Surveillance Pro Font sizes

Have some questions or having issues with Amcrest Surveillance Pro? Post them here for the mods and other users to assist you.
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RayClem
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Oct 08, 2021 5:28 am

Surveillance Pro Font sizes

Post by RayClem »

In order to view my 4K cameras in native resolution, I am using a computer with a 4K monitor. When using Surveillance Pro, the fonts are so tiny that I have a difficult time reading them. Even clicking on the "X" to exit the session is difficult.

Does anyone know of a way to enlarge the fonts in the menus, etc. Other programs I use allow me to enlarge font sizes 250% so I can read them easily.

Any suggestions.
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longedge
Site Admin
Posts: 584
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2017 9:34 am

Re: Surveillance Pro Font sizes

Post by longedge »

I've been in exactly this position myself and found that if you wish to drive your monitor at 3840x2160 then unfortunately there's nothing you can do to make things easier to see. I know some people might suggest using Windows scaling settings but in the past I found that causes more problems than it solves because there are some applications that are not scaling aware. A zoom level of 125% equates to a setting of 2560x1440 (this is what I use on my monitor) so you might just as well use that setting.

I love my 4K TV which I view from a distance of around 6-8 feet but the native resolution of my monitor sitting at a 'normal' viewing distance makes it unuseable for me.

Just my 2 cents worth and others might think differently :)
My AMCREST Cameras:-
2 x IP3M-941B firmware V2.620.00AC00.3.R, Build Date: 2019-12-18
1 x IP2M-841B firmware V2.420.AC00.18.R, Build Date: 2019-08-03
GaryOkie
Posts: 418
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2020 7:23 pm

Re: Surveillance Pro Font sizes

Post by GaryOkie »

My laptop display is also 3840x2400 with a Windows recommended scale of 300%. At that scale, the desktop is perfectly readable, but ASP and SmartPSS do not honor the scaling as they should.

You CAN workaround this!

Right click the ASP icon / Properties / Compatibility / Change High DPI Settings / Check the box "Override high DPI scaling behavior" / select scaling performed by SYSTEM (or SYSTEM enhanced) / OK.
RayClem
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Oct 08, 2021 5:28 am

Re: Surveillance Pro Font sizes

Post by RayClem »

Thanks, I will try that as well. In addition to my computer with 4K monitor, I recently got a laptop with a 4K screen, so the override setting might come in handy.
davidtkhayes
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed May 11, 2022 4:27 am

Re: Surveillance Pro Font sizes

Post by davidtkhayes »

Is Amcrest planning to resolve this issue? I cannot and am not interested in scaling my entire Windows Surface Pro 7 just to accommodate a single app. And even when I play with the settings, it does not seem to affect the font size within Surveillance Pro.

any updates anyone?
GaryOkie
Posts: 418
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2020 7:23 pm

Re: Surveillance Pro Font sizes

Post by GaryOkie »

The only one who could possibly give you an update on this forum about the status of Amcrest software development is @eliamcrest . Otherwise, you are better off asking Amcrest Support directly with a support case.

Meanwhile, you can review this MS support article to see if there are any other settings than what I provided above that can help you.
see: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/top ... 0b99aa347d

Per this MS troubleshooting guide, it says to run Process Explorer to examine how the app was built to handle scaling. I ran this, and the result for ASP was it was "Per-Monitor Aware". Meaning: "The app will check for the DPI when it is started, and will adjust the scale factor whenever the DPI value changes. These applications are not automatically scaled by the system."

So what this means is ASP was apparently written for Windows 8.x and not updated to use the Universal Windows Platform introduced with Windows 10 back in 2015, despite ASP v2 being released in 2020. Furthermore, Amcrest may be reliant on Dahua to provide an updated code base since the UI for SmartPSS looks practically the same as ASP.

My 4K res laptop screen has text so tiny at 100% (no scaling) it is entirely unreadable to my eyes. Windows defaults to 300% text scaling only, nothing else is scaled. When I change ASP's compatibility properties to force it to use system scaling, then it properly scales the text to 300% as well.

I suspect your Surface Pro 2K screen has a recommended text scaling too (150% maybe?). Have you changed it to use 100%, no text scaling? If so, then I don't know how you are going to adjust the text size in an old per-monitor DPI aware app.
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