Kiwi

I wouldn't panic. I'll bet it'll work fine after a hard reset and a compatible drive is installed from the list in the manual.

Would you happen to know the difference between the 782 and 782A? -Paul

My AVC782 network login has worked well untouched for 5 months now, and I'm half way around the world from it. It's set up as DMZ on the local router. I notice I'm using version 1.6.2, if that's at all significant. Do you have any better luck accessing it with Internet Explorer? Is the static IP on the DVR set outside the dynamic IP range of the local router? Is the netmask set correctly on the DVR to match the LAN? Have you tried accessing from other local computers and turning off any software firewalls? As for DDNS, I've never tried it on this unit.

Perhaps if you set a smaller motion area the percentage change will be greater and it will trigger.

If you don't have the docs, I found them here: http://tinyurl.com/24st4e It looks like port 8001 is also used, and yes UDP/TCP matters. Assign both if in doubt. Why not just assign the DVR as DMZ in the router? - much easier - does all the ports.

Do you know the brand of the DVR? Have you looked in the manual to see what ports are used - there may be others used to transfer the picture. The lack of ping is probably because the router is set up to not respond, often the default.

What type of activities and level of detail are you expecting to observe with this camera? Can you use the corner of the cooling tower to mount a camera, or run a wire to one of the gate posts?

1) http://homeportal/management enter password 2) Go to: "Troubleshooting – Network Tests" 3) enter the static IP of your DVR in the "host" box, 192.168.2.18. Press ping. 4) Go to "Firewall, Settings" and select the DVR's IP from the list. 5) Add new user defined application, put in the port info as described by the DVR manufacturer. If it doesn't work just select DMZ instead Don't forget to add the port number to your internet IP if that's the way you intent to access this DVR. (your_internet_name_or_address:75)

I was fighting the same question a few weeks ago and only stumbled on the solution recently. The 2Wire does not automatically "log" static local IP's such that you can specifically adjust the firewall for that host. The way to get them logged is simply to "ping" them using the utility built into the router. How simple is that? But you would have thought they would have addressed this issue in the instructions or FAQ. -Paul

I have an AVTech AVC782. I have two comments - first, the video player software app has a button to convert to AVI. Not that it does a good job at it - the results are awful and the files are much larger. Also, regarding recording off the video "out," I've noticed that the playback quality off that output is not as good as directly playing the VSE file on a PC. Presumably the PC does not limit the MPEG4 decoding as much as what's needed to convert to RS170. It would be great if we could find a way to hack these VSE's however.

It would seem most expeditious just to hook up a relay to a 24-hr timer that only connects the audio to your PA system when required.

It sounds like your existing PIR lights are not detecting the motion so there could be an issue with a PIR alarm. Another aspect of this type of event to consider is that you will know the next morning if vandalism took place that night simply by inspecting the cars. Therefore you would be motivated enough to search through hours of recording to find the evidence. For a quick and dirty solution a low-cost IR-type bullet camera hooked to your home VCR, set to record for 4-6 hours a night might do the trick.

If you already know who the person might be you may get away with a cheaper system as he will be recognizable without super-sharp images, but if you need to ID a stranger with high detail you will need to set a stage where can control where he will be during the vandalism and what existing lighting is present. The fact that you are apparently home during this time means a silent alarm may be useful too as you could call police, or even collar the guy. If you have a good PC available you could spend your budget on a high-res IP camera and record on the PC. An Arecont 3130 will set you back about a grand but will likely work very well.

I also built a system about 5 years ago that fit into my Nissan Xterra, for the same accident evidence reasons as the original poster. It was the development of this system over two years that got me interested in video surveillance systems as a hobby, and to a lesser extent my current job. I'll have to say an automotive environment is a very difficult application for all the reasons alluded to in previous posts - stealthiness, the wide range of lighting present, the conflicting goals of a wide range of view with the desire to be able to identify license plate numbers, automatic starting and stopping of the system, stowing the equipment in the car, protecting the footage in an accident, and providing it to law enforcement in some useful form if needed. I started off with two well-used swap-meet monochrome 24VAC box cameras - one front and one rear with about 4mm lenses, a home-made switcher, a 110VAC consumer VCR and 12v inverter - mostly this was a miserable failure all of you could easily predict. I later moved to 4 monochrome board cameras with 3.6 mm lenses feeding a B+W quad and a 12V VCR. That gave me 170 degrees of low-res view front and rear but at that time I still hadn't fully understood the effects of daytime IR on unfiltered monochrome cameras, or how to resolve it. I was never happy with the system but as an unexpected consequence I did find that it made me a most courteous and careful driver. Plus the audio track had nothing but the embarrassment of me cursing at other drivers and talking to myself. If I had to do it again I might try two day/night Arecont 3130's with 4mm lenses and a 12V-powered PC to do the recording, probably three grands worth of kit and perhaps not stuff you would want to leave in your car. It might be easier to carry a disposable film camera and a small voice memo recorder.

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I recall trying out a Swann DVR that came with a utility for direct PC reading of the hard disk when placed on an IDE bus. However, I have a AVtech unit now and there is no way I'm aware of to do this - it's not a standard PC format either - I've tried it. I have to download the data off the DVR over a 128 k connection, so you can't have it all that bad!

Yep, it seems that if you want to stick to wire and adhere to the standards you need the switches. My basic understanding of DSL is that there is a carrier which is modulated and the extraction of the signal is dependent on high-tech algorithms. 100BaseT is a more primitive technology regarding use of the wire, instead depending on a very restricted control of the electrical media hence the tight standards on wire type and length. Digital data under the 100/1000baseT standard should conservatively have zero loss of data. DSL is designed to work on a wide variety of legacy phone wire and will tolerate a substantial loss or variation of signal. IP cameras are only using 100baseT to take advantage of cheap wire and hardware. So in a sense it should be "cheap" to add those switches! Hope that helps...

I would imagine a monochrome camera on the *same* side of the driveway as the lights would be the ticket.

My DVR became unviewable after a month away from home. A slight power sag had screwed up the DSL modem. Once that was reset I was back on line. The AVtech DVR has been pretty solid - four months now, and a good thing as it's 7000 miles away. Can you ping your server? Do you have remote admin access to the router?

Analog use of Cat5 twisted-pair like with baluns is really not comparable with digital use such as Ethernet. Chances are you could go over 300' with Ethernet but you need to set very strict standards for networking equipment. I would imagine the capacitance of the cable is the factor limiting the length in digital use and analog color video. Possibly voltage drop limits b+w analog video length.

Since the shield is not part of the signal path it should be normally be grounded to earth only at one end, wherever is most practical . Don't be afraid to cut back a foot or more of shield as needed at terminations. For the wire pairs, for network use it's best to avoid having more than 1" of untwisted wire at any termination.

Yes, I have a 782. I couldn't understand why the remote and local views should even affect each other in the first place. AVtech really need to be more forthcoming with firmware updates.

Well, clearly if your server is on the DMZ then you have identified the problem as being your work firewall. Avtech certainly are an irritating company. They have no support pages on their site, never seem to offer firmware upgrades, and have never answered my emails. My 782 is now sold as a 782A which probably means they have finally fixed the bugs, and so this will be my last DVR from them.

I think the ISP filtering this is quite a different situation than if the end user does it. My understanding is that the ISP is only immune from liability to what *does* get through if they filter nothing. just my 2 cents

I have a 782 which I've been able to access anywhere without a problem. The DVR is on DMZ at the server end router as I was not able to get it working by just opening port 80. I do recall documentation indicating port 5000 and 5001 are used once a connection is established but this is not mentioned in the user manual. Without the DMZ I just got a white video screen.