Don Stephens

That's all Dahua stuff in that package. Those domes are decent but only ceiling mountable. I don't have any personal experience with those bullets. It's all a significant improvement over the other system, but I'm not familiar with retail pricing. I'm not sure why they've opted to include that switch. It's not large enough to support that number of cameras so it's actually an incomplete system.

Honestly, I was trying not to hurt any feelings. ACTi is still on the list though...a bit against my will. I don't have the best luck with their cameras.

Having a larger HDD will not increase it's longevity. The SSD type used to only last around three years but new ones are coming out now that last 5-10 years (Samsung?). They do have a much lower failure rate than any HDD as Digiscan mentioned. I still haven't made up my mind about whether or not using an SSD for surveillance is worth it. I've always had issues justifying the cost versus reward.

If I'm looking at the same USG package (Amazon), the cameras are garbage. I wouldn't expect much better quality from the NVR but I don't recognize it from the face plate. Nothing there is worth what they're charging. I'd have to know what's in the Lorex bundle to tell you whether or not it's worth it. What's your budget for the whole project and what do you still need to purchase?

What do you mean you can't search or read it? Are you getting an error message or are you implying that you don't know how? How certain are you that the previous DVR was broken and it wasn't a defective hard drive?

I've seen plenty of all of the above from a number of different manufacturers.

What exactly is the trick behind getting motion detection to work for Hikvision cameras on a Dahua NVR?

I would direct you more towards an IP surveillance/security camera rather than a something like a webcam, but that's just the nature of this forum. An IP security camera would mean dedicated software and mobile applications that you'd be able to use to get anything you want other than cloud storage. I don't advocate using cloud storage so I can't help with suggestions in the department. Your power options for most IP cameras will either be 12VDC or PoE (power over Ethernet). If you want a wireless camera, that will limit you to 12VDC. That means you'll need a 12V power supply with enough amperage to power the camera, and outlet, and enough cable to reach the camera.

How are you planning to power the camera?

No one's been using them long enough to be able to provide you with anything conclusive yet. For example, we haven't had one fail yet, but we've only been using them for about 6 months. At the very least, I've seen better performance from them over other WD drives or anything from Seagate.

I very admittedly do not have the best grasp on pricing an availability of products in the UK but I can throw out some general suggestions. I don't use any cameras with built in wireless anything; if an IP camera needs to be wireless, I use access points. This is just because I've personally got better results and longevity doing it this way. I regularly use and have good luck with Ubiquiti hardware. The next few things are up in the air for you to consider. I don't know if you already have cable figured out, but you'll want to make sure you're using solid copper Cat5e or Cat6. Also, just about every IP camera you're going to want to take into consideration is probably both 12VDC and PoE ready. That gives you a couple options for power unless you've already got that nailed down. You really have some very good options for cameras as I see it based on how much you're willing to spend. On the low end of the scale, you can look at products from Dahua and Hikvision. They have some good stuff to choose from that you may find can do the job for you at a considerably smaller cost than you planned for. If you want to see what the next step up looks like, you can start looking at IP cameras from ACTi, Axis, and Bosch; I think I've seen some recent discussion on here saying good things about Vivotek as well. Avigilon is another one but I honestly have no idea what their pricing looks like at the 2 megapixel level. As far as seeing in the dark in concerned, you can purchase a camera that already has an IR board, or you can use IR illuminators; it's really up to you. Built in Infrared might be simpler based on your power supply situation. In that case, you'll want to focus more on dome and bullet style cameras. You might have to compromise a bit on the angle of view. Most of them won't be able to stretch to a full 90%. Expect most of what you look at to be in the range of 75-80 degrees.

So, to simplify this... You're looking for a wireless HD IP camera (weatherproof) solution that can do around 20fps (or will 5fps do) at it's own resolution? The rest of it sounds like it's all up to your programming abilities. Tell me if I missed something. Questions: 1. What resolution should the camera be? 2. What kind of lens, angle of view, or lens capabilities are you after? 3. Do you require a motorized lens or pan/tilt function? 4. Does the camera need to see in the dark? 5. How many cameras will there be? 6. How close will the cameras be to their connected router(s) and/or access point(s)? 7. What will the cameras be transmitting through (i.e. - drywall, wood, steel, etc...)? 8. Are you aware you'll still have to power these wireless cameras, so you'll still need to run power cable at the very least? 9. Is there any possibility of making this a wired system or are you set on wireless? 10. Do you want cameras with built in wireless functionality or are you open to using a series of access points with standard IP cameras and some very short cable runs? 11. Most importantly, you're going to get an entire mess of answers you don't like if you don't at least ballpark your budget for the project...so what is it?

Seagate has been struggling with their failure rate for over a year now, but that's not a reflection on how long the hard drive should last. You should at least be getting the two years out of it that the warranty covers (some have 3yr warranties). I believe after that, depending on the quality of the hard drive, the normal lifespan of an ordinary hard drive is 3-5 years.

PTZ wireless transmitter & receiver set

Assuming there isn't something wrong with the presets, I've seen this happen when there's corrosion on the connectors or even more commonly when the power supply starts going bad.

The edges look jagged because the image is being compressed. It doesn't effect the way the cameras are recording at all as you've already seen. There's nothing you can do about that other than to get a significantly larger and higher quality monitor. It's nothing but aesthetics and doesn't have anything to do with performance.

You can record at whatever resolutions you have available to choose from on that list. It makes sense to record everything at the highest resolution the camera is capable of but some people have situations that call for something else. More or less, just set resolution as high as the hardware and installation will allow you to. Just pay attention to what the available range of frames rates is at those resolutions.

It's your font size. You need to change your font size on the desktop to "Normal" instead of "Large."

This isn't a step. You don't match the resolution of your camera with the resolution of your monitor. The resolution of your monitor has absolutely no bearing on the quality of your recorded video. You can have several different resolutions on the same recorder without any issue. Each channel is configured separately. Meaning if channel 1 has a 720p camera connected to it, then you configure the channel to record in 720p. If channel 2 has a 1080p camera on it, then you configure the channel for 1080p. The different aspect ratios will display as such and that may bother you, but everything can and should be recording exactly at the resolution you designate during setup. This makes anything to do with aspect ratios negligible. Do not confuse any of this with the "display resolution" that you set on your recorder. Your display resolution should be set to match the resolution of your monitor. This isn't about image quality, this is about making the devices compatible with one another. For the most part your recorder will automatically negotiate this for you anyway so it's normally not even something you need to acknowledge.

Post a picture showing where and how you have it mounted.

I am very happy to see you included a cable tester on that list. I can't tell you how many times I've pleaded with people to spend the extra $10-$15 to get one of those (especially with cat5e/cat6 cable). It is more than worth the money.

How long are the cable runs to those cameras? What kind of cable?

It's going to log it as an event for every separate time it detects motion. If you enter the room and your camera detects it as motion, that's one. If you sit down and stop moving and your camera returns to normal, then the event ends. Once you get back up and start moving again, the cycle repeats and logs event number two. How it displays on the search bar during playback is manufacturer dependent.

Have you confirmed that the ports aren't being blocked by your ISP? Most of the port checking tools people use will tell you they're open even if they're being blocked. I use this: https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 If you've forwarded your ports and they show here as "Stealth", it's an indication that your ISP is blocking the ports. Assuming that you did all the port forwarding correctly, that's really my only guess. I would suggest posting a screen shot of those port forwarding services so people can double check your work.

You only need Cat5e, but Cat6 would be better for future proofing as unix explained. As it's also been brought up, run solid copper or nothing at all. Buy your own cable so you don't get taken to the cleaners. Monoprice would be a good place to start shopping (www.monoprice.com). They have pretty competitive pricing and only sell solid copper.