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If you have cameras and NVR hardware that supports the features you can obtain the firmware from Hikvision. Please see the Hikvision download page for your region by googling Hikvison. License plate features are in the EU NVR firmware, but not in the US firmware. If you do not have cameras and NVR from Hikvision designed and supported for this feature .... asking the general question will get you responses like the above.

Like the other poster I would say it doesn't matter. POE is a standard with various flavors. The standard doesn't have anything to do with whether this camera or that switch can handle the cold. You need to look at the ratings for each piece of equipment. Yes, if there is heating it requires more power, but POE can do that. You just have to look at the rating, distance and load etc. If you really have doubts run low voltage cable at the same time.

http://overseas.hikvision.com/us/Products_accessries_10510_i7599.html I'd consider the Hikvision cubes. They are POE They have decent sound SD card for local recording Can be surface mounted or wall mounted. Don't generally look like security cameras when mounted on a shelf etc Can be wifi The IR and PIR work well Different lense configurations available I like these because you can move them around. Easy to detach and put in a drawer.

I buy my US authorized Hikvision equipment from AV Supply http://www.avsupply.com/MFG/hikvision-surveillance/hikvision-surveillance.html They don't post prices. They will quote you prices on anything you ask about in email. They are very friendly and the pricing is comparable to what you find in the gray market. Darlene typically helps me. If you know what you want this is an easy process.

Another option might be to use a router with VPN capabilities. Join the networks. Rather than exposing any ports etc for direct access and relying on application security you could just VPN in and use whatever you want like you are on the network. Its just another way to do it. This may not be possible if you want to use mobile clients.

thewireguys, thanks for the guidance. It pushed me in a good direction. I might play with and axis unit: http://www.axis.com/products/cam_p8221/index.htm buellwinkle, I was also thinking along those same lines. I have a drawer full of arduino. Was looking at BLE chips. They can run a year on a coin battery. If I knew how to send an http event/alarm to xprotect I'd go down this path. My google-fu wasn't finding much. Next step was to get the Milestone SDK and dig through it. Another thought is to leverage insteon devices. Thank you both.

I only have one camera that has the i/o and its not an outside camera. Its one of the bricks. I thought the S was sound, but maybe with sound you get i/o also. I know I can turn off IR. Its sort of a shell game. I like the on camera IR for the most part and it works pretty well. I don't want to buy more IR projectors if I don't have to. Yes, I''m considering it as an option. I just don't want to have to wire up more power and hang more stuff. The clutter of having cameras and IR lights and floods is not attractive. I cant go with floods for the area for a few reasons. It needs to stay more or less dark at night. Doesn't anyone sell a relay that can simply send alarms or events based on tripping a circuit... without having a camera? How does one normally integrate an alarm system with a camera system so that the alarms start recording? I'm sort of investing in finding a solution for this because I think I can use the solution in more than one place or for other needs. A simple use case is that I want to use an event or alarm to start recording on more than one camera. The event or alarm goes to xprotect. Xprotect manages the event or alarm and records from the cameras.

Thanks for the replies guys. I know I don't have that option on my Hikvision cameras. I'll have to check the firmware version. I have US cameras from an official dealer so I guess I can get upgrades somewhere if I'm simply behind. The issue I have at night is that the IR attracts so many bugs that the cameras are recording way too much. I'm not sure if the traversal approach would work for bugs or not. They fly in circles. I'm sure they would fly right over the line. I'd really like to use some sensor near the ground to start the recordings. I see in the other link that sensors like door and window can be used, but how to translate open/closed circuit to IP events?

I have an alley that has some Hikvision cameras on it. At night I get way too many events from flying bugs and actually rain at times. I'm looking for options like trip beams or some PIR sensors in the locations where people would have to pass into the space where cameras are pointed. I'm hoping that I can detect motion near where the motion is happening vs in camera detection from two stories up. Does anyone have some suggestions? I looked for IP based PIR sensors etc, but didn't find a lot. There must be a better way that i'm not seeing. I have xProtect running at the moment.

I have a DS-2CD2632F-I set up with an SD to run solo for a while. I'm testing out the local storage and ability to run without an NVR. I'm still messing around with the motion sensing. I get too many events from the bugs that just love the IR at night. Because of the number of bug events I'm finding it pretty tedious to review the activity. I see that I can set up stills for the event. The default looks like 4 images. I was thinking I could very easily view a lot of stills in a short period of time vs chugging through a bunch of video. However, I'm not seeing a simple way to view the stills from the camera. Anyone have any tips?

Hikvision has a WP8 app: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/ivms-4500/1952d6a8-d711-4d51-9eea-a412d8b52007

A con might be ...just more items in your install. You also have more cables because you would need to run a cable from your switche(s) to the POE injector. It's minor, but its a difference. It was important to me that I could use any switch I wanted for my network and that I didn't have to have a special switch just for the cameras. If someone just wanted a simple inexpensive solution at their home using a passive injector with a standard router plus perhaps a really cheap switch to expand ports can get you a long way.

I'd actually challenge you on that statement. I don't think those numbers are factual. At the very least you can't make a general statement on the method without considering the manufacturer or product.

I decided to use passive POE switches like these: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0086SQDMM The reason was they are silent and I can have my actual switch elsewhere and more than one of them. It just seemed more flexible.

Thanks. That's some serious detail there Don. You are very thorough. Good stuff.