unclerandy

The system is from Costco. Swann 8 camera NVR (Poe) 3MP 1080p cameras. On one side of our house is a narrow walk way. I have two cameras facing in both directions. At night the IR reflection off the wall lights up the wall great but then everything else is pitch black. Is there a solution or trick to fix this. I realize pointing it further away from the wall would probably be the obvious fix but would defeat the purpose of this locations needs. Please help. Thanks

Its a narrow walk way. I have the cameras high enough so they cant be easily reached and one in each direction. If I were to turn them outward away from the wall it would just film the neighbors side yard and not my own. I think the easiest solution is to rotate the camera 90 degrees - as suggested earlier. I had this same issue along my 8 ft wide driveway. When you view the camera image, you'll simply get used to it being in a different orientation. The advantage may be that you'll not only get rid of the hot IR spot on the wall, but you'll see more of the length of the walkway than you are presently. Also as mentioned, if you can figure out how to connect your laptop to your camera (via the nvr using an ethernet cable), you can then rotate the view of that camera to display the same as the others. Good luck - I think you're on your way. Post an example after you rotate the camera. It's a 5 minute task on the rotation. Why would rotating the camera have any effect on the IR's reflecting off the wall? The IR's are 360 degrees around the front of the camera.

If I went that route how would I turn off the internal IR?

Do you have a user manual? I'm not familiar with your setup but you should be able to log into the camera from either your NVR, browser or manufacturer's provided software. The Swann manual doesn't offer any instruction for getting into the cameras individually and has no info about "smart IR, WSD, or BLC. I really need some help here.

Is BLC a feature on my Swann NVR already? Ive gone through all the settings I and haven't come across that feature or setting. Can you tell me where to find it? BLC setting are mixed in with WDR settings. You might need to manually log into the camera to do it. But last i tried my lorex(hikvision) system, i vaguely remember being able to adjust WDR settings. These are my very first cameras. I don't know how to 1)Log into the cameras, 2) I don't know where to find WDR settings. Can anyone provide me step by step directions to try any of the things being suggested here??

Yet, 1/3 of your image is useless... Do you think you will ever have any motion or something good to record in that 1/3 part of the image that is a vertical, white, static wall? Well.....when you put it that way I feel really stupid. I think my concern is that the walkway view quality is the best possible by being in the main field of view. Also I didn't want the neighbor to see an aggressive angle towards their "privacy".

Is BLC a feature on my Swann NVR already? Ive gone through all the settings I and haven't come across that feature or setting. Can you tell me where to find it?

Its a narrow walk way. I have the cameras high enough so they cant be easily reached and one in each direction. If I were to turn them outward away from the wall it would just film the neighbors side yard and not my own. In which case also rotate the camera 90 degrees to give you a narrower field of view, then you can use the software to rotate the image back. What software are you referring to that I can rotate the image? Can you provide the directions to do this?

Do you mean plug the laptop into the NVR? There is no separate switch so can you amend the directions accordingly? The cameras are there on that side of the house because there are bedroom windows and it also allows access to the back yard. There were previous break-ins at this property before we bought the house. Is your NVR the ones with built-in POE? or you are using separate POE switch? If its built-in POE, plug your laptop into one of the POE ports. (you might have to take out one camera first) If its separate POE you can plug it into the router and access the cameras. The NVR is built in POE. After the laptop is plugged into one of the camera ports can you give me directions from there?

Its a narrow walk way. I have the cameras high enough so they cant be easily reached and one in each direction. If I were to turn them outward away from the wall it would just film the neighbors side yard and not my own.

Do you mean plug the laptop into the NVR? There is no separate switch so can you amend the directions accordingly? The cameras are there on that side of the house because there are bedroom windows and it also allows access to the back yard. There were previous break-ins at this property before we bought the house.

I'm not sure if the Swann cameras have the same settings as the Hikvision camera's but I had a similar problem with one of my Hikvision 3MP domes. The Hikvision cameras have a setting called SMART IR which lowers the IR output if the amount of light on the subject is bright enough but it has the effect of making dark areas even darker. It is particularly unhelpful if like yourself you have a highly reflective object in the field of view which tends to cause the IR power to drop and then it fails to properly illuminate the dark areas. I turned the setting OFF on my camera and it solved the issue. I am using the Swann NVR and according software. Would you be able to direct me to the settings where the smart IR might be?