Video feed Laggy and drops after firmware update

[guapo131]

Hello and thanks for reading my long post.

I have a IP2M-841B. I bought/set it up in April of this year and it has been working great for 7 months. I use Blue Iris on my home network to record continuously for 8+hrs per day, 7 days per week. I also use the amcrestview.com while at work, and the Amcrest View Pro app on the iPhone. All worked without notable issue. I have terabytes of data that show it was working great until yesterday afternoon when I updated the firmware.

Yesterday, I logged into the web interface on my local network (ex: 192.168.1.46). It asked me to update the firmware. Sometimes there are security risks related to IPcam’s in general, so I thought “sure, why not”. Well, why not? Because, don’t fix what ain’t broken. It was working fine until I did the firmware update!

After the firmware update, I first noticed that I could not access the IPcam via the local web interface anymore (i.e. 192.168.1.46 in Firefox or Internet Explorer). It just says “404 error”. Keep in mind that when I try to access a non-existent internal IP, it says something different (like connection has timed out). This happens via the Wifi connection or wired connection (2 different internal IP addresses). However, interestingly, it was still outputting video to Blue Iris and Amcrest View pro app on the iPhone. But upon closer inspection of those video feeds, they were very laggy. What do I mean by “laggy”? It would take 4 seconds to show 2 seconds of video, then freeze (the video, not the computer) for a few seconds, then skip a few seconds ahead closer to live, then slowly download the video like 12 seconds to show 4 seconds of video. Then it’ll drop the connection altogether for a minute or two, then it’ll connect again and the process repeats. It’s really easy to watch the “12 seconds to show 4 seconds” because the time stamp is turned on in the Amcrest cam. Also, whereas the cam previously (for 7 months) was ~1-3 seconds behind live (i.e. hardly any lag), now at best it is closer to 10 seconds behind live and usually closer to 15-25 seconds behind live – when it’s not dropping the feed altogether. This is all true for the video feed in Blue Iris, Amcrest View Pro iPhone app, and amcrestview.com.

OK, so I’ve been around the electronic block a few times. Sometimes things don’t go perfect in a firmware update process. Let’s do a “factory reset” and see if that fixes it. So I press and hold the LED button on the back for 10-15 seconds (until the LED turns red). It does a “factory reset”. I plug in wired Ethernet. I go to my router and find the new IP address. I try to access the cam via the web interface (ex: 195.168.1.14). Still says “404 error”. I can’t get access to the cam. So I go to the website and download the IP config software. The software finds the cam and if you click on the “gear” settings icon, you can actually see some of the settings (but definitely not all of them) in the Ipconfig software’s window. If you click on the “e” icon, it opens up Firefox or Internet Explorer and again, “404 error”. I then went through the iPhone app and scanned the S/N and set up the Wifi and set the same static IP as earlier (internal: 195.168.1.46), etc. The cam is connected and outputting video, but it has the same problems as after the firmware update: laggy, dropping, delayed and no internal IP web settings interface. Same story for all video feeds I normally use: Blue Iris, Amcrest View Pro iPhone app, and amcrestview.com. In other words, It’s Not Working Right!

Although I’m not a computer programmer, based on what I’m seeing, I would guess that the firmware has added some processing tasks that were not there before and the processor in the cam is being overloaded and can’t keep up. I’m using the same video settings as before.

I just want the cam back to the way it was before the firmware update. I don’t know if other people are having this issue or if I’m the only one. But there is no doubt that there is something wrong here.

Other notable info:
IP2M-841B
Main feed: 1080p, 30fps, 1280kbps
Sub-feed: VGA, 15fps, 320kbps
Computer is a core i5, 6 GB ram, SSD, Blue Iris 4.x
iPhone 6S+
Oh, and I removed the microSD card from the cam at some point, just in case that was causing it to work too hard. I never used the microSD card anyways.


TL DR: Recap:
It was working great for 7 months
I updated the firmware
Now it’s VERY VERY laggy, skips time, drops connection, doesn’t connect all the time, and no access to the local settings webpage.

I strongly believe this has to do with the new firmware. (Seriously! It HAS to be. That’s the only thing that’s changed). What have I done wrong? I would be happy to just downgrade back to the previous firmware.
HELP!!!! And thanks!
Kyle

[Melvin]

Hello guapo131 ,

It looks like the firmware update did not work really well or may be only half complete. I believe you still get 404 error while trying to login in to the web interface of the camera?

Please login to the camera using the Ipconfig tool after another reset and go to the firmware upgrade option. Manually update the firmware after downloading it from https://amcrest.com/firmware. Please hard reset the camera once again and see if everything is working fine.

[guapo131]

Melvin, THANK YOU!
I reinstalled the firmware and did another hard reset, and everything appears to be back to normal now.

Here's a couple of updates (sorry for the post length, but I want to help the next guy who searches the forum with a similar problem)
Obviously the lack of the web interface was because of the firmware not loading correctly. But to address the "laggy, skips and drops connection" issues - I think the "dropping" and "disconnecting" was because of the firmware. But regarding the "laggy" issue, I think I actually traced that back to me connecting to a legacy Wireless B network. As you know, wireless B is much slower than G, N, or AC (2.4GHz). I noticed that even after I re-did the firmware update, the main video feed was still "laggy", but the sub-feed was OK, and neither were dropping altogether. Then it dawned on me that my wireless B and N (2.4GHz) networks have very similar SSID's. I had accidentally chosen wireless B as the Wifi instead of wireless N. Switching it back to N fixed the last issue of lagginess. I did this Monday night, and now it's Wed. I wanted to wait to make sure things are working OK, and as far as I can tell, yes everything is working fine, or at least same as it was before. (I still have small features or bugs that I don't think are quite working correctly - but those are for another thread - if I care enough about it to actually debug/track/address it).

Overall, I am a happy customer (almost lost me for a sec there). Melvin, I assume you work for Amcrest. So you'll be happy to know that you saved your company time and hassle. I would probably have spent an hour on the phone with tech support trying to fix this, but your quick response allowed me to check this on my own before calling in. (BTW, your website says the wrong times & days of week for customer service/tech support).

Anyways, based on this experience I have bought another Amcrest IP bullet cam for my front porch (IP3M-943S). BTW, word of advice to anyone looking to buy an IPcam: Go with a company that actually helps you with the tech support side of things. These things are complicated and there are so many settings and things that can go wrong. Go with a company that will help when you have a problem.

Hope these lengthy posts helps people,
Kyle

[Melvin]

Hello guapo131,

Thank you for keeping us posted. I hope you will have a great experience with these Amcrest cameras.

[tonester]

Melvin--can you please verify as to whether the IP2M-841B camera can indeed connect to a wireless-N network? I ask because the product specs for that camera state that it only supports connectivity to B/G only, so either the Amcrest literature is incorrect (to our benefit, as it is much more desirable to connect to a N rather than to a G) or else the OP may be connecting to a N-configured access point but in fact the actual connection may be G (a wireless-G device can connect to a wireless-N/2.4 network, but the router will dumb down the connection to wireless-G rates.

[Melvin]

Hello tonester,

As per the information we have the IP2M841B only connects to wireless G. Some of the newer models connects to wireless N on 2.4 GHz while the IP3M-941W is dual band supporting both 2.4 GHZ and 5 Ghz.

[Gamechief]

Hello,

i just bought this camera over the weekend. As a Network engineer i take a lot of pride in the Enterprise grade devices in my home that support the connections that i care about. I had a foscam before this and was able to do 960p without problem. I get this cam and do a firmware upgrade before i do anything and i have encourntered bugs and very very laggy video with disconnects. My cam is wired in to my network so wifi does not play a part here. Are we really suggesting i do another factory reset to fix this issue? When will it be time to have the developers step in and release another update that resolves these issues? To tell you the truth i am one step from returning this device to the store and going with another similar product. Please help here!

[Melvin]

Hello Gamechief ,

We recommend doing a factory reset after firmware update. This will surely eliminate the issues you are encountering after the update.

[Gamechief]

I did a factory reset and the issue still persist. When i connect to the camera via HTTP i see the Limited Resource are available message which points to the OP statement about the latest firmware update taxing the resources to a loaded point which is causing this issue. This is quite sad actually as i just bought this camera 48 hours ago and i have yet to see it work correctly. I have attached an image to paint a clearer picture.

limted resources.PNG (41.45 KiB) Viewed 2265 times

[Gamechief]

Version Info of my camera:

Software Version
2.420.AC00.15.R, build : 2016-09-08

WEB Version
3.2.1.377299

ONVIF Version
2.42

Copyright 2016 Amcrest Technologies. All Rights Reserved.

Model Number: IP2M-841B