What Causes Over Decode Ability Errors On Amcrest DVRs?

This is a fairly common error to occur, however, is typically caused by a DVR hardware limitation. This is because the hardware of the device is not capable of decoding the images that are being sent from the camera. Each model is capable of decoding a different number of channels at certain resolutions based on the decoding capabilities of the device. 

For instance, if you are using 8MP cameras @ 20fps on each channel, and the DVR is only capable of decoding 2 channels at 8MP, the DVR will display the first 2 channels, while the remaining channels will give an error: “Exceeds decoding capacity”. From this point, the DVR will use sub stream – sub stream (D1) to display the remaining channels. 

To fix this, check and make sure the affected channels have sub stream enabled, as the device will switch to sub stream if the decode ability of the device is met. Sub stream should be enabled by default, however if it is disabled on your specific model, make sure it is enabled to remove the over decode error.