Axis 207w and 207mw FW updates

[40th Floor]

Axis put out higher-numbered firmware for the 207 line.

The 207mw (1280x1024) FW (4.44.1) was uneventful. Main change was digest authentication (not in the 4.40.1 it had on it) and the max gain-boost dropped from 24 down to 18, though you can't tell by looking. That, and some API changes in form, not function (things like a value of 500000 being used instead of 0.5). I think WPA2 is in there now. Also, the right 4 or 5 pixels in 1280x mode is no longer garbage.

The 207w (640x480) FW (4.44.2) was a downgrade. While the same, few changes as in the 207wm are there, the performance is, well, terrible. It can't get more than 20 fps, and to get that you have to let the max bandwidth loose. As a quick comparison, same time of day (simply the time it takes to flash back, actually):

- fw 4.44.2 (new) 20 fps tops and about 4-5 Mbps to get that (yes, mpeg-4), and very jerky - band limit it to 1.5 Mbps and it can't get over 10 fps. No amount of fiddling did anything useful.

- fw 4.40.1 (late 2007) 30 fps all day, perfectly smooth, and only 350 kbps (1/10th). At night, 25 fps, again perfectly smooth, and even less band used (B&W and mostly black but that's fine).

It was easy enough to flash back.

Update: the 207mw also has a problem. The band used is more than twice what it was during daylight. The cause, though, is that 4.44.1 (and probably the 4.44.2 FW in the 207w) is not sending p-frames. The thing is only sending i-frames. That explains the 10x band problem in the 207w, and most of the problem with the 207mw (it's only doing 6 to 6.3 fps while I could always get 7.5 in 4.40.1).

Look at te I-F: value. 1:1 indicates nothing but I-frames, as you would see in mjpeg. I have it set to 7 in the 207mw setup. I changed it a few times but no effect. And this is a FW from December, supposedly tested for a month before made pubiic.



That's a 207w (640x480, cropped to x400) on the left. It was doing 4-5 Mbps using 4.44.1. The 207mw is on the right (1280x960, cropped view to x640). It's going back to 4.40.1. And here it is:


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