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Last week, my UPS battery died and the unit shut down. When I turned everything back on, my NVR with 12 cameras is no longer recording. Everything else seems to be working fine and the recording schedule hasn't changed. Live viewing is fine, just no recording to hard drives. Diagnostics says hard drives are fine. This is a Dahua-made unit. Any ideas what I may be dealing with?

I have a new 4CH Tiny NVR (Dahua) that was bought without a hard drive since I have some new drives on my shelf. After installing, the NVR doesn't recognize the drive. It's a Seagate ST4000DM000. Called the reseller & they said this drive is not compatible but gave no reason. Wondering if it's just an RPM speed? This is 5,600 and the NVR manual says to use 7,200. Would the NVR reject it simply because of that? What kind of drive should I be looking for?

I've had my NVR-EL-16 (Dahua from Security Camera King) for seven months now and still have not figured out the correct wiring for networking. I've attached an image to show how it's currently setup. Basically, there are two network ports on the NVR. One of them I have connected to my router (IP gateway) and configured with my static IP info in the menu. The other connects to my 16 channel POE switch, which in turn connects to my cameras. It's configured with the switch's info in the menu (it's a 10.1.10.1 system.) Problem I'm having: In the NVR menu, I can select only one of the two networks as "Primary." If I select the one connected to the POE switch, I naturally get my cameras online and viewable from my cell phone. If I select the one connected to the IP gateway, I lose the cameras but I am able to successfully make the NVR send out SMS alerts to my cell phone. I need both. I'm not sure why this NVR has two network ports anyway. I'm quite confused and really need both my cameras online and the ability to send out text alerts when an alarm is triggered. Anyone have any input before I jump off a cliff? Thanks in advance! Bob

I have an IP bullet camera with a 3.3-12mm lens. Thought this would be sufficient zoom power for me, but now realize that I need to go closer into the subject. Are there any attachments that I could add to my camera to get a more zoomed-in image? http://www.securitycameraking.com/2-megapixel-ip-weatherproof-network-bullet-ir-security-camera-59114-prd1.html

Load balancing? Are you suggesting a setup like this?

Yes, that was me. I had tried everything we talked about including what was in the tutorial that you posted. But obviously I must've done something wrong. Months went by and I didn't mess with now. Now, I need to get back on it and get it all corrected. I'll take the current info & refer back to the video and try to get it going again. Thanks for being a great help here!

What info should I put into the Primary Network menu?

Wondering if any of you can provide good recommendations for an affordable camera that can capture license plates. Don't need plate recognition capability - just need to capture the image on my NVR. Distance is 75 feet, day & night. Would prefer 1080p but will consider 720p. Would like to keep it under $500. I previously had a Vitek VTC-IRE70/650 http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/820155-REG/Vitek_VTC_IRE70_650_Weatherproof_IR_Bullet_Camera.html that I used with my old standard-def DVR til it got bit by lightning. It had a pretty long lens (6-50 mm) which did a good job, but I doubt I'll find that in an IP cam at this price. Thoughts? Thanks!

I need to use the push-to-talk feature of my NVR software to be able to send voice commands to people who are observed on my cameras ("I'm watching you so get off of my property!") I need two medium powered horns so they will hear me, but I don't want to disturb surrounding neighbors too much. Any suggestions as to what or where to buy? Thanks!

I may be getting a reputation here as "that guy who really doesn't know what he's doing!" But hey, I'm trying and I'm learning, so I'm not a total moron! Anyway, I have a Dahua NVR setup with remote viewing. I can view either the Main Stream or the Extra Stream. Obviously, I mostly use the Extra Stream for faster frame rate. However, when I go into Play Back mode, it only sends me the Main Stream, which naturally is great quality, but painfully slow frame rate. How do I get it to send me the Extra Stream for Play Back?

I have installed one of these cameras: http://www.securitycameraking.com/20x-2-megapixel-infrared-ip-network-ptz-security-camera-59117-prd1.html It's really a phenomenal camera, but I'm having one issue with it. It's not tilting all the way up. After initial installation, when zoomed all the way out, I could see a small amount of sky above the tree line, and when I zoomed in it would zoom to a spot on the ground, which was in effect, the center of the field of view. I recently physically went up to the camera to clean the lens and in the process, naturally moved the camera head around some. When I went back to the NVR, I was very surprised to find that I could now tilt up much higher and see a lot more sky. When I zoomed in, the camera was center up in the sky. I could watch airplanes, see antennas & smoke stacks, etc. way above the tree line. Then recently, for no known reason, I'm back to being "land locked." I can't zoom into anything above the tree line. I'm back to being very limited in my far distance viewing because the camera doesn't want to tilt up any more. Any ideas what's going on? After seeing what this camera can do, I'm actually feeling locked in to "low ground viewing."

Sorry to hear that, but it doesn't surprise me. I had a 1-year-old VMax Flex that took a power hit and took out the network adapter inside. They quote me a repair cost that was only $50 less that a totally new unit. I kicked them to the curb and bought a Dahua instead. Best of luck to you!

This just got a little more interesting. As of yesterday when I wrote the initial post, my camera wasn't tilting up to its max. Early this morning, our maintenance man shut the system down (by just unplugging it all) to replace a UPS. After he plugged it all back in, the camera was able to tilt up higher - like I want it to. Obviously, now all of my preset positions are wrong and need to be reprogrammed. I'm puzzled. Thoughts?!? Here are some comparison images that I made of the before & after reboot tilt up maximums...

You may want to do as I have... quit using motion detection on the cameras and use PIR motion sensors as alarm inputs to your DVR.

It seems that the NVR only want to have one of the networks active at any given time. If I select my static IP network, then I can send out e-mail alerts, but the cameras disconnect. With the other network active, I can't send out the e-mails. Very frustrating.

My NVR has two network settings. I use one for connecting to my POE for the cameras; I use the other for internet access. In the menu I have to select one as the Preferred Network. Problem is, when I select the POE network I can't send out e-mail alerts from the NVR. Seems like this should be the network to be the preferred because everything else works normally. If I select the other network (the one with my static IP address) as the preferred, the NVR can send out e-mail alerts, but all of the cameras (at least when remote viewing) go offline. Any work-arounds for this? Ideas?

Well, here I am a few weeks later and tinkering time has been in short supply. I reconnected everything like you mentioned... router to switch, switch to NVR & cameras. I reassigned the IP addresses of each camera and the NVR based on the router being a "10" device (10.1.10.xx, not 192.168.blah blah blah.) Locally, everything appeared to work fine, but remotely I could not connect to the NVR until I connected that 2nd cable from the NVR port #2 to the router (the one where I had programmed in my static IP address.) Obviously, remote viewing takes precedence over the ability to send out e-mail alerts, so until I get this figured out, I have to leave it in that configuration. I know I must be doing something stoopid. I didn't go to Networking University, so I'm like a blind dog here. Any more ideas? Thanks for helping!

Very interesting indeed! I assume setting it up like this would mean that I'd only be using one ethernet port on the NVR rather than two... and that'd probably solve my initial problem. Looks like I have some tinkering to do tomorrow. Thanks for the help! I'll let you know what I find out.

Hmm... well, that's not how I have it. I'd like to hear some input on that. I was instructed to connect all the cameras to the POE switch, as well as connect the NVR to the POE switch. I have 11 cameras connected to ports 1-11 on the switch and the NVR connected to port 12. Then I have the 2nd ethernet port from the NVR connected to a port on the router.

It's on the main "Network" page. There's a dropdown menu to select either Ethernet 1 or Ethernet 2, and then a check-box to select one of them to be "preferred."

No, I have 2 ethernet ports on my NVR. I use one to connect to my 16-channel POE switch and the other to connect to my router for internet access. In the NVR menu, I have to select one of the two as "preferred network." If I select the POE switch, the NVR won't send out e-mails. If I select the router, the cameras go offline.

Lucky, I have this one... http://www.securitycameraking.com/16-channel-elite-series-standalone-59060-prd1.html

Ummm... there's no "default" when connecting a DVR or NVR to the internet. And trust me, I ain't "tweaking" just for fun. Thanks tho.

I figured out that it wasn't working because I needed to set the e-mail address that I was using to the one that matched my ISP (Comcast.) But then encountered another problem that I explain here... viewtopic.php?f=3&t=38596

I'm trying to set up my 16-channel NVR (http://www.securitycameraking.com/16-channel-elite-series-standalone-59060-prd1.html) to send me an e-mail when an alarm is triggered. I have two e-mail accounts that I can use in the SMTP settings. Evidently you have to ping the smtp server to get the IP address and use that in the input menu. I'm using all the right info... user names, passwords, ports, authentication, etc... and NOTHING seems to get the job done. I've followed all of the directions I've been able to find including the PDF at http://www.dahuasecurity.com/download_4_3.html. I've checked the "Health e-mail" box and the "enable" box. No combination works. Any ideas?