drocer

Wifi reliable... wifi quality. There's a reason why ethernet has stayed the same while wifi adds more letters to its standard every year. Wifi sucks, but if you must... Two $30-$50 android phones + ip cam app + plug in IR: http://dx.com/en/p/ir-48-led-infrared-illumination-light-for-night-vision-dc-12v-500ma-15235 .3MP to 2.1MP video in that price range. (5MP or higher stills) Local storage email/sms motion detection You could even skip the IR lights if the flash is good enough and this doesn't have to be discreet (pet watching, etc). 2 way audio

I am using the 2.8mm lense. I was also using h.264 encoding to save space but I am not sure what the bitrate settings are. In fact I do not even know how to check the bitrate settings lol. The wider the lens the less clear the image is though? I was going for viewing angle but if that means sacrificing good clearity I could give up a few degrees haha There are online lens calcs to help you. 2.8mm is more for just monitoring vs capturing license plates at a distance. You may look into trying to swap them out. Bitrate is just the quality of the encode. It's usually set on medium but maybe locked for 3MP capture mode. Regardless 3MP, highest bitrate/encoding level, and even @ 20ft should get you something reasonable. If not, you need a larger lens, varifocal, or PTZ with huge optical zoom.

Source = custom flashes, eventually depending on how much is actually proprietary. My guess is only codecs and embedded sensors are. This should the #1 item for the people complaining about chinese firmware. Unknown whether this is still the same chip: That looks like nice hardware to get control of. Would be funny if the cheaper camera's have the same hardware and are only limited via firmware.

Hikvision USA and Hikvision EU would be the targets. Yes, Hikvision China makes them but they have to get approved to be imported for the USA/EU companies to sell them. That would include the unbranded no-names too. AFAIK, they can ignore the GPL requests until the author of the code requests it or someone on acting on their behalf.

Why don't you all attempt to enforce GPL licensing on hikvision USA? I can't find any mention of of GPL at hikvision. I refuse to believe that there aren't any violations from their cameras, dvrs, and nvrs. You will have to get the original author to submit the request (http://gpl-violations.org/). Look at what happened for the home router market once GPL was enforced on Cisco for the Linksys WRT54G. DDWRT came from it and now firmware can be custom made. Took a few years for other models though...

At what frame rate? Tons of people on here think 1-5fps (but higher MP) is okay. IMHO, <25fps is worthless. For the ULV / NUC's, I would evaluate the frame rate you think is acceptable. 25-30fps killed a non-hyperthreading i3 (pentium): viewtopic.php?f=19&t=39387 So you need to decide: software vs hardware motion recording + frame rate __________________ You should be able to identify things with 3MP even at distance. Were you capturing at 3MP with the highest bitrate and encoding? You should be buying a vari-focal, PTZ, or just a longer fixed lens. 4mm@ F2.0, Angle of view: 79° (2.8mm, 6mm, 12mm optional)

I'm in the final few days of testing NVR software. I have firefox and Axxon Next (with client open) running. I'm hitting 3% CPU usage (8 cams * 2.1MP @ 30fps). That is what hardware motion record does. Blue Iris under the same settings is 35-45%.

How far away? Two 1080p USB webcams + two long usb cables?

10MP 6fps 6Mbps http://www.stardot.com/bandwidth-and-storage-calculator Medium:5.6Mbps High:10.1Mbps 10MP camera's seem like a marketing scam and I didn't even look at the optics.

IVMS-4200 PCNVR. Axxon Next was the best. Enough recording, expandable to 16 cameras, least CPU intensive, hikvision 100% supported, setup was easy. Took a bit tweak the "operator manned CCTV" to a home NVR, but it worked perfectly. Playback was easy for me to understand but not great for non-tech people. So IVMS-4200 PCNVR and IVMS-4500 on android is what I'm going with. It's the easiest to install, maintain, use, fix, expand, and it's free. Only "con" is the ridiculously small timeline on playback. 1x8 pixel line on a black background? Xprotect only came in third because of low camera's (I'm already at the max of eight) and enormous cost increase to add 2 simple baby monitor cameras. 1 year timebombed license just killed it. Smartphone access worked fine with minimal stain on PC but didn't feel as polished as it could be. A few older android handsets, didn't run that great either. 1. Smartphone access - IVMS-4500 once setup, was the best 2. Sequenced playback - supported in Xprotect and IVMS; both went crazy playing back 8 cams at once (60% CPU load that never went away and required restarting of both programs) 3. 64bit - none were. Xprotect Go client was 64bit, backend was 32bit. Still don't know why people go on about adding more than 4GB.

This is for Blue Iris only, yes? Just blue iris. The others are free. Will edit.

Where are you sending/storing/viewing all this video? 10MP is great until you have to deal with it on a daily basis. Businesses can afford to handle it but that has to be expensive to deal with. You guys love to latch on to that "$50/cam is crazy" comment. I get that I'm attacking your livelihood, but for home usage it's the truth. That <$100 8 channel NVR ION device that is sold is going to clean up in the home market once hikvision compatible versions come out. $100 for eight camera licenses, software, and hardware to run forever? All that's needed is the HDD and PoE switch. Cheap ARM devices are the future for home usage and most home users aren't going to get their money's worth buying expensive cam licenses over the long run. I would dump my brand new i7 system for a $100 ARM NVR system. For the win8/office prices, just about every single consumer assigns zero value to that software anymore. Windows/microsoft is dieing in the consumer space.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7003/the-haswell-review-intel-core-i74770k-i54560k-tested/2 http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-4770k-haswell-review,3521-18.html Haswell has the lowest idle power, but an NVR system will never be completely 100% idle. Ivy Bridge actually has lower power consumption when working but is a tiny, insignificant amount "slower." For a NAS, the DS412+ uses 44W. That's loaded with WD Green drives that will die in NAS that is used for NVR purposes. Load it up with RED or Blue WD drives and the power consumption goes up. vs i7 or i5 PC with <30% load is likely only 50-70W. Your IP camera's will be 5W/7W (day/night) * x cameras for 24 hours a day. For me, my hikvision camera's eat more power than my i7 does. You can drop power usage by getting a better PSU. 80 Plus bronze or better will improve efficiency of the PSU i.e. from a crap PSU to a 80plus Gold can be greater than 10W. Remove any dGPU. It's compete a waste. Unplug everything you don't need, like the CDROM drive. You want to use hardware motion control in the camera to reduce the load on the CPU. Blue Iris is software. More load, more power, more heat = all bad. ivms-4200, xprotect go, or axxon next is what you want for hardware motion control with hikvision.

Inside only and you don't want to screw with wires? Get foscam "720p" cameras and be done with it. Just lower your expectations on quality and reliability; however, some have great luck. Outside? Don't even think about putting them there or even use foscam. Night vision is going to suck with those too. Another option could be to buy $50 prepaid android phones, install IP camera apps, and that would work just like foscam. You would need IR lights to see at night. Once you move to actually good IP cameras, prepare your wallet.

Xprotect Go and Axxon next for comparison. Axxon Next - full record with client open 8 cameras - 1080p@30fps 1-6% FREE = 16 cameras, 1TB storage, 1 server. iVMS-PCNVR - full record 8 cameras - 1080p@30fps 3-10% FREE = everything Xprotect Go - full record with client open 8 cameras - 1080p@30fps 8-15% FREE = 8 camera, 5 day record, 1 server, annual renewal of free license Blue Iris - full record 8 cameras - 1080p@30fps 45-55% $50 unlimited everything. High CPU usage due to software motion recoding only. Does not support in camera hardware motion recording. Honorable mention: Gsurf Pro. Worked with hikvision and hardware motion control but difficulty in using motion regions vs entire frame motion. Also noticeable lag to reconnect to cameras when switching from playback to live view. 8 cameras - 1080p@30fps 10-15%

I have yet to experience RAM issues with 4GB. The backend recording for milestone is still 32bit. The client is 64bit. Regardless, none of the software I tested used more than 2GB. What am I missing? The only thing I can think of is that the only function of the machine is being an NVR vs NVR+media streamer+NAS+etc+etc.

1.3MP and 3MP are completely different. 8 1.3MP? Fine. 8 3MP? 15-35% load depending on if your camera does hardware motion record. IMHO, anything over 40% load is unacceptable. It's generating more heat and using more power. I guess if you have a giant case and don't care about power usage it's fine. I went USFF for my i7 case which excess heat is not an option. I would get i7 Ivy bridge or haswell, which ever is cheaper. i7 complete desktop should be <$600 easily these days.

Xprotect GO - security system / NVR Axxon Next - CCTV designed for a human operator / NVR I though Axxon Next was easier to setup, maintain, use, and export footage. There's only two screens: Live View; Archive (Forensic search doesn't work in free). Instead of working with all cameras, you work with "live/archive" on the individual screen. That seemed much easier to scrub video/events that way. You could even tag videos with comments for easier retrieval e.g. "white van plate#." But yes, the software does seem jarring at first as it was designed to be manned by an operator tagging alerts/recordings (you can easily turn in into a normal mode). I thought Xprotect Go was timebombed with that 1 year i.e. it stops working vs just throwing up that nag screen? Now you have the 5-day limit and have to remember you system will go down every year without renewing. I got very uneasy with the "trust us, xprotect Go will stay free." What if the company goes out of business, management kills the free version, restrictions are put in place, etc? At best, I renew every year. At worst, the software stops working/features stripped and I have to replace it and "retrain" everyone to use it.

I too found the 5 day recordings worrisome and couldn't ignore it. 7 day vacation = you're screwed out of 2 days. What I did find is Axxon Next. 16 cam, 1TB recording, 1 server is free. Free license doesn't expire in one year either. You can choose where each individual camera records to AFAIK including NAS. Hikvision 100% supported with hardware motion control (even though manual said only sony was supported). Setup was a breeze compared to xprotect go. 1TB is a lot for motion recordings but I guess 5 days of 24/7 could be nicer to some. For just motion recording that could be almost a month. No clue what the step up in licensing cost is though. The forensic drill down looks really nice but really expensive (select an area for motion/color/person and it pulls up clips of just that). I guess this info might be a little late for you.

My experience if it helps: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=39387 Summary: i5 will do what you want but make sure you understand hardware motion record and software motion record. Software motion record taxes the system a lot more. For the PoE go separate, if not for the fact you can go FANLESS. Might not seem like much now, but fans get real old, real fast if you are within earshot. Also if the PoE built into a NVR dies, you're screwed then too.

Budget? Cameras used? Just headless recording or live monitoring required? What was wrong with exacq? You could look into a NAS solution. That would eliminate the backup issues. $50/camera and depends on camera. http://www.synology.com/en-us/ etc, etc,. I would do this. You could try another NVR software. Axxon makes something nice for archiving. You can pick different places where each camera sends their video. Send each camera to a different directory. Then you can send backups to a cheap NAS or just record to it in the first place. http://www.axxonsoft.com/products/axxon_next/archive/ Video size depends on what your camera's send. Is it MJPEG or H264? The later is as small as it gets. If it's MJPEG or something else, you could write a script to transcode the video but at 640x400 it might get messy.

I get that there are professional installers here and some see certain comments as attacks on their livelihood, but you can't make statements like that given the recommendations that float around here. Buy no warranty/support cameras from unauthorized sites or aliexpress or flash costco Swann re-badges + $$$ camera licenses = "no brainer." You're making the argument that you would be an idiot to not spend money on the software/license/NVR; then you must also call people an idiot to want to buy most of the cheaper cameras recommended here. You can't have one without the other. Hell, you're in a thread about using the free version of Xprotect GO. You should be publicly deriding every single person who "cheapens" out on software. 5 days of recording? That sounds like something your "billy joe bob" would use. Real people who care about security wouldn't use such free trash and pay for Essential (That is what you sound like).

Unauthorized with no warranty. Try filing a warranty claim from that site you recommended and B&H will look amazing in comparison.

Authorized for Hikvision AFAIK which is what the guy wanted. It was more to show the price difference between authorized and unauthorized not to endorse that particular store. Support and warranty cost money. I did mention grandstream for that reason. USA support, firmware available right on their site for customer usage, place to submit bugs, online USA stores, free software (albeit lacking), and all their cameras are/were $70-$350 (1MP - 5MP). If costco stopped selling that 2-pack swann/hikvision, I would have bought grandstream. If they would have offered free linux NVR software, I would have bought grandstream. They even abide by GPL: http://www.grandstream.com/support/faq/gnu_gpl

The last swann NVR package and now 2-pack from costco do 3MP with Swan firmware. It's in the drop down box on both. Confirmed personally and the firmware versions here: viewtopic.php?p=240489#p240489 3MP mode on swann firmware is likely still buggy/lagging hikvision's firmware.