Kawboy12R

http://game-camera-review.toptenreviews.com/plotwatcher-pro-review.html This might be a very simple solution for you.

True, but wouldn't folks who knew him be able to recognize him from the start of the video anyway? Both guards would definitely be persons of interest.

I don't think they switched off the lights to defeat the video cameras, I bet they did it to keep possible outside witnesses from figuring out what was going on. Hard to say if they thought they stole the video record or just a DVD player worth a few bucks or even noticed or cared about the CCTV at all. It's funny how some people are terrified of cameras and others don't even seem to notice or remember that they're there. You'd think they would have worn masks if they cared about witnesses or cameras. Only one guy pulled up a bandana after he entered the store. It is a bit strange that he hit the light switch for that room first out of a large bank of them, but it WAS the closest switch to him and he got the results he wanted right away, so why fumble with the others? Good point but could be coincidence.

My P3364VE are low light 1.3mp cams (Lightfinder technology) but have no built-in IR, which is a good thing. I use an external illuminator if they need ir where they're mounted. Axis offers an LVE (Light Vandal Environment) version if you want the option of built-in illumination. You can always turn it off if you find you don't need it or upgrade to external illuminators. The P3364s retail around a grand depending on options like 6mm or 12mm varifocal and the LVE. Amazon occasionally has deals in the $600 range on the 6mm versions if you're lucky. They have ports for microphones, external speakers, and alarms (PIR) if you want those options. They also have a fan and a heater (that's the Environment package, along with waterproofing). They are one of the few with heater and fan that run off of a 15.4w PoE port. Even at 6mm you won't be happy with mugshot quality at 50 feet though. The Swann or Hikvision mini bullet cams are cheap and readily available around $175 each. Builtin ir. Mediocre performance in the dark or low light. 4mm versions are quite wide and good for closeup shots of those entering your home or for overview/situational awareness. 6mm are better for vehicle coverage in short driveways. 12mm versions are better for closeups at chokepoints and distance shots. No alarm inputs or mic/speaker ports. I would definitely add external ir or motion lighting to help these cams, even with a streetlight present, although extra light makes EVERY cam perform better. There are no miracles at night. Prepare for lots of time spent learning and tweaking if you mix and match cams and run your own computer nvr software and networking though. There is a lot to be said for package systems for DIYers in a hurry. I like the ability of my axis cams to easily duplicate footage to a hidden NAS and an SD card inside the camera though. You still have a really good chance to have footage if someone steals your computer or nvr, especially if your poe switch and NAS are on a UPS. See networkcameracritic.com for a more detailed review and pics and sample video.

Cheap and easy system is the Swann nvr (not Lorex) from Costco. 4 alarm inputs, but not sure on how well it emails a pic from an alarm event. Comes with 4 cams, maxes out at 8. Comes with the hikvision rebranded mini bullets. I've haven't really played with the NVR yet or figured out how well it works with non-Swann cameras. My personal choice at home is a computer with nvr software running a mix of cams and a couple of poe switches. Axis p3364ve domes plus some Swann mini bullets. Software has been NVR+, Avigilon, Milestone, and Blue Iris. Currently running with 6 cams on BI with a reasonably high end Intel i7 system.

50-75 feet of range to do what? No way you'll be getting a facial ID at 75' in the day with those cameras, and completely forget it at night. You might get a good face pic at 8-10' at night if the cameras are placed right and a bit farther in the day. You'll probably be able to get decent recognition (people you already know) out towards 50' or farther in the day. If the cams are placed right you'll probably get decent footage of people that come right up to the cameras to enter your home, but for good footage of people at a distance you'll want cameras with greater "zoom" (narrower field of view yielding closer pictures). A package like that is a decent start in the analog area, but plan to add some better more specialized cameras for folks stealing from your car parked in your driveway, etc. If you want email notifications of intruders though, I wouldn't recommend that system. You need something with alarm inputs so you can add PIR motion detectors and other reliable intrusion alarms. Video-based motion detection is useless outdoors, especially with wide-angle cameras like the ones in that kit. You'll get snowed under with emails, especially if you have the motion detection set sensitively enough to detect intruders at 50-75 feet. I'll also second Boogieman's objection to analog if you want wide angle cameras for ID purposes at 50'. You can't always get decent face pics at 50' with wideangle 2 megapixel (1080P) cams let alone analog.

Please note that much of the Foscam PoE stuff is either 5 or 12 volt and doesn't work with industry standard 48v PoE (802.3af) gear.

You might want to start with some free/cheap NVR software first to get things up and recording (and displaying) and then fiddle with the FTP. For my uses, I see FTP or NAS storage dumped from the cameras as a secondary level of storage for backup/security reasons and the NVR software as my primary record and daily reviewing tool.

Every dvr is different and you didn't post which one you have. If it is a noname Chinese dvr you are probably better off spending time going through the menu options yourself than hope someone on here is familiar with it. You could start by pausing the video at a spot you want and start looking for options to save to disk or usb. You might have better luck viewing the footage from the pc viewing software and trying to save from there.

In the shutter drop down window, if you select 'fixed' rather than 'auto' you can select any shutter speed you like and go higher than 1/30th. But it will be for all lighting conditions . That being said even my older m1114 was able to go higher than 1/30th in 'auto' just for low light conditions. The low light performance was so good I had it set to 1/60 with no problems. The p3364 is even better in low light and so it's puzzling why they would remove this option. Yes but, like you said, it's for all lighting conditions (you lose the normal light and low light breakdown), so you can't tweak it for day and night. The auto is lost as well as the ability to tune both the day and night settings. So, for an outdoor camera in widely varying light, it's basically limited to a max shutter speed of 1/30th at night with the current firmware. Better for lower light gathering in extreme conditions, but it does so well that it could make use of 1/60th (or much faster depending on the job) quite easily. It's a bit of a puzzling decision by Axis, although I suppose it would cut down on the Internet posts from folks with their cameras set improperly for the job claiming that their Lightfinder doesn't work well in the dark when it's really set to 1/500 or something...

IR through windows just plain doesn't work. Using a camera pointed reasonably straight through a window isn't too bad, especially with a hood over the lens and window to keep internal light glare on the glass from interfering with the camera. I prefer separate illuminators to built-in IR. Try to match the IR spread of the illuminator to the field of view of the camera. If you can't match them, you will probably want a wider spread of IR than the camera's FOV to try and eliminate hotspots and overexposure.

I wish my P3364 had a faster shutter option for low light. The fastest it can be set for is 1/30th. That's a pretty standard minimum speed for low light but it does well enough that I bet it'd be just fine at 1/60th in my conditions and have reduced motion blur at the same time.

Are they limited to 1/30 or can they go faster?

But with the IR unhooked it won't blind itself in fog while still being able to see IR from separate illuminators. Seems like a good solution if Dahua won't offer it as a software option.

For anything commercial definitely use a separate NIC for video traffic. Even if there are no bandwidth issues or other problems, it keeps the whiners off the back of the CCTV guy. Just tell them it's on a separate network or you'll have to troubleshoot all of their problems as well.

Get an NVR that supports PIR motion detectors and mount one by each camera, or better cameras that support attaching PIRs directly to the camera so that your software solution can read the motion alarm instead of using video-based motion detection. Also, it might not hurt to update the firmware on your cameras and run the latest software. I've read that some versions of Dahua stuff had extremely fussy motion detection. The adjustment range between too sensitive and many missed real events was extremely small.

Good point on the E92 if you have no motion lighting or other automatic lighting in the garage. Outdoor cams work fine indoors so any of the other ones I mentioned would work fine. As for online retailers, two I have spent time looking at are wrightwoodsurveillance.com and the monster bhphotovideo.com. IIRC, Wrightwood is recognized by ACTi for warranty and support. I've bought a dslr lens from BH and nothing from Wrightwood but both have answered questions I've had in a timely manner.

Then I'm out of ideas. It is even possible that my idea of buying another one might not work if the lock problem is saved to the HD. There's something that just doesn't seem right about it though. Hopefully either customer service or someone else on here can help more than I can.

I don't have that DVR and the documentation is rather poor but it doesn't look like the lock from the remote should prevent unlocking when using the buttons on the DVR itself. It says that the lock is to prevent unintended commands from other remotes from changing things on the DVR accidentally, plus of course the usual reasons people want their DVR locked. Can you imagine that locking it from the remote should prevent someone with the password from using it from the buttons on the DVR itself? I doubt it. It sounds like your DVR has possibly two problems- the lock from the remote AND a bad key panel on the front of the DVR, or possibly something wrong with the DVR that is causing both problems at the same time. This is just my guess though. Whichever one is the problem, there is a good chance that sticking that HD in a new identical DVR will give you access to the videos on the HD. They are possibly in a special format that prevents viewing from anything but specialized software. Unless you have access to a good HiSharp dealer (which it sounds like you don't because you're asking on here), the cheapest easiest way to find something to read and export those videos is most likely another identical DVR. Your DVR's lock function from the remote may also lock it completely and turn off the buttons you need for local access from the DVR itself, but I doubt it. That would be very dumb programming and a serious weakness in the DVR, IMHO.

How about an Acti solution? E92 (one or two) in the garage, depending on what's in the garage. If one, then put it by the door to the house to give a good view of the garage and a close facial shot of someone entering the house. For outdoors, near each door put an E71 or E72 depending on budget. An extra $50 gets you the E72 and a 3mp cam instead of 1mp. To save a bit of money, take about $50 off each camera and go with the D version instead of E (no wide dynamic range). Maybe something like an E44 pointing out your driveway with the varifocal zoomed in to try and get plates and faces of most people entering your property. For an NVR, with all Acti cameras they supply free software that'll run on a low-end computer, so with 8 cams at $250-$350 each (an E44 will be a bit more), a low end computer at $500, some cables, and a PoE switch or two you've hit or just exceeded the $3000 budget on hardware. This is with mail-order pricing from the States. I don't know of a Canadian source that can come close to those prices on Acti cams. For a different option, Costco.ca has a Swann 8 cam NVR with 4 2mp mini bullet cams for $1000 the last time I checked. Add 4 more cams, some cables, and a PoE switch and you're well under $2000.

Some people honestly can't understand the difference in quality. They seem to think that if they have someone recorded there's no difference. Tons of systems out there with 8 cams and a recorder for $500 or less so they must be good, right? I just cringe when I see analog cctv footage on TV of people that the police are looking for. They can be ten or 15 feet away in good lighting and face shots can still be terrible. It can still be used to recognize people and record what they've done, but why not make the recording an order of magnitude better for a few extra bucks? I feel sorry (well, almost) for people that put in the cheapest system they can find and then end up with unusable footage when they need it the most.

Then I'm stuck. Why not buy another identical one and insert the hd with the data on it? If the current one is dead you need one anyway. If you ever figure out the problem then sell the old one. That way you get your data soon and aren't out much money in the long run.

You can't hit MENU on the front of the dvr and navigate by mouse?

Here's what my sidebar gadgets show me. Things could easily be set up to measure a powerline adapter.

12v DC is a bit cheaper usually and is best on short runs. 24v AC is much better at avoiding voltage drop on long runs.