Missed the swann system at costco This Lorex is coming

[zikronix 0]

It's not a light it's the ir sensor... And if the ir are on then ir leds(around the lens) glow red

[daveshoot 0]

I had pretty good luck with my only call to Swann, not so good to Lorex. I think it's luck of the draw, time of day, and the kind of day... there is nothing worse than a retail/consumer call center job, and I don't care if you're in Mumbai or Kansas City. Highly unqualified people feel entitled to dump on you all day. The worst are retired engineers. Sorry, retired engineers; if the shoe fits... please call the CEO with your valuable insights and not the freakin' tech support line.

 

Anyway, PTZ support is for full motorized pan/tilt/zoom controls, many of which are domes, and some of which are not. PTZ compatibility would certainly not matter much with fixed bullet cameras, or fixed dome cameras.

 

But, full PTZs are actually out there and very useful for certain applications, and it would be nice to have a network system that allowed me to expand to them in the future. They might be offered by Swann, or maybe Dahua or HIK or other standards-compliant suppliers.

 

 

Lorex says no, Swann says yes.

 

IR LEDs are visible because they center on the IR range but emit light on either side of it, some of which is visible. If you want invisible, there are coherent laser IR illuminators that are more precisely on IR frequencies (although you can see a faint glow even from them, at least in my very dated experience) but the potential for retina damage is much greater, and beam control was iffy. Perhaps that's all changed now?

[Z06Boricua 0]

Heres what i did for the install.

 

Drilled a 1.5 hole in the front cover then bolted the camera to the front cover with lock washers, thread-loc and nylon nuts on the back side of the cover. made the connection inside the box. The standard box screws are being replaced by security screws this weekend. I used flex conduit cause it was easier and cheaper than the hard stuff, drilled a hole in the bird stop on the back side of the conduit, i also put another conduit connector with an electrical washer so its quite difficult to pull the conduit out.

 

 

[attachment=1]20130507_181529.jpg[/attachment]

 

and here is my lock box that houses my nvr, ups, wireless hdmi and keyboard extender. ( before repainting the ceiling)

 

[attachment=0]20130503_164423.jpg[/attachment]

 

That looks great zikronix! Unfortunately something like that wouldn't work for me. I have aluminum soffit/fascia/gutters to contend with, with a pretty big air gap above the soffit. My home has security floods on the sides/rear that were on the house when I bought it, and the builder/installer attached them to the soffit itself which I'm not a fan of doing. I'll have to get up in my attic to see what it looks like from the other side, and I'm praying it won't be too bad. Here's a quick pic I snapped this morning of what I'm dealing with. Should be loads of fun!

 

[No5 0]

Heres what i did for the install.

I have aluminum soffit/fascia/gutters to contend with, with a pretty big air gap above the soffit. My home has security floods on the sides/rear that were on the house when I bought it, and the builder/installer attached them to the soffit itself which I'm not a fan of doing. I'll have to get up in my attic to see what it looks like from the other side, and I'm praying it won't be too bad. Here's a quick pic I snapped this morning of what I'm dealing with. Should be loads of fun!

 

I'm in the same boat as you! Exact same mounting scenario.

[MaxIcon 0]

IR LEDs are visible because they center on the IR range but emit light on either side of it, some of which is visible. If you want invisible, there are coherent laser IR illuminators that are more precisely on IR frequencies (although you can see a faint glow even from them, at least in my very dated experience) but the potential for retina damage is much greater, and beam control was iffy. Perhaps that's all changed now?

 

Typical IR LEDs are 850nm, which is the right on the edge of the visible spectrum. You can also get 940nm LEDs, which are pretty much invisible, but have a few drawbacks:

 

- They're more expensive, because they're not as heavily used as the 850nm LEDs.

- Camera sensors are more sensitive to the 850nm part of the spectrum, and less sensitive at 940nm, so it takes a lot more power from the 940nm LEDs to get the same illumination.

 

Here's a chart of the typical spectral response of a CCTV sensor. The details will vary from sensor to sensor, but the general response curve is similar for all of them.

 

[GlennE 0]

Hi, just wanted to let people know it's possible to use the Lorex IP Cams on either the PoE ports or the external network port of the Costco NVR. I was able to power a camera with my own PoE adapter and place it on the external NVR network. I had to manually set it's IP address and then configure it with the Lorex netHD PC software to use a 'manual' IP instead of the 'plug-n-play' setting.

 

This will allow me to achieve my requirement of placing one camera in a separate building separated by a WIFI link.

 

There was also a dropdown selection for camera type that had a number of other IP camera brands - LOREX, ARECONT, AXIS, ONVIF, PANASONIC, PELCO, PSIA, SAMSUNG, SANYO, ZAVIO.

[zikronix 0]

Hi, just wanted to let people know it's possible to use the Lorex IP Cams on either the PoE ports or the external network port of the Costco NVR. I was able to power a camera with my own PoE adapter and place it on the external NVR network. I had to manually set it's IP address and then configure it with the Lorex netHD PC software to use a 'manual' IP instead of the 'plug-n-play' setting.

 

This will allow me to achieve my requirement of placing one camera in a separate building separated by a WIFI link.

 

There was also a dropdown selection for camera type that had a number of other IP camera brands - LOREX, ARECONT, AXIS, ONVIF, PANASONIC, PELCO, PSIA, SAMSUNG, SANYO, ZAVIO.

 

 

good to know...you can also do the same with the swann system using their software

[JoeyJoey 0]

Hi, just wanted to let people know it's possible to use the Lorex IP Cams on either the PoE ports or the external network port of the Costco NVR. I was able to power a camera with my own PoE adapter and place it on the external NVR network. I had to manually set it's IP address and then configure it with the Lorex netHD PC software to use a 'manual' IP instead of the 'plug-n-play' setting.

 

This will allow me to achieve my requirement of placing one camera in a separate building separated by a WIFI link.

 

There was also a dropdown selection for camera type that had a number of other IP camera brands - LOREX, ARECONT, AXIS, ONVIF, PANASONIC, PELCO, PSIA, SAMSUNG, SANYO, ZAVIO.

 

So the Lorex NVR could be configured to use the Lorex cameras on your local network manually?

And they don't have to be configured/connected exclusively on the NVR's own PoE network?

[GlennE 0]

So the Lorex NVR could be configured to use the Lorex cameras on your local network manually?

And they don't have to be configured/connected exclusively on the NVR's own PoE network?

 

Yes, that is correct. Here's the setup process:

 

 

 

You still have to set the IP of the camera manually via it's webpage. Since it doesn't default to DHCP it takes a bit more to access it's webpage though. This is described on other posts.

[frank1023 0]

I have the swann system with six cameras. The picture during the day time is great but the night mode is not so good. If I try to adjust the brightness of the camera to better fit the night, the day time picture is too dark. One camera was mounted on the side of my house and part of the view is blocked by my air conditioner lines going up the side of the house. It blocks part of the infer red at night and the picture looks much better than the cameras that are not blocked. Is there a way to adjust the level of the infer red light on the cameras. All my cameras are hooked up to the NVR. I am new to this and still learning. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[cheetokhan 0]

Is there a dome camera that can be installed on this lorex or are you simply constrained to use the cameras offered by lorex via costco. It would be helpful if anyone could post a link to some cameras that 'may' work with this system as plug n play.

 

Costco now sells Lorex 1080 dome cameras.

http://www.costco.com/Lorex-Full-HD-1080p-PoE-IndoorOutdoor-Night-Vision-2-Pack-Dome-Cameras.product.100043750.html

[MaxIcon 0]

I have the swann system with six cameras. The picture during the day time is great but the night mode is not so good. If I try to adjust the brightness of the camera to better fit the night, the day time picture is too dark. One camera was mounted on the side of my house and part of the view is blocked by my air conditioner lines going up the side of the house. It blocks part of the infer red at night and the picture looks much better than the cameras that are not blocked. Is there a way to adjust the level of the infer red light on the cameras. All my cameras are hooked up to the NVR. I am new to this and still learning. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

If you have the WDR setting on your cams, this helps improve the night mode. I set one at 50, and it really helped the night shot a lot.

 

Brightness and contrast can help night images or day images with lots of shadow, but are almost always a trade-off.

 

For the infra-red, you can put tape over some of the LEDs, but how effective this is will depend on the distance and angle to the lines. Since the remaining LEDs have a good bit of spread, they may still hit the lines, but it's worth a try.

 

This is something the next generation of cameras needs, now that WDR is becoming more common - adjustable IR, or better yet, intelligent IR, where it adjusts it automatically depending on the image.

 

ETA: Q sent me a link to the lastest Hik firmware release, and lo and behold, it includes this:

 

Support SMART IR (only for IR featured models)

 

So, it's too early to say if the Hik firmware is really that much more awesome than the Dahua, but for now, Hik is seriously kicking Dahua's butt. Add that you can get the software, as well as a list of changes and bugfixes, and Dahua is, like, totally last week. I just hope I can sell mine to some sucker, ummm, n00b, errrr... adventurous but ill-informed soul!

 

Here's the rest:

 

1. New Features

Support three new date types:

(month/day/year), (year/month/day), (day/month/year).

Support DDNS for No-IP;

Support anonymous login;

Support UPnP;

Support IP filtering (totally 48 IP addresses can be managed.)

Support one way alarm I/O, audio, local output and auto Iris functions for SD card featured models;

Support volume control.

(DSP functionalities)

Support the OSD font setting (ActiveX required);

16*16, 32*32, 64*64, self-adaption

Support motion areas highlighted by frame in live view mode.

(Core and relative drive)

Support AK4954 audio codec drive;

Support amba emac and phy hardware fluid control.

(Front-end parameter and ISP)

Support SMART IR (only for IR featured models);

Support more AWB settings:

manual WB(R, B gain adjust), AWB1, locking BW, filament lamp(3000K), warm light lamp(4000K),

nature light lamp(5500K), daylight lamp(6500K).

Support D/N switch timing mode (ICR start and stop timeline can be configurable);

Support D/N switch alarm input triggering mode (only for alarm featured models).

(Standard protocol and ActiveX)

Support HTTP PUSH MJPEG encoding for sub-stream (only Firefox supported);

Stream URL: http://ip/Streaming/channels/ID/httpPreview

Support SDK Input in ActiveX;

Support ActiveX anonymous login;

Support 13 languages including Bulgarian, Hungarian, Greek, German, Italian, Czech, Slovak,

French, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Dutch.

2. Improved Features

(Application)

Changed RTSP authentication as default setting;

Changed the audio input default value as Line in;

Optimized the smoothness of live view.

(Front end parameter and ISP)

Solved the bright spot issue.

(DSP relative function)

Optimized the OSD characters overlay in proportion;

Modified QP parameters.

[zikronix 0]

I have the swann system with six cameras. The picture during the day time is great but the night mode is not so good. If I try to adjust the brightness of the camera to better fit the night, the day time picture is too dark. One camera was mounted on the side of my house and part of the view is blocked by my air conditioner lines going up the side of the house. It blocks part of the infer red at night and the picture looks much better than the cameras that are not blocked. Is there a way to adjust the level of the infer red light on the cameras. All my cameras are hooked up to the NVR. I am new to this and still learning. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

If you have the WDR setting on your cams, this helps improve the night mode. I set one at 50, and it really helped the night shot a lot.

 

Brightness and contrast can help night images or day images with lots of shadow, but are almost always a trade-off.

 

For the infra-red, you can put tape over some of the LEDs, but how effective this is will depend on the distance and angle to the lines. Since the remaining LEDs have a good bit of spread, they may still hit the lines, but it's worth a try.

 

This is something the next generation of cameras needs, now that WDR is becoming more common - adjustable IR, or better yet, intelligent IR, where it adjusts it automatically depending on the image.

 

ETA: Q sent me a link to the lastest Hik firmware release, and lo and behold, it includes this:

 

Support SMART IR (only for IR featured models)

 

So, it's too early to say if the Hik firmware is really that much more awesome than the Dahua, but for now, Hik is seriously kicking Dahua's butt. Add that you can get the software, as well as a list of changes and bugfixes, and Dahua is, like, totally last week. I just hope I can sell mine to some sucker, ummm, n00b, errrr... adventurous but ill-informed soul!

 

Here's the rest:

 

1. New Features

Support three new date types:

(month/day/year), (year/month/day), (day/month/year).

Support DDNS for No-IP;

Support anonymous login;

Support UPnP;

Support IP filtering (totally 48 IP addresses can be managed.)

Support one way alarm I/O, audio, local output and auto Iris functions for SD card featured models;

Support volume control.

(DSP functionalities)

Support the OSD font setting (ActiveX required);

16*16, 32*32, 64*64, self-adaption

Support motion areas highlighted by frame in live view mode.

(Core and relative drive)

Support AK4954 audio codec drive;

Support amba emac and phy hardware fluid control.

(Front-end parameter and ISP)

Support SMART IR (only for IR featured models);

Support more AWB settings:

manual WB(R, B gain adjust), AWB1, locking BW, filament lamp(3000K), warm light lamp(4000K),

nature light lamp(5500K), daylight lamp(6500K).

Support D/N switch timing mode (ICR start and stop timeline can be configurable);

Support D/N switch alarm input triggering mode (only for alarm featured models).

(Standard protocol and ActiveX)

Support HTTP PUSH MJPEG encoding for sub-stream (only Firefox supported);

Stream URL: http://ip/Streaming/channels/ID/httpPreview

Support SDK Input in ActiveX;

Support ActiveX anonymous login;

Support 13 languages including Bulgarian, Hungarian, Greek, German, Italian, Czech, Slovak,

French, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Dutch.

2. Improved Features

(Application)

Changed RTSP authentication as default setting;

Changed the audio input default value as Line in;

Optimized the smoothness of live view.

(Front end parameter and ISP)

Solved the bright spot issue.

(DSP relative function)

Optimized the OSD characters overlay in proportion;

Modified QP parameters.

 

 

Is that for our cameras...or the 3MP version?

[Q2U 0]

Is that for our cameras...or the 3MP version?

 

Let's hold off on the conjecture until after we have determined what the situation is.

 

You sit tight and wait because, the next thing you know, every newb and his brother will be brickin' their cameras based on faulty assumptions and bad information.

 

Sit tight and be patient.

[JoeyJoey 0]

So the Lorex NVR could be configured to use the Lorex cameras on your local network manually?

And they don't have to be configured/connected exclusively on the NVR's own PoE network?

 

Yes, that is correct. Here's the setup process:

 

[attachment=0]ExtNetwork2.PNG[/attachment]

 

You still have to set the IP of the camera manually via it's webpage. Since it doesn't default to DHCP it takes a bit more to access it's webpage though. This is described on other posts.

 

 

great, thanks

[zikronix 0]

Is that for our cameras...or the 3MP version?

 

Let's hold off on the conjecture until after we have determined what the situation is.

 

You sit tight and wait because, the next thing you know, every newb and his brother will be brickin' their cameras based on faulty assumptions and bad information.

 

Sit tight and be patient.

 

 

You know I don't give a damn about brickin this mofo!

[Q2U 0]

You know I don't give a damn about brickin this mofo!

 

I know bro. But you don't wanna start...Brickageddon

 

[zikronix 0]

You know I don't give a damn about brickin this mofo!

 

Q2U can you post the configuration settings out of the the lorex?

[Q2U 0]

Q2U can you post the configuration settings out of the the lorex?

 

It is the same settings as the Swann SWNHD-820CAM; same camera, same settings. No difference. Looks the same. Functions the same. Think IDENTICAL cameras.

[zikronix 0]

Q2U can you post the configuration settings out of the the lorex?

 

It is the same settings as the Swann SWNHD-820CAM; same camera, same settings. No difference. Looks the same. Functions the same. Think IDENTICAL cameras.

 

So WDR isn't enabled or anything?

[Q2U 0]

Think IDENTICAL cameras.

 

So WDR isn't enabled or anything?

 

[zikronix 0]

Think IDENTICAL cameras.

 

So WDR isn't enabled or anything?

 

 

Just asking cause they sure advertise like it is!

[frank1023 0]

I have the swann system with six cameras. The picture during the day time is great but the night mode is not so good. If I try to adjust the brightness of the camera to better fit the night, the day time picture is too dark. One camera was mounted on the side of my house and part of the view is blocked by my air conditioner lines going up the side of the house. It blocks part of the infer red at night and the picture looks much better than the cameras that are not blocked. Is there a way to adjust the level of the infer red light on the cameras. All my cameras are hooked up to the NVR. I am new to this and still learning. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

If you have the WDR setting on your cams, this helps improve the night mode. I set one at 50, and it really helped the night shot a lot.

 

Brightness and contrast can help night images or day images with lots of shadow, but are almost always a trade-off.

 

For the infra-red, you can put tape over some of the LEDs, but how effective this is will depend on the distance and angle to the lines. Since the remaining LEDs have a good bit of spread, they may still hit the lines, but it's worth a try.

 

This is something the next generation of cameras needs, now that WDR is becoming more common - adjustable IR, or better yet, intelligent IR, where it adjusts it automatically depending on the image.

 

ETA: Q sent me a link to the lastest Hik firmware release, and lo and behold, it includes this:

 

Support SMART IR (only for IR featured models)

 

So, it's too early to say if the Hik firmware is really that much more awesome than the Dahua, but for now, Hik is seriously kicking Dahua's butt. Add that you can get the software, as well as a list of changes and bugfixes, and Dahua is, like, totally last week. I just hope I can sell mine to some sucker, ummm, n00b, errrr... adventurous but ill-informed soul!

 

Here's the rest:

 

1. New Features

Support three new date types:

(month/day/year), (year/month/day), (day/month/year).

Support DDNS for No-IP;

Support anonymous login;

Support UPnP;

Support IP filtering (totally 48 IP addresses can be managed.)

Support one way alarm I/O, audio, local output and auto Iris functions for SD card featured models;

Support volume control.

(DSP functionalities)

Support the OSD font setting (ActiveX required);

16*16, 32*32, 64*64, self-adaption

Support motion areas highlighted by frame in live view mode.

(Core and relative drive)

Support AK4954 audio codec drive;

Support amba emac and phy hardware fluid control.

(Front-end parameter and ISP)

Support SMART IR (only for IR featured models);

Support more AWB settings:

manual WB(R, B gain adjust), AWB1, locking BW, filament lamp(3000K), warm light lamp(4000K),

nature light lamp(5500K), daylight lamp(6500K).

Support D/N switch timing mode (ICR start and stop timeline can be configurable);

Support D/N switch alarm input triggering mode (only for alarm featured models).

(Standard protocol and ActiveX)

Support HTTP PUSH MJPEG encoding for sub-stream (only Firefox supported);

Stream URL: http://ip/Streaming/channels/ID/httpPreview

Support SDK Input in ActiveX;

Support ActiveX anonymous login;

Support 13 languages including Bulgarian, Hungarian, Greek, German, Italian, Czech, Slovak,

French, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Dutch.

2. Improved Features

(Application)

Changed RTSP authentication as default setting;

Changed the audio input default value as Line in;

Optimized the smoothness of live view.

(Front end parameter and ISP)

Solved the bright spot issue.

(DSP relative function)

Optimized the OSD characters overlay in proportion;

Modified QP parameters.

 

 

I Looked at all the settings on the NVR for the camera settings and I don't see anywhere where I can activate WDR. All I can do is adjust the brightness and contrast.

[MaxIcon 0]

Is that for our cameras...or the 3MP version?

 

So far, it appears this firmware is for all the cameras based on the Hik Raptor platform - 1.3 and 3MP. I haven't seen a 2MP version yet, but it's the same firmware footprint as the faux 3MP Swann update, so that one appears to be covered too.

 

I'm not sure the NVR has access to all the settings of the camera. Best bet is to access the cam directly via the web page and see if it has WDR enabled.

[Q2U 0]

Is that for our cameras...or the 3MP version?

 

So far, it appears this firmware is for all the cameras based on the Hik Raptor platform - 1.3 and 3MP. I haven't seen a 2MP version yet, but it's the same firmware footprint as the faux 3MP Swann update, so that one appears to be covered too.

 

I'm not sure the NVR has access to all the settings of the camera. Best bet is to access the cam directly via the web page and see if it has WDR enabled.

 

Being a newb the only this certain is that I know less than almost everyone. However, how would you expect a NVR at such low a price point to support all of the features offered by the camera's Raptor 5.0 firmware. If it were to offer such support it seems to me it would overwhelm the NVR's processor, or the NVR would support something like two (2) cameras, max. But WTFDIK.