Q2U

I purchased by first four Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I cameras from Costco (rebranded Swann units) for $350.00 a pair. But it wasn't long 'till the AliExpress siren sang her sorry song sorry song to me and it went like this: at $90.00 each, the AliExpress units were essentially 2-for-one when compared to the Costco units. So I was seduced and I ordered one DS-2CD2032-I unit from AliExpress as a test. It worked fine! So I ordered another two units from the same AliExpress seller; again no problema! So I ordered four units from the same seller and, once again, they functioned like champs! Thusly -- having NO FEAR -- I ventured forth unto the hinterlands and ordered three Hikvision DS-2CD2332-I cameras from the same AliExpress seller; opps! Big problems this time. After initial configuration each of these 3 cameras seemed to be caught in an endless reboot loop, where each camera would be fine for 4 or 5 minutes and then there would be unreachable...then each camera would come back online and seem to function perfectly..for 4 or 5 minutes. Each of these cameras arrived out of the box with firmware 5.2.8 (build 141201) installed and (although the serial numbers indicated that these were Chinese market cams) each camera allowed selection of English (along with many other languages) at the login screen. Yikes! Perhaps I was the victim of an ugly hack job? Henceforth consigned to a seemingly Sisyphean task by the Camera Gods I spent A LOT OF TIME trying to resolve these random reboots, yet despite many hours of labor I failed to make any progress. I GAVE UP. I had had it. Done, finuto, kaput. Dejected and forlorn I ultimately chose to pay CBX to install 5.2.5 firmware on each camera. I could have done it myself but I was sick of looking at those f#$%kin' cameras and I didn't want to take a chance that I might screw up one of the units...I didn't want to hassle with the seller...I just WANTED IT TO BE OVER. CBX logged on with Teamviewer and used PUTTY and TFTP utilities to install 5.2.5 over 5.2.8. As a result, installing 5.25 over 5.28 did the trick and I now have 3 fully functional DS-2CD2332-I cameras. But I learned a lesson: despite purchasing and receiving 7 fully functioning cameras from the same seller on AliExpress the last 3 were probably rendered defective by a bad firmware hack. But two-for-one? Hmmmmm. Errrrrrrrrrr. Urgh. I believe hear her singing that song again.

I've been thinking about installing two (2) high-end cameras in my vehicle. One would face forward and the other would face the rear. I would like both to record whenever my vehicle is moving. I see a lot of junk on both eBay and Amazon but has any of you guys given this idea any consideration or does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? My thoughts include using a small POE switch to run two 2MP 1080P cameras at 30FPS. Ideas? Thoughts? Tear this apart for me?

AMD A10-5800B APU benchmarks at 4,782. Intel Core i7-4770 @ 3.40GHz benchmarks at 9,904. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Money

Here you go...

I got everything up to the point where you said you were a math guy!

BSA, questions -- quite nearly identical to yours -- are posted here e v e r y s i n g l e d a y. In fact, there are probably hundreds of questions...each being very similar to yours. Would it not be better for you to start reading all of the answers to these hundreds of similar topics so that you might absorb all of the wisdom which has been posted to these topics (rather then settling for the few replies which your single question might provoke)

I use Blue Iris, and although it is inexpensive ($50.00), it's CPU requirements are rather high. In addition, when you use a PC as an NVR you must leave it running 24x7.

$$$

There is no daylight savings time offset in the firmware?

After a cursory review of his posts, it appears that George is not very good at sharing.

This question has been asked hundreds of times this year. Why not read through the many topics which address your question so that you will receive all of the experience and all of the wisdom which has been posted to these many topics instead of settling for the 2 to 14 replies which your new topic will elicit?

For a $500 budget, your requirements are unrealistic; $500.00 is going to buy you junk. Do you want to deter, or do you want to watch a grainy image of robbers stealing from you? If you want to deter, harden your residence and up your hardware budget to $2,000. All cameras do is record what is happening...they don't stop anyone. However, cameras can deter because thieves attack soft targets. Cameras can be a definite deterrence, but not if they are hard to see. In addition to a quality surveillance system you should harden all entries to the residence. Get a barky dog. Put up prominently displayed video surveillance signs. Post NRA stickers. Install motion activated lighting. You need to put a comprehensive security plan in place. IMO, all $500 is going to do is buy you a false sense of security and put you off guard.

Break out the ol' post-hole digger and plant a post at the 328 foot mark, eh?

I'm not a real expert...I only play one on this forum...but something like this may meet your requirements. http://www.amazon.com/Filled-Flooded-Direct-Ethernet-Cable/dp/B005EV2A4E/?tag=cc4m-20

+1 on that. As Boogie main mentioned, I'd use high quality gel-filled direct burial rated cable. I'd also run it in PVC conduit, and I'd glue the conduit. Regarding conduit, it's been said it's not IF it will fill up with water BUT WHEN...so (IMO) the conduit is to protect the cable from zealous diggers, not water (it's the gel that does that). I'd also test the section of cable before you bury it to make certain it's viable because I'd hate to do all that work only to find that the cable is no good. And while you're at it you may want to run an extra cable or two in that conduit. Cable is relatively cheap and that's a lot of work to have endure a do-over. Yuk.

Boogieman is right: for and extra $200.00 (+tax) you're getting the hard drive plus you can return it to Costco if you're ever dissatisfied. Swann tech support wasn't too bad either (the one time I had to call them) and there was a Swann tech support guy posting here not too long ago...and that's above and beyond imho bro.

I would counsel e x t r e m e c a u t i o n brother. Handing out $90.00 for a camera is a tad different than sending $1,000.00 for this system; if I were you I would research the heck out of the seller you may send a grand off to China. In addition, that NVR does not include a hard drive, so add $100.00 and plan on opening it and screwing with it; if I was spending that kinda dough I wouldn't want to be bothered. In addition, it states "8 channels" but only "4 POE ports" so to power 4 of the cameras you're going to need to purchase a 4-port POE switch, so add $60.00. Next, that is the camera but I'm confused...do you get eight ( DS-2CD2032-I cameras with that setup? Last, MAKE CERTAIN that you are going to receive an NVR and cameras that contain English Language firmware. It's be a shame to spend that kinda money and have to learn Chinese to use it. Also know that the hardware firmware you get will probably not be upgradable but that probably won't matter to you. As I said, I'd research the heck out of the AliExpress seller before you ship him a grand.

A+++. Step-by-step pictures and textual content along with a video: tutorials don't get much better than this imo.

Yes...those look like the same Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I 3-megapixel (2048 pixel x 1536 pixel) cameras I run and they are excellent. I bought my first two (a Lorex branded $349 "2-pack") from Costco but the last 5 I've bought on AliExpress for approximately $90.00. I word of warning though. AliExpress don't do the return thing too well and the tech support is non-existent. In addition, my bet is that the Costco system that Boogieman linked to sends POE out to only 4 of those 8 ports which means you'll have to power any add-on cameras with a POE switch, a traditional power adapter or a POE injector. Here's some snapshots from my $90.00 pay and pray Chinese cameras ...

You're much like some of my customers and it kinda goes like this... Customer: "What do you think about this idea?" Me: "That's not good idea, for these reasons..." Customer: "But I was thinking I could do it because of this reason!" Me: "Like I said before, it's a bad idea...also because of these additional reasons..." Customer: "But I thought it might be OK if I did it this way..." Me: "Sure...knock yourself out...go right ahead..."

No, that would not be a good option. The resolution is poor and I would imagine that 16 cameras and a recorder with a 1TB drive for $599.00 is a bucket of pain, disappointment and regret which you'll quickly fill. Find yourself a decent quality network IP camera system where each camera displays a minimum resolution of 2MP. I use Hikvision cameras which are very good and which cost approximately $90.00 each. My suggestion is that you find an Hikvision system that comes with eight ( 3MP cameras and includes a network video recorder (NVR) which has the capacity to handle additional cameras in the event you decide you need more than the 8 cams included in the system you buy. Such a system will include Power Over Ethernet (POE) which allows the NVR to provide power to each camera through a single Cat5e or Cat6 Ethernet cable, which will also carry each camera's video signal.

There's so much BS floating around these days it's hard for me to believe claims such as this, especially from someone selling a product which claims such results.

And these...