Flickering & Random colour changes at night

[AndyPandy]

Hi All,

Does anyone know why my camera in ZoneMinder (latest version) does this at night: https://streamable.com/tdu3m

It's like that in the live view too, however if I look at the live feed on the cameras page, it's fine. Also if I use another app (in this case Vitamin D Video), it's also fine. It only happen in ZoneMinder, and only in the dark. During the day it's perfect.

Happy to post whatever settings people might think are causing it. The camera is a D-Link IP camera; don't have the exact model to hand.

Cheers,
AP

[bbunge]

Linux distro and version as well as Zoneminder version?

[AndyPandy]

Hi- ZoneMinder v1.30.4 (freshly installed), running on CentOS 7 x64.

[AndyPandy]

Any suggestions?

[snake]

I might be wrong, but I think this is due to the camera outputting something in the stream that ZM doesn't like. I've seen broken streams with an areconte vision when and only when its binning mode is enabled.

Try a different camera, or try tweaking the settings of the camera. Remove any proprietary features or functions that the camera is doing on the stream.

[AndyPandy]

Thanks for the reply. The camera model is a D-Link DCS-932LB with the latest firmware (2.14).

Resolution is 640/480 (I know), FPS 20, frequency 60Hz.

Nothing is turned on that would alter the image (anti-flicker, flip. mirror, brightness, contrast, saturation etc.) that I can tell.

I don't have another camera to test with right now. I wonder if anyone else has this model and is seeing these issues?

[snake]

I have two of a similar model. Bought a third but it was DOA. These are cheap cameras. No flickering problems. I can't vouch for the longevity of these cameras, but they are cheap, and support openwrt.

Either get a different camera, or try a different type of stream, RTSP, JPG, or MJPG, from what you are currently using. My guess is that your camera is defective. It's also possible the firmware is the issue.

[AndyPandy]

Yes, it looks fine in VLC, and also in VitaminD Video (precursor to Sighthound) at the time that it's flickering in ZoneMinder.

It's not RTSP, it's a "jpeg.cgi" URI, which just serves up a JPG image each time it's called.

I have the framerate set to 30fps - is this perhaps way too high?

[AndyPandy]

Thanks for the tips!

I have an mjpeg.cgi and video.cgi interface available, so I'll try mjpeg.cgi as you suggest, and play around with the framerate.

I've also determined that the camera is not overly stable, and seems to benefit from being rebooted once a day, which I've now setup with a smart plug.

Thanks again for your help!