Amcrest IP2M-844E setup notes

[gregbzone]

Re: Amcrest ProHD Outdoor 1080P POE Dome IP Security Camera - IP67 Weatherproof, 1080P (1920 TVL), IP2M-844E (Black)

Good results using Zoneminder with multiple Amcrest IP2M-844E dome cameras.

Running Zoneminder 1.29.0 on Ubuntu 16.04 on headless Intel NUC6i5SYH with data mounted on FreeNAS.

Found good Zoneminder setup hints here:
viewtopic.php?t=23866
https://s3.amazonaws.com/amcrest-files/ ... DK_API.pdf
https://amcrest.com/amcrest-prohd-outdo ... k-342.html

To address IP camera security concerns:
The cameras are configured to sync date/time via internal network NTP server.
Configured the firewall to block the cameras from any outgoing network activity (except internal NNTP protocol to NTP server).
The cameras frequently want to connect to 52.52.42.29 (UDP/8800), 54.158.250.32 (HTTP), and 54.87.129.131 (TCP/12366); I have configured my firewall to block the camera from accessing these sites.
The cameras are only addressable from within local subnet, and not exposed outside local subnet.

Amcrest IP2M-844E camera configuration (camera is easy to set up via http direct to camera):
Disable all alarm/trigger/storage/updates.
Set frame rate at 10 FPS.
Added guest user with no privileges except view live.


Zoneminder camera configuration (substitute username, password, and IP address):

GENERAL
Source Type: Ffmpeg
Function: Modect

SOURCE
Source Path: rtsp://username:password@x.x.x.x/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0
Remote Method: RTP/RTSP
Options: (blank)
Target colorspace: 24 bit color
Capture Width: 1920
Capture Height: 1080
Preserve Aspect Ratio (unchecked)


Discovered a camera had hung after about 11.3 days of run time (near 16,365 minutes).
Configured the camera to auto reboot every week at an early morning hour.
Amcrest firmware provides an automatic / scheduled reboot feature.
Other camera operated past 12 days

Other notes:
Nighttime exposure duration must be long because moving subjects can be blurred.
Daytime image capture of moving subjects (cars / people) are captured without much blur.
Perhaps there is a control for low light shutter speed.

Thanks, Greg

--

[patmansf]

The cameras frequently want to connect to 52.52.42.29 (UDP/8800), 54.158.250.32 (HTTP), and 54.87.129.131 (TCP/12366); these are blocked.

The above are all amazonaws.com addresses, but I'd guess they are mapped to actual host names.

Do you have tcpdump output for DNS lookups for the camera?

I don't know if it's even possible to reverse lookup and find *all* hosts for a given IP address, I've never found a tool to do that before.

Set frame rate at 10 FPS.

Were you able to run with higher frame rates?

-- Patrick

[patmansf]

Aww, I found these:

https://askdns.com/ip/54.158.250.32

Maps to amcrestcloud.com, camcloud.com and foscamcloud.com

https://askdns.com/ip/52.52.42.29

Doesn't show any mappings.

https://askdns.com/ip/54.87.129.131

Maps to amcrestview.com

But the above all have aws host names too.

-- Patrick

[gregbzone]

Set frame rate at 10 FPS.

Were you able to run with higher frame rates?

I briefly fiddled with higher frame rates, but reverted back to 10 fps after realizing the impact to other settings.
Also see 10 fps uses about 1 TB of disk using motion detection in my environment and holding 21 days retention.

[BoldAdventure]

What was the impact to other settings at higher framerates?

So, I just installed the same camera with Zoneminder myself yesterday. It's only been running for one day. And I'm new to Zoneminder. But thank you for your notes. It gave me confidence in ordering this camera, although I purchased the white version to use in our main living space.

[gregbzone]

What was the impact to other settings at higher framerates?

The cameras and system are capable of higher than 10 fps rates. However, motion detection filters (and triggering) appeared sensitive to frame rates (changing frame rates affects other settings). I got the system to work, so I stopped fussing with it. Zoneminder is highly configurable.

Additional notes:

GENERAL
Server: None
Source Type: Ffmpeg
Function: Modect
Enabled: (checked)
Analysis FPS (blank)
Maximum FPS (?) (blank)
Alarm Maximum FPS (?) (blank)
Reference Image Blend %ge 6.25% (Indoor)
AlmRefImageBlendPct: 6.25%
Triggers None available

BUFFERS
Image Buffer Size (frames) 50
Warmup Frames 25
Pre Event Image Count 30
Post Event Image Count 48
Stream Replay Image Buffer 1000
Alarm Frame Count 1

I configured two zones per camera using preset = "Best, high sensitivity"
Type: Active

Be sure to exclude camera timestamp portion of video from motion detection zones.