Kawboy12R

Looks like the "view recording" part can use a bit of work according to the reviews. I wonder if those folks having problems can view their recordings locally via ACC?

Could be. I can't test it on my Android (it isn't one of the supported models), but the website claims it can view live and recorded video from the cameras as well as initiate recording.

It says view live and recorded video.

You got me all excited until I found out that it only works on two models of phones.

Exactly. Imagine if the cops didn't do anything and they showed the footage to someone who went out and got a little vigilante action on their own? Legally, that could get a whole lot of messy in a real hurry. That being said though, I'm not terribly impressed with the person who didn't want to spend the time reviewing the footage for someone they are SUPPOSED to be helping. It shouldn't take too long with a decent system to search a specific area for the theft. It's not like they're using VIDEOTAPE. I hope.

Actually, the Swann/Hik combo is MORE expensive in the States at the moment. But no, I haven't seen the camera 2-pack on Costco.ca yet. To my eyes that 1080P Eyeonet 9742 is worth the extra $50 over the other Eyeonet camera. The videos I've seen of the Dahua equivalent are pretty good. As for the Synology solution, it doesn't seem like a bad solution for a single cam if you already have or need a NAS, but the licenses for extra cameras get pricey. Something like Blue Iris (or the free software that comes with most IP cams) gets more attractive very quickly. I haven't heard a thing about Eyeonet support so I can't give any references there.

Well, I'm not exactly a fan noise expert but I've listened to a bunch of computer fans slowly go bad over the last few decades. Fan noise = bad, particularly if it's not needed. Post away if you want but your ears are no doubt better than what I'll hear through the recording. I don't mind listening though.

"Loud" is different for everybody. At work I don't mind loud. At home sometimes I hate loud. For instance, any computer fans running by a TV bug me because it makes it harder to hear quiet moments in movies but sleep with a fan running every night to drown out background noise. Every person and situation is different.

It works fine with my Axis cams on my Android phone and iPad. There's a setting under Network in the Axis web config tool to automagically port forward each camera. It tells you what the external IP and port number is to access it after you've clicked enable.

Those are the Dahua mini bullets that are (were?) popular on here. If you're a Canuck, you might be interested in the Swann/Hikvision package on Costco.ca. They do mail order if you're a member. In fact, my local Costco doesn't stock the IP surveillance systems so it HAS to be mail order for many people. The cost of membership if you don't have one is easily saved many times over by just buying one of those packages at Costco over somewhere else. If you prefer the QSee/Dahua package, they have it as well.

The IP addressing for the separate NIC isn't the same as your router's 192.etc numbers. Try searching on here for "dual nic setup". Lots of threads by people more qualified than I am to explain dual NIC setups. Don't rule out older threads for advice, either. Soundy has a nice setup with topology pictures here.

You're welcome. That's the same router I've got, so yes I'm fairly familiar with it. Nice router, great wifi range, lots of features, nice and stable.

1.1mm is pretty thin. Is the main issue the fact that they don't have the right glass? Might not be possible to twist their arm hard enough to bring in a whole sheet for one tiny job. Do you have any electronics repair shops around that do warranty work for consumer video cameras? They often get handheld video cameras in for repair that end up being junked for one reason or another. Might find parts there if you get lucky. Not sure how many have protective glass on them. Might be worth a shot to find a local place that sells/installs CCTV cameras. They might have some junked ones around that have glass that'll fit. Heck, even buying a NEW $15 cheapo CMOS garbage cam just for the glass would be worth it to save a $130 cam if the glass was the right size.

Where are you located Henry? What is the budget?

Fans do get noisier, but they generally sound sick and rattley when they get noisier if you know what I mean. My ears can tell when a fan sounds sick and the sound difference bothers me a lot more than any increase in sound. If the fan sounds crisp and consistent (no wuh wuh wuh sounds or varying pitch) then it's probably healthy and as quiet as it used to be, unless dirt/dust on the fan blades or obstructing the grill increases turbulence slightly and makes it a bit louder.

The QNAP will read the video stream from your camera and work with it, save it, and play it back like an NVR. A NAS without a processor and surveillence software like the QNAP will just save files that are sent to it. Your Trendnet cams say that they will save to NAS but that's the only reference to it I could find in the manual. Nothing on how to play back or search files that are stored there or what format they are in. I'd hate to say for sure but I suspect that the cams just dump raw footage there and you'll have to manually search through them for date/time to play and review. Have you tried the NAS storage feature yet to find out? On the other hand, the QNAP has software built-in that acts as an NVR/server. It attaches to the network and more or less takes the place of an NVR or computer running 24/7 to manage motion detection and save the video stream and give you nice playback and search features. Whether they're as nice as your Trendnet's software? Hard to say. You can select an area on the screen and search for motion in that area with the Trendnet software which is a nice feature. Not sure if the QNAP has it. It's great for me on software I've used, for instance, for selecting the area around my front door to ignore motion hits from passing vehicles and just get people coming to the front door during the day. As for whether a QNAP gives you features that you don't currently have, I don't really think so. It does give you another option with most likely more bells and whistles than you're currently getting with dumping files to NAS. That all depends on how the Trendnet software works with files that the camera dumps to NAS when a computer isn't running. That wasn't clear from what I read in the manual. Whether the QNAP is worth the money over a NAS without surveillance station software might depend on how often you want to review video and how adequate you consider the NAS file review services Trendnet provides you now.

That unit works in conjunction with their 16 zone wireless receiver. Unfortunately I couldn't find specifics or pictures of the wire hookups on the receiver but it certainly looks like there are multiple detection zones at different distances on that PIR that could be used to activate different cameras or actions for each zone distance via the receiver. The receiver should hook up to the NVR's alarm inputs via wires and I'd expect to be able to set up actions according to the different distances. Shame they didn't post more info on them. That PIR would be excellent for vocal warnings the closer a person walked, wouldn't it? First zone "You are under video surveillance. Come no closer." Turn lights on and start recording. Second zone "You were warned not to come closer. Notifications have been sent out." Third zone "Active defenses have been activated. Leave or you may be injured." and turn on a rotating beacon. Fourth zone "Click..." OK, gotta start looking at whole-home automation now...

X10Ben claims to have used it successfully with BI, but the information is a bit stale. His is the last post in the thread.

A local glass shop would charge me $5-$10 bucks to cut a circle that would fit. Cheap to try it out and I doubt you'd notice the difference even if the cam was $400. Getting the right thickness would be the most important. You want a good seal on the inside so you don't get IR bleed into the lens (there's probably a foam or rubber ring around the lens to block reflected light from the outer ring of LEDs) and a good seal on the outside as well so water doesn't get in.

I'd guess a power issue at 3 locations. What happens when you swap a camera from a position that works into a position where the camera was giving problems? How about the problem camera into a different location where the camera was working? Are the three problem locations getting power from the same source? Different cheaper cables or longer cable runs at those locations causing power drop? What happens if you power up the cameras one after another, not all at the same time like you are now?

Any glass close to the same thickness should work fine. I doubt there's any special anti-glare coatings, particularly if it's a cheapo bullet camera.

You mean the combination of Dazzle/BI or CNB/Dazzle/BI? Can you get the Dazzle working with another camera or with no camera attached? A change of cam shouldn't matter though. I don't have a Dazzle but I'm interested in the problem. Google tells me that the Dazzle DOES work with BI because others have done it.

That's the only way to set motion detection- under best-case viewing. You just have to live with the false positives or you'll miss real events. I tweaked too hard to ignore the false positives once and missed a face shot of a guy in my driveway trying to break into my car. I got video on the overview camera but he was too far away for anything but a vague description. He was too far away to trigger the motion alarm on the cam that was designed to catch his face. That's the peril of tweaking by yourself and waiting to see what you catch (or don't catch) before tweaking again. It helps a LOT to have someone moving in the field of view to see what passes the threshold. Preferably a small someone moving slowly at the distance you want to capture motion in. Another time I thought everything was set well until it occurred to me that I was only seeing joggers and people walking two or more dogs. A single person walking on the sidewalk with even one dog wasn't quite enough motion to trigger an event. Smaller people walking towards the camera (up my driveway or up the walkway) could get quite close before it started recording. I was only seeing them from farther away because of the pre-record interval (easy to understand in hindsight). Anybody walking into the end of my driveway but not getting really close wasn't recorded at all.

you use a PoE splitter to get power and data to it from the same PoE-powered LAN cable?

TommyB, you might get better results playing with the exposure zones in the web config. Left, right, top, bottom, etc. That way it'll adjust for better results in the zone you select. The right side might catch enough of the sun, post, ceiling, etc to be a good balance. Worth a shot anyway.