FIRMWARE RELEASE NOTES ====================== Products affected: AXIS 241Q Blade Video Server Release date: 2005-03-03 Release type: Production Firmware version: 4.20 File name: 241qb_420.bin Preceding release: 4.03 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPGRADE INSTRUCTIONS ==================== The firmware can be upgraded using HTTP or FTP. After the firmware upgrade the PTZ-drivers that are installed need to be updated and reconfigured. The new drivers can be downloaded from here: http://www.axis.com/techsup/cam_servers/ptz/drivers.php HTTP ==== 1. Download the upgrade file to a directory that is accessible from your local computer. 2. Go to the AXIS 241Q Blade 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 241qb_420.bin or axis241qb.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\241qb\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 241qb_420.bin or axis241qb.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 Support for generating MPEG-4 streams according to ISO/IEC 14496-2:2003 using the Advanced Simple Profile. 4.20:2 Possible to configure whether the Simple or the Advanced Simple Visual Object Type will be used in the MPEG-4 stream. 4.20:3 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) 4.20:4 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 Support for decoding MPEG-4 streams using the Simple Profile or the Advanced Simple Profile has been added to AXIS Media Control. Requires DirectX 9, which can be installed using Windows Update. Note: The AXIS Media Control can be configured from the Windows Control Panel. For example, the multicast network interface to use can be configured. For more information, view the readme file available from the Control Panel. 4.20:6 Support for external video sources that deliver MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 streams. 4.20:7 Support for allowing the unit to be found using AXIS IP Utility v2.01. 4.20:8 SMTP extended with authentication support. 4.20:9 The default image compression is decreased from 50 to 30 and takes effect after a factory default. 4.20:10 The hostname is passed to the DHCP server. 4.20:11 Third party software license texts added to the web interface. 4.20:12 Support for Quad video stream upload. 4.20:13 Possible to configure default video source for Live View. Improvements in 4.20 ==================== 4.20:14 The AXIS Media Control Embedded included with the AXIS 241Q Blade will no longer interfere with the AXIS Media Control supplied in the SDK. 4.20:15 Network TCP/IP settings are split into Basic TCP/IP settings and Advanced TCP/IP settings. 4.20:16 The software version is no longer displayed in the title bar of the web browser. 4.20:17 The AXIS Media Control displays a yellow alert box instead of pop up messages. 4.20:18 Specifying the fps parameter in an HTTP API video request overrides the default frame rate setting. 4.20:19 Improved upgrade process over a slow connection. An upgrade attempt will no longer time out after 30 seconds. 4.20:20 A stability issue that, in some circumstances, could cause the AXIS 241Q Blade to hang has been resolved. 4.20:21 Improved HTTPS performance. 4.20:22 More fine grained compression control for Motion JPEG. Different compressions are now achieved for 0, 10, 20, .. 100 (previously it was 10, 30, .. 90). 4.20:23 Improved Motion JPEG performance. 4.20:24 Improved accessibility of the AXIS 241Q Blade when using the AXIS Internet Dynamic DNS service and the Internet is accessed through a NAT with a dynamically assigned IP address. 4.20:25 Improved the web pages so they load faster. 4.20:26 The AXIS Media Control no longer unnecessarily decodes Motion JPEG images if the image is not visible on the display. Corrections in 4.20 =================== 4.20:27 Corrected one cause of the problem in earlier releases where the AXIS 241Q Blade 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". 4.20:28 The hostname of the AXIS 241Q Blade is set uniquely and based on the serial number of the AXIS 241Q Blade ("axis-00408cxxxxxx" instead of "AxisProduct"). 4.20:29 Verification of allowed characters in an event name or in an event server name has been corrected. 4.20:30 A problem with sending emails with large bodies has been corrected. 4.20:31 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. 4.20:32 Requesting several HTTP API video streams with/without the date and time will generate video with/without date and time overlay. 4.20:33 A problem with FTP upload retries when a retry attempt does not succeed during the event type duration has been corrected. 4.20:34 A problem with gaps in the file name sequence during FTP upload has been corrected. 4.20:35 Problem with PTZ units returning from a preset position to the home position before the upload is finish has been corrected. 4.20:36 Problem with PTZ preset positioning during boot has been corrected. 4.20:37 The minimum bandwidth limit is now 30 kbit/s to make sure the web interface is always accessible. 4.20:38 A problem with retrieving motiondata.cgi without specifying the User-Agent has been corrected. Known limitations in 4.20 ========================= 4.20:39 The verification of event duration configuration contains limitations and will not disallow alphabetic characters. 4.20:40 During an HTTP upload, unnecessary log messages may appear and files may be missing in the uploaded file sequence. 4.20:41 Rotated video streams are not rotated in Motion Detection setup. 4.20:42 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. 4.20:43 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. 4.20:44 Motion detection windows are adjusted so that their width and height are divisible by 8 (pixels). 4.20:45 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. 4.20:46 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. 4.20:47 Viewing full screen and sequencing through different external video sources with different video streams in a sequence will switch the full screen mode off. 4.20:48 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. 4.20:49 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. 4.20:50 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. 4.20:51 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. 4.20:52 PTZ click in picture will not work when using the Java applet as the image viewer. 4.20:53 PTZ click in picture coordinates will not be correct in Mozilla when resizing the image using the view size buttons. Application Developer Information ================================= Supported HTTP API Image Resolutions Resolution Exceptions ========== ========== 4CIF 704x576 1) 704x480 2) 2CIFEXP 704x288x2 1) 704x480x2 2) 2CIF 704x288 1) 704x240 2) CIF 352x288 1) 352x240 2) QCIF 3) 176x144 1) 3) 176x120 2) 3) 1) Only available for PAL cameras 2) Only available for NTSC cameras 3) Not available for quad images 90/180/270 degress rotation is not supported for quad images. The Axis Video API, RTSP - Interface Specification found at www.axis.com is supported by the AXIS 241Q Blade. The following HTTP API groups are supported by the AXIS 241Q Blade. For more information please refer to the HTTP API specification version 2, available at www.axis.com. Group Exceptions ===== ========== General Image and Video PTZ Motion Detection I/O Serial port 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 'preset' PTZ.PresetPos 'preset_hidden' PTZ.PresetPos 'ptzaction' Event.E#.Actions 'smtpaction' Event.E#.Actions 'source' Sequence.S0.Source 'tcpaction' Event.E#.Actions 'tcp_config' EventServers.TCP