JPA

I didn't find this forum until after I bought the product because the instructions were so poor that I was looking for other help. I'll have to look into the possibility of a return. I'm sure I'll get screwed on that too.

I finally got the system up and running. Once I got the correct +/- wires from the 2.1 connector to the multi-cam 12v converter I had a camera signal. I'm disapointed with the quality of the image. Not sure how much of the quality is due to the camera or the DVR yet because I only have hook-up and playback through the network connection. The PC playback is very choppy. It looks more like time-lapse than the 30fps advertised. Also the the pixelation is really bad. So much so that I don't think this would be able to be used to identify a face as evidence. The software that came with it is terrible. Anyone know if other software works with any hardware? I am a software usability specialist and I can say in my professional opinion that this UI is not very good. I kept getting several cryptic errors and the software crashed when exiting. While viewing the video feed, the lower half of the screen cuts in and out. Not sure yet if that's the camera, the DVR or the network playback. Also, when playing back the recored video, the image moves up and down like someone is bumping the bottom of the camera. As far as the DVR itself, the remote has to be pointed very precisely or it won't get the command. I entered all my settings and then unplugged and moved to the closet. The some of the settings sty and some do not when it loses power. I set it for mothion recording only but as soon as I plug it in it's back to recording all the time and the annoying system beeps came back too after I turned them off. They advertise a power/video cable on their site: "Unlike those cheap all in one cables made with telephone wires, we design these Plug and Play Siamese cables to work as good as the professional RG59 Siamese cable in picture quality." This cable is thiner than any phone cord in my house. I'm very disappointed with it and sure it is part of the video quality problem. I think this is a very cheap system and not worth the money. Defininely not the quality advertised. I may change some of my impressions once I can view the camera on a TV monitor but the reason I got the DVR was the ability to monitor and save to a PC and clearly that quality is not good at all. Don't do business with CCTVfactory unless you want a cheap and inexpensive system. Do not trust the hype in the product descriptions.

I just finished installing everyting this weekend except turns out I needed the 2.1mm Camera Power Connector Plug because the cable I bought from them wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. So that part is in the mail and can't power the camera until then. Other than that, the software was clearly done in Chinese first and translated to English. I'm not sure why the fan on the DVR needs to be on all the time unless they expect it to be installed in a non-climate controlled area. Even so, I wish it were thermal controlled. I think this will be easy from me to swap or just disconnect. When I have a bigger budget I plan on getting cameras that have a direct BNC out put and bare wire input for the power. The 1/3" Sony SuperHAD Color CCD DSP Waterproof Infrared Illumination Night Vision Bullet Camera IP-67 camera should be fine for what I'm using it for.

I have the 9 camera power supply and I'm about to hook up the camera. How do I know which wire goes on + and -?

Couldn't get it to work with the crossover but it is working when connected to the rest of the network through a 5-port workgroup hub. I just entered all the info the other computers were using but changed the last number in the IP address to one that is not used. Looks like the DSL moden assigns new IP addresses to each device if it loses connection. Hopefully it won't assign the address I gave the DVR.

I just got my stuff yesterday and I'm researching how to connect since I'm new to CCTV. I have a 4 ch DVR from CCTVfactory.com that came with some remote viewing software for the PC called 'Recorder & Viewer'. I only want to view the DVR from a laptop connected with a crossover cable to both ethernet ports. The DVR network inputs are IP Address, Gatway, Subnet Mask and MAC Address. The software options ask for the IP Address of the DVR and the (PC?) Port number. If I understand correctly what I've read here so far, I assign the DVR a local, static IP of whatever I want but 192.168.1.10 is a good one to use. The Gateway should be (?) if I'm not using a router? 192.168.1.10 also? The subnet mask should be 255.255.255.0? MAC I leave alone. And should the port be set to 80? Just FYI, even though I'm not using it for this right now, I have a 2wire wireless DSL modem that I use for internet connections. Thanks.