buellwinkle

I like Zyxel switches. I personally use the 16 port (8 ports PoE), ES1100-16P that you can sometimes find on Newegg for $100. They do make an 8 port managed switch, ES2108PWR where all ports are PoE + an uplink gige port, but it's about twice the price. A managed switch will let you power the cameras down and up remotely in case one hangs. All their PoE switches are full power on each port, so if it says 8 PoE ports, they mean all 8 running at 15.4W. Also, their switches are 110V AC, not low voltage with a transformer which is nice, cleaner look. The Dahua IPC-HFW3200C is a power pig, I don't believe it's 10W or the aggregate power on a Trendnet switch is wrong. I had 3 cameras on a their 4 PoE port switch and when the IR LEDs came on at night, the camera powered off.

ACTi NVR 3.0 is the best software I've used but only works with ACTi cameras. The cameras that have audio record audio. It's part of the h.264 or MPEG stream. Don't use MJPEG if you want audio.

The best NVR software I've run up against that supports both is NVR+ from Linovision.com. You can also use BlueIris software.

Sounds like the IR cut filter is stuck. Mine switches fine when it gets dark.

Indoors I like the AVTech cameras, the AVN80X, AVN813 depending on if you want WiFi or not. They have very good image quality, 2 way audio built in, light built in, small form factor, reliable, megapixel resolution and cost in the $200-250 range. They have good apps for most smartphones (IOS, Android, Blackberry at least) and they have the push notification which alerts your app immediately and plays the last recorded video with audio or you can look and listen from your app. Also, the model numbers I gave above have SD card slots so you can record in-camera but have slightly cheaper models without the SD card slot if you don't need or want it.

See if OpenEye works with your NVR. They have the CM-710, 1080P dome. Their IR domes are the worst, but the CM-710 is quite good and under $300, comparable to the Dahua 1080P dome. Geovision has a low end dome, but going to be slightly over $300, but may be the cheapest with a name brand. The GV-MDR120 or GV-MDR220. Don't know the quality as I've never used one.

There's probably more flexibility in the mini dome because you don't have to worry about the IR LED light bleed nor the IR cut filter that prevents you from screwing in longer lenses on the IR bullet.

In the Dahua family, you would have to move up to the IPC-HFW3200C that I reviewed, has audio in/out. The mini domes and bullets do not have that. Even with audio in on many cameras, you will have to buy an amplified microphone. Are you looking for indoor or outdoor cameras? One of the few outdoor cameras with microphone and speaker built in are Mobotix M12 and D14, albeit more expensive than Dahua.

The offer was one month only, expired Sunday on 11/11. Now it's gone back to what it was before, $599 for NVR + 2 cameras + $299 for 2 more cameras.

See if there's a reset button you can press and reset the camera to factory settings. Also, check to see if the camera is under warranty. I've gotten a dead camera on eBay but luckily is was under warranty and was fixed.

Not sure it's possible because USB Webcams require a driver specific to the camera, so an ethernet to USB adapter would have to decode that to turn a USB cam to an IP camera. Some NVR software, like BlueIris as an example will work with a USB camera. If the purpose is to gain distance, you can use a traditional USB extender that uses ethernet, but at the computer side it would still look like a webcam. http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat_id=1521&sku=39993

Do you have a source for the stock 3.6mm lenses?

I was not impressed with Arecont cameras, bought one and then dumped it on eBay a few weeks later. Hikvision and Avigilon I haven't seen. Axis is a good solid company and they have some new cameras that are priced well. Just about every NVR softaware out there works with Axis cameras. Also, if you want a little more value for the money, ACTi has a new line of cameras that works pretty well and their free NVR software is a good as the best I've seen, so you may save some dough on the software if not, just about all NVR software works with ACTi cameras.

i know what you mean now, my ACTi NVR software does that, helped me find which dog pee'd in the kitchen this morning. The Dahua/Q-See NVR does not.

Tough question but your new NVR should support 8 cameras, so you can buy 4 more cameras for $598 or for $101 more get another 1TB hard drive and another NVR to keep as a backup and stick the 1TB drive in the first NVR (supports 2 drives). The deal ends Sunday though and it may cost more after that. On the otherhand, you can buy different types of cameras to add including 1080P cameras from Q-See and others and Costco said they would be adding the 1080P cameras in a few weeks.

Exactly.

Not impressed, doesn't do port scanning and you can get the same list of IP's connected from most routers.

I actually have mine down now while I review a bunch of Axis cameras that came in. Also, I reviewed the ACM-1231 before and that's my oldest camera and it's on my blog with day and night shots.

What do you mean? It has a timeline, you click with the included mouse on where you want to start playing and you can play it back, one camera at a time or all at a time. Is it the best I've seen, no, is it good enough, absolutely.

I have one that's 4 years old that's better than the one that's 1 year old and I never do anything to them except once in a while clean the glass and remove spiderwebs.

It's more responsive than some NVR's costing way, way more but if you are used to NVR software on a modern day computer, depending on the software, it won't be that fast but still highly usable. Can you view recorded and live video at the same time depends on what you mean. From the same interface, no, it only lets you view recorded or live, not both at the same time, but you can look at multiple camera recordings at the same time. If you mean can I view recordings on the NVR and view live on a IE browser, then yes, you can do that.

When you setup a camera in the NVR, you give it's IP address. You can be in Kentucky, the camera can be in Nepal and you can connect the camera to the NVR. Frankly, I would not even use the PoE ports on the back of the NVR because my house is not wired that way. I have all my cameras coming to a switch and the NVR would be elsewhere, sitting by a TV.

In their brochure, they show a 16 channel NVR diagram with 4 PoE ports on the back. You can get 4 port PoE switch for a reasonable price in the $60 range. I had Trendnet but have since switch to ZyXel because a) they run on 110V (no transformer like the Trendnet) and b) they provide 15.4W per port for all ports (Trendnet is 30W max for all 4 ports).

Just send it back, get another one.

It's true, all versions of the NVR, be it 4,8 or 16 that have PoE ports, have only 4 PoE ports. Here's more detail from Dahua - http://www.dahuasecurity.com/products/nvr320432083216-p-190.html