01304 827609 info@use-ip.co.uk Find us

Camera Time Slightly Out of Sync

benm

Active Member
Messages
44
Points
8
Hi

I've followed the threads on this forum to set the NVR and the Cameras to use pool.ntp.org as the time source.
The cameras fail the server test but i think this is expected as they are directly connected to the NVRs over PoE.
The issue is that the cameras are about 1-2 seconds out of sync.

The cameras are set to sync every 1440 minutes, but i think that is only valid when connecting to the internet. I thought i read that on previous camera/firmwares there was an option to sync with NVR
Is there any way i can fix this by enforcing the cameras to sync with the NVR?
 
Hi

I've followed the threads on this forum to set the NVR and the Cameras to use pool.ntp.org as the time source.
The cameras fail the server test but i think this is expected as they are directly connected to the NVRs over PoE.
The issue is that the cameras are about 1-2 seconds out of sync.

The cameras are set to sync every 1440 minutes, but i think that is only valid when connecting to the internet. I thought i read that on previous camera/firmwares there was an option to sync with NVR
Is there any way i can fix this by enforcing the cameras to sync with the NVR?
You don't need to set anything at all on the cameras.

If connected using plug and play to the PoE ports of the NVR, the cameras will have no route to the internet to contact the NTP server and will be synchronised with the NVR automatically.

If plug and play was switched off and the cameras were added manually to the NVR, there is a checkbox option (not visible with plug and play) to sync the cameras time with the NVR.

Either way, simply set the NTP server address on the NVR and enable it - I leave the default of 60 minutes and always use uk.pool.ntp.org as the server address.

If cameras are connected directly to the PoE ports of an NVR there's very little need to access the camera directly and set anything. Camera firmware updates and a couple of image/video settings - other than that they are better left alone when using plug and play.
 
Hi
Ok great and thanks for your reply. So it sounds like I have done the same as you but the cameras are still a couple of seconds out. Why is this?
Unless you are saying I need to remove the default ntp config that came on each camera?
 
Hi
Ok great and thanks for your reply. So it sounds like I have done the same as you but the cameras are still a couple of seconds out. Why is this?
Unless you are saying I need to remove the default ntp config that came on each camera?
No you shouldn’t need to do anything on the camera. On a new system with plug and play, you can literally take a camera from its box and plug it into the NVR and with NTP set on the NVR. The NVR will sync with the internet time server and the cameras will sync with the NVR.

You say they’re a couple of seconds out but with what? - each other or what you perceive to be the correct time from another source? There will be slight differences simply caused by network and decoding latency. If you watch the monitor while you move in front of the camera you’ll see a delay between your actual movement and it’s display on screen. Ultimately if it’s not drifting, it’s accurate enough and would not cause any issues if you needed to use footage evidentially.
 
No you shouldn’t need to do anything on the camera. On a new system with plug and play, you can literally take a camera from its box and plug it into the NVR and with NTP set on the NVR. The NVR will sync with the internet time server and the cameras will sync with the NVR.

You say they’re a couple of seconds out but with what? - each other or what you perceive to be the correct time from another source? There will be slight differences simply caused by network and decoding latency. If you watch the monitor while you move in front of the camera you’ll see a delay between your actual movement and it’s display on screen. Ultimately if it’s not drifting, it’s accurate enough and would not cause any issues if you needed to use footage evidentially.
Hi
They are a couple of seconds out from each other when viewed on the monitor. They are pretty much equidistant from the NVR.
 
Hi
They are a couple of seconds out from each other when viewed on the monitor. They are pretty much equidistant from the NVR.
The likelihood is that everything is correct but you're decoding the images within the multiscreen with different settings and that is affecting the timing of the image display. As a test, bring all cameras up on the monitor in a single multiscreen and do the following:

1 - Hover over each individual image and with the toolbar that appears, make sure they are all set to show the sub stream - the icon should show a small S with "switch to main" prompted when you hover over it, if not click "switch to sub" Viewing them all in sub stream places less load on the NVRs decoding capabilities and this should ensure that the decoding of each individual image uses similar resources. If you have a multiscreen image where the NVR is decoding one camera segment at 4K resolution and another at 4CIF, the 4K one will likely lag behind.
2 - For each camera screen segment, hover over the toolbar again and make sure the Live View Strategy (centre icon) for each is set to Balanced. Having a different setting across the cameras here (some on Fluency, some on Balanced, some on Real time etc) affects the decoding and may cause some images to lag.
3 - Lastly are all the cameras using the same encoding? (H264, H265, H265+) Again if you hover over that toolbar one of the icons shows that information in real time. Different encoding across cameras, could also affect the decoding to screen.

None of the above actually affects the recording. The time may be perfectly accurate and sync'd for all of the cameras but the NVR needs less or more resource for a given image and that's probably what you're witnessing.
 
Back
Top