51cent

It could be smudgy lens or dome cover (if it is a dome) or IR reflecting back of of something close by. One way to tell is take camera down at night and point it to open area/sky. If it goes away, it is IR reflection. If you can, post a pic.

What is the model number of the camera?

Do you mean blurry when there is motion? If so, your exposure could be set too slow.

You might want to look into BlueIris software, but you will need an analog capture card I believe. It costs about $60 but has a free trial version. I know little about analog cameras and maybe another poster can help more.

First off, stay away from Dericam Sricam etc. You will have nothing but problems. The Dahua SD22204T-GN-W is a much better choice, but doesn't have IR lighting, but can see it. It is only 4x zoom too. WIFI is not recommended for security cameras, they often drop out right when you need them. To answer your question, that camera you linked to has WIFI so you only need a cable to set it up initially. And it will record to an sd card.

What kind of cameras, IP/network cameras? On a computer or smartphone?

Yes, there are good Chinese companies that will honor warranties. But do they pay for returm shipping if something is wrong with it? I did have to return a camera to China, and the cheapest shipping I found at the time was $33, and this was with a no tracking option. Will titythink pay for return shipping?

Good brands that I would recommend; Axis/Panasonic/Dahua/Hikvision, others will probably chime in. Dahau makes some cameras for Lorex and others. What is just as important is where you buy. A Dahua caamera bought from a Chinese company will be cheaper than one bought from B&H photo, for example (USA customers). But if there is something wrong with the camera, there may not be much warranty from the Chinese company, or it will cost a bunch to send it back for replacement.B&H is a known good company. For water resistance, look for the IP rating. http://www.enclosurecompany.com/ip-ratings-explained.php While doing your homework, google for a security camera lens calculator. It will help you decide the lens size for the field of view you want. If night vision is important, look for starlight or ultra lowlight cameras. Well, that's a start.

Another, do you mean 30ft away from camera, or 30 ft wide area? You might want to use a lens calculator to determine what size lens you want. https://www.pelco.com/partners/tools-calculators/camera-lens-field-of-view-calculator-fov You can google for others. Many cameras have sd card capabilities, you may not need a dvr, it depends how long you want to record. If you want to access the camera from your smartphone or computer, an IP/network camera is what you want.

Not a pro, but I would guess your exposure is set too slow. That allows a good static night scene, but causes ghosting when there is movement. Hopefully my buddy Tom will pipe in with advice.

gtp, you could try here for firmware, the site loaded slowly for me. http://www1.dahuasecurity.com/firmware_161.html

gtp, wireless cams are known to be unreliable sometimes. If you have an older router and or a lot of wireless devices connected, that could be it. Before trying new firmware, I would try a factory reset, there should be a button for that.

Does it have to be viewed over IE? What about a different browser like Chrome? Try Chrome with IE tab.

If buying from China worries you, B&H Photo has Hikvision and Dahua cameras, with a good warranty, but you pay through the nose. I view it as if I need 6 cameras, buy 7 or 8 and still be ahead of the game money wise. If there is a failure, you already have the replacement. With decent quality cameras, the failure rate should be low.

I don't believe the Starlight and Ultra low lights are in kits yet. Here is a store for Dahua that has a good reputation. https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1200032?spm=2114.10010108.0.0.tRHAKC

While you are saving for a system, do a google search for Hikvision Ultra Low Light camera demos or Dahua Starlight demos. They are affordable cameras with excellent night vision. They are not 4k though. When buying Hikvision cameras from Chinese vendors, when you see in their add don't update the firmware, that is one way to avoid lower quality cameras. They are made for China market cameras with hacked firmware. It is always a risk to buy these, but you can save money. Even if they honor a warranty, it costs a lot to send it back.

So they work with the Q-see program but not with Smart Pss or Onvif device manager. Are they on the same subnet as your computer? If your router/computer ip addresses are, for example 192.168.1.xxx then if the cameras ip addresses are 192.168.0.xxx or 10.xxx.xxx.xxx they will not be found. Can you get the ip address of the cameras from the Q-see program?

Is this what you downloaded? https://sourceforge.net/projects/onvifdm/ It is a program installed that will find any ONVIF enabled cameras (most cameras today) on your lan. It will give you a lot of info on the cameras, including the ip address. Here is the user guide. https://wiki.allprojects.info/display/ODMDOC/ONVIF+Device+Manager.+Installation+and+User+Guide

Yes, there be better night vision cameras than Dohua and Hkvision, but they be the best ones for the price. And more megapixels doesn't necessarily mean better night vision.

Look for ONVIF device manager from sourceforge and install on your desktop. It should be able to find the cameras and give you the ip addresses and other info.

Look into Dahua Starlight cameras and Hikvision Ultra Low Light cameras.

More info needed. Are they brand new or have you had them awhile? Can you see cameras in web browser? Are they on the same lan as your desktop?

Look into Blue Iris, it is highly configurable and supports many cameras. It costs about $60 but has a free trial version. Milestone is another one.

Jimbo, look into setting up a VPN server on your router. Not the VPN to hide porn use, you want a VPN server. Mobile apps will work with any decent camera For good night vision, Check out Dahua Starlight or Hikvision Ultra low light cameras. Dahau has a couple of PTZ starlights under $600.

chachi, 360 degree camera is a bad choice for outdoor security. They will have poor night vision and very limited distance to get plates. You will need a dedicated camera for plates at night.