Amcrest Forum

I recently got a 720p 8 camera system; device type says AMDV7218-S3. I ran the wires, got the NVR setup and have been playing with the settings. I have some issues and hope you guys can help. I've been reading the forum and the web site but still stuck..

Issue #1: Motion detection at night SUCKS!!! I set several regions and keep trying different settings but I keep picking up headlights from the street flashing against the car. I have it turned so far down it no long picks up people, which was the whole point of the camera in the first place. I have sensitivity at 50, and threshold at 50

Question #1: How do people deal with this? I want to pick up motion of someone walking around the car (or other cars pulling in the drive way) but not the passing cars on the street.

Issue #2: White dots/bugs at night! looks like snow or bugs flying at night. I've read this might be due to the IR or moister in the air. This happened on ALL 8 CAMS last night! the video is almost useless. (it was clear and 40s degree last night)

Question #2: How do I resolve the dots/bugs issue?

Thank you in advance!

Nobody?

That looks like rain, not bugs. Are you going through a window? Sensitivity and threshold are two different settings. Sensitivity is "how much" and threshold is "how long". For example, I have a camera that has a bunch of trees in the field of vision. I have the sensitivity at 39 and the threshold at 19. The settings between these two are inversely related: higher sensitivity and lower threshold means more false alarms. Go into the motion detect settings and you can watch the triggers. You can play with the settings and mask areas. I hope this helps a little.

I have seen this same "effect" when it is foggy outside. The camera seems to be recording the suspended water droplets blowing around in the breeze. Haven't found a way to avoid this.

I would do this. Go in to the setup of the motion sensing, and just remove the level line or 2 of where the headlights of the car would reflect against the parked car. You will still pick up people walking around the car since they are taller than and shorter than the line you mask off to not record when motion is detected.

As for the rest of the issues. Some questions:
1- Are these cams bullet or dome with the protection cover?
2- Are they inside or outside camera's
3- If they are inside cams looking out through windows, there is a cheap solution to fixing this but will require an extra purchase to solve.

Answer these and we can go from there.

Thank you the replies. I think kvic is right, I think it's water from fog being picked up by the ir.

As for headlights, I've been playing with the motion zones and can't find a balance I like. The light comes in at different aangles based on passing vehicles. I either pick up everything or nothing.

The software developer in me is thinking about writing some code to process the images and identify objects using computer vision. Anyone using anything like this? Any one interested if I can make it work?

To answer the cam question, I have 4 dome and 4 bullet. All mounted out doors. Most are covered by the roof.

Yes I just joined this forum to discuss this same issue. During the day the motion detection works pretty perfectly - I get notifications to my phone exactly as I would expect.

At night, I just turn the push notifications off because of the false positives. Mainly bugs, particles, car light reflections on my lawn. A general problem w/ these night vision systems is that the LEDs also attract spiders...

I don't know if the problem is solvable w/ settings unless amcrest does some sort of night vision mode in software - but that might not even be possible.

So until they come out with ultra sensitive cameras that don't need lights, or color night vision like lorex has (https://www.amazon.com/Lorex-LNE4322B-C ... JH2RHHHRXW), I think the best solution is turning off night LEDs altogether and just installing sensor security lights with their own motion detection. I think you could also have stand alone motion detectors trigger a camera alert, but not sure how...

Thoughts?

I have similar issue. I got 8 ip2m-841EW. I set them indoor. some cams have similar issue of above, which shows flying transparent snow. The flying object get increased if the air condition is on. I guess it's related to humidity and rooms temperature.

I have to try another camera brand in same area to compare.

I see this on my cameras, 7 exterior and 1 interior (garage).
The exterior pick up moisture in the air such as fog, and the camera in the garage gets this when it's windy out and gets the dust blowing around in the garage.