QC444

I looked up my TV specs...... VIDEO OUTPUT ------ NO That settles that. I need a different TV. It has no RECORD functions either My TV is an LG ROKU TV. LC-32LB481U Never realized there was no way to use ANY DVR with it for recording TV shows. That seems very bizarre to me.

I have a Q-See 4 channel DVR that I've since replaced with Chinese equipment (HikVision). I'm going to try and adapt this old DVR to use as a recording device for my Digital Television Anyone already done that? Know any reason it can't work? As far as I know I can even set the date and time to start and stop recording.....as long as the TV is on and set to the correct station of course.

I have two HIKVision DVRs. Neither will connect ot my DVR on WiFi or over the Internet unless I allow connections to AmazonTechnologies. This bothers me. I paid for the DVR's and for the Phone, Why should I have to be forced to connect to a remote server in addition to my DVR? Seems like an invasion of privacy.

Found one for $80 delivered.

I sometimes need long rage IR illumination. 350ft or more. I would prefer a narrow beam spotlight type light that has a beam circumference of approximately 50ft at 350ft range. Anyone know of anything like this or if it's even possible?

Because I saw lightning take out at least one of the cameras. Lightning struck about 100 yards away. Only the camera directly facing the lightning bolt was damaged. Others, even closer to the strike, were unaffected.

Thanks, problem is it's not electrical surge in the lines that's blowing them. It's Lens sensor overload from lightning striking too close in visual line of sight of the Lens. The equivalent of a high powered Laser directed right at the sensor. I could take out all your security cameras from the street with a common laser pointer (the ones facing the street anyway) Criminals are getting wise to that fact. Cameras are soon going to need auto shutters to shutter the lens instantly when the light entering the sensor exceeds a certain lux. That would protect them from lightning strikes as well. BTW....lightning can destroy a CCTV camera even if it totally powered off. I can have several cameras mounted at the exact same location with their lines running alongside one another. All the cameras facing one direction get popped. The cameras facing the other direction are fine. It may be possible to adapt fairly inexpensive photo reactive glass (such as found in welding masks) to shield CCTV cameras from lightning and laser damage

I'm so glad to see people getting around to this kind of thing. Any Internet device made outside the US and especially made in China is subject to backdoors and security risks. But we all know that. I doubt they even need a password. There are probably backdoors they can use to go around any password. What's worse, your DVR is likely programmed to "phone home" as soon as you get it connected. Putting the DVR on a hard to guess port might be a first good move. But a port scanner can get around that quickly. In order to reach the DVR, they have to have the port that it listens on. If you have a hardware firewall appliance like a Cisco or Watchguard, you can limit access to that port to specific IP addresses. Then if you set that appliance to detect and auto block port scans that will help. We see a large number of port scans on our network and it's probably the number one reason IP's get blocked. The 2nd protection you have is your IP address. Problem is, it's not easy to get a unique IP address on your phone and you may end up allowing tens of thousands of IP addresses to ensure yours is allowed through. Your cellular IP probably changes often. Check it at WhatsMyIP.org and make not of how often it changes. Basically think of password security like an open window. They're not supposed to come in through it but they will.

I'm losing cameras to lightning. Lost 2 just today to a severe storm. I turned the power off thinking that would keep the cameras from getting damaged but it didn't help. I guess the only way to save CCTV outdoor cameras during thunderstorms is to have a cover ready and install a protectiove cover over the lens before the lightning starts. This is getting expensive.

Well, if I was the manufacturer and I "intended" to be able to view peoples private cameras, I would probably be able to suppress logs of my log ins and activity....this might be a bit paranoid....but again it's China so is it necessarily? Imagine if people who work for Lockheed Martin or any one of our defense contractors and they put one of these in their home which can also transmit audio..... I can all but guarantee you that while our government spies on us regularly, they probably have given ZERO thought to this.

Yes, send that junk back... Without any suggestions of something better I'm not sure this helps

Hello, I purchased a WiFi IP Camera from AKASO. Sometimes when none of my devices are connected, it makes the same noises I hear when I'm zooming, snapping photos or panning/tilting. Sometimes it even moves. Oddly, it always seems to stop when I turn to look at the camera. My wife has told me it does this when I'm not home and noone in the house is operating any controls for it. My main concern is that to use thse cameras, you have to LOG IN to the manufacturers website. If you cannot access their website, the camera will not work. Doesn't that mean they can randomly view your video stream anytime they want to? I have the WiFi network secured with WPA and access is limited to the router modem by MAC addresses...however...the manufactuere has the MAC address...right? Should I be concerned or is it practically impossible that someone else would be viewing my video feeds? Thanks

My DVR is old. Are the latest DVR's any better and NOT false alarming due to rain? Of all the annoying false alarms, rain and shadows are the two that drive me nuts with false alarms. Thanks

Excellent post. Yes, I was referring to the DVR cameras. Not IP cameras. I think my cameras are too inexpensive to have internal adjustments. It's all done post image at the DVR I think. But on my QC444, it has these functions so that I can set the brightness, contrast, hue, saturation at one level for daytime and another for nighttime on a schedule. That functionality suits my needs.

Anyone have a good, used Dahua 8 Channel DVR they want to sell ?