Subscriber Discussion

4k Camera & Display - How?

RH
Robert Henriksen
Apr 13, 2016

Newbie questions...

A client wants to mount a 4k TV in a windowless office, and pipe the live feed from a 4k camera to it - create a window, effectively.

I'm going to run both HDMI and Ethernet from the server rack to the TV. While ultimately I'll have Milestone running in a virtual machine to service about 16 cameras, in the short term a dedicated (ie, more direct) link between the 4k camera & TV would be OK as there wouldn't be an expectation for logging & playback.

Question:

What sort of decoder would you suggest for a direct feed to the TV from the 4k camera (ie, not utilizing an XProtect smart client program)? I was thinking about an Amazon Fire TV box running IP Cam Viewer, but would like to hear if I'm on the right track or if there's a better way.

Avatar
Mike Dotson
Apr 13, 2016
Formerly of Seneca • IPVMU Certified

Consider this solution.... an Intel NUC running VLC to pull the video stream from the cam.

Our Digital Signage engineers use this base for many 4K solutions. You will want a 5th gen i3 or better to support 4K@30FPS.

FYI...the NUC is also a decent generic thick client that can handle a couple dozen streams on the i5 class unit....depending on the VMS of course.

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Avatar
Mike Dotson
Apr 13, 2016
Formerly of Seneca • IPVMU Certified

Something I also noticed when doing a 4K display with a Client application.... the CPU usage is potentially higher depending on the VMS.

I was running a particular client app and was at a certain percentage CPU..lets say 35%.... with the output connected to a 1080P monitor.

We have several 4K screen in our lab and I attached the system to one of those... and saw the CPU increase up to 60%.

All I could think of was that the application saw a larger 'drawing space' and had to do more work to use it.

RH
Robert Henriksen
Apr 13, 2016

Thanks, I hadn't thought about using VLC, but I like the idea of drawing the feed directly from the camera.

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Jon Dillabaugh
Apr 13, 2016
Pro Focus LLC

Outside the box, cheaper solution:

Dahua DH-NVR4208-4K 4K NVR

You could use this as a cheap (~$150) viewing decoder. Yes, it's larger than a NUC or Amazon TV, but it can display up to eight 4K cameras (ONVIF 2.3 compliant). And as a bonus, you could throw in a hard drive so they could also have redundant recordings.

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RH
Robert Henriksen
Apr 14, 2016

Jon, that NVR4208 looks interesting! Can it play a single camera's feed, full screen? Ideally without title bars/onscreen controls visible/etc.

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Jon Dillabaugh
Apr 14, 2016
Pro Focus LLC

Yes, of course. You can do the typical 1/4/8/9 split views. You can disable all of the timestamps and overlays too, if needed.

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Armando Perez
Apr 15, 2016
Hoosier Security and Security Owners Group • IPVMU Certified

Reminds me of when we would use a cheapie Avermedia DVR with loop out as a cheap alternative to a $1000 multiplexer... the more things chance, the more they stay the same. :)

Also, Ive tried using a google TV with the apps, even with a 2MP camera, the results were terrible for an application like this.

U
Undisclosed #1
Apr 17, 2016
IPVMU Certified

If you want the easiest to setup and most direct link between TV and camera, you might look at the Sony VM772 4K camera with HDMI output.

Pros:

  1. Almost nothing to setup
  2. Uncompressed image
  3. Low latency
  4. High end camera - IPVM review

Cons:

  1. More expensive, maybe a thousand more than Chinese
  2. Running HDMI cable
  3. Multi streaming not available

Just to round out the options.

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