buellwinkle

I'm running on Win 8.1-64. The trick is to install Winpcap from their website, not the Hikvision version.

I'm pretty sure you can because you can set a schedule for that time period on those days and you can do motion detect recording or full time recording during those periods.

Most routers these days have port mapping is what it's called. You map port 80 on camera 1 to port 10080, map port 80 on camera 2 to port 10081, so you leave the port as is on the camera. Then if you have to replace the camera, there's less configuration work. You can just use port 80 and 554 if all you have is one camera and your ISP lets you, mine does actually, have used port 80. You can change these ports in the camera, then just port forward the same port. Also, depending how adventurous you are, you can see if your router works with DD-WRT firmware. It replaces the factory firmware with very good open source firmware that is loaded with features. I did that in a few locations. What's nice if you have several locations is you program them all with the same firmware, you don't have to learn Netgear, D-Link, Linksys and every other router each time you have to replace one. Like one annoying thing on Netgear is you only do like 20 port forwards, good enough of some people but I ran out quickly. So DD-WRT can fix those sort of problems or of your router does not support port mapping.

You cannot connect Hikvision cameras to Lorex, many have tried. Maybe 2 years ago, but newer models prevent it.

The issue that has been brought up before is that most cameras do not have full-duplex audio, meaning it's more walkie-talkie type were mic and speaker are not on at the same time, not like a telephone. The other issue is being outdoors, not many outdoor cameras that are good quality and affordable with built in mic & speaker.

I get asked this so many times, I wrote and article on my blog years ago as it's not a simple one step process, but the basics are; 1. set you cameras up with fixed IP addresses on your home network which you probably already have 2. port map & port forward ports 80 and 554 for each camera (if it's Hikvision) to an external port number. I like to start in the 10000 so it does not interfere with other port usage or ISP rules and you can go up to about 65,535. 3. find your WAN address, easiest way if your router does not show you this is to go to http://whatismyipaddress.com/ 4. go to http://canyouseeme.org/ and check that you can get to that WAN address and those new external port numbers you created 5. try and connect from another network outside your home with a browser to that WAN address and port number to see if it works, like http://79.34.32.32:10005 6. lastly, setup a DDNS account to map a name to your IP address that likely is DHCP and changes every now and then. The name will remain stable as the WAN IP address changes 7. setup a single device in your home to keep DDNS updated. I prefer using my router for that, but you can use a camera or PC too as long as they are on 24/7. 8, test remote access using your new DDNS domain name.

That switch will work fine with 4 cameras. You can connect analog cameras to BlueIris, but you'll need a video capture card in your PC. Here's what Ken, the author of BlueIris recommends - http://blueirissoftware.com/new-h-264-pc-cards/

When viewing from a small screen and then dividing that screen with 4 cameras, it's not going to matter much what camera you get. I'm not familiar with your setup, but I use Hikvision and ACTi 3MP cameras and record on a PC with Milestone XProtect. From my phone or tablet, I can see an image, then use pinch gesture to zoom in on details. For example, at my front door I have a dome camera and there's a gate about 25' away. Just looking at the camera from my phone, I can't tell that far away if a package was left at the gate or not. I could on my 27" monitor on my desk, but not on my Galaxy S4 phone. So I pinch out to zoom in to that gate and I can get the full resolution available from the camera and see the detail that is possible from my camera.

Yes, a few people have had issues with 64GB cards, so I got the Sandisk they recommend and it did not work, yet cheaper cards with the Sony brand name we use do work and we put them in each camera we install as a fail safe, a way to start recording if by chance the NVR PC fails and is expected to be out of commission for an extended period of time. The very same Sandisk model but 32GB capacity did worked. Keep in mind that flash of all kinds, be it SD card or SSD has limited writes before they fail unlike spinning disk. Depending on how often you write to the card will determine it's life. Get one with a long reliable warranty. For example, MicroCentere's house brand cards have an unconditional warranty, bring it back when it fails, they give you a new one. Some people only get 3-6 months use in a surveillance camera. It's different in digital cameras and phone where they get infrequent use, then they last for a long time.

I think you would be lucky if it worked with 64GB as it's been temperamental which cards work and which don't and ironically the one they recommend like Sandisk 64GB does not work with Hikvision. At 32GB or less, all cards I've tried work because they are SDHC, the 64GB and larger are SDXC.

The max bitrate I think you can even set on the camera is 8Mb. So not sure how faster frame rates would change that, all it would do is compress more. Also, many people don't even record at the full frame rate to save on disk space. I've been happy in some projects using 10fps or 15fps at the most. The only reason I can think of for faster frame rates, like 60fps is to try and capture slight of hand theft, like in a casino or a jewelry store.

I have not seen one yet other than large rack mount switches, but not in a desktop switch. Why do you need gigabit for 3 cameras?

Cat6 is just a wire spec, from a switch point of view it does not matter. The difference between Cat5 and Cat6 is the thickness of the wire so it's able to carry a higher speed connection, not needed for cameras. The only time we use Cat6 is when using extenders that require it, otherwise no reason to.

Just curious, what made you chose that PIR sensor say vs. the less expensive Optex LX-402? Let us know how it works out as I'm sure most of us are interested in improving motion detection accuracy.

I don't understand. Which camera do you want to read license plates on? I assume the one you have marked as Driveway and in the Youtube it clearly shows your plate number, no? Is the problem at night because that's not in that video for that camera. Clearly the other cameras can't see plates because the cars are going across the field of view, so the plate is not visible. ' Or are you trying to trigger an event off the license plate number, in other words, have it send you a text when a certain plate number enters your driveway? Yes, you can change lenses on those cameras, but requires specialized tools like a thin #1 Philips head screwdriver

Did you check the trigger channel box on the events page?

Not a power brick, worse, a wall wort on the 4 PoE 8 port switch - http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/GS108P/GS108Pv1_IGprt_21Sept2012.pdf

Cameras are 100Mbps, so no need for gigabit with 3-4 cameras and if he outgrew it, get a larger gigabit switch or just another 100Mbps 4 port switch as long as the backbone for the network is gigabit that the NVR or PC is attached to. I'm actually hunting for a 24 port gigabit desktop switch because I'm maxed out on two 8 port switches and to think I started this all 5 years ago on one cheap Trendnet 4 port PoE switch that can barely power 3 cameras. We run 16 cameras on one project on 100Mbps PoE switches that feed up to a gigabit switch with the NVR server and no problems yet. Each PoE switch has 2-5 cameras + 2-3 PoE access control modules, all cameras are 3MP. The reason is the network is connected via 100Mbps extenders going out about 1/4 to 1/2 mile each + 1 100Mbps wireless bridge, gigabit switches would not make a difference. I figure that each switch is 100Mbps feeding a 1,000Mbps backbone, so 4 switches = 400Mbps throughput to the NVR PC. Will be adding 2 of the Hik 720P covert cameras soon, hopefully won't tip the balance too much.

Q-See like most of the larger OEM's is not loyal to one manufacturer and that camera is definitely not Dahua. That is a weird effect, but since the camera is analog, the issue is probably with the DVR. Are you seeing this only on one camera or all the cameras?

There's plenty of good 4 PoE port switches and you don't need gigabit for 4 cameras. I would get the ZyXel ES1100-8P as it plugs straight into 110V with no power brick and gives you full power on all ports (most do not) and is fanless for quiet operation.

The lowest light cameras are box cameras, but that's OK, it will be indoors anyway, also 720P is the sweet spot for low light cameras. Check out the Bosch NBM-733V-IP, maybe one of the lowest light surveillance cameras out there. The Axis Q1604 also does very well at night, almost as good as the Bosch. Samsung has their Wisenet III camera, the SNB-5004, the same league but may be the best bang for the buck.

Why do you feel you have to upgrade? There's known issues with newer firmware so be careful with what you ask for. I recently downgraded a camera to 5.1 because of a feature they removed in newer firmware. If you insist, you can use the CBX Region Code Changer which is the easiest way to go. Or you can install the China 5.1.2 or 5.1.6 firmware and then apply the hack to that and instructions are on the forum, just search for converting Hikvision to English. The other choice is to install 5.1.2 or 5.1.6 and use a browser that translates like Chrome and have it translate web page to English. Personally I don't care that much that the menus are in Chinese as I view the cameras from NVR software and I already know their menus without reading buttons anyway but can be disconcerting to newbies.

The detail gets lost in distant objects. So for example, I have camera overlooking a lake where the middle may be 1,000' out. The ripples in the water is fine detail that gets muddled unless I crank NR and sharpness way down. On the other hand, my security cameras at my house look at much closer objects, but even then leaves on a tree that's 50' away, details in blades of grass can get muddle with aggressive settings.

Sometimes these cameras hold on to browser caches longer than normal and it was probably just something related to that. Ports is an easy problem to solve, time to start shopping for that PoE switch.

Not just compressed, but excessive over-processing is prevalent in the Chinese cameras. Too much noise reduction, too much sharpness. I turn sharpness down to about 25-35 on my Hikvision cameras and while I like the effect at night of the noise reduction, it should be turned down during the day. I think you can do it with profiles, but have not played much with profiles yet. I think that has more of an effect on your image than bitrate, not to say it's irrelevant.