buellwinkle

You are overly paranoid that a burglar would steal your recording device but if you feel strongly about that, Dropcam may be your best bet. In the U.S. you can buy them at many stores, not sure of the UK, but worst case you can find it online. It costs $199USD and it's a pretty simple camera. You can view the camera remotely for free, but to record it's about $100/yr per camera and it records on their servers and you access the video through the internet. I'm sure your internet access speeds are far greater than what we get in the U.S., but you'll need about 2Mbps upload bandwidth to get 720P resolution at 30 frames per second. A camera I personally use for this purpose is an AVTech AVN812 or AVN813. The reason is that when combined with a smartphone, it will notify you within 2-3 seconds of motion detection using it's built in PIR motion detector. When you tap on the notification, it will instantly start playing back the video with audio that was recorded at the time of the motion detection. You can also look at camera live and playback recordings (with an SD card in the AVN813). You can also use 2 way audio to listen to what's happening and even talk to the person. The reason I use this over Dropcam is having video to look at after the fact does not help much with stopping the crime in action. With instant notification, I can alert law enforcement and knowing there's a crime in progress will make them respond faster. Sort of like an alarm but with benefits. As for recording devices, no reason you couldn't hide the recorder in an attic, under a bed, in a closet, on a bookshelf, behind a desk. The biggest problem with surveillance cameras is that you can't just have one. Once you've been bitten by the bug and keep coming back to the forum, you'll want more and more and with cloud storage, it's not practical to have multiple cameras as it's expensive and requires serious network bandwidth.

Wish I can put on in the rear window but my cars are all convertibles. I keep hoping they will make a camera with a separate lens, like for backup cameras where you can mount the lens on a license plate frame.

What is your budget? I use Milestone LPR software, it's mid-priced at about $1,500 for one camera + the NVR license which is $99 per camera. It works pretty well at recording plate numbers, searching them and records the video of the car passing the plate camera. if you are a C++ developer, you can use routines from http://www.openalpr.com that are quite good. The camera itself, whether it's labeled LPR/ANPR is only a camera, in it of itself does not process plate numbers. I did an article on this recently. I just used an ordinary box camera, the Axis Q1604 and it produced a very clear plate image, day or night. I used it with a 5-50mm lens. To make it readable for LPR software, you need to have a minimum number size of about 15 pixels. To achieve that, at least with US plates, you need have a tight capture, about 8' wide at the plate. Capturing more makes it hard to get proper exposure. Also, resolution does not matter. I have a 720P IP camera for this, but run it in VGA mode (640x480) and 4 fps and capture plates up to 30-40mph. I did look into the Geovision LPR camera, about $900ish, but I found the plate too dark for LPR software to read. It's good enough to view a plate, but not good enough for software to convert. If this is too rich for you blood, you can do with ordinary cameras that work well in low light. First get as tight capture as possible, ideally with a box camera and a telephoto lens or even a regular bullet with 12mm lens as long as you are close to the plate, maybe 15' away. Then set the max exposure to the point you can read the plate number and nothing else as it will be black. For me it's between 1/90 to 1/250 of a second. Yes, the image will be worthless for anything other than seeing the plate and head or tail lights. In this low-buck scenario, I use a high voltage landscape bullet spot light with an LED spot R30 bulb that focuses the light on the plate area. It's not perfect but will let you read the plates. If the plates look like a white rectangle and can't see the number it's not because you have too much light as many would believe, it's because your max exposure is not short enough. It's all trial and error as every camera and lighting situation is different. There is a company in Hungary, Carmen that is coming out with embedded software to record plate numbers, very cool. Not sure it's ready for prime time but Carmen is the LPR engine used in Milestone LPR. It's supposed to work with most Linux based cameras. Also, IPConfigure does this now with certain cameras like the Axis Q1604 but I was not happy with it and it's about $1,500.

Did he say he wants it in English, maybe he's Chinese. Besides, you can tweak it to English, not that hard.

Have not heard that Hikvision uses Sony sensors, is that new? T They are both good in their own way. Don't think it's worth thinking that hard on it, you will not be disappointed either way. The Dahua 3MP eco savvy has better WDR and lower noise at the expense of slightly less detail, the Hikvision has a better looking image with slightly more noise but slightly more detail.

I use Milestone XProtect and works well for me. The web interface and smartphone apps are very good. BlueIris is also pretty good for the money, $39, and for 2 cameras, not sure you will have CPU issues if you use direct to disc recording. It also has unique features and I use it as webcam software on the same machine running Milestsone XProtect. Download the trial for both, see which you like.

Buy a managed switch, it will provide this information at the ip level.

More common is 2K or twice 1080P or half 4K also known as 1440P. You can buy 2K monitors for $600ish where 4K monitors are in the thousands.

What is you goal? To be able to read a plate number in a recording or to record the plate number to act on a plate match or search video by plate number.

Different cameras require different ports to be open. Asian cameras tend to require two ports be open, Euro cameras usually require just the HTTP port to be open.

Put IE in compatibility mode for your camera and it should work, may ask you to "allow" it, but you don't have to reinstall older web components.

Dahua changed the command needed to take snapshots in their newer firmware. First discovered this on their PTZ cameras a few months ago, but recently came across this after firmware updates on their other cameras. http://:9989/onvif/media_service/snapshot?channel=1&subtype=0

I don't know what the differences are between the Raptor firmware models and others. If it was me, I would extract the davinci file and see if you can find the same code because it's quite possible they all share that same code base.

I like it, looks very good and since I don't know what it really looks like, I don't notice the perspective issue as you lined up the street well.

If he doesn't have IP cameras, he's in the wrong forum. But for what it's worth, the URL to get a snapshot does not work in 5.1 firmware but does work with 5.0, 5.0.2 and 5.1.2.

That's great that it's out already. Just noticed it on ADI's site. Thinking about it, installation must present some challenges because if you drill a hole for the camera and it's not aimed as you wish, you need to drill some more. Have you put in a front door? If so, where did you put the box part of this? I know you can't typically mount it above door because there's typically a header beam. To the sides there's usually king and jack studs, lot of drilling. I know in my house, that would be tricky to hide if I put the camera inside the front door, which is in my case is steel and glass, no wood.

Glass is terrible because at least in the U.S., the glass has to be dual paned, so double the distortion and reflections. But frankly, I don't get it. Even if you could suction cup a camera and it stayed without ever falling to the ground when the door is slammed, you need at least a power cord assuming it's WiFi or a Cat5 cable, so it's going to look sloppy and if you got a cool door, why do you want that? The other choices are putting a dome next to the door, that's what I do, works for me, covers my entire entrance, really the only way to go with IR LEDs. Or going covert in some way. For example, there's a company here in So Cal that makes a larger junction box with a brass plate for Axis M10 series cameras with an integrated doorbell and slots for the audio, very high end look, about $300-400 for the junction box with brass plate. That would be flush, like where your doorbell is. The other choice is to go with the covert cameras above, drill a hole in the jam next to the door or above the door, or by the door bell.

All the commercial grade NVR software solutions start at about the same price, $50/camera. I personally settled on Milestone XProtect, good support, product is reliable, good web client from usable from PC or Mac and good smartphone app. Uses small amount of CPU per camera. Other players in this space are Exacq (about the same sized company as Milestone, making them the two largest) and Avigilon, a camera manufacturer that has NVR software. If you want cheaper, check out BlueIris, available for $40 per PC. Works well but lacks some features the big boys have and can be CPU heavy. Just about all of them can be downloaded for free for a trial period. Milestone even offers a free version for up to 8 cameras.

What's the budget? What camera brands would you want to introduce in the future? Are there other features you may want to integrate later like POS, LPR, analytics? If it's a PC, is there anything else the PC can be used for, for example, access control. If it's a NAS, is there anything else the NAS can be used for, for example, PC backups.

Why not drill into the wood of the door and embed a small discrete camera. This is one http://www.axis.com/en/products/cam_p1204/index.htm Hikvision had one they showed off at ISC but may not be ready for a while.

Is Geovision not a choice when selecting a camera in BI? It may ask for a port number, try 554 or 8554 for the rtsp port and see if that works. You can chose generic RTSP if you know the RTSP string. Try rtsp://IPADDRESS:8554/CH001.sdp if that doesn't work, try 554. You can also email Ken, blueirissoftware@gmail.com He knows more about BlueIris than any of us, he wrote it.

That is awesome. I researched this a while ago when Google announced Google Live but it was only available by invite, but now it appears to be available to all. Here's the link to help you get started - https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2474026?hl=en

1- Which are the most reliable brands in the market? I've heard about Sony, Axis, Bosch, Panasonic, Mobotix, but I'm no expert in the matter. Can you point me to some cameras of the best available brands within the $300-$500 range (even if not from the above brands)? Mobotix claims to be the most reliable because they have no moving parts but totally out of your price range. Having personally had several brands including Mobotix, any can fail and not sure there's a big correlation between price and reliability or if the extra reliability is worth the premium. For example, if a reliable camera lasts 10 years and a mediocre camera last 5 years, does it matter because in 5 years you'll want the latest anyway. The brands you mention are all going to be at the top or even over your budget for outdoor, HD resolution. For example, a Mobotix day/night dome is $1,628 list, an Axis lowest end IR 720P dome is over $500. Sony, Bosch & Panasonic will also be up there. In your price range and bang for the buck, camera brands from Taiwan may be your best bet, ACTi, Geovision, Vivotek, Messoa or Korean brands like Samsung, their Wisenet III 720P is sweet camera and getting 1080P is within your budget. On the bottom end of your budget is Dahua and Hikvision, two great brands from China, don't let the low price fool you, they are as good as anything out there. 2- The option for dome or bullet is purely client's taste? Or it's for disguise and/or PTZ needs? Bullets are way easier to install but are not vandal proof, meaning anyone with a broom stick can tap it and point it elsewhere. In the industry they are referred to as Piñatas but I love them nonetheless. Outdoor domes are commonly referred to as vandal domes have advantages, for one being vandal proof as they can't easily be moved or damaged. They are harder to install and are subject to glare and if they have IR LEDs, are subject to IR light bleed which is LED reflection off the curved surface of the dome. 3- It is a good practice to buy a NVR from the same brand as the cameras? Or it can be another brand if it is ONVIF compatible? Can you advice If you go lower end as you budget suggests, you would be best served by sticking to one brand for all the camera and the NVR. Good quality NVR's for commercial use that supports many camera can cost a lot. An alternative is to not use an NVR, but have a server with NVR software. For example, you can buy a server for about $500ish from say Dell, put hard drives in, and run NVR software ranging from free, to cheap, to moderate to crazy expensive. That gives you future expandability and compatibility with many camera brands. There some ONVIF only NVR's coming out China, don't know much about them. I ordered one last week just to play with to see if they are any good. The problem with ONVIF is that's its a big complex standard with many features and cameras companies will say they are ONVIF compliant if they only support very basic functionality. They can even say they support say the 2.2 standard, but that means nothing because they may have not implemented the entire standard and there's no policing of the standard, so while it's getting better every day, it's not perfect. One thing I learned when starting out, when you don't know what you are doing, go with something proven or you won't know if what you have just doesn't work or if it's you doing it wrong. This stuff is complex, you don't need to make it harder, LOL.

What I don't understand is what is the purpose of the PoE on that router? Do they sell phone systems or something that use those odd voltages? The only odd duck that I heard of before is Ubiquiti that uses 24V in their PoE products. So I agree then, get router for 3G from them but get a model without PoE as you don't want to damage the cameras. We use a Cradlepoint router, mbr1200 that has USB 3g/4g capability at remote locations and use a Verizon Wireless USB stick. Then use PoE injectors or a PoE switch if you have more than 1 or 2 cameras attached to the router and that will work. We use a PoE injector because the location where I use this just has one camera. If you are in the U.S., careful with 4G as there may be extra fees to connect remotely where 3G doesn't have those limitations. For example, VZW charges a one time $500 to allow this. Not sure what other carriers charge.

I have not seen the actual deal, what it includes but Swann's kits typically include cameras made by Hikvision and Q-See includes cameras made by Dahua. I use both Hikvision and Dahua and to tell you which is better is like telling you which of my kids I love more. The offices for the two manufactures are walking distance from each other. They are different, but can't say the current version of one is dramatically better. If you get one of these kits I doubt you will be beating yourself up for not buying the other.