mav

I could be behind the times, but I just logged into my SWNHD-820 camera and was prompted to download a new webcomponent (3.0.4.6). I've updated my Swann to the latest Hikvision firmware (V5.0.0 130412). I'm not that familiar with the old webcomponents options, but it looks like there is access to Smart IR and new options in White Balance. Also, a BLC area - not sure what that is.

Are these any different than the Swann's and Lorex's that Costco has been selling at that price point? Same company has a deal on Lorex - 6 of them + the NVR for $999. The Swann's are available as a 2 pack as well at $349. Apparently, they offer both brands in randomly similar packages for similar prices at various times.

The short version : When running CAT5 to POE powered IP cameras, is there any downside to coming out the third floor eaves/walls and down the house beside the potential reduction in the appearance of the house? The house has many windows and plenty of places to tuck and fasten wires along windows, trim, or downspouts. Is there any particular type of cat5 cabling I should use beyond outdoor/weather/yada? Do I need to mount the cameras on some sort of junction box or can I just direct mount and seal the connections with coax seal? Use a drip loop at the camera? The Long version : Well, I finally jumped in after using a lone Sharx camera for a long time and finding it useful for monitoring the house. I'm going the Hikvision/Swann/Lorex IP 1080p route - looks like 6 bullets and 2 domes (just 2 bullets right now). I have Blue Iris running on a dual processor box which I'm hoping with direct to disc, I'll be able to support 8 1080p cameras - if not, I'll spring for another Blue iris license or use the Lorex NVR for some of the less important cameras. I have a few mostly idle computers anyway. I've got an 8 port POE switch but may need another one or two depending on how much I split up the wiring. House is a 40' x 40' square with four entrances - front, right side, and two along back (one to first floor and one to basement) and a covered front porch and covered back stoop. We have a detached garage in the back, but I'm more focused on the house at this point. With respect to wiring, I have relatively free access to the basement and 3rd floor eaves of the house - (these eaves would be about 25' to 28' from the ground). On the outside of the house, about the height of the second floor, there is a small 1 foot overhang with about 6 inches of height. These overhangs are 14'-15' off the ground. I assume I will be placing some bullets or domes as they're well protected and somewhat inconspicuous. I haven't tested to see if they vantage point is too high. If so, that's going to throw a wrench in my yet to be well-laid plans. The easiest way for me to run cat5 would be to come out the outside of the house around the eaves and run down the walls along downspouts or windows to the camera points at the 15' outcropping. There are also some internal closets I could run from the unfinished 3rd floor areas down into the closet space on the second floor and out the wall. I would still likely need to go some distance along the outside of the house in most cases. My last option is to try to drill down from the third floor unfinished areas to inside the second floor plaster walls and then out to the various camera points. Coming up from the basement doesn't work as the outside walls are plaster directly on brick. Most likely, I will end up doing a combination of running cat5 down from the third floor and for a few cameras I'll run down inside the closets and out from the second floor. I still need to layout the camera placement. 8 may not be enough, but it should be a good start. Any opinion on # inside vs outside? Should I save 2 cameras for the inside? I'm more inclined to use <$100 IP cameras splattered around the house just to see what's going on while I'm home or away. Thanks!

Is there a way to disable the IR LEDs with the Hikvision firmware? I don't see it in the Swann 4.0xxxx firmware

Well, couldn't resist. I'm not far enough along in my noob testing of 2 Swann 1080ps with Blue Iris to know whether 6 more is a good idea, but Costco has a 90 day return policy. Figure I'll continue my Swann testing and if I like em, I'll keep it and if I don't I can return it unopened. I'm using Blue Iris so Lorex/Swann NVR compatibility isn't a requirement.

Hmm, just received 2 Swann 1080ps from Costco. Neither password is working (000000 123456). I guess I do a reset and see if these have already been used and returned by someone else. Well, apparently I am a bad skimmer - 12345 worked fine. I swear I saw 123456 several places.

Thanks! Odds are high that I won't hit more than 8 cameras anyway and IO would have used the rest for local gige traffic. I ordered the Cisco MP, but may send it back for that Zyxel. The 10MP is 50+% more expensive ($380 vs $240), so seems like a no-brainer.

Any thoughts about the 24 port TP-LINK L2 managed POE switch? I have one of their 16 port managed switches without POE and it seems to be fine (interface is a little clunky, but it works). Price is about $499. 320W over 24 ports. Alternative would be a Cisco SG300-10MP @ $400. 120W over 8/10 ports. Mainly interested in being able to remotely power on/off any POE connected devices (cameras). Will likely take advantage of VLANs as well. Just starting out with a home system and it seems like 8 port switches are more flexible as I can trunk out from main switch to 8 port POE switches, but they start to add up if managed.

I'm looking to capture information around my property. I have plenty of storage (20+TB RAID), fully wired for gig-e (across multiple switches - if that really matters), and I've played with some of the low-end IP cameras (Sharx IR capable) and I've experimented with Luxriot. I've tied an IP capable remote into the camera interface over http and can usually figure stuff out if I can play with it. I'm likely to deploy about 4 to 6 IP cameras over time - I figure I'll start with one and learn and then add devices as I want to add coverage. My first goal is to monitor the parking area outside the detached garage. I'd like an IR capable camera to monitor the area mounted on the side of the house (has wired gig-e access - will likely spring for a POE capable switch). I can put an IR lightsource on the garage to illuminate the area. It's about 30' to 40' from the house - a 50mm lens on a DSLR (taking into account the 1.6x magnifier) would cover the whole area (~40' across) from where the camera would get the best view of the area. I can see wanting to have a slightly higher magnification as I don't have a feel for whether identification could be done from that distance. My thoughts were the Arecont 3135DN and a Mobotix MX-M12D-Sec-DNight. Arecont has a 50mm and a third party 75mm lens available. It would need an enclosure for year round outdoor use. I could buy multiple lenses as well and interchange where necessary. Or I could go with the Mobotix - it's a little more expensive but would not need an enclosure. I lose the lens change-out flexibility, but the rest seems to be upside. Any reason to prefer one over the other or am I barking up the wrong product tree? Is there an IR illuminator that is recommended? Any recommendations for how many to use for a given area? Is it directional enough to mount on the house or should I mount it on the garage area. The area to be monitored is in front of the garage, so I wonder if the subject's side facing the camera would be in shadow. In terms of software, I like Luxriot - seems to work okay. Not horribly expensive, but I'm relatively ignorant of my options. I can see buying some cheaper indoor cameras (the Sharx is nice for monitoring the kids given the price) so it would be preferable if whatever software I use has some flexibility to work with multiple vendor offerings. I'm not going to be doing much in terms of monitoring the outdoor camera - more of a replay events over time to see if I notice regular activity - car thieves seem to be going around checking the neighborhood for unlocked car doors on a regular basis. I would be interested in emailing on motion detection, but it would need to be smarter than Luxriot can provide - saw something about Vitamin D but haven't evaluated it yet and I start to feel like there are too many pieces/parts to work reliably once I put Luxriot and Vitamin D together. Thanks, Mark

I think they're return to factory and $200 EURO charge for lens changes. Not sure if that's per lens or per unit in the case of units with two sensors.