buellwinkle

Maybe you are overthinking it. 1. There are NAS devices like from Synology and QNAP that have NVR software built into them, I recently reviewed the Synology solution called Surveillance Station. 2. There are cameras that can write to NAS as CIFS or NFS mounts, Mobotix is leader in this space, been doing it for many years, all the record and playback is done by the camera, it can write to a CIFS or NFS mount. Hikvision cameras now can do this but only to NFS. Axis is a little different in it's implementation they call Edge recording, where they have an app that runs in the camera to do this, but you need their Windows PC app to view the cameras and playback recordings. I've reviewed the 3 solutions over the past few years, most recently the Hikvision solution and not that long ago, the Axis solution called Axis Camera Companion. 3. There's NVR's you can buy that are manufacturer specific, like Dahua for Dahua cameras, ACTi for ACTi cameras. They may support other brands, but not ideal for mult-brand use. Then there's generic NVRs like from NUUO that support a wide variety of camera brands. 4. Then lastly, there's NVR software solution you run on a PC. The leader is Milestone, but there's a lot of them like Exacq, Luxriot, BlueIris, Axxon, Avigilon, Zoneminder and some come free from camera manufactures like Vivotek, Brickcom, ACTi.

When I reviewed the Dahua NVR, I only used the HDMI port and it worked fine. Maybe Q-See does something to them, like their weird port 85 for their cameras.

I tried getting it work properly and got frustrated and gave up. The one time I got a few cameras going, it used so much CPU it wasn't feasible. They had a very nice booth at ISC West in Vegas, and they seem like nice people, just too difficult to setup.

They do fairly well at night. Dahua has less noise but the loss of detail from their noise reduction makes it worse to me at night, although the picture is prettier, cleaner looking. I personally am not a fan of 16:9, so I like the 3MP purely for the 4:3 aspect ratio, but that's just me. Also, if you go AvertX, you need to make sure it will work with your recording solution as it's a relatively unknown brand name. What did you write your script in? Please share. I set WDR to about 6% which gives me enough WDR during the day and doesn't make too much noise at night.

The best value in an outdoor vandal dome is the ACTi D72, $259 and is a 3MP dome, day/night, IR illuminators, 3-axis which is key and their free NVR3 software is very good, service and support is good. I would mount it about 5' from the ground, to the side of the door that has the doorbell as that's where the visitor may be looking directly into. I have one coming in later this week or Monday and will start a review on it. My intent is to use it like you, as a front door camera since the one I have is 3 years old and acting up. They are having a sale at wrightwoodsurveillance.com on this and the D32 bullet through the end of September, so the price is good.

Don't know anyone here bought into the AvertX because they have a very limited choice of cameras and the NVR was so expensive and like you, nobody knew anything about them. The Hikvision version of the Swann is 3MP, so 50% more pixels if you want more detail. I'm finishing up a review, but Wrightwood Surveillance just got them back in, and $169 shipped is a good price, slightly cheaper than Costco and the higher resolution and choice of bullet or dome. This is an image from my house using the 3MP Hikvision, so sharp you can read the plate on the moving car. Click on the image, then click on the 4 arrows in the lower right to see the full 3MP resolution.

There is a lot for under $100, just look at eBay or Amazon, tons. Now if you want something that you can actually works, the best priced cameras are the new 3 MP mini Hikvision bullets and domes, about $169 online. Then you will need PoE injectors or a PoE switch to power them. For low quantity, like one camera, I've used wall wort type PoE injectors that cost about $12-15. I know it seems like a great idea to keep spending $100 over and over again, but maybe spending $200 now may save you spending $100 now and then $200 later as I've been there, done that. Domes are vandal resistant, meaning they can't easily be pushed out of the way like bullets. But at this price range, they are what is called 2-axis. meaning they have to ceiling mounted, not flush wall mounted. If you want to record, you can get an NVR, you can run NVR software on a PC or the you can have the Hikvision camera write directly to NAS with NFS capabilities.

Tall order. First understand that most cameras that have 2-way audio, mean it has ports for 2-way audio and not a mic and speaker. There's another post where someone bought the Swann dome camera at Costco with varifocal lens and he says it has audio in. If it works, it's $250 which is cheap. Then you need a powered mic made for CCTV and $50-80 should get you a nice mic but it needs to be powered, typically with 12V, so consider that. As for PTZ, for a front door, the one that I like is the Panasonic WV-SW174W, which is limited pan/tilt (no zoom) and 1.3MP, 2-way audio (same as before, does not mean a microphone is built in). I like it because of the shape and the price is reasonable at about $600. A real PTZ would cost a lot more and be a lot bigger.

Vishnu, The only difference is you will use an internal IP address when home, like 192.168... and your external IP or DDNS name from outside your network. It will only use your internet bandwidth when you access the cameras remotely. When you connect to the cameras, most have a main stream and sub stream buttons so you can chose what resolution you want to view the cameras at the click of a button.

Those are Maxicon settings. I use about 6-10% for WDR, kick contrast up slightly to 55 and I agree on the 100% noise reduction, all personal tastes. I showed the Hikvision bullet to someone I setup 3 Mobotix cams and they like the image quality better on the $169 Hikvision over the $1,500 Mobotix. Swann mainly sold the mini and large bullets and large dome at Costco. Lorex sold the mini bullets and mini domes, but things change quickly with Costco. My daughter sells Hikvision mini domes and bullets. These are all manufactured by Hikvision and have the same quality as I've tested the Swann and the Hikvision, same thing expect the Swann & Lorex are fixed at 1080P and the Hikvision is 5MP. The mini bullet and mini dome perform equally, so the choice which form factor works for you. The mini dome is 2-axis so I have not been able to make it work for me at different locations I've tried it at, but it's a great camera, more even IR lighting than the big dome. Dahua actually does a better job with it's illuminators on its varifocal cameras, but side by side, Hikvision has a better image than Dahua. So if it was me, if I want a wide angle, I would just get the fixed lens versions, save some dough. If I needed to use about the middle and up of the focal range, the varifocal makes sense.

Setting up and aiming the lens is a personal thing, point where you want, adjust the focal length to what works for you. Accessing you cameras or the NVR is a multi-step process, no so easy. I did a write-up on steps you have to follow on my blog - http://www.networkcameracritic.com/?p=124 But instead of doing this at the camera level, just set this up at the NVR level. When I wrote this, dyndns.com was a free DDNS service, but they changed, but there's other free DDNS services, I use noip.com for one recent project and it works. Also, the NVR or your router may have DDNS services they work with, so that may steer you to one that works best for you.

I like the idea, and 850nm is an IR wavelength. All depends on how much light it puts out but I have a similar strip I use for mood lighting and they are pretty bright, but not sure they would cast a light further than a few feet. So 12v x 3A = 36w/150 LEDs. Seems like a decent amount, in theory 10x an incandescent bulb, or 360W incandescent equivalent.

I'm a DIY guy for lot of things around the house but I hired an electrician to run the Ethernet cables and it wasn't that expensive, from about $50 to $125 per drop and the more expensive drops were long and tedious to install, maybe $75 on average. This is because they are better at doing this with minimal drywall damage.

Sure, put the pressure on me, I'm learning from you. Not a distributor, just a Milestone Partner and it was you who convinced me to try it. I found this on their forum that may help - http://forum.milestonesys.com/yaf_postst3139findunread_Axis-motion-detection.aspx#post6698

If you want to display a camera on a webpage using a smartphone browser like Android or IOS that do not support flash, you'll need to re-stream to HTML5 format. Wowsa does this as a higher end commercial solution. I did a write-up on my blog about doing this with Unreal Media Server, it should work with HTML5, have not tried it.

Don't know if Axis is different because Axis has the concept of an in-camera app and that's what they do in ACC to do motion detection, not the native Axis motion detection. But with ACTi, it's definitely using the camera's motion detection as I can change it in camera and it affects what Milestone records. With less popular brands, Dahua and Hikvision, it uses it's own motion detection that works well. I have it set to iframe detection which is pretty CPU efficient and has worked well to capture motion.

You can try Synology, they make a "smart" NAS that runs their own Linux called DSM and they have an app called Surveillance Station that may work for you. I did a review on this not that long ago. Has more flexibility and you can use it for other things.

ACTi's free NVR3 software does not use a lot of CPU because the cameras do the motion detection, so you can easily use a 4-5 year old PC like I do.

From the version number, I would think it's the same raptor firmware.

For that budget, with ACTi, get 6 D32 fixed IR bullets, $250 each and 2 D55 indoor domes. 3MP, IR and works well. The 9 channel NVR is just under $700, but to save money, use their free NVR software and buy a cheap PC, maybe $399. Add a 8 port PoE switch for about $120 and you are done for $2,500. So where to splurge if you want to spend more. I would substitute one of the D32 with a KCM-5611 for $800ish, 1080P, very good in low light and 18X zoom to try and capture plates. You may need a good illuminator to effectively capture plates. That puts you at about $3K. Another interesting approach may be to use one or two IR PTZ cameras and have it do a patrol to different preset locations. I've used the Dahua SD6982, 1080P, 18X zoom, very nice clear images. Had a customer swap his $4,000 Axis Q60 PTZ for these because they produce a clearer image. They have staged IR LEDs that can see 2-300' away when zoomed in. They run about $1,500 from a U.S. authorized dealer, but may be better than trying to cover a large rural area with a bunch of small cameras. One thing you can do with a PTZ and wide angle camera like from ACTi is have it send an URL command to the PTZ on motion detection. Say for example, a car drives in your gates, you can have the ACTi camera sense the location, send a command to the Dahua PTZ telling it to zoom in tight on that area to capture a plate and get more detail. You have 3 motion detect zone on the ACTi, each one can trigger an separate event. You can even have two or three ACTi cameras doing this. So maybe 1 $1,500 PTZ, 2 $250 ACTi D32's, 2 indoor D55's, PoE switch, PC, probably still under $3K

I have a different take on it. The cameras are good and cheap, no doubt about it. But the NVR is limiting in many ways, at least to me it is. I run these cameras with NVR software on a PC. The reasoning is that with good NVR software, I have way more flexibility in camera choice and number of channels and the smartphone apps tend to be more sophisticated. For example, wasn't that long ago that everyone thought Dahua was the answer, now it's switched attention to Hikvision, next month it may be someone else. Or maybe you decide to go upscale on a camera for special location. So I like the flexibility of a generic recording solution.

Just sell the domes you don't need on eBay, no big deal and use the money to buy more bullets.

As for moisture getting inside, we had 5" of rain in So Cal in the past year, so have not had an opportunity to test that but I took the dome I was testing at home at near sea level up to our lake home at about 5,000' and when I unscrewed the screws for the dome cover, you can hear the air escaping (or entering), so it's an air tight seal. As for domes vs. bullets. These are 2-axis domes, they pretty much have to be mounted facing down like mounted on a ceiling or a level roof eave. But domes have a cleaner, more discrete look and can't be easily tampered with. The bullets are way easier to install and point. At home I use bullets outside, domes inside. In commercial installs it's almost exclusively all domes because of their vandal resistance.

I remember that camera, the one with the CCD sensor. You can get support on their website - http://www.dahuasecurity.com/onlinesupport.html I got my problem resolved after only a few months, but they do respond. Also you can search for similar questions/resolutions. Make sure they have all the information up front like firmware levels, that may save you a few weeks. Just remember, the money they save on support goes into better pricing. Also, your reseller should be able to get you firmware for that model. It's a fairly unique camera so make sure it will work with that camera before installing. There should be a read me file that has the camera model list for that update. Dahua is not good about checking firmware before installing it, so installing the wrong firmware can brick the camera or nvr. But that's usually what I do before I bug support is to make sure I have the latest firmware.

BI & Milestone works with Hikvision. Exacq is more particular since it can't do software based motion detect so if that model is not supported, it may not work.