Remote Access to DVR OSD (On Screen Display)

[Lord Farringdon 0]

Hi Guys, Newbie so be gentle ,

 

I'm not sure my search for this issue was particularly good but everything that came up related to cameras rather then the DVR. So please forgive me if the question has been answered a million times before and I'm just being a muppet.

 

So I have a Undien GDVR 4A with four cams cabled to BNC connectors on the DVR box. I have just bought a PTZ to replace one of the stock cams but that is bye the bye. The entire system is new out of the box and I am trying to set it all up. I have installed one stock camera for test and initial setup purposes. Because this is not an IP setup, I have to run cables from the cams to the DVR box. (Yeah I know...should have got IP!!). I didn't want to punch holes in the ceiling and have cables running down the wall into the office below so I have placed the DVR in the ceiling cavity where I have had a couple of power points installed by an Electrician. I am running power to the DVR and the cameras from these points. But I soon realised the physical arrangements were making this set up difficult. I have to keep lugging my PC screen, keyboard and mouse while crawling through ceiling cavities every time I want to change something like a motion detection mask, recording time, colour or hue etc. These settings of course are accessed through the DVR's native OSD and not through the cameras. I knew there had to be a better way and after a lot of research found out that the product should have come with a viewer (but didn't) which can be placed on any PC. So I setup a wireless range extender in the ceiling with an Ethernet connection to the DVR and I am now able to view the test cam from the comfort of my office desk over the local network. I setup a static address for the DVR and ported the router but remember this is all inside the local home network. So far so good but as the term says, this software is only a 'viewer' and while I can control the PTZ from it, and do some playback and record, I can't set up anything like scheduling, motion masking, alarms or PTZ track and cruise patterns. I basically still cannot access the DVR's OSD unless I climb in the roof with screen, keyboard and mouse. I know some will say I only need to do this once to set it up and never need to again but the reality is that weather, lighting conditions (summer and winters) and vegetation growth all seem to be factors in the camera performance, scheduling, motion detection etc and certainly while I am getting used to what these things do or don't do, I need to make multiple trips into the ceiling. I would like to be able to make adjustments as necessary but the old adage is that if it's too hard it wont happen and that will devalue my user experience with the system.

 

So my question then (as per the topic title), can I gain remote (local network) access to the DVR's OSD without having to plug screen, keyboard and mouse directly into the DVR in the ceiling? I know I can access the cameras via a software viewer remotely, that's not the issue. It is the OSD menu on the DVR I am trying to access.

 

Thanks for your help guys.

 

Terry

[GadgetAssistant 0]

Hello. Your DVR kit may have included a CD with software for that express purpose. Also, most DVR's will host a web page for you to access remotely. In either case, you would need to know the DVR's LAN IP to access it locally or the DVR's WAN IP to access it remotely. If it is a DVR has a P2P ID, you might be able to use that on the PC software. For any of the aforementioned connections, you would also need to know what the proper port is.

[Lord Farringdon 0]

Thanks GadgetAssistant. I have tried the Web browser to the DVR via the static IP assigned to the DVR but all it returns is a light green screen. I am guessing from what you are saying that maybe the DVR doesn't have a native Web Hosting service in which case, what I am trying to achieve may not in fact be possible. Thanks again.

[Sentience Security S 0]

What brand is this equipment? It sounds to me like you need to enable a plugin to allow the GUI to be seen over the web browser. If you need additional help I can assist you with the settings via a remote login. Send me a PM.