buellwinkle

The cheapest thing for the 150yd run is a wireless bridge, a pair of Ubiquiti Nanostation Loco should do it, maybe $100 total for both. A pair of Ethernet extenders will probably cost you 2-3X more. Also, you can see if Powerline adapters would work if you have power out there. Either way, no avoiding having to have power there to run either the Powerline, the wireless bridge or the Ethernet extender. To me a Mac Mini is a waste to use as an NVR because of their value but if you have and have no other use, can't you just wipe out OSX and install Windows natively? You can use Bootcamp since it's free and go back and forth, but not use both at the same time but that would be a waste of disk space having both. I use Fusion to run Windows as needed but this is my main laptop, a MacBook Air. A really cheap PC will also work as CPU requirements are very low for NVR3.

That's the camera. It's the smallest IR vandal dome I've seen, so I'll get a picture against another dome so you can see. I just got it today and with the holiday weekend, nothing will get done until I get back on Tuesday. Also have to find what I did with my spare microSD card so I can test that because that just be it's best feature looking a the new playback screen.

My distributor is working on it. Hikvision has offices in the U.S., but they are new to selling their brand but it's coming.

I know Dallas uses tollroad cameras to charge people, here we use them to prosecute people that don't have transponders, so it's day cameras with white flash that goes off like taking a picture with a still camera. Same applies to red light cameras, day only, uses the canon sized white lights to blind as you cross the intersection. Dallas is what inspired me to go with LPR instead of transponders in this community. The solution I'm shooting for is ipConfigure with the software embedded into an Axis camera, no PC required. Not crazy about the interface for adding plates so I'll just put a quick app together to manage the plate numbers and keep name/address associated with the plate number. They have a REST API, so can't image it's more than a few days of coding.

I got the 3MP Hikvision DS-2CD2132-I Dome in my hands. Using an ISO 12233 resolution chart I took two snapshots one at 1080P and one at 3MP and then took a crop of the same area of the chart. Since this is a 2.8mm lens, I had to be pretty close, maybe 3' away from the chart but focus remained sharp. Also, I make no claims that this camera is identical to the Lorex domes at Costco, so don't blame me if you can't flash the Lorex to be like the Hikvision branded camera or that it's not exactly the same. This camera came directly from Hikvision in Los Angeles. 3MP mode 1080P (2MP) mode There's considerably more pixels in 3MP mode than 2MP but that part is expected and does not relate to true resolution. But given that, is the pixilation the same, if so, then 3MP is truly 3MP relative to 2MP (1080P). Look at the converging line, for example the upper right where you can clearly see that the effective resolution in 3MP mode is far superior to the camera in 2MP mode. The notion that this is really a 2MP (1080P) camera that has been extrapolated to 3MP is ridiculous. The effective resolution in 3MP is significantly higher than in 2MP mode. Also, for what it's worth, contrary this camera is full 30 FPS in both 3MP and 1080P mode. I also took as snapshot of the same area with the ACTi E32, a 3MP bullet and I don't see any resolution difference between 3MP on either camera which further convinces me that these are true 3MP cameras. If anything, the Hikvision is higher resolution but I just unboxed these cameras, didn't have time to tweak any of the settings. BTW, so far this is really a cool camera, with SD card slot and NVR type functionality with timelines and such in the camera. Stay tuned for the full review. Also, the camera came with camera finding software that worked very well, took the 192.0.0.64 to my network in a few seconds. For those that don't have it, let me know and I'll put it in my Dropbox for you.

Seems pricey to me an I agree with the comment above about the TCM series being end of life. But lets price it out. Say you went with D31, the replacement for the TCM-1111 from the same store, B&H who is not authorized that I know of but lets just say it doesn't matter. $232.50 for the D31 or if you want to do better, the 3MP D32 is $266.50 so $930 or $1,066 for 4 cameras. A half way decent 8 port switch with PoE, say $70, so that leaves $688 for the NVR (or $552 if you want 3MP). With that kinda of money left over, you can buy a pretty nice PC and run their free NVR 3 software (as mentioned above) for free, you don't more than say an i3 for a 8 cameras or so. But if you want an NVR, B&H sells the ACTi for $649 with 9 channels, say $75 for a hard drive and you have all the current cameras and NVR from ACTi and more importantly, you have choice, you can say get 3MP where needed, 1MP where it's good enough, you can get indoor domes for inside the house and outdoor domes where that's appropriate. My conclusion, I would not get that bundle. Also, you may want to consider this. I have a vacation home in the hills, power is not as reliable as the big city (or big suburb in my case). So two things I would consider crucial, first is obvious but a UPS battery backup, second is a managed PoE switch. The reason managed is nice is that if a camera freezes, you can connect to the switch via the internet and power the camera off and back on. There's a bunch for sale on eBay, if not, the ZyXel pwr2108 runs about $240 at newegg, maybe less on sale.

Yes, 100Mbps port, that is what we are discussing, gige switches with injectors because gige (1,000Mbps) PoE switches are overpriced at the time.

Depends on the brand, some will reset the password by holding a reset button for a few seconds and resets the camera to factory specs, some will only reset the camera and not the admin password to discourage theft. For example, if you forget the admin password on Mobotix cameras, they go back to Mobotix and the fee is a few hundred Euros.

Which camera ? Lorex cameras, haven't you been paying attention, it's the title of the post BTW, in checking the specs, the camera uses 7W, so if you put 8 of these on that 8 port PoE injector it may not work, maybe limit it to 6 of these cameras. While yes, you have 7W per port, that's at the port, with power loss over the Ethernet cable, it will be likely be 6W available to the camera. Since it will work with 5W without IR, you can always do that and force them in day mode.

Both Axis and ACTi provide products, but only works with their own brand, so I would recommend you stick to one brand. Axis has the advantage that ACC runs without a PC being on but ACTi has the advantage that their NVR software blows ACC away, no contest but I can certainly understand the merits of both. But I know the lure of finding the newest shiniest new toy and not being brand loyal, so I run two products on the same PC, not ideal. I run ACTi NVR for my ACTi cameras and BlueIris for other cameras. My goal is to move to ACTi only like I used to have it since their cameras have gotten a lot better and a lot more affordable. But no reason you can't do the same, run ACTi NVR for those cameras and run ACC for the Axis cameras.

Didn't see that in your original post about embedding the camera on your website. I have a blog article on my website on one simple free way of doing this. Can't really do this from an SDK/CGI/URL because many cameras will prompt the user for a user/password to get a stream or snapshot and most will require an ActiveX control since RTSP is not something that a web browser understand, that's why you have to re-stream the RTSP to RTMP, hence my article. If you just want a snapshot then see if the camera can do scheduled FTP of an image to your website, say once every few minutes and use a fixed name but very few cameras allow this, the exception would be Axis and Mobotix that I've used for this purpose. I've tried other methods like using VLC to re-stream RTSP to RTMP but it's buggy, not smooth clear video. I also tried BlueIris and it works well if you have that software already. If you are serious about it, Wowsa is more of a commercial solution, but if you are pinching pennies on the camera, I doubt you want to look at Wowsa. Also, there's re-streaming services like ustream.tv and it's free with adverts and pay a bunch without.

Aren't they same as the Hikvision domes?

The way I look at it cameras are mostly 100Mbps, so having a 100Mbps switch with a gige uplink to your router is good enough for most home users.

Don't have a large scale printer but I sent the ISO one to Costco for a 20x30 print. I tried staples but couldn't figure it out, kept showing me a tiny pattern on a large piece of paper. Maybe if I walk the file to them, they can do it.

My point is that to take full advantage of a managed switch, it can't use PoE injectors, you need a managed PoE switch to manage the power aspect. I offered the ZyXel as an example of an affordable (not cheap) rack mountable, 8 port PoE switch with Gige uplink. I'm sure there are other alternatives from various vendors worth looking at, Cisco included.

Yes, you manage it by training your cat to unplug and plug in Ethernet connectors. Best to color code them so you can text your cat to reset the pink one. What, your cat doesn't text? Seriously, not all their switches are managed and if you paid under $100 for it, then better start training that cat. But the one at the link below, the ES2108PWR with 8 full power PoE ports, rack mountable, with Gige uplink port is fully managed, reset a camera remotely while enjoying your coffee and croissant at your favorite café in Paris. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833181070&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-Switches-_-N82E16833181070&gclid=CNzyz7HGrLcCFVIV7AodoBEA5A

John, your name came up a lot at ISC West. I had to assure manufacturers that I was not associated with you before they would even talk to me. You must be good if you annoy them that much. Keep up the good work!

Maybe makes sense, but here's the problem. The issue to me is manageability, with a managed PoE switch, you can cycle power to a camera that's hung remotely by connecting to the switch. If you get a managed switch that is not PoE and use PoE injectors, you will not be able to do this. So say you are in Paris and want to check your camera in Canada, but it's frozen, with a managed PoE switch, you reset the camera and voila, it's up and running again. All the ZyXel switches I've seen from the $65 one on up are rack mountable, they come with mounting tabs and use a simple AC power cord, not power brick so that's not an issue. And trust me, I've spent way too much time configuring $5,000 Cisco 10Gige switches at my last job, that's why it's my last job, LOL.

Most cameras use an ActiveX control to display video on Internet Explorer. Axis cameras can work with other browser, Chrome, Safari and such and in those cases, an ActiveX control is not used.

You know how Mobotix engineers think, if it was hard for them to develop, it should be equally hard for you to use.

When you say license plate capture, are you just talking about recording video that contains visible license plates or what is called LPR, which is an OCR scan of the plate (convert to text) and then act on match, for example, if a plate matches, alert a guard or police? Also, do you want to capture plates in the day only or at night and if at night, what sort of lighting exists. Just in general, when I spoke to many people selling LPR solutions at the ISC West trade show earlier this year, the consensus was that the Axis Q1604 with a telephoto lens, maybe a 5-50mm or 25-80mm lens along with a Raytec RM100 illuminator provided a good clear image suitable for LPR. Then LPR software varies from maybe $800 per camera on the low end for say Geovision to as high as $5,000 per camera with Milestone XProtect somewhere in the middle. These days, most camera companies make good affordable 720P, 1080P, 3MP and 5MP cameras, better than just a year or two ago. Since commercial projects require a certain level of expected service and support, I'll leave out the low end brands. For me, the best bang for the buck is ACTi cameras, good service and support, decent prices, wide variety of camera choices and they provide free NVR software that is very good, free for up to 16 cameras, pay after that. The next step up would be Axis and Mobotix, both good cameras, both European companies, I use them both, both have excellent service and support but are good for different reasons. Axis has the widest range of camera models and anything that starts with a P or Q will be good in your situation. Mobotix has a more limited choice of cameras, but their cameras are built to last, no moving parts and they have an NVR solution built in, so no real need for an NVR, you can just write to NAS disks directly. No other cameras I've installed have stood the test of time like Mobotix but I won't kid you, they are not the easiest to setup and has a quirky interface. There's other brands, Avigilon on the higher end, closer to Axis/Mobotix in price but requires a personal relationship with the manufacturer, not something many installers want when it's easier to go to a large distributor. Messoa, Vivotek, Geovision, Brickcom from Taiwan, mixed reviews on their support/service. If you want WiFi cams, the Brickcom's have the best radio I've used. Then there's American brands, Stardot, Arecont, IQEye, have not wowed me over the years. As for hardware NVR's, not that familiar with many of them. I prefer a software based NVR.

The E74 3MP fixed lens with WDR, D82 3MP varifocal lens, no WDR and E84, low light 1080P with WDR and varifocal lens, that should cover the a good portion of their domes in varying price ranges. The least expensive 3MP, the D72 should be like the D82 but with a fixed lens. The E84 will be the most expensive. So the price range is from the mid 200's to about the 600's. I believe all their domes now have a microSD card slot where the bullets do not seem to.

I don't get it, why would someone buy a multi-port PoE injector, then buy an 8 port switch, then have 8 Ethernet jumpers from each port to the injector, then the 8 Ethernet cables from the cameras. It has to look like a big ball of wires when done. Then to add insult to injury, they power that thing with a power brick, yet more mess and only supports 60W. 7.5W of power per port out the switch or about 6W at the camera.

Budgets are meant to be broken. Just got this video on new "activity detect" feature added in the latest firmware update to the newer Mobotix cameras like the D14. Looks promising and doing it camera is nice, no NVR or NVR software needed. http://youtu.be/bEn803oQeu4

Yes, BI does much better motion detection than what most cameras do on their own.