EYEsurv ESIP-MP1.3-BT1

[DrBunsen]

I just purchased the EYEsurv ESIP-MP1.3-BT1 from Nelly's Surplus in hopes that it will work with VDV. Before purchasing I did find documentation of the RTSP string that can access the camera's stream, so I was hopeful that it would work. But last night and today it thwarted all my efforts toward cooperating with VDV.

It appears that the camera is a rebranded version of the Dahua DH-IPC-HFW2100. In any case, it gives a great HD image, in a fairly small package, though I wish it had a wider field of view.

During setup in VDV, the camera is detected by VDV on the network. The string that the instructions say should work is this (my cam is at 10.1.1.31):
rtsp://admin:[email protected]
/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0

I split the string into 2 lines so that it won't get shortened by the forum software (i.e. there shouldn't be a line break between 31 and /cam). I am able to use the above string to view the stream via VLC, so I know that it works with something.

When I try to set it up in VDV, the string that VDV says it's building doesn't have the "admin:admin@" part, and is only sending this:
rtsp://10.1.1.31/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0

I'm guessing that that the problem is either with the lack of login-name:password, or with the resolution. The camera only supports 1280x960, 720p (1280x720), 704x480, and 352x240, and I've tried each of the resolutions (and with both H.264 and MJPEG). I was hoping that VDV would use the 1280x960 stream and either stretch it or insert black bars in it's 1280x1024 setting, but maybe the resolution has to match exactly. The wording in VDV makes it sound like it would get scaled to a resolution, meaning that it doesn't have to be that resolution to begin with.

Anyways, if anyone has any hints for something else to try I'm all ears. I like the camera and the price ($230 + shipping) and would prefer not to return it.

[DrBunsen]

I now know a little more than yesterday. I have a piece-of-junk Foscam (FI8918W) that requires a hard reset every few days that I tried on VDV. When I use the manual setup (for "Other" cams) it doesn't matter what I set the "Scale video to" resolution to in VDV, it works fine. So that's a non-factor.

In any case, I'm going to play with this a bit more, and also check with Nelly's Surplus to see if there's an HTTP stream that can be accessed. I already know that at least one other piece of surveillance software works with this camera, so then it may come down to whether I want lower resolution cams (boo, hiss) and great software (VDV), or HD cams (yay!) and merely good software (brand x).

Or, maybe there's another HD camera with IR for around the same price that works with VDV... My search goes on.

[ryan]

Hi DrBunsen,

When you say vitamin d doesn't have the "admin:admin@" part, are you filling in "admin" in both the username and password fields? That will take care of that specific issue.

[DrBunsen]

Hi Ryan! Thanks for the reply!

Yes, I am filling in the fields. My concern was that the URL that is built (shown under the stream path field) doesn't show the "LoginName:Password@", but I'm guessing that VDV inserts that in the actual URL that is used.

I spent a couple hours trying many different permutations of resolution, encoding, framerate, and bitrate, hoping that something might hit. I also upgraded to the Beta version in case it would make a difference.

I can tell that something is happening when I have the settings right since it takes about 25 seconds for VDV to tell me "Could not connect". If I intentionally set something wrong (e.g. login name, password, IP address, port number) then it says "Could not connect" in about a second. So VDV seems to be struggling mightily trying to talk to the camera, but then runs out of steam. I might see if Wireshark can shed some light on what's happening.

[ryan]

Hi DrBunsen,

You might try adding a tcp to the end of the URL, this is sometimes necessary for certain rtsp streams that don't provide correct formatting information. So the stream path would be "/cam/realmonitor?tcp" for example, or something like "/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0&tcp" to add on to a longer string of arguments.

[DrBunsen]

Holy smokes - adding "&tcp" to the end of the string did it! Thanks SO much Ryan!

Now I'm having fun.


BTW, there are 2 streams with this camera, so it's possible to have a high-resolution monitor and a lower resolution one. Using the stream path of "cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0&tcp" gives me the main (higher resolution) stream, whereas "cam/realmonitor?&tcp" gives me the lower resolution one. (The low-res one is also available by changing the subtype on the full stream path to from 0 to 1.)

Woohoo!


Ray

[daavidfischer]

I had similar issue with my newly purchased EYEsurv ESIP-MP1.3-BT1. I tried working out with checking the password fields but that didn't help. I had to call a local technician to make it working and he charged me lot. I wish I would have reached here before.



Thanks
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