IP cameras with audio input?

[tpenn 0]

Are there any Dahua or comparable (in price and quality) IP cameras that support audio recording along with the video? I picked up some of the Dahua 1.3MP bullet cams and they work great, especially for the price, but I do need several with audio for certain areas.

 

Thanks in advance.

[buellwinkle 0]

In the Dahua family, you would have to move up to the IPC-HFW3200C that I reviewed, has audio in/out. The mini domes and bullets do not have that. Even with audio in on many cameras, you will have to buy an amplified microphone.

 

Are you looking for indoor or outdoor cameras? One of the few outdoor cameras with microphone and speaker built in are Mobotix M12 and D14, albeit more expensive than Dahua.

[tpenn 0]

Thank you for the reply, I am mainly looking for indoor cameras with audio/mic input. I do have an IPC-HFW3200C on order that I will test with but the size of that camera will be an issue indoors.

 

The Mobotix are pretty nice but quite a bit more and out of my price range, are there any other brands I should be looking at that have this feature?

 

Thanks again!

[buellwinkle 0]

Indoors I like the AVTech cameras, the AVN80X, AVN813 depending on if you want WiFi or not. They have very good image quality, 2 way audio built in, light built in, small form factor, reliable, megapixel resolution and cost in the $200-250 range. They have good apps for most smartphones (IOS, Android, Blackberry at least) and they have the push notification which alerts your app immediately and plays the last recorded video with audio or you can look and listen from your app. Also, the model numbers I gave above have SD card slots so you can record in-camera but have slightly cheaper models without the SD card slot if you don't need or want it.

[tpenn 0]

Do you know if the AVtech cameras will record to a Dahua NVR and do you have any experience their domes, particularly the AVM328A which has PoE?

 

Thanks for your help!

[buellwinkle 0]

The best NVR software I've run up against that supports both is NVR+ from Linovision.com. You can also use BlueIris software.

[tpenn 0]

I'm still doing research. I did run across ACTi's pretty extensive line of IP cameras, going to look at those as well as the AVtechs since they seem to also have the features I'm looking for.

 

For the NVR, I'm leaning towards replacing the Dahua standalone NVR I have now with a software solution. Will take a look at NVR+ and Blue Iris. Any experience with ACTi's NVR 3.0?

 

Also, how is the audio input handled in these cameras, are they just encoded into the video stream or something else?

 

Thanks again.

[buellwinkle 0]

ACTi NVR 3.0 is the best software I've used but only works with ACTi cameras.

 

The cameras that have audio record audio. It's part of the h.264 or MPEG stream. Don't use MJPEG if you want audio.