Video Corruption

[leebo69]

I am running version 2.0.8 with 4 cameras for 9 months now. Before that I was running with 3 cameras for 3 years. Until last month everything has been fine, but now I keep getting video corruption, see picture.
It happens across all cameras, but not at the same time. I have no corruption if I go directly to the cameras and not thru Sighthound. I have changed PC's the software runs on, and tested and changed ethernet cables. The only common piece is Sighthound.

Is there a fix for this?
Can Sighthound not handle 4 cameras?

Please help.

[cino72]

that looks more like network slowness. i would guess that camera is a wireless camera that has the corruption. if you move it over to the router and plug it into the router and turn off wireless on the camera to see if you still have the corruption problem while running 4 cameras

[Devin]

Hello leebo69,

This is a problem that can occur not just with SV but with any media viewing application when connected to an rtsp stream over UDP. Unlike TCP, UDP has no reliability - packets can be lost resulting in video corruption like you see.

Some ways to approach this problem -

1) Some cameras allow you to set whether the rtsp stream is transmitted over TCP or UDP, selecting TCP should fix this if that is an option.

2) You can have Sighthound attempt to force a TCP connection. To reach this setting edit the camera in Sighthound and go to the stream settings page.

3) Making sure your camera has a good connection can help reduce dropped packets - whether by boosting the wireless signal, or switching to a wired connection.

Note that you likely aren't seeing this when connecting directly to the camera's web page as it is using a different method to stream.

Regards,

-Devin

[leebo69]

I should have made it clear, that these are all wired cameras. None are wireless.
Any other ideas?

[cino72]

I only had the problem one time and it was either because of a slow pc or slow wireless connection. i ditched that pc and wireless at the same time so I am not sure which was the problem. i do still have the same camera working and its wired and doesn't have the problem.
so...
just guessing its either not enough ram or slow hard drive or both. ditching wireless ruled out network lag so i would have to guess its the box. recording video really sucks down pc resources. I would start from the bottom up.

1. drop one of the 4 cameras that is not having the problem and see if the camera that is having a problem still has a corrupt image.
2. drop the resolution down on the cameras.
3. watch pc resources and see whats going on.
4. if you see the hard drive is running all the time i would get a faster drive and more ram.