Kawboy12R

I bought a Costco Swann NVR 8ch system that came with 4 bullets a while ago. I've got 3 of the bullets in use on a PC system and have 1 bullet and the NVR sitting around doing nothing. I've got a use for another system but I'd like some different camera options besides the standard Swann offerings for the extra cameras. Has anybody had any luck getting Hikvision (either US or Chinese market) cameras working with motion detection on a Swann NVR or am I stuck using Swann's cookie-cutter offerings? A search on here didn't get me anywhere useful and I haven't been following the forums closely for a while.

Gotcha. I was looking for video-based motion detection.

And recording using motion detection works?

I'd take a serious look at this one- http://www.networkcameracritic.com/?p=2236 Seems to hit a nice sweet spot for features and quality from a name brand that's not Foscam/Rosewill/DLink level.

Don't expect a plate with an IR flash hunting camera. Not saying it's not possible but I've never seen one that'd do it. Exposure settings are usually fixed and unchangeable or automatic and unchangeable and that'll make the plate completely white. Also, the video setting might be a better option than snapshot unless you put in more than one camera. I've used hunting cams for security before and it's a bit of a crapshoot as far as getting a decent pic of someone passing the gamecam. With most, you basically get one shot as they're moving past, or one shot at the start of the action and then the cam usually waits a while until it'll trigger again. Don't put them on the side of a road looking across if you want vehicle shots either, particularly if the cam is reasonably close to the road. The vast majority of cams will fire after the vehicle has passed. I'd probably recommend placing two or three midrange cams before buying one expensive cam unless you KNOW where they're going to be within 10 feet or so and don't mind the chance of them finding your one possibility of catching them.

Looks like Sky locks things up fairly tightly for at least some DNS options, but there are ways around it if you don't want to pay them for a static IP address (I assume it's an option). Start reading this link- http://tech.johnwalker.me.uk/opendns-and-sky-broadband-router-workaround/ That is if there isn't a DDNS option in the router itself. I access my cams from outside my home network via my router's built-in free DDNS service. .asuscomm.com is what I've got in my phone to access my home network instead of, say, 234.432.123.100 for an external IP address. My router constantly keeps track of what my IP gives me for an IP and updates .asuscomm.com whenever it's needed.

One big question comes to mind. Are you looking for a bunch of non-Logitech indoor-only wireless IP cameras set up to look through windows? If so, that's not a popular option on here. Most will recommend biting the bullet and drilling a few little holes to run Cat5 through to outdoor cameras if you're looking to upgrade to proper locations for cameras to record outside the home. Why isn't that considered an option?

Once an Angel, always an Angel. At least in reruns. She's almost 70 now, which probably cuts down on the modeling job offers a bit.

If you were Jaclyn Smith instead of Scott you might have a chance. I thought you were an Avigilon tech. My bad.

Well, ak and smith sell software that relies on the cameras to do all of the motion detection. There IS other software out there, and other ways to get THEIR software to more reliably detect motion than the generally lousy in-camera motion detection. Using cameras with alarm inputs hooked to PIR motion detectors is one, although personally I'd take a more pro-active approach to reducing the workload of my local homicide detectives than speeding up their postmortem review of my camera footage. If there's a substantial danger of a home invasion, I'd be having perimeter alarms installed, some seriously heavy duty doors installed with bracing and deadbolts, maybe some window bars, and definitely a cellular-linked alarm system that'll hopefully have the cops to your place quickly after they break in. That'd be in addition to keeping my two good friends Smith and Wesson near me at all times. Also, a safe room would be a good option. I'd also recommend you get someone who knew what they were doing to pick and place the cameras around and in your home, complete with internal SD cards and an external NAS stuck in a closet, false wall, etc. These backup options in addition to your NVR computer and emailed snapshots of motion events will virtually guarantee that the jerk who kills you won't think of all of the things to steal/destroy/burn in order to eliminate all of the footage. Just be sure to send the emailed snapshots to an account that a relative or your lawyer knows the password for. Anyway, look into PIRs and cams with alarm inputs if your current ones don't have that feature. That'll almost eliminate false positives for motion detection regardless of software. Smith or ak would probably love to hook you up with an Avigilon system complete with PIRs that'll overcome the limitations of the MD brains in your cameras. Don't ask how much it'll cost for an 8 cam system installation though. If you have to ask the price... Really though, I'd make sure all of the other self-protection and alarm bases are covered before skimping on them in favour of a big bucks camera system if you can't make what you've already got work to your satisfaction. By all means get a pro to install something properly if you have the budget and any doubt at all of the quality and features of your own design. If the budget can't stand that then look into Blue Iris at under $50, especially if you've got an i5 or i7 desktop computer or don't mind buying one. I've got mine set to ignore motion of less than .2 seconds duration and I get no dusk/dawn changeover false alerts or alerts when lights get flicked on in the house or outside. It's also very good at ignoring things like wind motion, rain, bugs in the IR, etc. You'll have to tweak your settings for your camera placements to get satisfactory antifalsing while not missing real events, and you may never be happy without PIRs if you expect to tune out wind motion in trees and their shadows 30' away and want motion events of people walking 50' away. Software choice also depends on what cams you have already and if they're of mixed brand. Waaay too many possibilities to cover all of the bases in a few forum posts. I'd say gun/tonfa/bat etc first, whatever is legal and/or you're comfortable with. When seconds count, the police are only minutes away. Then alarm system- you can have outdoor perimeter alarms hooked into them that only ding off when you're home and the system is on "stay" mode, not "away". Even cheap wireless driveway alarms can give you a heads-up. Then door/window strengthening, then safe room, and then maybe worry about improving antifalsing in your camera system or doing a complete upgrade if necessary. Additional monitors that're always on are a nice addition to a security system. They're great for letting you know who's coming even if it's not Knuckles McGurk and the rest of his bonecrushers. Also, as far as a deterrent goes, I don't want to burst your bubble but cameras don't do much, even with signs. Just about every business/bank/etc that gets robbed has cams and signs. The signs MIGHT make them pick a neighbour before you, but if they're coming after you BECAUSE of your signs (they might think you must have a pile of gold to warrant those cameras, right???) then they're more likely to wear a mask and make doubly sure to ransack the place for your DVR. Crackheads etc aren't rational about the punishment and WILL steal cash from right in front of a person WHO KNOWS THEM if they can convince themselves they can get to their dealer before getting hauled to jail. Trust me on this. Been there, done that. Speaking of which, having a cheap single cam analog system by your front door with a monitor turned on 24/7 is handy on a daily basis PLUS might convince them that it's the only thing they'd have to steal to eliminate the evidence. I had two front door cameras mounted at one point. The original analog one that had the monitor by the front door plus my Axis network cam recording to internal card, NVR computer, and NAS. It was just wasn't worth the effort at the time to remove the analog's display and whip up a front door monitor for the network cam. The front door monitor was just too handy to give up, plus might've kept someone from digging too far for additional recordings if they DID happen to break in.

Depends on what you need your system to do, but smart software with good motion detection doesn't recognize the changeover as motion. Blue Iris is one example. You think it'd be simple for a camera to recognize its own changeover and not report it as motion to "dumb" software that can't filter it out. It's not a huge deal if it doesn't because there are advantages to running "dumb" software, especially with large numbers of cameras.

As long as the IR cut filter still slides out of the way at night then external IR should work fine.

Nothing specific, depends on the job. Look for something in a name brand with a low f - stop (1.0 is nice and fast) with the length and features you need. There are sometimes some good used deals on ebay if you don't want to pay a few hundred dollars for a lens. I bought a 5-50mm one quite a while ago for a specific task once but I don't remember the brand. I'm more of a hobbyist though, so maybe someone with more firsthand experience with CS mounts could recommend a good value. That doesn't mean the cheapest.

https://www.samsung-security.com/products/security-cameras/analog-cameras/bullet-cameras/sco-2080r.aspx These are nice "cheap" analog bullets. I'd compare images from them vs Dahua and Hik network cams in the same under $250 price range before deciding on mid-range or upper low end analog gear though. Personally, I wouldn't go with box cameras (not weatherproof) in big industrial enclosures all around my house. I have no specific recommendation for a good analog DVR. Digital Watchdogs I've heard are good, upper end QSee, and the Dahuas seem to have lots of fans. Hikvision makes a decent NVR but I've got no experience with their DVRs. Geovision makes a nice dvr card for a computer, but by the time I paid for the card and computer I'd rather have spent the money towards hi-def network cameras that'd run on a cheaper computer, no expensive card, and the free software that usually comes with running same-brand cameras. Depends on what you expect out of your system though. You want to check someone for acne at 50 feet and see it in the recorded video while still covering a house with 6 cameras? Don't even think about low budget analog. If you've ONLY got a very limited budget for 6 cams plus recording solution, get analog, and think like you're buying real estate- location location location! You'll really have to have good lighting, good angles, and a very close shot to get a good face picture. Same goes for hi-def network cameras, but what's true for megapixel cams is often doubly so for analog. As far as budget goes, it's usually cheaper to add lighting to bring the performance of cheaper cameras up to a decent level than buying expensive cams and not adding lighting. Don't ignore lighting.

The Cliff Notes answer is yes, CS-mount lenses have larger iris openings than M12 lenses but you definitely need IR to see in pitch black. As far as seeing in low light, not all cams are created equal. Results depend on the whole package- lens and camera. If you're comparing cheap bullets to a good low-light box camera with a nice CS lens then you'll see a big difference. Some cheap cams can barely see at night even WITH the IR turned on. So yes, box cameras need IR to see in the dark, but you have to compare apples to apples to see what the difference is between the lens on a box camera to whatever they slapped into a bullet or dome with comparable guts inside. As for picking lenses, well, you can buy very nice fast (good in low light) CS-mount lenses. Everything else being somehow equal, you should get better results with a box camera and CS mount lens than the same camera with an M12 lens on it. If you want to loosen the purse strings a bit, you should be able to get a MUCH better CS mount lens than M12.

I'd guess either a weak psu or super cheap cables causing too much voltage drop. The test is easy. Buy a good cable and see if that cam still goes wonky. If no, then buy more good cables. If yes, then try another power supply with more juice than the camera ratings say. You might also unplug a cam or two and see if the remaining cams behave better.

I've had a couple of P3364s up and running 24/7 with two brands of class 10 32GB SD cards recording motion for probably a year and a half with no issues with the cards. I'm thinking the reports of card failures have nothing to do with the cameras but just cheap cards failing. I'm not a big fan of ACC (footage review is slow, troubles connecting to cams at times), but it's nice to be able to have that backup over NVR software recording. Footage can be reviewed within the web client as well, but the interface is archaic) You're not limited to SD storage, either. You can record to network shares as well. Motion to SD card, continuous to a hidden NAS, and "regular" motion recordings for review on the NVR PC and you've got near-bulletproof recording backups. Even if they clean out the house, take the PC, and find the hidden NAS, will they pry down vandal domes as well?

Shockwave is right. That 2.8mm is a great situational awareness cam and can give you a pretty good mugshot of folks that come right up to the door but useless at generating mugshots at 25', especially at night. He didn't come to the door though so your ID ability is very limited. It's very hard to cover the outdoors and get a good face shot unless someone comes right up to a wideangle cam or you have cams with long lenses for closeups covering driveways, sidewalks, gates, etc. The cams with long lenses will be almost useless for telling you what's going on quickly if you hear a thump, but if someone's thumping at a distance they're your only shot at getting a close picture of them. My rule of thumb for home coverage is a reasonably wide angle cam on every door, then add cams to complete coverage around the home (windows, play areas, outbuildings, etc), THEN add specialty long lens cams to catch faces and hopefully plates in your driveway, gates, sidewalk, or wherever. A driveway should have at least a 6mm, possibly a 12mm cam even if you can park fairly close to the camera. Hopefully you can overlap a wideangle door cam to cover a driveway to complement the zoom cam with narrow field of view that's hopefully shooting straight up the driveway. That way you can tell what they did in the big picture, plus hopefully get just one clear frame of their face to give the police. That's all you need the specialty cam for- ONE clear zoom shot. It's trickier than you think and can depend on luck unless you know or can control exactly where they have to travel. Then add lighting and control the camera angle to their face (no high mounts on the specialty cams looking down at their bald spots or being blocked by the bills of their caps or hoodies). High mounts are decent for telling you what's going on but not for who is doing it, especially if they're walking with their head down looking at the ground.

If it were me, I'd get a pair of cheap D-Link (or whatever's available) powerline adapters and see if they worked. If they don't work (or if an extra $60 or so isn't an issue for billing), then stick them in the toolbox for later and get a pair of ZyXEL PLA5205 based on the Home AV2 standard. They're quite a bit more money and you probably don't need the extra speed (depending on noise in that environment), but the new AV2 standard uses the best two out of three wires for the connection and, hopefully, that'll mean a better change of connection in a difficult environment at distance. It might also get rid of the possibility that the two 110v plugs you want to use are on different sides of the 220v in the panel. With the new AV2 standard using a hot, a neutral, AND the ground wire, my guess is that you'll have a better chance of them working. I haven't verified the "same leg of the panel" theory for powerline adapters by checking connectivity against properly labelled breakers, but I've run into difficulties getting two adapters connected and simply swapping wall outlets gave me connectivity. The new standard might get rid of that if it can run on any two of three wires instead of just whichever hot you've got in that plug and a neutral. The ZyXEL has an advantage over the Linksys PLEK500 AV2 adapters at a distance- http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/lanwan-reviews/32164-homeplug-av2-head-to-head

Can you live with 5 days of video storage? Milestone XProtect Go works nicely with much of the functionality of the more expensive XProtect versions and it's free. Blue Iris is cheap and has better motion detection but you pay for it with cpu cycles. If you're anti - Microsoft then Zoneminder is a good choice. I haven't tried it or ISpy Connect though.

How did you turn off the cam's IR? I've never used that camera but is it possible that you turned the built-in IR off by putting it in day mode? It won't see IR at all in day (colour) mode.

We all want to know.

Is audio important? The last time I checked Avigilon software didn't support audio with Axis cameras. Not sure if Avigilon has fixed this yet. And they're right- Axis' motion detection isn't quite as top shelf as the rest of the camera. You might want to demo some of their cameras side by side with Axis cameras. Please report back with your impressions. And screens hots.

Denisius, I've seen some recent footage from Kiev. You don't need a camera, you need a tank. Hopefully things are safe and boring near you. If you have any video to share I'm sure many of us would love to see it.

Axis P3364 LVE. I'm not aware of anything better in the $1000 price range as of a year or so ago. Avigilon has released their Lightcatcher line since then, and Bosch's Starlight series is worth a look. I haven't seen any footage to compare them with the P3364 Lightfinder though. edit: I missed the 5mp part of your request. The P3384 might work for you if you need 5mp.