Toaster

Well, this may be off topic, but I'm going to post this part of it here since it was mentioned in this thread. My brother bought one of these QT428 8ch D1 dvr's with 8 cameras, and we finally set it up the other day before the weather got too hot here in Texas. Well, I updated his firmware to the latest before we started - with this firmware the qt428 has upnp, and his router is a linksys cisco e1000 which is upnp, and it didnt set it self up - in fact, it was much harder to set up because his isp (cable modem) must block port 80 on its own, and possibly the data port the dvr wanted to use (6030 I think) and while I was able to set it up for LAN viewing, I couldn't get it to remote access over ddns setup... Remember, I've set up 4 of these so far, and never had a problem with setting up port forwarding on the routers and getting remote access before... I had to change the ports in the config to something way up there to make it work. And I'm sad to say it took me about an hour to finally figure it out. Once I changed the http and data port from 80 and 6030, it all worked fine first try. Now that I got my brother hooked on cctv system, I'll have to get one for my mom's house too...

Wow - What a zoom!!!

Ah.... I already set that up so beyond that - zero right?

Nobody wants to share.. I see.....

Does anyone familiar with the TVT (q-see qt428/qt528) DVR's know if its possible to record motion events 24/7, but only get the motion email alerts during CLOSED hours? (not while we're open) The only way I've been able to achieve this is to only enable motion detection during closed hours and just record 24/7... which makes searching for an event really BORING. It would be so much better to search motion events all the time - but only get emailed alerts while we're closed. I've got a qt428 and a qt528 (one home and one at work)... thanks.

Are you talking about on the live monitor or on the recorded video? I don't see any "dull" look - unless maybe your talking about the CIF feed (second stream) vs D1 feed (Master stream). If you're viewing on a PC, right click on a video panel, and you'll get an option for master stream or second stream... choose master stream and see if that helps

Sorry for the delay in replying back.... Yes, it works as advertised! Many thanks.... Now if I can figure out how to add that app as a link in my HTPC - I can single click it from the menu and see the cameras. I've already installed the CMS and your mod on all my laptops and computers across the house and the store - single clicking gives me access to home and store cameras... very nice. THANKS AGAIN.

" title="Applause" /> Ask and you shall receive " title="Applause" /> I can't wait to try this... THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's exactly why I said in the original post the jump from cheap crap to something decent is ok, but after that its pretty much a level playing field. At least that's been my experience in A/V stuff anyways..... Like these guys talking about $100 HDMI cables are necessary for 3D TV, 1080p or HDMI 1.4a compliance, etc... My $3.00 HDMI which is years and years old, works just fine for 1080p, 3D TV, bluray, etc....

Just a follow up, in case anyone care's... I had two of these diy systems, one at work and one at home. The one at work worked great, no issues with the exception of occasionally having to hit "connect" several times to remotely connect for viewing on my iphone - which was more than likely an issue with my cellular service more so than the dvr itself. The other DVR quickly started to restart randomly... I finally realized it did it whenever the HDD filled up. My guess is the HDD had an issue, and NOT the dvr itself, though I never actually tested my theory by replacing the HDD - I'm 99% sure that doing so would have solved it. Instead the place of purchase offered me a replacement because I was unsatisfied with its performance and I took the opportunity to upgrade to 30fps d1 qt528 model, which I then installed at work, and transplanted the 428 from the store to home, so now the store get 30fps d1 and the house gets 7.5fps d1. FWIW: Searching google for this model or the other q-see models I reviewed bring up this forum and my threads... there's just NOT a lot of info on these things out there, so I have a feeling other consumers like my self have visited here to read those.

The camera's look "OK" now - honestly I dont think the video will get any better with better cables but I wanted to ask ... I know cables sometimes makes a difference in A/V stuff, but usually the jump is from "cheap thin crap" to anything decent cable or better...but from decent cable to ultra high end usually doesn't yield much of a difference.... unless you've got the eyes of an eagle, and at that point you're not using analog cameras anymore anyway- you're on IP cameras. The reason I ask, the first DIY system(s) I bought had really small cheap wires with 1/4 sony ccd cameras... the last system I bought (Q-see Qt528) came with bigger 1/3 CCD sony DSP cameras, and VERY impressive heavy duty cables. I have not tried the cables, but there appears to be a HUGE difference in the cables... if you can imagine the cheapie cable being about the size of a #2 pencil (maybe thinner) and carries both video and power. The other cable (the more heavy duty cable) is 2 separate cables fuzed together in more of a flat ribbon cable, and the video portion is easily twice the thickness of the cheaper cable... But I sure don't want to go through the hassle of re-running these wires for no reason

FWIW, I've installed and/or serviced literally hundreds of DVRs for almost as many clients, and not once have I come across the need to have it send email on a schedule. I'm pretty sure Vigil will do it, but I've never actually looked, because I've never needed to. In the grand scheme, I honestly think your requirement is pretty rare. Let me start with I'm a consumer... I'm the end results - the customer... I do not install these, I do not profit in this in any way.... I'm the "client" so to speak. I'm SHOCKED to hear that business owners or home owners for that matter don't want email alerts about motion in stores or homes. I personally think that's one of the BEST features of this, I know when someone pulls up before we open or after we close. I RARELY get false motion alerts inside the store... I'll admit that some outside motion alerts are birds, bright lights or shadows moving, even some bugs crawling on the cameras... stuff like that. Even had spiderweb fluttering in the wind. But that's ok - I get the alert on my phone, I glance at it, if its nothing - I'm happy! To read that most clients disable that is just dumb on their part... If you care enough to get the camera's, care enough to LOOK AT THE DAMN EMAIL. That's my opinion. Now I will say that setting up superior motion detection, or anti-false alarm triggers and such would be excellent... But that's not really what I'm trying to accomplish. The only time I get false alarms (or lots of them I should say) is when it rains. What I want is like I said above, SEARCHABLE MOTION DETECTED EVENTS 24/7 AND EMAIL ALERTS ONLY WHEN CLOSED. with more emphasis on the searchable motion detected events 24/7

Oh yeah - I understand that. I was making the point about having the dvr continuously send out emails ALL DAY LONG - what a waste of bandwidth and probably will slow down our DSL connection...? I think this thread has drifted slightly off my original topic... Essentially what I want is the DVR to record ALL DAY LONG. I want to be able to SEARCH any/all of the cameras for motion events (like to see when a customer walked in for example), and only receive the motion email alert with a snapshot while the store is closed.... like say 8pm to 10am the next morning, but from 10am to 8pm which are business hours, no email is sent, but the motion detection is still activated. What I'm trying to express is its not really the email sending part, as much as it is the ability to always search motion events. Here's a scenario that might clear it up. In the store we've got a counter, cash register and a tip jar... So I notice the tip jar is missing. It was there earlier today. Now, I want to go thru the video... Instead of searching ALL DAY LONG or manually skipping thru the recorded segments- I'd like to search the inside motion events, like the camera that faces the front door. Then bring up the camera that see's the cash register and tip jar. If I could search the motion events, I'd be able to see who took the tip jar very quickly... If I have to FFW thru the entire day's videos - I'm gonna be there a while.

LOL... Ok, let's see......... YES, there is internet available. YES/NO, there is a PC there, but NO it does NOT stay on 24/7 - for security reasons. EMAIL FILTER, I looked and did not see a way to filter emails on or through gmail based on time. As for 24/7 emailing, that seems wasteful and I'm assuming slow down not only the DVR if I wanted to connect remotely for viewing, but would eat bandwidth for no reason. Just ALWAYS emailing pictures of motion alerts... We had a storm last night and I had a couple of hundred emails this morning because of heavy rain from the outside cameras. Just my rant: Having used a video surveillance system now, I would think this request or feature is common place, and I'm shocked its not part of the stock, out of the box - firmwares or options from MOST manufactures... cheap or otherwise... It just makes sense that people would want to be able to search motion based events - any time of the day 24/7, but only get notified of those motion events during certain hours......? I guess they have to make the more expensive ones worth it some how...

As in you can write a new firmware??? This is a tvt "me" series dvr. 8ch @ 30fps

wow...those are 'spensive......................................

I'm new to this whole cctv/security/surveillance camera scene... and I'm learning stuff quick! Not all good though. ANYWAY: I now know I need at least 2 wide angle outdoor camera's.. I have a 4 channel setup at my house and at my store, I'm concentrating on the store right now - I have some 3.6mm "wide" angle camera's but the are simply not wide enough. I NEED TO "see" MORE. The camera's I currently have were part of a bundle system (dvr+cameras) and there is no "spec" for how wide this angle is, so I don't know how to tell anyone what I have now, and knowing that amount is insufficient - how to buy another camera with a wider angle. Basically what I have is a camera facing my parking lot outside the store, and one in the back of the store. I'd like to get a "fish eye" view in the front and see more than the 3 parking spaces directly in front of my store, and possibly even directly under the camera where my front door is. Same for the back. HELP.

The alarm I have in the store is a DSC alarm, I can't for the life of me remember the model number. Its all wireless and works great. Has a door sensor, glass break sensor, motion detector.... I guess I need to dig out the manual............ The problem is I don't fully understand what I'm reading, just like I don't fully understand the alarm inputs of the dvr - back to square one. BTW: I checked gmail filtering, and I didn't see anyway to filter messages based on time of day sent or received....?

Just to update this topic, I recently tried a 1/3" sensor 3.6mm camera, and the viewing width increased most impressively. On the original 1/4" sensor camera's, I would get roughly 3 parking spaces in the parking lot... Replacing the camera with a 1/3" sensor camera in the exact same mounting spot I now get the ENTIRE 6 space parking lot area, the bottom of the roof line on the bottom edge, and street in the top edge... " title="Applause" /> AMAZING. 1/4" sensor sucks.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I have planned on doing... setting up an email filter... but that seems like a really dumb way to do this. I'm a little shocked this is NOT a feature already. And in the menu structure of the DVR it IS setup to schedule motion detection 24/7, but only ALARM you on motion detected during closed hours... but when I search for motion events, NOTHING shows up during open hours... I called tech support, and they simply dismissed me as saying it was not supported. There is a motion detection schedule under SCHEDULE and motion and motion detection under ALARM - and I have it set the way I think should work - but obviously it doesn't............ OH WELL.

Sounds like I'd then have to re-wire my now wireless alarm system hmm.... I wonder if I would be able to actually get any advantage out of doing that...?

The specs on those cameras look great, but (to me) that seems expensive ??? $180'ish per camera But hey - I'm a cheap a$$

I wasnt sure where this would be most appropriate- so here it is. I saw a really good deal on a PTZ camera... the specs on paper seem fairly good. I'm considering buying one (possibly 2) later.... but I'm curious would there be a practical application for a PTZ in a home system? The only place I can personally think to put it would be at my front door - but that seems like it might be stupid...? Oh, and do ptz camera's have an option to continuously and automatically sweep across the viewing area automatically? or do they just point where you leave them until you move them again. As always, looking forward to the responses. THANKS IN ADVANCE.

I'm sorry I don't have any advice, but I'm curious from the OP, was the video ever recovered or salvaged?

So it looks like the way to get amazing quality video and images from a CCTV security system is use megapixel IP cameras and all digital dvr's or encoding pci cards on a pc. So what (if any) camera's in the analog realm produce the high quality if megapixel IP cameras? And since I am recording at 704x480 (D1) is the same type of quality even possible. As much detail as possible is always appreciated. THANKS.