Dynamic Images "Refresh At Startup"

vining

I've been working on MJPEG cameras and I have the refresh rate set at 0 and the check box for "Refresh only at panel startup" unchecked. This usually works fine but after a file transfer to a panel some cameras aren't working and the picture is a still. I go back to Resource Manager and check my camera URL and the check box is checked. I'll uncheck it, save, transfer the file to the panel and all is well again. I'll then change some bottons or pop ups and download again and I'll notice some of my images are stills again so I go back to Resource manager and those boxes are checked again for the non working cameras.

This is very annoying and I'm only noticing this since I'm working on cameras, if not it would go unnoticed for several days or weeks and then I'd really be scratching my head when I got the "this isn't working" call.

This needs to be fixed! Using TPD4 2.10.0 build 606 v4.

a_riot42

vining wrote: »

Using TPD4...

Oh, well there's your problem, right there.

Seriously, I have used cameras before and haven't noticed what you are seeing. You are saying you get a still shot on the touch panel for any mjpeg camera. How many images do you have on one popup?
Paul

John Gonzales

vining wrote: »

I've been working on MJPEG cameras and I have the refresh rate set at 0 and the check box for "Refresh only at panel startup" unchecked. This usually works fine but after a file transfer to a panel some cameras aren't working and the picture is a still. I go back to Resource Manager and check my camera URL and the check box is checked. I'll uncheck it, save, transfer the file to the panel and all is well again. I'll then change some bottons or pop ups and download again and I'll notice some of my images are stills again so I go back to Resource manager and those boxes are checked again for the non working cameras.

This is very annoying and I'm only noticing this since I'm working on cameras, if not it would go unnoticed for several days or weeks and then I'd really be scratching my head when I got the "this isn't working" call.

This needs to be fixed! Using TPD4 2.10.0 build 606 v4.

Ditto, I've been noticing the same thing for a long time now. It's super annoying. I discovered it the first time when I was noticing how fantastic the low light response was on the camera images. It was pretty dark when I looked out the window but the camera image was bright like it was early afternoon. I pointed out to one of my guys, "Man those are awesome cameras"... then I realized, it was the picture from early in the afternoon!

Then there was the time recently when I showed up at a site and my guys took the security DVRs offline, made some changes to a TP, then put it all back online. After a while I looked at one of the touchpanels and thought somebody had stolen my car... I had parked right in front and the picture showed a beautiful image of the front area and my car was nowhere to be seen. I started to panic then one of my guys realized the image wasn't live.

Fix it please!

--John

vining

John Gonzales wrote:

After a while I looked at one of the touchpanels and thought somebody had stolen my car...

Now that's funny!

Were the check boxes checked on the still cameras? And does it reset itself evrytime you open up TPD4 and re-open Resource Manager? This should be a sticky check box and set to the current file values.


a_riot42 wrote:

You are saying you get a still shot on the touch panel for any mjpeg camera. How many images do you have on one popup?

Yep, 1. The problem is the check box for "Refresh only at panel startup". If checked it will only pull an image from the URL at startup and never refresh unless called to do so through code. Every time I open up TPD4 and go to Resource Manager those boxes are checked even though they were previously un-checked. If I'm not checking this and un-checking these check boxes before downloading a new file to the panel I end up with stills because the check box was automatically reset. At least that's what appears to be happening.

ericmedley

I've had a few panels doing this as well.

There seems to be several settings that can 'magically' change themselves. Most notably is the Wireless settings. I've found panels set to WEP encryption will magically rename the 'Open' SSID to whatever the WAP is and try to connect that way. They can, of course, connect to the WAP but cannot then get to the network.

I had a panel last night that would not save the WEP key to 64-bit. I'd save it and upon reentering the settings window, it would be back to 128-bit. It would connect to the WAP but the settings were wrong.

strange...

John Gonzales

vining wrote: »

Were the check boxes checked on the still cameras? And does it reset itself evrytime you open up TPD4 and re-open Resource Manager? This should be a sticky check box and set to the current file values.

Yes, anytime you open the file in TPD4, it automatically checks the box "refresh only at panel startup". I thought it was a setting in 'preferences' but I never found anything where you could unselect it.

What I do now is anytime I open a file with dynamic images, before I re-save I go into resource manager and uncheck it for each image. It's definitely irritating, and a HUGE time waster if you forget to uncheck the boxes and actually load the file into a panel.


--John

vining

John Gonzales wrote:

and a HUGE time waster if you forget to uncheck the boxes and actually load the file into a panel.

I finally gave up and just set the cameras to 1 and I really don't visually notice a difference. On a small image 320 x 240 the image is fluid and appears the same while on the large images 640 x 480 or bigger (pulling Compressed at 50%) it's crappy but about the same also. The TP's I'm using in the office are around 6 years old now, running the current firmware but they can't handle the streams of the larger images. The images are broken up into what amounts to a bunch of stills with with several frames missing in between the ones that get displayed. I also don't get button feedback when viewing larger images and I'm only expecting mometary feedback set in the panel for PTZ control.

They definitely need a firmware fix to fix the check box issue and alot more processing power so they can handle larger images. I think the newer panels have more flash and ram so maybe that part is taken care of, I'll have to check it out when I get to a job with new panels and see how they handle mjpeg streams of large images.