Soundy

if you have a dahua. you will find it on the disk that came with your dvr. insert cd into pc and click pss link to download (your region) to your pc. Or download it direct from Dahua: http://www.dahuasecurity.com/English/supporttool.aspx?type=3002

I don't see anything in the moderation logs about any posts being deleted or moved from this thread... mighta just been a system glitch, gone into the ether... it's rare, but it does happen.

Have you tried reversing the polarity of the RS485 line, A to - and B to +?

The IQs are really nice cameras - little more on the spendy side, but VERY powerful to configure. You can set motion zones and have the camera automatically FTP and/or email stills based on motion, or on a schedule. You can control a lot of options right from the URL, command-line style, as well as scheduling them via a CRON script you can upload to the camera (on my license plate cam, for example, I have it set to auto-shutter during the day, then at night it switches to a fixed shutter speed and adjusted exposure settings). There's a full TELNET interface to the settings as well... and as mentioned elsewhere, while they default to an ActiveX control for their interface, if that fails (different browser, non-Windows, etc.), it switches to a Java applet.

Win7 and IE8+ security settings are a minefield... I've had a lot of cheap Chinese cameras that need a whole range of security settings tweaked to be able to install their ActiveX controls in the first place.

Little more like this? Like I said, if the various settings aren't doing anything, there's a chance you got a faulty camera.

If the exposure window isn't affecting anything, it's sounding more like a defective camera. This is what it should do: Contrast/brightness should give you a LOT of room for adjusting to bright/dark areas... it's nice and sunny here today so this should be a good example: Defaults: It's NOTHING TO DO with it being a "real IP camera" - everything you're describing is related to the imager and/or image processing.

Woke up this morning to a reply from IQ (I love their prompt support!)

Your display card has NO bearing on the quality of the recordings. It MAY limit how smooth the playback is, but that's all.

Okay, this has to be some kind of permissions thing... I've submitted a support ticket to IQ about it. Just tested it on an XP DVR and it works fine there.

Are you doing this on Windows XP or Vista or 7? I just tried it on Win7 and it denied access to save to the root of my D: drive, and wanted all sorts of approvals to even create a new folder on the desktop. This is the system controlling access of the ActiveX script itself; there may be permissions problems preventing the file from being created. If you have a flash drive, maybe try saving to that. Wow, this is extremely weird... I saved a still image to my desktop, then created a "test" folder on the desktop and saved a still there as well... the folder is there, but neither file shows up. But when I go to save another snapshot, not only is that file there, but several others I created months ago that are invisible on my desktop.

I wonder if it's saving it to a different profile... have you tried using the Search function to search the entire drive for the files? Try saving the files right to the root of the drive (C:\)?

Well without knowing how you're using the camera, I can only offer very generalized suggestions of what to try. Some instances, the exposure window is extremely handy and is a significant advantage over most other cameras that don't have it. Sometimes it's not. It's nothing to do with it being an IP camera, it's how a particular camera handles contrast. Again, try changing the contrast settings. For that matter, since it's a used camera, try resetting everything to default, as the previous user may have dialed things beyond normal for a specific purpose. I think the problem is that it's a far more FLEXIBLE camera than you're used to.

Hmmm, so it does on the 511 as well. What happens if you point it to a completely different location, like the desktop?

Beside each section header (like "Gain Settings") you should see a little green question mark - clicking that will give you a lot of details on that setting. In this case, you may want to use the "exposure windows" feature: You might also try reducing the Contrast level, which defines the range between darkest and lightest areas, and then adjust the Brightness to compensate.

Well, from the other side of the coin, maybe someone pawned something that was stolen from the OP, and the store is telling him they don't have video of it...? In any case, the answer is the same: it depends on too many different factors for anyone here to give a definitive answer.

The IQ cameras default to trying ActiveX, and if that won't load (whether a problem with IE, or a non-IE browser), it will try to load a Java applet instead. IE doesn't "run" the camera. Try another browser and see if you get the same results. Try giving it a completely different save location, such as your Desktop.

The one problem with cutting the line and stripping it voids the warranty on the Baluns. While not a HUGE issue, once they are cut, no returns. For the $4 or $5 the balun costs, it is worth worrying about to spend the extra $1.50-$2 for the cable, AND wait 6-8 weeks for them to get shipped?

It's got nothing to do with it being PTZ vs fixed; the blurring is caused by slow shutter speed, and given the relatively bright lighting in that restaurant (even with the tinted windows) it's almost an excessive level of motion blur. It's a very nice picture in bright light, but overall, the reduced-light performance is not great when you consider the motion blur. The restaurants we do dim their lights almost to nightclub levels at night; these cameras would be completely useless in that environment (at least, based on these videos, although it would be interesting to see a proper test at night lighting levels with settings adjusted to optimize shutter speed over image quality).

^And keep in mind, if you're building a machine for this, 32-bit Windows can only see about 3.5GB of RAM, so building a 16GB monster will mean 80% of that memory is wasted.

What are your exposure settings?

That's a weird one... are you using the ActiveX viewer, or the Java version? Can you try it from a different browser or on a different machine? This sounds like a problem with IE rather than the camera.

I've done something similar, putting a switch in a weatherproof box out in the open... ran 24VAC to the box and then put in an adjustable regulator board to provide the switch its 5VDC power.

Of course, it also depends on the make/model of camera and finding an NVR software that supports it...

I'd go with the latter suggestion - just snip the barrel plug off, strip the wires, and put them into the green connector. The connector isn't polarized, so it doesn't matter which wire goes where.