Installing a 3 ACTI D72 system, whats a good NVR to go with?

[blake 0]

I'm looking for a good standalone nvr to go with that's cheaper than the ACTI ENR-1000

[buellwinkle 0]

One of the lowest priced popular generic NVR's is the AverMedia NEH1004HN, $299. As with almost all NVRs, does not include hard drive.

[blake 0]

how do you connect the ip cams to it as it looks like it only supports analog connections?

[buellwinkle 0]

It's a hybrid so you can connect analog or network cameras. You connect via your network. For example if your three cameras are 192.168.1.100, 101, 102 and the NVR is 192.168.1.200, when you connect to your NVR, you will setup the 3 cameras with their IP address, same as the ENR-1100 but the advantage, besides price is you can have various brands of cameras and it's cheaper.

 

The commonality is typically a network switch, preferably one with PoE ports. For 4 cameras, consider the ZyXel ES1100-8P, has 4 PoE ports for 4 cameras, 4 extra ports for connecting to your PC and router if you want remote access.

[blake 0]

I looked at the manual. So from what i can tell, i would get an 8 port switch. Four poe ports and four non poe ports. I would plug all the cameras plus the nvr into the switch. Then i would come out of the switch into my router which would tie it all into my network.

[joseph.chen0312 0]

http://seenergy.com.tw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=119%3Apartners&catid=37&Itemid=120&lang=en-US

[buellwinkle 0]

Yes, the NVR and your router would go on non-PoE ports, the 3 cameras on the PoE ports and you have a little room for expansion. Later if you get a few more cameras, you can get another 8 port switch. One advantage of their 8 port switch vs. their 16 port switch is the 8 port is silent, no fan.

[blake 0]

Thanks Buell, I really appreciate the help!!

[spork947 0]

What is the power usage like on a AverMedia NEH1004HN? Does it use the motion detection built into a camera? Can you access it from a web browser over lan? I'm no longer interested in remote access except for the indoor dropcam.

 

My desktops are fairly power hungry. I'm also trying to get away from windows and not sure if I want to dedicate a entire pc let alone mess with zoneminder.

[blake 0]

Read thru the specs and i noticed that the Avermedia only runs at a max of 2mp. Is it sort of a waste with all 3mp cameras, to only have an nvr that only goes up to 2mp? Is there an affordable nvr that can record at 3mp resolution?

[buellwinkle 0]

Get a cheap PC like a refurb and run the free but very good ACTi NVR 3.0 software. I'm running and old i3-540 and 16 cameras with that software would do fine, so plenty of room for growth. Heck, for say up to 8 cameras, you can get one of those low power Atom or AMD processors.

[blake 0]

I've been trying to figure something to do with the old Dell Dimension 2500 i have in the closet. Otherwise i'll grab a desktop off of craigslist.

[buellwinkle 0]

Just find what CPU it is and google it and CPUBenchmark.net has a rating on it, if it's over 2,000 you are good to go with ACTi NVR and say 8 HD cameras. I ran mine with 2GB RAM, 32-bit Windows, no problem.

[benf 0]

Also keep in mind that cam may not be properly recognized by the Aver NVR. I have an EH6108 hybrid with an Acti D32 cam, which I knew wasn't officially supported by my NVR, and the only way I can it recognized is to change the cam to MJPEG and use the "generic" Acti profile on the EH6108. I can't get it to work in ONVIF mode. The quality is good enough but am disappointed I can't take advantage of the much lower bandwidth consuming H264. I swapped some emails with Aver tech support and sounds like they aren't planning any new IP cam integrations with their NVR's for awhile, no reason given.

[buellwinkle 0]

That's sad but I can understand at $300, there's a limit to what they can invest in. I tried a D32 with the HIkivsion NVR and while it connects as advertise, never go it to display video so again, just because they say they can do it does not mean it actually works.