BlackICE

Thanks for the help guys, I actually did have event recording set to light blue and also had motion detection set up. For whatever reason it still wasn't recording. I did a system reboot and tried again and things seem to be working fine now. I've got to say I'm really liking NVR 3 so far. When I first started looking into replacing our old analog cameras I came to this forum and started doing some research. I initially thought I was going to go with Dahua cams, then I thought maybe Hikvision. But after seeing the poor reviews on the standalone NVR's I started leaning away from that and going the software route. Thanks to your excellent review site buellwinkle and the forum I finally settled in on Acti cams/software and ordered with Wrightwood Surveillance. I've been very pleased so far. I just need to get our electrician over to do a drop from the attic into my downstairs office and then order some more cams.

Ok, I see where footage from "manual record" is showing up in the timeline so that's good. I also see where the Motion Detect video shows up in the timeline....I thought the red record light would come on for motion but I guess it doesn't. The thing that's still odd is that none of the video shows up when doing search...even if I have all the icons checked off, i.e. DI, Motion, Record etc.

I just purchased an ACTI E32 and installed NVR 3.0 on my PC. I've been playing around all day with the system and cannot seem the get the recording to work. The camera seems to work fine on "Live" however in "Playback" I can't see any recorded videos....it seems to just playback nothing. I've got it setup to make a "beep" alert when motion is detected. The alerts work fine when motion is passed by the camera but still no recording happening. Even when I click on "Manual Record" I see the red light come on as though it's recording but when I do a search nothing. Can any of you NVR 3 users shed some light on what I'm doing wrong

Yes, I wanted to avoid any fan noise which is why I'm going to use two of the ES1100-8P's.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to get my network cables down from the attic to a downstairs office. At first I thought I would tackle the job myself but after reading buellwinkle say he hires an electrician for the drops I'm thinking that's the best route to go. I'm starting out with a single Acti E32(just ordered) to see how I like it and if it works out I plan to add 5 more. Some of the cameras will be mounted under eaves and some will be run out towards the end of our driveway about 110 feet out. As a result some of the cable will need to be direct burial grade. Since I'm new to IP camera's I've got a few questions I was hoping I could get some advice on. 1) Does it matter if I use CAT5 or CAT5e? 2) Should I buy both interior Cat5 and direct burial Cat5 or just get a big roll of direct burial and use that for everything? Since I've got to run up to 6 lines down through the wall would the thicker cable be more hassle since it would be a tighter fit....i.e should I just use a mix of direct burial for some cameras and indoor for some as necessary? 3) Should I be using something like a 6 port keystone jack in the office and then attaching to the POE switch with patch cables...or just have the Cat5 go directly from the camera to the POE switch? 4) Can someone recommend which brand CAT5/CAT5e I should use. I've found several on the various "cable" websites but want to make sure I'm using the same high quality many of you use. My plan is to run all the cables down through the wall at once and leave the unused lines coiled in the attic for when I'm ready to add more cameras. I appreciate any help/advice anyone has to offer. I've been reading over the forum for about a week and just haven't been able to figure some of this stuff out yet. Thanks, Will

Great, thanks

What I'm really trying to figure out is if having cameras on two different POE switches will make accessing them remotely or through the software(think I'm going to use Acti) any more difficult. I'm new to IP cameras and I'm just learning how everything fits together.

I'm going to be setting up a 5-6 camera system and I'm trying to decide on a fanless POE switch. From searching the forum it sounds like the Zyxel ES1100-8P is a solid choice. Since it's only got 4 POE ports I would need to run two of them. Would running two of them cause more headaches in setting things up or accessing the cameras than just getting something with 8 POE like a Cisco SF 302-08P? Thanks