Axis firmware update to 4.40.1 (1 Oct 2007) 207w 207mw ...

[spymasterflash]

RELEASE 4.40.1
==============

Products affected: AXIS 207MW Network Camera
Release date: 2007-10-01
Release type: Production
Firmware version: 4.40.1
File name: axis207mw.bin
Preceding release: 4.40


Products affected: AXIS 207W Network Camera
Release date: 2007-10-01
Release type: Production
Firmware version: 4.40.1
File name: axis207w.bin
Preceding release: 4.40

Corrections in 4.40.1 since 4.40
================================

4.40.1:C01 Improved MPEG-4 overall stability. Sometimes new clients were denied access to a stream.

4.40.1:C02 MPEG-4 streaming no longer stops after 25 days.

4.40.1:C03 BMP images are no longer corrupted intermittently.

[spymasterflash]

My 207mw updated fine, using the Axis Camera Mgr applet. Trying the same for my 207w resulted in a "unrecognized ... (file)" immediately from the applet. I double-DL'ed and compared the 207w .bin file -- not a problem there. There are alternate ways to update so I used the "http" method, which simply means using the browser to start the upload rather than the axis-cam-mgr applet. This is what that looks like

Preparing system for upgrade ...
Starting run level 4 (stop most daemons) ...
Waiting for run level 4 to start ...
Run level 4 started.
Waiting for run level 4 to finish ...
... waiting ...
... waiting ...
... waiting ...
... waiting ...
... waiting ...
... waiting ...
... waiting ...
Run level 4 finished.
Stopping some remaining processes.
sending TERM signal ...
Most processes stopped.
The file system will be upgraded after reboot.
Unmounting file system /var ...
Unmounting file system /mnt/flash ...
File systems successfully shut down.
Receiving new firmware ...
No HWID in bootblock, continuing anyway.
Erasing old file system ...
1% ... 100%
Loading new file system ...
0% ... 100%
The system upgrade completed successfully.
The unit will now reboot.
To continue, please connect to the unit again.
There may be a short delay before the new connection is accepted.
This connection will now close.

After a minute, each was ready. Note the "No HWID in bootblock, continuing anyway. " line above. Maybe the cause of the axis-cam-mgr applet message. Who knows.

[spymasterflash]

I noticed at least a couple new settings:

Max exposure time: 1/100000 1/10000 1/1000 1/100 1/60 1/30 1/15 1/6 1/2 1 2s

Max gain: 0 1.5 3 4.5 6 7.5 9 10.5 12 13.5 15 16.5 18 19.5 21 22.5 24dB

I had been looking for those...'bout time. I only see it for the 207mw, not 207w. These are useful (yay!). It doesn't seem to auto-switch to B&W anymore. Hm. Not that that's bad.

The 207mw gets a 1280x480 setting (15 fps @ mpeg4). Here's the full menu list:
Resolution: 1280x1024 1280x960 1280x720 1280x480 640x480 640x360 480x360 480x270 352x288 320x240 320x180 240x180 240x135 176x144 160x120 160x90 pixels

The exposure/gain settings can be confusing in that those don't necessarily do what you expect, depending on Exposure control (auto, 50, 60 Hz) and exposure priority. I suppose the hardware has these features and axis just threw in these two settings -- better to be confused than to not have.

[klas]

Very disappointed with Axis quality control.

I have Axis 207MW and I've had open ticket with them for over a month. There was a bug in the web interface that basically causes the camera to stop recording completely. I used mostly default settings at 1.3MP resolution and using wired connection. Camera will record motion fine for a few days, then it gets a critical error message "Can't open some files..." at this point the only thing to do is to restart the camera. Axis been sending me beta firmware to resolve the issue several times, I even gave them access to my camera and still they were unable to resolve it even in the latest firmware build. For a $400 camera it's unacceptable. They just can't get this right!

They gave me solution: Use Jpeg recording instead Mpegs! Yes, it does work, but I don't want to have over 50 (5 fps x 10 seconds of motion) jpegs files when motion is detected.