Couple questions mostly about remote viewing

[Securame 0]

No, cannot work, once you set camera mainstream @1080p even if you duplicate that channel on another window, it's still 1080p. You cannot have another channel of the same camera@720p

 

Ahhhh, that is correct, I didn't think on that. I was thinking that you could add a camera two times on the DVR, and then you would be able to have two "main streams"; but changing the resolution on the camera would change the resolution on the main stream on both.

 

I guess this means I don't need any extra switches or cables and can duplicate a channel right within the software?

 

No extra ports, switches, or anything needed. The same way that you could have two NVRs recording the same camera at the same time (both NVRs connected to the camera), I was saying that you can have a single NVR connect to the same camera two times. But I guess that would be quite useless, since you could not use different resolutions/fps/bitrate.

 

I have also seen cameras advertised as having "triple stream". I haven0t used any though.

[Wallboy 0]

Alright so back to square one I guess lol. You mention changing the resolution on the camera would change it on both channels. The way I thought it worked, is the camera runs at it's native resolution no matter what, so the signal that goes into the NVR would be 1080p uncompressed (for a 1080p camera of course), then it's up to the NVR h264 encoder to determine what resolution/bitrate/etc that stream will output to on a particular channel. Just as you can take a video file on a PC and use an h264 encoder to encode the stream multiple times however you see fit. I guess it doesn't work this way with NVRs?

 

I didn't know the cameras themselves had to have 2 "sources" to be able to do this. There would be no way to "split" the PoE cable coming from the camera so I could connect it into two ports on the NVR, making the NVR think it really is two separate cameras? Or would I be better off buying the cameras and a NVR separately that would suit my needs? Any recommendations for around $1000?

 

Edit: After reading the manuals for the cameras themselves, they are actually doing the encoding and not the NVR. So this wouldn't work at all. I really would need cameras with multiple stream capabilities. Kinda wonder why NVR's are so expensive then if all they are really doing is moving the encoded stream from the cameras to a HDD...

[Wallboy 0]

Ok after a bit more researching again, I noticed that the Q-See cameras are really Dahua cameras and the Swann/Lorex are Hikvision cameras. Out of curiosity, I looked at the manuals for the Dahua/HikVision respectively and found something interesting.

 

In the manual for the Dahua camera it says the camera supports two streams: the mainstream, and the substream, where the substream max resolution is D1. No different then what Q-See states.

 

However for the Hikvision camera, in the manual it says "Select the Stream Type of the camera to main stream (normal), sub-stream or third stream. The main stream is usually for recording and live viewing with good bandwidth , and the sub-stream and third stream can be used for live viewing when the bandwidth is limited."

 

The mention of a third stream caught my eye, as the Swann version of the camera mentions only the mainstream and substream. But I happened to notice many people have been flashing their Swann/Lorex NVR firmware to Hikvision to take advantage of a slightly higher megapixel image. By doing this, would it also unlock that third stream? And can that third stream be higher quality than D1? Can anyone with a Swann/Lorex 1080p IP cameras with Hikvision firmware see what kind of limits the substream and this "third" stream has?

 

Could the Dahua have a worse processor than the Hikvision that it can't encode two high quality streams? I looked at some of the more higher end cameras that get talked about here: Axis/Acti/Vivotek, etc and most of those cameras have 2+ streams with full customization of resolution and bitrate for each. But these are out of our price range unfortunately.

 

If the Hikvision cameras have better processors in them that they can handle 3 streams I'll probably go that route and get either Swann or Lorex and flash the firmware. Though it does seem most prefer Q-See out of these 3 brands.

 

I know I'm probably asking for more out of these cameras then what they cost, I'm a bit OCD about best bang for the buck.

 

Thanks again guys.

[Securame 0]

I do have plenty of Hikvision cameras and use them daily, and I am quite sure that none of them have a third stream; just main and sub stream.

 

With IP cameras we are actually handling small "computers" that can easily be updated, many things can be done on software, but it is up to the manufacturer to do so. Could they add as many streams as they want? Sure, but as I said, every manufacturer has to keep in mind that the hardware specs of a product have to be able to work with ALL settings turned on at maximum. You might think "hey, I do not use options x-y-z, so with the processing power that is not being used I could easily have a substream of 720p", but someone else will be using options x-y-z, and then if they also configured the substream as 720p, the product would fail.

[atari37 0]

As MindTwist mentioned, none of the Hikvision cameras I have support a third stream. I currently have two Hikvision's attached to my Q-See NVR with a third one on the way.

[Wallboy 0]

Hmm not sure why the Hikvision manual says it does. Not surprising though as they are similarly priced.

[MaxIcon 0]

The Hikvision manual covers a wide range of cameras, and some may have more streams available. There are also sections on audio recording, SD card playback, etc, which are available on some cams and not others.

[Wallboy 0]

Just found these: Grandstream GXV3672_FHD. Similar priced to the Hikvision/Dahua and support 2 streams, both can run up to HD resolution. Anyone have any experience with these cameras?

[MaxIcon 0]

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