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[mherbold]

Please add this:

Release the full firmware source code!  While Dlink does share the open source components of the firmware, they share _only_ the open source components.  I downloaded the source code and there is nothing camera specific in it - it's all stripped out / missing!  This is not really "supporting the open source community" - it's just taking, without giving back.  I want to be able to update the motion tracking algorithms with my own and release it back into the community.  But with the way it is now, it's not possible.  :-(

[JavaLawyer]

Please add this:

Release the full firmware source code!  While Dlink does share the open source components of the firmware, they share _only_ the open source components.  I downloaded the source code and there is nothing camera specific in it - it's all stripped out / missing!  This is not really "supporting the open source community" - it's just taking, without giving back.  I want to be able to update the motion tracking algorithms with my own and release it back into the community.  But with the way it is now, it's not possible.  :-(

Sorry, but this list is for firmware functionality. AFAIK D-Link has never released the full firmware for any of it's products active or discontinued.

[ody]

Wow! What a wishlist from owners of Dlink DCS-5222L cameras.
I was one of the first on the list to post what I thought was a simple addition.
(putting something in the camera code that already exists in other D-Link cameras)
And correct me if I'm wrong.
But I don't think D-Link has added any of the request from the list.
Very disappointing!
Expensive camera that sounded good, but failed!
This list makes a good feature list for a cheap knockoff camera.
They exist in hardware, but if they could accommodate the features on this list, they would have a winner.

I have hardware produced in one of the plants D-Link uses to produce some of their hardware in China, and I know first hand its hard to get exactly what you want. And from my personal experience, if its not in the product when it gets shipped, good luck with any updates.

Sorry not trying to be the negative post and rain on everybody here, but just calling a spade a spade.
Other that the URL this forum shares with D-Link, it would appear nobody at D-Link with anything to do with this camera ever looks at this page.

[mherbold]

Sorry, but this list is for firmware functionality. AFAIK D-Link has never released the full firmware for any of it's products active or discontinued.

But that is just my point.  The current firmware blows on on what is otherwise an excellent hardware.  It seems like Dlink is expecting people to just hold their breath and cross their fingers and *hope* that maybe Dlink will add some of the stuff on this wishlist to a future firmware release.  But speaking from my past experience, the firmware will pretty much stay the way it is now except with some bug fixes... and that's pretty much it.  No major new features.  No vastly improved motion detection.  If Dlink released the full firmware source code, they'd have an army of open source programmers (including me) wanting to take this hardware to the next level.  The competition would be blown away.

As it is now, I have this expensive camera that cannot properly detect motion when a person is walking across on the sidewalk right outside my house even at 100% sensitivity, and I am frustrated.  It will only detect motion when a large object is moving - like a car.  I am an expert programmer with 20 years of game programming / video image processing experience and I am sitting here just wishing I could write some code for the camera. 

[mherbold]

I've been using the 5222L for the past few days.  There are several things (other than the lame motion detection) that is preventing me from using this camera as a serious surveillance camera as opposed to being just an expensive toy.

1) The SD recording produces videos that are sometimes choppy and sometimes freezes.  Happens to about 1 out of every 3 recordings.  The choppiness - the video is smooth then freezes, then becomes smooth again, at a frequency of exactly every 1 second.  Sometimes it would be smooth then freeze for several seconds before continuing again.  Both scenarios produces loss of frames, which is completely unacceptable for a surveillance camera.

2) There is no way to do a mass download of SD recordings.  I have to individually click on each video to download them.  This is very time consuming.  Chrome / Firefox plugins / extensions to download all links on a page do NOT work because the camera does not produce normal HTML web pages, and these plugins / extensions fail to recognize the links.  There is no FTP / SFTP / FTPS / SSH capability.  The only way to do a mass download is for me to drag my 14 foot ladder out and climb up to the camera to pull out the mini SD card in order to put it in my computer.

3) The SD recording AVI files are accompanied by JPG files - 1 for each recording (which I did not ask for and do not see a way to turn off).  These JPG files are useless.  They seem to be JPG stills for the very first frame of each corresponding AVI recording.  Why useless?  My SD recording is set to start recording 5 seconds prior to the motion detection event.  So what does this mean?  Every JPG still has nothing useful in it.  Just the same blank scene in every single one.  Either turn them off (they waste space / clutter up the screen) or give us a way to set exactly which frame produces the still (I would pick "8 seconds into the SD recording").

[JavaLawyer]

I've been using the 5222L for the past few days.  There are several things (other than the lame motion detection) that is preventing me from using this camera as a serious surveillance camera as opposed to being just an expensive toy.

1) The SD recording produces videos that are sometimes choppy and sometimes freezes.  Happens to about 1 out of every 3 recordings.  The choppiness - the video is smooth then freezes, then becomes smooth again, at a frequency of exactly every 1 second.  Sometimes it would be smooth then freeze for several seconds before continuing again.  Both scenarios produces loss of frames, which is completely unacceptable for a surveillance camera.

2) There is no way to do a mass download of SD recordings.  I have to individually click on each video to download them.  This is very time consuming.  Chrome / Firefox plugins / extensions to download all links on a page do NOT work because the camera does not produce normal HTML web pages, and these plugins / extensions fail to recognize the links.  There is no FTP / SFTP / FTPS / SSH capability.  The only way to do a mass download is for me to drag my 14 foot ladder out and climb up to the camera to pull out the mini SD card in order to put it in my computer.

3) The SD recording AVI files are accompanied by JPG files - 1 for each recording (which I did not ask for and do not see a way to turn off).  These JPG files are useless.  They seem to be JPG stills for the very first frame of each corresponding AVI recording.  Why useless?  My SD recording is set to start recording 5 seconds prior to the motion detection event.  So what does this mean?  Every JPG still has nothing useful in it.  Just the same blank scene in every single one.  Either turn them off (they waste space / clutter up the screen) or give us a way to set exactly which frame produces the still (I would pick "8 seconds into the SD recording").

Added....

[JavaLawyer]

Below is a summary of everyone's input thus far. Please let me know if I over generalized, misrepresented, or missed anyone's concerns and I'll refresh the list with updates. Recent items are highlighted in blue. Items fixed in the latest firmware update are striked out.

If any items in the wishlist were fixed by the latest firmware, please post and I'll update!

DNS-5222L Wishlist

• General - Ability to define camera patrol positions and combine snapshots in one consolidated email
• General - Ability to save to directory on NAS or server
• General - Access SD card via FTP or SFTP (i.e. include a check box to enable/disable this functionality)
• General - Add Menu option in the Web Configuration page for cloud configuration (rather than using the external PC software)
• General - Add SSH console to access SD card (SMB/CIFS)
• General - Disable IR illuminators while camera is in privacy mode
• General - Expand ability to configure event management attributes in all categories across the Web UI
• General - Following reboot/power failure, camera should align to user defined position rather than the default home position
• General - HTTPS support
• General - Increase video clip recording duration (i.e. up to 60 seconds with matching intervals to permit true continuous recording)
• General - Improve Linux browser support
  
• General - More detailed log events to facilitate troubleshooting
• General - Motion tracking (where the camera automatically pans/tilts to track a moving person/target
• General - Option to change the frequency and "Save to" path for recorded files
• General - Support for PTZ in Synology Surveillance Station
• General - User definable period for the DCS-5222L to create new directories for recorded snaphots (e.g. hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, etc.)
• Audio - Ability to select an audio file stored on the SD card and play through the audio line out
• FTP/Email - Option for dated directories or one static directory for FTP'd snapshots
• FTP - Option to save images using the same file name so prior FTP'd images are overwritten
• General - Add FTP, SFTP, FTPS, and SSH support
  
• Motion Detection - Ability to provide continuous unbroken snapshots for persistent long term motion events (current implementation has a 10 second gap between each group of 6 snapshots)
• Motion Dection - Improve PIR motion event triggering (i.e. reduce false alarms)
  
• Motion Detection - Motion events are erroneously triggered when the camera is in patrol mode (i.e. the camera perceives the camera rotation as motion because the image is changing)
• Motion Detection - Option to create/save multiple motion detection area settings that can be selected based on the camera location (i.e. for owners who frequently rotate the camera among frequently used locations)
• Motion Detection - User defined interval for snapshot frequency (e.g. 0.25, 0.33, 0.5 seconds) during a motion detection event
• Networking - Add an indicator specifying whether the camera is connected via wired or wireless (since the camera uses the same IP address for wired and wireless connections)
• Night Mode - Ability to specify the light level required for transitioning from day to nite mode (current fixed mode transitions too early)
• Patrol - Ability to schedule the patrol time (rather than rely on manual triggering)
• Patrol - Option to continuously cycle through selected cameras at a user defined interval
• Night Mode - Option to disable the IR illuminators while the camera is in night mode
• SD Recording - Improve video quality and consistency (recorded videos are frequently choppy, freeze, and have dropped frames)
  
• SD Recording - Add inherent ability to mass download SD recordings (rather than downloading videos one at a time or physically removing the SD card from the camera)
  
• SD Recording - Add option to disable JPG files generated for each video recording
  
• Security - Disable HTTPS when HTTP is enabled
• Security - Option to edit email subject and content and ability to exclude the device MAC address
• Security - SFTP support
• Security - User defined session timeout period
• Web UI - Support for Live View using browsers on the Linux platform

Wishlist Items Addressed by D-Link (Thank You!)

• TBD

[JavaLawyer]

In addition to the other numerous bugs I have seen so far, here is another one:

If you click on the "full screen" button in the Live View window the screen shows a narrow 4:3 aspect ratio picture instead of a 16:9 picture.  How did your testers miss this?  Oh right, we are the testers. 

Added...

[JavaLawyer]

Below is a summary of everyone's input thus far. Please let me know if I over generalized, misrepresented, or missed anyone's concerns and I'll refresh the list with updates. Recent items are highlighted in blue. Items fixed in the latest firmware update are striked out.

If any items in the wishlist were fixed by the latest firmware, please post and I'll update!

DNS-5222L Wishlist

• General - Ability to define camera patrol positions and combine snapshots in one consolidated email
• General - Ability to save to directory on NAS or server
• General - Access SD card via FTP or SFTP (i.e. include a check box to enable/disable this functionality)
• General - Add Menu option in the Web Configuration page for cloud configuration (rather than using the external PC software)
• General - Add SSH console to access SD card (SMB/CIFS)
• General - Disable IR illuminators while camera is in privacy mode
• General - Expand ability to configure event management attributes in all categories across the Web UI
• General - Following reboot/power failure, camera should align to user defined position rather than the default home position
• General - HTTPS support
• General - Increase video clip recording duration (i.e. up to 60 seconds with matching intervals to permit true continuous recording)
• General - Improve Linux browser support
  
• General - More detailed log events to facilitate troubleshooting
• General - Motion tracking (where the camera automatically pans/tilts to track a moving person/target
• General - Option to change the frequency and "Save to" path for recorded files
• General - Selecting "full screen"  in the Live View window displays 4:3 aspect ratio frame rather than 16:9
  
• General - Support for PTZ in Synology Surveillance Station
• General - User definable period for the DCS-5222L to create new directories for recorded snaphots (e.g. hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, etc.)
• Audio - Ability to select an audio file stored on the SD card and play through the audio line out
• FTP/Email - Option for dated directories or one static directory for FTP'd snapshots
• FTP - Option to save images using the same file name so prior FTP'd images are overwritten
• General - Add FTP, SFTP, FTPS, and SSH support
  
• Motion Detection - Ability to provide continuous unbroken snapshots for persistent long term motion events (current implementation has a 10 second gap between each group of 6 snapshots)
• Motion Dection - Improve PIR motion event triggering (i.e. reduce false alarms)
  
• Motion Detection - Motion events are erroneously triggered when the camera is in patrol mode (i.e. the camera perceives the camera rotation as motion because the image is changing)
• Motion Detection - Option to create/save multiple motion detection area settings that can be selected based on the camera location (i.e. for owners who frequently rotate the camera among frequently used locations)
• Motion Detection - User defined interval for snapshot frequency (e.g. 0.25, 0.33, 0.5 seconds) during a motion detection event
• Networking - Add an indicator specifying whether the camera is connected via wired or wireless (since the camera uses the same IP address for wired and wireless connections)
• Night Mode - Ability to specify the light level required for transitioning from day to nite mode (current fixed mode transitions too early)
• Patrol - Ability to schedule the patrol time (rather than rely on manual triggering)
• Patrol - Option to continuously cycle through selected cameras at a user defined interval
• Night Mode - Option to disable the IR illuminators while the camera is in night mode
• SD Recording - Improve video quality and consistency (recorded videos are frequently choppy, freeze, and have dropped frames)
  
• SD Recording - Add inherent ability to mass download SD recordings (rather than downloading videos one at a time or physically removing the SD card from the camera)
  
• SD Recording - Add option to disable JPG files generated for each video recording
  
• Security - Disable HTTPS when HTTP is enabled
• Security - Option to edit email subject and content and ability to exclude the device MAC address
• Security - SFTP support
• Security - User defined session timeout period
• Web UI - Support for Live View using browsers on the Linux platform

Wishlist Items Addressed by D-Link (Thank You!)

• TBD

[mherbold]

Here's another one.

I have profile 3 set up to full resolution 1280x720 at Excellent quality (the highest possible).  When I take a snapshot, the files that it produces are only 160Kb each (of course it will vary depending on actual scene content, but I am using a known reference to make my point here).  The scene has very noticeable jpeg blocking and artifacts.  This is not "excellent" quality by any standard.  In Photoshop, this compression level would be considered "medium" quality.

Proof - I actually get better still image quality by going to profile 1 and setting that to 1 FPS at 4 Mbps CBR and capturing stills from the recorded video.  The compression artifacts are far less than what I get with profile 3.

I am pretty sure that the firmware uses one of the standard Linux image libraries (probably GD) - and the compression is level is internally set using a number between 0 and 100 (0 being worst quality, 100 being best).  It seems that the "Excellent" setting corresponds to a setting of approximately 75 (which is not all that great).  I would prefer to be able to enter a number between 0 and 100 myself or add a "Super" quality level which corresponds to passing a value of 99 to the GD library when compressing to JPG.

[mherbold]

Another thing to add to the wishlist for developers like me:

* Add 160x80 30fps YUV 4:4:4 (or 4:2:2 or 4:1:1 or 4:2:0 whatever the native sensor image output is) streaming (RTSP) support.  This will allow 3rd party developers to bypass the poorly developed built in motion detection and do our own processing on a PC.  The problem with using the current h.323 / mpeg4 RTSP streams is that they are too heavily compressed to do any real image processing on (too many compression artifacts).

* Optionally support RAW (bayer mask) streaming for 160x80.  Or even straight RGB.

* Also - a way to control image exposure (shutter speed).  The current built in software works fine for daytime but at night time the software tries to adjust the exposure every frame instead of smoothly interpolating the exposure.  This results in a lot of unnecessary strobing in dark scenes.

[JavaLawyer]

Here's another one.

I have profile 3 set up to full resolution 1280x720 at Excellent quality (the highest possible).  When I take a snapshot, the files that it produces are only 160Kb each (of course it will vary depending on actual scene content, but I am using a known reference to make my point here).  The scene has very noticeable jpeg blocking and artifacts.  This is not "excellent" quality by any standard.  In Photoshop, this compression level would be considered "medium" quality.

Proof - I actually get better still image quality by going to profile 1 and setting that to 1 FPS at 4 Mbps CBR and capturing stills from the recorded video.  The compression artifacts are far less than what I get with profile 3.

I am pretty sure that the firmware uses one of the standard Linux image libraries (probably GD) - and the compression is level is internally set using a number between 0 and 100 (0 being worst quality, 100 being best).  It seems that the "Excellent" setting corresponds to a setting of approximately 75 (which is not all that great).  I would prefer to be able to enter a number between 0 and 100 myself or add a "Super" quality level which corresponds to passing a value of 99 to the GD library when compressing to JPG.

Added... 

[JavaLawyer]

Another thing to add to the wishlist for developers like me:

* Add 160x80 30fps YUV 4:4:4 (or 4:2:2 or 4:1:1 or 4:2:0 whatever the native sensor image output is) streaming (RTSP) support.  This will allow 3rd party developers to bypass the poorly developed built in motion detection and do our own processing on a PC.  The problem with using the current h.323 / mpeg4 RTSP streams is that they are too heavily compressed to do any real image processing on (too many compression artifacts).

* Optionally support RAW (bayer mask) streaming for 160x80.  Or even straight RGB.

* Also - a way to control image exposure (shutter speed).  The current built in software works fine for daytime but at night time the software tries to adjust the exposure every frame instead of smoothly interpolating the exposure.  This results in a lot of unnecessary strobing in dark scenes.

Added... 

[JavaLawyer]

Below is a summary of everyone's input thus far. Please let me know if I over generalized, misrepresented, or missed anyone's concerns and I'll refresh the list with updates. Recent items are highlighted in blue. Items fixed in the latest firmware update are striked out.

If any items in the wishlist were fixed by the latest firmware, please post and I'll update!

DNS-5222L Wishlist

• General - Ability to define camera patrol positions and combine snapshots in one consolidated email
• General - Ability to save to directory on NAS or server
• General - Access SD card via FTP or SFTP (i.e. include a check box to enable/disable this functionality)
• General - Add Menu option in the Web Configuration page for cloud configuration (rather than using the external PC software)
• General - Add SSH console to access SD card (SMB/CIFS)
• General - Disable IR illuminators while camera is in privacy mode
• General - Expand ability to configure event management attributes in all categories across the Web UI
• General - Following reboot/power failure, camera should align to user defined position rather than the default home position
• General - HTTPS support
• General - Increase video clip recording duration (i.e. up to 60 seconds with matching intervals to permit true continuous recording)
• General - Improve Linux browser support
  
• General - More detailed log events to facilitate troubleshooting
• General - Motion tracking (where the camera automatically pans/tilts to track a moving person/target
• General - Option to change the frequency and "Save to" path for recorded files
• General - Selecting "full screen"  in the Live View window displays 4:3 aspect ratio frame rather than 16:9
  
• General - Support for PTZ in Synology Surveillance Station
• General - User definable period for the DCS-5222L to create new directories for recorded snaphots (e.g. hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, etc.)
• Audio - Ability to select an audio file stored on the SD card and play through the audio line out
• FTP/Email - Option for dated directories or one static directory for FTP'd snapshots
• FTP - Option to save images using the same file name so prior FTP'd images are overwritten
• General - Add FTP, SFTP, FTPS, and SSH support
  
• Motion Detection - Ability to provide continuous unbroken snapshots for persistent long term motion events (current implementation has a 10 second gap between each group of 6 snapshots)
• Motion Dection - Improve PIR motion event triggering (i.e. reduce false alarms)
  
• Motion Detection - Motion events are erroneously triggered when the camera is in patrol mode (i.e. the camera perceives the camera rotation as motion because the image is changing)
• Motion Detection - Option to create/save multiple motion detection area settings that can be selected based on the camera location (i.e. for owners who frequently rotate the camera among frequently used locations)
• Motion Detection - User defined interval for snapshot frequency (e.g. 0.25, 0.33, 0.5 seconds) during a motion detection event
• Networking - Add an indicator specifying whether the camera is connected via wired or wireless (since the camera uses the same IP address for wired and wireless connections)
• Night Mode - Ability to specify the light level required for transitioning from day to nite mode (current fixed mode transitions too early)
• Patrol - Ability to schedule the patrol time (rather than rely on manual triggering)
• Patrol - Option to continuously cycle through selected cameras at a user defined interval
• Night Mode - Option to disable the IR illuminators while the camera is in night mode
• SD Recording - Improve video quality and consistency (recorded videos are frequently choppy, freeze, and have dropped frames)
  
• SD Recording - Add inherent ability to mass download SD recordings (rather than downloading videos one at a time or physically removing the SD card from the camera)
  
• SD Recording - Add option to disable JPG files generated for each video recording
  
• Security - Disable HTTPS when HTTP is enabled
• Security - Option to edit email subject and content and ability to exclude the device MAC address
• Security - SFTP support
• Security - User defined session timeout period
• Images - Increase image quality range for generated JPGs (i.e. option to reduce the compression level further than currently available via the firmware)
  
• Video - Ability to control image exposure (shutter speed), particularly in night mode (i.e. current implementation adjusts the exposure each frame rather than smoothly interpolating exposure, resulting in unnecessary strobing in dark scenes)
  
• Video - Add option for RTSP stream at the camera's native image sensor quality (i.e. current RTSP streaming options are too heavily compressed and contain too many artifacts to support advanced image processing)
  
• Video - Support for RAW (bayer mask) streaming for 160x80 or RGB
  
• Web UI - Support for Live View using browsers on the Linux platform

Wishlist Items Addressed by D-Link (Thank You!)

• TBD

[hastla]

It is a must to control/change all ports (https & co) in web-admin. All bought cams are useless as for me now as I need port 443 for exchange (OWA) and finally all external exchange clients can`t log in anymore as 443 is blocked by the cams via router`s UPnP.

Funny thing 443 is portforwarded to the servers IP but the cams force the router, as trying to call the port till it`s opened by UPnP. One time opened, it`s  blocked - the UPnP-entry (443) blocks this port till I manual delet all entrys in table. Then external exchange clients are able to login again to the server.

So only solution is to control this port - change it camera side to another like you have it on other models!!!

Thanks - same I will post to the DCS-942L as this model is also same firmware & have same bug!