Swann 960H DVR-format not supported

[cirtemid 0]

Hello all. I have twice now unsuccessfully tried to get a Swann DVR9-4200 960H Dvr to function. I bought one unit, it did not work. Then I ordered a second unit and it did not work either. Has anyone else had a bad run with the 960H Dvrs?

 

Here is the issue. Once I power-on the dvr, the Swann loading screen appears for about 20 seconds, then the screen goes black and stays that way. My tv will then say "Format not supported." What does this mean? I've never seen this.

 

I've gone through the gamut with Swann Tech Support. We tried the following:

 

a. Plugging the unit into the wall instead of the UPS I was using.

b. Trying with a VGA and an HDMI cable.

c. Switching the power supply of the DVR and the cameras.

d. Opening the DVR, unplugging the SATA cables from the HDD, plugging the cables back in.

e. Along with opening the DVR, pressing the reset button located on the DVR board.

 

All the above attempts netted the same blank screen. The HDD light on the DVR would come on, then go off permanently.

 

On the second unit, one extra step was taken. I was told to plug one of the cameras into the DVR. I did this and was able to see the camera image. However, nothing else worked. I could not access the DVR menu. Neither the mouse nor the DVR button worked. The camera image did not show any symbols indicating motion or recording, even when I was moving the camera all over the place.

 

I am severely puzzled that I got TWO bad units. After the first unit was deemed to be bad, I took it back to the store and exchanged it for the second unit. Long story, but I actually ordered the second unit and it was delivered to my home. Both units came from Best Buy. I'll be returning the second unit to Swann and getting another one.

 

Anyone else had problems like this?

[rebelyell 0]

I've had various Swann products over the years and although I've not seen the exact problem you are describing, can you confirm if the message is coming from the DVR or the TV? Is it possible you have an NTSC TV and a PAL Swann unit? Alternatively if the TV is older, it's possible that you have a 50hz/60hz conversion issue.

 

My suggestion would be to put the TV aside for now and check if you plug the DVR into a monitor and see if you get an image. Also note that, depending on the unit, you should also be able to use a composite cable which functions like a camera rather than an HDMI or VGA. On the remote control you can cycle through the display options. I've not got a remote in front of me, but there's a button which selects the output from the DVR.

 

Maybe the same problem as this one?

 

http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=28339

[cirtemid 0]

thank you for your response.

 

With the first unit, I did connect it to a different tv. I still did not see an image, but I did not get the "format not supported" message.

 

What I find strange is why the Swann loading screen would appear and then everything goes blank. I figured if it was something with the dvr, the swann loading screen would not even appear. Wouldn't that hold true for the tv too, if something was wrong with the tv?

 

These tvs I speak of have VGA and HDMI connections, and one of them has the input labeled as PC. This is just the VGA connection for that tv. So I take it these tvs can be monitors as well.

 

Now with the second unit, I actually saw an image when I connected a camera to the dvr, nothing else worked. Swann tech support said that maybe the reason I was getting a blank screen was because since the dvrs are programmed for motion detection, not having a camera connected caused the dvr to constantly look for a camera, therefore causing the issue.

 

All well and good I suppose, but I've had other Swann dvrs just say Video Loss when no camera is connected. Both of these just had blank screens.

 

Hopefully I'll be getting the 3rd unit in a few days and can try it out.

[rebelyell 0]

It's possible I guess that you have a dud machine and there is a bad batch you are being allocated from, but regardless of whether you have cameras connected or not you should certainly see a menu on the screen when you press the "Menu" key on the front panel or attempt to change any settings (which should throw up the login page). The option of using the composite cable is another way to check what's going on. This isn't dependent on your TVs scan rate (ie: any 50/60Hz issues) and will make the DVR look like a video camera. At least that should prove if the issue is the TV or the DVR.

[milkisbad 0]

Does your DVR have a CVBS (also known as bnc out) output? Sometimes the machine can be set to output the menu to a specific monitor (CVBS, HDMI, or VGA) so that you have a main monitor with menu access at the office and a secondary monitor with no menus showing at a public location.

 

Last test is to plug in a vga monitor, hdmi tv, and camera tester (to the bnc output/cvbs output) at the same time, the menu is bound to show up on one of those outputs.

[cirtemid 0]

To milkisbad:

 

These dvrs do not have a BNC output, only VGA and HDMI. I did plug both of those outputs into the tv together. I watched both of them to see the results. They both did the same thing. I would watch the VGA channel until the screen went blank, then I switched to the HDMI channel, unpowered the dvr, repowered it, and watched the results. Same for both--Swann loading screen, then blank screen. Depending on the tv, I would see a "format not supported" message.

[Securame 0]

Maybe those TVs do not support the resoluiton the DVR is trying to use. It might be that the TV only supports up to 720p (1280x720) and the DVRs are preconfigured at 1080p (1920x1080), so you do get to see the logo when booting up, but as soon as the interface kicks in at 1920x1080, the TVs can't show it.

 

I would find it very strange that you did get two deffective units... Make sure your TV supports 1920x1080.

[cirtemid 0]

Ok everyone. I finally received my third 960H DVR and this one works! Whew! Thank God! Thanks to all of you for the input. That is definitely knowledge to keep in mind for future reference.

 

Can't tell you what happened. After going through the gamut with Swann Tech, they set me up for a replacement. Had to send in the faulty unit, they took a week and a half to do whatever, and I get a new unit. I hook everything up, and the cameras start showing, although it took a little while before they registered.

 

Seems the DVR is set for 1024x768 resolution, although it can show 1920x780. The latter setting doesn't look very good to me though. This may be a TV issue. Minor detail. I'm just glad the blasted thing works.

 

Thanks again to all.

[rebelyell 0]

Good to see you have it fixed.

 

1920x780 will look like rubbish because the aspect ratio is not 16:9 (your default TV aspect ratio), hence the TV is having to scale more pixels in one direction than the other resulting in odd shaped pixels and a "pulled" looking image.

 

Swann have no idea about aspect ratio so it doesn't surprise me. Their phone apps don't understand the difference between iphone 4, 5, and 5s either meaning they just use the available space to display distorted images rather than scale to the aspect ratio of the image.

 

Cheers

RY