Talking in the latest V2.420.AC00.17.R 3/22/17 is broken for all 3d party apps

[alexvas]

I’m the developer behind tinyCam Monitor for Android and Baby Monitor for iOS which supports Amcrest IP cameras. I have reported this issue in ticket #126628.

Previously I have reported multiple issues within a year in Amcrest camera firmware and none of them still not fixed. So I will duplicate it here.

In the latest firmware update V2.420.AC00.17.R 3/22/17 talking via HTTP POST on both of our apps is broken for Amcrest cameras. Talking audio is almost two times quicker on camera than in real life. It worked perfectly on previous camera firmware.
I tried to use G.711A, G.711Mu, PCM streams at 8000Hz. Camera IP2M-841.
HTTP POST request is http://ipaddress/cgi-bin/audio.cgi?acti ... &channel=1
Exactly as it was described in https://s3.amazonaws.com/amcrest-files/ ... DK_API.pdf

STEPS TO REPRODUCE:
1. Install tinyCam Monitor FREE on Android
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... lexvas.dvr
or Baby Monitor for IP Camera on iOS
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/baby-mo ... d511651356

2. Setup Amcrest camera and press talk button.

3. You should hear audio 2-times quicker than in real-life.

P.S. Also talking via HTTPS is still not fixed (ticket #113325 & #126629). Getting white noise via HTTPS.

[t84a]

Honestly, I don't expect Amcrest to be around long-term. I'm researching alternatives.

[petergunn]

So I used ssh redirect and tcp dump to snoop on the http traffic between the Amcrest Web View plugin and the camera to see what sort of actual POST command is sent when sending audio. 2-way audio works well with Web View and the latest firmware while 3rd party apps dont.

Code: Select all

20:53:45.052458 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 128, id 3728, offset 0, flags [DF], proto TCP (6), length 190)^M

    192.168.1.2.50891 > 192.168.1.3.8031: Flags [P.], cksum 0xb58f (correct), seq 0:150, ack 1, win 64240, length 150

    0x0000:  4500 00be 0e90 4000 8006 6854 c0a8 0102  E.....@...hT....

    0x0010:  c0a8 0103 c6cb 1f5f 3f01 a7bf baa5 eb47  ......._?......G

    0x0020:  5018 faf0 b58f 0000 504f 5354 202f 7669  P.......POST./vi

    0x0030:  6465 6f74 616c 6b20 4854 5450 2f31 2e31  deotalk.HTTP/1.1

    0x0040:  0d0a 484f 5354 3a20 5461 6c6b 2053 6572  ..HOST:.Talk.Ser

    0x0050:  7665 722f 312e 300d 0a55 7365 722d 4167  ver/1.0..User-Ag

    0x0060:  656e 743a 5461 6c6b 2043 6c69 656e 740d  ent:Talk.Client.

    0x0070:  0a43 6f6e 6e65 6374 696f 6e3a 206b 6565  .Connection:.kee

    0x0080:  702d 616c 6976 650d 0a43 6163 6865 2d43  p-alive..Cache-C

    0x0090:  6f6e 7472 6f6c 3a20 6e6f 2d63 6163 6865  ontrol:.no-cache

    0x00a0:  0d0a 436f 6e74 656e 742d 5479 7065 3a20  ..Content-Type:.

    0x00b0:  4175 6964 6f2f 4448 4156 0d0a 0d0a       Auido/DHAV....

I dont see this POST command in the SDK documentation that Alexey mentioned.

-PG

[alexvas]

They even in Content-Type made a mistake. Should be Audio/DHAV, not Auido/DHAV.
Looks like Amcrest QA tested talking only with their own proprietary DHAV encoding. But not with open standarts.

[lmm]

whatever tinycam did with their last release I now have remarkable response time with my amcrest cameras.

for now, i will not be upgrading amcrest cameras to the latest upgrade.

[jjreynolds]

I use TinyCam pro and reverted back to 16.R firmware. The new release still has the 1 snapshot per email bug and you still can't throttle the number of emails you receive on alarms. Any timeframe on bug fixes?

[dtcamcrest]

Honestly, I don't expect Amcrest to be around long-term. I'm researching alternatives.

What did you find?

[t84a]

Still looking. I just ordered a Dericam from Amazon. 1080P for $60. I'll report back.

[t84a]

Well, the first Dericam was defective. Returned it. Still looking.

[brusyev]

I use TinyCam pro and reverted back to 16.R firmware. The new release still has the 1 snapshot per email bug and you still can't throttle the number of emails you receive on alarms. Any timeframe on bug fixes?

Unless Amcrest becomes serious on their firmware QA I will be returning a dozen of my Amcrest cameras and moving to a diferent brand. I will make sure to leave proper reviews on key sites like Amazon to warn others of these issues. Breaking 3rd party app support was a very unwise thing to do.