buellwinkle

There is way cheaper than that. Here's one for under $38 shipped. Don't let our expensive tastes cloud your judgment http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-1-0MP-720P-PoE-HD-IP-IR-Camera-Outdoor-Weatherproof-Infrared-Night-Vision-IR/2055430648.html

Go to Hikvision's website and see what the equivalent model is or post a picture. If it starts with a ds-2cd2xxxx then it uses Raptor firmware which is the most common series of cameras that Hikvision OEM's.

This is a huge problem with OEM's. I had this with Q-See when people were buying them from Costco so I got a pair. Then Windows 8 came out and I could not view live video from IE. I updated my Dahua cameras and it worked fine but could not get the same update from Q-See even while under warranty. What it's looking at is likely the model number, serial number of something like that that's in flash that prevents you from using the web browser interface to upload new firmware. You can use TFTP method (search the forum for how) and you can force feed firmware you can get from hivkvision.com website or the hikvisioneurope.com/portal page. Don't know what would happen. But I've had issues where sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. For example, my kid used to sell OEM Hikvision and she had some issues where applying Hikvision firmware deleted the admin account and we needed Hikvision intervention, but they said they won't help anymore, so she stopped selling those, too much hassle. If you were local in So Cal, I could re-flash the camera by copying it from one of my Hikvision cameras.

Push works on my iPhone, but not on Android.

Some software like BlueIris Software can display what's on DVRs and NVRs. You can download a trial for 2 weeks to see if it works for your units. Once setup and working, you could use a browser to access the video remotely or their smartphone apps. It's relatively inexpensive for under $40.

In theory, you could get a small computer, say an Arduino YUN, BeagleBoard or Raspberry Pi, have it sense motion using a PIR motion detector attached to the boards inputs. Then write a program or script that takes that input and sends an URL command to the software to trigger recording. It would probably be cheaper than an outdoor PIR motion detector as they tend to run about $100ish to start and I can get a Rapberry Pi for $30 and get PIR motion detector for $10 and find a way to seal it all watertight. Not only less expensive, but may afford you a way to connect a camera without alarm I/O to a sensor. Also you can attach all sorts of sensors to it, for example, you can have multiple PIR sensors, trip wire sensors, pad sensors, laser sensors on the same Raspberry and send commands to cameras or NVR software based on what's triggered.. I can't say for sure on Milestone, but people do this now with BlueIris. Also, you can attach a PIR motion detector to your indoor camera, mount the motion detector outdoors, set it up as a hardware event in Milestone, then use that as a trigger to record a different cameras as the alarm I/O does not have to be in the same camera as the one recording.

Some do, some don't. The Hikvision 1080P cameras like the ds-2cd2032-i and similar have a 2048x1536 option. There's some cameras where they purposely lock you to 1080P to avoid competing with a higher end model. For example, Dahua does this where they put in a 3MP sensor, it says so in the specs, but limits you to 1080P. Same with 720P cameras, some offer the option of 1280x960 or 1280x1024 and some don't even if they have the 1.3MP sensor.

This is more if NYC mentality of protecting everyone from themselves like no salt allowed in food at NYC restaurants. What they likely want is a list of cameras they can tap if there's a crime in your area. I personally love the idea and have cooperated with the Po in cases where nearby homes were robbed. The privacy concern could be say as evidence in a civil matter, like a divorce where a video is taken out of context to further a personal agenda.

Instead of FTP, you can use a NAS or even a Windows share (which is what I do). Then define that under Storage in Advanced Configuration, but don't format it. It will show up as /mnt/nfs00 directory and you can copy files to and from that mount point, in my case a directory on my PC. Careful with 5.2 and newer, you just can't change the davinci file, you have to update the checksum in the file or it will brick your camera. In case you do, you can recover using the TFTP method and I know from experience. The easy way out is to put in 5.1 via TFTP, its English & Chinese and you can apply the NAS patch to that.

That's weird because people use this to stream movies. May be best to ask on a Chromecast forum because it should mirror what's on your PC, streaming video included.

First you have to have a camera with alarm inputs, do yours? If they are Hikvision, you'll need a model with the letter S at the end, like ds-2cd2732f-iS. It will have a pigtail with lots of wires or on the newer ones have a green connection block. You connect two wires from the sensor to this, then connect the other two wires typically to a 12V power supply. If it's a Hikvision, under Advanced Configuration, Events, Alarm Input, select NO (normally open) or NC (normally) closed, and select "notify surveillance center". Then in Milestone, add the hardware event as you normally do and trigger recording of that camera on that hardware events. If the IR is causing problems with bugs, turn IR off and use either external illuminators not near the cameras or light up the area at night with traditional white light.

Yes, many 720P cameras have 1.3MP sensors, but with 720P you are only using 1.0MP. The reason is aspect ratio where 720P is 16:9 and 1280x1024 is 4:3 and sometimes it's 1280x960. It's just marketing because they can call 1MP/720P "HD" but higher resolution 1280x960 is not "HD". I always use my "720P" cameras in the highest resolution and most of mine do 1280x1024 which like you said, is pretty darn close in vertical pixels to 1080P, although not as wide. Most 1080P cameras have a 2048x1536 sensor and can be used that way and I use all of mine that way to get the extra 50% pixels and the 4:3 format. Again, marketing, 1080P is "HD", 3MP is not "HD". Don't even know where the "P" comes from as it has to do with progressive scan on a display and that has nothing to do with the cameras ability to output a certain pixel count, again marketing. I even hate to call it resolution as it implies a 720P (or 960P as you call it) actually has 720 or 960 lines of resolution optically where all it really states is that the image will be 720 (or 960) pixels tall.

That's easy, run whatever software you want on the Windows PC and use Chromecast to display it on the TV with desktop mirroring. Plenty of how to's on the net.

With Hikvision cameras and current firmware, you can set it to trigger on line traversal. Meaning an object would have to traverse a line in a given direction for it to trigger. This was introduced in 5.1.6 and dumbed down a bit in 5.2.0 but may help in what you are doing with spending a lot of time and money. You then set this up in Milestone XProtect to use the hardware event. PIR is not perfect either as birds, squirrels, dogs may trigger false alarms.

If you get a NUC, get the model with the vent holes on the side, that one supports an msata + hard drive, the one without does not support a hard drive. You can get a small 32GB msata ssd and use that to hold the O.S. and software. Also comes with a VESA mounting plate so you can attach it to the back of your monitor. I've even used the Celeron version (about $130 sans RAM and HDD) with 6 cameras using Milestone software. As for the image, because it's been resized, not the full 1080P, it's harder to comment on the quality. You will never ID someone in that picture even at 1080P. At 5MP, you will barely be able to identify someone if they are as close as that boy. Too wide of a shot and throwing resolution at helps but not as much as you think, for example, going from 3MP to 5MP only increases your horizontal pixels by about 35% but actual optical resolution may not go up as much.

That's funny about Windows PC being too big because I yet to find a NVR that's as small as my PC. I use an i5 Intel NUC, it's about 4.5" square, holds a 2TB drive and I run Milestone XProtect, very reliable with 10 cameras at least. I hide it so it's not so easily stealable. Some fix lens cameras have focusable lenses, some don't, but most are focusable if you take it apart enough to reach the lens. The support folks from the manufacturer should let you know if it's possible but that camera does not look too bad for a 1MP camera. You are getting some compression artifacts that may be making the image looks soft. The picture of the blue car looks very sharp, albeit low pixel density again. This may be a 4mm lens but I would go with a 6mm lens for higher pixel density and avoid the wall and bushes, just capture what you need. The closest subject is the boy on the quad in the first picture. His face is about 11-12px tall. To recognize someone, you need the face to be about 40px, to ID them, about 85px. So going from 1MP to 3MP would give you about twice the pixel height, still not recognizable but twice as good.

Axis makes good cameras + good service and support, albeit they can be more expensive, figure twice what typical Taiwan companies charge. Arecont, while made here in So Cal, their service and support is disappointing but they do have some unique offerings. Surprisingly when we switched out the Mobotix, my first reaction was Axis, but the installers preferred Hikvision ds-2cd2732-is to replace Mobotix D15's and it's worked out well, now up for about a year. Yes, they are inexpensive, but it's very well made, you'll get good frame rates and image quality. I would not get their NVRs as most of these lower end NVRs are not that good. I would recommend a commercial Windows based solution like Milestone, Exacq or Avigilon.

That's unacceptable regardless of the brand. We used a lot of Mobotix, but their latest series, they just didn't work for us anymore with 3 fps in high quality mode and 6 fps in low quality mode for camera costing $199 it's bad, for one costing $1,599 it was joke. Sent them all back. If you like cameras brands from Taiwan, to me, the best is ACTi with good service and support.

Sort of old tech don't you think. I want it to have a laser beam.

Certainly an upgrade from my Phantom, but not sure if it's a wow moment to spend 2-3x a Phantom with a gimbal mount and a 4K camera.

What is the firmware on the cameras and the NVR? Hikvision still ships NVR's that have a firmware version that does not support the latest camera firmware.

It does not. Hikvision cameras with an S in the model number typically have this.

Your serial number and cameras model are fine, those are not part of the firmware update so once you recover via TFTP you'll be fine. Also, the bootloader is not part of the firmware update, so that should work fine to and work with TFTP.

The rule of thumb is you need a persons face to be at least 85 pixels tall to be identifiable and a license plate should have numbers about 12-15 pixels tall. You can use your existing image as a guide to see how many pixels tall those people's faces are. For example, if they are say 30 pixels tall, then you need 3x the focal length, so in your case, if that's a 4mm bullet, you'll need 12mm. Of course, the downside is 1/3 the field of view. Varifocals are like manual zooms, not like zoom camera. Meaning you have to take the camera apart to reach the zoom and focus controls. It's great if you don't know what field of view you want or a custom field of view, but you actually get a sharper image from your Hik bullet than you will from a Hik varifocal bullet. Having said that, I use the Hik varifocal dome a lot because it's a good camera and I can adjust the field of view at install time, no guessing. To measure how many pixels a persons face is I use Photoshop ruler tool, but if you don't have Photoshop, maybe some open source photo editing software can help. For me, with 3MP and 4mm, I can ID someone as far as 20-25', so you can also use that as a rough guide. What security people do is have an overview shot as you show, perfect, then have a telephoto camera at what's called a choke point, an area a thief would have to go past to get to you, like alleyway, doorway, side gate. It's hard when you want to do security for everyone, but you could put a 12mm bullet in the middle of the street and hope the suspect walks past that point. What one person here has done is put 3 cameras together with telephoto lenses to get wide coverage, in effect having 9MP. Each camera pointed edge to edge to provide a single wide field of view. To PTZ or not to PTZ. PTZ is great when you have a full time security guard and he can zoom in on a suspect. In real life for a home, no security guard, the best you can do is put the cameras on patrol, but each patrol point splits the time your cameras sees an area, so 4 points means the camera sees one point 1/4th the time, leaving the area unprotected 3/4 of the time. I love PTZ as webcams, but for security, not sure of their value. They have higher end PTZ with auto-tracking, but not sure the tech lives up to the hype, but certainly a fun toy to have. Then the cost, maybe $600-800 vs. having 3-4 times the number of fixed cameras.

In theory you can change the lens but you would have to have one that perfectly fits, too long and it will hit the dome, too short and you'll get IR bleed. Also, the lens is glued in, so you'll need to remove the glue. Also where did you get $280, I thought it's closer to $200 I believe for the non-wifi 2532. Careful when they say English firmware because it could be hacked firmware, then when you update firmware it reverts to Chinese. It should be an English camera, if you have a doubt, ask them what happens if you upgrade firmware, will it stay English. One thing about Aliexpress is if you get a camera and you don't like it or wrong camera, many will take it back, BUT, you have to pay shipping back to China with tracking, not cheap.