Hi all,
Firstly, I’m so glad I finally found this forum and software. I’ve been looking for ages for a program to keep tabs on the cams at my house.
I recently bought 2 new cameras for testing. One is a Digoo DG-M1Q, the other is a VStarCam C7824WIP.
I have both set up in NCS after some tweaking and searching of how to use the custom urls. Both cams had to be added using the custom url rather than the ONVIF option for some reason, even though both supposedly support ONVIF. I’m running NCS 1.5.1 x54, if that helps.
I’d prefer to use ONVIF to get all the features, but so far I can only get connections as noted above.
Anyway, here are my questions:
The Vstar is a PTZ camera. I can get it to move if I select “continuous” PTZ in the settings, but that just moves the cam until I press one of the zoom buttons to stop the motion, so it’s difficult to move a little bit, and I have no control over the speed of motion. Choosing relative doesn’t move at all. The zoom buttons don’t do anything, whereas they should be digital zoom. Any idea how to fix this?
On the Digoo Cam, it’s a fixed cam, but I should be able to do digital PTZ, but I can’t. I’d like to be able to enable this feature as well. I can do it through some other software, so I know it’s possible, but I’d prefer to use NCS.
These 2 cameras are different aspect ratios. Is there a way in 2-screen multiview to adjust the split so that one side is larger than the other? Even better would be to have “pop-out” windows for each camera that I could resize and move around independently. Again, I can do this with other software, but I’m planning to buy a NCS license if I can get these little things resolved.
Thanks for any help. It’s nice to finally find a community that supports it’s software!
Thanks for the suggestions Steve.
I agree about how the PTZ should work on NCS, but it’s not.
That’s a bummer about not being able to resize the window split in multiview mode. Can we get that added as a feature request for the next version? That seems like a fairly basic feature.
I found and installed ONVIF Device Manager.
Both cameras show up in the list, but neither one will show a video.
Both will “connect” to the extent that I can see some of the settings for the cameras, but I never get video for either.
Does that tell you anything?
EDIT: I was able to get video for both cams by logging in at the top of ODM. I didn’t realize that’s what it was asking for. It’s odd that I have to log into one camera, then pick it from a list of several. Anyway, I’m able to see video from whichever cam I’m logged into in ODM.
The VStar cam, which has mechanical PTZ, I’m able to control via continuous PTZ only, and it works as expected, with motion occurring as long as the move button is held, then stopping. Relative and Absolute PTZ modes do nothing at all. Zoom does nothing.
The PTZ on the Digoo cam does nothing, and in fact is pretty much not selectable. This is odd, since if I use the Digoo app, I at least get digital PTZ.
Any of that helpful in figuring out the issues with NCS?
Well features request doesnt work like that. Either it’s being requested by multiple users or it’s being requested by one of our “big” customer with couple of licenses.
We will consider it for future releases if it becomes a recurring demand from multiple users.
Now for onvif in theory ncs should behave the same way that onvifdm does, we have tried to use as much as possible the same logic since onvifdm is more or less the only tool that works correctly with onvif devices.
Unfortubately it’s a bit tricky to diagnose remotely but not impossible. To check closer here i would need you to give me access to your cameras over internet.
With the onvif/http and rtsp port forwarded + an admin account, in theory i should be able to connect it in onvif from here and diagnose onvif ptz.
I understand about the feature request thing, I just wanted to throw my name in the hat as someone who would like to see that feature added. I certainly don’t expect something to be coded in just for me, it just seemed like a basic feature that should have already been in there, so I thought maybe I was missing a setting somewhere.
As for the remote diagnostics, I appreciate the offer, but I won’t be able to do that. I do some government contract work, and part of my agreement includes “no unauthorized remote access” to my system, so I can’t let anyone else in, even for troubleshooting.
Is there anything I can check or settings I can change in NCS that might make it behave properly like ODM for the PTZ?
Could it be because I wasn’t able to use the ‘wizard’ option to add the camera and had to use the custom url? Is there a better way to add that VStarcam C7824WIP camera? I understand that this is a very common model, so I wasn’t expecting such issues getting it connected. Maybe I did something wrong on the setup, or perhaps my url isn’t quite right.
My current url for that cam is: rtsp://user:password@192.168.11.19:10554/tcp/av0_0
I went back this morning, removed the cam, and added it again using the ONVIF tab, and it behaves the same, still funky PTZ.
Oddly, if I try to add it using the regular “network camera” tab, when I choose Vstarcam brand, it pops up my model right away, but when I choose the IP and other options, I never get the [test connection] button, it stays grayed out.
I’m afraid that here you won’t be able to diagnose by your own so only other solution is that you take the camera home or to another connection and give me access there.
Without this remote onvif access then I probably won’t be able to help on this one.
Hi Mike,
I see that Steve just answered. I have some more suggestions that you can try.
1.I have put you on the list of suggestions from the forum of new features.
2.If I understand correct the Digoo DG-M1Q camera works correct.
3.The VStarcam C7824WIP.
-We would´t tamper with unauthorized access. Possibility is if you can move the camera outside of that environment? Otherwise this will be difficult.
-I know that many manufacturers are struggling with this ONVIF PTZ so check that you have the latest firmware installed in the camera.
-when you pick that camera from tab Network camera I see that it connects with this url rtsp://user:password@IP:port/udp/av0_0 and no PTZ. The test connection button should be grayed out since this test is not available when using rtsp. This only works when connected to cameras using jpeg or mjpeg format. So this is correct. I recommend you to use your URL above which use tcp that works best.
-so question is if we can find another camera that is equivalent to yours? If I search in the templates I have this one:
Siepem S6211Y-WR . This one connects with rtsp and /udp/av0_0 and PTZ. There are of cause so many different PTZ controller out there so this is just a long shot that might work or it will not, but test.
Excellent, thanks! Being able to resize or even “pop out” individual camera views is a feature that will really have a bearing on which software I end up buying. Some of the others I’ve evaluated have that ability, and I really like it, since it allows me to make the best use of my screen space.
Not exactly. The Digoo video is viewable, but non of the digital PTZ features are working. They work if I use the Digoo app, but I’m looking for a single program that can administer all my cams. It’s only 2 at the moment, but I’m planning to add more in the future once I decide on a camera model and software package. I have just discovered this morning that I can zoom in and pan with the mouse wheel, but as soon as I click away, it resets to the default full view. If it would hold my zoom and pan settings, then this would be ok.
I don’t really have a way to move the VStar to another location. This is my home office that I’m trying to set up for. I have checked that I’m on the latest firmware, and it appears that there might be an update, but so far I’ve not been able to get it to actually perform the update. I don’t see any errors, so it might be a typical case of Chinese software not quite working as advertised.
I see what you mean about the test connection button, so sweat. The thing that really baffles me is that if I use the built-in web interface and connect via internet explorer (yuck), it actually works ok and all features, including PTZ, work correctly. However, I HATE running IE all the time, especially since I’d have to run it separately from the Digoo cam, as that one doesn’t have a web interface at all.
I’ll try that other template and report back. Thanks for your help!
EDIT: Hey, that kinda worked! I removed the other entry for the Vstar and added it again, using the template you suggested for the Siepem.
I have video, and the PTZ pretty much works. It’s a little spotty as to how much it moves when I click, but at least it doesn’t just wander off until I press a zoom button!
This may be as good as it gets for now. I just have to decide if this is the best software package for my needs. I don’t use any motion detection or recording, it’s all just for live monitoring, so my main concerns are resource, performance, and UI-related, since I’ll be looking at it all the time, and having to juggle screen space and CPU usage.
One more thing… Is there any way to configure the various features of a camera (any camera) such as brightness, contrast, PTZ speed, AGC (if present), etc… through NCS? I don’t see any options like that, but I might be missing a screen somewhere. I was wondering what’s the proper way to set up a camera if I’m using NCS. Do I use some other program to get it “setup up right”, then use NCS for viewing?
Excellent! I had a hunch that it should work. The cams are very much a like I will actually compile the different information into a new template for the vstar cam.
The manufacturers usually do their own apps for their cams and using IE with ActiveX is very popular. But if you wont to use another software like NCS a lot of these things are lost and some other things you gain. ONVIF is a way to handle this, but many of the major player are not that interested, but it gets better. Today there are so many no-name cams that are really very good and they all use onvif so the future will tell.
It´s the same for Digital PTZ. It works in their own App, but open up how they use it is a no no.
You have not missed a screen somewhere. These settings you need to do in the camera configuration, usually in the web interface. Also, a future for onvif.
Ok, this is odd.
I was notified that there was an update to NCS today, so I did it.
After upgrading, my Vstarcam PTZ camera no longer works, after all that you did to help me get it sorted out!
I noticed that you’ve added profiles for the VStar’s, so I tried adding a new source, and I can get video, but no PTZ.
If I go back to the original ‘hack’ method of choosing the Siepem profile, the PTZ doesn’t work that way any longer either.
The only way I can get PTZ to work at all any more is to use the ONVIF source, with continuous PTZ, but then it does that wandering thing where I have to push a zoom button to stop the motion.
What happened, and how can I get it back to functional?
I also have those dogoo same model cameras, very reliable etc but PTZ works on ODM but not in NCS Even with continuous selected, the cams only work on digital mode PTZ in ODM etc. I then bought a cam saying onvif 2.5 compliant and a common online selling one called anisee, but it really is not as box says, its not onvif compliantat all, but taught me a lot via chinese controlling most new cams of all types trying to lock you out of outsider viewing programs and a international security risk for many reasons. Firstly it wont log in anywhere in any program except china one which wont work in win10, NCS a lifesaver as after some seeking i extracted a port number and no other number but this one will work, interesting NCS search showed a directory named “index” thus likely my roadblock, so i tested every cam in list, the brand name “all in one” worked, only that one and limited to jpeg but failed audio, but awesome even minus audio and ptz, a rare add-hoc camera and add rare one-only port number was the amazing winner, thus can use its program for audio and ptz and ptz allows screen in NCS to follow…impossible to add as onvif but says onvif compliant and discovered by onvif searches using many various avenues. thus the “index” directory might be a hurdle and prevents a login, the maker is trying to stop any other type communication with their camera, and sure, their program records but no motion detect etc thus useless, lucky i was already a NCS user, and found a way to add it as an all-in-one model cam, am assuming it is both ana and digi ptz unlike the dogoo, as this one rotates but digoo does not but allows a small ptz deviation when used as digital ptz in ODM. so, take note, getting the right port is critical, often found using cam phone app, otherwise “test connection will fail” and the brand “all in one” seems to be just that, a universal type format though limited. Next is to try counter it having a directory detected named “index” as that is likely for the cameras login page online, thus preventing onvif login, quite shifty by cam maker, but go to cam login page and it rejects login details, but accepts phone login. soon we need to be careful what brand we buy, and need to use hard to get non china brands. they all rely upon hidden login to china and ability for them to view your cams.
I will actually compile the different information into a new template for the vstar cam.