop does not have the processing power to handle your camera 24/7. Why not record 24/7 on camera internal microSD? To improve the storage time set the video resolution to 1080p, FPS15, bitrate 2048kb. That should give you around 11 days storage on 256Gb microSD. At least you are getting use out of the camera, that would give you time to review the next steps. You may find what you have actually works for you.

There maybe NAS drives that are suitable for CCTV video storage.

 

[Davidthomh]

Hi David,
I've messaged the laptop reseller to see if he would buy back the laptop. I upgraded the hard drive, so you never know.

The microSD sounds like a possible solution and I have already sent away for a 64gb sd card, which should be here in a couple of days.
If I go the microSD route -
if there's no network connection to the cam from eg laptop (I assume I can still power it with poe), how do I view the contents of the card, adjust recording controls etc ? and is it downloadable ?
If I purchased an NVR later, would the compatibility matter between the Reolink camera and whatever the NVR brand I might buy ?

Sorry for even more questions, but it's a whole new possibility I hadn't thought of.

Cheers
David

 

[David]

The microSD sounds like a possible solution and I have already sent away for a 64gb sd card

Make sure the microSD card is class10 for video use.

if there's no network connection to the cam from eg laptop (I assume I can still power it with poe), how do I view the contents of the card, adjust recording controls etc ? and is it downloadable ?

view the sd card video via the mobile app and laptop whilst you have it. Video should be downloadable. Keep the network connection as it is, via the poe switch to the router.

If I purchased an NVR later, would the compatibility matter between the Reolink camera and whatever the NVR brand I might buy ?

Most NVR's / cameras are compatible with each other using common protocols like ONVIF and RTSP. My first NVR had 1 Hikvision camera using the Hikvision protocol and 2 other old ones using ONVIF and RTSP. Check the specifications before you buy, talk to the seller.

 

[Davidthomh]

Hi David,

Thank you for the inormation

The microSD I've ordered is class 10

It will be interesting to see if there is the same video lag with the microSD in the camera, but with the laptop still in the loop
Will keep all cabling/connections the same

'Check the specifications before you buy, talk to the seller' - will do David

MicroSD should be here on Monday, so you'll be left alone to enjoy your weekend lol

Thanks again
David

 

[David]

It will be interesting to see if there is the same video lag with the microSD in the camera, but with the laptop still in the loop
Will keep all cabling/connections the same

I would think live view will be the same, playback maybe faster as it won't have the laptop delay.

today is setting up a wireless bridge for a friend, followed by BBQ....