AXIS P3374-LV Network Camera

This user manual describes several products. This means you may find instructions that aren’t applicable to your product.

To find Axis devices on the network and assign them IP addresses in Windows®, use AXIS IP Utility or AXIS Device Manager. Both applications are free and can be downloaded from axis.com/support.

For more information about how to find and assign IP addresses, go to How to assign an IP address and access your device.

You can use the device with the following browsers:

*To use AXIS OS web interface with iOS 15 or iPadOS 15, go to Settings > Safari > Advanced > Experimental Features and disable NSURLSession Websocket.

If you need more information about recommended browsers, go to AXIS OS Portal.

1. Open a browser and enter the IP address or host name of the Axis device.

   If you do not know the IP address, use AXIS IP Utility or AXIS Device Manager to find the device on the network.

2. Enter the username and password. If you access the device for the first time, you must set the root password. See Set a new password for the root account.

3. The live view page opens in your browser.

1. Type a password. Follow the instructions about secure passwords. See Secure passwords.

2. Retype the password to confirm the spelling.

3. Click Create login. The password has now been configured.

The device password is the primary protection for your data and services. Axis devices do not impose a password policy as they may be used in various types of installations.

To protect your data we strongly recommend that you:

• Use a password with at least 8 characters, preferably created by a password generator.

• Don’t expose the password.

• Change the password at a recurring interval, at least once a year.

1. Go to Settings > Image > Zoom and set the desired zoom level.

2. Under Focus, click Autofocus.

• To reduce motion blur in low-light conditions, adjust one or more of the following settings in Settings > Image > Exposure:

• Move the Blur-noise trade-off slider toward Low motion blur.

• Note

  When you increase the gain, image noise also increases.

• Set Max shutter to a shorter time, and Max gain to a higher value.

• If you still have problems with motion blur:

• Increase the light level in the scene.

• Mount the camera so that objects move toward it or away from it rather than sideways.

Your camera uses visible light to deliver color images during the day. As the available light diminishes, you can set the camera to automatically shift to night mode, in which the camera uses both visible light and near-infrared light to deliver black-and-white images. Since the camera uses more of the available light it can deliver brighter, more detailed, images.

1. Go to Settings > Image > Day and night, and make sure that the IR cut filter is set to Auto.

2. To determine at what light level you want the camera to shift to night mode, move the Threshold slider toward Bright or Dark.

3. Enable Allow IR illumination and Synchronize IR illumination to use the camera’s IR light when night mode is activated.

4. Note

   If you set the shift to night mode to occur when it’s brighter, the image remains sharper as there will be less low-light noise. If you set the shift to occur when it’s darker, the image colors are maintained for longer, but there will be more image blur due to low-light noise.

There are different exposure mode options in the camera that adjusts aperture, shutter speed, and gain to improve image quality for specific surveillance scenes. Go to Settings > Image > Exposure and select between the following exposure modes:

• For most use cases, select Automatic exposure.

• For environments with certain artificial lighting, for example fluorescent lighting, select Flicker-free.

  Select the same frequency as the power line frequency.

• For environments with certain artificial light and bright light, for example outdoors with fluorescent lighting at night and sun during daytime, select Flicker-reduced.

  Select the same frequency as the power line frequency.

• To lock the current exposure settings, select Hold current.

Use corridor format to better utilize the full field of view in a long and narrow area, for example a staircase, hallway, road, or tunnel.

1. Depending on your device, turn the camera or the 3-axis lens in the camera 90° or 270°.

2. Note

   Make sure to aim IR LEDs away from walls or weathershields.

3. If the device doesn’t have automatic rotation of the view, log in to the webpage and go to Settings > System > Orientation.

4. Click .

5. Rotate the view 90° or 270°.

Find out more at axis.com/axis-corridor-format.

Dynamic range is the difference in light levels in an image. In some cases the difference between the darkest and the brightest areas can be significant. The result is often an image where either the dark or the bright areas are visible. Wide dynamic range (WDR) makes both dark and bright areas of the image visible.

1. Go to Settings > Image > Wide dynamic range.

2. Turn on WDR.

3. Use the Local contrast slider to adjust the amount of WDR.

4. If you still have problems, go to Exposure and adjust the Exposure zone to cover the area of interest.

Find out more about WDR and how to use it at axis.com/web-articles/wdr.

This section includes instructions about configuring your device. To learn more about how streaming and storage works, go to Streaming and storage.

1. Go to live view and select H.264.

2. Go to Settings > Stream.

3. Do one or more of the following:

4. • Turn on dynamic GOP and set a high GOP length value.

   • Increase the compression.

   • Turn on dynamic FPS.

1. To store recordings on the network, you need to set up your network storage.

2. Go to Settings > System > Storage.

3. Click Setup under Network storage.

4. Enter the IP address of the host server.

5. Enter the name of the shared location on the host server.

6. Move the switch if the share requires a login, and enter username and password.

7. Click Connect.

To record video you must first set up network storage, see Set up network storage, or have an SD card installed.

1. Record video

2. Go to the live view.

3. To start a recording, click Record. Click again to stop the recording.

1. Watch video

2. Click Storage > Go to recordings.

3. Select your recording in the list and it will play automatically.

You can create rules to make your device perform an action when certain events occur. A rule consists of conditions and actions. The conditions can be used to trigger the actions. For example, the device can start a recording or send an email when it detects motion, or show an overlay text while the device is recording.

To learn more, check out our guide Get started with rules for events.

1. Go to Settings > System > Events to set up a rule. The rule defines when the device will perform certain actions. Rules can be setup as scheduled, recurring, or for example, triggered by motion detection.

2. Select the Condition that must be met to trigger the action. If you specify more than one condition for the rule, all of the conditions must be met to trigger the action.

3. Select which Action the device should perform when the conditions are met.

This example explains how to set up the camera to start recording to the SD card five seconds before it detects motion and to stop one minute after.

1. Make sure that AXIS Video Motion Detection is running:

2. Go to Settings > Apps > AXIS Video Motion Detection.

3. Start the application if it is not already running.

4. Make sure you have set up the application according to your needs. If you need help, see the user manual for AXIS Video Motion Detection 4.

1. Create a rule:

2. Go to Settings > System > Events and add a rule.

3. Type a name for the rule.

4. In the list of conditions, under Application, select AXIS Video Motion Detection (VMD).

5. In the list of actions, under Recordings, select Record video while the rule is active.

6. Select an existing stream profile or create a new one.

7. Set the prebuffer time to 5 seconds.

8. Set the postbuffer time to 60 seconds.

9. In the list of storage options, select SD card.

10. Click Save.

This example explains how to display the text “Motion detected” when the device detects motion.

Make sure that AXIS Video Motion Detection is running:

1. Go to Settings > Apps > AXIS Video Motion Detection.

2. Start the application if it is not already running.

3. Make sure you have set up the application according to your needs.

4. Add the overlay text:

5. Go to Settings > Overlay.

6. Enter #D in the text field.

7. Choose text size and appearance.

8. Create a rule:

9. Go to System > Events > Rules and add a rule.

10. Type a name for the rule.

11. In the list of conditions, select AXIS Video Motion Detection.

12. In the list of actions, select Use overlay text.

13. Select Camera 1.

14. Type “Motion detected”.

15. Set the duration.

16. Click Save.

This example explains how to connect an Axis PIR detector to the camera, and set up the camera to start recording when the detector senses motion.

• Required hardware

• 3-wire cable (ground, power, I/O)

• Axis PIR detector

1. Connect the wires to the camera’s I/O connector
2. Note

   For information on the I/O connector, see Connectors.

3. Connect the ground wire to pin 1 (GND/-).

4. Connect the power wire to pin 2 (12V DC output).

5. Connect the I/O wire to pin 3 (I/O input).

1. Connect the wires to the PIR detector’s I/O connector
2. 

3. Connect the other end of the ground wire to pin 1 (GND/-).

4. Connect the other end of the power wire to pin 2 (DC input/+).

5. Connect the other end of the I/O wire to pin 3 (I/O output).

1. Configure the I/O port in the camera’s webpage

2. Go to Settings > System > I/O ports.

3. Give the input module a descriptive name.

4. To make the PIR detector send a signal to the camera when it senses motion, select Closed circuit in the drop-down list.

To trigger the camera to start recording when it receives a signal from the PIR detector, you need to create a rule in the camera’s webpage.

This example explains how to trigger an alarm when the input signal has been cut or short-circuited. For more information about the I/O connector, see I/O connector.

1. Go to Settings > System > I/O Ports and turn on Supervised I/O.

1. Create a rule:

2. Go to Settings > System > Events and add a rule.

3. Type a name for the rule.

4. In the list of conditions, select Digital input and then select a port.

5. In the list of actions, select Send notification to email and then select a recipient from the list. Go to Recipients to create a new recipient.

   To create a new recipient, click . To copy an existing recipient, click .

6. Type a subject and a message for the email.

7. Click Save.

1. Turn on audio:

2. Go to Settings > Audio and turn on Allow audio.

3. Go to Input > Type and select your audio source.

4. Edit the stream profile which is used for the recording:

5. Go to Settings > Stream and click Stream profiles.

6. Select the stream profile and click Audio.

7. Select the checkbox and select Include.

8. Click Save.

9. Click Close.

To reset the product to the factory default settings:

1. Disconnect power from the product.

2. Press and hold the control button while reconnecting power. See Product overview.

3. Keep the control button pressed for 15–30 seconds until the status LED indicator flashes amber.

4. Release the control button. The process is complete when the status LED indicator turns green. The product has been reset to the factory default settings. If no DHCP server is available on the network, the default IP address is 192.168.0.90.

5. Use the installation and management software tools to assign an IP address, set the password, and access the video stream.

   The installation and management software tools are available from the support pages on axis.com/support.

It is also possible to reset parameters to factory default through the web interface. Go to Settings > System > Maintenance and click Default.

Firmware is the software that determines the functionality of network devices. One of your first actions when troubleshooting a problem should be to check the current firmware version. The latest version may contain a correction that fixes your particular problem.

To check the current firmware:

1. Go to the product’s webpage.

2. Click the help menu .

3. Click About.

AXIS Device Manager can be used for multiple upgrades. Find out more at axis.com/products/axis-device-manager.

1. Download the firmware file to your computer, available free of charge at axis.com/support/firmware.

2. Log in to the product as an administrator.

3. Go to Settings > System > Maintenance. Follow the instructions on the page. When the upgrade has finished, the product restarts automatically.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for here, try the troubleshooting section at axis.com/support.

When setting up your system, it is important to consider how various settings and situations affect the performance. Some factors affect the amount of bandwidth (the bitrate) required, others can affect the frame rate, and some affect both. If the load on the CPU reaches its maximum, this also affects the frame rate.

The following factors are the most important to consider:

• High image resolution or lower compression levels result in images containing more data which in turn affects the bandwidth.

• Rotating the image in the GUI will increase the product's CPU load.

• Access by large numbers of Motion JPEG or unicast H.264 clients affects the bandwidth.

• Simultaneous viewing of different streams (resolution, compression) by different clients affects both frame rate and bandwidth.

  Use identical streams wherever possible to maintain a high frame rate. Stream profiles can be used to ensure that streams are identical.

• Accessing Motion JPEG and H.264 video streams simultaneously affects both frame rate and bandwidth.

• Heavy usage of event settings affects the product’s CPU load which in turn affects the frame rate.

• Using HTTPS may reduce frame rate, in particular if streaming Motion JPEG.

• Heavy network utilization due to poor infrastructure affects the bandwidth.

• Viewing on poorly performing client computers lowers perceived performance and affects frame rate.

• Running multiple AXIS Camera Application Platform (ACAP) applications simultaneously may affect the frame rate and the general performance.

A view area is a cropped part of the full view. You can stream and store the view area instead of the full view to minimize bandwidth and storage needs. If you enable PTZ for the view area, you can pan, tilt and zoom within it. By using a view area you can remove parts of the full view, for example, the sky.

When you set up a view area, we recommend you to set the video stream resolution to the same size as or smaller than the view area size. If you set the video stream resolution larger than the view area size it implies digitally scaled up video after sensor capture, which requires more bandwidth without adding image information.

Overlays are superimposed over the video stream. They are used to provide extra information during recordings, such as a timestamp, or during product installation and configuration. You can add either text or an image.

Decide which compression method to use based on your viewing requirements, and on the properties of your network. The available options are:

Motion JPEG

Motion JPEG, or MJPEG, is a digital video sequence that is made up of a series of individual JPEG images. These images are then displayed and updated at a rate sufficient to create a stream that shows constantly updated motion. For the viewer to perceive motion video the rate must be at least 16 image frames per second. Full motion video is perceived at 30 (NTSC) or 25 (PAL) frames per second.

The Motion JPEG stream uses considerable amounts of bandwidth, but provides excellent image quality and access to every image contained in the stream.

H.264 or MPEG-4 Part 10/AVC

H.264 can, without compromising image quality, reduce the size of a digital video file by more than 80% compared to the Motion JPEG format and by as much as 50% compared to older MPEG formats. This means that less network bandwidth and storage space are required for a video file. Or seen another way, higher video quality can be achieved for a given bitrate.

Bitrate control helps you to manage the bandwidth consumption of your video stream.

Variable bitrate (VBR)Variable bitrate allows the bandwidth consumption to vary depending on the level of activity in the scene. The more activity, the more bandwidth you need. With variable bitrate you are guaranteed constant image quality, but you need to make sure you have storage margins.

Maximum bitrate (MBR)Maximum bitrate lets you set a target bitrate to handle bitrate limitations in your system. You might see a decline in image quality or frame rate as the instantaneous bitrate is kept below the specified target bitrate. You can choose to prioritize either image quality or frame rate. We recommend that you configure the target bitrate to a higher value than the expected bitrate. This gives you a margin in case there is a high level of activity in the scene.

1. Target bitrate

Average bitrate (ABR)With average bitrate, the bitrate is automatically adjusted over a longer period of time. This is so you can meet the specified target and provide the best video quality based on your available storage. Bitrate is higher in scenes with a lot of activity, compared to static scenes. You are more likely to get better image quality when in scenes with a lot of activity if you use the average bitrate option. You can define the total storage required to store the video stream for a specified amount of time (retention time) when image quality is adjusted to meet the specified target bitrate. Specify the average bitrate settings in one of the following ways:

• To calculate the estimated storage need, set the target bitrate and the retention time.

• To calculate the average bitrate, based on available storage and required retention time, use the target bitrate calculator.

• 
  1. Target bitrate
  2. Actual average bitrate
• You can also turn on maximum bitrate and specify a target bitrate within the average bitrate option.
• 
  1. Target bitrate
  2. Actual average bitrate

AXIS Camera Application Platform (ACAP) is an open platform that enables third parties to develop analytics and other applications for Axis products. To find out more about available applications, downloads, trials and licenses, go to axis.com/applications.

To find the user manuals for Axis applications, go to help.axis.com.

This product supports microSD/microSDHC/microSDXC cards.

For SD card recommendations, see axis.com.

microSD, microSDHC, and microSDXC Logos are trademarks of SD-3C LLC. microSD, microSDHC, microSDXC are trademarks or registered trademarks of SD-3C, LLC in the United States, other countries or both.

• The control button is used for:

• Resetting the product to factory default settings. See Reset to factory default settings.

RJ45 Ethernet connector with Power over Ethernet (PoE).

• Audio in – 3.5 mm input for a mono microphone, or a line-in mono signal (left channel is used from a stereo signal).

• Audio out – 3.5 mm output for audio (line level) that can be connected to a public address (PA) system or an active speaker with a built-in amplifier. A stereo connector must be used for audio out.

Audio input

Audio output

The external microphone is used when connected.

For audio in, the left channel is used from a stereo signal.

Use the I/O connector with external devices in combination with, for example, motion detection, event triggering, and alarm notifications. In addition to the 0 V DC reference point and power (DC output), the I/O connector provides the interface to:

Digital input

For connecting devices that can toggle between an open and closed circuit, for example PIR sensors, door/window contacts, and glass break detectors.

Supervised input

Enables possibility to detect tampering on a digital input.

Digital output

For connecting external devices such as relays and LEDs. Connected devices can be activated by the VAPIX® Application Programming Interface, trough an event or from the product’s webpage.

4-pin terminal block

Example

1. DC ground
2. DC output 12 V, max 25 mA
3. Supervised input
4. Digital output