benf

I have two of these mounted vertically outside and haven't had any water issues yet

I have a new Nexxa 16 hybrid DVR (I believe it's an Eclipse brand but not sure) that is otherwise working fine. When I try to boot it up with one of their recommended/supported hard drives (WD30EURS - 3 TB Western Digital) it asks me if I want to delete all data to which I answer "yes" but then it never gets beyond the "Initiating system" message. If I try to remote in to the DVR via the web interface all I see is "format /dev /sda1" scrolling message. I tried a different supported drive, a a 160 gig model, which quickly formats and works correctly. I tried a second 3TB drive and get the same exact issue so am thinking this is a compatibility issue rather than a problem with the 3TB drives themselves. Anyone run into this before with this brand or any other? I removed the 160g drive and it has two EXT3 partitions and one SWAP partition (linux) so am wondering if I could create a similar drive configuration outside the DVR then install and get past the formatting issue is it's already pre-formatted. Here's the DVR info: http://www.cctvoutlet.com/DVRs/Hybrid_DVRs_NVRs/nvr-network-recorder-nexxa16.html

Are you referring to the Trendnet POE switch I linked? Assuming so but wanted to be sure. I haven't yet plugged in all 4 ports (3 active on each swtich at the moment) so am now worried I'm going to blow it out when I get cams 7 and 8 on there! **Edit** Never mind, just re-read and saw your reference to the Trendnet product. I think Santa is going to bring me a ZyXel for Christmas.

How is the fan noise on this unit, looking for something like this that runs quiet. Edit : Just saw this review We're running two of these in my office (Trendnet 8 port gigabit POE): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156420 They're fanless so of course are dead silent. Rock solid too.

There's a version of that TP-Link switch that does gigabit, click the "10/100/1000M Port" in the Capacity section on Amazon to see that one, reasonably priced too. There's also an 8 port version with all 8 ports POE. I'm running two of these at my crib: https://trendnet.com/langen/products/proddetail.asp?prod=100_TPE-S44 Not gigabit but reasonably priced and they've been rock solid for well over a year, one of them in the tack room of my barn that gets very hot in the summer. Depends on your security and bandwidth needs if you should go gigabit. If you had 4 of those cams maxed out I think you'd be at 64mbps, still under the 100mbps threshold, but keep in mind your other networking needs. If I were setting up a new system with 3meg+ cams and had the few extra bucks to splurge I'd certainly go for a gigabit switch just to be safe. For just testing a setup or a few cams though you should be fine with 100mbps.

Also keep in mind that cam may not be properly recognized by the Aver NVR. I have an EH6108 hybrid with an Acti D32 cam, which I knew wasn't officially supported by my NVR, and the only way I can it recognized is to change the cam to MJPEG and use the "generic" Acti profile on the EH6108. I can't get it to work in ONVIF mode. The quality is good enough but am disappointed I can't take advantage of the much lower bandwidth consuming H264. I swapped some emails with Aver tech support and sounds like they aren't planning any new IP cam integrations with their NVR's for awhile, no reason given.

By the way I did find a post in another forum about the bug where you can't access the Video page after upgrading to 0300e. In short, doing a hard reset (remove back cover and press reset button) apparently fixes it. I haven't tried it myself since I'm on older firmware but might be worth a shot for those having issues with ti.

I have the 0104a firmware, the version I'm still running on mine, if you still need that I can upload somewhere. (Also have 109a as well but it had horrible quality in night mode). As noted above though I don't think you can downgrade once you've gone v2 or higher. I'd like to try v3 but afraid to!

Good point, I did install the Acti product (which seemed kind of cumbersome) but never got around to testing it. We do have several non-Acti IP cams in place I'd like to try and utilize so not sure which would be more cost effective... switch to all Acti cams w/free NVR software or go with software than can handle multiple brands but with licensing fee.

You might want to take a look at this thread: http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=28762 Some of that may be helpful in your quest.

Thank you for a very informative post. Since I'm currently in the market for these exact requirements I'd be interested in which NVR's or software recording products support multi stream cams (like hemispherics). For example, the Acti KCM-3911 can output 6 different streams simultaneously. The Axis M3007-PV also outputs multiple streams. I know the Milestone software product supports that, am currently looking into others that do. This is getting more specific/detailed but I'd also be interested in seeing licensing fees as it applies to that. For example, Milestone appears to charge per-stream/channel, not per device. So if it's 1 cam but you want access to all 6 streams/channels you need 6 licenses, and that's getting expensive as I'll be doing 4 or 5 hemispherics.

Good idea, hadn't considered that. I don't think though that will do anything to improve the impact it's having on the overall internet bandwidth though, it's more about just doing it the right way. Is that correct?

For "internal" networks that's definitely true and not an issue I've run into. My problem is with the lousy internet upload speed at my location and the network cams eating up *that* bandwidth when I remote view. I'm in a semi-remote residential area and doubt I'll be seeing faster speeds offered anytime soon, so in the meantime have to dial back the bandwidth usage on my cams and deal with blocky/jumpy video, and worry about bandwidth I'm using while someone at the house might be surfing the net. Viewing at the house though the IP cams are gorgeous, no complaints at all about that quality. I would certainly be running all analog cams if I had a choice given my basic surveillance needs but had to go IP in a few spots due to long cable runs and interference.

I still have much to learn myself but can speak a bit to your last paragraph. I have an 850k upload DSL connection and remote live viewing is pretty good but you definitely have to dial down the resolution and/or FPS, or throttle bandwidth usage, or it will easily max out your upload bandwidth. Currently have a single Vivotek IP8332 cam (soon to be 3), and 5 analog cams, hooked to an Aver EH6108 hybrid DVR The one thing I've noticed, or more like my wife has noticed, is when remote viewing it really slows down the internet at the house if she's surfing the net or something. Totally understand why but is a side effect I hadn't considered when going with network cams. My old analog based DVR, though a much lower resolution, consumed very little bandwidth. I've throttled the network bandwidth usage to 128K overall at the DVR, which seems to be about as low as I can go and get what I consider acceptable live viewing, but still slows down the internet at the house. Not sure if I'm doing something else wrong or not configured correctly, but is semi-frustrating with me being a computer/tech person. I can't seem to find a sweet spot on video performance for the IP cam, at least when compared to my analogs, that doesn't kill my internet bandwidth. Anyway, I know that's all very generalized information. Essentially I'm just confirming what you already know... there's a lots of trial and error/tweaking in your future.

I'd like to change out the lens on a couple Vivo IP8332 cams for a wider angle view. Has anyone changed lens out on these before that can provide feedback? Curious if there's a particular lens I should/shouldn't get, if it will degrade image quality, will the lens cover still fit afterwards, is IR affected, etc. I'm thinking in the 2.X-3.6 range, anything wider than the stock 4mm, but am concerned the end section of the bullet (end piece that screws off which holds lens cover in place) will cut off edges of the picture if the angle is too wide. The IP8332 seems to have a fairly deep placement of the lens within the bullet. Can anyone confirm how wide you can go before interference like that might come into play? These are only for monitoring horses in a barn area so am not concerned with super high quality, but don't want to be like looking through an ice cube either. Thanks for any feedback.

Good stuff. Thanks for all the detailed info, that helps a lot.

Thanks for the links/info. I gather M12 and "board lens" are sort of the generic things I need to be looking for but after that I'm getting confused. Some state "megapixel" lens but others don't. My assumption is I can use any lens as long as it fits, but if it's not specific to megapixel I'll lose some resolution. Is that true or just a marketing thing? Same confusion with IR. Some state "IR coated", others have "IR cut". I'm pretty sure IR cut is a function of the cam and not the lens, but what I'm not sure is if IR coating is required and/or affects the ability to see IR light in night mode. Essentially I'd want the same functionality my 4mm lens provides now but in a wider angle. How I convert that to what to look for in terms of specs has my head spinning. As you said, it's a jungle out there!

What will you be using it for? Indoors, outdoors, surveillance, monitoring, webcam, etc?

Picture quality on my IP8332 was excellent when I installed about 3 months ago but have noticed the picture's gone soft and mushy. I read another recent post where a Vivo is losing focus in the afternoon sun but mine is like this all the time. It does get afternoon sun and sits near the top of a metal roof so gets toasty (and is going to get even toastier soon soon here in AZ). I noticed this about 3 weeks ago and was pretty much all of a sudden rather than gradually getting worse over time. I haven't messed with it at all and isn't subject to any sort of impact. My assumption is the heat has changed something internally to cause the camera to go out of focus so am curious if this is normal. I have no problem re-focusing it but hoping this isn't going to become a regular occurrence. Maybe I just got a lousy one but between this and the IR halo effect I've been thoroughly unimpressed with the cam so far, but challenging to find something with this feature set that doesn't cost significantly more. For whatever it's worth I had an analog cam sitting in the same spot for 4 years before this one that never had an issue. Oh how I miss the simple days of analog...

I don't think there's a specific hue adjustment on these, at least I can't find it on mine. I too upgraded to 1.09 but quickly went back to 1.04. They've improved the horrible night vision issues in 1.05 but I was still getting a lot of weird tiling so went back to old reliable 1.04.

Consider getting a dedicated IR illuminator and turn off the one on the IP8332. I did the same thing though not because of bugs but due to IR halo effect (which you apparently aren't having... lucky you!). I don't think it it will totally resolve the bugs setting it off issue but should reduce it.

I had/have the same problem on an IP8332. See thread here: http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=28691 I ended up getting a dedicated illuminator and turning off the one on the cam. Still annoyed because I shouldn't *have* to do that. I'm now having focus issues on the cam so am going to take it down to refocus. When I do I may try the modification I talked about in the thread above (seal "hood" to front of lens with black caulk).

Very nice review, thanks for posting

I just bought a hybrid DVR but my old analog DVR I had setup to distribute video to other TV's in the house using a 1x4 switch like this: http://www.celabs.net/products/av-distribution/composite/item/av400?category_id=129 Ran CAT5 to each TV with video baluns on each end to run video over CAT5. Very good picture quality overall. Now that I'm on a hybrid DVR that has only VGA output I'm going to try one of these: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000X3FAJU (Sorry, can't find manufacturer link) Will convert VGA to composite so I can use my existing distribution system. Not expecting the world in terms of quality (first with the very cheap VGA to composite converter, along with the loss of quality just going VGA to composite) but I have simple needs and don't need super high quality. If it equals the quality I had before over composite I'll be happy. I looked into running VGA over CAT5 and appears there's a couple solutions as long as you aren't going over 100 feet but kind of costly (about $150 per TV) so want to try this method first.

I just installed a new out of the box IP8332 cam and noticed a halo effect in night mode with the IR on. If I disable the IR it goes away so I know that's the cause. Did a lot of searching but didn't uncover much except for a review on Amazon where it's mentioned. Read on another site about halo effect in general and that it's the IR light reflecting off the glass over the lens which I'm assuming is the problem here. That being the case guessing there's not much I can do about it. I do have a dedicated IR illuminator so I can disable IR on this cam but was planning on purchasing several more 8332's where I won't have extra illumination. If this is inherent with these cams I may have to look elsewhere. Am waiting to hear back from Vivo tech support but was curious if anyone has noticed this before or if there's an easy fix. Image samples below.