bike_rider

Even without the built IR, I wonder how it would do with an external IR source.

One nice thing about gmail is that it is easy to read the source file on a message. Open the email in gmail and select "show original message". Look for any odd headers in the SMTP envelope. I have no idea what you will find, but it is a good place to start. This was how I found that one system I was using was not correctly setting the timezone on the message origination time. Once I found that, I was able to contact tech support with the exact problem and they wrote a patch for me.

With PIR, placement is important. I have one on a fence, pointed out toward the street. It is high enough that street level traffic does not trigger it but approaching the fence does. Except on trash day. The garbage trucks are big enough to be seen. So, every trash day I get three predictable false alarms. I can live with it. Optex brand.

While the remote playback of recorded video is not great, it does work via a browser. You also have the option to d/l the file so that bandwidth limitations don't prevent smooth playback. Finally, you can use Teamview to remotely control the PC and do playback that way.

Download the 30 day demo and try it. Very simple, but effective.

I guess that depends on the camera. I have an Pany PTZ that's been auto tracking for 4 years and it is doing just fine. Even so, i agree that it can be of limited value if there are too many moving things in the image. I have to keep the trees trimmed or I get hours of video of the camera tracking the swating branches. OTOH, there have been a couple of times when the PTZ tracking somebody walking on the sidewalk has been useful. I would never recommend PTZ today. It is much easier to get good coverage with megapixel cameras.

My vivotek devices show video in Chrome and FF. You can configure what protocol is used for each video steam. If there is a prompt for a plugin, it is probably RTSP asking for Quicktime. I don't use IE, so it certainly is not required. I buy from B&H usually. If I'm buying through Amazon, I never buy from anyone with less than 95% approval rating. The 8332 seems popular, but did have some firmware issues recently. I don't have one, so I can't comment on the image quality. My next box camera will likely be a Vivotek.

My Axis encoder does not require IE. Heck they even have a no-javascript interface. I'd expect the cameras to be the same. My Vivotek camera and encoder also do not require IE.

I like it. The one thing that you might add is that IR reflections do not match visisble colors. A dark blue sweatshirt can appear very lightly colored in IR.

optex LX-402. Does exactly what you are looking for.

I'm working on LPR, using a Sony CH-140. The camera is about 75 feet from the target zone. Shutter speed is 1/500 to 1/1000. Daytime is, of course, beautiful. Is there an IR unit that really will illuminate plates at 75-100 feet? Raytec is on the short list, but I'd love to not have to spend that much more on this project. For most IR units, I aways figure the real range is 1/3-1/2 the quoted range. Does Raytec really throw as far as they say it does? If so, the Raymax 50 would probalby be my best bet from them.

Thanks for the lead. I looked at their web site and it appears to be capable of doing what we want. I'm a little concerned about the lack of documentation on their site, as well as the lack of contact information for the company. But if I can't find a more professional application, we might just use this. The developer is a one man shop, but is very responsive. www.cam-it.org is the unofficial support forum.

No recommendation on the wireless aspect, but Blue Iris software makes it easy to post images to a web site (via ftp). It also makes it easy to overlay weather data on to an image.

I have a Pany Cl 121 and it is a terrible low light camera. It is not a true Day/night camera and struggles with images in a room during the day if the shades are down. I can't imagine that any of those Pany cube cameras would do well in low light.

I don't know anything about Aver products, but relying on video based motion detection will yield false positives. Birds, tree branches in the wind, cloud shadows, etc all look like motion. Another option is to use something like an Optex passive IR unit to connect to the I/O of the Aver box. Use that to trigger alerts. Then switching it on and off is just a matter of wiring in a switch to the IR unit that you can use to disable it.

What do you suggest as an alternative? I have used the 211J and it was slow because of the 128Mb ram and the CPU. The DS1512+ is a dual core 2.13 with 1GB RAM. I have a Synology and I'm with Mike_va. It is very basic and the last time I looked was $50 per camera. For that price I'd look at Milestone. Blue Iris works for me. The biggest drawback for me to BI is no multi-camera playback.

While I appreciate the time everyone talking to post shots, I would find the information much more useful is people would share a some settings on the camera. For example, shutter speed is critical for evaluating night shots. Thanks

Are there other channels recording? Does the skip happen when another channel kicks in?

The diagram is a good start, but a lot plan would be useful. Where is the front approach? Where is the utility box? Where is the garage/driveway. Is the yard fenced and are there gates? How's the lighting? Can you improve the visible lighting (motion sensors are nice of course). Why do you think you want IR?

True day/night cameras have an infrared filter that automatically moves out of the way so the camera can see better in low light. It is called a removable IR cut filter. Since it is not a true day night camera, I would not spend any more on it.

The clinton doesn't appear to be a true day/night camera, so it is not going to do well in low light. The PDF on the camera shows a lot of potential for setting various parameters, so maybe you have something set wrong. Make sure the shutter speed isn't set too fast.

Vivotek encoders are also more affordable than Axis. One IP Address, 4 streams. Pretty good feature set.

Not me, the neighboors. I'd guess more than 4 IP eventually. Not more than 8.

The neighboors are asking about dedicated DVRs and Dahua/Qvis appears to be the go to brand today. Does anyone have experience with the 8/16 channel versions?

Yes, that's what dual streaming means. Not just two connections, but 2 different video feed settings, usually of different quality. So you have the NVR connect to the high quality stream and a web page or smart phone connect to the lower quality stream.