Kaizen

PC-Based I would recommend either of these two cards... [edit by mod-store links removed] Standalone DVR I would recommend this... [edit by mod-store link removed] To accomplish everything you want to accomplish my personal recommendation would be the FD series standalone DVR. You don't use up an expensive PC just for surveillance, it allows you to record at D1 for all 4 channels, has great CMS/iPhone/Android/BlackBerry/OS X applications, and is pretty easy to use. If it is too expensive my next recommendation would be the GV-800 4 channel. Let me know if you have further questions.

edit by mod-store link removed Please read the rules.

Argus/DeMark Security have a great line of standalone DVR's that support Mac. It's really feature rich. Full D1 recording at 30FPS, remote access via Windows/Mac, remote access via iPhone/BlackBerry/Android, etc. Really a nice little machine. They have developed a Mac client that ships on the disc with the machine and all you have to do is drag it onto your desktop, input your DVR information, and view your camera's/access recorded video from anywhere in the world. Really easy setup.

Verify that the ports in the networking settings of the DVR match the ports you have forwarded. Also, make sure you can access the DVR locally because if you can't hit it inside your network you definitely won't be able to hit it externally. On most Hikvision DVR's the two ports you have to forward are 80 and 8000. If you don't forward 8000 you'll be able to hit the login screen but you won't be able to login. I'm not certain what the exact error is but it sounds like that might be your issue.

I wouldn't recommend going with Dell unless you plan on wiping the machine of all the Dell crap, doing a custom install, and setting up Windows to run Geovision cards. Even then you never know exactly what motherboard you getting and Geovision is a little finicky sometimes with certain boards. I would recommend building your own machine. If you want a list of parts I've personally tested and can verify work great with Geovision send me a PM.

DeMark Security has several DVR's that have native OS X clients. You don't view them via the browser as that still requires ActiveX controls but you can install the application and view them there. Sadly the CMS application is Windows only.

He can use his Mac but he will have to dual boot or virtualize Windows as the Geovision software and drivers will only function in Windows. There is no OS X support and as far as I know there are no immediate plans for OS X support either. There are several standalone DVR's that offer native OS X applications for live monitoring, however.

It would be much easier to just install it over the top as opposed to uninstalling the previous version and then installing the new version. Geovision scatters a lot of random files all over the C drive.

Couple of things... 1. Please check out this video and make sure that all of your settings match. I have not experienced such delays before. Can you elaborate? Is the frame rate slow or is the video just 10 seconds behind real time? 2. Geovision remote view requires Internet Explorer because it utilizes ActiveX plugins. There is no ActiveX for Safari (or any other browser) and unfortunately Microsoft no longer develops IE for Mac. All is not lost though as there are several things you can do. Provided you are utilizing an Intel processor you can dual boot Windows using BootCamp or you can virtualize Windows using Parallels of VMWare Fusion. Both of these options require that you purchase a Windows license but you do not have to purchase another machine. The next option would be using Quicktime to view the camera's. This is not the most ideal solution but it will allow you to view one camera at a time without having to virtualize or dual boot Windows. If you need instructions on how to do this you can PM me.