buellwinkle

I believe that NVR is not available from Hikvision with 16 PoE ports. I'm able to get the Hikvision 16 channel NVR that's similar but I believe it only has 8 PoE ports and wholesale is over a grand, so certainly not under $600. Get a lower end PC, MicroCenter recently had a nice Dell for $279 and run NVR software on it and get PoE switches. The problem I keep seeing with NVR's with built in PoE switches is the cameras are not accessible outside the NVR, so not easy to change an option that's not available via the NVR interface. Even with good NVR software, the price will be about the same, but you have more flexibility in choice of cameras and better web and smartphone interfaces. Also, with PoE switches, you have more flexibility, for example, I have an 8 port PoE switch by the NVR, but also one at the opposite end of the house so I don't have to run wiring back for 4 cameras that are on the far end of the house.

If you had an issue and called their support in Los Angeles, they would send you a link to their FTP site with firmware. That's how I found out what it is..

I think getting those cameras as web cams to FTP photos may be overkill. Mobotix new cameras are pretty poor in low light despite their clever marketing and the M25 is day only, requires a good amount of light to work, not good for dim area, a lot of noise. Not familiar with Avigilon. I would go with a Axis P3364-VE, 1MP version with their Lightfinder feature which is plenty of resolution for a website, under $1,000 and you can remotely focus and adjust the focal length (a real PITA to manually do this on say Mobotix when it's mounted high on a pole and it's snowing and you have gloves on). Axis will FTP images on a schedule or interval even with the same name so you can easily use the fixed name on a website. You can record on camera on the SD card if you like and everything can be done from the web browser interface. Also, it's rated to -40C/F.

Sightsound, aka VitaminD, isn't that a huge burden on the CPU? I like the concept of analytics, especially in Florida where you can distinguish between a human and an alligator with clothes on.

ACTi makes a good bang for the buck camera and that's what I use at the front of my home which is the E32, a 3MP bullet or the D72/E72 3MP dome. The advantage of ACTi is their software is very good, feature competitive with lower end Milestone and Avigilon and it's free, has free smartphone apps. It uses very little CPU and you can use an inexpensive PC.

Are you using ACTi NVR3 software? If so, ACTi has a free Android app to view the cameras. First try it in your own network using WiFi on your Android device. When that works, you can advance to a WAN connection.

Right now I have IPConfigure blaming Axis, Axis saying camera works Then I have IPConfigure saying they can detect a plate and trigger an event in a couple of seconds, we are seeing like 13-15 seconds, so at the moment, not sure it's a workable solution but the concept is awesome if they can ever pull it off. I love the guy at the trade shows that flips a spinning wheel of license plates and it records every single one as fast as the wheel spins. Just can't find him after the show. Do you know the guy I'm talking about?

If you went with ACTi cameras like the D32 or E32 as an example, you would have tripod mounts. Then you can use any tripod or device made for regular cameras. I used to do reviews with the cameras mounted on tripods but most new cameras are coming with integrated mounts.

I think that depends on cable distances are 12V have 4x the voltage drop over distance than PoE at 48V. The Hikvision can take an unamplified mic so I would try that first and see if it has the sensitivity you are looking for.

Have you tried IPConfigure with the Q1604 yet? We can't get ours to work. We set an app event to trigger alarm out but nothing happens. Seems sort of buggy in that sometimes the trigger shows up, sometimes it disappears until we reboot the camera. Also, if you tried it, how long does it take from the time the car passes through until an event is triggered?

Models ending in S have 2-way audio like the ds-2cd2732-is that I reviewed not that long ago. Word of caution on audio-in, there's no microphone, you have to get a microphone, likely an outdoor one and attach the wires to the camera, and typically most are amplified, meaning you may need 12V to power the microphone. Also check your local laws regarding recording people's conversation, I know for me in California, all parties must consent to having their conversation recorded.

Yes, the Hikvision $169 version, LOL.

The only thing I can think of for 60fps is casinos and jewelry stores where people do slight of hand in gambling fraud or jewelry theft. Lighting has to be decent because shutter speeds have to be faster than 1/60th of a second to capture, process and write video at 60 fps. Can their current 30fps lightfinder cameras can really do 30fps at night in available light?

I don't think they are that expensive, I believe the 29MP is only $7,500 but then you need a nice lens to go with it.

Several manufacturers make a 3MP camera with a 5MP sensor. One of the early ones was Messoa with their NCR875. The GoPro use a 5MP sensor to output 1080P. I don't see better night time sensitivity with on the new D15 over the D14 and not much better over the M12 and I think the new 5MP day sensor is the worst I've seen from Mobotix.

Since we use mostly Mobotix or Axis with built in microphones, I have double check the installer turned audio off.

This is an outdoor camera, so I'm assuming you will be using it outdoors so you'll need an outdoor access point. Engenius and Ubiquiti make outdoor access points at reasonable prices, typically under $100. The Ubiquiti Picostation is nice and small. If the access point can be indoors, then it's easier, there's tons for sale for cheap, $20+ that are routers but can be configured as access points. I like the Edimax BR-6258n, very small, works well for me.

It also may be against Federal wire tapping laws aka Electronic Communications Privacy Act but some states are more restrictive. Federal law appears to allow recording with the consent of one party. This means in a private situation in your home, you maybe OK since you give consent, but what if the thief's alone, then no party is consenting. He may have violated you, but you violated him. Imagine going to court, you present your video with audio and the judge throws you in jail. The 12 states require all parties to a conversation to consent before it can be recorded are: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington. (In California, there is an exception – you can record a conversation with the consent of only one party if certain criminal activity (kidnapping, extortion, bribery or a violent felony is involved). On the other hand, can you have a sign saying that by entering the premises you are consenting to have your voice recorded?

I press and hold the reset button while applying power, and let go after about 15 seconds, works for me. Can you access the camera via SADP?

Don't know what audio over Ethernet is, but you will get the mic input audio through the web interface and on your recordings. Speaker output will be through the camera, through a mic on your PC. Hikvision does not publish the angle of view for anything other than the 4mm on the mini bullet BUT on the DS-2CD2632F-I they say 12mm is 31.9°.

That switch is a bad choice. First, 24 port at 100Mbps, that's is a huge problem these days with HD cameras and other devices, that's why is cheap. I would not go more than 8 cameras per PoE switch with either a GigE uplink port or a full gigabit switch and then have that connect to a GigE switch or your router if it's GigE that the NVR, PC, NAS are plugged into. I had a problem with all 100Mbps just with 6-7 cameras. When I upgrade to a GigE switch, the traffic shot up about 50%, that shows you how constrained I was with a 100Mbps switch. Also, if you have extra dough, getting a managed switch is nice because you can remotely toggle power to a camera if it's acting up. Also, careful buying inexpensive PoE switches because they may not be full power on all ports, for example, the spec is 15.4W per port, but some have say 15.4W max per port, but only 60W total per switch. If you are interested, I have a ZyXel 16 Port Poe Switch (8 ports are PoE), 100Mbps. A few months old but I upgrade to a GigE switch. Let me know. It's full power on all PoE ports, still under warranty. Also, if you are handy with a soldering iron, I have a few managed ZyXel switches with bad case fans, 9 ports, 8 are PoE, 9th is a GigE uplink port.

You'll need to go with a camera with an focusable 12mm lens, like a varifocal camera. Then you can focus it where you want.

The new 5MP sensor in the D15 is lousy and really only a 3.1MP image and still 1.25MP at night. To me, that was a big step backwards from the D14 heck, even the D12, more noise at night, poor harsh daytime quality (had a warped lens we had to swap out), the firmware has been buggy, writing to NAS keeps getting errors we don't see on the D14s and they made them 2-axis now, like cheap mini-domes. And for $1,600 why can't they at least have WDR or a sensor that's not so overly contrasty. Been a big Mobotix supporter, but not happy with them now and will likely go with Axis P3367 domes on the next project. They were awesome 4 years ago, and the slow decline in quality, service and support is disheartening. Are they having financial problems?

Yes, just open an instance of VLC for each camera, place the window on your display where you want it.

That little camera has alarm I/O. The way that works is you get an alarm PIR motion detector, should be relatively cheap, maybe $20-25 for a name brand, DSC, Bosch. Honeywell. Run 12V to it for power, run the other 2 wires from the motion detector to the camera. Then instead of using the camera's video motion detection, trigger recording using the alarm input. You can mount the motion detector higher up as most alarm companies do and many have pet immunity which is a fancy word for having a piece of plastic that blocks low moving objects. Very accurate, I may get one false alert per year. My cubes from Axis and AVTech all have PIR built in, but doesn't appear like Messoa wanted to go this route although I like the IR LEDs vs. the white LEDs on the Axis and AVTech.