Kawboy12R

Stickman, you'll need a few more posts before your posted links will go "live" here. Some features for new users activate after 10 posts, some seem to need 25. Thx for the updates!

Axis P3364VE, or P3364LVE if you want built-in IR added. Fairly commonly available on Amazon for $650, occasionally as low as $450 brand new. Comes with fan and heater for cold-weather use and one of the best network cameras for capturing colour images in low light.

Just wondering, but are you posted "No Trespassing" and "No Hunting" with red or yellow dots up as well? That doesn't keep them ALL out, but it certainly helps keep out a percentage of the more-or-less law-abiding hunters and even some of them are tempted to shoot stuff when they're bored. "Video Surveillance" signs in strategic places might help, too. It's certainly a step up from the regular "No Hunting" warnings that a certain crowd ignores. If I was walking up a country road after passing "No Trespassing" and then saw "Video Surveillance" I'd rethink my decision to keep going.

I don't expect you'll get a ton of improvement but you might try sticking in a Radeon 6670. Axxon recommends Radeon 5000 and 6000 series cards. 6670 is pretty cheap and capable. A 7750 is quite a bit more capable in the 3D world but most likely wasted on what you're trying to do. I like quiet and reliable myself, so even though your CPU, case, and PSU fans with the system at 100% would overpower the sound of a GPU fan I'd probably pick this card- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102950 I'd bet that you're simply overtaxing your CPU, although you've got a nice fast one and seem to be well within their recommendations for the number of cameras with it. Video analytics are CPU intensive and you've got 30 megapixels to view and play with. I didn't see how many megapixels they rate as a single camera (might be VGA or D1 equals a camera?) , so 30mp in 6 5mp cameras could be 6 cameras, it might be 30 one megapixel cameras, or 30mp/(.640x.480) might even possibly be 98 VGA cameras. Does it have any "live" analytics features that you have turned on that'd be burning CPU cycles? Have you asked on their forum about the high CPU usage yet?

Congrats and good luck.

Birdshot proof from 50 yards or .30-06 from 10? Good luck on that last one. I'm with cglaeser on this one. They can't hurt what they can't see. Even regular vandal-proof domes are just aluminum with a plastic cover. If they're shooting them then I'd start placing decoys AWAY from the cabin with well hidden ones closer. Mix in some game cams maybe. I've never priced them, but there are gunshot detectors too, but probably aren't feasible for your use. DNR uses them around here to catch jackers shooting at night. PIRs hooked to a cell-enabled router plugged into the dvr for email alerts might help. I can't remember if you have cell service there but I know you used to have a power problem. Not sure what you put in for batteries/panels/whatever, but solar panels aren't bulletproof either.

Cheapo KVM switch will give 4 channels at a time on a VGA monitor for dirt cheap. Just flick the switch for the other 4.

Pssst...

You sure that's the right link? That's a fixed lens camera, definitely not a 2.8-12mm. For those that don't want to go through the trouble of faking an account to see a product description th111447 linked to a Dahua 2100 3.6mm mini-bullet.

If you could post some sample pictures and video of the 9405 it'd be great? Faces at night and license plates are of particular interest.

Is there a rubber grommet like, say, the nice ones that Axis includes?

Picture quality looks good but that mount looks long and wimpy. How is the end of that pigtail supposed to get waterproofed? It looks too short to get stuffed into an otherwise unneeded junction box if you don't want to leave it hanging out in the rain. ACTi's classifying of them as "outdoor" bullets compared to, say, the design of the E44 which is "indoor/outdoor" doesn't appear to make sense to me. I wonder if folks are supposed to fill the socket with dielectric grease and hang it so it doesn't collect puddles? At least with the E44, E45, and E46 you can mount the base on a hole and easily stick the pigtail through out of the weather like the Dahua's design. Can the built-in IR be turned off? Too many spiders, moths, fog, rain, snow, etc for false positives here. There's still snow on the ground and I'm already brushing away spiderwebs from an analog IR bullet that hasn't been replaced yet.

I assume that the ACTi is on the right? It's sharper than the one on the left.

Retail.

The Dahua seems soft or out of focus to me for some reason.

Available from where?

That's what I was wondering. Haven't tried it on an iPhone, but it works fine with lots of features/controls on my iPad. Slightly different interface but the controls seem to be about the same as my android phone.

My experience with a Lorex 8ch ECO system in a nutshell. -Cams have an IR bright spot in the middle at night that washes out faces. Reasonable quality for short range recognition but basically useless for clear positive ID even under good conditions. -Decent colours and acceptable visual quality during the day except when mounted in deep shade looking out at the sun because one of mine refused to switch to day mode during the day (one location only under my deck facing north) , causing zero visibility and a white/yellow screen. -crappy recorded quality even on max detail and quality settings although this is fairly common with cheap DVRs -decent reviewing interface for watching recorded video -would randomly not show recorded footage occasionally for some cams if skimming through events in fast forward (which is all the time if you're looking for something). I had overlapping camera coverage and sometimes it'd clue me to rewind and press play, when ALL footage and cameras would show up and play. This seemed to be rare but caused me to not trust it. Not sure if that was fixed in the latest firmware update or not- DVR is sitting in a box at the moment replaced by a CNB. There WAS an updated firmware release about 3 weeks ago. Release notes said only that it fixed a security issue so I wouldn't count on it though. -1/4 of the LEDs on one camera died after a few months

Availability?

I'd get an interpretation from a local lawyer with experience in privacy laws and HA squabbles. Our opinion doesn't matter because, totally outside of what you signed, laws are different in different states and countries and you didn't even say where you lived. What you signed doesn't specifically preclude you from monitoring your property from my interpretation of that little snippet you posted. Picking your nose in public could be used as grounds to throw you out- it's way too broad. The smoothest way would probably be to go through the board and take great lengths to convince them that you're taking big steps to only monitor your own property before showing them the lawyer's opinion. Personally, I'd hide one somewhere and record the vandalism anyway. It'd be good to know for sure even if you can't use it in a court of law. Use a good zoom for a closeup of your car if you can park it in the same spot every time to minimize any possible breach of privacy of your neighbours as a gesture of good intent. Personally, I'd never live in any place where my neighbours could force me to move for preventing vandalism as long as I wasn't mounting rocket launchers.

How about motion recording? Lots of ONVIF cams can be seen by NVRs but don't pass on motion detection information so everything has to be recorded and reviewed to check for events.

They've got a great relationship yet apparently have no stock? Dahua must've run out of cameras?? I'd be pulling my hair out if I ran out of stuff to sell. Maybe it's got something to do with Chinese holidays, new product releases, and possibly a poorly run supply chain? Something's not running on all cylinders, whatever it is.

If it were my place, I'd stick the front door cam just above the top of the door on the side away from the garage door. A white bullet cam would stick out on the brick though, so maybe up higher at the bottom of the siding. A dome would fit in better down lower though, plus leaves folks guessing a bit as to which way the camera is pointing. You don't want your blind spots too obvious. Play with placement a bit before drilling and running wires. You don't want to rush things and mount it too high and just see bald spots, hoodies, and hat brims. Have someone wearing a hoodie and a hat walk up to your front door (not stop, pose, and look up) to see what I mean. Most people will walk with their head down watching where to place their feet when outside. One cam probably to the corner (right side looking at it) side of the garage door for a straight on pic of plates, but it won't be toooo much better than the front door cam (they'll overlap coverage of the driveway) until you get one with a longer lens. Rear door one to the side away from the shed crossing over to look at the shed for double duty. Then another one probably to the shed side of that door looking crossed away from the shed to cover the rest of the approach to your back windows and door. Then, with the extra pair, maybe the first one on the side of the house at the front corner away from the garage (left corner looking IN the front door) pointing towards the road. After that pick where you want the last one based on personal preference and where you want covered. Clear as mud yet?

It'd be a shame to see Empire abandon all of the Dahuas they've put out there. Wonder what their warranty period was? I'd like to see how good the newer, hopefully cheaper, line of cams works at night. Also, I wonder how good the NVRs are? You have any more inexpensive Chinese solutions on the review block?

I imagine Empire is loving the new brand more because they've been slapped by Dahua for not following the rules more than from any huge jump in performance. What're they going to do, jump ship and then say they're selling 2nd rate equipment now?