Viewing More Than 4 Cams On Dahua

[zpollock 0]

Hello All,

 

I'm a long time lurker, but rare poster here. I currently have an Avermedia (NV5000) PC based system that I'm considering replacing with a dedicated box. Based on feedback here, the Dahua based systems are my front-runner choices, however the one feature that seems to be noticeably absent is the ability to view more than four cams at a time via the phone apps. I've watched all the videos I can find using iDMSS (or even gDMSS), and it appears that not only are you limited to viewing 4 channels at a time, but that there is no easy mechanism to quickly switch between "pages" of channels without removing and adding channels back. Coming from other apps that I've used with the Avermedia to display 9 or more channels at a time, that seems like a major omission for a multi-channel DVR.

 

Am I missing something, or is this not an issue for anyone else? I travel quite a bit for work and frequently use my cams (in conjunction with a home automation system) to monitor the house, provide access control, etc., so I need to be able to see an overview of all cams at once. Are there other/better apps out there that support the Dahua/QVis systems?

 

I do realize that you can view more cams on an iPad or netbook, but neither of those fit very well in my pocket...

 

Thanks!

[rory 0]

what would bother me is trying to look at 9 camera view on a small 2" screen.

[zpollock 0]

I agree it's not ideal for long-term viewing, but when you know there's activity somewhere around the house and just want a quick overview of the whole area in order to determine what to focus on, that works quite well. It's more of a "see the big picture, then focus on one" type of action.

[SEANHAWG 1]

What cell phone type do you have? Iphone or Android?

[zpollock 0]

I'd actually like support for both. I use an iPhone, so that's my primary need, but I'm also researching for a friend to replace his DVR as well, and he's an Android user.

 

I'm surprised this topic hasn't come up before, or isn't a bigger issue. How are all of you Dahua proponents with more than four cams handling mobile viewing?

[SEANHAWG 1]

With Android, there is a 3rd party app called "IP Cam Viewer Lite" that allows this. Its pretty cool but I still find myself using the gDMSS App more because of the problems I state below. I dont know of any with Iphone. But I dont think it has come up before because its not that much of a deal breaker for most people. Heck, most of the time, folks are just happy to get one camera up on the screen, much less 4.

 

The problem with going over 4 cameras is as Rory stated, its too small to view on a little cell phone screen. With a 9 square view, its pretty difficult. With 16 square view, thats just crazy. I believe with iDMSS if you install it on an iPad, it will allow 9 square viewing but I cant confirm because I dont have an iPad but I am pretty sure it does.

 

The other problem is when you are trying to view more than 4 video streams on your little 3g cell phone with constantly changing signal strengths, you may have bandwidth issues and the video starts to lag with that many video streams where it kind of becomes pointless. I sometimes even notice this with just a 4 square view when the signal strength is low. You could reduce the quality down to Qcif at 1 FPS to help out but thats kind of lame to do that.

[zpollock 0]

Sean,

 

Thanks a buch for the input. I actually own IP CAM Viewer (the non-lite) version for the iPhone, so I would assume that if the Dahua is supported on the Android platform, that it would be on the iPhone version too. I'll have to look into that.

 

Yes, the iPad version of iDMSS does support nine at a time, but not the iPhone version.

 

I understand what you and Rory are saying about screen size and 3G performance, but as someone who's been using a nine cam view on an iPhone for a couple of years, I have to very respectfully disagree. It's certainly no substitute for a "real" display and I wouldn't spend all day trying to pick out shoplifters in a crowded store on it, but for the big picture view like seeing when the UPS guy pulls up, whether the pest control guy closed the gate, if the "sales" guy at the door starts looking in windows, etc., it's extremely useful. All the apps I'm aware of allow you to push into any cam full screen with a double tap, so you monitor the overall picture, and then push into a single cam full screen when you need a better view of the action. Yes, it is usually only a couple of FPS, but seeing all my cams refresh once or twice per second tells me a lot more about what's happening than only seeing one cam at 15 FPS. When I select a single cam full screen, then the bandwidth is all devoted to that single cam and is just as good as any other single cam app. In other words, you get the best of both worlds.

 

Perhaps I'm just spoiled because I've already had that functionality for so long. As much as I'd like to move from PC based to a dedicated box, that's a pretty big sticking point for me.

 

Thanks for the input.

[SEANHAWG 1]

Please let me know if it works for IP cam viewer on the Iphone for Dahua. Last time I checked a couple of weeks ago, IP cam viewer was not even available for the Iphone. I am pretty sure IP Cam viewer lite is not available, but hopefully I am wrong. Hopefully we are talking about the same app. Let me know if you find out anything. on the Android app, there is a place that allows you to choose Dahua as the DVR.

 

You can double tap any of the squares to enlarge the picture with iDMSS but if the substream is set at QCIF, its going to look grainy on your Hi-Rez Iphone. I recommend using CIF as your substream so you get higher quality video. But I do see your points. I am sure it wont be long before Dahua comes out with a 9 square app soon once 4G becomes standard.

[dahomes555 0]

IP Cam Viewer is available for iPhone, unfortunately the developer hasn't loaded codecs for most H.264 compression DVRs yet. I emailed him a few months ago about that and he said the code is more complex on iPhone with H.264 than for MPEG, so he will get to the H.264 DVRs at some point in the future.

[SEANHAWG 1]

sweet

[zpollock 0]

IP Cam Viewer is available for iPhone, unfortunately the developer hasn't loaded codecs for most H.264 compression DVRs yet. I emailed him a few months ago about that and he said the code is more complex on iPhone with H.264 than for MPEG, so he will get to the H.264 DVRs at some point in the future.

 

That's good to know that it's (hopefully) coming. I guess that explains why I couldn't find any mention of support in the current version.

 

I have half a dozen different cam apps that I've played with, but my daily use app of choice is "Live Cams" (http://livecams-iphone.com/). Unfortunately it doesn't seem to support Dahua either.

 

It seems to me that the current iDMSS app could be greatly improved quite easily if they just allowed you to create multiple pages of views. That way, even if you were limited to four on screen at a time, you could at least jump quickly from one group to another without going through the process of removing and then re-adding different cams to the current view.

[dahomes555 0]

The DMSS-Pro app on iPhone doesn't require you to add/remove cameras each time. You can add in the settings for each DVR you want to use and then it is very easy to switch from one DVR to the other. From there, you just hit play and one camera at a time pulls up. To switch cameras, you just tap the camera number that you want to see and it pops right up.

 

I agree with previous posters that having 4 (or more) cameras on screen at a time isn't good. Of all the DVR apps I use, I actually like DMSS the best for ease of use and ability to view multiple DVRs easily without having to constantly change settings.

[zpollock 0]

Perhaps my impression is wrong, but from the videos I watched it appeared that you could only "assign" four cams from a given DVR at a time in iDMSS. My issue isn't in the ability to switch between DVRs, it's that it looked as though you could only assign a max of four cameras at a time to the visible screen. So, if you want to see a different cam, you have to remove one of the existing cams from your view and then add in another. So you're basically reconfiguring the mix every time to see something other than the current cams. Is that impression wrong?

 

Interestingly, the videos of the old DMSS app (now replaced by iDMSS) appear to work more as you mentioned, where you can just hit one button to jump to a differnt group of cams in the same DVR.

 

I don't have a Dahua unit to test with, so my understanding is coming from what I've read and watched in videos. If I'm way off base please set me straight.

 

Thanks.

[dahomes555 0]

No, that's not correct. For simplicity, the app just shows Cam 1-4 on the home screen. In the bottom right corner, there is an icon to switch pages (5-8, 9-12, 13-16).

 

The app will automatically determine the number of pages based on the max number of channels on your DVR. So if you have a 4 CH DVR, the app won't give you more than the 1st page. If it is an 8 or 16, then the pages will adjust accordingly. If you have downloaded the app and tried to view the "Demo" acct that comes loaded on it, you'll probably see just 1-4 because it is only a 4 Ch. DVR. Trust me, with an 8 or 16 Ch DVR you can view them all. I have a customer with 26 16 Ch DVRs installed and he LOVES the app. We have all 26 DVRs loaded onto his DMSS Pro App on his iPhone and he can view all 16 channels on any store within seconds. It works really well.

[dahomes555 0]

Use DMSS, not iDMSS for the functionality we have discussed.

[zpollock 0]

Thanks for that info, I guess I should have been more specific that my comments were directed toward iDMSS. I had kind of witten off DMSS-Pro because my understanding is that it was replaced by iDMSS. Are they both going to be maintained? I see that DMSS-Pro hasn't been updated in five months, which I assume means it wasn't tested or tweaked for iOS 5.0. I kind of assumed that DMSS-Pro was going away.

[dahomes555 0]

I hope not! I like it's functionality way better.

[dvarapala 0]

With Android, there is a 3rd party app called "IP Cam Viewer Lite" that allows this. Its pretty cool but I still find myself using the gDMSS App more because of the problems I state below.

 

The problem with going over 4 cameras is as Rory stated, its too small to view on a little cell phone screen. With a 9 square view, its pretty difficult.

 

FWIW, I use an Android app called TinyCam Monitor - it allows viewing cams 1 at a time, 2 at a time, or 4 at a time, with multiple pages.

 

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.alexvas.dvr&hl=en

[dahomes555 0]

FYI, the most recent update of IPCamViewer app on iOS now supports Dahua/QVIS DVRs. Select the DVR under the manufacturer AData, then Apollo range.

 

Only problem I have seen is that the refresh rate is much slower than other apps, such as dmss. With dmss I get at least 1 frame per second, if not more (you can watch the time stamp in screen and see every second tick by). With IPCamViewer, the image only updates every 4-6 seconds. It is obviously the app that does this, as the other apps download at much higher speeds and don't appear to be slowed down by any issues with bandwidth.

[rory 0]

I can view 64 cameras on my Acer One Netbook

 

Or better yet 121 cameras on my desktop computer

http://www.bahamassecurity.com/articles/dahua-pss-multiviews.asp

[dahomes555 0]

He's asking about mobile apps. I know your netbook is small, but hardly a mobile device.

[rory 0]

same size as an ipad, and when we had 7" netbooks people complained they were too small so they made them bigger .. yet now a calculator type limited OS on a 2" screen is .. okay?

[lselfstorage 0]

IP Cam Viewer for iPhone was recently updated last week - I use it to monitor 2 Dahua DVRs with no problem. It detects the devices as "AData Apollo"

 

As a side benefit - works even better on an iPad with the larger screen real estate...

[joseph.chen0312 0]

Hello all,

 

You could try this new one.

 

http://totalcontrolapp.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=29

[n0fx 0]

Hello all,

 

You could try this new one.

 

http://totalcontrolapp.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=29

 

I don't see this working with Dahua/Qvis/Apollo DVRs, am I missing something here?