zgebis

That's true. I'm a very special buyer on Ebay. I spend close to 4k monthly. If I call eBay they will refund me without problems. I just at this point don't want to have to remove the DVR all the drives pack it and ship it to eBay. Then wait for another to arrive. Etc. I don't know if he would be able to help with this problem. I am glad I got SquarrTrade on this one. If he doesn't honor the warranty if needed then they got my back. Yeah I think he should give me a discount on it but that's going to be hard since he won't reply. I guess I could leave him his first negative. Anyone know how to reach Dahua. Also how do I get a firmware update since he's unreachable. He claims it shipped with the latest. Its hard to dig up info on these units. PSS works just I like the newer smartpss. Should I just start a dispute and buy the DVR from another company that claims to have great support?

Yeah 4 of the 16 open no problem. Tried a different PC same problem. The network is gigabit so its not a network quality issue. Tried on both a windows 7 and 8 PC. No answer yet from dahua.

Anytime I export video, No time stamp shows in the video. I installed the decoder also still no time stamp. Any solutions?

Since no one knows, its a firmware issue. Speco took the DVR back and I got a different brand.

Do you know how to get a hold of someone at Dahua? I sent a email on the support site but had no response in the past two days. I bought the DVR from a dead beat seller on Ebay who is totally unhelpful and supposedly he is a professional installer company owner. I guess I got screwed in that deal since I paid more for one with a "three year warranty" but he wont respond to messages so I am screwed.

I have tried PSS and have no problems. I kinda liked the newer feel of the SmartPSS and the features that came with it.

I have tried that's the version that came on the CD.

I am using the cheep pre made bnc cables that came with a Swann kit for my new cameras. The wire ends are so brittle from being moved that they are cracking at the spot where it enters the connector. I dont want to have to rewire the bad wires. Anyone have any solutions. This is at the DVR location and the dvr is shoved up in a closet on a shelf. I was thinking about making small bnc cables in 2foot lengths securing the connectors that are bad to the wall so that they can not bend or get any stress on them when the dvr is being moved. Its a real wire mess at the dvr and every time I have to troubleshoot, there is a rats nest of wires because of the video and power is in the same cable. Id also have to have a male to female adapter in each connection also. What Ideas do you have? I think if the cables were tacked on the wall and just the new cable is all bound together in the same length they would neatly plug into the dvr without any wire mess.

Can anyone suggest a DVR that will last. Over the past 2 years we have gone through several DVRs. The cheep, Lorex and Q-See bundle models. Can anyone recommend a long lasting DVR. Our insurance company is covering up to $1200.00. Quick requirements Needs PTZ- Pelco D 16 Channel (BNC)- Support 960H recording at 5 FPS per channel Needs to be web accessible and android compatible. 4 Channels of audio (BNC or RCA) Support a minimum 3TB of storage (sata hard drive internal) Ability to record continuously and list motion events, and be able to just review motion events ________________________________________________________________________________ Here is the full requirements in detail- The system shall offer remote network connectivity to a properly specified PC computer that allows transmission of video and control data over the Ethernet network. The DVR shall offer multiple continuously recorded digital video and audio channels onto a hard drive medium. The DVR shall incorporate an embedded Linux operating system using a proprietary software application for control, management and display. The DVR shall offer simultaneously view live or playback while continuing to record and network transfer. The DVR shall employ a high profile H.264 compression algorithm in the video digitizing scheme. The DVR shall provide full digital video and audio surveillance over a standard 100Base-T network by the use of a GUI The DVR shall collect multiple channels (16) of analog video, 4 channels of audio and digitize them for the purpose of display, archive and requested distribution across the Ethernet network. Cameras shall be the primary analog input devices. Each channel of video data shall have the capability of being recorded, displayed, played back, archived and distributed simultaneously across the network. The video shall also be capable of alarm notification based on motion via a built-in utility to configure motion detection of objects in the individual camera scenes. Each camera can be customized for motion area and sensitivity using grid blocks. The motion events shall be transmitted to authorized users via an email notification utility. The video shall also have selectable digital zoom on any camera in live view and playback mode. The video recording capability shall be fully scheduled using the built-in utility. The DVR shall also have full LAN, WAN and Internet connection capability. The DVR shall offer user selectable resolution and frame rate within the GUI. The settings choices shall be: 1. 960 x 480 pixels (960H) at 480 fps. 2. 720 x 480 pixels (D1) at 480 fps. 3. 320 x 240 pixels (CIF) at 480 fps. The DVR shall offer a GUI capable of complete recorder configuration and operation. Sub-features such as defined video display and control, component setup, recording setup, network setup and the use of dialog messages shall be provided in a comprehensive menu structure. The DVR shall support the use of PTZ type cameras on an RS-485 bus using pelco-d.

So we have a few of the Q-see QD6504B ($199.99 Retail). The quality SUCKS. Whats the deal is there some setting I need to mess with in the camera OSD. http://www.q-seestore.com/weatherproof-650-tvl-bullet-ccd-camera-with-150-ft-night-vision-qd6504b/ I have it recording a 960H Highest Quality 4FPS we have 9 of these things and they all function equally bad.

The 5516 has a firmware update that adds the WD1 option. https://www.q-see.com/products/product_description.php?cId=137&pId=310&id=137&pid=113

I will just tell you unless the person is popular. Like someone you know or the police have run into a lot, a face shot might not help you. I got a clear face shot of a car burg and the police said it was very useful and clear but they never caught the kid. They passed it around to all officers and neighboring police Ran the image through facial recognition of all Driver licenses, gun cards, id cards, etc Give the image to school lesion officers Even made it into the news paper The kid was NEVER caught couldnt ID him. But you might have better results. From my experience the kid just so happened to walk past a zoomed in image. Heres a scenario- Wide angle shot- police come see a blurry figure approach a car slit the tire and take off. the officer makes sure to note in the report that he had a head two feet and two arms and maybe a face. Close shot on one car, the vandal just so happens to go to that one car that the camera is zoomed on and bam its such a clear zoomed in shot, the vandal asks if he can use it for a profile pic pays your a royalty. and it gets him caught. Now I just want to say I do have a lot of wide angle shots so I dont follow my own advise. Just know that lawyers will argue that the image is not of the suspect if its not 100% clear, so make sure its a useful shot. Perhaps position the cars so that he must pass a close zoomed in shot of his or maybe her face. From my experience these bad boys in our area dont mind motion lights and will take there time sliting tires and keying cars.

So i went ahead an broke the cameras open and to my surprise they were NOT focused correctly. So doing that times 9 cameras is a hassle but worth it. According to DPSI they are a 960H camera, I dont believe it. I didnt pay a penny for them. I got it as a free upgrade from DPSI because the original system I was sold Failed so bad I didnt even want to bother backing up video of a theft because you couldn't make out anything. I was offered an HD system and said no because I did not want to rewire. I still think it should be at least a bit clearer.

We have a current CCTV system which was just "renovated" so to say, before the new HD standard became popular. This system is on a 4K square foot home. The current system is running 960H cameras and recording at 960H quality. All the cameras and recorders are new and probably have plenty of life left to them. They have insurance coverage for about 4 more years. A majority of cameras are outside two of which are PTZ cameras one is a GE legand which has a Ethernet port. The cable ran to each camera was the standard cable with BNC connectors but NOT shielded RG59 or even RG59 its just the standard thin power and video cable all in one. We would like to transition to the HD standard but I dont want to even think about running new wiring and an SDI system will not cut it because the cable is too thin. Most of the wire is in PVC pipe and its glued and lots of bends, just seems like a nightmare to rerun. What I was thinking and this might be crazy, was to install IP Cameras but instead of using wired Ethernet I would use Wi-Fi cameras that could go outdoors and just let them plug into the existing 12v jack located at every camera location. Now we do have a high performance router and access point. The specs on the router and access point are: Dual high power 2.4GHz amplifiers, dual 5.0GHz amplifiers and dual high gain antennas, 620MHz internal processor, and 10,000 Sq Feet coverage, 600mW. We get great wifi speed and signal even about 1000 feet away from the house. So capacity and range should not be an issue. I was thinking about going with a hybrid NVR with ONVIF feature. This way all the video feeds (analog/ digital) would still record to the same recorder. I was not planing to make the jump overnight. I was thinking about replacing cameras as they started failing with the new Wi-Fi IP cameras. The sad thing is that we do have some IP cameras currently that do not record to a drive instead just record on a sd card on the camera and some just dont record and are just used to check in on the property. We have full outside coverage and about 85% indoor coverage of the entire property. My biggest fear is that the antenna jack on the exterior cameras will rust. For example: http://i00.i.aliimg.com/wsphoto/v3/1203481156_2/Onvif-H-264-IP-Camera-Wireless-WiFi-Outdoor-1280-720P-P2P-Plug-And-Play-IR-Night.jpg Has anyone ever attempted to try what I am thinking about doing? Again this would not be an overnight transition, but I would slowly move to the digital standard so I would expect that problems would show up before the entire project was finished. Also am I correct that if a camera says it has ONVIF and the DVR has ONVIF there should be no capability problems?

I have a pretty large camera system on my home both inside the house and outside. My question is how long should I retain video for. We recently spoke with a detective of our sheriffs office who told us that he was able to obtain video from a Walmart store that was 4 months old and claims they can go back about 6 months. We also found out a neighbors house can only go back one week. I remember that my high school was only able to go back 3 days and the video recorded was CIF at 1FPS.... they paid nearly 1 million dollars for an inferior system if you ask me. This was analog with two 16 channel dvrs. But they also required lots of cable runs so it might have been mostly work that resulted in that number Anyhow I decided to tweak my settings and was getting about a month and a half of video "useable" . This was a mixture of resolutions from CIF-WD1 and the highest frame rate of 3FPS. How long should I have video retained for. I mean I would know if my windshield was broken out, but might not notice if say something small happened. For example I had a few "Warning Cameras in use" signs stolen. I noticed them missing after two weeks past! Should I have 1 1/2 months of "Useable" video or about 1-1/2 weeks of "good" video? "useable" - CIF and D1 mixture no more than 3 FPS "good" - Cif and WD1 mixture about 5 FPS.

Here is some video from a Menards store.

Exactly true. I kinda see both sides. So now that I am recording at higher resolutions and frame rates. How long should I retain that video. Should I upgrade storage capacity now so that I can get more images on the recorder. I did ONE time and only one time have to go back a few months to find who stole an item because we weren't really paying attention. I don't want to go to Motion only recordings because sometimes with motion you can miss an object or person. I also have a few PTZ cameras so motion wont work that well.

I caught some "punks" on out CCTV a few years ago. They broke into several cars in the neighborhood. This is when we had the small 4 channel dvr and a multiplexer to push one channel into 4 additional channels. I think the image is clear the police said it was clear.... Did they catch him. Nope because no one could identify him. BTW that was a snap shot from a CIF recording. Now if you are from the midwest you should know or herd of Menards home improvement stores. They record at CIF resolution at 2 FPS. and they are a multi-billion dollar company.

Here are before and after pics of some of the camera system renovations I have done. I installed the system when I was 16 and just rushed through the install. I think I installed all 16 cameras in one day and you can see why. I was given equipment from DPSI to upgrade the quality and be a test subject for them so I decided to make it look neat. I have over 16 cameras on our house now and have several more images that I hope to share soon.

The third image from top is the before pic all others are after. I never took pictures of all the old equipment.

I sure did.

At 4:43 they say he installed a 70K dollar camera system! Is this exaggerated or true. Like the quality doesn't look that high.https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=RCkNCOA5u-g#t=253

Here is another camera this one was moved and is the furthest wire run. Apparently when I was younger I thought it was acceptable to hide wire in the gutter. All the wires where hidden in conduit for protection and ease of upgrading. You can see the house has brick which makes hiding wire a task. Also I didn't want to unzip siding.

I am wondering why ptz mounts are so large. I have a GE Legend PTZ and its wall mount is nice and small yet some cameras have this huge mount the like raises the camera over the roof of the building I posted an example. Why are they mounted high like that. Is it so that an operator and pan the camera and see if someone is on the roof?

Thanks that makes perfect sense.