Kawboy12R

I can't help on specifics, sorry. I've never set one up to run. I've been spending too much time looking for a perfect (apparently fictional) hybrid DVR that'll run what I think I want for cameras. Time to get off the laptop and actually buy a couple of IP cams to start playing with. Using a PC with analog DVR card and IP cam software to tie things together and running a video feed to the front door for convenience is starting to look like a good solution.

That 2.8 meets the minimum requirements of both packages. NVR+ says it'll run 4 cams but recommends a faster computer for 8.

Yes. Great at night, but there are much better cams for daytime use. Specialty cam. Great at one thing, not so good at others. Mine is 420 tvl but I've seen them at 700tvl for what little extra good that might do if your dvr is recording 480. With your situation and lightlevel the CNB might be better and is more versatile but if you can't use ir for whatever reason then a good b&w (especially with a quality fast lens) is a great tool in the near dark, especially when paired with other cameras. Btw, why can't you use IR? My CNB reacted well when I put in a 940nm ir floodlight and I still don't get false positive motion events from bugs and fog. It blinds it to license plates, although it isn't a good lpr cam even with no ir present and headlights off with my light levels.

Your camera has to be able to see IR to use dim little IR LEDs at night. The sun emits blinding amounts of IR, so the cam has to have a filter in place during the day to prevent this. If a cam thinks it is nighttime because of the shade it won't put that filter over the lens and possibly do other stupid things to the exposure. I have a cam that stays in night mode all day on heavily overcast days and that causes the screen to go 98% white with some yellow mixed in. The same cam works fine when not mounted under my veranda in heavy shade. I think your new cam is probably mainly an indoor cam eight? It might not be optimized to figure out the huge differences between shade and bright sunlight.

What happens if you mount the camera in the sun and have it looking at a sunlit scene? Some cams have trouble switching to day mode when they're heavily shaded and the image can look almost completely white because all of the IR light is washing out the sensor. Mount it in the sun or shine a bright flashlight at it to try and trick it into daytime mode and see what happens. You should even hear a "click" if the flashlight solves the problem. Could just be a bad cam or maybe poor setting in the cam though. If you don't want to relocate the cam into the sun (might create other problems), try running the IR filter engagement on a schedule instead of automatically. "Good cheap wifi IP cam" is a kind of oxymoron though.

ACTi IP cams come with free software, but each cam would either stretch or completely blow your $300 budget. Blue Iris is $50 for the multi-cam version and works with Dahuas. It's got a 15 day free trial period to get you up and going. NVR+ is well-regarded but pricier and reboots every two hours on the trial period until you buy it.

The cam is performing very poorly with the light it has available so it has to slow down the exposure to get enough light to give a good static picture. Imagine how far you would move and blur in the picture if it takes a frame every second. That'll give the sensor 30 times the light of a 1/30th of a second exposure (a good setting that'll give a fairly crisp image of moving objects) but totally destroy the ability of the camera to show moving objects like cars and people. You might be able to change some settings in the camera to speed up the exposure setting at the expense of noise or brightness level on non-moving objects. It definitely needs more light by the way it is acting though.

It's not a dome, but check my pics in this link for a low-light no-IR camera that smokes my VCM-24VF when the sun goes down. viewtopic.php?f=53&t=32387 B&W ain't sexy but you can't beat a dedicated B&W sensor after dark.

You will need a hybrid dvr to connect analog and IP cameras. You'll also have to verify that it will work fully with the IP cams you wish to use.

I've been considering hybrid DVRs lately and I've been wondering what the upsized model of Dahua hybrid DVR has over the entry level hybrids and NVRs. The one I'm looking at specifically is the DVR04/08/1604HF-U in the DVR1604HF-U spec (16 analog and 16 IP channels) but I imagine the user interface is the same as the 0404HF-U and 0804HF-U. The most time I spend on my current DVR is looking over motion events at night looking for outdoor prowlers. I'd like to hear opinions on or see a video of reviewing past motion events to see how easily they can scan over events caused by bugs, fog, passing cars, deer, etc while still being able to tell if someone quickly enters my property and then (hopefully) leaves. It would be great if that nice big dial on the front were a jog dial for controlling video speed forwards and backwards but unfortunately I can't find any online manuals or videos. Well, I guess Youtube has one video in Polish showing how to add a camera to a 1604HF-U. Here is a link to the model I'm thinking about- http://www.dahuasecurity.com/products/dvr0404-0804-1604hf-u-10.html I'd consider other hybrids that support motion detection on Dahua cameras as well. That seems to leave out Aver. Not sure on 3xLogic's MVR series because I can't find a supported IP camera list. Anything else out there to consider?

bhphotovideo.com might have something along those lines. They sell SOME Axis plates at least. Call 'em up and tell them what you want.

If it's the UPS guy he'll be a LOT easier to catch than some random person stealing the packages off your porch. Just get any IP cameras (even cheap Foscams if money is tight), plug them into your router, and set them to record EVERYTHING (no motion detect) to the laptop on the days your packages are set to arrive. If you have properly time-stamped evidence that nobody showed up at your place ALL day and the UPS driver collected a signature then he either stole it or was at the wrong house. If he were stealing your packages he probably wouldn't bother to drive to your place and walk up to the door so you'll probably need iron-clad evidence that he wasn't there. You might want better cameras than the Foscams for better pics if it's not the UPS driver though. You'll want the best pictures possible to give to the police even if you know the thief from your neighbourhood.

Sounds like Avigilon has a nice review interface. They don't seem to have anything in a hybrid product geared to the home and small business owner though. I also have issues with purchasing products and services from a company with what seems to be a sliding price scale and some reps that aren't always professional. It could be a bad combination. If I wanted to run a PC with all IP cameras though, their NVR software does seem like a major contender. As far as Dahua and ONVIF compliancy goes, all it would require would be an interested person at Avigilon with some time and a Dahua camera in their hands to give it personalized support rather than hope that Avigilon's and Dahua's interpretation of ONVIF would mesh sometime in the future. From what I can gather, ONVIF support isn't the be-all and end-all of universal camera standardization that it hopes to be. I bet that Avigilon would sell a lot more software if it supported mass-market cams like Dahuas for use in tighter-budget applications.

What're you thinking for a mounting plate now? Oversized stainless (lots of room for 3M's finest tape) with tabs or bolts welded on to mount the camera? I'd think urethane to seal the edges and specify a replacement interval in case someone expects the tape to last for 30 years and the cam ends atop someone's head. I'd be fussy about who welds the tabs on the plate, too. I was welding some stainless the other day and thought about your problem. It's easy to warp a plate when welding stainless and that'd compromise the tape's contact area and possibly allow foreign matter between the plate and the glass. Not everybody has the knack.

Try an external IR illuminator and see how that helps. $40 to $80 bucks on Amazon will buy you nice floodlights or long distance spotlights. That'll light things up all the time without lighting yourself up like Fort Knox. Not sure how sensitive your dome is to IR light though but it has an ICR so it should help. I've got a 940nm CMVision that is completely invisible (no red glow) to help out before my motion lights kick in. Some cams see 850nm (the red glowing type) much easier than 940nm though. Adding another cam with IR shining down the driveway may do the job for you without another illuminator but the more the merrier. Another member here has a few videos of his Gadspot camera installation and they seem to work fine and don't wash out facial detail when someone gets close to the camera. Search shockwave199's posts and find his links. I've tried a few cams including the vaunted CNB MonaLisa domes and haven't been completely happy with any of them. That's why I'm switching to a hybrid system to throw some IP cams into the mix.

Done Cherry. Thx. Oh, if anybody is interested in the 3xLogic stuff, they do have a list of supported cameras here. Thx to Erron at 3xLogic for the prompt reply.

With a name like A. Holio whowouldathunk it? Thanks for taking the time to dismantle it and show pics. Much appreciated.

If night-time performance in an IP camera is the most important part of your wishlist in a sub-$300 camera, I haven't seen any better results than with Dahua IP bullet cams. The 2100 Dahuas are available for $170 each or under if you check around. If you want to jump to a $500 or even better $800+ budget, then ACTi and Axis have some very nice cams. I saw a direct side by side comparison between a Vivotek and Dahua (pretty sure it was 8332 vs 2100) in day, dusk, and night conditions. The Dahua blew away the Vivotek when the light was challenging. I can't find the comparison quickly on this site and it might've been on another. I should've bookmarked it I guess.

Interesting thread. I wonder if ThomasSmith ever figured things out and secured his house or if the lay-in-wait-with-a-shotgun idea solved things...

I wouldn't put too much money into extending an indoor USB webcam into an outdoor cam. Just because something CAN be done doesn't mean it SHOULD, especially if part of the use of the cam is after dark. For permanent duty, you'd be much better off, IMHO, to spend a few extra bucks and get a real outdoor IP cam that'll work well at night and won't die after the first few rainy days or a snowstorm. Good ones are available for about $20 more than the USB 1.1 extender that buellwinkle mentioned, and note that your webcam is 2.0. I love creativity and making existing stuff work in different ways, but in this case if it were me I'd suck it up and get a Dahua clone. $300 for two at Costco or $170ish each online from some place like Empire on FleaBay. You'll be happier over the long run because you'll have much better night vision and two working cams rather than one dead one that used to work well only in the daytime.

What happens to image quality if you center the camera on someone walking past instead of above and beyond them? Might be a problem with the Panasonic prioritizing exposure on the exact center of the image?

Congrats Brutus! I've found people snooping around my driveway and vehicles twice at night since I put up my system. Yours is actually good enough for a decent ID though. I checked with neighbours and after the first time someone four houses down from me lost an iPad and other valuables from their truck. I bet one of your neighbours lost something to that guy and would love a copy of video proving that he was trying to get into vehicles in their neighbourhood that night.

You mean that IE using 64 bit encryption won't work with your dvr using either the 32 or 64 bit version of Windows 7 but the 256 bit encrypted version works fine? If so it makes sense. 128 bit has been a minimum in my mind for quite a while and I'm kinda surprised that there is a modern browser with 64 bit encryption still manually selectable somehow. Did I understand the fix properly? Because my IE on the 64 bit version of Windows 7 is running 256 bit cipher strength by default. I've never looked to see if I could select 64 bit cipher strength.

What was the DVR trouble you had Cherry?

For those interested click on the first link (giveawayoftheday) for the free download. The others are for information on the product but you'll be asked to pay for it. I dloaded from the first one and it installed and scanned just fine. It does say no support with the free version and for non-commercial use only, but a free handy tool is excellent. Stuck it on my laptop for use wherever I go and it scanned my local network just fine. Thx Quick Pick!