Digimerge DGR204

[karnisar 0]

Anybody have any experience with the Digimerge products? I am thinking of having it installed at my business.

Can you take a look at this and tell me what you think of this DVR?The website is:

http://www.digimerge.com/cgi-bin/new_digimerge/product.cgi?uid=1

 

This company is out of Canada but I am not sure where the components are actually made. I have been given a quote for the 80 gig version.

[karnisar 0]

Help needed with the Digimerge.

[rory 0]

hey there, ive never heard of it actually, but maybe AV has, or someone else. Ill look at the specs and get back to you, whats its price?

[AVCONSULTING 0]

This is a relative newcomer to the market and is carried primarily by ADI. I think that Alarmax also has it. I've heard mixed reviews on the company but have yet to try it personally. I'd make sure you get some type of return guarantee on it from your distributor. I don't think it has a way of backing up video to a CD/RW. Something to check on.

[AVCONSULTING 0]

Two quick things I gleaned from reading the manual, which you can download from the Digimerge website. First the file size storage is pretty big. Anywhere from 35kb to 60kb which eats up a hard drive pretty quickly.

The other is that I couldn't find anywhere where you can define the motion detection area. It doesn't look like you can mask out any area in the camera's field of view so if you have something constantly moving, such as a road, or maybe a flickering computer screen, or whatever then you will be continously recording even on motion detection only. Looks to me like a pretty unsophisticated DVR so hopefully it is really low cost. Considering you can find PC based DVRs these days with loads of features at really low pricing you might want to seriously look at some alternatives first.

[rory 0]

One thing I noticed, is they dont supply you with a demo, or even a screenshot of the remote video software for the IP DVRs. Kindof reminds me of having just dealt with a Provideo DVR to find out it is way limited and does not do what we wanted, not to mention the CCTV Monitor quality was 1/2 that of the Kalatel DVRs.

 

if you give us the price you were quoted we can maybe tell if it isworth it, also post whether that is retail or dealer price.

[karnisar 0]

I have been given a quote for the 80 gig version : $3500.

$400 for the each camera(pretty expensive). He says his only margin is on the color Dome cameras and not on the DVR.

[rory 0]

Ouch, i sell my Kalatel 4 Channel DVRs down here in the Bahamas for less than that at Retail end user pricing, and we are alot more than the US pricing. Is this Retail?

 

The dome cameras looked like relabled mini domes same as that Provideo use etc, from Asia, basically cheap quality.

[AVCONSULTING 0]

You can do some investigating on the internet first for some pricing. Is that cost including installation cameras, etc? To get a feel for pricing on various cameras and DVRs here is one place to check, although there are a lot of places on the internet and I'm sure some of the other guys have some places they like.

 

www.at-fairfax.com

[qman 0]

HOLY ****!!!

 

Damm, that's pretty expensive, I think that I can get you a better alternative, send me a PM and tell me what type of cameras you are looking for.

[rory 0]

hey hermin, you think that is expensive, my average CCTV job is $15K installed Now moving into the $50K range with the new business..

[qman 0]

Well, I suck balls!!!!!

 

My average CCTV job is 2-5K

[rory 0]

you have more quantity in your area though, been trying those small jobs around here, cant get enough to make it worth it, so Im going to the high end clients now, with Audio Video (Home theatre) and CCTV. Our countries entire population is only $300,000, and the majority of them are poor, and the majority of business owners can not afford CCTV. We also pay alot in import taxes and have to charge more for warranty for shipping and more import taxes, not to mention our electricty is stone age here and even with a line conditioner it is very common to get hit/burned. We have long tern summer outages lasting days at a time, last summer it was out every day on and off for the whole summer. So far so good, but its just starting to get hot now.

 

Plus I only sell the high end parts, cant afford to sell the cheapo ones.

 

If i can get 500 jobs, even if that is all the jobs I will ever get, from the high end clients, thats like $10mil gros profit, over a few years though. I did over 500 alarm jobs in about a 4 year period, in the ghetto areas, but barely made enough to live off, they were more in the $400-800 range, out of that area now.

[qman 0]

Yeah, I know what you mean. Did you finally get some sort of IM name?

 

PM it to me, if you did.

[karnisar 0]

Its for a retail business. Requirements are:

1. Employees do not take anything out of the register that they should not.

2. Ditto for merchandise.

3. Ditto for customer actions.

4. As a deterrent for would be criminals.

5. Be clear enough during replay to identify persons, actions and vehicles.

6. It needs to run 24 hours but can be set on motion detection -- which will be really good for only about 4 hours during the night

7. A weeks worth of recording capacity would be great but I can live with less.

8. I need to be able to monitor from home.

 

I will need two cameras outside and 6 inside. I can do the install myself but want to make sure that my investment is protected.

The quote I got was including installation.

[AVCONSULTING 0]

Where is your store located? When choosing cameras I'd suggest making sure you get a camera that has a varifocal lens which is a lens that can be adjusted to get the field of view that best suits your application. Remember that the wider an area that you view the less detail you will get.

So for example if you have a camera watching the entire register area you will not get enough detail to see individual denominations of currency. I'd suggest getting all color cameras since they cost just a little more than b/w and your DVR is already setup to use color. Definitely use motion detection when recording, so it is important to get a DVR with good motion detection capability. I'm not so sure the Digimerge has a good motion detection system built in. At least while reading the instruction manual I didn't see much in the way of setting the area that is covered by video motion detection. To view from home you will need to have a DSL available with static IP address unless you want to use the slower modem and direct phone line (something like a video fax machine). Hope this gives you a push in the right direction. Also make use of the various internet sites that show products and pricing.

[karnisar 0]

AVN thanks for the tips. The store is in GA.

 

I am also looking at a PC based system (sorry Rory)- company called Optiview out of FL. Their systems are all made in Asia but thay stick their sticker on it. I get to do the insatall myself and they gurantee the product for a year. Their website is:

http://www.discount-security-cameras.net

 

They would not tell me the name of the original manufaturer. Their quote seems a little more reasonable:

 

1. DVR1502 8 CAM 240FPS 120GIG CDRW NET (OPTIVIEW BASE & CLIENT 2,599.00

SOFTWARE INCLUDED)

2. 38VCD 3.5-8mm Color Varidome 159.00

3.0038VCCM 3.5-8mm Color Vari C Mount (HOUSING & BRACKET NEEDED) 170.00

4.FOH HOUSING ( flip open) 45.00

5.FOB Housing bracket 22.00

6.CAB500 500 FT RG59 CABLE W/ POWER 145.00

7.POWER9 9 CAMERA POWER SUPPLY 99.00

[visualspy 0]

Digimerge is ok, some cards still has RCA type inputs instead of BNC,

 

ADI and Tri-Edge here in NOrthern California carries it,

 

I would try using it 1-2 years from now, when they finish prototyping and beta testing in the market. Geo's are better commpared to Digi's

[FredB 0]

Have you installed any camera systems before? If not, i would not recommend you doing it yourself. Way to many varibles. We have put in hundreds of systems and we are still tweeking the combinations of the components of the systems. What DVR to use is just one of them, and not a very big one.

 

Other things to consider:

1. Remote viewing: Most DVR's now have remote viewing built in but in most cases it does not work very well. Why? Because if you are going to compress a image down to 2-3 k per frame for streaming it is not going to look that great locally ones you blow it up full frame for local viewing, and the whole point is to actually be able to see details on the recorded material. One the other side , if you use a DVR with good recording compression , like Mpeg-2 or Jpeg with 25k per frame, it is not going to stream well for obious reasons.

Solution: Get a DVR with a good compression codec and use a separate web server for the streaming part.

 

2. Cameras: Where you place the cameras and what cameras and lenses you are using is a huge part of the job. Don't ignore that. Mintron, Sanyo and Ganz make great cameras.

 

3. Use a real CCTV monitor and not a computer LCD monitor. Most of them don't look nearly as good.

 

Cheers,

Fredrik

[rory 0]

2. Cameras: Where you place the cameras and what cameras and lenses you are using is a huge part of the job. Don't ignore that. Mintron, Sanyo and Ganz make great cameras.

 

Just for FYI: GE's Cam Plus is a much better camera than the Sanyo's, I use to use Sanyo but switched totally to the new GE ones, also GE has much better tech support than Sanyo, and same price/cheaper in some cases than the SAnyo.