buellwinkle

Don't know. They said they tried a new one out of a box and it didn't do what mine did so they will give me that one.

Turns out the camera had a hardware issue, not firmware. Will get it back on Monday.

They include a plastic adapter that looks like the one in the picture above but instead of a wire coming out you would attach conduit to it to create a weatherproof seal. Being in So Cal, I don't worry about and have the Ethernet cable exit out the back and I've had them for a couple of years now, no problems.

Yes, you can use any traditional tripod mount screw mount which makes it many times more flexible than Dahua. I like the included mount, works well for under the eave. Looks thin but is sturdy. I don't get the idea of the pigtail either as the hole you would have to make to accept the RJ45 jack is pretty big and leaving it exposed like I did is not a great idea but my install is temporary. As in prior ACTi bullets, you can still remove the 3 screws of the rear cap and there's a jack in the back and thread your Ethernet cable through the cap.

I started this way using a day camera indoors, at night I left lights on when I traveled. But after a year of doing this, I gave up and got a nice indoor dome with built in illuminators. I'm using the now obsolete ACTi ACM-3511 and have been great. Dahua has their 1.3MP IR dome you can use indoors.

Yes it's compatible, but you may have to limit frame rate because that NVR has limits on how many 1080P cameras you can have at full frame rate. These are what most people call the Dahua ipc-hdb3200c that I reviewed about 6 months ago. It's a day only camera so unless you have a very well lit area, it may not do what you need.

What looks like soft to you is the over processing that Dahua does, sort of noise reduction when you don't need noise reduction so it looks like patches of blur like the detail on the wood deck or a bush. I think both cameras here do this. As a photographer, I don't like a lot of in-camera processing. Sort of the difference between a $100 point & shoot camera vs. a professional or enthusiast DSLR. An out of the camera image from the $100 p&s may look better to most because the image has been processed to appeal to consumers, noise removed, colors brightened, auto-sharpening. But in surveillance, a pretty enhanced image may sell more cameras, but you lose the detail you need. I prefer a more raw unprocessed image and then enhance with other tools where you have more control to bring out a license plate or face details that may get lost otherwise.

What's interesting is ACTi now includes the bracket in the box which used to be an added cost. Also, they are including a pig tail connection which I'm using since it's a temporary install for me while I do a review and they give you their normal conduit adapter. Not as clean looking of an install as the Dahua but I like it better because to mount that Dahua, I had to make a 1" square hole and it's destructive, meaning if I switch camera brands, I have to likely patch that large hole. The size difference is evident with my subjective guess is the Dahua is about a third larger all the way around. For those that are familiar with ACTi bullets, the size is about identical to the older 1231 models. I also like that the LED's are as visible in the ACTi as Dahua. Here's the two mounted side by side.

Yes, Dahua on left, ACTi on right. Honestly, don't get the E32, get the E33 (or D33), 5MP and what to me is better image quality and it's not that much more money. Imagine a 5MP ACTi for about the same price as some people are paying for a 3 MP Dahua. Comes at the right time as Dahua is getting more aggressive against selling their brand in the U.S. You can really see way more detail in the texture of the concrete in my driveway relative to the Dahua which makes a pretty picture but the loss of detail from their over processing bugs me. Retail, don't know who's authorized, who's not but a couple of places pop up when you do a Google shopping search.

From my distributor. Are you buying retail or as a reseller?

It plagues at least ones I have, the E32 and E33. It has to do with brief loss of signal when IR illuminators are on. Maybe Ando can chime in. Here's an image I took a few minutes ago as my street is getting paved, Dahua IPC-HFW3300C vs. ACTi E32, or the battle of the 3MP cameras. There is a lens focal length difference, too lazy to climb a ladder and make them match -

I'm working on a review now. I've run into a bug that ACTi is working on so my E33 is with them but have the E32. My understanding is the only difference between the E32 and D32 is WDR. If this is the case, I can turn WDR off and you can see the difference. I can tell you that for the money, these are truly a bargain. Compared to Dahua 3MP, I find the daytime image better on the ACTi, not as overly sharp and over processed as Dahua. At dawn/dusk the ACTi seems brighter and colors on Dahua seem more muted from the lower light. At night, Dahua is has better noise reduction, but ACTi is not bad. The illuminators on the Dahua are brighter. ACTi low light champ is the E44, but they are backordered and waiting for one. Availability is now, I got mine in a few days.

Be careful, they are purposely not providing NTSC firmware.

How does the day and night video quality compare to your existing Dahua cameras?

Removing that update also removed IE 10. Dahua cameras re-installed the ActiveX controla and no video. Tried Q-See, nothing either.

I upgraded two PCs and one works, the other one doesn't. I tried the ActiveX controls from BahamaYellowpages.com but no luck. It was working with IE9, so I'm stumped. With IE 10, are you able to go to the Dahua website, DahuaSecurity.com. Mine says "Page Can't be Displayed".

If Avertx is associated with OpenEye, run, they make the worst cameras I've ever used. We got 7 of their top of the line IR vandal domes and it was a disaster. The IR light bleed was horrible, the NVR died after a few weeks, the NVR was the slowest I've ever seen. Took the tech onsite over an hour to extract a video event to a USB stick. At last year's ISC West event, they were sort of arrogant. I can see why they would resurrect under a different brand name because I can't be the only one that was disappointed by their product. I'll hit their booth in 2 weeks at the ISC conference and check them out.

They are sort of abandoning Dahua, not their fault because Dahua does not want anything to do with U.S. so I doubt it's Dahua. Some of their newer cameras look like they are from IPSCam so that would be my guess. There are so many small companies in China that will assemble a camera to your specs for much less than Dahua charges for their cameras. The problem as I see it is, you are buying cameras from a very small, probably underfunded startup company that may have no real service or support and may not work with most NVR software, so it's risky at best. How do you plan on recording from this camera? Do they sell an NVR for it? Is there free NVR software? Are the smart phone apps that will work with it?

What do you have to lose, Costco 90 day return policy if you don't like it. Kawboy, that would be my concern. Dahua is getting stricter and my sources in China are drying up. If he drops Dahua in favor of the other brand, which I believe is IPSCam, how will he support/service his Dahua customer base? But seriously, the only reason for Dahua is price and there's been some new competitors that are less expensive and come from companies that want to do business in the U.S. like IPSCam and Aote so why fight the uphill battle?

I personally have had a bad experience with that site. They shipped the wrong item and then got pissy and refused to send me the correct camera. Have you checked this place - http://hdsecuritystore.com/index.php?cPath=3_54&osCsid=p5dsafh219r3jddudkq0rrskd3 What they all do is buy in countries where Dahua cameras are allowed to be sold and then resell them in the U.S., so caveat emptor, there's no Dahua factory warranty or support on any Dahua cameras in the U.S. If you want real support and service, consider Q-See, an authorized importer of Dahua cameras. One trick Dahua is doing now is not shipping NTSC cameras to other countries. Existing camera models are OK since NTSC firmware is out already, but newer cameras are more difficult to get in NTSC. I think Dahua branded cameras in the U.S. is a dead end investment. Even Empire is switching to another Chinese brand that they've been touting on another forum. Have you seen Costco.com Swann setup? It's 4 1080P bullets and an 8 channel NVR for $899.

ACTi provides free NVR software with IOS app that's excellent. Axis, on newer cameras provides AAC which is CMS software to view the videos recorded on internal SD or NAS, the advantage is no PC needed to record but some people complain it's slow. Both make a good product, both have good service & support. Saw the Axis P3364-VE for $649 (varifocal wdr outdoor dome) on Amazon which is a good price. On the lowest end the ACTi D71 (fixed lens outdoor dome) for 1/3rd the price and they have models with more stuff so depends on what you need, what your budget is. If you are looking at the higher end of the price range, the ACTi dome to look out for is the E84, my guess comperably priced to the P3364-VE, but low light 2MP, not out yet.

May be under warranty. Did you contact the place you bought it from?

I had an Axis M10 pointed out the window and it worked great for about a year and a half, then the sensor got burned. Axis said it's my fault for using an indoor camera to view the great outdoors. For what it's worth, I have no direct sunlight, heavily wooded location. Why mess around, just get ACTi's new "D" series outdoor cameras. Is the price difference that great?

For those of you that ran into this, what happens if you have a camera with PAL firmware? Should still work right? The web browser has no idea that you are PAL or NTSC as that has to do with analog TV. Or is the limitation 25 fps vs. 30 fps?

Get a 16 port Dahua NVR, will be the cheapest way to go. You can try NVR+ software, they have a 8 and 16 port version. But then you need a PC. Some people have tried BlueIris but personally have not had much luck with certain Dahua cameras although the ones you have will work.