Rotate HiLook Camera 90 Degrees?

[PeteWisdom]

Hi everyone,

I recently purchased some Hilook cameras and an NVR.

Cameras: IPC-T283H-MU
NVR: NVR-108MH-C / 8P

I'm attempting to rotate one of my cameras 90 degrees so it films in portrait mode as opposed to landscape. Im doing this as the camera is installed in a corridor.
However when looking at the image settings in the NVR there is only a rotate 270 degree option, no 90.

I have also logged into the camera directly and there is a rotate option but again this only does 270.

I'm running the latest firmware. Any idea how i can rotate the image?

Thank you

 

[Dan]

Hi @PeteWisdom

We have minimal experience with the consumer HiLook products, but can you access the below menu when logged into your HiLook camera?

If you can see this menu, is the camera set to Smart Event or Monitoring? The camera needs to be set to monitoring for you to be able to enable the rotate/corridor mode.

If you can't see this menu on your camera, then that probably means that these entry-level HiLook cameras don't support rotate/corridor mode (maybe speak to the supplier you bought them from as they've probably got more experience with HiLook products).

 

[PeteWisdom]

Hi @PeteWisdom

We have minimal experience with the consumer HiLook products, but can you access the below menu when logged into your HiLook camera?

View attachment 11479

If you can see this menu, is the camera set to Smart Event or Monitoring? The camera needs to be set to monitoring for you to be able to enable the rotate/corridor mode.

If you can't see this menu on your camera, then that probably means that these entry-level HiLook cameras don't support rotate/corridor mode (maybe speak to the supplier you bought them from as they've probably got more experience with HiLook products).

Hi Dan, thank you for the reply.

Unfortunately the VCA Resource option is not present in my system settings.

Buying this HiLook brand was a big mistake for me.

I might see if i can try and rotate the inside of the camera physically.

 

[JB1970]

I'm attempting to rotate one of my cameras 90 degrees so it films in portrait mode as opposed to landscape. Im doing this as the camera is installed in a corridor.
However when looking at the image settings in the NVR there is only a rotate 270 degree option, no 90.

I have also logged into the camera directly and there is a rotate option but again this only does 270.

For portrait/corridor mode you would physically rotate the camera and activate the option in the menu. Rotating the camera inverts the aspect ratio while the menu option corrects the image back to upright. Regarding the 270 degrees versus 90 degrees option, the only effect that has is to dictate whether the camera has to physically rotated a quarter turn clockwise or counter clockwise (90 degrees is 3 o'clock, 270 degrees is 9 o'clock)

I might see if i can try and rotate the inside of the camera physically.

Yup that's essential; it's how corridor mode works (if it were possible without rotating the camera the resolution would need to be massively cropped to allow a 9:16 image to be obtained from a 16:9 oriented image sensor). How easy it is will depend on the style of camera. It works best with turret format cameras and it's possible with bullet cameras (but if they have a sunshield it may look a little odd). For dome cameras it will need to have a three axis gimble (pan, tilt, rotate)

 

[PeteWisdom]

For portrait/corridor mode you would physically rotate the camera and activate the option in the menu. Rotating the camera inverts the aspect ratio while the menu option corrects the image back to upright. Regarding the 270 degrees versus 90 degrees option, the only effect that has is to dictate whether the camera has to physically rotated a quarter turn clockwise or counter clockwise (90 degrees is 3 o'clock, 270 degrees is 9 o'clock)

Yup that's essential; it's how corridor mode works (if it were possible without rotating the camera the resolution would need to be massively cropped to allow a 9:16 image to be obtained from a 16:9 oriented image sensor). How easy it is will depend on the style of camera. It works best with turret format cameras and it's possible with bullet cameras (but if they have a sunshield it may look a little odd). For dome cameras it will need to have a three axis gimble (pan, tilt, rotate)

Thank you @JB1970, appreciate the detailed advice.

I will give this ago over the weekend and report back.

 

[PeteWisdom]

Hi @JB1970 ,

I unmounted my camera and opened up the housing so I could flip the lens to portrait.

Unfortunately the internal hardware of the camera does not allow this. (I think because the HilookIPC-T283H-MU is a budget camera)

So as an alternative I just rotated the entire ball itself as seen in my attached picture.

My question is, by doing what I did, will this mess up the camera performance such as the IR because those 2 little lights are next to the lens as opposed to underneath it?

I have since viewed the image with the NVR and it seems to be ok during night/day.

 

[JB1970]

Hi @JB1970 ,

I unmounted my camera and opened up the housing so I could flip the lens to portrait.

Unfortunately the internal hardware of the camera does not allow this. (I think because the HilookIPC-T283H-MU is a budget camera)

So as an alternative I just rotated the entire ball itself as seen in my attached picture.

My question is, by doing what I did, will this mess up the camera performance such as the IR because those 2 little lights are next to the lens as opposed to underneath it?

I have since viewed the image with the NVR and it seems to be ok during night/day.

View attachment 11496

That should be fine and is what I meant when I said to rotate the camera.

 

[PeteWisdom]

That should be fine and is what I meant when I said to rotate the camera.

Thank you.

Although I'm now having difficulty in the web browser live/playback as the camera is showing as very stretched. The same goes with the HiLook iPhone App.

However the NVR is displaying the image correctly, and the exported videos are also working as should.

Any reason the web browser cant correctly detect the portrait scale?

 

[JB1970]

Thank you.

Although I'm now having difficulty in the web browser live/playback as the camera is showing as very stretched. The same goes with the HiLook iPhone App.

However the NVR is displaying the image correctly, and the exported videos are also working as should.

Any reason the web browser cant correctly detect the portrait scale?

I'm not sure. I can only assume that the version of web video plugin/web components doesn't support it. Make sure you have the latest version of those installed and perhaps try another browser (ensuring that too is up to date)

 

[PeteWisdom]

I'm not sure. I can only assume that the version of web video plugin/web components doesn't support it. Make sure you have the latest version of those installed and perhaps try another browser (ensuring that too is up to date)

All the research on this forum and around the web suggest I should throw the HiLook NVR in the bin and purchase Blue Iris.

Playback is apparently 100x better and some really nice features, and is more stable.

 

[JB1970]

All the research on this forum and around the web suggest I should throw the HiLook NVR in the bin and purchase Blue Iris.

Playback is apparently 100x better and some really nice features, and is more stable.

Many rate Blue Iris, I've not used it a great deal myself. I once looked into using it for my own system but it was restrictive. At that time it didn't support H265 compression or 8 megapixel cameras. The cost for a suitably spec'd recording server was going to be eye watering versus an embedded NVR. Embedded NVRs are more cost effective. HiLook is Hikvisions consumer range so isn't great.