buellwinkle

Here's my WD NAS on BuyDig, a site I've bought several items before, took back returns, good place - http://www.buydig.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=WDBACG0010HCH&ref=froogle&omid=103&CAWELAID=1509578634&catargetid=1625113937&&cagpspn=pla You don't need an NVR, you can have the cameras write directly to SD or NAS and then use the free PSS software from Dahua that came with the camera to view it. I would plug the NAS into the same switch you are using for the cameras to get maximum performance.

I had 3 Dahua's writing to one WD NAS, no problems, smooth video, no problems. I guess you can remove the HDD and replace it with an SSD but why?

The Dahua model is the NVR3208. They also make the NVR3208V which is shaped like a toaster vs. the first one shaped like DVD player. Either way, both work the same way. A PC, you can get an inexpensive PC with an i5 processor, add a seperate drive for recording, maybe 2TB and run NVR+ from Linovision or BlueIris (not many software products support Dahua). Cost for sofware is about $40 for BlueIris, $140 for NVR+, the PC will cost maybe $599 plus the extra drive. You don't need much memory as the software runs 32 bit, so anything over 3GB is a waste. Reasons for getting an NVR is it's easy, it's cheap, lower power consumption. Reasons for getting PC, you can add several more cameras, PC are replaceable without losing software investment, PC's can do other things you may want to run on it, you can always change the software if you don't like it. You will need a PoE switch to power and connect the cameras. I use a 16 port switch that has 8 PoE ports from Zyxel. Newegg carries it for about $110 give or take depending on sales.

I was told March, but you never know until it's out.

Don't use domes, that's just one of the inherent problems.

Have you tried looking at STATS on BI. If the frame rate it gets from the camera does not jive with what you specified, feces can happen. I find it's best to set the camera to VBR and the default is CBR with Dahua.

You can always try to telnet in to the NVR and see where it's crashing/hanging and see if you can fix it, assuming you have good Linux skills.

I agree with Ando, converting every video is a waste of time and if you are in an active environment, will be slow and use up a lot of CPU cycles and hard drive bandwidth.

Just buy the 8 channel Dahua NVR, costs under $300 shipped and put whatever drives you want, supports 2 drives. When I tested it for my review, I picked up a 1.5TB drive for $65 at Microcenter.

The KCM-5611 illuminators are rated for 20m, so over 60', but you want to go 100'. My rule of thumb is to use half the rated range because many times, the range is calculated on a very slow exposure which is not realistic. They sell 80m IR illuminators on Amazon and eBay that I use that have 8 powerfull LEDs that will go 100' (they are rated for 263', so half would be 131') and costs under $50. You don't have to mount it together with the camera, can be mounted off to the side or closer the action. For example, I have my in a large flower pot. A good NVR would be the ACTi NVR, forget the model # but should cost about $500-600 and supports 16 cameras I believe.

What's the CPU % during recordings?

Yes, during the day you are good, but at night, unless there's street lights nearby, you may need an illuminator mounted closer to the action or a really powerfull one mounted near the camera.

The KCM-5611 will ID someone at 100' as it has an 18x zoom. You may be able to trigger the zoom from an event, not sure, but if you could, when someone enters say the center motion detect zone, you would issue an URL command to zoom in automagically to the correct amount of zoom to ID the person. Not bad considering the KCM-5611 is the fraction of the cost of 1080P PTZ cameras.

oops

I would not get the TCM-7811 because what I believe is it's replacement, the E84 will be out in early March and uses the same 2MP sensor from the KCM-5611. Now with a dome and box with the same sensor, why buy the box camera is likely your next question. The E84, while having the same sensor will not have the same WDR functionality. It will have basic WDR, but not the same. Also the KCM-5611 has an 18X zoom lens with a good autofocus system, as far as I know until I get one, the E84 will have a typical manual varifocal manual focus lens. The E84 is not without its advantages, first it's a vandal dome, can't be re-aimed by a thief with a broom stick and domes tend to be less noticeable and you can't really tell where it's pointed at making it harder as the thief has to guess where it's pointed and assumes everywhere. And it will be less expensive, my guess by about $100, but until it's available, can't say for sure. My guess about what the TCM-7811 is selling for now. Also, for what it's worth, there will also be a bullet with the same sensor as the KCM-5611, the E44, again not the advanced WDR and varifocal lens vs. 18x zoom. Also less expensive, maybe in the same price range as the current TCM-1231, or about $550-600 range. For the last but not least camera to have the same sensor as the KCM-5611, is their new PTZ camera, the indoor version is available now, the outdoor version in spring. Pricing is good, better than say Axis but still figure 2-3x the price of the KCM-5611 which makes you think, is having 2-3 KCM-5611s a better value proposition than a single PTZ.

Haha, so they are learning from their Swedish competition I see. My only issue with Mobotix is depth of product line. I want a PTZ at a park in a community filled with Mobotix, but Mobotix does not offer it.

You can do what I do and it works perfectly every time on my Macbook Air. Install VMWare Fusion, install Windows, run IE in a Unity Window so it looks seamless like another Mac app and then put the IE on your Taskbar. I don't even notice Fusion running and since I rarely reboot my Air its always instant on and IE is a second away.

-22F is beyond comprehension. The coldest I ever had to walk around in was in Toronto, -12F at 9AM and wearing what Canadians call a touk, we call a full face ski mask, my face tingled and went numb walking a half a city block and I had to walk 2 blocks to our office, not fun.

That's not that easy with WPA2 encryption. Of course the security depends on how good your passwords are as the crackers mostly are brute force that try every dictionary word and common combinations. With WEP encryption in the olden days, it was easy to crack as there was software that monitored a stream and figured out the decryption from that. Of course if you have no encryption, you are fair game. Then if someone did break in to your WiFi network they would have to know the camera password to get in. What's nice about the AVTech is they have the option of using challenge-response security with Captcha's on their login screen making it much harder for an automated password programs to work.

The lenses where for his Q-See Costco mini bullet like you have. I believe the lenses he is refering to are from DX. What I love about DX and that it teaches the true meaning of the word patience. Expect to wait for a Chinese Junk to sail across the Pacific to our left coast where it will be packed on a mule and brought to your home weeks later. http://dx.com/p/2-8mm-16mm-fixed-iris-lens-set-for-webcams-and-security-cctv-cameras-6-lens-pack-15774

If you go to my blog below, click on AVTech on the right side of the home page and it will bring up all the reviews from AVTech.

Indoors I use wireless as long as you get a decent brand camera that has a decent radio and you don't try and push distances. I use mine 5' from the WiFi router, not sure I would stretch to much more than that. To do what he wants, AVTech push series comes to mind. The AVN812 or AVN813 will be WiFi and have alerts that go to his smartphone (Blackberry, Android and yes, even IOS) and immediately play back the event that triggered the alert. You can also view the camera live and 2-way audio support. See my reviews on these cameras. The only problem is they don't have a U.S. presense so they are hard to find, but try eBay.

I use their NVR 3.0. When you select series of events to export, it asks if you want RAW or AVI. Just about every camera company spits out video in an propriatory format on purpose so the video can't be edited and be reliable evidence in court. The tools are what they are, it's not like you will find a better tool that will convert a propriatory format from a camera company to AVI.

Yes, I have BI running with a Q-See Costco Special, a HFW3200C, a HFW3300C and an ACTi ACM-1231. Runs about 30-40% of CPU on my desktop which is a pre-i7 quad core. I have two more indoor cameras to add to it. The HFW3300C is ticky, don't know why. I set it to VBR and 5120 bitrate and I get the full 15 fps on BlueIris. At it's default settings I was only getting about 2-3fps. If you right click on one of the cameras and click stats, you can see the actual frame rate. The only problem with BI is if I set it to record pre-frame buffers, it doubles the CPU utilization which is annoying. Went from 30-40 to 70-80%.

Mine works fine with BlueIris. I can even put the camera video on a webpage via BlueIris and works fine.