Subscriber Discussion

Sneak Peak At Panasonic's Smart Coding

EP
Eddie Perry
•Jan 19, 2016

So I finally got a spare moment to look at Panasonic's new smart coding software that will be available for most of their new cameras coming out including the new 3,5, and 6 series cameras. I tried to load up a 631LT with the new firmware, which also includes the new ONVIF config tool capability, and due to a weird network hiccup I bricked the camera.

So after sending that back to Panasonic to be repaired, I decided to try a WV-SFN311, loaded the new 2 step firmware ( which is now encrypted) and breathed a sigh of relief as I didn't brick this one. Over all their isnt that much has changed on the surface.

So the Smart coding runs only when transmission priority (or mode) is set to VBR (variable bit rate ). Normally a WV-SFN311( 720p) will have an average bit rate of no more than 2048 KB when running at 30FPS. At 30FPS on my desk with no movement or picture change, with out smart coding the average bit rate is around 1200KB, which is about where is should be given the small area its covering. With Smart Coding turned on the average bit rate is around 270KB with the camera in same exact conditions.

the camera still "throttles up" when movement is taking place on the screen increasing the bit rate to what it would be if you were not running in smart coding mode, but after about 5 sec its starts slowly moving back into smart coding mode and returning back to the low bit rates again.

WV-SFV311 in smart coding mode

WV-SFN311 Smart Coding

WV-SFN311 in normal mode with Frame rate as priority

WV-SFN311_FR

I pulled a 60 second copy of the streams in both modes using FFMPEG into H.264 files with no movement on either of the stream copies.

The results.....

file_size

311_FR is the camera in normal mode with FPS as the standard, 311_VBR_SC is the file size after running with the Smart coding on. its a little less than 25% smaller with almost no losses. I am not sure how to Embed video here yet so as soon as I figure that out I may post them in the comment section unless john beats with a full article for every one first. Going to try a 1080p model as soon as I can get one up and running with out bricking it.

It seems like a great idea if you record 24/7 if you just record on motion it may not be worth it.

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JH
John Honovich
•Jan 19, 2016
IPVM

"with out smart coding the average bit rate is around 1200KB, which is about where is should be given the small area its covering. With Smart Coding turned on the average bit rate is around 270KB with the camera in same exact conditions."

Eddie, very interesting, nice work!

Did you see or did they mention anything about I frame interval dynamic adjustment? I am guessing that is what is happening to bring it down that far.

EP
Eddie Perry
•Jan 19, 2016
In reply to John Honovich

All I have is what they released here

http://shop.panasonic.com/about-us-latest-news-press-releases/09282015-smartcoding.html

I can go into the streams further on my analytic server I have back at my lab. This was done off my Windows laptop which has a limited version of FFMPEG and other tools on it.

But if I was to guess by the release and what little I can see right now I would say that is most likely the case. I will say its very clean to be a pilot version though.

I wonder what the results would look like with the Huge swath of super resolution models they are releasing over the next couple months.

U
Undisclosed #1
•Jan 19, 2016
IPVMU Certified

Sweet!

Based on the sizes shown, I'd say it went from I-frames < 1 sec (without Smart Coding) to I-frames > 5 secs (with).

Its a little less than 25% smaller with almost no losses.

Assuming you mean 25% the size.

Did the non-smart coding run have frame drops as well, or could it be due to the increased decoding required?

EP
Eddie Perry
•Jan 19, 2016
In reply to Undisclosed #1

yes I meant 25% of the size it should be normally.

I had frame drops due to the fact I am running a linux version of FFMPEG on windows though a emulator, and because I Limited the frame capture to 30FPS. The camera's raw H.264 can broadcast higher than 30fps but will limit by the camera stream parameters, and by what I set the capture rate to be on the FFMPEG side.

the highest I have been able to capture off a raw H264 camera stream is around 126fps at 720p for about 30 sec before I start getting errors.

DL
David Lieberman
•Jan 25, 2016
IPVMU Certified

Great write up! Thanks for sharing with the rest of us.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
•Apr 04, 2016

This happens at the camera level and requires nothing from the VMS vendors, correct? As far as the VMS is concerned, this is just an H264 stream from a supported cam?

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