koolmer

You make me smile. The card with CIF was for testing and installed for free The cards I am buying are 4CIF and display is always 4CIF real time - no matter what you record. I have a few years of experience too and I am not ignoring any info I am getting here. The quality is very important - I agree and I think you got a wrong picture of what I am buying/doing.

I am installer, but the cards are for our own company. I know it is trickey with warranty, because of the huge distance. I wanted to have a 16 Channel H.264 recording card and a co-worker of mine has used Hikvision successfully. I only order 4 cards for now. Don't know about later. I don't know if the dealer is authorized partner or not. However it also seems that Avermedia doesn't support full screen viewing in 1080p and this is important for me. The only reason that I use only CIF currently is that the card that I have only does CIF. I got it from the same co-worker for free, as he had no use for it anymore. I had a Comart Hicap-100 before that cost me a fortune a few years ago. The CIF H.264 hardware encoding card from Hik has better quality. The image is also clearer if compared to the 2CIF recording from Comart. Not sure about 4CIF.

What do you mean "The price is incorrect"? Edit: Oh you mean the Avermedia price was too high. Yeah it was 2.300$ in an online shop. It was not hardware H.264, but MPEG4. I can see some people having beef with chinese cards/software. I haven't had any trouble yet and I hope I will not have any. I just wanted to say that the chinese "cheap" card gave me better performance and features than the "professional" card (Comart) that was a lot more expensive. Of course I would not recommend to anyone to buy at eBay or some fishy asian company. However there are a few good ones that also put their Software Trials into the net for the customers and I think this is already a good sign. I have tried a few and I can take now what I liked best.

What do you mean? I have also checked Everview and Linovision, but if I buy the card from Netvision I get the Netvision Software for free with the card and I just mentioned before that the Netvision Software is the best one I have found for Hikvision cards. Besides that Netvision is not more expensive than the other Hikvision suppliers, but deliver better Software (imo). I have been working with Comart DVR cards for a few years, but the Comart Software is really poor compared to Netvision. I havent tried Geovision or Avermedia - they are just too expensive with hardware encoding.

Sorry, the link is not working now. Try to use this one: http://cqax.5166.info/download/userManuals/hardwareManual/hik/cards/NV40xxHC(HS)MDCardUserManual.pdf Hi ak357, I only want to give the advice to customers. What i wish is they can get what they want. I don't have to give them my name here[/b]. If they are intrested about our software, they can ask me for it, right? yes u dont have to, but you did Yes and I do appreciate that he also told me of his Software when I was looking for a DVR card + software. I am currently using Netvision Trial to record 16Ch in CIF on a Hikvision card. It is the best Software i have seen so far and I have tried about 4-5 different ones. The performance is also real good - completely fluent on a Sempron 2400+ with 512MB. I have to admit that I was impressed. I am going to get 4 more cards now from Netvision.

Ok - I am still working on it. Now I have installed the active receiver in the middle of the entire cable. About 200 m away from the DVR. The remaining 100 meters go with passive baluns. The picture is MUCH better now - don't ask me why. However, it is not perfect yet and I am going to get another active receiver to install in the final location (screen). So I will have two active receivers and 2 passive transmitters for 1 signal. This should then give a pretty ok picture. Has anyone ever experienced something like this? I wonder why the active receiver hasn't helped at all. koolmer

Hi All, I am in the very early planning phase of a fully digital CCTV system. In fact I have not even seen the building yet. This would be my first fully digital system and I have some questions. The system will probably have between 20 - 30 cameras. Most cameras would be outside showing surroundings and entrances. The system will have a control room, which is manned 24/7, so detection is more important than getting evidence. Quality is just as important as the price. Here my questions: 1. What Software should I use for displaying and recording the cameras? I will have at least 4 wide screen displays for live viewing. Has anyone here tried Exacq? 2. What camera brand can you recommend? What is the cost for standard/megapixel resolution? 3. What routers should I use? Can I use standard Gigabit routers or are there special products for the CCTV market? Thats all I can think of right now. koolmer

Alright! That's sounds like something I would like to copy Thanks for the info! This is going to be helpful. What non-POE switch would you recommend to get all POE switches together? Can anyone say something about non-megapixel IP cams? Which brand can really be recommended? I thought about getting Axis, but now I am not so sure anymore. What about alternative Software? Exacq seems real expensive and I doubt that I can convince the owner to spend such an amount of money yearly just to stay up-to-date. koolmer

I re-pulled about 80 m of cable and made sure it is not near any high voltage cable. There are about 4 m where the cable is next to high voltage, but this cannot be avoided. For the other 220 m I used a different pair of the cable. The result of this is a slightly better picture. All hum bars seem to be gone, but the picture is very noisy, like on a TV with an antenna and a poor signal. When I connect the active receiver balun the hum bars appear and picture is really bad. Any other idea what I could try? Edit: Does anyone think a ground loop isolator could help? Edit2: I have connected an active receiver after about 200 m of the cable and the picture was clear. How about installing the receiver there, converting the picture with a passive balun again and installing another active receiver in the final location? Has anyone ever tried this?

I don't have an oscilloscope and have never used one. There is a connection in the middle of the cable after about 175 m. I have connected the screen there and it was ok with the passive balun and good with the active balun. I started pulling a new cable from that location to the screen. Let's see how it is going to be then. Does it make any sense to pull screened cat5? Does that usually reduce interference? I have read somewhere that screened cable is not recommended for baluns.

This could be something that happened. I also think that it has something to do with the 230VAC cables that are next to the cable for about 30 meters. It is probably me who has to re-pull the cable. Is there any device that can handle/remove strong interference.

I don't think its a ground loop problem. The screen is connected to the DVR output and the entire picture is bad. The cameras are ok - if I connect the screen directly at the DVR with a 2m cable, the picture is perfect. The problem is somewhere along the 300m of cable. Too much resistance? But then the active baluns should help, right? But instead of improving the picture, the active baluns make the picture even worse! The cable is cat5e from Excel (UK brand) and I have never had any problems with it. I will try a defferent pair of wires, but I doubt that it will change anything. Any other suggestion?

Thats good, because I wanted to go for Mobotix or Arecont on the Megapixel cameras. And otherwise Acti or Axis for the non-megapixel ones. It really wouldn't make sense that the high quality brands (Mobotix, Arecont, Axis) use so much CMOS when the low light quality of these chips is a lot worse than on the CCDs.

I have been looking on the Website of Exacq. They give a nice big list of supported cameras. I want to avoid any blur on moving objects, but don't know what to look for exactly. I understand that CCDs are better than CMOS, but I don't know why exactly. Better low light performance? For MP cameras I like Arecont, but they have only CMOS. For the rest I don't know yet.

LuxRiot is a really nice Software. I have tried it out, but the problem are the DVR cards they support. 1. Comart has no H.264 hardware encoding. 2. ProVideo Multimedia Co., Ltd. I have never heard of this brand and I couldn't find any prices in the net 3. Eurosys PICOLO V16 H.264 seems okay, but there is a demo on the website of Eurosys and everything that moves is blurry! Doesn't work for me. @ hardwired nice products, but I doubt that any of these fit in my budget

Well I have setup Networks for office use and sometimes for LAN parties when I was 15 , but no network of this size and not for IP cameras. I do believe that I have the skill to get the Network to work, but I need to know which components to use - there will be a separate Network for the cameras of course. Most cameras are going to be normal D1 resolution and there will be a few Megapixel cams (4-6). I think a Gigabit Network with Cat6 should do the Job, but correct me if I am wrong. The cameras will be displayed on two big LCD screens between 26-32". I would like to use Exacq, as their videos have impressed me. I actually have only seen one complete IP CCTV system so far in a building nearby and this has really left a bad imression. The system consists of 16 cameras recorded by a server and displayed on a client machine. Cameras were run over the same Network as all computers of the place. What was so bad about it was the FPS and the quality of moving objects. Somebody who would just walk by a camera could impossibly be recognized. Everything that moved was extremely blurry, while still images were really clear. A 5MP camera in the outside was only giving a slide show with max 2 FPS. Every analogue system that I have installed was better than that!

For about 3 years now. I mean I really knew nothing 3 years ago. What would a technician help in this case? I am a technician, but how can I say which card is better? These cards are in China and I am in Denmark. I cannot buy 2 cards for over 1000 USD just to compare quality. I have to trust the people who sell to me. 2 Cards same manufacture, small price differance between them, so logical, they are about same price to manufacture(usually, new products are higher priced). So my 2 cent is that the card with lower framerate is giving a slightly better image. But 1000,- for testing could be a cheap lesson? How do you determine which camera is the best between 100 different models from different brands with the same technical data? You need to buy a sample and test! Buy 1 of each and have a test or ask the suppliers to record the same camera into the card and send you sample clips! JD Asking in a forum is free That's why it is existing, right? Money is always short and I want to get as many opinions, tests and reviews as possible before investing money into something. I think this is only natural.

For about 3 years now. I mean I really knew nothing 3 years ago. What would a technician help in this case? I am a technician, but how can I say which card is better? These cards are in China and I am in Denmark. I cannot buy 2 cards for over 1000 USD just to compare quality. I have to trust the people who sell to me.

Okay, so it is getting exciting now. I was writing to several companies and there are some contrary facts. Please see this this PM that I have just send to William (Netvision Tech Support). What do you think about that? Is Davis just trying to sell to me and therefore blackmailing the product of Netvision or does he have information that we don't have? Has anyone ever tried the new Hikvision cards? I will keep you updated. Florian

Actually I don't have a budget yet At a certain point the owner is going to ask me how much the estimated cost is and this is also something I have to find out now. This doesn't mean I can just name a price and will get the money - it has to be realistic. I think I will have 2-3 weeks until I get that question. @ thewireguy Yes I meant switch. Okay so there is no specific CCTV switch or something. I will go for one of the standard brands. How do I know how much POE a switch can deliver?

What I am looking for is of course real multi monitor support What software have you used or seen that has multi monitor support?

You will not get preview on both! On the main monitor (DSP monitor) will have preview and the other can have playback or, setup. JD Why not? For Netvision DVR, you can set the monitors as 1920*1080 and the total will be 3840*1080. However, it works as a single one. But you can get preview on both! Remember the view modes on main monitor should be less than your total camera numbers so that the ones that can't be shown on main monitor will be shown on the second one. That's to say, the pictures on the monitors are not the same. And when you enter setup or playback, all your preview cameras will be shown on the second monitor automatically. Besides, matrix card can be a good consideration. Wait... this actually does work? Why is it not mentioned in the manual?! In the manual it is saying that you should use 1024x768 on both screens and then you will have the resolution of 2048x768. I thought it was limited to this resolution, but when I think about it now it didn't specifically say that you cannot choose a higher resolution. Unfortunately I don't have the cards, the software and the screens yet. Is anyone able to try this out? And what matrix card are you talking about? I have heard of matrix cards, but don't understand what they do. koolmer P.S. LuxRiot seems to be good, but doesn't support Hikvision and Hikvision has real good performance at a good price. You bought already Koolmer? Because I want to see this first, but if it works it is great news in fact! So sad I am not in office for a few days, since I want to test this, because I want to test this! I seen playback UI opens in second screen, but never preview because the DSP/Direct draw overlay usually just work on the main monitor when you have two monitors, but it would be freat if this works, then I can sell more monitors! JD I should get the proforma from Netvision today, then it will be paid in the next 1-2 weeks and then I will try it out immediately. If anyone else is able to do a similar setup, please do and let us know if this is actually working. koolmer

You will not get preview on both! On the main monitor (DSP monitor) will have preview and the other can have playback or, setup. JD Why not? For Netvision DVR, you can set the monitors as 1920*1080 and the total will be 3840*1080. However, it works as a single one. But you can get preview on both! Remember the view modes on main monitor should be less than your total camera numbers so that the ones that can't be shown on main monitor will be shown on the second one. That's to say, the pictures on the monitors are not the same. And when you enter setup or playback, all your preview cameras will be shown on the second monitor automatically. Besides, matrix card can be a good consideration. Wait... this actually does work? Why is it not mentioned in the manual?! In the manual it is saying that you should use 1024x768 on both screens and then you will have the resolution of 2048x768. I thought it was limited to this resolution, but when I think about it now it didn't specifically say that you cannot choose a higher resolution. Unfortunately I don't have the cards, the software and the screens yet. Is anyone able to try this out? And what matrix card are you talking about? I have heard of matrix cards, but don't understand what they do. koolmer P.S. LuxRiot seems to be good, but doesn't support Hikvision and Hikvision has real good performance at a good price.

Putting 4 computers with 4 cards is something I have thought about, but the problems with that is that controlling and switching cameras is much harder and you are stuck with your 16 cameras on that screen. Originally I wanted to have 1 computer with 4 screens, but it seems that there is no Software supporting that. I was hoping that there is at least a Software that support 2 screens in 1080p. I personally don't think that it is a good solution to put 4 computers with each one screen. Any other ideas? P.S. I don't know how many frames Exacq supports, but Exacq is not an option, as a fitting DVR for my 50 cameras is over 22.000 USD. koolmer

You will not get preview on both! On the main monitor (DSP monitor) will have preview and the other can have playback or, setup. JD You mean there is no such software existing at all? Exacq has something like this, but this software only works with their DVRs and they are SUPER expensive.