buellwinkle

For me it doesn't have to available via the web browser but I would like to connect a laptop to the camera and run a program like Axis Camera Companion or Mobotix MXControlCenter to view timelines of the recordings and click on it and start playing it vs. ACTi where you have to download all the possible events and then play them.

Nice to see Mobotix moving forward. About time with 5MP. Did they make any progress with the B&W sensor? I love the sensor but really, by now, can't they have better resolution than 1.22MP? It was all really cool stuff 3-4 years ago, but now, everybody is doing it.

You think it's funny but their higher end cameras with lens are about $10,000. Since those cameras are the their flagship. they show that off and people go whoa, that's out of my budget not realizing some of their cameras are only $9,000

It's been a while since I reviewed the camera, maybe they made some advancements. To view the video recorded on SD, if I remember correctly, you can copy the video to your computer, then you can use the ACTi player app to play it or export it to .avi. Ideally, if you can just click on it and it starts playing, that would be best. Don't expect Ando to respond today as it's Saturday morning now where he's at. They have some great bargains now, like their 3MP D32 IR bullet. I've requested one to review, hopefully I can get it soon.

You may be making that comment 6 months from now again, haha. I waited 6 months from Axis announcements of availability before they actually delivered.

I finally got pricing on the IPC-HFW3200S and it's very good. I don't want to throw out exact numbers but retail from where I buy from, K&D, it will be less expensive than the Q-See mini bullets (IPC-HFW2100) from Costco. I'll get a review out as soon as I get one in my hands, but I have high hopes for it with 1080P resolution with the Sony Exmor sensor, it should blow the HFW2100 away yet be smaller, lighter and less conspicous than the large bullets.

What!!! That's crazy, a camera manufacturer mispresents their IR distance specs, never of heard of that in my life, hahahaha.

It won't crop, you have to setup the 3MP camera with 1080P resolution, that's all, pretty simple.

Ando, one of the limitations of ACTi's implementation of SD cards was that you couldn't view the recordings directly from the camera's web interface. Has that changed, or will it change in the near future?

Nope. I know, crazy, the most anticipated camera of all time

Looks good spec wise, IR illuminators rated for 35m, 1080P 30fps, 4mm lens (better than q-see 6mm for most) very low lux without IR, 8 channel NVR. I tried to contact them via the contact us page, not much luck, it just hangs. What do you have to lose, free shipping, you don't like it, return it to Costco withing 90 days. Swann already has a line of network cameras, they sell them at Fry's, so it's not like they are new to this, just this 1080P model is new. Also, they appear to have 8 network ports on the back, I assume all PoE, this trumps Dahua that only has 4 ports regardless of how many chennel NVR you get. What's interesting is they don't seem to sell individual cameras, not even mentioned on their website. So if you buy an 8 channel NVR with 4 cameras, how do you get the other 4?

We use Mobotix because of the built in NVR functionality which is ideal for communities where you may not have an NVR at each location and you don't have the ability to setup a network, wireless or otherwise due to terrain issues. Also, with cameras not being monitored, some may not even be looked at for over a year, having the Mobotix reliability with no moving parts is key, so no IR cut filter to get stuck for example. Would Avigilon work for us, I don't think so. The closest competitor would be Axis with it's Edge storage and this is new relative to Mobotix. While it's easier to use, it misses some of the built in NVR functionality I'm used to with Mobotix. I've never had issues with their support, it's been on the ball, they connect to our cameras to resolve issues. The other differentiator with Mobotix that they are quickly loosing is their b&w night sensors, best I've seen for low light, but the market is quickly catching up with great low light performance, some with 1080P resoltion that trumps Mobotix 1.22MP. That's not to say cameras from Avigilon, Vivotek, Speco, Geovision are not as good as Mobotix, but if you need the capabilities that differentiate Mobotix, then the choices are limited. As for their distribution model, tough call, if a decent sized CCTV installation company has to go to each vendor and sign up to sell their brand, I can see it being tedious and I can see them avoiding brands not carried by the large distributors. For a small guy that wants to commit to one brand and evengelize that brand, take or leave it mentality, it does make sense.

Think of ONVIF as a standard where nobody that designs cameras read the specs, so it may work, may not. Then ONVIF is sort of the lowest common denominator so not feature rich. Also it benefits unknown brands more so than established brands and those lesser known brands sometimes are lesser known for a reason. Most NVR's are sold like DVR's, by number of set number channels, like an 8 channel NVR and many times can't be changed, for example, if you have an 8 channel NVR, buying a 9th camera means buying a new NVR. NVR software many times is sold by camera, so you can add camera licenses as needed.

NVR's, unlike DVR's are specific to cameras they support. So you can't just buy an NVR like you buy a DVR based on price and capacity and plug any camera into it. There are some generic NVRs out there that do support a wide range of cameras, but sometimes, just because they say they support a camera, it may not always work. NUOO is one such company. You can get a brand specific NVR, for example, get all ACTi cameras and use an ACTi NVR or all Dahua cameras and get a Dahua NVR. Obviously those work the best since the camera company makes sure of that but only work with that brand. Mobotix runs on a different principal than most other brands. They have the NVR solution built into the camera and you can have the camera record to SD or NAS and it manages it like an NVR would and you can view the recordings from the camera or use their free CMS software called MXControlCenter. What many people do is buy NVR software and run it on a PC or server. This decouples the the software investment from the hardware so you can replace either and keep the investment in the other. Also, PCs are way easier to get repaired than a propriatory NVR. Dahua is a good Chinese brand if you expect zero or less support. If you are in the U.S., their official channel is Q-See and you can buy them from Ingram Micro if you have a reseller account with them. You can buy cheaper from smaller resellers but there's risks. For not much more money, and in some cases less than Dahua are real brands that have have real support from Taiwan like ACTi, Messoa, Geovision, Vivotek, some better than others. For more money, there's brands like Axis, Mobotix, Bosch, Avigilon, all good cameras to consider. There's also American brands, Arecont, Stardot that are priced in between. Not a fan of either but made in America may be a concern for some customers.

Don't know what camera brand you use, but many like ACTi and Dahua let you FTP video events and the FTP server can be anywhere in the world assuming you have the internet bandwidth to support it. Also, you can put an NAS in your attic if you want and FTP to that so if your NVR get's stolen you have a hidden FTP backup.

Exactly, why would you want so many alert emails, it's like the boy that cried wolf, you'll desensitize yourself to the alerts.

The old ACTi 4MP sensor is poor at night. The issue with the Axis is it's a nice camera, but indoor only and day only like the Mobotix but it can be used outdoors. Mobotix works well if you get the S14 with the Hemispheral lenses so you have true day/night with good low light performance, albeit at much lower resolution than you get from just about anyone else for twice the price.

Many ISP's including the big ones like AT&T also will block emails you send if it thinks you are sending them to frequently. The best bet may be as you suggested, create your own SMTP server.

First, you can't transfer data via telnet, the best you can do is copy the file to the SD card on your PC and then copy it from there to the camera. Keep in mind the file system used on the camera is a read-only compressed file system, so you would have unmount the file system, delete the file, an mount the new file system. Assuming you have sharp Linux skills, this shouldn't be much of a problem.

This happens no matter who you use if you send too many emails and if you are using video motion detection this could be a problem. I use PIR motion detection for cameras that alert me and it works well as I rarely get false alerts. The other choice is to go with a camera with app based alerts like AVTech. You install a smartphone app (IOS, Android, Blackberry) and it alerts you near instantly (much better than email alert) that there's motion, it uses a PIR motion detector and plays back the video that triggered the event on your phone. You can then view live video and previously recorded video (if the model has an SD card). I only use this camera for alerts, not for my normal recorded surveillance since it's so good at it but I prefer other cameras for overall home security. So if someone enters one of my vacation properties, I'm notified right away. If I want to view my other cameras, I can do so in traditional ways.

When did Axis come out with a 2MP 1080P camara? I thought they only do odd MP resolutions, 1, 3, 5 MP. The 1MP AXIS P3364-LVE has very good low light performance, one of the best.

Wow, is the E44 on their website already, that will be a cool camera, same sensor as the KCM-5611. I'll see how soon I can test that one.

Thanks for the offer but I'm working with ACTi to send me some soon. My contact has been on a job last week and I've been at a conference so I should be able to hookup next week. Trying to get some of the lower end 3 and 5MP cameras as that's been of interest lately although the ones I really want are not available yet, their 2mp.

Not bad for a $99 camera.

Looks like they ship to the U.S. also very cheap, I added two cameras to the cart and they were free, and then I calculated shipping to the U.S. for 2 cameras is 13 EUR.