PluffMud

I noticed there were no options for authentication which is a major problem for remote viewing. I wonder if this is something they plan to add? Just so I understand (please confirm): 1) Snapshots can be pulled without a username/password whatsoever right? 2) Live feeds can be accessed simply by sniffing out the unencrypted username/password. 3) Live feeds can not be accessed without a username/password Granted, sniffing out passwords takes a little work and the right conditions but it's very easy to do.

Thanks for the post and answers...I was about 5 mins from taking the camera down to bench test it!!! I was having the exact same problem and what Moe3615 suggested worked for me with Internet Explorer version 11.0.9. The solution for me was to click on the gear icon in the upper right-hand of IE and select "Compatibility View settings". A popup will be displayed that allows you to add the IP address. Click the Add button and the full working page should be displayed. This has never happened to me with the KCM-5611 so I'm guessing IE was updated. ACTi needs to release a fix for this in the next firmware. FWIW this does not happen with any of the E* series cameras. They can be configured in Chrome and IE (I haven't tried Firefox).

This is probably a naive question but does having an SD card slot (like the KCM-5611 has) mean edge storage in the same manner as Mobotix and Axis? Although maybe not currently supported I see in the specs of the 5611 that snapshots and video can be saved to the SD card which makes me think it is 'edge storage'. It appears to only be able to save video/snapshots to the SD card in response to an alarm event and can not save continuous recording. Is that the differentiating factor of why it may not be considered capable of 'edge storage'?

I have 3MP ACTi cameras (E32) but yet can only record 1080p (2MP) on the ACTi NVR (ENR-1200). Can anyone confirm this is normal? So it can only record at 2MP regardless of what camera is used? I must be missing something. In the specs it says it supports 2MP local display resolution and 5MP remote display resolution...I'm confused.

Great thanks! If not I was thinking about emailing them to see if they would explain.

For what it's worth, I highly recommend WrightwoodSurveillance...I recently bought ACTi hardware from there (including several of the E32's mentioned in this thread) with prompt shipping and great communication. So if I understand correctly, the distance you want to cover with the camera is 65ft and the car at that distance has minimal to no light covering it? Others will chime in but I agree that you will need a varifocal camera in order to frame your view exactly how you want it. With non-varifocal cameras you're stuck with view provided by the installed lens (unless you can swap lenses). ACTi, among other brands, has a line of varifocal cameras you might want to look at. Even with a varifocal camera you're still going to need additional lighting. There are cheaper LED IR lights on amazon and ebay that will work but will most likely not be as reliable as the more expensive ones. I have one installed under an eve and hasn't had any issues yet in the year it's been in operation. Think I paid $40 for it or something. It gets the job done in a pinch but I wouldn't recommend it as a reliable solution.

It all depends on the environment but I was surprised at how loud the fans are on the ZyXEL switch I bought about a week ago. I bought it for an install I was doing at a friends house and it turned out being too loud...way too loud. I had it installed in a cabinet (with a door) under a counter and I could easily hear it from anywhere in the room (a quiet room). Needless to say I gave him two of my fanless TRENDNet 8 port POE switches (4 ports on each are powered) as a possibly temporary solution and I'm going to take the ZyXEL switch since I have a dedicated wiring room. Even so, the ZyXEL fans are loud enough that I'm concerned they might be easily heard from the wiring room in the den. My A/V rack is in the wiring room but the face of it is in the den. I've been using the TRENDNet 8 port POE switches (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156229) for a while now and haven't had any issues. Even though 4 ports are powered I only put a max of 3 POE cameras. No reason I do this other than I don't want to max the switch out (for heat purposes) and they are so cheap I might as well have several. Even stacked on top of each other they don't get very warm but I realize they have less power than the XyXEL's.

Poor night vision appears to plague ACTi cameras at the moment (the KCM-5611 is the exception from what I can tell). I bought an E31 a while back and the video quality at night is poorer than my 2yr old standard definition Foscam. Should we be confident that this will/can be fixed I wonder? This has been the one thing really holding me back from ACTi although their current camera offerings and prices are great!

I have the Axis P3367-ve, Axis M1014 (720P w/ edge recording), and ACTi e31 (and other cheap cameras)...I don't see a way for the Axis ACC program to access or playback video from non-Axis cameras. Don't think it's possible. I use the Axis M1014 (indoor-rated) on my front porch and it has been working fine. My only issue with it is that it doesn't have night vision but the porch lights do fine to light the scene at night. Yes it's indoor-rated but it's well covered by the porch and if/when it dies I'll either get another one or upgrade to an outdoor version. My plan is to standardize on Axis cameras for my primary views (since they don't need an NVR) and also have ACTi cameras that would require a PC or NVR to record. That way I can record video from all cameras but if my PC shuts down (or breaks ) the Axis cameras will still be recording to the network share.

I don't have the Dericam H602W but I would think at best it would be comparable to the ACTi E31 which I do have. The ACTi E31 is basically the D31 but it has WDR. If moonlight is all that is available, most of the useful lighting will come from the camera's IR lighting and I probably would turn WDR OFF anyway if it were me. If that is the primary scenario WDR would probably make the image much worse depending on what level you set it at. If it were me I would get the D31 simply because of the stability issues you mention with the Dericam and b/c WDR probably won't be useful in moonlight. If you can, I would recommend going with the D32...it's a small amount to pay for a jump in resolution.

Good idea...I have 3 of them so I'll post how I use them WRT my cameras. I think most of the people using IP-based cameras can benefit from it. I saw buellwinkle's site has a review of using one so he can provide input too.

Yeah I definitely splurged on this camera !! I'll let you know how it works out with the sensors. Tracking says it should get it tomorrow but it requires a signature so hopefully someone will be home! Unfortunately I won't have a chance to mess with it over the weekend b/c I have a lot going on. WRT the Android dongle, I have several and all should work for your synology app. Search for MK808b which is a dual core with the Mali-400 graphics processor or the newest one out (I just got in the mail) is the Tronsmart T428 quad core Android stick. Just be warned that these are great for what they are but are not ready for the end consumer yet. By that I mean there are several issues, the primary one being Wifi never seems to work right on them due to a flaw in the antenna wire. Wifi works but there are constant dropouts. For my Android dongles (3 of them) I use a USB to Ethernet adapter. Also, you're going to need a wireless keyboard (with trackpad built-in) because typically all you're buying is just the HDMI dongle itself. With all that said, these little dongles have saved me from having to buy a dedicated computer for the kitchen and office to display the cameras and internet/weather/etc. If you want, PM me and I'll help with the Android dongle (since it's OT for this thread).

Oh another thing regarding your requirement for motion detecting and alerting: High on my list is a sensor input for the cameras I want alerts from. I've found doing alerting based on video motion by the camera usually generates a lot of false reports (which is just as bad IMO as not reporting). I want the ability to connect a separate PIR sensor for very accurate alerts and also a IR trip beam for my driveway. With the IR trip beam I will get an alert each time a car or person breaks the beam which is pretty cool. The P33 series Axis cameras have an input as well as the ACTi KCM-5611 (among others).

I'm going the Axis route for my house after narrowing down and agonizing between ACTi and Axis. I've been tinkering around with the $100 to $200 cameras and now that I have things where I want them it's time to upgrade. I just bought the Axis P3367 (5MP)...it should arrive this Friday. There are a lot of brands to consider but ACTi is still a brand I'm considering after buying their E31 1MP camera. I'm about to help install and configure a new 6 camera ACTi system with the ACTi NVR so I may change course depending on that. I can still use the Axis cameras I buy. Axis makes a great camera and supports edge recording which is one of my main reasons for going with it (ie: no additional hardware to be dependent on). The downside is that it doesn't have HDMI out for your TV. For that I have several HDMI Android dongles (I just got a quad core version) that I use for each TV in the house and think that is THE way to go. I can give you more info if you want on that. Once you get the HDMI dongle plug it up to your TV and download one of the security apps. The great thing is that you will not only have your security cameras on the TV but also have the internet, weather, etc just like an Android phone. If you haven't already, check out network camera critic (don't know if I can post links)...it has been a HUGE help for me.

On May 2nd Axis announced the M3025-VE which is $549 (MSRP) and features include: 2MP, day/night (no built-in IR on this version), outdoor-ready dome, sensor inputs, edge recording. The press release states 'WDR' as a feature although I assume it's the standard WDR (which has performed well based on the reviews I've read). The price surprised me for what it is so my first thought was "what's the catch?". Any ideas? Maybe it's cheaper due to the fixed length 93 degrees (as opposed to varifocal)? Or maybe this is just a reflection of keeping with the increases in technology? I know ACTi and others have cameras easily in this price range but this is definitely something new for Axis! I would guess these things will be a hot seller unless there's something I'm not seeing.

Thanks to your suggestion and your reviews of both the P3367 (the 5MP you recommended in the previous posts) and the P3384 I went ahead and ordered the P3367 !!! Based on the low light performance of the P3367 I may get a Lightfinder-enabled camera for a different spot. I just saw that Axis is coming out with a new day/night 2MP mini dome (the M3025-VE) which might be perfect for most of my needs. Depending on the price I'll probably buy that when it comes out. I don't have anything in the same price point to compare the P3367 to right now but within a month I'm getting several of the ACTi KCM-5611's for someone else that I can use to do a comparison in my environment. ...even though your reviews do an EXCELLENT job of highlighting the capabilities of the cameras! Thanks for all who contributed...VERY good info about the toggle between Lightfinder and WDR " title="Applause" />

I'm about to buy one of these cameras and want to make sure I understand the differences. Am I giving up ANYTHING if I go with the P3384-VE? Other than the focal length being slightly different (max 12mm vs. 9mm) and a minor difference in aperture (1.4 vs. 1.2) the main difference I can see is the P3384-VE has WDR (with dynamic capture) right? Both are the same resolution and both have Lightfinder so I would be paying more to see what the enhanced WDR can do. I've been going back-and-forth as to whether I need either Lightfinder and/or enhanced WDR so I figure getting the P3384-VE would let me try all the options.

I have an E31 and with the new firmware I notice a difference with the quality of night video. It's still very grainy but at least it's getting better. I recorded before and after video that shows the difference...I will try to post the comparison tomorrow.

What kind of cameras are these out of curiosity?

"some" meaning Axis and Mobotix (can record to a network hard drive)...am I missing any? Very good question and something I've been curious about. I actually run 6 or 7 IP cameras using BlueIris on an older quad core Q6700 Intel chip (still my main computer ). I don't have them all displayed on there right now but with 4 cameras BlueIris is using 22% CPU. Currently 2 are using H264 (720P) and the other two are MJPEG (standard definition).

Wow thanks for that info b/c I was going to purchase the P3384 tonight!!! I will definitely wait for your review! With almost the same sensor size I would expect the lower resolution P3384 to have superior night time capability than the 5MP P3367...especially with Lightfinder enabled on the P3384. I can't wait to see sample video Even if LightFinder and enhanced WDR can't be used together the P3384 still would be useful to figure out what I need...except you say the non-enhanced WDR on the P3367 actually works better and the P3367 has very close low light capabilities of the P3384?!? My head is spinning

So are you saying that a $130 Dahau has no tradeoffs to account for the low cost compared to a more expensive ACTi or Axis camera of the same megapixel? This is more for my clarification b/c I think I'm not understanding what you're saying. I'm a huge fan of cheap cameras but I have found there to be substantial increases in image quality (mostly night-time images), stability, and security with the more expensive cameras although there are certainly exceptions to the rule. To show what I mean compare sample images on buellwinkle's web site (don't know if I'm allowed to link to the review) from the 5MP ACTi E33 and 5MP Axis P3367, which btw costs almost 3x more than the ACTi E33. I think what you are saying is is that Axis is gouging us b/c they charge 3x the cost of a similar ACTi E33 camera right? They are both 5MP and both seem to have good customer support and both have a reputation of being reliable cameras. If you actually look at the night time boat images (look at the lettering on the hull of the boat for reference) and increase to actual size you WILL see a major difference. Is the image from the Axis P3367 worth paying almost 3x the cost of the ACTi E33? In other words, do you think Axis is ripping us off selling us 'similar' hardware at 3x the cost? In my case it's worth it to me b/c in the event the footage is needed I'd rather pay the 3x to know I have better footage which may be the difference between usable footage and unusable footage. I'm not mad at Axis for 'overcharging' me b/c from what I can tell they aren't actually 'overcharging'. As a disclaimer I understand ACTi came out with a firmware patch for the E32 and E33 to reduce night time noise.

Great thanks for the heads up!! So as Razer indicates, this updated firmware also is for the E31? If so I'll upgrade tonight and get before and after video. This is good news b/c one thing I've been noticing in your reviews and other sample video between Axis and ACTi cameras is the level of noise. The difference is significant to the point of one being usable and the other being relatively useless even at close range. This is why I've been curious to know the sensor size of the newer ACTi cameras.

UPDATED! ORIGINAL: I recently got an ACTi E31 and haven't been impressed with the night time (or daytime for that matter) video quality. I'm wondering if something is wrong with my camera or is this the expected quality? EDIT: It was pointed out that the IR LEDs were not enabled on the ACTi E31 in the original video I posted (at the bottom of this post)...this explains why it looked SO terrible! With the LEDs enabled the ACTi definitely looks better to the point where I don't know if I would've posted a comparison. With that said, would you say it's marginally better than the Foscam or a lot better?? Here's updated comparison videos between the ACTi E31 and Foscam 8904W (hardwired): 1. ACTi E31 video of people on bikes riding by (video has gap due to me restarting manual record): Foscam 8904W video of people on bikes riding by (video has gap due to me restarting manual record): 2. ACTi E31 video of car passing by: Foscam 8904W video of car passing by: ----------------------------------- Original video of ACTi with no IR LEDs (other than the light provided by the Foscam)... ACTi E31 video (NOTE: IR LEDS DISABLED...): http://youtu.be/c92hImtsxK0 Foscam 8904W video (mounted 5 feet above ACTi) (NOTE: IR LEDS ENABLED):

Wow that's great thanks! It means a lot to have a representative for a camera brand on here providing very helpful answers (in addition to all the other knowledgeable people on here)!