Kawboy12R

I'll second IP Cam Viewer, both Lite and Pro. I use it on my Android phone and iPad.

Post away! If you're taking requests, night shots of moving people, license plates, and sun with shade shots preferred. And thanks in advance.

First off you'll like more cameras unless you get lucky. Nice overview shot with the one you have but it'll be tough to get the whole area up to snuff with that cam at night. A couple of IR illuminators will help, preferably wide angle (120 degree maybe). Black flash trailcam will help too, especially at the far end. If you have power out there, why not try using one of those Ethernet over 110v AC network extenders instead of screwing with wireless? That way you can stick any network cam you want out there. If you want to stick with ACTi look at their E44. Haven't seen sample pics from it yet but it is their new low-light bullet. A motion floodlight would help a lot as well. Maybe even a standalone driveway alarm that rings in the house when the beam is broken if this stuff is happening while you're home. Nothing says lovin like a bat and some shovin.

Why not start a dongle thread and post a link here? Sounds like a great idea for a new thread.

This is an old thread but I'll chime in. I've got a Fenix TK15 and it's been the best light I've ever had. Compact but can slay vampires at night on the brightest setting. Remembers what setting it was on (separate level and on/off buttons) as well. Indoors I usually don't have it higher than 2 of 4 because it's too bright. I've still got a bunch of cheaper LED lights, some of which are quite bright, but they always remind me somehow that they're cheap lights with some annoying "feature" or unreliability. The Fenix just keeps working. This belt clip works nicely too. It's like a third hand at times because it swivels on your hip. Angle forward for walking, angle up for working up high (works for skinny folks without baggy shirts anyway), etc. Holds the TK15 like a beartrap but not so good on their skinny AA penlights without the grip ring. They tend to slip out. I'd probably get the TK22 if I were to do it again. The rechargeable 18650 batteries (basically two CR123As in a single long package) are great as well. Lots of charge and you don't have to worry about alkalines blowing up and ruining an expensive flashlight. They DO tie you to a charger though- try buying a couple of disposable CR123A batteries at a corner store sometime. If you can't find them (most likely) you'll be stuck with no flashlight. If you DO find them you'll cry because they want to finance a vacation with them. EBay will be your friend. Get a charger and a few spare batteries. If you're the type to misplace flashlights then Costco or the dollar store is your friend. You want cheap and disposable. And powered by AA, possibly AAA.

cam-it.org is a good resource for Blue Iris issues.

Ditto. Some NVRs (whether standalone like the Swann/Lorex/Dahua boxes or NVR software like Blue Iris/Avigilon/whatever) depend on motion detection signals from the camera to start recording and some just take the video stream and brute-force the motion detection to decide when to record or just display. Depending on the cams isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it means you have to pick supported cams to get motion detection. Avigilon software is good software but does absolutely NO motion detection calculations beyond listening to the cameras. Sound like crap you say? Well, it enables the computer doing the recording to handle a LOT more cameras than something Blue Iris. Avigilon handles ONVIF as well, but most cheap cameras only use ONVIF 2.0, which has no provisions for MD. Just because an NVR box does ONVIF doesn't mean it'll do motion detection with an ONVIF cam. With many things ONVIF means NO motion detection. Blue Iris is different that way because it can do the MD calculations itself, at the cost of handling fewer cams and fewer megapixels than NVR solutions that can read what the cam is telling it about MD status. Try running 50 hidef cams on Blue Iris and see what happens.

i remember seeing some where in the nvr it could be switched to onvif but for some reason i cant find it now I've heard mention of ONVIF support in the NVR but much of the time when ONVIF is mentioned it's not in-camera motion support. Stuff like Blue Iris on a computer connects to ONVIF 2.0 cameras but does the brute force motion detection with the computer's CPU. From what I understand low-end NVRs generally don't have that kind of horsepower to play with so they just record 24/7. That wastes storage space and gives no idea when or even if events happened. Some folks who have gotten off-brand cams connected to NVRs via ONVIF say that everything works fine but admit after being asked that there's no motion detection. No MD = crippled.

Sorry Zik, no extras floating around and my Axis domes are lovingly in service.

Anybody have any luck getting cameras other than the little Hik minibullets working properly with the Swann or Lorex NVRs? By working properly I mean with working motion detection. Getting domes and other bullets (preferably varifocal or with replaceable lenses) would make these kit systems much more attractive. Even some of the Dahua options would be more versatile and a decent addition to the base 4 cam Hik packages.

I like domes without IR. Cuts down on false positives from dust, bugs, fog, rain etc at night. IR from the camera lights up EVERYTHING and causes recording and false alerts. The two I use around the house are the analog VCM-24VF from CNB and the network P3364VE from Axis. Better be sitting down when you check the price on the Axis. It's a MUCH better cam than the CNB but you pay for it. The VCM-24VF is a good budget choice for low light but can't work miracles when it's dark. Both cams work with external IR illuminators if you can't add white light or don't want to.

A vandal dome is a dome camera that's made tough. Mount it well and they're pretty hard to remove. The plastic dome is extra tough, too. They can spraypaint it to block the camera but they can't adjust it from a distance with a snowball, rock, or whatever. They'll pretty much have to bring a crowbar to rip it down.

I'd expect less distortion on a 3.6mm lens. That's quite the fancy boobytrap in front of the door though. Nobody sneaking in through that one without making some noise...

What's wrong with sticking a cam in a birdhouse, especially if the area is well lit? No IR needed that would blow the stealth approach. I'd either do something like that or mount a vandal dome or two.

This is one of those times where you're glad you've got cameras up but wishing you had a specialized camera to get one closeup face shot. The cams are doing a good job for what they were designed for (broad overview shots or closeup ID) but begin to fall down on the job as distance increases, especially at night. I'm not sure what those cams have for exposure zones and adjustment, but the one looking directly out of your driveway is having all kinds of trouble with that tree. I'd either cut it down, which'll save you some HD space for false positive motion detection hits , or maybe move the camera to the right as it's looking out into the corner of the walk and try to miss the tree as much as possible. That'll give better face shots of those using the walkway and probably minimize the tree problem. With good coverage of the front of your house, you might want to look into maybe a longer lens on one of the cams (maybe the one with the tree in front of it?) for better distance ID, but it's also one I'd like for a wide angle cam at my front door. Tough choice. It's always easy AFTER the fact to pick where you wish you wanted a long zoom and better lighting. The bright spots of light on the ground are causing darkening of the distant bits in the pics. I wonder if more diffuse lighting would be possible? Wider floods rather than spots? I find it bizarre that he'd go on a dead RUN and stab a bunch of tires. It's hard to imagine what's going through his mind while he's doing that. If he hadn't done a bunch of others it looks like he was on a fast mission to just slash YOUR tires and get out of Dodge quickly.

No dice...

You only wish you had Rodney's luck. "What's a bath without bubbles? Hey Bubbles, come here!"

Copied from a place that sells Blue Iris for recommended cards- "Use generic BT848/878 cards, or we specifically recommend the 4-channel PV149 and 8/16-channel Hikvision DS-40xx cards".

It takes a lot of.cams to give good coverage of even a small home. 6 is probably a bare minimum for outdoors unless large blind spots or some long distance coverage is acceptable.

IMHO, there's no substitute for a mugshot quality face shot of the jerk that's screwing with my stuff. That's hard to get outdoors from overview cams (wide-angle) so I like a wide-angle at each entrance. That giveaway good face shot of people AT the door but not too much farther out, especially at night.. something low enough to not give me mugshot pics of their baldspot or hood. Those cams also give me wide-angle shots of my yard but not great pics of things entering my driveway or other areas of interest at adistance. So for me, doorcams first (prefer low and pointing out with good WDR so sun and shade don't screw up faces during certain times of the day), then a better driveway cam with some zoom for plates and faces of those touching my vehicles, then fill in blind spots in the yard (include coverage of all windows if possible ) for the whole picture of what is or was going on. Some folks have good luck with cheaper cams pointing at their doors to minimize major WDR problems when pointing out at the sun.

Jim, the garage and driveway cams look pretty good to me. Nice overview of the car/garage but shouldn't be too far from snoopers for a reasonable face pic. A bit tighter lens on the car and garage door wouldn't hurt but it's not too bad. If you can't easily relocate the cam with the closeup view of the eave maybe try turning off the built-in IR and using a separate illuminator mounted lower down or more white light that doesn't light up the underside there. You could also tilt it downward a bit, but then you'd probably lose the heads of people walking at the extremity of the shot near the fence. The "back doors" cam is pretty good for the nearer door when viewing people approaching from the fence side of the house and maybe a bit far from the farthest door. It will mostly get face pics from the side or quartering from the rear of anybody walking straight into the doors from farther back in the yard. Not sure what access is like back there or what the odds are that someone will approach that way without offering a straight face shot approaching from the fence that's visible. Might be better to place the cam in the corner to the right (looking out from the cam) to get a better facial of folks entering (but would worsen the shots of folks leaving the rear doors) and broaden the view of the back yard with the single cam. You might be better served with a cam over the big set of rear doors facing directly out as well as the existing cam.

Use enough barbed wire and you don't need cameras...

I like both Owain's and Tom's ideas except for the fact that they remove the excuse to upgrade to megapixel network cams. The wireless link might also be a viable option to replace the UTP and make it available for balun use, but why not use Owain's idea? A bit of UTP rewiring, a couple of pairs of baluns (required anyway for all three ideas), and no additional costs besides a power supply or two for the cams in the garage?

Probably but then you've sunk a bunch of money into your system and are still stuck with analog. If it were me I'd either sneak two wires for your analog cams into the garage or switch to IP before sinking a bunch of money into encoders/decoders.

But didn't you want an excuse to upgrade to network cameras anyway?