Problem with recent Q-See purchase

[300winmag 0]

So I bought 2 of the "Model: QC818-4C9-2 " systems from Costco and paid $600 to have them installed around the exterior of the house a few days ago.

 

For the life of me I cannot get both NVR's to allow more then 1 camera each NVR to use the 1080P setting. I get the "channel 1 does not support configuration search or modification" error on 3 of the cameras when I try and change the settings. 3 on each NVR is stuck in 960x480 mode.

I have done the online chat at the Q-see website twice and they cannot figure it out either so I was supposed to get a call tonight but have not yet and its after 10pm. We have tried changing the camera brand, channels, resolution, FPS, bit rate, deleting and reinstalling the camera, resetting the factory settings on the NVR and physically verified all model numbers of cameras were correct(1080P). and few others i cant remember.

 

The 2 cameras that do 1080P I am not impressed with at all, I cannot read the big emblem on my BBQ from 20' away and forget zooming in on anything at all, it crops the picture so much you see nothing but massive pixels. Nice picture when the screen displays all 4 cameras at once though. I went back last night to watch myself leaving for work at 4am. Decent night vision but the main camera didn't even record me leaving the front door! All of the sudden I am at my car opening the door like magic on another camera. They are all set to record on motion. I dunno I'm just not feeling these cameras. The software is something to be desired as well. Seen several glitches as well as a few WTF moments. Not user friendly... Unless you like acronyms. You should be able drag the mouse over an option and it should tell you what it does not just randomly guess or go through the manual every time you see an acronym. Now this is funny... They are not a 65 to 70 degree angle cameras like Costco claims, they are 50 degrees as per Q-see's website. They are zoomed in pretty close, in some cases to far for my liking. Oh and screens are brand spanking new BenQ GL2760H's using HDMI.

 

At any rate I am thinking of returning these to costco cause I am not a happy camper.

[buellwinkle 0]

If Q-See can't get it working the way you want, I would return it to Costco. That NVR is rated for 56Mbps so can easily handle 4 1080P cameras and can do 1080P synced playback of all cameras. The price to me seems high, for an NVR with 2 720P cameras. You should be able to get the Dahua version (they are the manufacturer) with two 1080P cameras for that price.

[300winmag 0]

They were on sale $899CDN for the NVR and 4 1080P cameras. Thats a pretty good deal for what I've found online and the system has great reviews on amazon.com . Question... are these 1080P cameras equal to 1.3 MP? I Am looking at getting some other type of system with all PTZ cameras instead so I need to figure out if I should go 1.3 or higher.

[buellwinkle 0]

1080P is 2MP, 720P is 1MP. Some of the 1080P cameras are also 3MP in 4:3 aspect ratio, some of the 720P cameras are 1.3MP in 4:3 aspect ratio.

[300winmag 0]

Thanx buellwinkle,

 

After another poor experience tonight with Q-See support I am for sure taking these down and they are going back.

 

Can you suggest a good quality POE 3MP PTZ camera that has a wide angle like 70 degrees and a good NVR capable of 4 maxed out 3MP cameras and is user friendly? I need to put together a better system but stay around the 2K mark.

[milkisbad 0]

Well I do Dahua NVR tech support on the side, want to do a teamviewer or join.me session and see if I can fix it for you?

 

Probably just some settings issue they aren't looking at.

 

Or take some screenshots of your errors and post it here

[buellwinkle 0]

The only decent PoE PTZ I know of are the ACTi mini PTZ. Small like a regular 4" dome, runs on standard PoE. Sorry, they don't make a 3MP, but they do make a 1.3MP, 2MP (1080P) and a 5MP. I reviewed the B95 (1080P version) and it's a good fast performer. They have 10x optical zoom. ACTi has very good free NVR software if you have spare PC that does not use a lot of CPU and has a nice remote web based client.

 

If you want IR LED's for night viewing, the best of the breed, and ironically the best priced are the Dahua's. The SD59212S-HN you can get locally for $609 would give you 12x optical zoom (they have a 30x version for more money, the SD59230S-HN) and does very well but only 1080P and not PoE but comes with a power supply. Dahua does make 3MP but in their higher end so the prices somewhat doubles. Also, if you don't need IR, Dahua makes a mini PTZ that's 12x zoom, about $499 and runs on PoE+ (a higher power version than PoE, but same concept).

[Boogieman 1]

Don't get ptz, are you going to sit there and watch the cameras 24/7?

[300winmag 0]

milkisbad,

Thanx bro but I am done with these bafoon's.

 

buellwinkle,

I will look in to those, thanx for the help. I see a Dahua IPC-HDBW8301 that looks interesting....

 

Boogieman,

No I won't be sitting there 24/7 but it would sure be nice to have the option to move one or 2 of them.

 

I am taking the system down tomorrow and returning it, lesson learned i guess.

[milkisbad 0]

Sorry to hear you are taking it down, Are you trying to change the resolution on the machine or through the web?

 

If its through the web, did your user interface look like this?

 

 

This is the incorrect GUI

 

Or this?

 

 

 

This is the correct GUI.

 

The incorrect gui might not let you change some settings.

 

To get it to the correct GUI, change your User account control setting to never, then reboot your PC and should be fine. You can find it under Control Panel or just type UAC under the search bar in start menu.

 

 

 

But if you are getting the error on the NVR machine itself then hmm don't have an answer for that yet.

[dexterash 0]

Don't get ptz, are you going to sit there and watch the cameras 24/7?

You can always setup presets on them and let them do your work. Also, High Speed Domes will move in less than a second from one view to another.

[300winmag 0]

milkisbad,

 

It's the software on the NVR it self, 3 of their techs couldn't even figure it out and I'm still waiting for that phone call from them LoL.

Thanx for your help though.

[milkisbad 0]

as someone being from the supplier side, they probably won't call you unless you call them for tech support If its a day or two since you called, they probably forgot about you....

 

Sorry couldn't help more, if its the machine itself then last resort is usually firmware upgrade,.

[lowpro 0]

I bought a 4 camera/nvr Q-see package from Costco. I started having issues with the NVR freezing up about 12 months after I purchased it. I troubleshooted with Q-See tech support for about 3 weeks before I threw in the towel. I called Costco and explained to them that it had been already 3 weeks of going back and forth. Costco just told me to bring it back, no questions asked. Sorta. Had to explain to them that I was not going to be returning all the cables that I had run. Other than that they didn't really care.

 

Costco freakin' rocks!

 

Took the money I had paid for the 720p cams and upgraded to 3mp cams.

[buellwinkle 0]

I have the original 720P Q-See cameras. I checked yesterday if they can provide newer firmware than that from 2012. They said they don't expect to release another firmware upgrade. Dahua keeps up with the firmware updates, but Q-See doesn't want anything to do with it. The reason I don't buy from OEM's anymore as I had the same exact problem with Hikvision OEMs. They promise you the moon, then a year later they abandon the product because it's not theirs.

 

What do you have to do to return them? I got mine 10/2014, so less than 2 years. Can I just bring the parts back or do I need to have the original box and stuff?

[Boogieman 1]

I have the original 720P Q-See cameras. I checked yesterday if they can provide newer firmware than that from 2012. They said they don't expect to release another firmware upgrade. Dahua keeps up with the firmware updates, but Q-See doesn't want anything to do with it. The reason I don't buy from OEM's anymore as I had the same exact problem with Hikvision OEMs. They promise you the moon, then a year later they abandon the product because it's not theirs.

 

What do you have to do to return them? I got mine 10/2014, so less than 2 years. Can I just bring the parts back or do I need to have the original box and stuff?

For Costco just bring the cameras back. They will not hassle you at all.

[lowpro 0]

I have the original 720P Q-See cameras. I checked yesterday if they can provide newer firmware than that from 2012. They said they don't expect to release another firmware upgrade. Dahua keeps up with the firmware updates, but Q-See doesn't want anything to do with it. The reason I don't buy from OEM's anymore as I had the same exact problem with Hikvision OEMs. They promise you the moon, then a year later they abandon the product because it's not theirs.

 

What do you have to do to return them? I got mine 10/2014, so less than 2 years. Can I just bring the parts back or do I need to have the original box and stuff?

 

In my case, I ordered them from the Costco website. I then called the store to let them know that I'd be bringing the package back in. I mostly called to make sure that it was going to be okay when I returned the cameras without the (4) 100ft of cat5e cable. I told the lady that the cable was routed through my attic and what was really worth the money was the cameras themselves, not the cabling. She then asked me to call up Costco's online customer service and to have them make a note about not being able to return the cabling.

 

When I finally made it to the store, they ran my membership number and were able to see the note from the online customer service rep. No questions asked after that.

[buellwinkle 0]

Sounds awesome. I can include the cabling, it's a rats nest, but they can have it back.

[milkisbad 0]

Costco and Bed Bath and Beyond have amazing return service, i had a massage pilliow that broke, almost 1 year, took it back to BB&B and showed them my receipt and they told me just grab a new one off the shelf, no restocking fee or anything!

 

CCTV OEM usually have good caring, sales people but bad support and rigid return policies with restocking fee for every little thing (since they make the same money regardless of chasing away customers.)

[buellwinkle 0]

They were not impressed with the two 100' long cat 5 cables I put in the box, but I made the cameras look good in Hikvision bullet boxes, LOL and they took it back. Thanks for the tip, I really hated those cameras, made my grass funny and we take our grass seriously in California, lawns too.