Scruit

When I try to runt he web viewer using my laptop or my son's desktop it's fine. My big PC upstairs gets into an endless loop and IE8 kills the window. Son's PC: Vista 32, IE8.0.6001.18904. Works. My laptop: W7 Ultimate 32bit, iE8.0.7600.16385 Works. My PC: XP SP3 32bit, IE8.0.6001.18702. Does not work

Is there not an option in the backup function that puts the player software on the USB stick? Aver and AVTech/CPCam do this. Sorry, I have no experience with Sentient.

Aver tech support tells me that this is a placeholder for when this option is released in the future. No ETA as yet.

I can set the DVR to email when an event happens.. And I can see the option for FTP... but the FTP option is greyed out.

The .DVR file that is put out by either the CPCam or Aver DVRs uses a special player. Is the court going to install the special player on their computer to play the video in court? Or will the police/prosecutor transfer the video to DVD or whatever so they can play it in court?

I thought watermarks were invisible... Yes, footage can be manipulated. It's up to the prosecution to convince the judge and jury that is has NOT been manipulated. Whether or not the defense will challenge a video is based on several factors: - Has the footage been copied from one format to another? How many times? - Is the video in an insecure format that can be manipulated, such as AVI/MPG? - Is the video produced by a system that uses a watermark, and the watermark is invalid or missing? - Is it worth the cost of hiring an expert to argue the video? - etc Whether or not the Judge/Jury will trust the footage is also based upon several factors: - Did the person who is validating the images have full custody and control over the video at all stages? - Is the video in a secure format? ie Proprietary codec that can't be altered in video editing software. - Is the watermark present? - Is the person presenting the evidence someone that the judge/jury is going to believe? Whereas there are no absolutes, you can be reasonable assured that a video in a shoplifting case will face less scrutiny than in a murder case. In a soplifting case it's generally not worth hiring an expert to validate or challenge video even if it's grainy VHS stuff. In a murder case you'd better have all you ducks in a row (good frame rate, high quality, good resolution, documented chain of custody etc) because most folks will pay anything to discredit the video. Real life examples below... I don't know what the numbers are after the date/time you described. Could be frame numbers? Field numbers? Camera ID (if the video footage shows multiple cameras)? The watermarks that I'm aware of generally use secret data hidden in the video stream. They are hidden in a way that if the video is copied to a new format then the data is lost, so software that validates the watermark will identify if the video is original or not. Real life example 1: One of my videos was used in a USPSemployment termination arbitration hearing. The video was exported to DVD by playing it back on DVR and using a TV capture card. The video was low frame rate (4fps) but good resolution. The content of the video was not challenged, although an attempt was made to exclude the video based upon invasion of privacy. The arbitor ruled that because the video was taken outside my house in view of the street there was no expectation of privacy, therefore the video was allowed. CPCam CPD576W DVR. Real life example 2: Another of my videos was used in a prosecution of a 3rd degree misdemeanor criminal mischief case. The video was exported using the export-to-AVI function in the USB playback console (Aver EB1304MOB). That AVI was rendered down to 90% original size because the time/date stamp was not visible on a television screen (slighty off the edge), then burned to DVD. The prosecutor made it it clear that I would have to validate the video and show chain of custody. The video was never challenged and the defendant entered into a plea hearing after consulting with defense attorneys. He said words to the effect of; "They said I would be paying them to defend me and I'd still lose." Real life example 3: Another video, exported in the same way/same DVR as example 2, was used in a felony prosecution for theft/burglary. The defense issued a subpoena for a expert to come and testify about the video. The prosecutor stated this was just sabre-rattling during the plea negotiations. The defense never alluded to what they wanted their expert to testify about. The video was only a very small part of the case, and even a successful challenge would not have altered the outcome of the case, so the defendant accepted a plea deal where he served 3 years in jail. My lessons learned: Next time I submit video it will be a data DVD that contains the .DVR and .AVI files. The .AVI will be for convenience as it can be played in media player, however any serious case may see the .AVI challenged as it can be manipulated and has no watermark. The .DVR file will have the watermark and any defense expert will see that and will be unlikely to succeed in a challenge on the authenticity of the video.

Also, the overwrite function will clear 7 or 8 GB of space at a time to record new data - but that's a different area of the disk each time. Some people think that it's recording over the saem 8GB each time... When you search for video on an avtech/cpcam that had multiple hard drives, change the "Search Selected" to "Seach All HDD". That way you don't miss video that's actually stored on the other HD.

Put the .21 firmware on. All better now. Playback is much smoother and the controls all respond well. Of course I made the rookie mistake of forgetting to export the config before I started....

When I try to play back video I can switch from channel to channel and see the individual full screen shots. Each click of the mouse takes about 3-10 seconds to produce any response, and switching to channel 16 produces a delay of about 30 seconds, then the playback window is blank. I can see there is footage recorded if I look in the 16-way screen, but selecting ch16 directly give me nothing. Then after trying a few times to see ch16, the DVR rebooted itself. NOT a good start.

I'm using VGA but I'd like to have the spot output also. Any clues?

The spot monitor output IS working, however this DVR does not have an analog 16-way output. Instead it has two spot monitor outputs that can be controlled by the alarm rules. ie, I have configured an alarm rule that is triggered by motion on channel #1. One of the actions ios to set the spot monitor output to display channel 1. I'm used to having an analog 16-way output, so that's why I was confused.

hi scruit. you need the new update. do you have it ??? As it happens I just picked up a USB key today from the store so I could bump the firmware from .19 to .21. I'm going to give that a shot in about an hour.

I tried that - the pinouts aren't obvious to me from looking at the connector / motherboard.

So I just got my new EH5216+ and the audio connector is a DE25 port? Apparently needs a optional cable. Anyone have a pinout/wiring diagram so I can make my own cable? Thanks!

no lead is needed on the avers. at the back (green strip connector) you will see push in connector for mic +- next to ptz control. (far right looking from back) Not on this one. This has 16 audio channels, and there's a DE25 connectro labelled audio. The manual talks about an optional audio cable.

Aver EB1304MOB. Plugs in to the car's battery through a power controller that I built. Motion inside the car will turn the recording on, as will opening a door, opening the trunk or putting the key in the ignition. I also have an override switch I can use to keep the system recording all the time.

My dashcam setup has an interior camera. It used to be mounted openly and aimed at the driver to show what the driver (me) was doing at the time of a crash to help understand what happened. After watching a few bait car videos I figured a hidden camera could serve the additional purpose of filming someone who breaks into / steal the car. SO I went with a wide angle lens installed at the bottom of the A-pillar. As it is today, the camera is hidden inside a hollowed out Beanie Baby Dog It's really obvious in this pic because it's reflecting the flash. In real life it's much less noticeable. Some people see it quickly, some don't. Typically, if someone is looking for it they find it. IF they don't expect the camera to be there they don't notice it for a while. Some people (valet drivers/service techs etc) don't ever see it. One service tech can be seen picking his nose... And eating it... That video will never see the light of day. Imagine me watching this video outside the dealership before I drive home. And then imagine me driving to the nearest supermarket, touching the steering wheel as little as possible almost like it was made of molten metal. "Can you direct me to the aisle where you keep the bleach and lysol, please?"

Opposite sex, yes. But she sure wasn't no prize, let me tell you. Hey, I never showed you my dog-arse camera, did I?

Reliable capture at 30mph is going to require a professional system costing several thousand dollars. I built a home-brew system that captured about 99% of license plates entering my driveway, as long as the car is doing less than 15mph. That required me to mount the camera so the car was coming directly towards the camera. Even at 20deg off the centerline the capture rate dropped significantly as the number of frames the plate was in shot was lower, and the side-side motion caused blurring, especially on an interlaced image. I use a B/W Supercircuits PC23C camera, 60mm auto-iris lens, IR Pass filter at 850nm and a long range 850nm IR illuminator. I then feed that image into channel 1 of a dedicated DVR. The loop-out from channel 1 connects to channel 2. Both channel 1 and 2 have the same image, however I have the brightness and contrast set differently. Channel 1 is set for default bright/cont and works during the day. Channel 2 is set for high brightness/contrast and works better at night. I get a 99% catch rate at ~100 feet from the camera. If the car stops in shot then I can read the county and validation stickers!

Used this camera to try to catch who was stealing stuff from my cubicle at work. Caught two of the cleaning crew making out in my chair.

Best I Can tell.... A D1/4CIF images is a FRAME that is made up of two interleaved FIELDS. One field has the odd-numbered lines and the other field has the even-numbered lines. This interlacing only happens in D1/4CIF because CIF is not interleaved. The interleaved images can cause jagged distortion on object moving quickly left or right in the shot. CIF is approx 320x240. D1/4CIF is approx 640x480. Watch out of cheap DVRs as they often quote their "FPS" as FRAMES per second, which means you only really get half of that. Example: 4 channel DVR claims 60fps. You think that means 60 frames per second, which is 15 frames per second per channel when divided across 4 channels. In reality it's 60 FIELDS per second, which is 30 FRAMES per second, which gives you just 7.5 FRAMES per second per channel. A big difference, considering 15fps is very smooth and 7.5fps is noticeably jittery. I like to use CIF when the dynamics of the motion is more important than the detail. e.g In a car DVR it's more important to have smooth motion to understand who did what and when. Fine detail is less important. You don't need to read his bumper stickers on the playback, you just need to know precisely when he crossed the centerline. In my home CCTV I go with D1 because it's more important to have good detail to identify the bad guy. You don't need full motion video to be able to see that he's stealing my TV.

Does it saw M in the top right? Is it set to motion record? If so, and there is motion, then it is likely switching back to motion record between the time you press stop and menu. Try pressing stop then menu very quickly (works best at the dvr, not on remote). You may need to do it a few times until you get it. Failing that, identify the camera that has the motion and either unplug it or cover the camera. This should give you time to press stop then press menu before it switches back to motion record. (Another of those CPCam idiosyncrasies)

Yeah, sorry man. Gonna have to switch to a DVR that actually works in a predictable manner. I'm sorry to see the CPCam go.

I use the FTP function built into the CPCam 517HC to ftp images of motion to my PC. Every couple of days the FTP stops and I have to reboot the DVR to make it work again. While the FTP is down I can't log in to the video server or http either. Message is "Could not send reply, disconnected". I have tried a couple different FTP severs (BabyFTP, FileZilla server) and get the same thing. Works for a couple of days then dies. Anyone seen this before?

I've been through 8 hard drives and 2 DVRs, and I'm still seeing video getting corrupted. Is there anyone who works for Aver here who can give me some advice on how to mount the DVR in the car? Must it be mounted horizontally at all costs? What else can cause the DVR to corrupt the filesystem?