bpzle

Lol yes. Look closely, the dots are in a perfect circle. Also, the camera is mounted well inside my front porch. Unless the rain blow sideways, it doesn't get a drop... and it's only been up a couple weeks.

But if you slow the shutter, that means slower video? Missed video? You HAVE to slow it down to allow more light to hit the sensor or you get worthless blacked images, like in his pic. Until technology catches up, that's the price we have to pay for now... But HEY, at least we get super sexy day time shots! Here's my wife speeding out of the driveway in the morning...

A while back I'd promised a still from one of their "Midnight" cameras... Well here it is. I am actually presently surprised... It's the only non-IR sensitive camera I've seen that can turn dark into day. Pretty neat that a little bit of color can be seen in the middle of night... The only complaint I will make so far is that the polycarb dome bezel scratches VERY easily. Not once did I bump it or drop it and I somehow scratched it. You can see the scratch on the Durango's tail light. Nick was supposed to send me a replacement bezel, but never did... I called twice. Tisk tisk.

I've tested it on several platforms... VideoInsight, LuxRiot, and currently Nuuo. All of which capture and record in the Acti's native format, no recompression. I did however recompress that BMP still in Microsoft Picture Manager so it would fit on the forum... Sounds like your problem is probably camera side config settings.... Post a pic tho... that will tell us a lot more by what you mean "crap." Here's my picture. I resized it to the exact proportions as yours. The only light is the built in IR's and a gas post light off to the right. I didnt have time to get a daytime pic, but they are as good either Try going to one step slower shutter speed. Looks like your on 1/30 sec. Try going to "1/10" or "slow" depending on your firmware version. I've got firmware version V3.11.13... I'm not sure if it's a firmware issue or just another quirk with the camera... but I've noticed a couple things: 1. If power is lost or it's reboot, the camera will not automatically switch to B&W, although the cut filter and IR will be on. Everything is that weird purple mess... What I have to do is shine a bright flashlight onto the lens for a second, and that sort of resets it... 2. When you change the shutter speeds, it can take 5+ seconds for the settings to stick and it to do it's thing. It will first go real dark, then work its way back down. I have found though that sometimes the camera will stick on a particular speed regardless of what's selected. To fix this, select the fastest speed (1/120), wait 5 seconds, then select the one you want. That seems to wake it up for some weird reason....

Here's a car traveling about 20mph. Here's me walking. Both above images are with 1/5 sec shutter, 60 AGC, and not sure what brightness, contrast, and saturation... I've messed with those recently. I'm still tweaking the settings here and there and playing with IR. I've got a LOT of IR out there. 2 analog cams with built in IR already covering the area, and a separate 150ft illuminator, not to mention the 1231's built in. Plus I have 2 florescent fixtures that are always on. Anything on the driveway can be seen pretty good, but anything on the road gets pretty blurry pretty quick with the slightest movement. Tonight I'm recording at 1/10 shutter speed to try to reduce motion blur on the road...

What DVR did they quote? Just stating the hard drive size doesn't narrow it down... Also, where would the cameras be mounted? On the building? If not, running new cable underground and outdoors can be very expensive and I'd say that's good deal they quoated you. I don't think parts and materials are going to be around $1000 for this job... but either way, keep in mind your not just paying for parts... given they are a reputable CCTV company. Your paying for their expertise, warranty for them to back their equipment and work, business overhead such as transportation, labor, expensive and specialized tools, lisenses, insurance, credit card fees, taxes... the list goes on. It takes years to aquire the experience and knowledge to be good at anything... Many of us spend years learning what works and what doesn't... That's what your really paying for. There's no problem with a DIY project, but realize your starting out from scratch and plan on having a lot of headaches trying to just make it work.... The end result you may not even be happy with. With that being said, there are a lot of very intelligent people on this forum that are more than happy to offer their advice and help. If you can post a picture of Google maps of the property and area, I'm sure you'd get a lot of responses and ideas.

I've tested it on several platforms... VideoInsight, LuxRiot, and currently Nuuo. All of which capture and record in the Acti's native format, no recompression. I did however recompress that BMP still in Microsoft Picture Manager so it would fit on the forum... Sounds like your problem is probably camera side config settings.... Post a pic tho... that will tell us a lot more by what you mean "crap."

I was actually going to start a new thread in a couple weeks after I've had the time to play with my demo copy.... glad I found this thread. Been up and running 2 days now... Interesting you comment on the server not running in the back ground without the huge GUI console hogging up the CPU. That was my very first complaint too. For the most part though, I am very impressed. In a couple weeks after I've really had time to play, I'll post more of my findings. In the mean time, are there any hot keys for commonly used functions? Like zoom in, zoom out, play, pause, still frame forward, etc? A million clicks of the mouse is really starting to irritate me...

I guess his ? is if we can run main Apps as windows service ? which if i remember NUUO cannot ? Yes, this is what I am getting at. If it can run as a service when the console is not needed it would then use much less resources. I find the CPU usage is high and overall system performance lags because the console has to run. +1

Lol! He's right... why is upgrading the ISP out of the question?

atta boy!

I've heard Samsung makes good DVRs and equipment... but as soon as I see the price tag I walk away. Features, reliability, and often 1/2 to 1/4 of the price make Avermedia an easier choice in my book.

I've never heard of a time adjust "pot" before. I've had to replace a couple clock "chips", but never heard of anyone adjusting a potentiometer to speed up/ slow down an electronic clock. Over the past 7 years as an "Electronics Technician", I've had my hands on some pretty diverse equipment too...

I'm getting a visible internal IR reflection on my ACM-1231. Is there supposed to be a rubber grommet between the lens and glass, like on dome cameras? Did I loose it and never realized it existed?

Agree 100%

Well good luck.... I'm just saying I haven't personally used anything that cheap (dealer price much less retail) for a standalone 16 channel unit. You could get lucky tho, but you could also easily be out $700 on a foreign, unsupported, highly flammable piece of plastic and metal. BTW- unless you personally know this guy... the "deal" he's giving you means he's only going to make 50 percent instead of his typical 70.

I understand that your current needs do not require IP cameras. However, for very little money you can "future proof" your CCTV system. Sooner or later, IP Megapixel cameras will be the equivalent that DVDs or Blue rays are to VHS tapes. We are in a turning point of CCTV technology. Why invest in yesterday's technology? Foolish in my book... Then again, I'm the guy that refused to spend $100 on a part that was needed to fix a 10 year old oven. $600 bought me a brand new oven. Stainless I might add... Also, what is the FPS AND max resolution of the DVR that you have been told can be bought WITH a 1TB hard drive for $700? I guarantee it cannot hold a candle to even the analog capabilities of the Avermedia unit.... Not to mention the fact it's a hybrid... $700 for a 16 channel unit of any kind WITH hard drive is too cheap. Total junk that I would never install for a client IMO... You get what you pay for.

Can you take a picture of the entire back of the unit? Including all inputs?

Are there any other markings indicating a model or part number on the unit? According to everything I found, this unit should have audio inputs... But if not, then I recommend the Avermedia 5216+ Excellent unit, excellent value. 16 video AND audio channels in. And it's a hybrid meaning it can record new digital IP and IP megapixel cameras as well as your existing analog cameras. There is NOTHING else out there like it for the price... http://www.avermedia-usa.com/surveillance/productdetail.aspx?id=64

First, stay far away from Ebay. Too many scammers selling off brand sweatshop junk for 5 times it's value. A quick Google search pulled up this: ftp://ftp.digital-watchdog.com/Manuals/DVRs/16ZA-Pro%28NewGen%29/16ZA-PRO_%28DC%29_Manual.pdf According to that manual, your DVR is capable of recording up to 4 audio channels. These RCA style inputs are located on the back of your unit, labeled "IN1, IN2, IN3, IN4." Page 38 of that manual will explain how to enable the audio recording functions on the DVR. You will need to purchase additional hardware though. You need a microphone with a pre-amp. We've had good luck with the Louroe. Check out http://www.louroe.com/mics.asp?model=amic That one has the pre-amp built in. For your indoor cameras, I've recently started using Eclipse CCTV cameras. Fairly cheap but good quality. Any of their indoor dome cameras will work. If you need IR, I'm a big fan of the ECL-5HIA. If you don't need IR (to see in total darkness), the ECL-5HA is a good choice. Both those cameras are vari-focal meaning they can be zoomed in/ out during install for versatility.

I've got a client that called me today having internet problems with some equipment I installed. (PC based Aver server in a Dell Vostro. I also supplied the Linksys wireless router: WRT54G2.) Everything has been working great for the past few months until yesterday. I think I've exhausted their patience talking on the phone having them check things... Looks like I'll have to drive out there but I REALLY don't want to... Here's the problem: The internet is not accessible on the PC via the hardwired connection to the router. MS-DOS WAN pings fail (both IP and DNS). The PC is setup for a static IP. The PC is the ONLY device on the network. IP address, Subnet, and Gateway all correct. An IPCONFIG command confirms this. Router, Modem, and PC have all been rebooted....duh. None of the DVR functions are working remotely obviously. Ports are setup correctly. Router is setup to automatically acquire IP from modem. And it's getting one... Here's the really quirky thing... I can remote into the router and I can even ping the PC's IP address from the router's diagnostic tool. So, I know the router works. The NIC works as when the PC is temporarily setup for DHCP, a direct connection to the DSL modem gets a good signal. I also tried setting the PC to DHCP and rebooting to grab an IP from the router. I didn't think to confirm the PC snatched an IP off it OR could ping the router after that, but there was still no internet. Again, I feel like I've kind of exhausted this client's phone time troubleshooting so I haven't done everything I'd do if I was there... but even with what troubleshooting I've done, I'm still puzzled at wtf could be going on. I'll have a better idea when I get out there tomorrow, but in the mean time I'm still kinda scratchin my head. Any ideas?

I've seen that a couple times... even with phone/ dsl surge supressors properly gounded. Had to work many a late night troubleshooting storm related power surges at many of our retail sites... network, security panel, CCTV, intercom, POS, gas pumps... all that crap is connected somehow. You'd get a couple things up, only to find somethin else is fried... a real nightmare.

YES!!! Or even better... on-board photocell dependent settings. I.E. when when >X lumens then X shutter speed, X white balance, X AGC, contrast, etc

Thats why its called WEB CLIENT. Use remote connection client for fully featured work with Luxriot. No cellphone app. and emailing function. You cant ask for all that for such a cheap price. These are not life&death features. Luxriot is great product for VERY good money for value. Your reply makes no sense... the name WEB CLIENT means nothing and makes no point AT ALL.... I only asked for archive playback through the web client... Even low level analog consumer crap has that. This is the first CCTV recording software I've ever used that didn't have a simple SMTP function... I really don't think that's too much to ask for. But hey, your entitled to your opinion as I am mine. That's what forums are for... Speaking of which, how about we answer the original post? Pros -Cheap -large OS and hardware compatibility platform -large IP camera compatibility -Pretty stable on everything I've tested (server and client). No crashes, yet. - I like that there are hot keys that can be used for basic, frequently used functions. -Cool admin features like allowing the server to run in the background, without ever logging on to Windows -Did I mention cheap? Cons - No pre-motion recording. Only post. A very simple feature but a must have in my book... - Only live view works through web client. Can be a big pain for someone who uses multiple computers and wants a quick and easy way to check on things... - Don't care for the archived playback interface. Seems a bit clunky and can be a pain to review. - No email function for say motion detection or server health status. - No compatible external I/O interfaces for alarm inputs/outputs. Not even for the built in ones on IP cameras. - No cell phone aps. Not even a JPEG snapshot... Not that big of a deal, but can be an excellent selling point to potential clients. - Server response time for archived footage seems slow. Even when running client/ server on the same machine at 10 percent CPU useage... I will add that the remote client has a neat feature for submitting issues for tech support. You can submit all operating info automatically along with your comments where you can describe the issues. Neat idea in theory, but it's been over a week since I submitted my issue and still haven't heard back. While I haven't tried calling them, I would say that based upon that experience I am not impressed with their tech support response time. A week or more of hold time on a client's watch would potentially cost me a lot of money... That's why I run tests before I think about reselling. All these little things you'll never find out on a cut sheet. All in all though, for the price point LuxRiot has a nice niche in the market. I would say a good product, but not a great one. With a few more tweaks and additions I think it could be great... Just my 2 cents

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