MetzLyov

Hey guys, Not sure who is giving you prices on Bosch equipment, but someone wants to make a killing on your behalf. Have been selling Bosch (previously Philips) for over 10 years. Pricing is in-line with what all the majors are charging and much lower than Panasonic. We work with dealers with 10% margins and the pricing is much lower than you get from ADI and others. Warranty is excellent with 3 years on most of their products except monitors and VCRs.. The quality is second to none and the customer service exceptional. This is why we sell more Bosch equipment to government agencies and military than any other product line... We have sold system during this period and we have seen the minimal failure rates compared to others. Across the board, Bosch offers the best warranties and the best quality in existence... GE is running in second, but they are not too far away to possibly match or to pass them. Anyone needs help to get any Bosch products, let me know. Their techical support is excellent and those boys do dlivery the goods... Levon

Hey Rory, Great to be back... Completed fairly large project... I can visit you guys more often now... As for these DVRs - I concluded a design of xxxx number of stores tied togeither via sattelite internet transmission and all reporting back to a main corporate offices of this customer. Used the 4 channel version of this DVR. As you know, file size must be extremely low for being able to transmitt video using sattelite internet and this box delivers all the goods. Coupled with its ability to work with existing POS systems (text overlay on video), made the package extremely functional. When we wrote the specs, we were very much interested with a DVR that worked with the smallest file size possible and we focused on GE Digia that was the first box GE made using MPEG4. But Digia had many short comings, i.e. inability to extract video remotely, rather view real time... Then GE surprised us with this newer version that uses the same technology MPEG4 on their SDVR series and suddenly offered for all 4, 10 and 16 channels. Here the URL for this DVR: http://www.ge-consultantlink.com/Docs/storesafepro2_prd.pdf Levon

This is a fairly new player - based in Canada and recently went to public to raise more money for their operation... I know if few large government project and a casino job that they did, but beyond that I am not sure what else they do. According to their marketing, they are positioned to compete with NICE and with Loronix. Well, we have seen their product and they are very impressive - good play back video quality, feature rich and ready made POS protocols available (they charge around $25K - $50K to write the code for newer POS equipment). However... from price stand point, it does not make any sense. They are few players at the top and this company hopes to pick up what is left as top customers who are willing to spend millions... Better solutions available from many others, including GE... Have you seen their latest IIP series? They come in 4, 10 and 16 channels with more hard drive capacities and using MPEG4 hardware compression... The picture quality is exceptional vs. what they had before and because of this new compression, you can store tremendously more video in a GB space than before... If you want more information, let me know and I can send PDF formated spec sheets.

Has anyone tested recent AMD and Intel Dual Core procesessors? What do you think? According to some documents, the pricing for these processessors should be the same at 64-bit level of pricing... Few days ago I received HP server with Dual Core AMD Opteron Processessor. After loading Micros..., we actually did not see any difference compared to lower speed Celeron or Sampron based processessors. However, when we loaded FreeBSD on the first hard drive and Linux (Suse) on the second, we saw something that we have never seen before.... Speed, the balance multitasking application running side by side without putting any no stress on any of the two cores... We will be running more tests in the next few weeks.. So far, it is the best processessor performance we have ever seen... Levon

I agree, the gamers should stay with the highest speed single core processessors, as the raw power is all they need... But there are few applications that take advantage of dual procesessors, thus the same apps do take full advantage of dual core.... Have you ever tried to burn a DVD (heavy usage of floating point) while running different applications in the background, i.e. Office Suite, IE and several others and saw your processessor clock cycle usage shooting off the roof and basically slowing down the computer?? I run these tests in a seperate bed with P4 and the same tests with this system and guess what? With dual core, it run these tasks with minimal stress on both cores... We have one manufacturer who is testing this type of procesessor along with MPEG4 compression on their Video Servers (we are given a chance to "evaluate" their test bed). The initial tests with a single procesessors were disaster as the functinality was very shutty... But the new machine using a dual core.... It is amazing how fast and balanced performance it provides. All these tests are done using Linux (Suse) with 64-bit version and activation of the script to recognize the dual core and take full advantage of their presence. Levon

We purchase few hundred per month of this mini-dome. What is really nice about this product is that it also comes with its seperate pendent mount kit (top hat) that allows you to suspend from the ceiling... For similar product from other manufacturers, the price is much better and picture quality is sharp... I will recommend anyone to use it... and 3 years warranty, well you can not go wrong. Levon

No... We did our independent in-house tests.... Levon

IR filter is "built" into the camera and from their papers stand point, it will work better with IR lenses. However, you will not notice much of any different in type of Lens that has a IR filter vs. the ones that do not. You should consider using a lens with AutoIris capability built in. This feature is also built into this camera, however providing AutoIris lens will improve the overall picture quality. Another note: because Panasonic suggests using their lenses is not necesseraly that you will get better performance. The most popular lenses are from Computar and they work well. You have a choice from others, i.e. Kowa, Tokina and many others, but you get best performance on the lens the money can buy using Computar. From cost stand point, well Panasonic will be the highest cost. We had a shoot out on performance in a very harsh environments between Panasonic, Sanyo, American Dynamics, Pelco, GE and Bosch and Panasonic actually came in second overall picture quality and performance... But for the price, Panasonic should be holding the last place... Bosch came in the first place and Sanyo the third.... Levon

Good choice on this cameras. We used Tokina lenses with IR cut filters and we did not see any visible difference, except paid more for those lenses... I'd suggest stay with Computar lenses with AI capability... The camera does the rest...

Hey guys... Since I joined this forum, I am seeing many posts and comments regarding on PC based DVR Cards from various manufacturers, pros and cons, etc... I need little more “educationâ€

Hey guys... thanks for all your posts and appreciate you candid responses... This is my last day with this forum and I wanted to thank all the participants on sharing their reviews, views and opinions and I can tell you, I learned even at this age... By the way, my real name is LEVON POSTACHIAN... I hope that our paths will cross one of these days and best of luck to everyone on their quest to successful business.. Thank you and god bless! Levon

Hey guys, I guess this post was moved to dealer's side because of a mistake... and now looks like it did capture a lot of attention... Yes, we bought every item they had in stock and no, it will not be available to Spytown.com or to cctvproduct.com. I know I did not post any pricing for it, except shown a URL that was pointing to PDF specs.. and turned up that was a problem for the administrator.... Rory, these cameras are exceptional. I will not state what people pay in average for them, but our pricing is the best in the industry. This is not the first or the last time we will do this. Even few weeks ago, we bought over 3,000 hi res color cameras from Bosch at pricing that nobody could belive. I gues when you can buy large quantities, manufacturers will drop their pants... Anyway, today is my last day with this forum... It was a great run as it lasted and I appreciate all the comments, regardless if they were positive or negative or just opions, and I know that I learned a lot... I have very large projects that landed and it will require my 24/7 attention and I know I will not be able to particpate in a normal ways, thus I am pulling back. Best of luck to everyone and to your business.... May be our paths will cross in some business ventures in the future.. By the way, my real name is... LEVON POSTACHIAN... Good luck everyone and god bless! Levon

I agree... Integration, consulting, service and maintenance... and if you are lucky to sell some hardware and software (and hope that you can make razor thin profit), then you are doing really good... Levon

You are right as far as majors selling direct.. Sensormatic always sold direct, even though their manufacturing arm, American Dynamics, sells through distribution and dealers. We cought Panasonic with their pants down selling a complete CCTV solutions to Gaming. The same goes with Sanyo and specially Pelco. The only major player that we had not been cought yet is Bosch, which so far plays it fair and sell their equipment through distribution and resellers alike.... My take is that all the major will start selling direct within next few years and slowly eliminate distribtuion.. Case and point, Dell initiall sold through distribution in early years and then went completely direct. HP was selling only through distribution and in recent years, well they went direct as well.. I think in our sector, all the major will follow this same path.... That is why the conventional distributors will be thing of the past in the few years, unless if they manage to diversify and get into different areas. With so many products going around and with so many manufacturers, where do you make money?? My take is INEGRATION... Like in computer industry, everyone can buy workstations, servers, etc... But most of the time they all depend on integrators to put everything together... I see the same happening in our industry in the few years... Levon

Thanks for the replies... Here is what I understand so far and you guys can correct me if I am wrong... A lot is dependent who sells it? How about the hidden cost of the computer? Is there minimum PC hardware requirements? If these boards are actually made by few and the difference is software, then each such "supplier" must have their own hardware requirements based on their own software that they wrote?? Lets say I am an end user and I am interested to purchase this technology. Obviously, I must already have the computer (this is a hard cost that I must consider, regardless if I bought it for reasons other than security). How would I know the hardware requirements for my pc or OS will be compatible with the DVR card? Lets say I bought it, plugged it in and then I have problems, where do I find support and who stands behind the product? Is it the manufacturer, the distributor or the reseller? I can understand that certain dealers will sell these cards dirt cheap, as they work from the garage and that happens. They may even sell a good quality card (not sure which one yet), and there is a problem - and if there are many problems that I can see already as an end user, who do you contact to take care of problems?? Here is another take and again guys, please correct me if I am wrong.. I assume that these cards come with 1 year warranty. What value do you put on YOUR TIME and what is your time worth to you on building, selling, supporting and maintaining this type of DVRs. How do you handle warranty related problems? I know for sure that DVR cards have always pushed the envelope on the technology side and if it was not for them, the majors will still be selling 30FPS units. I want to sell them and of course, profit has to be there to substantiate support, warranty and any other problems that you customers may have. In many cases, I see selling costs for these card that I can not beleive, because I am not sure where they make the profit for any type of growth or to sustain business existence.. Levon

On the same exact camera??? PM me on that and sharpen your pencil... I know that we wiped out their existing stock for the next few weeks and if this works, we are good for another 5,000 more... Based on what I saw and the pricing for it, I thought the quality of the picture to be as good and if not better than hi end Panasonic (cp-484) and substantially lower price... Rory, these are Ganz cameras and there is no way we would invest this way on existing GE cameras... By the way, they are changing their cameras across the board and we should see the newer versions available for testing in the next few weeks...

Thanks for the posts... Rory, it is not Ultraview hype.... and I know what you are referring to... I finally saw the camera and tested yesterday... No hype and this camera delivers the goods as stated in the specs.. Additional programming features on the side are very nice. The picture was crisp color. Just make sure to use lower F-stop lens, as it is very sensitive camera. Used Tokina lens (3.3-8.0mm AI) and the results were exceptional... Man, I liked it so much that I placed an order for 1,000 pieces... and of course, the pricing is much lower than what anyone will find in the market place... I know Herm does not like posting prices, so I am not going to note anything, except that they gave us a price that we could not refuse.... but then again, anyone buying 1,000 cameras will have substantial savings... Thanks much for your posts - they were helpful. Levon

I guess no takers?... Just want to get someone's opinion as it is part of large scale installation... This one I have not seen nor used... Thanks anyway... levon

Hey everyone... Just curious – what operating systems everyone in this forum use? I have used Suse Linux for years (from its inception) and with latest 9.2 version, I virtually have everything I need from the OS with built in crucial applications that we use daily basis and guess what - IT DOES NOT CRASH!.... At our workplace, most of everything we use is based on Linux except certain servers that are working with FreeBSD (derivative of Linux). Can't say I like Microsoft – too buggy and too many problems with crashes and with Internet Explorer that can be very easily hijacked and not including the ridiculous prices for every product they sell. It would be very interesting to know what everyone uses or what are everyones preferences? How about Internet Explorer Alternative – i.e. Firefox, Opera and others?? Levon

Both... Here are some of the advantages... Faster performance, faster retreival, faster calculations, usage of newer code (NX) against worms, higher level authentication (254 bit +), much faster and efficient multi-tasking of several applications together, much better usage and more dependent on RAM (that is why the minimum RAM required is 1G)... and the list just goes on and on.... Also, procesessors capability to run instructions in 64-bit platform with twice as fast and usage less internal pipe bandwidth, thus increase on overall performance... I just wander what Microscreen will do when the newer dual core processessors hit the market this year. I already seen Intel server with dual core processessor. Totally useless procesessor if the OS and the applications are not utilizing its full capabilities. I do not see it taking off in consumer level, rather for businesses that need such performance boost and ability to pay. Linux on the other hand, is already layed out the plans to support dual core processessors and I am sure when this new hardware becomes available, as always, Linux will be there first to support it.... Levon

Yes, finally XP 64_bit is out for several weeks already... Here are your main restrictions: 1. YOU CAN NOT BUY RETAIL. 2. YOU CAN UPGRADE ONLY IF YOU HAVE XP PROFESSIONAL. IF YOU HAVE XP HOME OR ANY OTHER VERSION, NO CAN DO. 3. YOU CAN BUY IT ALONG WITH OEM HARDWARE, DELL, HP AND OTHERS. 4. VERY BUGGY - MORE CRASHES THAN XP PROFESSIONAL. 5. VERY LIMITED DRIVERS SUPPORT - NOT EVERY MANUFACTURER HAVE THE DRIVERS FOR THE SAME HARDWARE IN 64-BIT. 6. SINCE YOU CAN NOT BUY IT AS RETAIL, THEN THEY WILL CHARGE IF YOU NEED SUPPORT. 7. VERY LIMITED 64-BIT APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE. IT WILL MOSTLY WORK WITH YOUR EXISTING APPLICATION AT 32-BIT 8. THEY WILL FIX THEIR PROBLEMS ONLY WHEN PEOPLE SCREAM. 9. YOU POPULAR PLUG-INS ARE NOT FULLY FUNCTIONAL. 10. THEY ALREADY TALKING ABOUT CHARGING MORE FOR ALL THEIR OWN APPLICATIONS RUNNING ON 64-BIT. AND MANY MORE...

One final note.... Linux or its derivative are the only OS that support 64-bit processessors and applications that were written for it.... Where was or is the Microsushi to support this type of platform?? Levon

Hey guys... Great posts... I have no problems with any OS, as long as it delivers the goods... I personally do not like and never liked MicroShaft OS, regardless which version including their latest version... I hate restrictions and dependencies and specially the highest costs for any software within that platform. Lindows is ok... If they only can take Micro**** off their back and then they will start producing excellent results. Used it for a short period of time, but because of restrictions imposed by Microsnake, they can not really offer everything possible. Now, I have been using Linux from its inception. It does not matter which distro you use, as long as you utilize the latest GPL engine.. It is the most stable OS in existence, as long as you are not trying to use the latest and greatest hardware, as drivers are hard to come by... Check out Suse's latest 9.3 version. I have used their 9.2 version in the last year and previous versions from their the begining and recently upgraded to 9.3. It comes with all the essentials you can possibly think of - OPENOFFICE 2.0 (at the moment beta, but 1.1 is very stable), Thunderbird e-mail and Firefox. You can buy the paper with CDs or download the full version for free. Regardless which option you use, you will end up with very stable and extremely cost effective (how about free) operating system that does deliver the goods day in day out... No wander, over 70% of the servers around the world are using Linux or derivative of Linux (FreeBSD, etc) to run their platforms and applications. With all the available software applications in Linux, Microstupid is in deep trouble. The latest news from them is that they will adhere to Linux based "front end" server application, which Dell have been testing for a while now. I thank everyone for puting their opinions for this question. Levon

We use Winsted... http://www.winsted.com/ Levon

Are you any good besides knowing complete Bosch product line? Levon