New Kodicom DVR

[cctv_down_under 0]

Has anyone tried the new KSR-516 DVR, I am interested in buying one for testing, it is fairly inexpensive has 100FPS and a good resolution but has CDRW and USB interface for back up otpions... I would be interested in anyones feedback!

 

Thanks In Advance

GC

[rory 0]

Looks good from the specs. Only thing I can see is it only allows up to 4 PTZ cameras, 4 alarm inputs/outputs, the standalone downfall of only 1 channel of audio and no streaming audio, and limited local screen displays.

 

Most clients can live without the above though, especially if its a good price.

 

Other than that is has fast pps display and recording, CDRW, USB, Multiple Monitors either VGA or CCTV or SVideo, AVI files backup, Mouse Control, 4 HDDs. Looks good.

 

Here is the Kodicom 516 link:

http://210.121.176.1/www2004_01/Products/Eng/Prod_ksr516.asp

 

This is the second one ive seen lately that has the mouse, and multiple monitor options. One thing i Dont get is if DVR maufacturers can come out with 120pps recording, or 480pps display, why cant they start making 480pps recording? I imagine it would be a limit in the embedded OS they are using?

 

This is the other one I found, doesnt have the CDRW though. Dont know the price yet also. I emailed their USA distributor still waiting to hear.

http://www.ezsyscom.co.kr/product_view_a.htm

 

Rory

[cctv_down_under 0]

I sell the ezysys dvr, have done for some time, its searching features are pretty lame but it has everything else and flash back up... I am currently selling them at $1,534 US. Without HDD

[Thomas 0]

My understanding is that displaying images is fairly simple, but capturing them, and storing them takes alot more horsepower. It's a CPU limit rather then anything with the OS.

[rory 0]

I sell the ezysys dvr, have done for some time, its searching features are pretty lame but it has everything else and flash back up... I am currently selling them at $1,534 US. Without HDD

 

How is the remote side of it, any good? I have seen some that individually connect to each camera, or have a check mark next to each camera then you have to connect seperately, is this better than that?

 

Price wise, how is it? Can you add any hard drive? Hard Drives are expensive down here though, but still cheap for a 16 channel. Quality wise how is it? I noticed when side by side comparison with a GE DVMRe and the PRovideo's 16 channel DVR, the Provideo was lacking alot of quality, the image was clear, but looked bad, if you know what I mean.

 

I wonder what kind of price these guys have for it, but so far no reply so doesnt look that good as far as dealing with them.

 

Im working on some new stuff, online store etc. Perhaps I can buy some geo cards (yes I know our previous debates, but hey, if its a good card, why not sell it right! I have to compete with all the really cheapo cards, ones I havent heard of on here yet (eg. Chateau) that are being thrown around in this country and being sold for more than a Kalatel DVR! And in old used PCs using windows 95 or 98), and maybe I can buy this EzSys from you also. Can you find out UPS shipping (or other) to the Bahamas for me please for the Geo's you sell, and the EzSys. and perhaps if you have a price yet, this Kodicom unit, thanks Doesnt look like this Kodicom will be out in the US for a while yet, searched everywhere for a price but no luck.

 

Also info on minimum purchase amounts, and shippig time frames.

 

Yes Id still sell the Appro, and the Kalatel, but I need some other options, especially for the more high tech users. having a wide selection is key in my new business venture. I will sub out the computer work to a local computer store so they have the head aches of that, as though I could do the computer work, Im only one person for now, will have a couple others sub contracted for alarm, intercom, access and locksmith installs.

 

Thanks..

 

Rory

Edited July 1, 2004 by Guest

[rory 0]

My understanding is that displaying images is fairly simple, but capturing them, and storing them takes alot more horsepower. It's a CPU limit rather then anything with the OS.

 

Ok thanks, that would explain the faster record speeds on the PC units with P4 chips I guess right?

 

Rory

[Thomas 0]

Well a P4 has alot more raw CPU cycles to use for it. The AMD chips are on par right now, and the 64 bit chips are going to be a dream for this kind of stuff (if only for being able to have more threads.) Now if I could just liberate my boss's box...dual Opertons, 5 gigs of ram, one of the Nivida quatra cards, can burn a CD faster at 24x then my box at 52x....

[rory 0]

How well is the 4GB Compact Flash going, I havent tried any of it yet, but have friends that use the USB flash devices for back up, like 64 or 128mB, on a keychain. For back up, how do you see it going, Compact Flash 4GB and higher, or another route? I see alot of DVRs with FireWire also, what exactly is out there that can actually be of use for these, I was told the new USB is faster, is this correct?

 

Thanks

Rory

[rory 0]

I have a 2.2 Ghz Celeron, not P4, was the cheapest I could find here in Nassau at the time (last year), as kit with a cheapo motherboard with onboard everything, and 128MB DDR Ram. Thing is, its much slower than my old 950Mhz AMD chip with 512 MB SDRam, it generally doesnt hang, but it will just hog alot of memory. I cant even run XP on this, tried it, it will run, but was a slow or slower. It is fast, but like I said cant take much or runs out of memory alot. I imagine this has something to do with only 128MB DDR Ram, and sharing memory for the video card so its actually less for the OS. But I thought DDR Ram was much faster than SDRAM.

 

Anyway, I know I have to upgrade, Im thinking of just changing everything one time instead of just adding memory, as the mother board is a PC Chips Mboard. I just have so many other bills right now, and so far I can still download 800MB movies and test and do other things, so Ill have to hang in for now.

[Thomas 0]

As far as the compact flash, my understanding is that it is expensive as hell at that size. Fairly stable, but like any PC part, get the good stuff. The cheap USB key-chains tend to crap out. The truely 133t use one of these http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/watches/5eec/

 

The reason you're seeing so much slower speeds out of that Celeron is because they have half the cache on the chip. The cache is the ram built onboard to the chip itself. This ram is tiny but extremely fast due to the almost non-exstant latancy. So the chip has to farm more of work onto the ram, and that slows things down. DDR is faster and helps with the latancy, but you're loosing alot of it's advantages with the celeron's lower bus speeds, and the fact that you have alot less of it.

 

Alot of people make a comman mistake and spend as much money as they can on the chip, and very little on the motherboard. When you upgrade, get the best Mobo you can. Not nessarly the one with the most bells and whistles but the one that will embrace the future the best. Then get the cheapest chip that will work with the chipset. You can always upgrade the chip and ram, but replacing the Mobo generally means replacing everything and it's more expensive in the long run.

 

In general, if budget holds up for it, then spend your money in three places:

 

Good Mobo

Good ram, the name brand stuff, Cruical, or Kingston. If you don't belive me, run a system with the good stuff for a month then swap it for the cheap stuff. You'll be able to tell when it's acting "weird".

Good power supply. A good power supply can make a world of differance. Antec makes some good ones. Generally you want a good power supply for a PC for the same reason you want one for you camera's. It makes a differance.

[rory 0]

thanks, some good info. Ive actually been using the same power supply for the last few years, changed everything else in the case except that, but will do so when I upgrade. One thing I do have is a long lasting Line Conditioner, had it from my first PC, back in 1996, still going strong However lost some CD and Zip drives and cables when was not connected at one time or another. Our power here in the Bahamas is one of the worst around, everytime I take my PC off the conditioner I get a low voltage hit and something goes! We have blackouts regularly and major dips every day, its all old stuff from years ago that has never been upgraded.

 

Rory

[Thomas 0]

Under those situations that's probley a really good idea. One thing alot of resellers don't think about is UPS Power supplies. When you need as much uptime as you can get, they can be a life saver.

[rory 0]

That watch is cool, what happens to the USB cable though, can you detach it or does it just hang? I have a watch right now by Timex, made for Ademco alarms that allows me to turn my alarm on and off remotely, or if using X-10 devices can open garage doors, turn lights on and off, etc. I even wanted to go into the watch business for the amount of new gadgets out there, havent seen this one until now though, seen some long range radio watches, PDA watches, Internet Watch, Digital Camera ones of course, and more. Some cool stuff. I have a ton of links if you want them.

 

Here is the Ademco Timex Ironman watch, works great, I never take it off, and it just keeps going:

http://www.ademco.com/ademco/products/wireless/5804Watch.htm

 

No other alarm manufacturer has an alarm watch to date.

 

Rory

[rory 0]

Under those situations that's probley a really good idea. One thing alot of resellers don't think about is UPS Power supplies. When you need as much uptime as you can get, they can be a life saver.

 

Thats one thing I have never used, a UPS, thoughl now they come with line conditioners built in if you spend the money, but back in the day they were just battery back up. Thing is, its really not much good here unless it has a line conditiioner / voltage regulator built in, when our power goes off it is off for hours and hours, and normally we get low voltage spikes when it goes off or comes on, good for saving existing working data. Alarm 12v batteries can last for days, I have mine right now just on battery, been going for 4 days now, I only have 3 yard beams and 1 motion though, but still, normally lasts a couple weeks! Oh yeah, I sold my Power Supply (edit) to someone that needed one in a rush, thats why! The normal surge protectors are useless here, except as an extension for other power.

 

Rory

[Thomas 0]

The cable fits into the wrist band of the watch.

[cctv_down_under 0]

Rory, I know you and I have had our differences of opinion, but I can not strongly enough suggest to you to use UPS, believe it or not one of the resons I decided not to stock Kalatel was because of its powersupply, it is a little one without any fusing, if it gets undervoltage it will ventually burn out and dump mains power onto the mainboard of the kalatel and the lack of capacitors around the beginning of this BUS scared me off it... I sell a UPS (almost at cost) with every DVR I sell, in honesty most of them protect you from bugger all but they do take the load off the power supply by keeping it at the same temperature always, if the supply goes, then you can kiss your Kalatel goodbye and in your area I would imagine that undervoltage would be a huge issue and filter will not help you with that, next time your lights go dim, put your hand on the powersupply and feel how hot it gets!!

 

I ONLY use ANTEC HIGH END powersupplies and I throw away the ones that come with some of the cases we use.. Mind you most of the ones we use are now Antec, a good sign to see is dual fan and both large fans not 30mm like the Kalatel.

[rory 0]

I was talking about me personally. For my clients I supply a seperate UPS and Industrial Voltage Regulator with each one. Trust me, we have worst power down here than you guys do in the first world! When I was in the alarm industry doing daily service, I cant count how many times a week we had to switch out alarm panels for low voltage spikes, dips, power outages, etc. Ive even seen UPS's burned up, ofcourse along with everything else the the clients home. You can only suggest to them, but when they are buying a $100 alarm they just dont care.

 

With the DVRs, so far, going on 2 years for several, havent lost any, and most are in extreme hot and dusty conditions. Though I recommend the coolest possible enviroment to the client always.

 

Where I live its not that bad, but most areas are, my parents, when Im there, its clicking up and down every few minutes. Ofcourse electrical codes here are almost non existant, or not enforced properly at least, and the government run electrical company's equipment is from the stone ages. The wiring in my appartment is the same wiring from the 1950's when it was built. last summer we had power outages on a daily bases, sometimes lasting several days, they just dont have the proper equipment here. Touch wood it hasnt started yet this summer, but its still just turned July.