Live view and playback through NVR are significantly slower than when accessing standalone cameras on cellular network (using PoE switch)

[Greg_868971036258457]

Hello,

I recently set up a Reolink NVR with four cameras (bought separately from the NVR) and am pretty pleased overall. One issue I have noticed is that when I am away from home and have to use the cell network for internet, it is often very difficult to view a live feed of the cameras and playback any video when accessing the NVR camera feeds through the Reolink app. However, when I open up the live feed of the standalone cameras, the video is generally as smooth as it is on my home network. Why would there be a difference between accessing the NVR's camera feeds vs the standalone camera feeds when both have the same settings? I made sure to manually check that the firmware for the cameras and NVR were the most recent. The four cameras are plugged into PoE switch, then into the router. The NVR was plugged directly into router, then directly into PoE switch thinking it might make a difference (it didn't). Also, I don't have SD cards in the cameras, so I can only access playback through the NVR. This issue seems to worsen as the day progresses. It almost always works smoothly in the morning, but by the afternoon, I can rarely play back footage saved on the NVR hard drive. Even in fluent stream, it is still often very choppy. I have also tried upgrading my home internet upload speed from 10mbps to 40mbps just to see if that would make a difference. Closing the app and clearing it from running in the background, and then reopening it sometimes solves the problem, but as time goes in during the day, that stops working. I'm stumped as to why the standalone feeds always work smoothly on clear stream, while the NVR feed starts to struggle even in fluent stream.

I went through a whole series of troubleshooting steps with Reolink support, including changing dynamic/static IP address, opening up all ports on the router, enabling UID, etc., but nothing has seemed to work and their support can't figure out the issue either. I even tried connecting my PC to my phone, using it as a mobile hotspot as was suggested on Reddit, and opening the Reolink client on the desktop, and the same issue occurs there as does on the phone app.

I can't think of anything else to do and would welcome any suggestions.

Thanks!

[joseph_1979]

@greg_868971036258457 If you are familiar of networking protocols, you can capture a trace using Wireshark and see what is happening.

Ensure 1k to 64k UDP ports are opened. Try to check upload speed on your router every hour when the situation is the worst.

Have you tried to view playback on your smartphone when connected to another external WIFI network?

[Greg_868971036258457]

@joseph_1979 I'm not too familiar with networking, but I can try to get acquainted with the program. I'm assuming I'll be looking for data usage for the individual cameras compared the NVR? Can I have someone at home use my PC and run the program while I am away from the house and I start to experience the issue on my phone? The issue I am experiencing occurs when I am away from home during the day, but connected to a very strong 5G network. However, the 5G connection in the area around my house is not very strong, so it's difficult to replicate the situation at home, as the connection is not strong enough for me to stream regardless of whether this issue occurs or not.

Upload speed at home was around 35Mbps at various points throughout the day.

I even tried not opening the app all day on the chance that bandwidth usage is being capped at a certain limit, but after only 5 to 10 minutes of usage in the afternoon, the same thing happened. NVR feed was very choppy, while the standalone stream was very smooth, even on the clearest setting.
 
I have not tested the app on another WiFi network yet, but I will try to find an access point during the day and try.

Thanks.

[joseph_1979]

@greg_868971036258457 if you are not familiar with networking protocols then you will be starring at the trace. The trace has to be on the egress of the router.

How is your network setup?

So to eliminate the mobile packet data, please carry out the test of viewing through NVR from an external WIFI network. Say from McDonald's or Starbucks.

35Mbps as upload is good. I have 1G/250Mbps.

What is the model of the router? And there is no restriction I.e firewall rules?

So the issue can be in any of these nodes.

Your router, P2P servers provided by AWS/Azure, ISP, mobile operator and smartphone.

[Greg_868971036258457]

@joseph_1979 I ran a capture under different circumstances, such as while on 5G, while on home WiFi, with the cameras plugged into the PoE switch, cameras plugged directly into the NVR, and while viewing different feeds in the app. The graphs looked identical under each instance.

Normally, I have the four cameras connected to the PoE switch, which is then connected to the router. The NVR is connected directly to the router. The router is TP-Link, and as far as I can see in the settings, there are no restrictions that would be interfering with connectivity.

I was able to test remote connectivity on two different external WiFi networks, and the same issue is still occurring. Since my router has built-in capabilities to set up a VPN (OpenVPN), I decided to give that a try and connect to my home network over 5G network on my smartphone, and the feed played smoothly with no stuttering. Am I correct to assume that this means the issue does not lie with the cellular network?

[joseph_1979]

@greg_868971036258457 No, it has nothing to do with 5G or 4G as it is also happening when you are on an external WIFI network. So this test excluded packet data and smartphone. So the issue is either the Router or the ISP. When you create a tunnel, then it is a direct communication and the ISP has no clue of what traffic is passing through. It is as if your smartphone is on the LAN.

[Greg_868971036258457]

@joseph_1979 If the router or ISP is the issue, why is it then that viewing the standalone camera feeds always work during the same periods of time that the NVR feeds don't? Could it not be that the issue lies with the NVR unit itself?