Kawboy12R

If it uses OpenGL then adding a discrete video card will definitely help. I must've missed that recommendation in the specs. Most CCTV software is pretty much pure CPU with 2D display and discrete graphics cards are pretty much just glorified number-crunchers for 3D modeling. GeoVision does use the math skills of some of Intel's integrated 3D chips to help though. Axxon must've figured it was worth traveling the minefield of different graphics card driver implementations to be able to use the processing power available in discrete cards.

Please tell me you are joking, I have not been in this forum for years - I certainly hope this is not the case - I was a founding membber back when we only had a few guys...our aim - Was to weed out the cheap Chinese Garbage and provide info to the end user so that they could be eductaed about cheap inferior products, and yet, all I see through this forum - is sprouting of very cheap Chinese Junk...whats going on here No joke on the censorship and brand replacement, at least not on my part. I'm sort of new here so I can't tell you what's happened to cause this, only what I've seen here since last summer. Soundy or Rory might be able to give you some answers but they aren't on here anymore. You might be able to get in touch on their own work sites if you're curious. As for the Chinese junk, the common aim here seems to be finding "good" junk. Not many are comfortable with $500/cam, let alone $1000+. I'm an end user so it interests me as well, but I don't mind spending extra money for higher end gear that does what I want it to do.

Get a game cam with what they call a black flash. 940nm IR invisible flash. Something with cell technology to email you pictures as it takes them. You can get more elaborate with 3G-enabled routers, solar panels, batteries, PIRs, and real network cams if you want. Depends what you're guarding and why if it's worth the expense and risk of having it stolen or shot up.

If you're serious about splitting your video records how about edge storage? Record one set of video to an SD card in the cam, another set to a NAS hidden somewhere in the house, another on your NVR (computer or standalone), and have a cheapo "bait" DVR hooked up to a cheap cam or two by the front door. Odds are they'll steal or trash the cheapo obvious DVR if they break in and not look farther. What're the odds they'll trash the cams, steal the analog DVR, plus the NVR solution, plus find the NAS stuck somewhere hidden in the house? Add an alarm clock or smoke detector cam in the house somewhere that records to SD card for intruders and they're busted unless they nuke you from orbit. Add cloud storage somewhere if you don't mind the bandwidth costs and nukes from orbit won't help them.

I was told by an alarm guy that glassbreak sensors would work on tin siding destruction. Never tried to verify it though.

Are you happy with your present camera? As an alternative to buying software, if you're in an upgrading mood you might consider getting one that you can program the present time and location description into via the on-screen menu or web interface (for network cams). What kind of analog capture device are you using now to save the analog camera footage to the HD? Must not be CCTV oriented if it can't do MD or timestamp. I've seen Chinese 4ch D1 CCTV capture cards with software (would include motion detection and timestamp) for sale shipped for less than the cost of the cheapest Blue Iris option ($30 IIRC).

Ssnapier's link went to a site that is censored by this forum. The powers that be here don't want the name mentioned so it gets changed to a period. It's not the only one either. Some other brand names get automagically changed to "Dahua".

Depending on how much facial detail you want, I'm reasonably happy with a 1.3mp cam with 6mm lens at 25-30' at night for detail. Definitely not mug shot quality at that distance though. It's probably too narrow to cover much beside your car up close at 8' but will be a lot better than a 3.6mm lens at 30' unless you know them. If the problems are repeating themselves I bet you know them though. Seeing red lights and knowing where the bullet is pointing may either scare them off or cause them to stand to the side when vandalizing. More light and more MP will make you happier, as will two or three cameras. Two wide angle cams (say 3.6mm) at the edges of the house or driveway crossing over each other for coverage to show you exactly what's going on, plus maybe a 6mm pointing straight out the driveway. Now that I think of it though, two 6mm crisscrossing over the car should be able to be placed to give a wide overlapping field of view and still get better 30' detail than 3.6mm lenses and the crisscrossed lenses (not straight out) are probably more likely to get a straighter face shot than one pointing straight out and eliminate the need for the straight-out cam. Would they walk to the end of the driveway, turn towards the car, throw, and then walk on or throw from the side, possibly out of the FOV of a single cam setup and then walk back where they came from?

You don't need IPv6 checked for current home use. That's just future-proofing. I'm with shockwave- daily reboots just pain old shouldn't be happening unless you're overloading a dirt cheap low-end router. Defective or inadequate, either way the answer is to replace it. I found a way around the problem I was having ages ago by limiting the number of incoming connections to the router because filesharing was more or less like a Denial of Service attack on the router, except normal but heavy use was enough to cause it to crap out and crash.

How far is your car from where you'd mount the camera? Distance controls what lens length you'll need to bring the car in close enough to get a decent shot of the sleazeballs who're damaging your car.

You have the most recent firmware? Any time I've had a router in the past that required resetting frequently I usually just replaced it. One new one I "fixed" by reducing the number of allowable connections in my file sharing software. Too many connections would crash the router shortly after I started dloading something. Others have become flakey with age.

This one isn't too bad...

Couldn´t that happen to any IP cam, which is not correctly set-up / secured? That can happen to any camera system, IP or analog, that is connected to the internet and not secured properly, as well as 'net connected systems (IP or analog) that aren't designed properly from the factory regardless of being set up according to best management practices by the installer. Wireless ones just have the added benefit of potentially being sniffable/hackable by your next door neighbours and THEY know you and where you live. That's a bit more disconcerting to me than, say, someone in Kazakhstan getting the thrill of watching me leave for work in the morning but having no idea who I am or where I live. As a major recent example of insecure cctv systems, read this post. No wifi involved. As a for-instance about wireless, I know of one guy who ended up monitoring his neighbour and his wife during, shall we say, a delicate moment in the morning. This was unintentional and they happened to be brothers living next door to each other, but it'll give you an idea of what can happen if your wifi isn't secure. This incident got cleared up right away but you can imagine the family stories that'll be going on for quite a while.

Thanks for clearing that one up...

Shame they aren't outdoor rated. Nice start on their part though. Hopefully they'll put out something in IP66 bullet form as well when they get a bit more serious.

Have any full-sized screenshots? How about outdoors, or is it already permanently mounted for inside use?

I guess you found the next spot for a cam outside. Either that or one inside on the wall facing the window with nice bright LEDs peeking OUT that window from the inside with a sign saying "Smile, you're on Candid Camera!" LED glare on the window will probably make it useless for catching someone looking in the window but you'd get a great shot if they came IN through the window.

You won't find anybody with experience with that particular cam. Going with no-name Chinese stuff, parts quality and quality control can change daily or weekly. You can order one yourself, love it, order another one from the same listing, and possibly hate it. This is the first cctv hit on EBay.com.au for "940nm cctv camera". http://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0&_nkw=940nm+camera&_sacat=0&_from=R40 940nm is the kind that doesn't glow red. Look for "940nm illuminator" for additional invisible lighting because the listing for the one I quoted says 5-10m viewing range. 940nm doesn't throw as much light so distance is much less for the same number of LEDs and power consumed.

For my home I like a camera at every door (covers 99% of traffic, good or bad), coverage in the driveway for vehicles (we get folks snooping for unlocked car doors at night), plus cams around the rest of the yard to see what's going on and to cover windows in case someone wants to break in that way. My main driveway cam can read plates day or night, even against headlights. You might be able to get a Dahua to get plates at night, but I'm guessing you'd probably have to add an additional IR flood (or white light shining into the eyes of drivers) and speed up the exposure to darken everything else waaay down to the point that it'd only be good for plates during the night. I haven't tried it with the cam you're proposing though. I like vector's replacement floodlight cam idea but don't know of any IP versions offhand. Most I've seen just record to an SD card that you have to pull out to review if you have a break in. That Speco's a bit pricey for analog (and obviously will be tricky to integrate into your network camera system unless you're thinking of using a hybrid NVR already) but is probably good for a covert camera (I've never seen footage from one). Speco's a pretty good name. What're you using for an NVR? Make sure it'll handle motion detection for both the Dahuas and whatever you find if you decide to go the covert IP cam route.

That's the 850nm version (glows red) version of my 940nm (doesn't glow) CMVision IR200-940 illuminator. Mine works fine, no complaints so far. The version you linked to will throw more "light" than mine for the camera to see because 850nm is more efficient than 940nm.

Search Amazon for "IR illuminator" and see what pops up if he doesn't want to install white lighting. It's possible that the extra height puts the built-in IR on the Videosecu too far away to light things up. Extra IR will be welcome at a distance for whatever cam you end up with. Search for 940nm illuminator if he wants something that won't glow red if stealthy is the aim.

For the front door I'd place the camera looking outwards from the front door. Much more useful because it gets a better front-on face shot of those approaching, plus a good view of the front yard and what is going on, who is coming, etc. That's the best use of my front door cam with a monitor at the front door. Any outdoor rated camera that dies from looking in the general direction of morning sun is defective, IMHO. The basement entry red dot is too high for good ID much of the time. Anybody coming to the rear door will be quite far away when the cam has a reasonably flat angle at their face. Anybody up close will reveal mostly forehead details, bald spots, hoodies, and ballcaps. You're also giving away 10' of distance to the subject by mounting up that high. These weaknesses aside, it's probably a good location for watching the kids in the back yard and wildlife because of the vantage point, but then if it's aimed that high to be useful for that job you won't be covering the door. For a one camera backyard solution, I think I'd pick something with a wide angle lens (3.6 is probably decent but closer to 3.0 would show more of the back yard), mount to the near corner side of the basement entry, and angle it towards the doors a bit. The wide angle will still be good enough to ID folks at the door but will cover most of the back yard to give you quick situational awareness if you hear a bang at night, plus hopefully give coverage if someone breaks in a back window instead of the door. I'd probably have two 3.6s in the back yard near each corner crossing towards the center of the house. The first porch door dot (over the woodpile) looks good to me. For the porch door by the ADT sign I'd probably stick the cam in the corner looking at the driveway rather than to the left of the door looking more at the fan. Both spots have advantages because the woodpile cam would be covering up towards the fan as well and additional driveway coverage is never a bad thing. I have three covering mine. You might want to stick them up temporarily before drilling and see which you prefer. Run long wires from each location into the house through a door or whatever and have people walk and drive up NORMALLY (not stop, pose, and look up). Hoodies are popular, so have someone wear one and see if you want the cams lower. Took me quite a while before I knew what my paperboy looked like because he always wore a hoodie coming up the front steps and my front door cam lens is just a few inches over the top of the screen door. Walking outdoors, especially in a strange environment and most particularly at night, makes people walk with their heads down naturally to keep from tripping.

Come on Max, you KNOW that Avigilon has nothing to match the feature set of a wireless Foscam. You're just BEGGING for the BanHammer...

Linovision has the IR domes. http://linovision.com/en/products/ip-camera/2-megapixel.html If you want something closer to home, Google "ESIP camera" and see what pops up for IR domes. Not sure if they're worth the money unless you can get them for Chinese prices though. Empire Security on EBay might be able to hook you up if you ask, but their shelves were bare the last time I checked. The Dahua non-IR 2mp minidome (3200C) won't see any IR at all so don't bother with the minidome unless you want to leave lights on all the time. It won't matter if the other bullets are pointed in the same direction or not. 6mm for the drive should be ok for anything pulling into your driveway but would be too short for IDing folks touching your truck on the street for my tastes. I've never seen a good pic of plates at night from a Dahua (especially against headlights) so that might be bit of a long shot, but daytime should be easy. I'm not saying a Dahua can't grab plates at night with some tweaking but I haven't seen any shots showing it though. That's one of the reasons I went with an Axis for my driveway cam. Easy plates day or night. I like lower cams but ask yourself who would be playing with them that couldn't turn them into a pinata with a short stick or a bit of a jump if mounted up a bit higher? To my thinking I might as well get a good face shot of them buggering up my cams than a nice shot of their cap or bald spot. Cams up high are good for overview or recognition but not nearly as good for ID, if you get my drift. Home cam placement isn't quite as critical as trying to keep kids (of all ages) from whacking them in a school, mall, low-rent apartments, or wherever.

I'll sit back with a large popcorn, extra butter, and a Coke for this one. The answer is simple but the path to it might be entertaining.