rayt

I do not think it is possible, you could possibly only get into the cameras directly if you connected it directly to a poe switch. not sure if ivms was setup to recognize nvr recorders.

ordered a 2nd set of this to have a spare nvr for my work install, originally ordered 6 of the swann cameras costco had, but this gives me 2 domes that i prefer more, and a NVR for a neglible cost difference. Hoping that these Lorex cameras are still hikvision though.

wow good to know they are doing this now, i'm returning my 3 pairs for the lorex set, have a spare nvr sitting around as a backup for my other install.

not sure if anyone noticed all cameras are advertised as 3MP cameras.

http://www.hikvision.com/en/download_more.asp?id=1192

I just bought a pair at $349 about 10 days ago. I know Costco has a first class return policy, so I presume it shouldn't be too hard to get your money back for the price difference. Does anyone know if you have to actually return the cameras of if you can just walk into a Costco with the receipt and get credited for the price difference? last time i tried that, they told me i had to return it because they dont do adjustments.

Cameras are now $299 for a pair at costco!!

http://www.costco.com/Q-See-IndoorOutdoor-HD-1080p-2-Pack-IP-Bullet-Cameras.product.100054309.html just noticed this today, seems like a really good price from a place with a good return policy

I agree with you very much about the deterrent aspect. Although thieves look for these things and would very likely notice the camera anyways. One real problem with having very visible cameras is the perception you create that they're needed due to real concerns in the neighborhood. This can potentially affect home sales as some potential home buyers become suspicious as to the need. hah one of my neighbors told me to go install more cameras, even though our neighborhood is a very safe one as it is. i put up 2 PTZs the size of my head on each of the front corners of my house. looks like i have 2 white watermelons hanging off the side of my walls.

you also have to consider that consider the possibility of black paint causing the camera to absorb heat, and possibly overheat the interior, i think there is a consideration for overheating in there when so many companies out there chose white as the color for the cameras exterior

Does it offer the higher resolution and dual streaming with that flash? i noticed the selection of the higher resolution available, i never looked into dual streaming, i know it can atleast handle multiple connections ok, i've logged directly into it, and through my synology to view it, and it works fine in that respect.

i flashed the raptor firmware onto my costco swann bullet, no issues, my test camera has been up and running for about a week now. camera retains its model number and everything, just that the logos change to hikvision.

ordered one to play with, have a box full of dahua and swann cameras at home, and a few others, no idea what i'll do with so many hah. i've all but abandoned my dahua because hikvision seems to give so much more support, even if it is indirectly, their updates and software are easy to obtain

that looks like a mighty nice price

0 problems with my other brand cameras, so its just a problem with my swann cameras. More tinkering required to get this working. my remote app (synology) gives me 2-3 fps with my other cameras, showing what i believe would be 1080p my swann cameras with i-frame interval of 1 seems to give me ~1fps at 1080p, even though my remote app reports 2-3 fps. not a scientific measurement, just the blur i get from waving my hands in this camera vs my other cameras. it might have to do with the weird processing as others have mentioned that these swann cameras might be doing.

The keyframe, an I-frame is a single frame of digital content that the compressor examines independent of the frames that precede and follow it and stores all of the data needed to display that frame. Typically, a I-frames are interspersed with P-frames and B-frames in a compressed video. The more I-frames that are contained, the better quality the video will be; however, I-frames contain the most amount of bits and therefore take up more space on the storage medium. By reducing in the number like you did, increased bandwidth usage. Your 100 should have been ok if you had a reliable connection. Cell phone companies such as Sprint that I have, will re-compress video and pictures on the fly, which can mess up video streaming which do not match what ever funny configuration they require. You can get by cell phone companies messing with your video and images by using a VPN connection on your cell phone. Thanks for the explanation. My connection is very reliable, and i get super smooth videos with my other brand cameras, just that with the swanns, anything other then 1 would result in mobile viewing updates every few seconds. I tried many settings between 1 and 100, and anything other then 1 would cause the refresh rate on my mobile to be 2-3 seconds. I have verizon fios 150/65, so definitely not a bandwidth problem. I also have Verizon 4G wireless. I'm not sure if the I-frame setting is doing more then it should be with the swann cameras. Definitely not a bandwidth problem at home hah.

does anyone know what exatly i-frame interval does on these cameras? With the stock setting of 100, mobile viewing, it was updating every 6-7 seconds i changed the setting to 1 and my mobile viewing had updates every 1 second or less.

i'm not sure if you should be installing 50 cameras, if you are asking these questions.

problem solved, i-frame interval changed from 100 to 1 fps moving nicely now

Can someone see if they have this problem with synology nas and hikvision/swann cameras using the synology ds cam android app or apple app, and trying to view a swann aka hikvision camera on synology it seems that even though the fps shows 1-3 fps, that the camera only updates the image i see on my phone every 6-7 seconds (based on time stamps updating on my screen. i only have a problem with swann, my geovision cameras have the 1-3 fps and updates accordingly. it would seem that there is some configuration problems with swann that causes this.

Can someone see if they have this problem with synology nas and hikvision/swann cameras using the synology ds cam android app or apple app, and trying to view a swann aka hikvision camera on synology it seems that even though the fps shows 1-3 fps, that the camera only updates the image i see on my phone every 6-7 seconds (based on time stamps updating on my screen. i only have a problem with swann, my geovision cameras have the 1-3 fps and updates accordingly. it would seem that there is some configuration problems with swann that causes this.

those look like your standard npt threaded plugs, just look at waterproof electrical boxes at your local homedepot etc.

i ended up ordering a pair of the swann cameras yesterday as well after reading through one of the threads here. Ordered a few Acti 3MP bullet cams to evaluate as well. Are you using a NVR or something like blue iris for the swann cameras? I like the logitech alert desktop software, but not sure if i want to build a dedicated machine for blue iris, or give a try at a NVR, possibly from swann, q-see or lorex. i have 2 synology ds1812+ for my cams, or cams that will get installed, logitech is decent, but is lacking in many respects. The swanns seem like nice cameras, same form factor as the dahuas, but probably more support and a interface that works well compared to dahuas.

i don't know if i got lucky but SADP worked in finding my 6x Swann branded cameras, and allowed me to log in and change ip addresses of them to my subnet.

i'm not sure if the few dollar difference between costco and other source would be worth it, considering how good costcos customer service and return policy is. That and you get 2 additional years of warranty with costco, and their concierge services, comes with cat5 cables for each camera too. As you can tell, i'm a costco addict. Thanks for figuring out the feature though, the documentation sucks, they really don't make it easy to figure certain things out!