capz

First off, I'm not an IT or security professional. Im just a guy who knows how to run and terminate cables and build pc dvrs. As far as i can tell I've done everything right. I've installed ip cams at 3 sites. They're top brand cameras and I'm a little disappointed with the clarity I'm getting for the prices I paid. When I see videos on YouTube of ip cams catching license plates and street signs from hundreds of feet away, I wonder what perfect conditions they're using to get this kind of detail, when my multi megapixel cams can't get a license plate at 50ft. For instance, have a look at the video below. This 2mp is getting a street sign at almost 500ft?! I'll post images from my latest install as soon as we get Internet at the site. I'm finding there's a lot of noise and can't come anywhere close to what I'm seeing elsewhere.

I'm not seeing where he got the addressing wrong. Router is on 2.1 giving an ip to nic 1 in the 2.1--254 range. Cameras and nic 2 in the 1.1 range. Internet works fine unless the cameras are connected. The only mistake I see is the default gateway for nic two is unnecessary and most likely the problem. I hope he chimes back in I'm curious about this one.

I think this is how he had it set up originally and it brought the internet to its knees. The routers' lan ports are being overloaded. The cameras shouldn't be pointed at the router at all, only connected to the server. He may still have the Internet slowdown but ONLY when viewing through the mobile client. If he wants to solve that problem he'll need a better router or faster Internet with higher upload speeds.

All thanks to you my man!

Im thinking the cameras are sending packets to the router Even when theyre not being viewed from the mobile client. The cameras and nic 2 don't need a default gateway so leave those blank. Subnet mask can be whatever. Server ip nic 1 leave as is. I can see internet slowing down when viewing the cameras over wan but they shouldn't when just streaming to the server.

Add another gigabit network card solely for the cameras. Set it to 192.168.1.xxx in your case (default gateway blank). Connect the switch to that. Then the original network card, set to 192.168.2.xxx will connect to the router (default gateway is the router ip). Then port forward to the dvr.

I can add another camera closer to get just the entrance. That should do it if I frame it right

Oh my that's exactly what I was doing. Confusing optical and digital zoom. Dumb da dumb dumb.

Im viewing 2 and 5mp cameras using onboard graphics on the motherboard. The output is VGA to a standard computer monitor. I'm getting noisy video. My questions are one , Is a VGA cable able to carry 1080p. And two, is a dvi/ hdmi output and hd monitor required for viewing megapixel cameras. I'm wondering if The noise isn't noise at all but the effect of viewing high resolution video on a standard monitor. Any info appreciated.

Ok I'll check it when I get to the site. Now the 5mp will display up to 2500+ X 1944. To take full advantage of that, to see the most detail,I should be viewing it on a monitor that will display up to that resolution. Anything less and detail will be lost?

Here are others.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usi8NXnbGVA http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=2mp%20zoomed%20youtube&source=web&cd=7&ved=0CEQQtwIwBg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D4XMFTudY7O0&ei=J7tXUtSNK_Oo4APZq4CgCg&usg=AFQjCNFV0UCewL5ZWr6mUusa_xA1Mp4L5w&sig2=iQZt0-U1C5onhqu139xAQw&bvm=bv.53899372,d.dmg http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=2mp%20zoomed%20youtube&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDUQtwIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D_c-MAumO6pI&ei=nrxXUsWoF9On4AOdsYDgBg&usg=AFQjCNF-UTFFnWlNYAmvqtz_axSh8lzf3Q&sig2=09Sv8eOQWzWdgpMO8uffbA&bvm=bv.53899372,d.dmg All I know is mine would show a blurry mess when zooming in like that.

I picked up an avigilon 5mp on eBay (I know I know don't judge). It was brand new in box. It does not power on over POE. Switch is good, correct class I believe (15w per port). Switch works fine with other cameras. The avigilon powers on and works fine over 24v ac. Anyone run into this with avigilon or other cameras? Could it just be bad solder?

The buy it nows seem around retail or higher. I paid a little over $500 for 5mp-h3-dp1. Good deal except for the poe

Looks that way. Reset and firmware upgrade didn't fix it. I'll have to power it from the block. Thanks

Great thanks for the info

I know there's avigilon guys on here who can answer this. I am in contact with a rep. I'll be talking to him later (we're in different time zones) but right now I'm just trying get a good idea of the differences between core, standard and enterprise. What I'd like to know is in a multiple server environment, can a client log in to both core and standard servers at the same time or do all servers need to be the same edition to do this?

So in order for a client to connect simultaneously to two servers, they must BOTH have standard licenses or above. So say you have five standard servers and one core server. You"ll be able to connect to the five simultaneously but in order to connect to the one core server, you must disconnect from the five? In my setup, I have a core edition server presently. I want to add another server and connect to them concurrently. I mistakenly thought I could just upgrade my current server to standard and then just buy core licenses for the second server. So if I understand correctly they"l both need to have standard licenses?

I've tried several vms and I'm just about set on ExacQ or Milestone. Only problem I have with Milestone is our two panoramic cams from Arecont will require eight licenses and maintenance fees. ExacQ will only require two but it's missing email notification. Would be nice but I can do without. I would really like to try Avigilon before I commit. Is there anywhere I can get a demo key to try it out?

Im in the U.S, Massachusetts

Hello all. I'm new to the forum and to ip video. I'm setting up a system for our business. I've got a couple cams set up and I'm trying to decide what nvr software to use. I like the ExacQ interface and features but I hit a snag with the mobile app that's kind of a deal breaker. First let me back up. We have Arecont cams so I first started using their AV100 software. Surprisigly, they don't have a mobile app. So I've been using IPCamviewer. It works well and it's available on iphone and android. With this app, all I had to do was forward ports to each cam from the static ip address of the router (Comcast business class SMC). This allows us to view the cams whether we were inside our private lan OR over the internet. Now I try ExacQ. It runs smoother and the mobile app is slick. Except it's client/server based. Unlike IPCamviewer, I need to set up two servers in the app, one for our private lan and one for internet viewing. This results in an annoying "can't connect to server" notification on one of them, depending on if we're local or remote. I googled the problem and it seems the router supplied by Comcast can't handle NAT loopback. In other words, you can't reach a LAN device through the WAN ip from within the LAN. But why am I able to do this with IPCAMviewer? I'd really like to use ExacQ and their mobile app. Is there a problem with how the router is configured? Do I need to bridge the router and add another one that handles NAT loopback? Any info, experience is much appreciated.

It looks like I'm buying another router. It seems I can edit the hosts file on the connecting devices to allow nat loopback, but as soon as they leave the LAN the file would have to be amended again. I wanted to avoid adding another router. One more hop the transmission has to take. Damn Comcast!

That may be the best option. Maybe not the only one though. I did a little digging and found I might be able to circumvent the nat loopback issue by editing the hosts file. I have a little experience working with the hosts file back when I attempted to jailbreak an iPhone. Long story short I bricked the phone and the pc misbehaved until I reversed what I had changed. So I'm reluctant but I'll explore it a little more.

When manufacturers cite a lux rating are they giving you a minimum illumination to get any picture at all or is it min. illumination to get a clear picture? All I'm finding are reports and pictures of noisy images in low light. The more I look at ip cameras for my low light install, the more I'm starting to regret choosing ip over analog. It's frustrating to find that as the technology advances to megapixel, the price of the cameras go up but the output quality gets worse. Is it all hype or am I not looking hard enough?

I had a long discussion with a local Avigilon dealer today about our 10 camera project. He's coming shortly to give us a demo for comparison to a top end analog. The quote for the cameras wasn't too bad but the the cost of a 16 camera license was off the charts. Avigilon uses proprietary software so no way around that. The reason we're still interested is he said in 25 years he hasn't seen anything like these cameras. He gave me a brief company history and said they originally designed cameras to view DNA. Sounds like they know how to build cameras. While he does sell Avigilon, he stressed that for cost it might be overkill for our purposes, and went on to say that it's ridiculous for ip cameras to be as expensive as they are. The only time it's cost effective is when you're in a situation where you can use 1 high megapixel camera, like Avigilon 16MP, to monitor a large area that could normally take 50 analogs. All I know is, if we go analog, I would hate to have a situation where we need to give police video and only have the quality that you see on the news everyday.

Hi all. I've been doing research for an ip based system for our restaurant and my head is spinning. I'd appreciate some advice on choosing the right cameras. The infrastructure is in place for gigabit networking so we're going the ip route. The problem is the boss has me handcuffed as far as budget ($7000, 8-10 cameras). I'll save $$ by building the nvr pc, doing the install myself and using manufacturers free software. So I figure I have about $600 to $700/camera to work with. My biggest obstacle is the low light environment in four locations. I've been testing a Vivotek FD7132 loaner. It gives a great picture in our basement storage area, which has plenty of light on motion sensors. But the 1/4'' cmos gives a very noisy picture in the dining, function and low-lit bar area. It will be disheartening if something happens and all we have to give to the police is video of the faceless drunk who assaulted one of our customers. My questions (short version): What am I looking for in an image sensor. I know the easy answer is 1/3'' ccd or larger, but any tips on sensor brands, i.e Micron etc. Any pros here who have had success with a particular camera for a dimly lit restaurant? I should also note the boss wants motion video at night. He won't allow me to install ir illuminators (for aesthetic reasons) or motion lights (only him and God knows why not). So I'll need integrated IR. All must be POE. Thanks in advance for any tips. And great site! You guys know your stuff. I've learned more in an hour browsing these forums than a week of looking at manufacturers spec sheets. And while this whole process seems daunting, I'm fascinated as well. I'm a bit of a novice techie geek. The picture is from the FD7132. I could probably do a better job focusing but the zoom/exposure knobs were finicky on this model. I got impatient. I had a pics from the low-light location but they were overwritten. Trust me they were not good.