I have four cameras, none of which are without some issue or other and all with varying quality of output. I guess it goes with the fact that they are all of Chinese manufacture and the quality/reliability is simply not there.
My suggestion would be do carry out a number of simple tests in your house using different settings. Most of the (Chinese) cameras have the same functions/settings but may differ slightly depending on the price range.
1. Three position switch: Off, Test and On.
2. Setting for Mode i.e. Photo/Video or both.
3. Date/Time and format
4. Resolution (Video and Photo)
5. Video length
6. Audio – On/Off
7. Shot lag – Period between PIR activity.
8. PIR sensitivity and whether Side PIR’s are active
9. Target recording time i.e. period camera is on, i.e. 21:00-06:00 or it could be Off, i.e. continuous.
10. Time lapse (for photos)
11. IR sensitivity, the coverage of the IR LED lights.
12. Others such as Time stamp etc.
So in the testing start with straight forward Picture or Video with no Target recording time set and in Continuous mode if it has this function (PIR switched off) and make sure the camera switch set to ON. walk in front of the camera a few times and then either check the results in camera or look on a PC/Laptop. If no results then I guess it might be the camera. If it has pictures/video then do the same but with the PIR switched on. If this does not work try changing the PIR sensitivity. If it works try the Target recording time set to on, and so on until you get to where the camera fails. That’s just my initial suggestion and how I would approach the problem.
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