[Camera Support]: EmpireTech IPC-T54IR-AS 2.8mm S3 image squished

[sprior]

Describe the problem you are having

I've been getting some Empiretech cameras to try out the Starlight+ low light capability and the cameras are basically working but despite the cameras being wide format they are being displayed with blank space on the sides.

I'd also like any advice how to optimally configure these cameras - should any of the onboard detection features of the camera be enabled or do I keep the camera relatively dumb and Frigate handles everything?

Version

0.16.1-e664cb2

What browser(s) are you using?

Firefox 143.0.4

Frigate config file

basement_camera:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: 
            rtsp://userid:pw@ipaddr/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0
          roles:
            - record
        - path: 
            rtsp://userid:pw@ipaddr/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=1
          roles:
            - detect
    zones:
      basement:
        coordinates: 0.002,0.988,0.004,0.095,0.996,0.078,0.995,0.995
        loitering_time: 0
        objects:
          - dog
          - mouse
          - person
          - face
    review:
      alerts:
        required_zones: basement
      detections:
        required_zones: basement

Relevant Frigate log output

I'm not seeing any errors

Relevant go2rtc log output

I'm not seeing any errors

FFprobe output from your camera

ffprobe version n7.0.2-18-g3e6cec1286-20240919 Copyright (c) 2007-2024 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 14.2.0 (crosstool-NG 1.26.0.106_ed12fa6)
  configuration: --prefix=/ffbuild/prefix --pkg-config-flags=--static --pkg-config=pkg-config --cross-prefix=x86_64-ffbuild-linux-gnu- --arch=x86_64 --target-os=linux --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-debug --enable-iconv --enable-zlib --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-gmp --enable-libxml2 --enable-openssl --enable-lzma --enable-fontconfig --enable-libharfbuzz --enable-libvorbis --enable-opencl --enable-libpulse --enable-libvmaf --enable-libxcb --enable-xlib --enable-amf --enable-libaom --enable-libaribb24 --enable-avisynth --enable-chromaprint --enable-libdav1d --enable-libdavs2 --enable-libdvdread --enable-libdvdnav --disable-libfdk-aac --enable-ffnvcodec --enable-cuda-llvm --enable-frei0r --enable-libgme --enable-libkvazaar --enable-libaribcaption --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libjxl --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopus --enable-librist --enable-libssh --enable-libtheora --enable-libvpx --enable-libwebp --enable-libzmq --enable-lv2 --enable-libvpl --enable-openal --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenh264 --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopenmpt --enable-librav1e --enable-librubberband --disable-schannel --enable-sdl2 --enable-libsoxr --enable-libsrt --enable-libsvtav1 --enable-libtwolame --enable-libuavs3d --enable-libdrm --enable-vaapi --enable-libvidstab --enable-vulkan --enable-libshaderc --enable-libplacebo --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs2 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzimg --enable-libzvbi --extra-cflags=-DLIBTWOLAME_STATIC --extra-cxxflags= --extra-libs='-ldl -lgomp' --extra-ldflags=-pthread --extra-ldexeflags=-pie --cc=x86_64-ffbuild-linux-gnu-gcc --cxx=x86_64-ffbuild-linux-gnu-g++ --ar=x86_64-ffbuild-linux-gnu-gcc-ar --ranlib=x86_64-ffbuild-linux-gnu-gcc-ranlib --nm=x86_64-ffbuild-linux-gnu-gcc-nm --extra-version=20240919
  libavutil      59.  8.100 / 59.  8.100
  libavcodec     61.  3.100 / 61.  3.100
  libavformat    61.  1.100 / 61.  1.100
  libavdevice    61.  1.100 / 61.  1.100
  libavfilter    10.  1.100 / 10.  1.100
  libswscale      8.  1.100 /  8.  1.100
  libswresample   5.  1.100 /  5.  1.100
  libpostproc    58.  1.100 / 58.  1.100
Input #0, rtsp, from 'rtsp://admin:H8%xp2y5Zp>@192.168.0.56/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0':
  Metadata:
    title           : Media Server
  Duration: N/A, start: 0.040000, bitrate: N/A
  Stream #0:0: Video: hevc (Main), yuv420p(tv), 2688x1520, 30 fps, 30 tbr, 90k tbn
  Stream #0:1: Audio: pcm_alaw, 8000 Hz, mono, s16, 64 kb/s

Frigate stats

No response

Operating system

Other Linux

Install method

Docker CLI

Object Detector

Coral

Network connection

Wired

Camera make and model

EmpireTech IPC-T54IR-AS 2.8mm S3

Screenshots of the Frigate UI's System metrics pages

Any other information that may be helpful

No response

[inkeep-ai-assistant[bot]]

Based on your ffprobe output showing a 2688x1520 resolution stream, the black bars are likely appearing because Frigate's default display assumes a standard 16:9 aspect ratio, but your camera has a different aspect ratio.

Your EmpireTech camera appears to be using Dahua/Amcrest RTSP format. For optimal configuration, you should specify the detect resolution to match your camera's actual resolution (1):

basement_camera:
  ffmpeg:
    inputs:
      - path: rtsp://userid:pw@ipaddr/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0
        roles:
          - record
      - path: rtsp://userid:pw@ipaddr/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=1
        roles:
          - detect
  detect:
    width: 2688
    height: 1520
    fps: 5

(1)

The RTSP URL format you're using follows the Amcrest & Dahua pattern documented in Frigate (2). The subtype=0 stream is the main/high resolution stream and subtype=1 is the sub/low resolution stream (2).

For camera optimization:

• Keep onboard detection features disabled and let Frigate handle all object detection
• Use the lower resolution substream for detection to reduce CPU load
• The main stream resolution (2688x1520) should be used only for recording
• Consider setting a lower FPS like 5 for detection to further optimize performance (1)

Your current configuration looks good overall, but adding the explicit detect resolution should resolve the display aspect ratio issue.

📚 Sources:

1. Full Reference Config
2. Camera Specific Configurations

---

Have another question? Just tag @inkeep.

[NickM-27]

You're using the low quality sub stream. You should enable sub stream 2 and 3

[NickM-27]

https://docs.frigate.video/configuration/live#setting-streams-for-live-ui

[sprior]

I'm looking at the go2rtc config and not sure I understand why this is desired, it looks like you end up defining a new set of aliases for each camera you have and then referencing that alias - so 2 sets of everything. How does that end up being easier to maintain than specifying the actual stream?

[sprior]

I've made a lot of progress configuring go2rtc for all my cameras. I just wanted to confirm, when I'm configuring the detect height and width I should actually use the dimensions of the substream I'm using for detect and not the higher resolution main stream - correct?

[NickM-27]

Correct

[hawkeye217]

The AI at https://docs.frigate.video (click the Ask AI button at the bottom) can probably convert your config to use go2rtc very quickly.

[hawkeye217]

I'd recommend configuring go2rtc and setting up the streams for the UI.

Frigate doesn't take advantage of any camera's onboard AI features - they usually are not exposed in any useful way, and even if they were, they'd be too slow for Frigate to use them.

[sprior]

Well here's a freaky issue. I 'previously had a camera named "basement_camera", then today I switched everything to go2rtc. Out of 11 cameras 10 converted with no problem, but basement_camera worked but in live view it said that streams were not enabled (despite that the camera was using the go2rtc rtsp link and worked. It wasn't until I renamed the camera to something else (as a test I tried basement_camera1 that it started working, then I renamed it back and it stopped working again. So I'm wondering if there's some old info with the old name in a file or db file somewhere that prevents it from working with that one old name. Any idea where this might be and how to clear it out?

[NickM-27]

It's browser cache

[sprior]

Thanks, that did it. I had tried to do a shift-reload in firefox but I guess that wasn't enough.