Sawbones

Picture quality matters... there's absolutely no substitute. I did a system change-over this summer for a local neighborhood center, from analog to IP. It went from this: To this: The former is an old 380TVL Pelco B&W... the latter from an Acti TCM-7411 dome (resized to 800x640 for this pic). It's only 6-8 FPS, but with far better picture quality. In fact, it's been more than good enough to ID perpetrators on two occasions so far. The management folks are VERY happy with it. Picture quality matters.

That's exactly right. If you can't see what you need to see (because your CIF picture sucks), you simply have 30FPS of crap. Fewer images (but BETTER images) beats 30FPS of crap any day.

Can it handle one or two 1-MP streams and four analog views without freezing?

So back to my original question, before the late night comedy crowd entered, what did you find the CPU usage to be when using some of the MP cameras in live video on the Atom PCs? I'd like to know this as well. Does the Exacq EL-S box allow you to run a client on the server box, or are you restricted to remote clients?

Can you post and/or send me the list of the ten prices. Thanks in advance. Best, Christopher I'd appreciate having that too. I have a friend who is looking at some DVR options, and I'm trying to give him some upgrade room.

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Even the new Essential series? I just added a couple of additional channels to an existing Milestone system, and they only charged me for the additional licenses. Are you talking about the Enterprise-grade?

Most interesting... I'm guessing you for an Amateur Operator. Thanks for the info... I always recommend that people be VERY skeptical of the throughput of wireless equipment, including the "turbo" modes and other marketing garbage. 802.x wireless can be very touchy, and between interference, drop-outs, clients getting knocked off and re-associating with the AP, and so forth, it's always better to go with hard-wired whenever feasible. Unfortunately, it's not always feasible... I'm in a project right now that would require hundreds of yards of trenching, drilling under multiple large concrete slabs, etc if we wanted to hard-wire the cameras. I took one look at it and said "Ubiquiti it is!" Fortunately, we're only dealing with a couple of cameras, and have easy LOS to the AP.

Ouch.

Even their wireless-N stuff?

At 50', you're going to need some zoom... no chance of getting details or any kind of facial ID without it. Consider getting a longer lens.

That's good to know... VERY good to know. Thanks!

According to Exacq, one license per MAC/device, no matter how many channels. So you can get four channels of video on a single license? Wow... Milestone, Luxriot, etc charge you per-channel... so a four-port Axis server requires four licenses.

That's the truth. I prefer browser-agnostic software whenever I can get it, but I'd take a nice, lightweight Active-X client. Unfortunately, the Acti client is NOT that client. It works, but really bogs down the client machine... and it chokes badly on any kind of low-bandwidth connection.

Can that 4-camera license be used as an expansion/addition to add IP cameras to an existing analog Nuuo install?

That was great! $12 camera from Walmart...

Wireshark is phenomenal. I use it when I buy used equipment off Ebay or other people, and they have no idea of the IP address. Plug your device into a hub (not a switch... a HUB), plug wireshark into another port, and fire it up. Eventually the device will advertise itself on the network (which, being a hub, repeats the packet to all ports), and you now have the IP address for the web interface. I've had to do that with print servers, web-enabled switches... saves me oodles of time (one print server had everything disabled, and didn't even have an IP address... but I had the MAC, and I was able to supply it with an IP address via ARP... no idea why the prior owners had it set that way). Oh... and wireshark was originally a *nix tool, but now has been ported to windows. NMAP (by Fyodor) is also a handy tool.

I hope their implementation is better than the Panasonic 502. I've never been able to get the SD storage feature to work on the 502. Best, Christopher Panasonic's SD implementation leaves something to be desired. I have a WV-NW484S. It's been a while since I looked at it, but I remember being shocked at the frame-rate of SD-stored video... it was VERY low... 1-2 FPS or some such. That's completely inadequate. *********** Edit ************ Or maybe it was the NF-302 that had the terrible frame-rate. Can't recall off-hand, but it was definitely disappointing.

I have a question that I've asked the Hikvision folks, and received no response. Does anybody know if their megapixel domes can take a standard CS-mount lens? This model in particular: http://www.hikvision-usa.com/DS-2CD762MF-FB.html I have an planned application for a dome camera, but I need a longer lens than the one that comes with either the 1.3mp or 2mp domes. I've tried a Pano 484S dome with a long lens, but the analog pixel density just doesn't provide enough detail. I chose the Hikvision because it seems to be reasonably priced, and has on-board SD-card storage (this is a remote/discrete application, that has power ONLY, with no chance of sending the images elsewhere for storage). I'd like to find out the answer before I drop money demo'ing camera that won't do what I need.

That's a definite strength... and being a Linux guy, my hat is off to them for taking the time and effort to make their system browser-and-platform agnostic. That's one of the reasons why I sometimes recommend Axis over Acti; you can use Java in other browsers to view the cameras and aren't stuck with Internet Explorer (IE is anything but fast and lightweight). Mobotix is also viewable with other browsers. Exacq even worked on my Windows Mobile-6 phone (which sucked out loud, and has since been relegated to the scrap heap).

Yep... that was a major disappointment.

I'll endorse everything Soundy just said... and I'm a DIY guy. Part of the expertise you're paying for in an experienced CCTV installer is anticipating lighting conditions, the proper level of detail, the right angle, the right lenses, the right form factor, the best way to run the cables... That kind of expertise can't be taught easily... it comes from experience. You're going to be a target for all sorts of theft, robbery, etc... so it's probably worth it to consult a professional.

does it just use the regular android browser to view live camera streams? Does audio work as well? It uses the regular Android browser... have never tried audio. I suspect, however, that it would NOT work on Android, since the audio seems to require an Active X control.

I have a number of Mobotix cameras on my home... and they're perfectly accessible via my Droid phone. I have a few analog cams (mostly coverts) attached to an Axis 241Q server... and there's an application called "TinyDVR" for Android that takes the streams from that server, and displays them on your Droid. Acti cams are not accessible by the Droid.

Geez... I would have expected better pics of them from 17 different cameras...