2noids

I was not sure where to post this question, but here goes. Anyone have experience ordering from spytown.com? Positve or negative? They seem to have decent pricing and one of the larger selections in the USA. I checked reselleratings.com and they have not been rated yet...I might end up being their first reviewer unless y'all tell me why or if I should steer clear of this particular comapny. (yup, i'm from Texas y'all.) Note to Admin: If there was a better spot to post this, please feel free to move this thread. Thanks!

Anyone know of an alarm system (hybrid/wired/wireless) that has a control pad that would double as a tiny cctv monitor too? I plan to buy an alarm system for my home soon (this will be a DIY), and thought it would be awesome if the feed from my front stoop camera also displayed on the alarm panel control just inside my entry, where it could be seen from outside. Thanks!

Greetings! I need guidance from the wise and informed! I am new to this Forum, and am “newâ€

Thanks for the Info! So it looks to be an emerging new/more efficient MPEG4 standard that has alredy gone through Beta, Alpha, Rev 1, and looks to be already at "rev 2." OK, I'll bite. Im ordering the full 01 hikVision card, I will post back how I like it...

Well, looks like too much smoke around Spytown for me....I'll steer clear. TY for the inputs! Found even better pricing and return policy here: Anyone know THESE guys? http://www.123securityproducts.com/newinfopage.html#returns

Thanks for that thread (I should have searched for spytown, duh....spanks self on forehead). I'll leave any other spytown questions/comments there.

The HikVision supposedly out performs standard MPEG4. Isn't this correct? http://www.hikvisionusa.com/technology/benefits_4.asp Or is that the same as the mpeg4-s you refered to? Sorry for my newbness!

I have no idea what the SW looks like, and if its a Dog they give only one week for returns. I just took the sales guy's word for it when I called. (One born every minute, right?) On the other hand, if you go to their website can click demo (you may have to enable your activex) you can see the remote monitor feed. Pic quality is really good, and this faster type of encoding is supposed to help minimize blurriness during motion that the MPG2 and MPG4 have. Video Insight has been very coopertive and professional helping me with this quest of mine, I just don't think they are quite there with the top -end encoding yet (they shared that's changing soon, look for next month maybe). Their SW is probably da bomb tho from what I've seen.

Oh, I see your question. The Full 01 card. DS4004HCl

They were offering the 4 channel h.264 card for $360.00. (I hope the mods at this forum don't mind me posting retail costs, right?) Evidently this h.264 hardware is newer technology and is used prodominately in the real-time video editing world, but from what I can read about performance it should have far superrior recording quality for about the same price as the GeoVision 4 channel solution, while using far less CPU and HD resources. I'm told he software has motion activated recording, multi camera view, IP access and IP camera compatibilty, etc., very similar if not the same as GeoVision's. Why am I always the early adopter? Lol! Oh, and if anyone wants to pimp a couple of their camers to me, please look at the classifieds in this forum for my needs if your interested. TY.

Thank you for all the help gents! I called HikVision (is that looking at a bunch of hillbillies? lol) and they have a 4 channel card with .264 encoding for $360.00, with SW. They claim with their .264 they can have 64 simultaneous 30 FPS channels going and the CPU usage stays less that 5% utilization. I reckon that is because the card itself localizes the processing. Interesting. They don't have an eval program though. Bummer.

Eventually I'd like to tie the motion sensing cameras into the alarm unit as additional intrusion sensors. That is to say I could have indoor cameras set up to record/alert about intrusion while the alarm is activated, and disabled while we are home. And if footage inside IS obtained while the alarm panel is fully active, I'd like it to set off the alarm for us. Clear as mud? Is the Video Insight based on the new encryption? What cards ARE available with the newer/better MPG4? Ademco looks to be a reputable alarm co. I'll look into them, thanks.