Subscriber Discussion

Any NVRs With Encoding Functionality ?

LL
Louis Li
Jul 14, 2014

Depoy some 3 to 5MP cameras in the east coast and client wants realtime multiview in their centrol center across the country. Could add few Axis encorders in the mix but the NVR/Encorder combo just don't look professional.

Typical NVRs just take whatever the cameras throw at them then store/playback etc. Wondering if there were NVRs with encoding functionality built-in?

Any suggestions?

EF
Eric Fleming Bonilha
Jul 14, 2014

So, you want the NVR/VMS to retrieve a 5MP and transcode to smaller resolution for example?

If that is the case, I wouldn´t recommend going on that route... transcoding high-megapixel images is CPU intensive and I don´t know if the machine will handle it... unless you use really powerfull machines, but for a typical stand-alone NVR it will probably not work...

I would use multi-stream capability from cameras...

JH
John Honovich
Jul 14, 2014
IPVM

Louis, please clarify what you want.

The video is, by definition, already encoded. You want to transcode it?

It appears you want multiple resolution versions of the 3MP and 5MP, perhaps a VGA version for viewing across the country? If so, what you are looking for is multi-streaming.

Avatar
Jack Zhang
Jul 18, 2014
IPVMU Certified

For live view, some NVR supports "channel zero encoding" that will allow you to get a realtime multiview channel at 960H@30fps (most of them have a bitrate limitation of 2048kbps).

As for liveview/playback with transcoded stream, I haven't seen any standalone nvr that can do transcoded streams very well yet..

JH
John Honovich
Jul 18, 2014
IPVM

"Channel zero encoding" appears to be a Hikvision marketing term and a bizarre one at that.

From a Hikvision manual:

"Sometimes you need to get a remote view of many channels in real time from web browser or CMS (Client Management System) software, in order to decrease the bandwidth requirement without affecting the image quality, channel-zero encoding is supported as an option for you"

Whatever Hikvision is doing is either magic or a misrepresentation of a basic functionality.
Avatar
Jack Zhang
Jul 18, 2014
IPVMU Certified

lol, That function description is a little weired and misleading.

however, i dont think the function exclusive to hikvision. dahua has the same function with almost identical name. i'm sure other manufacture would have them under different name.

It's just simple function that turns a multiview screen into a low quality single channel for faster remote viewing. it allows the user to pull a single stream of multiple channel instead of trying to access multiple substreams.

what hikvision has on their user manual is wrong. it does affact (reduce) the viewing image quality greatly.

JH
John Honovich
Jul 18, 2014
IPVM

"it allows the user to pull a single stream of multiple channels instead of trying to access multiple substreams."

"what hikvision has on their user manual is wrong. it does affact (reduce) the viewing image quality greatly."

That makes sense. Thanks for clarifying.

SM
Steve Mitchell
Jul 18, 2014

Well, technically it's certainly possible. One of the solutions I work with does just that. Record all streams at 720 then transcode on-the-fly for remote streaming (via HLS) at much lower bit rates than what was recorded. The transcode targets a given bitrate and scales resolution and compression to match measured channel capacity. It is CPU intensive, which limits total simultaneous streams. But in this application the real limiting factor tends to be the egress bandwidth from the site, so many simultaneous streams is already a non-starter. The hardware involved is very economical. Of course 720 is not 5MP, and this is for a relatively narrowly defined use-case..

LL
Louis Li
Jul 18, 2014

Hi Steve, assuming the HLS means HTTP Live Streaming, do you use a stand alone NVR to get this done? If so, could you please share the brand/model of the NVR? Thanks.

New discussion

Ask questions and get answers to your physical security questions from IPVM team members and fellow subscribers.

Newest discussions