buellwinkle

The only ones I know of are Mobotix. We installed a bunch of them but because they are really only effective over a narrow area and 20' or so, they never were practical so we don't use them. The external ones look like motion detectors for alarms people put in houses, same thing, a little bigger, ugly by all measures of esthetics but helps if you have white eaves/fascia board. Optex makes an outdoor one the vx402 or the Bosch OD850, about $100ish.

But some people like filming walls and sky, gives them a sense of place and centers their being. I had a bird land on a camera that shifted it's position. So we sent an installer out to re-adjust the camera. Now we get 50% sky and 50% less effective coverage, but the picture makes for a much better postcard.

I think it's a black 2013 Tesla S

Buy it in the U.S. not that much more.

I run Windows 8.1 on my tablet with a Bay Trail processor which is very cool, about the equivalent of a Haswell i3 by some estimates. No reason I can't run Milestone XProtect or any other NVR software on it other than the only hard drive is a 64GB microSD card slot and it's WiFI only. Some people have made breakthroughs on my tablet, the Venue 8 Pro and have through a series of adapters been able to attach a USB hub to the device and still power the device. Then I can plug in a keyboard, mouse, GigE network adapter and USB hard drive using the tablet only as the quick display and the processor bits. So imagine, 8 camera NVR for $200 for the tablet, maybe $100 for the other bits, 1TB USB, cables, usb Ethernet adapter, mouse & keyboard. Imagine the advantages, I can shove the entire thing in my desk pencil drawer, very low power consumption, low heat dissipation, cheap, built in monitor for quick config changes. I can also run anything I want that's a Windows program, FTP server if I chose. Even comes with Word and Excel for free, plug in a USB monitor and you have a full PC, at least in theory Dropcam besides it being a lousy camera compared to others in the same price range, costs money for the cloud service to store recordings, so 3 cameras, not so cheap. Only makes one style as you found out, not even IR, not outdoor, not day/night, not high resolution. And you need a serious internet connection to have all 3 recording and remote viewing at the same time. They do have something that others do not, better marketing, so I do admire the company.

Search because someone posted this info not that long ago.

Have not looked at the Hikvision 1.3MP because not one single person asked for it, everyone wants 3MP. If you want the best low light cameras out there, they are 720P but are box cameras and you add a good Fujinon lens, you get awesome low light sensitivity. These are what you can use - Axis Q1604 or the Bosch NVR-733V. If you want a dome, it's not going to be as good because you are using smaller cheaper made lenses, but it would be the Axis P3364 or P3384, or Bosch NIN-733. But here's my experience, yes, you can potentially get a cleaner image with 1MP over 2MP, BUT, I still think you get better optical resolution in low light(not to be confused with more pixels) with a good 1080P or 3MP camera than with 720P or 1.3MP lower light camera. For example, if you can get the face to be the same size in pixels with 720P vs. 1080P (1.3MP vs 3MP), then yes, the 720P will in broad generalities will be better. BUT, if the head is smaller because for the same field of view, you have half the pixels, then the compromise to lower resolution is not worth it. Hope that makes sense. For example, I use an Axis Q1604 where I don't even care about 720p, heck, I run it at VGA resolution because even that is more than I need, but it's for a very specific use case, but all the other cameras at the same location are 1080P/3MP. I think indoors in a bar, the Hik 2732 will have so much light from the IR that you won't have a problem, actually may work against you as people's faces close to the camera may get blown out. Or get the ACTi E58, indoor 2MP dome camera, good light performance, better than the Hikvision, known commercial brand, free NVR software that is very good if you chose to use it. When you compare price of the Hik USA product to ACTi, the prices are comparable.

That's a pain trying to use a camera that hugs a wall. I just wired for a similar location, but haven't mounted a camera yet, but was going to use the Hikvision with a 12mm lens that has a narrow lighting area. But on a wider side yard, I use a 6mm Dahua and had to move the camera view further out so it didn't bounce off the wall. The camera you have comes in 12mm also. You can also try BLC as that will brighten it up by using the dark area to set the exposure, of course by doing so it will blow out the wall.

We use a 24 port Netgear ProSafe PoE switch with 2 Gigabit ports. The NVR PC can connect directly to the switch on one of the Gigabit ports, the other port can go to their normal Gigabit network. You start losing switch efficiency when you break it up into multiple switches. Makes sure the PoE switches you buy have gigabit ports (or all gigabit) and feed into a common gigabit switch. Since your switches will be distributed, get all managed switches, at least you can check on switch problems or camera problems from a browser anywhere on the net.

I'm playing with the idea of running XProtect on a $200 tablet, 16 cameras, waiting for some bits to make that possible, very low power consumption, so I admire your willingness to experiment. But many network cameras already have the ability to FTP snapshots or video on motion detection to wherever you want including something like the Amazon S3 cloud storage or a cheap NAS located somewhere else, sort of your own cloud.

Yep, Doorking, can updated via dial up modem, IP or cloud access to set codes. The problem with codes and why we moved away from that is that people share codes. Between SMS, Twitter, Facebook, people are connected and sharing codes has never been easier. We have individual codes at our pied-a-terre and I don't even remember my code, so I call someone I know in the building and he gives me his.

Are you trying to find an integrator/installer in your area? What area are you in? Finding integrator/installers that know what they are doing is always a challenge, it's like trying to find anything in the construction trade. Then the bids are so varied, even when you give them a fixed set of equipment and specific plans. I just do consulting, not installs, but would provide the specs and drawings for a project and one installer bids $2,500/camera, another bids $9,000/camera and to be honest the guy asking more knew less than the guy asking less. There's lots of wholesale distributors, most require that you have a business license, resale permit, references to fill out the app and that's if you pay cash. If you buy on credit, there's usually a 3-4 page credit app. Careful with stuff on Amazon, eBay, may seem cheap but maybe gray market and not supported by the U.S. offices for some brands, unless you are OK with that because it's cheaper. But if you buy camera on your own and then expect an installer to install it, 2 things happens, none of them good for you. First, if you buy the camera, you take full responsibility for the camera. So if the installer installs it and it's bad, you may have to pay the installer to uninstall it and install the replacement, same with warranty issues, say 6 months down the road, a camera dies, you are responsible for replacing it, not the installer because the installer does not have access to the warranty since you bought it. The other issue is the price you get from installers includes the profit on the cameras. Take that away and they just charge you more, so no savings for you and you can end up paying more because they may have sources that are cheaper for the camera. Honestly, if I was an installer, I would want you to buy the cameras, saves me a lot of hassle of getting them, forking out the money in advance and have responsibility if they don't work.

As much as you said no software, it's really the most flexible approach. You can get a small footprint PC with a G2030 processor for under $300 and it's not much bigger than an NVR. You can get decent software for free or low cost. The biggest advantage for me is if it breaks I can fix it or get it fixed quickly. Imagine if in 2-3 years, any NVR breaks, how can you fix it, it's just throwaway unless it's just a hard drive that failed. So now you have to start your search over again, find a new one, learn the quirks, learn new smartphone apps. I've had my PC with NVR software running for 3 years, no problems, sits hidden in a cabinet, I can access it remotely with RDP if I need to see something, I have script that runs that checks each camera out daily in case one breaks I get notified, I can replace just about any component if need be from parts from Fry's or Microcenter quickly and I can add just about any camera, heck, just added at 10MP camera last week, lets see a cheap NVR do that.

I believe he's using a JPEG pull method sort of because it's universal and using streams can be problematic and may not work on all platforms, for example, smartphones, 3rd party browsers, Mac, PC, tablets. I use a JPEG pull and the frame rate is pretty decent, actually is limited more by the network bandwidth than anything else. So it makes sense to me and TheUberOverLord made a case for this here about 2 years ago. Also, for example, I'm using Mobotix cameras that do not stream RTSP, so JPEGs are the best I can get and have it work on all browsers.

These really inexpensive NVR's can be problematic and the one person that posted recently about his said it just didn't work and sent it back, so hard to say but you are limited to a small reseller than imports unknown brands from China and sells them cheap. I have one company in China that will sell me an 8 channel NVR for $60, but after testing their other product, not sure it's ready for primetime. Also, many of these inexpensive units may not support 3MP cameras or even if they do, not all at their full frame rate so ask first. What's interesting is one of my Dahua distributors will be selling a 4 camera system with NVR for about the price of just a Dahua NVR alone with a U.S. warranty and support. Don't know the quality, but will take a look at it soon since they are local, but don't have my hopes up but you never know. My guess is that at ISC West, the big security trade show in Vegas, a little over a month away will have some new products in the lower price range.

My thoughts on this are that you have to manually position the different displays with the different layout on each monitor. For example, say you have a 3x3 display, you put 9 camera on one monitor in layout 1 and 9 on layout 2. You would have to start the client twice and then move them to the correct display and select the layout you want. This would have to be done manually each time you reboot, no? Not saying it can't be done, but is it feasible. Maybe there's 3rd party multi-monitor software that can do this automatically.

Absolutely, noise does nothing to deter thieves. The best two methods I've seen are a system that fills the enter room with a dense blinding fog in one second, combined with a recording about 2 seconds before the fog is released warning to leave immediately before poison gas is released. The other is blinding strobe lights that disorientate the suspect making it hard to maneuver. Not as cool as the fog where they think they are being poisoned.

That camera does not have alarm I/O or audio, so no alarms can be set. You can set events based on video motion detection and trigger a channel to record or trigger an FTP or Email but certainly not a siren or audio alert.

I get that, but does that mean if you get Start it's optional or not available because from the top it says the features are available in all versions.

From what I've seen, Stardot, although also based in So Cal does not really have an image quality I like. I can point you to a public website with a Stardot cam if you want to see for yourself. From what I've seen of Avigilon, it depends, like many camera manufacturers that cater to a broad spectrum, some are great, some are so-so. What I don't like about them is they do not sell through distributors. If they get mad at you, they can pull your reseller agreement and that can mess you up with customers. I like the flexibility of having multiple sources for a product. Axis makes some very nice cameras, not all are, but for the most part pretty good. For ultra-low light, I use their Q1604, for every day domes, the P33's are very good from their Lightfinder 1MP to their 5MP. Also good support. ACTi for what seems to be half the price of Axis offers good support and has some good products like their E32 bullet, their E72 dome. Hikvision is the up and comer in the U.S. although the largest in the world, they recently entered the U.S. market. They answer their support phone and have helped me out on occasion. Priced lower than ACTi, they represent a good value. My favorite is their ds-2cd2732f-is & ds-2cd2532f-i domes. If support is important, make sure you get ones that are Hikvision USA as many on the internet are not unless they specifically say so.

Not a fan of this camera myself and would suggest the E72 instead, much better in low light and the E32, the bullet version is even better. But lets get to your goals first as throwing out camera suggestions is not going to help if I don't understand what your goals are. > facial recognition video or snapshots at 10-20’ day and night You can do this with this easily with a 1080P or 3MP camera. ACTi's 1080P cameras have the better low light performance followed by their 3MP. Anything higher like 4,5,10MP will not do well at night without a lot of help and the real resolution (not to be confused with the number of pixels) will be higher. I use a 1/30th second exposure but as low as 1/15th may work well at night for pedestrian traffic. Faces should be at least 80 pixels high to be identifiable but at night, with a noisy image, you need more. I've seen 1MP camera that can identify someone at night at 10-20' with about the same field of view as a 5MP camera. > vehicle recognition at 30-40’ during the day only Don't know what this means? License plate or just that a Chevy sedan drove by and it's blue? You need license plate letters to be about 15 pixels high to read them and clearly, you need to have a frontal or rear view of the car and not a side view. If it's just recognizing color and model, that goal can be easily reached with even a 1MP camera. If it's plate number, then you need to get a camera with a telephoto lens, for example, I use a 12mm lens to be able to read a plate during the day about 60' away, at night may require a 30mm lens.

Sorry if my information is wrong, I got it from Exacq's website here - https://exacq.com/blog/tag/video-wall/ And it says So not sure what it means, is it a feature of Start but you pay separately but is included in Pro & Enterprise? Sort of confusing. Incorrect information "Video Wall is a standard, included feature with exacqVision Pro and Enterprise at no additional cost."

Free is good as Milestone charges for it as an add on product called Smart Wall only to their top tier product. What may be a better deal is Exacq which has this across their line including Exacq Start which runs about $50/camera which is cheap. Yes, I know cheap is relative, but for someone with so many cameras that they need to have a wall of displays, $50/camera is cheap for NVR software. But if you want free, I believe the ACTi TV Wall Server is free, of course if you only use ACTi cameras.

That sounds awesome, this way you can make money replacing them every few months. With that low a resolution, you don't need much, a PC with a modern day Intel i7 should handle that. The idea is to get a cheap consumer grade PC to go with the cameras, that way when the cameras start failing, the PC will too. Whatever you do, not give them a warranty for your labor or you will go broke. I worked for a consulting company and they would send in developers that weren't that good on purpose so they make the project last longer, he makes more money, so makes good financial sense and he was able to low bid, so the customer was happy.

Those will work if you want bullets, or you can get the ds-2cd3332-i if you want to wall mount a dome style, actually eyeball camera on the wall (the actual mini-dome, the ds-2cd2132-i shouldn't be wall mounted). Bullets can be easily be pushed around. What's nicer than all of these is the ds-2cd2543f-i, can be wall mounted, can write to microSD and are tiny, but costs a little more than the others mentioned above. For what it's worth, we are replacing 5 Mobotix D15 domes with Hikvision domes hopefully this week.