givmedew

Did you read what he said or was that a typo? He just said he is doing 7fps at D1. Now as far as that swann I am kinda in the same boat as you I have a swann 8ch dvr I am totally unhappy with. I got the one packaged with 4 of their "pro" cameras. I am buying 4 of my own cameras to add to the package 3 of which are already purchased. I bought 3 cameras that had 700tvl sony effio DSPs the image looks much much better with them. I have the following setup up in mind CH1 D1 14FPS no camera yet but this will be my best camera CH2 D1 12FPS sony effio CH3 D1 12FPS sony effio CH4 D1 12FPS sony effio CH5 CIF 10FPS swann pro CH6 CIF 10FPS swann pro CH7 CIF 10FPS swann pro CH8 CIF 10FPS swann pro now in your situation you only get half the frames to play with so if one of your cameras is not as important you may want to switch it to CIF to get more frames to the other cameras. This is especially true if one of the cameras can not support facial detection of any kind. For example I have several cameras that mounted outside second story looking down and out they tell me if anyone is on my property and if a crime takes place in my home they will show me where the person came from and where the person went to so I only need to see a rough image. The higher end cameras that are at ground level will get the peoples faces. So if you like I said if you can sacrifice one of those then you can increase your frame rate. BUT I don't think that is your problem. I think it is either swann being crap which I am beginning to notice or your cameras being crap which if they are the swann pro cameras than this is true! What I would recommend you do to test your DVRs capabilities is the following. Connect a DVD player or something similar to your DVR through composite to bnc the DVR comes with one anyways so just use that. Play that into CH1 and set CH1 to have the max framerate at D1 setting all the other channels to 1FPS CIF This will give you close to an idea of what the best scenario is. Now although it is only 480TVL coming out of your dvd player it is 480 perfect lines with a great image. If you want try also recording and playing back the same in CIF mode. I am going to do the same myself just to see whats going on. My problem with swann is that I feel that the GUI, web server, and software included is alpha/draft quality something you would put together just to start developing and testing your units not something you would ship as a final product to a consumer. I can not get IE, Firefox, Safari or Chrome to open the internal web server properly. I just get to a page that says swann at the top with a blank white area below and then my DVR usually locks up and restarts! perfect now my guess is that yours

Wow being in America I have to admit that it kinda that in this specific case the privacy laws there seem to be a lil problematic. Where I live I can record whatever I want really. I have informed my neighbors that certain parts of their homes are in my recording area and that I can either black it out from being recorded or leave it in case a crime is committed on their property. None of them asked me to black it out at all but you better believe they all keep their blinds closed now LOL. In your specific case I would do as the previous person says and record it anyways. If anyone asks tell them that your camera system does NOT record anything illegal. If they press further about what does it or does it not record let them know that you are not willing to discuss wether or not you have holes in your security and that it is a private matter. Now as far as using the video in court or as evidence etc. If there is in fact a law that says you can not record onto the street or over your property line than I highly doubt you would EVER be able to use such recording. HOWEVER if you can see your neighbor vandalizing your car in the video than I would simply say "I saw my neighbor John Doe key my car" If he was on the non visible side and it was during summer I would explain "I saw my neighbor John Doe walk past my car with a large screw driver in his hand and as he passed by the vehicle I clearly heard a scratching noise" Don't ever bring up that this was witnessed through your camera. Also if someone says your camera is pointed at the street or at there house again explain to them that you are not wiling to discuss the technical limitations of your security system as this would put your family at risk. Explain to them that it is possible to purchase both fake and real cameras and that real cameras can have sensitive areas blocked out so that they are not recording or viewing those areas. Now again I am not willing to discuss my system in particular however as you can tell by what I just told you any infinite amount of possibilities could exist. Including the use of extremely high end hidden camera (with a smile). Best of luck to you and although this may or may not be illegal sound is key to know what is going on. I rebroadcast outdoor sounds in my bedroom so that I can hear someone walking or whispering this sound could be recorded or it could not LOL. If you had a mic pointed at your car and your problem areas you might just hear your jackass neighbor talking about you or ranting. EDIT*** who knows you could catch your neighbor committing a major crime of passion LOL and although the video evidence may not be admissible in court it could probably be enough to point police in the right direction. Not that that would ever happen but you never know!