buellwinkle

I'm just say rookies sometimes expect 1 camera to do too much. Sure, we have very wide angle coverage of an area and then have a few cameras with narrower focus to capture details, but just find that most rookies aren't looking at it that way.

I tend to think people want to get a lens that's too wide of an angle to be effective. Use the lens calculator to figure out if you have enough resolution with the wide lens to meet your goals in terms of being able to ID someone or read a license plate for example at a certain distance.

Is that one of the TV's that allows you to download apps? If so, look for surveillance camera app. I stick a UG802 stick in one of my HDMI ports and it lets me run any Android app so I can run IPCamViewer and it works with all my cameras.

PIR vs. video motion detection has plusses and minuses. With PIR, it will give you a lot less false positives, but is limited by range and in hot weather the sensitivity goes down so you may miss an event. Of course, with video motion detect, it can detect shadows as motion, so more false negatives. Also, with video motion detection, you can typically specify where in the video to detect, not so easy to do with PIR motion detectors. Some cameras are better at video motion detect than others, for example, the low end Dahua's like the HFW2100 record a lot more false negatives than the higher end Dahuas like the HFW3200C.

Has anyone done this with film and can post before/after images?

I think most people would get the 12mm, don't know why the 6mm unless you are in a small tight area. The 6mm option gives you a varifocal lens from 2.6-6mm and the 12mm option give you 3.3mm-12mm varifocal. The varifocal on these cameras is motorized, so you can set it from the comfort of your PC as well as setting focus.

If there's a Vivotek camera that expemplifies the brand, please let me know and I'll work on getting one to review.

Very few cameras will email video, most only do pictures. I don't know of any brands that do. How long it takes to email pictures depends on how many pictures you want, what resolution they are, how fast the internet connection. Receiving them depends on if you have a POP3 mail that your phone picks up once every 10-20 minutes or pushed email like MS Exchange. So yes, it can take 30 seconds or 10 minutes. Imagine if you emailed video, several MB at least, that may take several minutes to generate, mail and received. I have my Axis camera at one location email me 4 pictures, VGA resolution and depending on when my phone checks email, it can take as little as one minute as much as 5 minutes, never 30 seconds. If your house alarm notifies you of an intruder and you went straight to the phone to see live video, the subject may have already passed from view.

He's not trying to bypass the IR, he's trying to get rid of the red glow that 850nm IR LEDs give off. He suggestted 940nm which still give off a slight glow but much less than 850nm IR LEDS. If the soldering skills are up to task, one could remove all the LEDs and solder in 940nm LEDs. The reason nobody puts 940nm LEDs in their product is you need like 3-4x more LEDs to produce the same amount of light but that's not his goal, he's OK with a lot less light in return for no having the red glow. His other thought is to mask it with something opaque, where he still gets some of the effect of the IR LEDs but enough to lose the glow. The other choice I just though of is to tint the LEDs or the glass with a smoke color, like kids do with car taillights where they smoke the red plastic so they look black during the day, but still lightup at night.

How did you get the 3 allen head screws out of the rear of the camera. Mine seem glued in place. I didn't have this problem with the Dahua version, but the Q-See seems permanent.

Personally, I would not get Vivotek even though they make awesome brochures. But the plan was to have AVTech like alerts on your smartphone and pretty sure Vivotek's app which is rated 2 stars on iTunes can't do what you want. Is that no longer a requirement? Also, the MD7530 is obsolete and no longer on Vivotek's product listing, leaves you with the MD7560 which runs about $325, not a bad price for a 2MP camera but no push video. There are other choices if you don't need the immediate alert. Most cameras will send you an email alert which you can get as email or as a text message. When the AVTech alerts you within seconds of an event, if you tap on the event it starts playing the recorded event video immediately and you have the option of live viewing the camera at that point with 2 way audio. Which is very different than getting a text or email a few minutes later.

Look on eBay for an sewer, endoscope or borescope camera. If you get the right one, you can do your own colonscopies. http://www.ebay.com/itm/35M-DRAIN-PIPE-SEWER-PIPELINE-INSPECTION-CAMERA-VIDEO-SNAKE-w-DVR-AUDIO-MIC-/180931743855?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a205f506f

Not sure AVTech makes a vandal dome. The 3MP Dahua vandal dome, the IPC-HDB3300 will be under $250 (FOB China) and have alarm i/o, sd card slot and their pay Smartphone apps have similar capability to AVTech Eageleyes app.

Never noticed that but I just played with it and it's true, the sensor for the IR lights has nothing to do with the IR cut filter. Can you just unplug the circuit board that has the IR LED ring?

Amazon quietly started charging sales tax in California this month, so now that gives an edge to smaller e-tailers or eBay that don't charge sales tax.

That's a one feature I liked about the ACTi cubes where the Axis cubes I have use glued in place lenses. CS lenses are much better/larger than the board lenses many cameras use.

You may want to consider a managed PoE switch, that way you can toggle camera power off/on remotely. I've had cameras stay up for years and I've had them act up and hang every few weeks or months and who knows what it is, the switch, the wire, the camera. What I do, which isn't practical for you is switch cameras from one location to the other to see if the problem moves with the camera or stays with the wire.

Not yet. They have the pricing, which to me means they ordered a wholesale supply of them, but they are waiting to get them in. As soon as they are in, I'm sure I'll have one within 2-3 days.

Check the lens, it comes with 6mm but says 4mm,8mm,12mm optional. 6mm is pretty narrow, you may want a 4mm. Also make sure you get the write plug for you country. Don't know how many times I got a euro plug when I'm in the U.S. when ordering from China. If it was me, I would ask for a PoE version as mounting a camera with a power supply outdoors is usually a PITA. They seem to have PoE versions of their cameras, but no pricing. Here's a better spec sheet with sample photos, looks pretty good - http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/5881H-C-FULL-HD-CCTV-960P-720P-3-0-Megapixel-H-264-Outdoor-Night-Vision-IP/511666_681128700.html

That camera has an interchangable CS mount lens, just replace the lens. You can probably find a nice wide angle fixed iris, manual focus lens that will do the trick for not too much money. Here's two that look like they may work. http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-1mm-WIDE-ANGLE-CAMERA-LENS-4-ACTi-ACM-5711-5321-5601-/230480801965?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35a9b9f0ad http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-5mm-WIDE-ANGLE-CAMERA-LENS-CCTV-Optics-cs-for-ACTi-ACM-5711-5321-5601-4200-/380448512013?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58947f980d

I use a free Android app, IPCamViewer that works fine remotely with ACTi cameras. Also, I can see the cameras and recordings that are on the NVR server remotely via IE Browser, works very well. Did you setup your port forwarding for the NVR or for each camera?

Why is that old, that's what's being sold now. Please understand that if you bought Dahua branded equipment in the U.S., Dahua has said in the past they will not warranty or support it as they consider it gray market. Your only hope is to get support from whom you bought it from and hope they have a tech that can help you and get issues resolved. If you are trying to use the NVR for non-Dahua cameras, good luck with that. When I did my review on the very same NVR, I got other cameras to display and do continous recording, but not motion detect recording.

Milestone XProtect is one product that supports a very wide assortment of cameras and is highly regarded. Luxriot, Exacqivision, NUUO are others. Download them, see if they a) work with all your cameras, b) has the features you need, c) determine the size server you'll need. If these are megapixel cameras, make sure you have the netwok design that will support that.

You can get filter gels from photography stores. A gel is like a colored cellophane used in photography, many times to put over lights to get colored effects, but they have different shades of gray you may be able to experiment with. Here's just an example, but your local camera shop may have them. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/44592-REG/Rosco_RS9811_98_Filter_Medium.html

For those that want to attend the big ISC West show in Las Vegas in April, PM me and I can send you the link for free exhibit hall passes. It's only open to those in the trade (or pretend to be in the trade). Just got back from CES in Vegas and that show is totally insane. It will take me days to recover. 1.9 million square feet of exhibitor space, 150,000 attendees. In two days I was able to cover the entire show but I can barely walk now. ISC West is tiny in comparison, 15,000 attendees and at the Sands convention center which is much smaller, but still, the exhibit hall is huge, not CES size, but still takes a full day to cover it. If you are not familiar with ISC, it's the security show, surveillance cameras, alarms, access control, home automation.