buellwinkle

If you use Milestone XProtect, then yes, it shows up under hardware events for that camera as "Face appeared on camera 1" and "Face disappeared on camera 1". There's also ones for scene change and tampering, traversal as "region entrance" I assume for all the new motion detect methods. Pretty cool stuff for a low buck camera. In case anyone tries it but doesn't see this, then load the latest device pack. 7.3 is what I'm using. My only other NVR software installed a the moment is BlueIris and it doesn't do camera side events. Also, if you have a camera with an SD card slot, or chose to do notification, sent to FTP or NAS recording, then you can leverage these new event features. People complain that they get too many false alerts with motion detection, this may narrow it down for them.

You can always use the old coax cables to pull new Ethernet, so I don't think it's a that big deal. If you are OK with 720P, these seem like a good deal if you need 4 indoor, 4 outdoor cameras. Just think of it like a closed system, if a camera dies you may not easily get a replacement or if you want a different camera, you may not be able to do it.

As milkisbad says, Flir is great for thermal, but their low end is rebranded Dahua, not bad, but not special. ADI Global, one of the large distributors continually has this stuff on sale, sort of their value leader. AVTech actually makes some innovative products and I've had AVTech IP cameras for a few years, all still work. They have their push video that sends you alerts via their EagleEyes app within 2-3 seconds of motion detection. What I would ask is why still using 50 year old analog technology? First ask them if they still use old analog TV's in their own home. Ask them why you can record 1080P video from your cell phone but these cameras can only do about 1/5 the resolution? Did you know that 960H "super res" is still 480P resolution? Kinda fools you into thinking it's better but prices for true 1080P cameras have dropped drastically and worth considering. I would get more bids.

Yes, sorry 1/120th of a second.

Have you connected to it via a web browser yet? Is the web interface all in Chinese? Is there an option somewhere to chose another language? Some software supports ONVIF if the camera does and some use RTSP if you can find out what the RTSP string is.

I would set the max exposure time to about 120/sec and adjust up/down as needed. Also, turn gain down, maybe to 50 as a starting point as you don't want gain to be used to make up for the 1/120 exposure. Don't use Backlight Settings (WDR or BLC) and turn Smart IR off. Also, dial sharpening down, maybe to 25-35 as sharpening artifacts may interfere with the ability to read plates and sharpen noise. Also turn down noise reduction as detail is more important than a pretty picture. The idea is to get an exposure that shows the plate numbers at night and a pair of head or tail lights and nothing else. Yes, the scene will be very, very dark and worthless of anything other than viewing plates.

I rarely get cameras ahead of time from manufacturers as the demo's typically come from a marketing department and they get their batch the same time distributors do but there's a higher demand for the demos then. Axis releases their stuff in Europe first and it takes a while for them to come to the U.S. and fulfill initial orders from all their distributors.

I can review it when it comes out, just someone remind me when that happens. Bosch also had a nice 4K camera but they even admitted it's not going to wow you at night. I think they are all going to be mediocre until they realize that to do 4K right, they will need a larger sensor, maybe a 1" sensor. That video was crystal sharp at 2160P, maybe used 10% more CPU than normal, not a huge problem.

I think the 5.1.2 on the USA site may be a different 5.1.2 in China. Try the Chinese 5.1.2, then apply the hack, that will work for sure and you don't have to use TFTP.

To me, Milestone is very efficient allowing me to run more cameras on slower hardware, has very good synchronized playback of multiple cameras, easy to use timeline scrubbing. Very good smartphone apps that comes in handy in bed if there's noise, I just pickup a tablet and can quickly see what's going on in and out of the house. Had it running for a while, never crashed, always ready. Also, client and server are separate, so I can run the server on a slower PC, but access the client portion on my desktop or laptop without impacting recording performance. For what it's worth, I was running BlueIris, ACTi NVR 3.0 (their free software) and Milestone all on the same PC while I figured out what I wanted. That's why they give you free trials.

Had customers of my daughter in the cooler parts of the U.S. tell me they hit -22f this winter with no problems with their Hikvision cameras. Not as cold where she is, only -15f in Chicago. If you plan on going real cold, consider the Axis P33 series domes, they have heaters/fans inside, good for -40C/F. So what happens you ask, at least from the coldest parts of So California, is the cameras stop working for the time they get too cold but start working again when it warms up and have not seen permanent damage from freezing. I see this happen all the time at mountain webcams in So Cal where it does not get Canada cold, but certainly cold enough to freeze that D-Link. Really was bad this winter for us, lots of 90F+ degree days. I felt cheated because I put my boat in dry-dock to avoid having snow sink it and all winter we may have gotten 1" where normal is about 4'. Did not make for a happy ski season this year.

You mention two separate needs, LPR and capturing a plate. Do you want to do LPR or do you want to just be able to read a license plate in the video? Viewing a plate (not LPR) with the 12mm Hikvision at 40' should be doable day or night. What sort of problems are you having?

Don't use my 5.1.2 file if you have 5.1.4 or 5.1.6. You have to use the long way, extract the davinci file, edit it, put it back. PM me if you need the Chinese version of the 5.1.6 file.

Depends. iVMS4200 to me is not the easiest to setup and get working properly but it is free and it uses minimal CPU but may not be so much an issue with the i7. BlueIris has it's following, can do some unique things others can't. For example, someone has a weather plugin to insert weather info in the video. I use it on a project to display cameras on a website because it's easy and works with all browsers. I personally would use neither as my home NVR solution and I'm happy with Milestone XProtect. They have a free 8 camera version but is limited to 5 days recording, otherwise it's about $49/camera but worth it to me.

It's not so much that it hits 100%, it's mostly because it's trying to display that many. If you try to display say 10 cameras on an i7 even through the browser, all at 1080P, it will also use up a lot of CPU. The problem with BlueIris is the server and client are one program. You can just minimize it and it will drop the CPU usage by a lot. Careful with direct to disc because it starts recording at the next iframe, so make sure you have a lower number for iframe (some like Hikvision default to almost 1 every 2 seconds, meaning you could lose as much as 2 seconds on you recording. You can make up for by increase the pre-event frames to record.

iVMS4200 only works with Hikvision cameras. BlueIris works with many brands.

It's probably least expensive to buy a PC and run the free iVMS4200 PCNVR software.

Those videos are for a different product, is that what you are interested in, or using the NVR software from Hikvision as Mindtwist mentioned?

Bit rates at night can double/triple or more, so check at night when noise makes for more bits.

1. Does it have onboard micro-SD slot? NO 2. Besides sensitivity are there any other settings to help with false triggers? Manual shows a check box for "Dynamic analysis" not sure what that does. Shows a green markers on the live view screen when motion is detected. 3. Can it send motion detect images to SSL emails; gmail, etc.. YES

Then look for Bosch and Axis to have 4K models real soon with higher frame rates. 4K technically is 4x 1080P, or 8MP. I thought the GoPro is 15fps at 4K and 30fps at 2K. What model do you have that is 4K at 30fps? Don't think there will be any serious adoption of 4K because there's already 8K, so why settle? Until there is wide-spread 4K or 8K content, at least live news and live sports in 4K/8K, not just 1080P video that has been enhanced to 4K/8K I don't see widespread adoption. I could see 2K actually making it before 4K because the barrier to entry for 2K is much lower. When I got my monitor recently, 1080P was about under $300, 2K (1440P) was under $600 and 4K (2160P) was about $3,000. I can see it used in video surveillance where you have large displays with say 16+ cameras and each one is 1080P. The real question is, are you going in on the GoPro IPO? I think it's a good stock to get considering that company continues to double revenues year after year despite the fact that just about every smartphone, every digital camera can do 1080P 30fps video. I was in court today as a witness and the judge told a person accused of violating a restraint order that they should get a GoPro and put it in their car rear window so they can document if they are being setup/framed as she purported. He said everyone in Russia is doing it, LOL.

Adding a camera to a view does not make it stick, sort of a temporary move. To make it permanent, click the "Setup" button in the upper right and it should turn yellow. Then add the camera to a view and click "Setup" again and it will be permanent. You should use multiple views, not put 11 on a single view because it's likely going to use a boat load of CPU just displaying small thumbnails. The other alternative is to chose the sub-stream checkbox for live view. Then it uses the lower res sub-stream when in live view (but playback is at full resolution) so it uses less network bandwidth and much lower CPU. I was going to put together a tips & tricks with Milestone. For example, most people don't even realize they are using server side motion detection because they checked the box that enables motion detection but it's more involved than that.

The KCM-5611 is definitely better and the E84 will be fine there.

The low light performance to me is not that much different between the 2MP and 3MP versions. The better "WDR" from say an E72 to an E84 does not translate to better WDR from what I can see. I did my reviews a while back on the E84, E44, E74, E32 so you can compare. I think the new stuff coming out later this year will be much better, but it's a waiting game. Also, they are introducing motorized focus/varifocal for about a $50-75 premium if that's of interest to you and that should be coming soon. Also, be careful when buying ACTi online. They have gotten more aggressive recently in going after resellers that display discounted pricing online by not honoring warranties if you buy from the resellers on their sh*t list. They were not as vocal about it before, but recently there's been a strong push.

Each state is different but generally "invasion of privacy" laws apply to areas where there's a reasonable expectation of privacy like a bedroom, dressing room, locker room or bathroom. For example, someone's backyard, a living room is likely fair game. If there's cameras pointed at such an area, one could in theory file a police report. Whether anything would be done is uncertain. I know in my area, if it's a neighbor to neighbor issue and there's no acts of violence, the Sheriff would likely blow it off as civil matter. To add a sense of urgency, if the bedrooms contain children, one can mention child pornography as their intent to law enforcement, I'm sure that would get their attention and law enforcement may go straight in to confiscate recording devices. If someone shined a bright light into my bedroom on purpose for the purpose of harassment and they refused to yield to reason, I would likely seek a civil harassment restraining order.