buellwinkle

Sounds like a bug, call Lorex support. If it works with 3x3 display, then clearly it's not an issue with adding too many cameras or frame rate or bandwidth, just a display issue. Maybe they have a newer firmware version that fixes this.

K&D has been making some of it's own products, but resold Dahua network cameras to compliment their analog line. But Dahua has very strict rules and does not allow them to sell internationally, specifically the U.S. so they decided to assemble their own. They use many of the same components used in Dahua cameras like sensor and image processing chips, but it's not Dahua. Actually to me, the firmware resembles Hikvision more so than Dahua. I'll know more when I get mine.

Once reason I like the cheapie HP NL54A, it's about 60% more processing power than the Atom D2700 in the ds1812+ and ds1512+ not bad for $229. What's interesting is the Synology software is open source, so available to all for free. They even have a VM version, so you can run it on your PC or Mac. You still have to license additional cameras past the first free one.

Just keep in mind you can only store 5 days of video and I believe you have to register every year you use the product. For what it's worth, there's also Axxon which is free for the first 16 cameras and has video analytics built in.

Just going by their spec sheet that says 15.4w max per port. The engineers should have discussed this with marketing, LOL.

Definitely is a huge deterrent to crime. Put a system in at a condo pool and crime dropped drastically, still there but maybe went from one incident a day to one incident a month. Also the police seemed more interested in cases where video was involved. Will it stop a pro, one that thinks through the situation, no, but that's not the typical criminal, especially summer time where there's a lot of board teenagers.

That switch won't work, it has 15.4W max per port, the OP wants 30W per port.

Yes, the Swann is low resolution at 2MP, I personally don't buy anything new under 3MP. The ACTi D33 runs about $389 from an authorized dealer and is 5MP so you can buy 4 and then use ACTi NVR software for free and run it on an old or cheap PC.

I take back my recommendation, didn't know you needed 30W per port which is unusual request but if you have cameras that require that, maybe go with one of your choices but the Trendnet is not 30W per port, 15.4W on not much information on the Everfocus.

Managed is good for remotely resetting cameras that hang. This isn't common, but usually happens only when you need to access the camera the most. Zyxel has an 8 PoE + GiGe uplink managed switch for about $229. Their 16 port unmanaged switch (8 of them PoE) is what I use and I like it about half that price. There's two things I look for, one is that every port is capable of the full 15.4w standard (most switches have an aggregate max like 60W for 8 ports yet claim 15.4W per port, so be careful) and two, I like switches that run on 120VAC, meaning I can just plug them in straight with a power cord, not a power brick or wall wort adapter.

Do you need the enhanced capabilities of the 3200c (audio, varifocal, alarm I/o)? Also, what don't you like about Dahua that would make another camera better?

Absolutely, you can always use it somewhere or sell it. It's a good thing ACTi does this because I had an Axis camera that failed after warranty and they would not fix it at any price, so off to the landfill.

Razr, can you send an URL command on the switch to night mode event to turn it off?

Their starter product is about $50/camera, their higher end is $200/camera. Why do you need NVR software, I thought you wanted to do everything in-camera.

You should order a 3rd, the better WDR, like the E74, frankly I can't tell the difference.

In many cases you an lower contrast to get pretty close to what WDR does in these cameras. There's no magic, having WDR does not really increase dynamic range, it just makes brighter objects darker and makes dark objects lighter so you can see better in shadows. If you have very harsh lighting conditions, it may pay. Why not buy an E model and turn WDR on/off and see for yourself. I test this on my recent reviews of ACTi cameras.

Does depend on one's training, maybe a few paintball sessions should be in order, LOL. I was trained by a top federal agent in real situations, not just shooting paper targets in a gun range but that's not what most people go through. In states with right to carry laws, do shootings go up or down? I would think if they went up dramatically they would change their laws. It's like recreational marijuana laws, do a lot more people smoke pot in Colorado or Washington because they allow recreational use of marijuana, I doubt it. Just because you can, doesn't mean you will and just because something is not legal does not prevent people from doing so. When I was assigned LA as a territory, I carried for several years. They say better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6. One of my co-workers carried a 44 magnum IMI Dessert Eagle, now that's a gun. I carried a little lightweight Colt Mustang .380. I think one of his bullets was bigger than my gun, LOL.

One camera you should check out is the Brickcom bullet like the one I reviewed a while ago. It has SD card slot where you can record and also has 4G sim card slot and Wifi, so you can use the camera as you expect to view them remotely and to record. Also, when I say WiFi, I mean good powerful WiFi that can go a few blocks, not like laptop or cheap camera WiFi. Alternatively, what we do is use a Mobotix dome with a broadband router with a mobile broadband usb stick. Be careful as the larger providers like AT&T and Verizon make it nearly impossible to connect to the camera remotely because it's an internal router on their end, not an external IP. I know Verizon wanted a couple of hundred for a one time fee for an external IP. Not an issue with 3G and not an issue with some smaller carriers, so make sure you clear this with your mobile provider to make sure you can do what you want to do. The Mobotix records to a 64GB SD card, holds a few weeks worth of recorded events.

You don't see the IR light itself, you just see the red glow on the LEDs. The problem with covert LEDs in the 940nm range is they are only about half as effective as the the standard IR LEDs just about all cameras use. You can buy separate IR illuminators with 940nm IR LEDs, but it will probably cost as much if not more than the camera and look worse because now you have two devices. Some people have put filters over the LED to give you the covert look. The best thing I've heard for this is exposed print film. People cut it and put it over the LEDs making them invisible while still providing a good portion of the IR light, I've heard about 80% effective. As for the dome being 4", actually it's considered a 3" dome which is about the smallest with IR LED ring. There are smaller domes but they don't usually have IR LEDs, so it's the nature of the beast. Even if you got a smaller dome without IR LEDs, like a Dahua 1.3MP indoor dome which is tiny, it won't be day/night so you can't use it with any IR light.

That's why I wish California had write to carry laws like Florida and some other states. Should be something you just take with you like a wallet, cell phone. Guns are the great equalizer, doesn't matter if you are a frail old lady or a body builder, if the criminal thinks you have a gun, it changes the dynamics. Instead they say, carry pepper spray, waste of time, sprayed an entire can in the eyes of an angry dog that wanted to attack me and he didn't even flinch. He took a sniff, didn't care for it and slowly backed off.

It's definitely a very bright LED, brighter than my Axis cube and great low light sensitivity. But I tried setting it up to only come on motion and doesn't work. It does with the newer AVTech cams, but not on the AVN80X. Maybe I'll try a firmware update to see if that helps.

Your best bet is to get a dome with IR illuminators and install it properly for a nice clean look. The ACTi indoor domes in the D series are a good buy. Also, you can take advantage of their free NVR software. Have an electrician run the Ethernet cable back to central spot like near your computer, it's not that expensive. My electrician charged me about $50 for simple runs, maybe $100 for really long runs. I've had my older ACTi indoor domes for a few years, work great, I can keep an eye on the dogs and dog sitter when we are away. I have AVTech and Axis cube cameras at our vacation home, but I don't live there so I don't care that that the bright white LED is on all night but when I'm there they are unplugged because they are annoying but work really well otherwise. I don't know of any cubes that have IR other than really inexpensive stuff. As for Hikvision, good little bullet but the IR dome needs a little more work and it's 2-axis, so it has to be ceiling mounted in most cases, not wall mounted. Dahua has their little dome with flat glass, and I thought that would be so cool because no dome related issues and nope, it had IR light bleed like other Dahua domes I tested.

All my ACTi and AVTech cameras work fine on my MacBook Air, but I'm running IE on Windows 7 on VMware Fusion. From BlueIris's web server, you can access the cameras via Safari on the Mac that way and probably the best way as you can view all the cameras live at once and view the recordings from your Mac. We did this on our vacation and it worked out well.

Good thing they had a camera to help catch the thug so he doesn't do it again. It's all you can do really other than have a large attack dog. I can't even imagine getting to a gun in time as they guy kicks the door in. Our plan is to run for the safe room where there's all theirs boxes of ammo and guns on the ready, but no guarantee I'll make it there.

With any hemispherical camera you are limited how far you can be to ID or recognize someone. The room we had it in was about 15' square, had doors on either side and we were able to ID people that entered the room. The problem with 25' high is the angle to their face that will make it hard to recognize. Then you figure 25' is pretty far for a normal 3MP camera at the right angle with say a 75 degree viewing angle, not sure you will be able to identify anyone at that distance with any hemispherical camera. Axis has the M3007, less expensive, more pixels, can't imagine it's bad but have not reviewed it because it has limited appeal. The advantage of ACTi or Geovision is they are day/night cameras with IR cut filters, so you can use it at night with IR illuminators. The S14 would be similar to the Q24 except the camera is a separate box from the lens so you can flush mount the cameras and hide the box. You get two cameras per box, so you can specify the lens and sensor separately, heck, you can have 2 day sensors, meaning 6MP total. The S15 is confusing, it's a 5MP sensor but only displays 3MP. The advantage is they can do color with 4x the low light sensitivity as before. They are nearly out, but I'll try to get them or the D15 when it comes out to review.