buellwinkle

Could be an intermittent problem with the Ethernet cable. Could be an issue with the PoE switch. Maybe even a firmware issue so check to see how current you are.

On the Q-See version, it's an option on the login screen, has radio buttons for LAN (main stream) or WAN (sub stream). It could be the newer firmware for your camera lets you do this. The other way is to login to the camera and then click on Sub Stream in the upper left. You set the choices for the second stream by clicking on SET and then Video under Camera on the left. It will show the Main Stream on the left and the Sub Stream on the right and ou can set a lower resolution and frame rate for the sub stream. If you are using PSS software to view the cameras remotely, there has to be option to reference only the sub stream. If you are using VLC to view the cameras remotely, there's an URL command that tells it to go to the sub stream.

Damm, didn't see the fine print in their announcement, yes, it's an indoor PTZ camera. Hopefully they will have an outdoor version soon.

I never heard of them, not much even by Googling, but if you go to their website, their 1080P mini domes (comperable at least in specs to the Dahua 1080P mini dome), they sell the cameras for $230 each at list price, so not sure 4 + an NVR are worth $2k. They are not day/night cameras. They are a brand name that you may not have luck with using other NVR's or NVR software. Also, they only sell one network camera, not many choices and very limited by not have a day/night camera or one with IR illuminators. At that price, I would guess you can get a name brand system like fom ACTi or Vivotek.

Go to one of those sites that measures you internet peformance, like SpeakEasy.net and click on Speed Test and check your download and upload speeds on both your home internet and the place where you are trying to access the cameras from. Also, regardless of connection speed, consider there's a certain amount of latency when using the public internet due to all the hops your connection has to make. You can go into a dos window on a PC or a terminal window on Mac and enter tracert (on windows) or traceroute (on a Mac or Linux) and see how many hops its taking, but I bet it's a whole bunch. Anything over a few hops is bad. Also, there's a bunch of bandwidth calculators you can use to figure out what bandwidth you need for a given resolution, compression method (h.264) and frame rate. It doesn't factor in latency though. Those Dahuas have dual streams. Just access the camera remotely from the second stream which you can set to much lower resolution and frame rate. From a remote location, it's not like you will likely need HD resolution anyway. What's interesting is the Costco version of your camera assumes you want the second stream.

ACTi's cameras with good low light performance say "superior low light sensitivity" and the 5611 does, the 5511 does not, so I would say with a high degree of confidence that the 5511 is not going to be in the same league in low light performance as the 5611. ACTi is coming out with new cameras with the same sensor as the KCM-5611 and those cameras specifically say "superior low light sensitivity". They will be the E44 bullet and the E84 dome. The bullet should be out any day now, the dome next month. Also, for what it's worth, it will be 30 fps at 1080P, where the two cameras you mention are 15 fps at 1080P. If you don't need the zoom and can get by with varifocal, it may be worth waiting a few weeks. I bet the price will be a lot lower too. Now if money is not the issue, have you seen ACTi's new 1080P PTZ speed dome? It's priced well, about double the price of the kcm-5611 but has the same sensor. Priced pretty low compared to 1080P PTZ cameras from other vendors, maybe half that of the Axis Q60.

Sometimes, people get wrapped up in specs rather than real world performance. Honestly, that's why I started my blog, to help people see how specific cameras perform and seperate hype from reality. This is an image in front of my home taken with an ACTi KCM-5211e, their 4MP sensor. I resized the photos to fit here. When I reviewed this camera, I gave up using this in a suburban environment and it worked well in urban environment so I did my review there (isn't it funny that when companies have YouTubes showing off their night vision it's always in an urban setting). BTW, this is not out of focus, the reason it's soft is because the noise reduction is hard at work exchanging noise for loss of detail. This is the same front of my house with the ACTi KCM-5611

Yes, a lot better. The NVR was OK, but had limitations like 1080P, number of cameras, frame rate. Also the smartphone apps and webserver worked better. Download and try it. The only people I would recomend the NVR to are people that already have a DVR and are switching to network cameras and are used to it that way. If you get the NVR, count on using PSS to view the cameras from a PC and it's not intuitive software to use. Many people have an idea of how many cameras they want, until the get everything installed and then wish they can add one more, then another, and another. For example, there was a lot of mail box theft in the hood, and I thought about having a camera pointed at the mailbox or maybe putting a camera in the garage in case someone breaks in that way. So many possibility, don't wanted be limited by an NVR. As for Alarm I/O, you can do it in camera, not use the NVR or software to do it. There's no reason you can't do both, record using software or an NVR and trigger events in the camera from alarm input. I would not buy a board or box to do it, waste of money.

The Ubiquiti Nanostations work well. An alternative may be a PowerLine adapter. I would not get a D-Link router, never had good luck with them myself. I really like the Edimax BR-6258n. They are super tiny, so easy to hide, has good range, doesn't overhead like many routers and very flexible firmware so you don't need DD-WRT. The sell for about $30.

I would use software for the camera recording because that's the most flexible and can grow as you needs grow. Check out NVR+ software from Linovision, it worked really well with Dahua and has iPhone and Android apps and a web interface. You can download a demo version and try it. Uses very little CPU which is nice. The reason I don't use NVR+ is because it doesn't work with many brands of cameras and doesn't support my other cams. As for alerting you, the HFW3200C should do that fine. It has alarm inputs, so you can have to attached to a bell button and relay. When that goes off, it closes the circuit and then in the camera you set up an event that's triggered on the alarm input. In the event, you can have it send you an email, text message, ftp video or trigger alarm output, for example, you can have it trigger a solenoid that fires a machine gun or a chime, your choice. This will not work on the cheaper Dahua cameras as they don't have alarm i/o.

One advantage of going with software instead of their NVR is you can mix/match brands. Also, the NVR is limited to 1080P (2MP) but you can get the HFW3300C that is 3MP for about $10 more. Also, the Dahua NVR web interface is not very good and to me, remote access is important. For what its worth, I tried both, buying Dahua in the U.S. or in China and I get much better selection and better customer service going the China route. First, they don't have a language barrier talking to Dahua to help you with a camera probem and they selection is huge, including PTZ cameras and 3 and 5MP cameras. It takes about 2-3 days to get the cameras from China.

That D51 is down to pretty close to Dahua pricing. Looks like ACTi is getting more aggressive on pricing and product range. Can't wait to start testing some of these but the holidays get in the way.

That's a great switch, especially with the 1 Gbe uplink and it's a managed switch.

Ditto on the Axis P33 and if you can get them for $449, wow, that's a good price. $150 for a 2MP Dahua mini dome, that's crazy, I get them for a lot less, haha.

I'm personally happy with 15 fps and you get good fluid video. It depends on your purpose. High frame rates, like 60 fps are ideal for casinos that are trying to capture slight of hand tricks to see if someone is trying to cheat the casino. In a typical surveillience situation, I think 30 fps is overkill. The long standing frame rate for movies that were shot on film was 24 fps and nobody complained about jittery motion. Imagine this, you are indoors, normal indoor lighting, your exposure rate may be 1/30th or 1/60th/second. You would be lucky to see 30 fps even with a camera capable of 1,000 fps.

You can get cat5 ribbon cable, then it's flat and more conceled under your eaves. You best bet is to get an electrician and have them find a way to fish the cable through your attic or walls and will probably be less expensive than getting a spool of outdoor Cat5. Outdoors, we run everything in conduit and all Cat5e or Cat6 shielded burial grade. You can get a spool for about $300 shipped. It has a grease like coating between the outer cover and the internal wires to self seal should it get nicked or crack.

Interesting. Don't know any zero latency IP cameras as it has to process and compress the video and then send it across a network. There are good and bad in most camera brands and quality depends on budget. First, Axis does not make a 2MP I know of. They have 1MP, 3MP and 5MP in their P33 domes, good cameras, day/night. I bought an Arecont in the past, was not happy with the quality, service was non-existant so I got rid of it.

1. You carry the camera closer and further away, that's your zoom in and out. Without you to move the camera, it will not zoom 2. No audio on the camera Dahua makes cameras that do this really well, just not for $150.

When I use an NVR, I plug it into a TV. Sure, I could have two NVRs and use two HDMI ports but then I can't see all the cameras on one screen. You can use PSS or DSS software to do this, but then you need a PC, negating some of the benefits of an NVR.

I agree. In a commercial environment where we need the absolute best solution, we use Mobotix cameras like the D14 and then fill in with illuminators or even white landscape lighting to fill in as needed.

I use ACTi 3511 at home and they have a great image with zero light, albeit only 1.3MP. ACTi is coming out with new 2MP indoor IR domes this month, check their website, they may already have them for available. Axis will have an IR dome coming out later this month or January, the P3346-LVE, but only 720P but with their corridor mode, You can make 1280 the heigh and 720 the width for long hallways.

Not possible.

I say keep it simple. Dump the 4 channel on ebay, keep the 1TB HDD. Then buy the 8 Channel (or 16) NVR from a Dahua reseller, should be about $200 + shipping.

NO AVIGILON FOR YOU!!!

It took me a long, long, long time to get the lenses from dx. They used to be faster, but things have slowed down with them. Also, don't know what effect the strike has on deliveries from China with the main two pacific ports closed for the past week.