Open Letter to Amcrest Product Development

[ultimatecodewarrior]

- I really don't want be forced to use a smart phone to setup my IP/WIFI camera.
-What if I didn't have a smart phone or if the smart phone I want to use is not supported by Amcrest?
-What's so wrong with just plugging in an ethernet cable and surfing to the DHCP assigned IP and setting the camera through the on-board webserver up on a nice 32" monitor rather than some wonky under powered mobile device?
I love the IP8M-T2599EW-AI-V3, hate the other ones by Amcrest that demand a Mobile App setup. NO! What If I don't want that software running on my phone, reading my contact lists, selling it others in their network.
I don't want some mobile app displaying some big arsed banner add over my video stream once the trial period is over, or forcing me to watch a commercial, or where I can't even use the camera now that it's beyond the return window. NO!

I love the fact that I can lock onto the RTSP feed myself and do my own storage/video detection/processing at the quality levels I need rather than having to deal with Cloud-based detection that's notoriously late for alerts and sub-par detection that's done by shrinking down the frames to raisins to save bandwidth and processing power. Why would you ever want a 4k camera if detection is limited to 30'. Not to mention the lameness of trying to edit,retrieve,send video segments through some mobile app interface where most of the advanced features you might need don't work.
I want to do my own detection and notification system and have it work according to my needs not something that under performs or dings you so much with nothing burgers you end up just turning it off.
I don't want to deal with grainy video clips because the storage system transcoded your valuable security footage down to an unusable bitrate that does not resemble the view stream rate in order to save space/cost to hell with what you needed it to identify.
I love the fact that I am not bound to any OS or Platform when all the software is already embedded in the camera webserver/api itself.
I love the fact that a device that supports a non-proprietary protocol is more insulated from END-OF-SERVICE life from Amcrest rather than being at the mercy of a proprietary protocol.
With a mobile app in the mix, good luck keeping that product working for 5 years with all the platform changes. I can't stand planned obsolescence that takes my security investment and turns it into a doorstop/desktop ornament simply because the company want to abandon it because there was no more money to be had supporting it.
I wish Amcrest would clearly identify their cameras as to how you will need to set them up. Onboard OS Web-based setup vs Propriety Mobile App setup. The 3 Amcres wifi cameras I bought, all of them need a Mobile App. I'm so dissapointed over this. It's No better than Foscam or Reolink. I'm returning them to Amazon.

And another really annoying thing that needs to be corrected: the PHP Session Times out to fast in this PHP form for a serious usage of it. Put at least a 2 hour session time out, not some 5-10 minute time out. Should be easy for the PHP guys to fix if they were worth their salt.

[cactuscomm]

Not sure of the issue you've encountered but I've never once used my mobile phone to setup any of my cameras - I have 5 types from 5MP to 8MP - bullet, PTZ, turret, to dual lens. If you put the camera on your LAN and your PC is on the same network, you can use a tool like Angry IP Scanner to find it; Amcrest has their own tool. Or you can just use your DHCP Server to obtain the ip address. All simpler to me than using my phone.

[Revo2Maxx]

My guess the cameras are smart home devices. Normal ip cameras don't require app to setup.

[ultimatecodewarrior]

Hi Revo,

The First Camera I am trying out is the ASH22-W:
The instructions were to use the Mobile App to set it up.
It doesn't appear to have a webserver integrated on the camera like the IP8M-T2599EW-AI-V3.
The Mobile App was Limited, wasn't able to change from H265-H264 Encoding or Frame Rates / BitRates
There was an IP Config app that they had that had a scanner for it, and you could tweak the settings kinda through that, but no real reboot function to make sure the settings stay put / stick. There was some things missing, like hide the date/time, logo, IPC stuff in the mobile app and in the IP Config tool.
I did find a RTSP feed for it, and this was good, but it seemed if I had more than 2 simultaneous connections, it would boot one of them off. I've had at least 4-5 on the IP8M, and I love the integrated web server because the software stays with the device and can be configured through a browser on a linux box.
Through the app the video looked great, but I couldn't record the H264/H265 stream very reliably over the wifi link. There was vertical banding in the video at the bottom. Something funkadelic was happening. I tried moving it a about 1/2 closer, still the same problem. Still fiddling around with the bitrates and compression. I'm using PyAv to record the A/V video to my PC. Lots of funkyness with that one with unmuxable packets. I might connect it up to an ethernet port to see if it's the WiFi or just the camera RTSP protocol.

This thing gave me like 50 Human Detection Nothing burgers in a row every 15 minutes on my Mobile app. I would love to see the pose estimation for what it thought was a human. I just wanted this one to monitor my drive way for the UPS/FED EX.
Instead of using WiFi, I will probably try a point to point bridge next. If that doesn't work, I will bury a fiber feed out to the gate.

[Revo2Maxx]

Yes as I thought the Cameras in question are Smarthome.. Personally don't know the camera as I bought the ones that were for my needs at the time.. I still have them and are connected but I don't really rely on them as a Security Camera. The one that I bought to replace my IP5M-1190W was the ASH47,, it has Human detection and don't work well so it is disabled.. Main reason that I bought it was because I didn't like the quality of the 1190 and the ASH47 was built kind of the same way but much better quality built.. Then I have the ASH26, this is a Light and camera with Human detection from PIR but to be honest isn't the greatest working for humans either.. I mean turns on the light from detections behind the camera seeing I have it mounted at the edge of the roof of my Garage looking into the yard where my pups go out to do their business.. I have them connected to NVR and the ASH47 to BI but don't rely on them.

For security there is nothing better then a real IP camera or Qulity built Analog camera with quality DVR.. Smarthome in my way of thought when it comes to security are toys.. I don't want toys to protect my home or family. so I have many different cameras, Ranging from lower quality image sensor working as just to see, Then have cameras like the IP4M-1046EW-AI that has a great image sensor for a 4mp camera and a good f/sttop for quality night time pictures even in color.. Then I have some other camers that while they were not very costly, The quality are good even with the sensor to mp and that is the TD2685EW-AI 8mp and has quality picture but not as good night video as the 1046 and so I have more of the 4mp cameras but another good camera comptct size is the 2779EW-Ai. These camera have human detection using IVS tripwires or Intursion and the 2 8mp also have SMD that does work well enough to keep out bad alerts from leaves and clouds or things moving from shadows. But all of them are 200+ in cost besides the 2779 and I personally feel that is under priced lol.. Seeing it is feature packed and does face detection better then some higher priced camers..

[ultimatecodewarrior]

Hi Revo,
I'll avoid the Smart Home Stuff, or it will end up in the land of the Misfit Toys.

I've been working on a Linux - NVIDIA CUDA - PHP based detection system with Amcrest cameras. The NVIDIA CUDA makes real time frame over frame detection possible due to the 7000+ cores on the 4070 SUPER GPU that I have.

I can get human detection out to about 350' daylight, maybe 150' at night with IR Illumination with the 8MP cameras w/ IP8M-T2599EW-AI-V3. I usu Ultraltyics YOLO 11 for the Object Recognition Detection, I might tie it in to Gemini for a second opinion before an alert happens. Right now I got 4 streams being recorded and processed at 100% resolution, every 6th frame of the 20fps feed ethernet hardwired.

Going to test putting one of these cameras on a Radio Bridge and tie it into a DC powered ethernet POE switch for video / power long distance (350') to the gates. The wifi was to unreliable with the ASH22 It was ok with their app, just not good for recording RTSP for some reason.

Would love to move up to a 12MP Turret, but Amcrest doesn't make one that's affordable yet.

[JustAnotherUser]

"- I really don't want be forced to use a smart phone to setup my IP/WIFI camera."
AMEN!

I have returned every camera that has required a phone app (including a couple of Amcrests). They are SECURITY cameras, running their software on the most insecure device you have is just plain dumb.

You want to make it app friendly for the 'phone people'? Write an app that just interfaces with the camera's webpage like a basic browser and not have any "Phone App Only' weirdness.