rory

even easier, as long as is in a weatherproof box or indoors, wire nuts. Electric tape gets really sticky after a while, especially the black tape, it becomes tar like and is a PITA to work with in case of service.

have you checked out the Dahua DVRs? PC, Mac, Linux, IE, Blackberry, Android, iPad/iPhone, Symbian, Windows Mobile. Saves as .DAV easily converted to AVI which uses any generic h264 codecs (eg. Divx). But there really isnt any such thing as an "idiot proof" DVR. If all someone knows how to do is push the power button on a PC and open the browser to facebook (aka an idiot, nothing personal) then they are likely to have issues with any kind of multi channel DVR system at least when trying to playback. Someone with basic computer skills and enough patience to spend 5 minutes to learn something new should have no issue though. When they start asking what the desktop or mouse left click is, best to sell them a couple guard dogs instead, or charge them each time you have to playback/backup video for them

Yeah but problem is bullet and dome cameras generally dont use that type of device, in general TDN is only in AI Lens cameras and its built in with the AI Mechanism. Additionally there's alot more to a Day night camera than just blocking the IR or Removing it, thats evident with all the bad TDN cameras on the market these days. None of them can match a dual CCD though (2 separate cameras)

Dont buy Geovision if you are looking for something cheap. Its going to be one of two things: expensive or a fake.

I cant speak for restaurants but bars and clubs in most areas BW is all you ever need (always dark), color on the entrance and main car park, IR in areas too dark for BW.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=23702 download latest pss version: http://www.mediafire.com/?2yqhqwy27x85q1n

Hi this guy does dahua now. SEANHAWG pm him he is on the forum. He's in Oklahoma though.

Dont they all I just checked their site though, only 1 of the models they carry is the dahua ... and just for verification ... http://www.icrealtime.com/solutions/max42.jpg

Yep the font is the giveaway sorry dont know any sellers in NY.

I recognize the DVR brand .. dahua D1 @15fps though? Is that the realtime model?

One thing I learned a while ago but has become even more evident in the past year, never believe what a manufacturer, distributor, or reseller tells you when it comes to a camera's specs and performance. Most likely even if it were, whats that 3 zeros? 0.0001 lux? If that were so, most likely it would be faceplate, which means it would then be 0.001 lux .. which still seems a little far fetched. Ive used KT&C's exview in their bullet cameras - high res 600TVL exview BW, sees very little in low light, low res 420TVL exview, sees much more, but standard 420TVL sees more than the 600TVL exview, and is half the price - and BW cameras of just a few years ago saw even more in low light (same exact test location). Just an example. And Im talking about a 100% BW camera, as opposed to a single ccd dual app camera, which is normally not as good under low light. So beware of that marketing bandwagon, they like to push things like WDR (Digital WDR) and DNR and Backlight this and OSD function that .. while much of it is not even useful or doesnt work properly in real world apps. What alot of them dont tell you is the more features you enable or leave on, the more current the camera draws, which means lower quality over distance, and the further away from a normal decent looking picture it gets. In fact, I would go as far as to say, cameras today are not as good as they used to be, especially day night single ccd cameras - they are digitizing the image too much, trying to do too much to it because they use higher res chips that in many cases work poorly at night and produce so much more noise than cameras of years gone by as they try to overcompensate, so much hacking of the image that it hardly looks realistic anymore. Im not saying .. dont test it .. i would like to do so myself .. just dont listen to everything they tell you Ive been dealing with them (distributors, resellers, etc) for a few years now BTW and their sales reps come and go .. thats all they really are, sales reps .. not techs like us, and they have little to no real world experience. Trust me, the manufacturers would never let the engineers talk to us. You will find the odd one that knows their stuff .. but its rare.

3.6mm lens, and TDN? I'll believe it when I see it. There is ALOT of false advertising out there BTW, I bought 3 cameras from Vitek not that long ago, they claimed it was a TDN with IR Cut etc, was nothing of the kind. BTW, TDN is going to be much more than $50 in the US even at dealer cost.

Its cheaper just to buy a new camera with an IR Cut filter built in. Most color only cameras have a fixed IR Cut filter to block IR.

Except it seems like a typo, they say the IR Cut filter lets 850nm through for day night apps, which is incorrect.

I wouldnt waste the time. I tried to remove one of the plastic IR Cut filters from the Auto Iris mechanism before and ruined it, basically fingerprints damage it. You can buy the small IR Cut glass which is used for most fixed lens cameras such as ones that come with the M12 thread, and just glue that over the CCD yourself. I found it before in different sizes when searching online. If your camera has a varifocal lens its most likely an M13 though, which I believe those KT&C varifocal lenses are. Ive only seen one camera i gutted that had the IR cut filter in the bottom of the lens holder and that was a cheap CNB bullet, most had it over the CCD itself, or in the case of the AI lens, built into the AI mechanism.

depends on the DVR, and in that case not that Ive noticed, in fact I just stick to 640/1024.

This is from January, surely they have done the job by now?

First question. do you have a work Permit for the Bahamas? The Bahamas is a small country already with enough CCTV Installers struggling to get jobs in this tough economy, we cant invest outside our country and cant work in your country either - so we would have to warn any foreigners attempting to come here to do CCTV work, especially without a work permit - jail is no fun in the 3rd world. Contact one of the local alarm or security companies and sub the work out to them, its only fair, and its legal.

Daytime looks okay? Night time, its staying in color, the cheap Color IR cameras i sometimes sell switch to BW at night no matter what but then they are all different. Dont expect anything more from cameras that cheap with IR, they are what they are.

Its pretty much the same firmware. I couldnt get the RSTP to work though, perhaps I was doing something wrong?

Yes they took all the firmwares off the site, say we have to get them from the supplier now. It updates the firmware when the DVR reboots. There is claim of a new firmware version 2.608, trying to get my hands on it now. Supposedly it fixes, what I consider a bug, where none of the DVRs let you fast forward all channels at once - had lots of complaints from clients about that missing feature which is standard in most other DVRs even the really crappy ones. There was also a bug in the DVRs prior to the december firmware update, which has flickering in some multiviews such as 9 way - does not affect the 4 channels. I wouldnt let my supplier remote update mine though, give me the firmware or I go elsewhere. Asked the supplier for the new firmware by the way, they sent me firmware from Sept 2010, a few versions older than what I already have!!

If you want to setup the DVR remotely using PSS make sure you download version PSS 4.04.6 from Dahua's website. Anything less and you wont be able to edit the "DETECT" or "ALARM" sections. Additionally if you upgraded the firmware to V2.606.0024.4.R, then you need this newer PSS to be able to edit the "ENCODE" section properly. Other Tips for all their DVR models -careful using the "COPY" feature such as in the "DETECT" section; if for example you setup channel 1 then copy that to the other channels, anytime channel 2 detects motion it will record channel 1. -in the "GENERAL" section, lower the "PACK DURATION" to get smaller recorded files, so for example when playing back recorded files downloading them to your computer wont take as long and the file wont be as large. Im testing it with 3 minutes for now. -in the "GENERAL" section, set the "Device No" to 0. This is especially useful for clients that like to use the IR remote and might click the wrong button - on the IR Remote the "ADD" button at top right lets you assign it's address to a DVR's "Device No", if the client clicks that accidentally it brings up "000" which is a "Device No" of 0. If they click Enter it is saved and if the "Device No" in the DVR is not set to 0, the IR Remote will fail to work with that DVR. -to hide cameras - the default logged in user on start up is called "default". It is a built in user account and cannot be removed and cannot change its group level, it does not use a password either. You can only set Authority for Live video (Monitor) and Search/Playback (Replay). If you want to hide some cameras from others then change the Authority for the user "default" unchecking the cameras you dont want them to see - it will still record. To view all cameras they could login with the user "888888" which is a local admin account only (cannot use it over the network/internet). Note. you can delete "888888". If you want to create a new local account just uncheck CONTROL THE DEVICE under Authority - this denies access to that account over the network. -change the "admin" password - this is the built in admin account and cannot be removed or edited, except the password. Use this account to maintain your client's DVRs locally or remotely, perhaps use the same master password for all the DVRs you maintain. If the client wants to watch live and playback remotely then setup a user account for them with their own name and password, and set the Authority for Monitor and Replay for all channels. I also create a basic generic user for live remote video with Monitor Authority only. the above may vary between firmware versions.

I dont know if the manufacturer does or not, I just wrote a wrapper for the Windows activeX control. I only did this as the original software would not fit on smaller netbook screen resolutions. Rory

I had to setup a 4 channel DVR for remote video for a client, its a no name, comes with that X-IRS software. Not bad for a budget DVR actually. Anyway, if anyone else uses it, I needed to be able to resize the windows and also just go straight into the viewer which it doesnt let you do, so I put the Viewer activeX in my own program and threw that together with an installer. Its free so if you want it let me know. I havent put it on mysite yet. Also it will work regardless of whether the X-IRS software is installed on the user's computer. Also any ideas on the brand name would be helpful. Ive found one from Aposonic but the face looks different, back is the same and so is the software. Also they look like a USA OEM rebadged . .. id like to contact the manufacturer direct. Thanks The activeX itself is obviously from an SDK, i would like to get my hands on that so I can make my own viewer with more options, such as fit to screen and full screen. Only thing identified in the DLLs is the name XDVR. There are no company names or copyrights. I asked the client to get me more info on it also, such as from the people they bought it from. Example Screenshots: BTW, The activeX is copyright whoever wrote it, it has no name! I just made the exe to wrap it in. The original cannot be moved by the mouse or resized, probably due to it being a skinned activeX (images) but they could have added some code to make it work. ORIGINAL: CUSTOMIZED: Added "Small Window" button.

I honestly cant say as I havent used that chip. Exview has always been low light though, but there are different versions of it, also the lower the resolution the more sensitive it is under low light. Ive tested alot of day night, low light, BW, and IR cameras over the past decade here at my location, which is why I would prefer to test it before I could really comment on it. Though even with the lowest light cameras, if its too dark they compensate too much and you still need to add some light to identify.