Veskys (and Digoo BB-M2) IP Cameras: ONVIF, PTZ, HD, IrCut, Night vision and... Web interface!

The Veskys "P2P WiFi IP Camera 1.0MP 720P" and Digoo BB-M2 are new PTZ IP cameras that recently appeared in the shops.
I decided to order both of them to see if they are really the same.




I initially wanted to review the Digoo because it was the only one giving a detailled description and stating the presence of a HTTP interface.
However the Veskys arrived first while the Digoo BB-M2 was still in pre-sale so that's the one being tested in this article.


The Digoo BB-M2 started on pre-sale at the very attractive price of 15€ (now 19.55€) at Banggood. Its twin brother, branded Veskys is priced 22.63€ at Gearbest.

Appearence and design:

The camera looks small on pictures and this is probably due to its proportions. In fact it is comparable in size to the other PTZ competitors.
The base holds the pan and tilt motor, the antenna, and the Mini-USB power connector. Providing that kind of connector allows various ways to power the camera, as long as it receives 5V/1A.
The head holds all the camera part with microSD slot, PCB, sensor, lens and LED.

Are they really identical?

I had reservations on Veskys because of their brief product description as opposed to Digoo, but it appears that both models have the same Web interface, work with the same mobile app (Netcam360), and share the same components and features. They're basically the same APKLink-based product, only the price differs, with Veskys about 15% more expensive.

Visually, the only difference is that Veskys is equipped with an antenna. 

Documentation: 

The ridiculous leaflet is insufficient to make a easy start with this camera and many users will find the lack of details frustrating. A user manual can be downloaded for the Netcam mobile and PC viewers, but with only basic software usage information.

Setting up:

When powered on the first time, the camera greets you with a chinglish prompt "Welcome to use, please connect"
The first thing to do is transmit the local router address to the camera, which is done through Netcam360 (The good news is that you don't need to register for a user account on-line to use this app.). Several ways are available. The "One key to add" and the audio link method seems the most straightforward.

Note: Each time the camera is powered up, it says "Welcome to use, connection successful". Voice prompts can be muted in the settings.






Once configured, the camera can be used directly with Netcam360, or located on the network with a search tool and accessed via the browser or a 3rd party viewer.

Netcam360? any good?

Netcam360 has a very low rate of satisfaction in the user reviews. However, despite having hardly evolved since I first tried it in 2015, I found it complete enough, with access to most features in quite the same way as the native web interface.

PC Client: An old "Device Client", that didn't work for me, and the newer "Netcam/U-Home X" PC viewer can be downloaded from www.netcam360.com. The functions are mostly the same as the mobile app but without the access to the camera setup.

Native Web Interface
Web interface in IP Cameras is unfortunately getting rare nowadays and it's great to have one for several reasons:
- It contribute to the compatibility with 3rd party viewer, including the Onvif compliant ones.
- It (generally) provides control over the P2P configuration.
- It's also a great way to learn more about the camera's CGI functions by inspecting the page sources, and in turn, control some parameters that are not promoted in the user interface.

The drawback is that it represents a security weakness when, like here and for most low cost models, the HTTP access is only protected by a password so easy to sniff off the un-encrypted data stream.

This interface remains quite the same as the older versions I tested in the past, with IE (ActiveX) interface being the most complete, with HD resolution (1280x720) and 2-way audio support, while the applet-less simplified interface (for Chrome, FF, Edge, ...) only providing 640x360 video and no audio.

Finally, the web interface is the only place, for this model, where the firmware can be updated, in the unlikely event that the manufacturer publishes any.

Video and Audio

The video quality is good by day although, again, the picture is tuned for mobile phones and a bit too compressed.  The focus can be adjusted by turning the lens and I had to do this for the Digoo. Once done, the picture is perfectly clear.
I thought initially that the automatic night/day mode didn't work but it is fine but and just can takes a long time to return to day mode (turning off the IR LED). This is particularly true for the Veskys while the Diggo changes mode much faster.

The audio quality is clean but regrettably only available through Netcam360, which leads us to the next topic.

Third-party and ONVIF compatibility

The non-standard attribution of ports for the various services keeps the camera from being detected straight away by the 3rd party viewers and requires a bit a searching.
The RTSP port can be found in the settings, but the Onvif port is not specified.

The camera is made by Netcam Inc. around a Hi3518E from Apk-Link Technology Corp, from which I tried 2 other cameras in the past (SL-C702 and E6830), so I could figure out the correct port from these previous experiences. Inspecting the html source of the web interface also confirmed this information:

Try 17927 if port 81 does not work

Streaming URL's

http://192.168.1.206:81/snapshot.cgi?user=admin&pwd=admin (bmp/640x360)
http://192.168.1.206:81/videostream.cgi?loginuse=admin&loginpas=admin (MJPEG 640x384)



rtsp://user:password@192.168.1.206:10554/tcp/av0_0 (H264 1280x720)
rtsp://user:password@192.168.1.206:10554/tcp/av0_1 (H264 640x360)
The framerate depends on what has been set in the web interface 

Unfit for use as Onvif camera: 
The camera is unfortunately not a good candidate for use with ONVIF clients: Since the RTSP channel don't stream the audio, nor does ONVIF.
The ONVIF channel also tends to drop after a few minutes.
When that happens, there is no way to reach the camera with any Onvif agent anymore on port 10080 before rebooting it. Strangely enough, everything else remains operational via Netcam360 and RTSP.
If PTZ does not work with your onvif viewer, try selecting the "against pre-bit" parameter in the camera web interface.

Finding more about the camera:

Most app and documentation can be found on the Netcam360 page, but the Chinese page has more information like the IPC_SDK!

This is useful to perform actions that are not permitted through the user interface, like tuning video or re-assigning default ports.

https://www.ispyconnect.com/man.aspx?n=APKLINK

Below are some URL's found by tracing the Netcam PC client:
http://192.168.x.x:81/get_onvif.cgi
http://192.168.x.x:81/get_status.cgi
http://192.168.x.x:81/get_rtsp.cgi
http://192.168.x.x:81/get_params.cgi
http://192.168.x.x:81/get_camera_params.cgi

http://192.168.x.x:81//set_onvif.cgi?next_url=rebootrtsp.htm&loginuse=admin&loginpas=admin&onvifenable=1

http://192.168.x.x:81//set_rtsp.cgi?next_url=rebootme.htm&loginuse=admin&loginpas=admin&rtspport=10554&rtspenable=1

Network security/privacy (“Perfect paranoia is perfect awareness” -Stephen King)
Why do I hate Peer-to-peer and Cloud-only cameras?
For the casual user, this is cool! (translates "easy to set up").
For control freaks, this is a nightmare! (translates "who else is watching me?")

Chinese IP cameras tend to be chatty, and not only with their owner. These models are no exception and, while their outbound traffic, facilitated by the uPnP protocol, is initially designed to interact with Cloud services, who knows what else they send and where?

Below is a list of outbound connection attempts from one of the cameras.


Fortunately I keep them in a pool of IP's that is only allowed to talk to my NVR, so any other traffic is dropped.



Conclusion:
There is no difference between Digoo BB-M2 from Banggood.com and Veskys sold by Gearbest.
They are decent cameras for use with their Netcam360 app if you manage to buy them at their lowest price.
Those, like me, planning to extend or renew their ONVIF camera network should pass due to the lack of audio support and stability issue affecting the Onvif channel.
Next in my list is the Wanscam HW0036 (priced around 20€) which is likely another clone.

Good:

● USB powered
● Audio and video quality
● Price

Not so good:
● IR LED's turn ON automatically but never turn off (stay in night mode) Works fine, just can take a while to change mode.
● No Audio through RTSP/Onvif channel
● Unjustified outbound udp traffic
● Unreliable ONVIF service (crashes)*
* update 22/02/2017: I have assigned Veskys and Digoo cameras to behind 2 window locations (where the IR is turned off  and where the absence of audio does not matter) and I must say they didn't crash once in several weeks. It seems that the stability issues are mainly met during the initial fiddling with the settings. They're also both quite far from the routers and there's been no issue with the Wi-Fi range (even for the Digoo that doesn't have an external antenna)