buellwinkle

You shouldn't use a class 4 SD for 1080P as it's putting out 6-8Mb/s and class for is 4Mb/s, at minimum class 6 and really class 10 to be safe and they are pretty cheap now. I didn't get any dropped frames via FTP. Also, you have to use PSS to view the video recorded on SD card. Why is Mobotix different? The NVR software is built into each camera. From anywhere on the internet, from any browser (PC/MAC/tablet/smartphone) you can view the cameras, live, look for recordings and play back recordings. Also, Mobotix is an establish player with proven reliability and support and to some, it's worth the premium. Also at night, the B&W sensor is way better than any color sensor I've seen at night. In contrast, Dahua would require PSS to review the recorded video, so you would need a PC. Not saying it's bad, but I couldn't get it to work. Any insight on how to get PSS to view recorded video from the FTP server or SD card would be appreciated. I can manually view the video from the FTP server with their player but it's difficult to manually comb through hundreds or thousdans of files spread out in a sea of directories that a several levels deep. Not saying it's impossible or difficult, just tedious. Ideally, if it can manage the videos FTP'ed where you can scan through a timeline or thumbnails, that would be awesome. So why FTP instead of SD card, because FTP is cheap and remote. With SD cards someone steals the camera, all the recordings go with it. Also, a 64GB uSD card for each camera is going to cost a lot more per GB of storage than a 1-3TB NAS that can handle several cameras.

Depends on the cameras, some can record on their own, most require an external device to record, in your case your PC running NVR software. Some companies give you free NVR software that only works with their cameras, some charge you extra or you can buy any NVR software. I have reviews on cameras and software on blog and may be a good start. If you do run NVR software on your PC to record events, it will consume that PC, it will run 24/7 without ever going into any energy saving mode. A good way to go may be with cameras that don't require a PC, like Axis cameras that work with Camera Companion where the cameras record on their own and you view the recordings and cameras via their free software or Mobotix where the recording is done from the camera and you use their free MX ControlCenter to view the cameras and recordings.

We use a 1TB WD MyBook Live at two locations and a 2TB Buffalo Linkstation at another. You can use 64GB SD cards but that's more expensive.

I know this is old, but Dahua makes a camera that looks like that, about $200 thats 720P (sorry, not 1080P). They make 1080P domes, but they don't look like that.

You can use any PC for MXControlCener and you don't have to leave it on when you are not using it. At one site we just use a laptop when we want to run MxControlCenter.

Mobotix makes some of the best cameras out there. While they work independantly of each other for recording, you can view and manage them using their free CMS software called MXControlCenter. While they cost more than other solutions, they don't require an NVR. They can write directly to and manage the recordings on a NAS drive which is cheap and disposable. We use WD and Bufalo NAS.

The issue is trying to get a fast enough frame rate so it looks like motion video, say at least 1 fps if not more. What has to be done is to preload the next frame in the browser cache from the javascript code and then reference it while it's still in the cache and have that constant loop of load, view, load, view to avoid having the screen blink as it loads the next frame. Theuberoverlord's code does this for Foscam but trying to undestand that much code is not that easy, even with a code debugger. I used to code Java, Javascript, JSP, but haven't done that in a long while. I did it with Firefox 14 and the Firebug debugger, still blinks between frames, same as IE but I did it on a PC, didn't try on my Mac but most people still use PC's, I know, it's crazy, but they do

I have reviews on the Axis P & Q PTZ models on my blog as well as a lower cost Panasonic 1MP camera. ACTi is coming out with a 1080P PTZ at an affordable price pretty soon, maybe September that they showed off at ISC West. at the show, they combined it with their hemispherical 4MP camera where it had a 180 degree view of a large area and when motion was detected, it sent commands to the PTZ to move and zoom into that zone. Pretty cool to think it did that without software, just cameras. Seemed more effecient than having fixed patrols. If they really want a low budget solution, Dahua makes a 1080P PTZ dome for under a grand, but have not seen it in person. Of course, hemispherical cameras are a cheap alternative and come in 3,4,5MP resolutions from Geovision, Mobotix, ACTi and I'm sure others by now. they can be setup to view 180 or 360 degrees. Also, Mobotix has their D14-180, covers 180 degrees at 6MP.

I tried it with Axis, still blinks between image loads, same problem I have with the quicky script I wrote. Ideally, if someone wrote a script where one or more of the variable you set up front are the URL's for the various functions. Then you can customize it for just about any camera. I was just using ACTi as my test bed but I have a variety of cameras to test with. If I can get it working with ACTi, then Axis, and the rest should be easy enough.

I don't get it. Don't you still need a switch? How does this save you money? What is the cost of a standard 8 port switch + 8 poe injector + power supply + 8 patch cables. I have two Trendnet 8 port (4 poe) switches at $50 each.

Here's the ACTi URL commands - http://www.acti.com/getfile/KnowledgeBase_UploadFile/ACTi_Camera_URL_Commands_20120327_002.pdf You can see from my code how to get a snapshot. Also, I did try and modify the URL commands in your script and got nowhere fast. I ran it through a Javascript debugger and it got the stream, but would not display it, sort of got hung somewhere about two statements after the first request for the snapshot. I copied the variable contents and pasted it into a browser and the command was fine, so don't know what's up.

I tried the examples posted and got them to work, but it also does not preload the image so it blinks between image refreshes.

Try BlueIris software. You can download a trial copy to see if it works. But you setup all your Dahua cameras on it and then you can view it from any browser, no RTSP, uses jpeg, java or activex depending on the broswer.

Too much code for me, Maybe someone can combine the code and come up with a very simple player that works for other cameras, ACTi, Axis, Dahua etc. that is display only, no buttons on the screen.

Your company is probably blocking RTSP protocol in general, changing ports won't help. Best bet may be to get a tethering plan on Android phone, and use that internet access to view your personal stuff the company is blocking. Or if you want to get creative, a) use a service that streams your video like ustream, b) install Red5 (red5.org) or Wowsa and convert the stream from RTSP to RTMP which is probably not blocked and view it as an flash. If you want to see if rtmp is blocked, see if you can view this website from work - http://www.sundiegolive.com/ You should see San Diego bay with the city skyline in the background and it may take a few seconds for it to load.

If you shop directly from China, like an AliExpress you can probably find some pretty nice 720P or even 1080P cameras for about $100. Here's a vandal proof mini dome that may stand to some abuse for not much more than the your Benjamin. Judging from the specs, it's an unbranded Dahua which would give you decent results. http://www.aliexpress.com/product-fm/538273605-1-3-Megapixel-CMOS-Full-HD-Vandal-proof-Network-Mini-Dome-Camera-720P-IP-CAMERA-1-wholesalers.html

Theuberoverlord, I tried this with ACTi cameras with a very simple page along the lines of the code you provided but using ACTi commands to get a snapshot. It works, the problem is that it is blinking between frames. How do you keep it from doing that with your code? Here's what I have. <html> <head> <title>ACTi Video Using JPEG</title> <script language="Javascript"> var ACTi="http://192.168.0.92/cgi-bin/encoder?USER=Admin&PWD=123456&SNAPSHOT=N640x480,50" var Delay=2; // number of seconds between frames var Times=5; // negative number gives you infinate loop, positive number gives you that many frames var x=""; x=x + "<img src=" + ACTi + ">"; var i = 1; (function myLoop (i) { setTimeout(function () { document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML=x; if (--i) myLoop(i); }, Delay*1000) })(Times); </script> </head> <body> <H1>My Camera</H1> <p id="demo"></p> </body> The rest of your website may go here, whatever you like </html>

In some cases, you can change two parameters on different windows, do save save & reboot, and it only saves the last change so I save after each change to be sure. Another camera that does this is Mobotix, you make changes and you think you are done, but you have to save them to make them permanent.

One quirky thing about ACTi is you have to do a save & reboot option after you make a change. If not, you'll make a change, maybe move the camera by unplugging it and the change is gone.

On their website, they don't say the spec for the working distance and they do the same for the KCM-5211E and when I asked, they said 2m. Why 2m, because the camera was maxed out on PoE power and they couldn't put in more powerful LEDs. They must have worked it out on the replacement for the KCM-5311E, the KCM-5611 because it has IR illuminators with a working range of 20m and as you can see from the review on my blog, it works. I knew it was not an issue for your use case or I would have said something.

I have mine update via FTP every hour. The problem with most cameras, FTPing every 10 seconds is that while it's FTPing, which can be significant with a higher res image, you'll either get a corrupted or partial JPG if you use the same name. Most cameras mitigate this by not allowing you to specify a name and using a time stamp or serial number, but then you can't access it easily from your web page. Mobotix is the only camera I know of that knows you want a single name, so it FTPs a temporary name and then renames the files at the end of the FTP so that you never get a corrupted or partial image. It's actually easier to provide a snapshot directly from the camera at the time someone visits the site and they can refresh the page to see current image. Or you can put in javascript to update the image every so often as theuberlord suggests in his code sample for Foscam.

The javascript code TheUberLord wrote can probably do some effective streaming to a web page, albeit limited to the internet connection you have. It's written for Foscam but with a little tweaking you can adapt it for ACTi (this is for your new ACTi camera or another camera?). If I have time next week I'll play with it. Haven't coded in Java or JS in years so bear with me.

Vivotek's issues are not bugs, they are undocumented features ACTi has a nice affordable NVR, about $800ish street price for 16 channels for ACTi cameras. Combined with KCM-5611's, that would be a good setup for about $4K that is autofocus, 18x zoom, really good at night, illuminators built in. On a more affordable note, Dahua has very nice 1080P bullets with good low light performance (see review on my blog) and the Dahua NVR is cheap. 4 cameras, 1080P + NVR is probably $2K and be way better than Vivotek. Dahua has smart phone apps for just about any smart phone out there including the obvious Android and IOS. The Dahua NVR supports a series of other cameras, not just Dahua. Also in that budget, consider Axis. They make some cameras that work with the Camera Companion software which is free. The cameras record to a NAS or internal SD storage. The Camera Companion gives you an interface over the recordings to make it look like an NVR. You may spend more on the cameras, say P33 domes, but save on the NVR, just a 1TB NAS for $150ish may come out to $4K. The new P33 model coming out any day now will have their Lightfinder technology and built in illuminators. Can't go wrong with Axis.

New firmware just came out for the TCM-7811 that allows you to now use an SD card for storage. ACTi introduced SD card slots a while ago but finally has released the firmware to take adavantage of it. There's a new setup menu option called Local Storage. It expands out to Status, Utilities, Setup and File Management. In File Management you can search for events by time. In event configuration, you can select local storage as an option. If was able to write the video to SD and it shows up under File Management but does not play from there. It allows you to download the video to your PC and then play or convert it using their software.

I looked through your code and it looks interesting. So I understand it, you just have javascript code that requests a jpg image form the camera at a selected interval and you display that. Do I have that right? If so, then all you would need to change is the url encoding to do the same thing with a different brand camera? Not exactly what I would call motion video, but I like the thinking. The demo camera shows that you can select 30fps, but realistically, can you even get 1fps?