Trying to wade through all the different software that Amcrest has to find the best settings for my situation. I had hoped to be able to capture license plates of any cars coming down my street as they turn in front of my house. The street is about 30' away from the camera but the images of the plates are just too blurry. I had some mail stolen out of my mailbox a while back, along with other people in the neighborhood, so that's the reason for the camera. I live at the end of a cul-de-sac, so I have a pretty good view of any and all cars driving on the street. Although that doesn't really help much if I can't make out the license plate. The cops weren't interested in my neighbor's Ring doorbell footage that only showed the car and no license plate. So, any helpful info on what settings to change to get a good shot of images about 30' away from the camera would be greatly appreciated.
I'm also a bit confused by the 10-second Motion Detection Record Delay setting. I thought that meant that it delayed recording an event for 10 seconds, but I'm also reading on here that it might be adding to the recording time, so definitely confused on that one and what I want it to be set at.
Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.
New IP8M-T2599EW User
Re: New IP8M-T2599EW User
10 sec delay set for how long you want to record want a 60 second recording set to 60.
About camera needs to be a fast processor camera with high bit rate and fps
About camera needs to be a fast processor camera with high bit rate and fps
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Re: New IP8M-T2599EW User
Looking at the data sheet for that camera I hate to say it but that camera isn't going to be a good LIC Plate camera.. at 8mp it is only 15fps and you would need to have the camera closer then 24 feet to the area of interest.. Then worse yet it is only a 2.8mm lens so there is no change of the FOV for better viewing..
You would also need to make sure for any camera your using to have it setup for less then a 30degree top down or right of left or left of right anything over that will not capture well enough..
For best results you will want to get a Motorized lens camera and setup for only view of the LIC Plate area. It will not be 100% capture but much better then the camera you using now. 5mp or lower I would say 4mp would be best bet or lower...
Other option that Amcrest don't seem to offer right now is a APNR camera and can range from 399 to 1000 again these cameras not a camera you will be doing anything with besides reading LP
You would also need to make sure for any camera your using to have it setup for less then a 30degree top down or right of left or left of right anything over that will not capture well enough..
For best results you will want to get a Motorized lens camera and setup for only view of the LIC Plate area. It will not be 100% capture but much better then the camera you using now. 5mp or lower I would say 4mp would be best bet or lower...
Other option that Amcrest don't seem to offer right now is a APNR camera and can range from 399 to 1000 again these cameras not a camera you will be doing anything with besides reading LP
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Re: New IP8M-T2599EW User
Just reset this DVR again lol So lost all my camera names I have not set them up yet.. However this is my CH1 that shows what I call TriRoad 10x zoom camera. It is a Bullet camera First picture isn't the widest angle it has. However there is a party going on next door and with it all the way back it shows more of people that i don't post
First Picture is my Normal area of View, Second Picture is Full Zoom in at 50mm and last picture is about 24mm and where I would need to have it if I wanted to read plates. This is a DVR so the capture is 30FPS and I can play each frame to find the best one if I wanted to read plates.
First Picture is my Normal area of View, Second Picture is Full Zoom in at 50mm and last picture is about 24mm and where I would need to have it if I wanted to read plates. This is a DVR so the capture is 30FPS and I can play each frame to find the best one if I wanted to read plates.
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Re: New IP8M-T2599EW User
Hmm, well that's disappointing about the camera. I'll have to do some more research to see what would fit the bill. What software are you using in your screenshots? It doesn't quite look like the Amcrest Surveillance Pro software.
Re: New IP8M-T2599EW User
That is the WebUI of my Amcrest 7108-AI DVR. Out of the cameras I have installed that are not PTZ it was only one that has the Zoom ability from the point of Install to the Point Of Interest in a road...
Please don't get me wrong. That camera you own can read plates. However there will need to be some major adjustments to make it so.
First 30ft is little to far (really need to see the current Feild Of View) ID for that camera is 24.5ft away. Also will need to point it between 0 and 10 degrees of the objective area. Also because the camera is only 15fps max that means your software is either a NVR or the cameras WebUI if it has it built into it will need to have the frame by frame. However I think that only able to run on IE so in Chrome it won't have that feature. Next you could use the Amcrest Software ASP bring up the playback, then camera feed, then start playback press pause and then use ASP Frame by Frame. Don't have to really hit the Pause pressing the frame by frame button will pause it also as it goes though the frames.
For me I don't hardly ever leave my 30fps cameras running at 30 I drop them to 22 for main and 18 for my Sub. What this means is on my Main Playback I have 22 frames between each second of a video. (Sorry if you already know this) Just trying to make sure I get enough Info out there to start with..
Why this is important. Because each time you playback in full speed things can be missed. When you go Frame by Frame it can show things that our eye didn't pickup or might have even passed in playback normal.. When a Camera that is designed to capture plates there is a function that goes on every time it takes a plate picture of merging all images within the scene into a complete plate image and then takes that picture for storage. When you don't have a Plate camera we have to do that work sometimes..
Next when you do plates the FOV is very narrow, in General that camera isn't doing any other task besides waiting to capture a plate.. Night time setup has to be done in a way that the camera can see past the bright plate lights, headlights and tail lights. Another reason the camera is only used for plates because every time you wanted to see a plate if it wasn't already setup the car would be gone.. Also trying to capture everything around and not just plates would be a lot of CPU, Ram and Encoding. In my area where I took them pictures from that area sees over 400 cars a day maybe only 1/2 of them would be Plate Capture ability in this install area.. This camera is over 100 feet from that street. It is 30 feet above ground one of my PTZ cameras is mounted even lower then this one The PTZ camera I have and can capture plates over 300+ feet away even at night.
Take for instance. My camera in picture above I use that DVR to send that camera to my NVR, I have my NVR setup for 4 IVS of none AI cameras. So By using a Intrusion setup I can make my PTZ to a Preset where when the auto gets there the camera can read the plates. Doing so for that setup can do 2 things. First have more info then just plate number of a passing Auto by capturing the auto as it passes that. Then at that same time the NVR records the plate as the car passes the FOV.. However right now I no longer have it setup that way and if I did it that way right now the camera wouldn't be able to get all plates at night do to the bright lights. However setting the camera up right can see even in Bright light area at night
Please don't get me wrong. That camera you own can read plates. However there will need to be some major adjustments to make it so.
First 30ft is little to far (really need to see the current Feild Of View) ID for that camera is 24.5ft away. Also will need to point it between 0 and 10 degrees of the objective area. Also because the camera is only 15fps max that means your software is either a NVR or the cameras WebUI if it has it built into it will need to have the frame by frame. However I think that only able to run on IE so in Chrome it won't have that feature. Next you could use the Amcrest Software ASP bring up the playback, then camera feed, then start playback press pause and then use ASP Frame by Frame. Don't have to really hit the Pause pressing the frame by frame button will pause it also as it goes though the frames.
For me I don't hardly ever leave my 30fps cameras running at 30 I drop them to 22 for main and 18 for my Sub. What this means is on my Main Playback I have 22 frames between each second of a video. (Sorry if you already know this) Just trying to make sure I get enough Info out there to start with..
Why this is important. Because each time you playback in full speed things can be missed. When you go Frame by Frame it can show things that our eye didn't pickup or might have even passed in playback normal.. When a Camera that is designed to capture plates there is a function that goes on every time it takes a plate picture of merging all images within the scene into a complete plate image and then takes that picture for storage. When you don't have a Plate camera we have to do that work sometimes..
Next when you do plates the FOV is very narrow, in General that camera isn't doing any other task besides waiting to capture a plate.. Night time setup has to be done in a way that the camera can see past the bright plate lights, headlights and tail lights. Another reason the camera is only used for plates because every time you wanted to see a plate if it wasn't already setup the car would be gone.. Also trying to capture everything around and not just plates would be a lot of CPU, Ram and Encoding. In my area where I took them pictures from that area sees over 400 cars a day maybe only 1/2 of them would be Plate Capture ability in this install area.. This camera is over 100 feet from that street. It is 30 feet above ground one of my PTZ cameras is mounted even lower then this one The PTZ camera I have and can capture plates over 300+ feet away even at night.
Take for instance. My camera in picture above I use that DVR to send that camera to my NVR, I have my NVR setup for 4 IVS of none AI cameras. So By using a Intrusion setup I can make my PTZ to a Preset where when the auto gets there the camera can read the plates. Doing so for that setup can do 2 things. First have more info then just plate number of a passing Auto by capturing the auto as it passes that. Then at that same time the NVR records the plate as the car passes the FOV.. However right now I no longer have it setup that way and if I did it that way right now the camera wouldn't be able to get all plates at night do to the bright lights. However setting the camera up right can see even in Bright light area at night
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Re: New IP8M-T2599EW User
Thanks for all the info. At this point, I'm at the start of the learning curve on cameras, so spelling out details is helpful to me. The camera's WebUI is supposed to be accessible via Chrome, IE, Safari and Firefox. I've been using Firefox just because I'm more used to that browser. I'm also using the Amcrest Surveillance Pro software. Still trying to figure out how to zoom in on anything when I pause the video with either of those options. Since I haven't yet found a zoom feature, I've downloaded some of the video and snapshots and used other video and photo editing software to do that.
Unfortunately, unless I mount a camera on a tree or put one on a post, I'm not going to be able to get any closer to the street. Then I'm stuck with using a battery and WiFi connection. Maybe I'll just have to be satisfied with having video of someone actually stopping at my mailbox and pulling something out of it since the cops weren't all that interested when I told them that I actually saw the people pulling mail out of my neighbor's box, but couldn't see the plate. I've lived here for 35 years and never had anything like this happen, so hopefully that was just a one-off thing, with people looking for checks to the IRS going out in the mail right then. We talked to the mail carrier that day and she said that she had stopped at a couple of boxes where the flag was up, but the box was empty, so they were hitting the whole neighborhood. I reported to the police and the USPS, but neither was very interested.
Anyway, since I have a great view to capture the whole cul-de-sac, I thought I'd make the attempt to set something up. We'll see how it ends up.
Unfortunately, unless I mount a camera on a tree or put one on a post, I'm not going to be able to get any closer to the street. Then I'm stuck with using a battery and WiFi connection. Maybe I'll just have to be satisfied with having video of someone actually stopping at my mailbox and pulling something out of it since the cops weren't all that interested when I told them that I actually saw the people pulling mail out of my neighbor's box, but couldn't see the plate. I've lived here for 35 years and never had anything like this happen, so hopefully that was just a one-off thing, with people looking for checks to the IRS going out in the mail right then. We talked to the mail carrier that day and she said that she had stopped at a couple of boxes where the flag was up, but the box was empty, so they were hitting the whole neighborhood. I reported to the police and the USPS, but neither was very interested.
Anyway, since I have a great view to capture the whole cul-de-sac, I thought I'd make the attempt to set something up. We'll see how it ends up.
Re: New IP8M-T2599EW User
In either WebUI or ASP at the top of the window is where your zoom button is. So you can click that and drag a box around what you want to see closer and it will pop a larger image of that area. Then you can drag your mouse wheel forward and back to make it closer and or farther away.. Right now looking at ASP in the first camera I brought up my 1046EW-AI 4mp camera I have in the top of the window 6 icons and the X for total of 7 the one right next to the X is the one for Digital Zoom... Keep in mind that Digital zoom isn't as good as the pictures above seeing that is a 10x Optical Zoom camera. Yet your camera is a 8mp camera so the image should be really good and after about 4x it will start to Pixel out..
In playback in ASP please note that your zoom might be hidden. When you do a Search for the event, once you get the list on the right, and start playback about center right of the view window is a tab to make it full once you move that tab to the full right you will see Snapshot, zoom and X for options... Now once you click the zoom and if you use box method you can then use mouse to move the area around some..
Something to look at in your camera. I can't say that yours has it or not. But my 1046EW-AI has a second sub channel. This camera you can choose what and where you want that picture to be. So as I said it is 4mp. I can choose my Sub2 to be 720 or 1080p and choose where I want in the Cameras normal FOV at that size. It is like having 2 cameras in 1. Maybe yours has that feature I didn't look much into the other features if it does when you click on the Sub2 there will be an area where you could choose the type of view you want. Like I can use normal or ROI. By using ROI aka Region of Interest I can choose to only see the left side of the screen and it is zoomed in. Not all cameras offer that feature and for the ones that do not many people know to look or even use it. For you it could give you the zoom-ish effect that might get a better view of the plates... Again not all cameras have it my 1046EW-AI was 209 at the time I bought it, it has since been lowered to under 190 I think but worth every penny..
About a Battery camera Personally I wouldn't put one in an area that has easy access that someone could roll up and Snatch I do have a Amcrest Battery camera. They are not for everyone and if there is loads of events won't get the 6 months of battery life. I can get 6 months when I put it in very low traffic area. I let it go to around 20% battery life before I charge it again. Good thing is if it was taken it wouldn't be usable to anyone and the footage isn't in the camera it is in the base that would be in the house.
In playback in ASP please note that your zoom might be hidden. When you do a Search for the event, once you get the list on the right, and start playback about center right of the view window is a tab to make it full once you move that tab to the full right you will see Snapshot, zoom and X for options... Now once you click the zoom and if you use box method you can then use mouse to move the area around some..
Something to look at in your camera. I can't say that yours has it or not. But my 1046EW-AI has a second sub channel. This camera you can choose what and where you want that picture to be. So as I said it is 4mp. I can choose my Sub2 to be 720 or 1080p and choose where I want in the Cameras normal FOV at that size. It is like having 2 cameras in 1. Maybe yours has that feature I didn't look much into the other features if it does when you click on the Sub2 there will be an area where you could choose the type of view you want. Like I can use normal or ROI. By using ROI aka Region of Interest I can choose to only see the left side of the screen and it is zoomed in. Not all cameras offer that feature and for the ones that do not many people know to look or even use it. For you it could give you the zoom-ish effect that might get a better view of the plates... Again not all cameras have it my 1046EW-AI was 209 at the time I bought it, it has since been lowered to under 190 I think but worth every penny..
About a Battery camera Personally I wouldn't put one in an area that has easy access that someone could roll up and Snatch I do have a Amcrest Battery camera. They are not for everyone and if there is loads of events won't get the 6 months of battery life. I can get 6 months when I put it in very low traffic area. I let it go to around 20% battery life before I charge it again. Good thing is if it was taken it wouldn't be usable to anyone and the footage isn't in the camera it is in the base that would be in the house.
Be Safe.
Re: New IP8M-T2599EW User
Using my Unix box so wasn't able to use IE however in Firefox I was able to get my Sub2 turned on and setup seeing ASP I could turn it on and choose what size I wanted it but no option for the ROI..
These two pictures are from my 1046EW-AI 4mp camera so you can see what I am talking about with zoom of Sub 2 first picture is of Main, second one is sub2 as you can see in picture..
These two pictures are from my 1046EW-AI 4mp camera so you can see what I am talking about with zoom of Sub 2 first picture is of Main, second one is sub2 as you can see in picture..
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Re: New IP8M-T2599EW User
So I also thought I would mention about IE Tab. In my other pictures I was using firefox on Unix and it wasn't happy about ie Tab that I have installed so wasn't able to show. This is from Edge on my Win10 box. The Edge has ability to run in older IE from a tab see picture below. When in that mode you can see the Digital Zoom I have clicked it so it was red in this picture. ONce you do that you can drag an area to zoom in or pull back on mouse wheel will zoom in area of your mouse pointer doing the drag and drop of the box is faster.. But wanted to make sure I gave good details.. Also note that I have added a picture of my AI DVR with that camera in my first pictures to show what happens when I have Intrusion in the area.. This is something that might be able to help as well. I would have shown my AI NVR but I removed that channel for now and was just faster to show my DVR.. So yes my 4216e-AI NVR has the same layout as this DVR so on a Tripwire or intrusion it would look the same.. Also From ASP last window. Sorry had to make picture smaller it was over 3mb now around 1..
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