FIRMWARE RELEASE NOTES ====================== Products affected: AXIS 211 Network Camera Release date: 2005-03-03 Release type: Production Firmware version: 4.20 File name: 211_420.bin Preceding release: 4.11 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPGRADE INSTRUCTIONS ==================== The firmware can be upgraded using HTTP or FTP. HTTP ==== 1. Download the upgrade file to a directory that is accessible from your local computer. 2. Go to the AXIS 211 start page (e.g. http://192.168.0.90). 3. Click the Setup link and log in as root (or any other user with Administrator privileges) if you are prompted for a user name and password. You must be logged in as an Administrator to upgrade the unit. 4. Click System Options in the menu to the left. 5. Click Maintenance. 6. Click the Browse button in the Upgrade Server section. 7. Select the upgrade file you downloaded (and maybe decompressed) from our site. This file is typically named 211_420.bin or axis211.bin. 8. Click the Open button. 9. Click the Upgrade button in the Upgrade Server section. 10. Wait for the flash load to complete, which may take 1-10 minutes. The upgrade procedure is in four steps: Step 1, Shut down: Running applications are shut down and active connections are terminated. Step 2, Uploading firmware: The old firmware will be erased and the new firmware will be saved. During this step, the Power LED will blink green/amber. After a while the progress of the upgrade will be displayed in the web browser. Step 3, Reboot: The system restarts automatically. Step 4, Reconfiguration: The new firmware settings are configured to match the previous settings. The Status LED will be amber during this step. 11. After the upgrade has completed, the unit will automatically initiate the system, during which the Status LED blinks amber. When initiation is complete and the system is ready for use, the Status LED will be green. FTP === 1. You must be at the command prompt and in the directory that contains the upgrade file. Example: C:\Axis\211\4_20> 2. From the command prompt, open an FTP connection to the unit you wish to upgrade. (Do not use a "Windows" based FTP-program to do this, use only command line FTP programs!) 3. Log in as root. The default password for the root user is "pass", unless this has been changed by the user. You must be logged in as the root user to upgrade the unit. 4. Change to binary transfer mode by typing "bin" and press enter. 5. Type "hash" and press enter. (This will allow you to see how the upgrade progresses.) 6. Type the command "put XXX.bin flash" where XXX.bin is the name of the upgrade file you downloaded (and maybe decompressed) from our site. This file is typically named 211_420.bin or axis211.bin. 7. Wait for the flash load to complete, which may take 1-10 minutes. The upgrade procedure is in four steps: Step 1, Shut down: Running applications are shut down and active connections are terminated. Step 2, Uploading firmware: The old firmware will be erased and the new firmware will be saved. During this step, the Power LED will blink green/amber. After a while the progress of the upgrade will be displayed in the command prompt. Step 3, Reboot: The FTP session terminates and the system restarts automatically. Step 4, Reconfiguration: The new firmware settings are configured to match the previous settings. The Status LED will be amber during this step. 8. After the upgrade has completed, the unit will automatically initiate the system, during which the Status LED blinks amber. When initiation is complete and the system is ready for use, the Status LED will be green. RELEASE 4.20 ============ News in 4.20 ============ 4.20:1 Possible to configure whether the Simple or the Advanced Simple Visual Object Type will be used in the MPEG-4 stream. 4.20:2 Added support for the RTSP protocol which is used to control the delivery of MPEG-4 streams. The following methods of delivery are supported: multicast RTP (via UDP/IP) unicast RTP (via UDP/IP) RTP interleaved over RTSP (via TCP/IP) RTP interleaved over RTSP interleaved over HTTP (via TCP/IP) 4.20:3 Disabled the multicast MPEG-4 stream from being delivered without a client requesting it. This is now controlled using RTSP. 4.20:4 Variable and constant bit rate settings for MPEG-4. For the constant bit rate setting it is possible to prioritize on frame rate or image quality. 4.20:5 The AXIS Media Control now supports unicast MPEG-4 streams. 4.20:6 SMTP extended with authentication support. 4.20:7 The default image compression is decreased from 50 to 30 and takes effect after a factory default. 4.20:8 The hostname is passed to the DHCP server. Improvements in 4.20 ==================== 4.20:9 The AXIS Media Control Embedded included with the AXIS 211 will no longer interfere with the AXIS Media Control supplied in the SDK. 4.20:10 The MPEG-4 decoder installation and the AXIS Media Control installation has been separated. It is possible for the administrator to configure if the MPEG-4 decoder installation is allowed. 4.20:11 Network TCP/IP settings are split into Basic TCP/IP settings and Advanced TCP/IP settings. 4.20:12 The software version is no longer displayed in the title bar of the web browser. 4.20:13 The AXIS Media Control displays a yellow alert box instead of pop up messages. 4.20:14 The MPEG-4 decoder video quality has been improved. 4.20:15 Specifying the fps parameter in an HTTP API video request overrides the default frame rate setting. 4.20:16 Improved upgrade process over a slow connection. An upgrade attempt will no longer time out after 30 seconds. 4.20:17 A stability issue that, in some circumstances, could cause the AXIS 211 to hang has been resolved. Corrections in 4.20 =================== 4.20:18 External sources which can not be viewed using the current web browser are removed from the list on the Live View page. 4.20:19 Corrected one cause of the problem in earlier releases where the AXIS 211 could deny access to video streams when other clients were requesting frequent snapshots. AXIS Media Control displayed the message: "503 Error: Maximum number of clients reached". 4.20:20 It should now be possible to configure the AXIS 211 while the maximum number of clients are connected. 4.20:21 The hostname of the AXIS 211 is set uniquely and based on the serial number of the AXIS 211 ("axis-00408cxxxxxx" instead of "AxisProduct"). 4.20:22 Verification of allowed characters in an event name or in an event server name has been corrected. 4.20:23 A problem with sending emails with large bodies has been corrected. 4.20:24 An email upload will no longer include empty files when the number of images in the buffer to upload is less than the images per mail configuration for the event type. 4.20:25 Requesting several HTTP API video streams with/without the date and time will generate video with/without date and time overlay. 4.20:26 A problem with FTP upload retries when a retry attempt does not succeed during the event type duration has been corrected. 4.20:27 A problem with gaps in the file name sequence during FTP upload has been corrected. Removed functionality in 4.20 ============================= 4.20:28 The MPEG-4 statistics web page has been removed and replaced with a built in tool which gives the user the possibility to include bit rate and frame rate information in the overlay text. Known limitations in 4.20 ========================= 4.20:29 The verification of event duration configuration contains limitations and will not disallow alphabetic characters. 4.20:30 During an HTTP upload, unnecessary log messages may appear and files may be missing in the uploaded file sequence. 4.20:31 Rotated video streams are not rotated in Motion Detection setup. 4.20:32 When starting a new live view stream or when getting a still image, running live view streams and events will be stopped for a short while. 4.20:33 Copying an event configuration does not work properly. Some parameters may not be copied correctly. Please verify each parameter value in the cloned event configuration. 4.20:34 Motion detection windows are adjusted so that their width and height are divisible by 8 (pixels). 4.20:35 When saving a snapshot image, some web browsers (e.g. Mozilla) will fetch a new picture and the saved picture will not match the displayed snapshot. 4.20:36 The Mozilla web browser does not always close the image stream properly when leaving the live view page. Restarting the stream can sometimes fail as well. Restarting Mozilla solves these two problems. 4.20:37 Viewing full screen and sequencing through different external video sources with different video streams in a sequence will switch the full screen mode off. 4.20:38 The AXIS Media Control may stop displaying the MPEG-4 stream after the screen saver has been active or the computer has been locked. Workaround: Reload the Live View page. 4.20:39 If using dual screens and moving the AXIS Media Control window from one screen to the other, the MPEG-4 stream may stop updating. Workaround: Reload the Live View page. 4.20:40 A snapshot image of the MPEG-4 stream will not be aspect ratio corrected when using the AXIS Media Control to take the snapshot image while aspect ratio correction is enabled. 4.20:41 The text overlay in a 90/270 degree rotated NTSC image is garbled in both MJPEG and MPEG-4 when the image width is not evenly divisible by 16. Application Developer Information ================================= Supported HTTP API Image Resolutions Resolution Exceptions ========== ========== 768x576 1) 704x576 1) 2) 704x480 2) 704x288 2) 704x240 2) 640x480 480x360 384x288 352x288 2) 3) 352x240 2) 3) 320x240 240x180 4) 192x144 176x144 2) 3) 176x120 2) 3) 160x120 1) Not available as bitmap (bmp) image 2) Not equally scaled 3) No support for 90/270 degrees rotation 4) 176x240 when rotated 90/270 degrees The Axis Video API, RTSP - Interface Specification found at www.axis.com is supported by the AXIS 211. The following HTTP API groups are supported by the AXIS 211. For more information please refer to the HTTP API specification version 2, available at www.axis.com. Group Exceptions ===== ========== General Image and Video Video status Motion Detection I/O IP filter Built in templates for dynamic parameters are: Template Group ======== ===== 'event' Event 'external_video' ExternalVideo 'ftpaction' Event.E#.Actions 'ftp_config' EventServers.FTP 'httpaction' Event.E#.Actions 'http_config' EventServers.HTTP 'hwaction' Event.E#.Actions 'motion' Motion 'smtpaction' Event.E#.Actions 'source' Sequence.S0.Source 'tcpaction' Event.E#.Actions 'tcp_config' EventServers.TCP