Problems with IP3M-941W

[MrRusch]

I recently purchased a set of cameras from you, and am now having a lot of trouble integrating e.g. the IP3M-941W model into my home automation. I have a few questions about your API:

1. Is this the latest version of your documentation? https://s3.amazonaws.com/amcrest-files/ ... 3.2017.pdf It is dated early 2017!

2. The documentation says that authorization should work through both Basic and Digest, but it seems only Digest is accepted by the camera. Is this going to be fixed? If not, any possibility that you will allow authentication through URL parameters going forward? It is very hard to integrate Digest auth into any type of web page, and I'm having to run everything through a relay at the moment.

3. I'm having trouble issuing commands through the ptz.cgi interface. The "getStatus" action works, but many of the set-functions respond with "ErrorID=5, Detail=Server internal error!". For example "http://URL:PORT/cgi-bin/ptz.cgi?action=start&channel=0&code=GotoPreset&arg1=0&arg2=1&arg3=0&arg4=0". I have set presets 1-4 in the WebView GUI. I cannot find any detailed logs of what is going wrong in the camera.

4. Regarding presets - I can see in the response from the "getPresets" action that they have names. Is there any way to change these to something more descriptive than e.g. "Preset01"? I cannot find a method in WebView GUI or API.

5. Is there any way to get the full resolution from the MJPEG stream? It seems the main stream cannot be set to MJPEG, and the substream (which can be set to MJPEG) cannot have a resolution above VGA - at least when changing settings in your WebView GUI. Again, very hard to integrate RTSP streams into web sites.

6. I'm on the "latest" firmware - 2.520.AC00.18.R, Build Date: 2017-06-29. Is this really the latest update? It's more than 1½ year old! I found this archive: http://dh.amcrestsecurity.com/dh/ - but very few firmwares are even dated in 2018. Are there going to be further firmware updates for the IP3M-941W?

That's it for now.

Thanks,
/Fred

[alabamatoy]

Why are these questions not being answered?

I have bought a goodly number of Amcrest cameras and recommended them for others to purchase, but I am having serious second thoughts if Amcrest wont provide necessary support.

[Kwing]

Hi alabamatoy, regarding firmware we do have a newer version available on our website. Please go ahead and go to amcrest.com/firmware and the page should load up after following the instructions provided.

Because basic authentication has been removed from our firmware only digest authentication is available. For PTZ issues please go ahead and try the newer firmware as that one has been tested with the HTTP API commands.

Unfortunately MJPEG is only available at sub stream. Main stream does not have the capability for MJPEG streaming.

[dom]

Hi alabamatoy, regarding firmware we do have a newer version available on our website. Please go ahead and go to amcrest.com/firmware and the page should load up after following the instructions provided.

Hello Kwing,

Are you referring to the firmware update described here?

https://amcrest.com/forum/ip-cameras-f1 ... 12744.html

According to the forum thread that firmware does not let you downgrade and it is pretty buggy (i.e.: more than the previous stable firmware). Do you know if there are any plans to release a new firmware update to address the many issues raised in the thread above? Thanks

[Kwing]

Hi Dom, the final release version (08-03-2019) should be available on our firmware page. The one you provided on the forum is the beta version. You can find the final firmware at the following page:

amcrest.com/firmware

Thank you

[dom]

Thanks for the info. Is it possible to downgrade this firmware if installed?

[jack7]

dom,
The firmware download referenced in the forum post has the exact same name, date, and size as the current firmware on the Amcrest site. The forum post you mentioned does not say it's beta. The firmware site doesn't show any previous firmware available. That does not sound good.
I don't think using a modern browser is a good reason to upgrade in this case. IE does not need to be default browser, and only use it for camera Web UI. IE will be supported as long as Win 10, currently until 2025. It's there for legacy purposes. See
https://support.microsoft.com/help/1745 ... t-explorer