Itronics ITB-500HD

[Mitch]

Wow such a mounting position for a DVR. Innovative!

 

[Apple-CT]

oh! good Positions!
If more need, anytime.... send mail !
GOOD!!

 

[mituc]

I hope that my cars battery can deliver the consumption because sometimes if my car not running for two days the cam shuts down and the battery prevention led blinks. I think when my car is in the garage, I shut the cam manually off.

After i purchased my first ITB500-HD I did a consumption test. With the cameras recording I think it was taking 0.22 to 0.24Amps per hour. While in stand-by it was consuming 0.11Ah. This is a lot better than my CCTV Szest MDR DVR (it had a 2.5" laptop HDD, so the stand-by consumption was 0.2Ah and the running power consumption was 1.75Ah).
When it's in stand-by the cameras are still active but there is no recording process running, and I think the GPS is deactivated as well. When it detects motion it will start recording. So when your car is in the garage there should be no motion there unless you have a dog/cat/other animal walking around. Therefore there's no need to shut the DVR down manually.

When the ambient temperatures are above 10-12 degrees Celsius (50-54F) if the car battery is well charged you should find the DVR still active after 2-3-4 days. When it's cold outside it shuts down no matter how much the battery is charged, I guess that due to the low temperatures the battery voltage goes bellow 11.9V. In my opinion they should have lowered that threshold to 11.5, but 11.9 should protect the battery better, only that when the car alarm goes off and the car was not driven for 1-2 days the DVR will shut down exactly when you need it.

In my opinion this is by far the best surveillance HD DVR available. If Itronics will make it 20Fps for the front camera and 10Fps for the rear camera (or at least give the possibility to configure them separately in a 30fps total range) and eventually add 1080p support this DVR will also be a serious competitor for the other pure entertainment dash cams.

 

[A120412]

It's true, the power consumption is really low when you compare it with non-sd recorders. Yesterday the led of the battery prevention blinked after 2 days. When I looked at the file's the camera recorded motion every 30 minutes. When the door of the garage moves a little bit (by wind) it's start recording (motion at insensitive mode), also my dog runs now and then in the garage, ... After 2 days my sd card was completely full (32gb at 720p). What I really like is that when the camera detects motion it record and not start to record at the moment of the motion but going a few seconds back in his memory.

ITB 500 is indeed a very good product, but yes more frame rate would be more competitive with the more entertainment cams...

 

[ciuvak]

so how much does this camera cost?

 

[A120412]

Ask Apple CT for a good price ;-)

 

[ciuvak]

Ask Apple CT for a good price ;-)

OK, I will send him a PM.
Another question, maybe someone has tried this before. I want to install these two cameras horizontally on my B-pillars, on left/right side of the car. I want to install these with the lens pointing through the back windows because they are tinted and will not be visible from outside (theft deterrent). The B-pillar surface is OK for the sticky pad install. If I install in the proper orientation (vertical) as shown in the product photos, I would have to use the car ceiling which is canvas and this will not work. This is why I'm wondering what will happen if I use the camera vertically.
If these cameras will not work for this sort of install, what other alternatives would be recommended?
Here a quick copy/paste job to show what I need:

 

[mituc]

Well, if you don't mount the camera vertically you will have the movie image rotated with 90 (or 270) degrees, that's all. Which is not a problem at all for surveillance footage.

I don't think you can have any alternatives to catch as much as possible in that area. The front seats head rest may be an option but the camera will be farther from the windows than it can be if mounted like in your photo.
You don't really have other options without damaging a bit the ceiling. By example instead of the 3M tape you can use some velcro and that may stick on canvas. But if your ceiling is actually foam and not canvas/velour then velcro may not work.

 

[A120412]

Hi, if you are satisfied to film only that area of your car then this is possible. In the software that comes with the camera you can rotate your movies (every 90 degrees). In my situation my movies are upside down, so when I load my movies in the software I rotate this 180 degrees. Only the time/date stamp on the movie will also turn and then you can't read it properly. Maybe Itronics can fix this when they bring out a new update of the software. If I look at the ITB 100 software they get more often updates. The ITB 500 software is now V1.2 and for ITB 100 they are at V1.3.4. Also in the software you get a lot of questionmarks (???)

 

[mituc]

Does anyone know where exactly is the microphone on the ITB500HD?

 

[A120412]

Yes, in one of the two camera units, on the top.

 

[mituc]

On 2013 01 09 itronics released a new firmware:
[ITB-500HD] firmware. (Ver 1. 1)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/xziqi1

Google translate:

1 Playback functions
 Navigation through linkage video playback and preferences can be changed
 Available after purchase - Remote Control + IR sensor + AV Cable

enjoy,
Mtz

Mtz, how did you find this new firmware or got notified about it? I'm wondering if there's any way to keep an eye on the updates for the ITB500HD firmware. Right now everything seems to be working pretty good apart from the 0.7-1.0s seconds delay between the sound and video.

 

[A120412]

Mtz, how did you find this new firmware or got notified about it? I'm wondering if there's any way to keep an eye on the updates for the ITB500HD firmware. Right now everything seems to be working pretty good apart from the 0.7-1.0s seconds delay between the sound and video.

Hi

At this website: http://ipassmall.co.kr/ipassblack/download_list.asp you can follow the updates for all the products of Itronics. On the left side you can click at your model and see only de releases for that specified model. I think there's no mailinglist available, although it's maybe an idea for Apple CT to start this kind of service...

Due the popularity of the ITB 100 HD you will find more updates from that model. The latest release of something that is related to the ITB 500 HD was 9 january of 2013. (firmware release 1.1). I hope Itronics will keep spending time to make there camera's and PC player better, especially for the ITB 500 dual car cam. Things that may get more attention: intensity for parking mode (is still recording in daytime to quick and in night to less), shock sensor, filtering for night time video (noise reduction), English software and not half English half Korean, English manual, ... post also you recommendations. Maybe we can collect and send it accidentally to Itronics... ;-)

Also today I experienced some fault. I was driving at the highway and suddenly one camera begun to make some gorgeling noise (inside the camera) and immediately the black box starts beeping. I must turn the box off and on again (The IT Crowd) and then it was over. It's not normal I think...

Cheers!

 

[mituc]

I have the same problem and it's from one of the cameras. I swapped them and made sure that camera is in the back. Occasionally when this was happening the video on both cameras had some discolorations. I suspect a bad contact inside the camera. After rotating the camera lenses a few times this went away, but this doesn't mean the problem isn't still there. I was getting this problem especially in the colder winter/spring months, so it's been at least 3 months since I noticed this. When the camera was in some position that was upsetting that contact I was getting this kind of noises:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIPd3p6nK3M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ65qjF0nTU

In the second video you can notice the focus and discoloration problem I was talking about. After swapping the camera in the back this problem went away.

P.S.: I submitted another request on the Itronics web site for a firmware update about this sound delay. I've also sent them a video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T69pq7K17D4 . Now we wait...

 

[A120412]

Hi Mituc

This is exactly the problem I had few days ago.
I was just driving at the highway and suddenly the blackbox starts beeping and in one of the two camera's there was the same noise as in your video.
When I looked at the video's you see a freezing image, colors and in the image activity timeline (IAT) just a flat line. After restarting the blackbox, the problem disappeared.

Grtz.

 

[wuga]

I have a few videos but the quality of the ITB100 should be better (more FPS, 1080p instead of 720p). However, to me these DVRs are surveillance equipment not entertainment gadgets, so it's more important to have as much usable data as possible in case of an event rather than having pretty much the same data but just at a higher resolution. For me it's important to catch the license plate of some car that I need to report or the face of the villain who scratched my car or some car from in front/behind mine, catching bugs disintegrating on the windshield at high speeds is nice but not necessarily useful (it just increases the need for larger SD cards for now ). I think the only benefit I could use (and I'd really like) from 1080p and higher FPS is catching the license plate numbers from a higher distance when moving, and even when the image is almost static. For 6-7 meters when traveling with 50+Kmph is ok.

So here is a link with the player again:
http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id=gd ... b05a1056fb
This is a free file sharing site so the file will be there 7 days starting from now.

Sorry mituc had to ask you to upload the english version of PC Player again, could you please help?

 

[mituc]

I've sent you a private message with the link, but also add this one into your bookmark: http://ipassmall.co.kr/ipassblack/downl ... f=bSubject

 

[mituc]

Ok, hacking time. this is what I'm trying to do:

- rename the av_server.out and replace it with a script;
- that script will call the original av_server.out file (say, av_server.out.orig)
- I'm trying to mess with the bitrate, resolution (why not?!) and FPS.

The av_server.out executable is called like this, pretty much:

/av_server.out %s 720P_720P_30 MPEG4 %d %s %s MJPEG %d MPEG4 %d %s %s MENUOFF
Or, some examples I found in the binary code itself:

Audio Video Capture Server - (c) Texas Instruments 2009
USAGE: ./av_server.out <option 1> <option 2> ...
Following options are supported,
Resolution options - only one should be specified at a time,
D1 : 720x480@30fps + 288x192@30fps capture mode
D1_D1 : 720x480@30fps + 720x480@30fps + 288x192@30fps capture mode
720P :1280x720@30fps + 320x192@30fps capture mode
720P_720P :1280x720@30fps + 1280x720@15fps + 320x192@15fps capture mode
720P_720P_30 :1280x720@30fps + 1280x720 @ 30fps + 320x192 @ 30fps capture mode
720P_VGA :1280x720@30fps + 640x352 @ 15fps + 320x192 @ 15fps capture mode
720P_VGA_30 :1280x720@30fps + 640x352 @ 30fps + 320x192 @ 30fps capture mode
SXVGA :1280x960@30fps + 256x192@30fps capture mode
1080P :1920x1080@30fps + 320x192@30fps capture mode
Feature options - frame-rates may reduce depending on options enabled,
AUDIO : AUDIO parameter Sample Rate to be followed after this (8000 or 16000)
LDC : Lens distortion correction is ENABLED
FD : Face detection is ENABLED
VS : Video Stabilization is ENABLED
SNF : Spatial Noise Filter is ENABLED
TNF : Temporal Noise Filter is ENABLED
AEWB : AE/AWB/AEWB is ENABLED
<2A VENDOR> : NONE2A/APPRO2A/TI2A to be selected based on the vendor for 2A algorithm
VNFDEMO : This will put the 2A to high gain for increased noise and APPRO2A needs to be selected
DEMO : If D1_D1 is selected this will switch off LDC, VS, SNF, TNF for second stream
GBCE : Dynamic Range Enhancement is ENABLED
WIN : Window Mode is ENABLED
RTSP : RTSP network streaming is ENABLED
FLIPH : Flip in H direction is ENABLED
FLIPV : Flip in V direction is ENABLED
OSD : Software OSD is ENABLED
<PLATFORM> : DM365/DM368 to be slected based on the platform chip
Codec options,
H264 <bitrate> <rcType> <preset>: H264 compression is ENABLED
with bitrate = <bitrate>, rcType = CBR or VBR or VBR, preset = AUTO or CUSTOM
MPEG4 <bitrate> <rcType> <preset>: MPEG4 compression is ENABLED
MJPEG <qvalue> : MJPEG compression is ENABLED
with quality = <qvalue>
Note,
- The options can be specified in any order
- Any option can be omited in which case default action is used
Example,
Example 1. # ./av_server.out DM365 AUDIO 8000 D1 AEWB TI2A H264 3000000 VBR AUTO RTSP
Example 2. # ./av_server.out DM365 AUDIO 8000 720P AEWB TI2A LDC TNF KNF FD OSD H264 3000000 VBR AUTO RTSP
D1_D1
SXGA
1080P
720P_VGA
720P_VGA_30
720P_720P
720P_720P_30
720P
VNFDEMO
NONE2A
APPRO2A
TI2A
KTNC2A
GBCE
DM365
DM368
DEMO
AUDIO
H264
MPEG4
MJPEG
AEWB
RTSP
FLIPH
FLIPV
MENUOFF
GSENSOR
GAIN
DISPLAY

These things seem to be using the MontaVista linux distribution compiled for ARM processors:
av_server.out: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, ARM, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.18, not stripped

So it's time to work on an upgrade myself if Itronics won't do it.

 

[dashingthrusnow]

Ha... sounds like you're trying to do what I did with the 100. Just decompile my custom firmware bins to figure it out.

The av_server file is customized so it won't work with the default values... also, you'll need to create a custom script for Appro_avi_save. Make sure the scripts are a+x ... you may want to flash a couple of times to see what's being executed by using the echo $@ > /mnt/mmc/file.txt in your replacement scripts.

FPS is difficult as that's limited by the sensor. The 100HD has a sensor rated for 1080p 24 fps max. If you pipe the output of av_server.out to a text file, you can see what type of sensor it is.

Good luck! Once you get it, let me know so I can put it in the top thread.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

 

[mituc]

Yep, that's my intention for now, to take a look at how things look like by logging. I already figured the mount point for the SD card (/mnt/mmc, as you mentioned), it looks like the video clips naming pattern is hardcoded somewhere with the mountpoint and everything (like /mnt/mmc/pmr0_%d%02d%02d_%02d%02d%02d ).

Too bad the av_server doesn't have several options available, I just hope that forcing the cameras to 30fps will get at least 24fps from them. I just hope the av_server will not bail out on this, but we'll see that in the logs, for now I just want to force 720P_720P_30 meaning 30fps+15fps or 720P_720P_30 which is 2x30fps instead of the current mode which I can't figure out what it is, but may still be one of the above and forced down by the sensor capabilities. 30fps for the front camera and 15 for the rear camera would be ideal.

However, using a script wrapper for that server opens up a lot of possibilities, such as having the video clips flipped directly for the people who are forced to mount the cameras in different positions other than the normal.

By "decompile my firmware" you mean unpack it, right? Or you're referring to decompiling the binaries? Frankly I don't know how to do that, I used to work with gdb a few centuries ago but I guess to do that I'll have to find an ARM emulator, as I can't get a console on the DVR itself