bike_rider

I definitely see shockwave's point. For the OP (and all future newbies), I decided to answer this thread because the OP provided a good over view of the situation (not a generic i-need-4-cameras thread) and had some idea of what was needed. Plus, he did not ask "what's the cheapest ...." - I never have an answer for that question. Not that I think money is no object, but I look for value rather than cheap. Frankly, few people have the budget for what they want (I certainly don't), but starting a discussion with "cheap" isn't interesting to me.

What's the shutter speed on that IQ752 video? It looks crisp.

Virtually any system today will send a notice on motion detection. Many (but not all) will include an image in the email. A few will sound a tone as an alert. I don't like PTZs for home use because while they are looking over here ->, something interesting could be happening over there --------------->. Autotracking is available on better PTZs. I also don't like motion detection as the basis for sending alerts because there will be false positives. IR motion sensors are a better solution. Axis is a very, very good company. They have demo cameras on their web site (Somewhere). Download the manual to see how specific features work. It probably has autotracking (I'm guessing here), but check the manual. That camera is standard definition, so not hi rez by today's standard. For similar money, I'd look at a couple of Acti ACM-123 or Vivotek 8832s. Not saying I'd get them, but that is where my research would start. Output to a TV can be hard to easy, depending on the solution you pick. A simple PC (or laptop) with HDMI out, running Blue Iris software would do what you ask.

One of the few products that does not require per camera licensing is Blue Iris. Their software is about $60. Download the demo. Synology's camera software isn't bad, but I agree that their per camera price is out of line with the limited function they offer. It is probably more than you want to spend, but for a similar per camera price you can get Milestone, which is a much better video management system.

Milestone released an android client for their XProtect VMS. Free from the android market, this allows live view (with PTZ control) and recorded playback. You cannot see alarms or events and you cannot search recorded video. For playback you pick a camera and a time and it displays the next recorded video after that time. No multi-cam playback. It does required that you run their (free) mobile server with you server. Its OK for a version 1 release, but is not ground breaking. There is an iOS version coming in the spring.

Rory, I don't know what's going on in your life, but you have become increasingly rude and provocative. You used to be helpful and generous (look all the Geovision software you developed and gave away). Not so much anymore.

Moot point. I bought a vivotek encoder.

I'm testing Blue Iris software and I like it quite a lot. It's no Milestone, but the price is crazy (est $60) and it has browser agnostic playback (aka Android support)! My Axis encoder is great, but I'll need a second 4 channel (10 fps 4CIF per channel minimum) encoder. Has anyone used an Avigilon H264 encoder with Blue Iris? I don't think I'll get a response because BI does not seem that common here, but it never hurts to ask.

They ignored my recent requests also. I'll be glad to be done with them in a week or so. (moving to an IP based system) While the software does what I need, I would never recommend it to anyone. Have they ever has an upgrade that did introduce as many bugs as it fixed?

The email you are getting looks like an HTML file. I don't think it includes any video. In that case, the only way the HTML file will work is if the server's address is set correctly and you can actually get to the server from whatever machine you are reading the email on. I'm out of ideas here.

Clearly Gmail supports SMTP, bceause you got a message. If I understand correctly, your only problem is that you cannot read the file that was sent by the motion trigger. What format is that file supposed to be in? What is the file name? I don't understand this Where exactly did you get a message that something was too big and what exactly did that message say? If you are getting email and posting the file to the ftp server, you are nearly there.

Download an eval of Blue Iris software. It has a way to stitch a series of videos form a camera into a single video. It can post videos to an ftp server (that's just a server setup to get files via the file transfer protocol). If you can open your router to make the laptop accessible from the web (or better still, make secure way to get to the network), BI can give you what you want. BTW, it looks like Dropbox does not support ftp.

Thanks, made me a bit nervous there.

OK, I'll bite. How can an encoder not be compatible with twist-on BNCs? Yeah, that's right I used them in my house and so far (5 years on) I've had no problems with them.

Hi Mike, So you've used it with the Avigilon encoder? Cool. Now I just need to find a dealer.

well people should be polite and ask first if they are going to take a picture OF me. there must be a law that says if a picture has been taken OF me and i ask for it to be erased, it has to be. I absolutely agree with you that there is a question of being polite and decent. However, there is no law that says that they have to comply.

Doubtful, unless you live in North Korea. Taking photos in public is not against the law in free societies. Don't want your photo taken - stay home.Simple as that. I have no expectation of privacy as soon as I walk out my door. Neither should anyone else. i disagree. of course we should expect a level of privacy outside of our homes. i'm sorry but if i am going about my daily buisness and someone shoves a camera in my face, takes a picture (without my consent) and does not delete it when asked, i will take the camera off him and delete it. if i cant do that i will ask the police to do it. however if i am on a protest and a journalist takes a wide shot of everyone, that is different. just like if someone takes a picture of their girlfriend or child and i happen to be in the background. You may expect privacy, but the law disagrees with you. If you are in public, a person can take your photo and use it for non-commercial purposes. Your consent is not needed. If you take the camera from somebody, that's theft and possibly assault.

Did you check the manufacturer's web site? User manuals are usually available for download. http://www.icrealtime.com/support/

Sounds like I am "good to go" Thanks! Vivotek says the cameras need 15 watts each from the PoE switch? I am assuming that is 12 volts DC Actually POE is about 45 -55v at the source. If those cameras really do pull 15W, you will need to be a little selective on which POE switch you use. Some of them may have something like 4 POE ports, with a max of 40W across all 4 ports. You won't have a problem with the power in individual ports (15W is the spec standard I think), but you might have a problem with the total power across all ports. Just something to watch for.

Every DVR brand is different.

Back up a bit. What do you want to see? Do you want ot see what is happening or who is doing it? If you have a wide field of view, you see lots and identify nobody. The best setups often involve a combination of cameras. For example, wide angle at #2 to cover the driveway, left limit is the (camera view) left edge of the driveway - right limit the edge of the smaller tree near the walkway. Narrow #5 zoomed into the intersection of the walk ways. - if you can light this spot. #4 as a back up BUT if you put #4 as a narrow to cover the approach if you mount it at roof line all you will see is baseball caps. A camera at a door works best at chest level. Wide angle #4, left limit the edge of that closer tree, right limit the edge of the house. That's a good start. Don't neglect your back yard. Where is your utility panel? Where is the gate to the backyard? Choke points like that are good for a narrow field of view camera. Yes, cat5e is a good call.

No picture showing.

That's not a great price and I sure would not buy most things that get bad reviews on amazon. I have a Panasonic BL-C121A for watching that cats. Like ALL cameras in this category it does not work in low light. I don't mean "works poorly", I mean "you will not see anything in low light". If you can live with that, it's fine. My house isn't large, so I've never pushed the wifi signal further than 60 ft.

On a hunch I looked at PTZ and sure enough, Axis 5534-E is rated at 30W max, using 802.3at While I haven't done any POE yet, I will next year. I will for sure be looking at power levels.