senator

I can’t thank you enough. I realize this took considerable time and thought. It appears that I misspoke. I copied this from the user manual of my Dowson DVR “This product is a consumer-oriented 4/8/16-channels CIF/Half-D1/D1 real-time network DVR and adopt the industry's most advanced SOC technology and standard H.264 encoding method”. Sorry for the confusion. I feel like I’m beginning to get the picture, but still have a couple of fundamental questions that I can’t seem to get past. - Do remote (WAN) live viewing and remote playback both use sub stream? If so, why is remote playback quality so inferior to live viewing? Remote live viewing seems relatively smooth and real time; whereas remote playback runs about 1/3 real time and appears choppy. - Is substream recorded as a separate track on the HDD or is it simply converted on the fly or down-sampled from the mainstream? If sub stream is recorded as a separate track and remote viewing and playback both use sub stream, then it would seem that mainstream settings have no bearing on remote viewing or playback.

To Magic of Philly - Thanks very much for your excellent response. I’ve literally spent years corresponding with people about this issue and you are the first person who I feel actually understands what I’m talking about and isn’t trying to give a BS response. A point of clarification, my DVR is older and pretty basic; no HiKVision or H.264. I think I’m beginning to get the picture, but have a few questions: - Does all remote viewing; on PC (CMS) and smartphone app, live viewing or playback, use substream? - Is mainstream only for local recording & playback? - What factors, other than HDD space are at play when selecting mainstream settings, given that I never view (live or playback) using the monitor directly attached to the DVR? The only time I use the directly connected monitor is to make setting changes. All viewing (live or playback) is done using the CMS or smartphone, mostly the CMS. - I read somewhere that 7fps is considered “real time”, would you agree? If that is true, how does that factor into your recommended settings? - Given what I have said, what settings would recommend for mainstream and substream? Thanks again!

I have three DVRs at three different locations. Virtually all my interaction with these systems is done using the CMS client (PC) application that came with the DVR. The documentation for the CMS is woefully inadequate and technical support from the manufacturer is non-existent. The remote playback from one of the locations is extremely slow (~1/3 real-time) and I can’t figure out why because I am not experiencing this issue from the other two locations. The bandwidth is 60Mb/5Mb with a latency of 35ms. Live viewing is fine. My general question is, does the remote playback using the CMS, use mainstream or sub-stream? There is no setting in the CMS application for remote viewing, only settings for mainstream & substream. Everything I’ve read indicates that sub-stream is only used for smartphones, but I’m not using a smartphone. I’m using the CMS application running on my PC. If the CMS uses mainstream, what settings do you recommend if I am experiencing very slow speed? Many thanks.

No, I've not had a credible answer or a reasonable solution. I'm still hopeful that someone will have an answer.

You must use the CMS application.

I have three Dowson DVRs at three different locations. Each has six analog cameras that are set to record on motion or sensor. For remote monitoring and playback I use the manufactures CMS running under a Windows PC. All three DVRs are set up the same way and use the same cameras. All locations stream live video just fine and two stream remote playback just fine. However, one location performs remote playback at about 1/3 speed. It’s almost unusable. The ISP is Charter and the rated internet speeds are 60MB down and 4MB up. I have given the DVR the highest priority in my router. I feel the 4MB upload speed should be plenty of bandwidth, but perhaps there is another spec beside raw upload speed that I just don’t know about. Any ideas would be appreciated.

No, I am not just wanting to share the monitor. I'd like to have the native application and mouse control to be on the PC so I can control it remotely using an application like TeamViewer. There is a post in this forum that talked about doing something like this by sharing the same IP address, but it didn't provide enough detail. Thanks for your message.

Thanks for your response, but you will need to be a bit more specific. The DVR is connected to the network, as is the PC.

I have used a few (residential grade) video surveillance systems and have come to realize that they all have a real challenge when it comes to minimizing the number of false positives, at a sensitivity level that is high enough to recognize an actual person. Some applications have more features than others. I recently purchased a Dowson 8-channel DVR with several bullet-type analog cameras (420-470 TVL). The software only offers; number of cells and a 1-8 level sensitivity setting. I’ve been experimenting to find the right setting and am getting no help from the very limited documentation and no help at all from the retailer or Dowson. So here is my question. If I only have number of cells and sensitivity level to work with, has anyone figured out the right mix? What I mean is; more or less cells at higher or lower sensitivity to minimize false positives from passing clouds and tree branches?

Is it feasible to connect my Dowson DVR directly to my Windows PC without sacrificing functionality on either devise? Here is what I hope to accomplish. - Eliminating the need for a dedicated monitor for the DVR. - Having full DVR native software functionality and clarity (not remote app) on the PC. The DVR resides at my vacation home. I’m rarely there so virtually all of my viewing is remote. The DVR remote app lacks functionality and image quality, compared with that of the native (Linux-based) software. I have gotten good results from using remote PC applications like TeamViewer. Many thanks