riniboo

That's what I have been doing in the past 1.5 years since I started this thread - rebooting every 22+ days (once I got tons of email notifications) does resolve the issues for another 22+ days. Lorex is so garbage. I read you guys tried to play with the "Bitrate Type" and "Max Bitrate", did it help?? I am still too scared to install the Hivision firmware like some other suggested. Eventually when my whole system is broken, I will get the real PoE cameras that can connect to my LAN, since many advanced NAS (like Qnap) supports camera surveillance and there are 3000 IP cameras (different brands) you can mix and match, there is no need to stick with proprietary standards. Yes, it maybe more expensive but I guess we paid for what we got for Lorex. LOL... Since I have wired all my Cat5e cable behind the wall, the upgrade is not too bad in the future. R.B.

Hi JoeyJoey, Which Hikvision firmware do you use for your LNR280? Can you send me a link or post the version here? Is it easy to do? Any other configurations need to be done? Do I have to logon to each camera to do re-configuration? Also, does Hikvision firmware fix this issue? "Lorex - IP HD Camera disconnects randomly for no reason" viewtopic.php?f=19&t=42034 Thanks for your help in advance.

I am in EST time zone, several days ago on March 8, 2015 time has changed. Now, everything is back to normal.. there is no need to use the Javascript fix. @Q2U: There is, obviously there is a bug and Lorex doesn't know how to handle DST properly. So disappointed. If you read the other post of mine "Lorex - IP HD Camera disconnects randomly for no reason" http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=42034, you shouldn't be surprised.

Okay, I am answering my own post and this bugs me so much, therefore I come up with this workaround to help other people. Here is the temporary fix (every time you view it remotely, you have to do this): 1. Use Google Chrome 2. Logon to NVR Lorex LNR280 remotely 3. Go to Playback tab 4. Press "F12" to bring up the debugger 5. Click on "Sources" (in the tab of the debugger) 6. On the tree of the left navigation, doc > script > playback.js 7. Go to line #1533 (for my firmware V2.2.3 build 131225) 8. Look for these: var date = new Date(iTime*1000); m_tWndMidTime[iWndNum] = date.Format("yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss"); 9. Add one line of code in between and it should look like this: var date = new Date(iTime*1000); date = new Date(date.getTime() + 60*60000); m_tWndMidTime[iWndNum] = date.Format("yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss"); 10. CTRL-S to save it in memory 11. Click "F12" 12. Playback any video again, now the timeline is fixed!!! Yeah!!! I can drag the timeline to fast forward and backward again! You have to do it again if you close your browser or refresh the page. But it is a workaround fix

I have been using latest firmware V2.2.3 build 131225 on my Lorex LNR280 and enabled DST (Day Light Saving option). On Nov 2, 2014, it adjusted the time automatically properly. However, I didn't pay attention until yesterday when I did a Playback on some videos remotely (through web based), the timeline at the bottom was acting very odd. It was off by 1 hour although the overlay time on the actual video was showing the correct time and the log start/end time was correct too. Even I tried to download the video, everything was fine except the timeline. It wasn't like this before the DST change. For example, when I clicked on the timeline for a recording at 8:05 PM, it started to play and the timeline would jump to 7:05 PM. It continued to play but the timeline playing indicator was off by exactly 1 hour. Basically I cannot use the timeline anymore!!??? I cannot do any fast forward or backward. Then I tried the following and none of them worked. Anyone experienced the same issue? - Formatted the HDD (didn't help) - Disabled DST (didn't help) - Cold reboot (didn't help) The facts are: - Windows client "Lorex netHD Client.exe" was working fine (correct playback timeline) - Android App. Lorex HD was working fine (correct playback timeline) So nailed down to the web-based problem. I used the the Javascript debugger and traced the problem... In playback.js, I could find some hints: var iTime = m_PreviewOCX.HWP_GetOSDTime(iWndNum); ....... ....... var date = new Date(iTime*1000); ....... m_tWndMidTime[iWndNum] = date.Format("yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss"); ....... ....... if(iWndNum == m_iCurWnd) { tTimeBar.setMidLineTime(m_tWndMidTime[iWndNum]); } In my test, iWndNum and m_iCurWnd are equal to 0 and reset the mid line time 1 hr back. But how does the m_PreviewOCX object get the OSD (On Screen Display) time??? I don't know. My assumption is that the ActiveX object gets the wrong time from the NVR. It can be multiple places or API that stores the time and it didn't get the proper time or it calculates incorrectly due to DST. I don't know, I guess it is a bug. But Lorex is unlikely to fix it if you read the other posts from me. This is the reason why they can only be in the consumer/small business market. With such bad support and crappy products, no enterprise business or critical recording would choose Lorex. Have you guys read the FAQ indeed? During the DST change (when time moves backwards - only once a year), the overlapping 1 hour recording would be erased. LOL!!!!! Seriously!!!! Read the FAQ. If you were a burglar, you can start the break-in at 1 AM and you have 1 hour window. At 2 AM DST change, clock moves backwards 1 hour and all the recording in the past hour will be erased. Is this acceptable if I run a mission critical 24/7 monitoring business? Good luck.

@spotmom: Yes, the pattern is totally correct, every 22 days and I will start receiving TONS of notification saying the camera disconnected. Now, I don't touch it and see how long can it last until it TOTALLY FROZEN (RJ45 unplug or cold reboot needed - according to my initial experience, it should be around 6-7 months)... will let you know.

My finding is pretty accurate (see my previous analysis on this thread), I COLD rebooted my NVR on Sept 12, 2014 and today Oct 7, 2014 I started to receive at least 20+ emails notification about signal lost on random cameras, but as expected cameras came back online by themselves (this is the 10-15 sec. "black out" period I stated earlier). I have 8 cameras and stable recording lasted roughly about one month (to be exact 25 days), perhaps it may not nothing to do with number of cameras. Anyways, at this point, today all cameras are still working when I logged in remotely and none got totally disconnected yet, but the email notification is a warning message suggesting me I have to do another cold reboot, then it will give me another 25 days of guaranteed 24/7 100% trouble free recording (no email notification + no black out period). Sigh.... bparanoid: Are you using Lorex NVR 200 or 300 series? In my experience, disconnecting/reconnecting the RJ45 will bring the individual camera online, but it will still continue to happen on all the cameras, please keep monitoring on your system and post the result here for sharing. If this is true (at least my experience but we need more evidence), by isolation we can conclude that there is a bug in their NVR's firmware instead of the camera's firmware. Indeed, if there were a bug on cameras instead of NVR, there is an easy fix for 300 series. Buy a PoE switch and hook up to some home automated systems (X10, Zigbee, Z-wave, Insteon or even DIY using Raspberry pi) and you can power off/power on to cold reboot the switch remotely. You can automate this and trigger the cycle by Lorex notification email. Unfortunately I still think the bug is on NVR side and I am on 200 series. Well technically you can remote power cycle the whole NVR but I am not sure if it will get the file system corrupted without proper shutdown.

That's what I expected from Lorex support. Sigh.... This is similar to those many Router companies, once you buy it, they hardly upgrade the firmware. I have similar experience with Netgear, Dlink, Linksys (Cisco). Long time ago I bought 2 x small business grade VPN routers made by Netgear (not cheap at that time) and it just hung or rebooted byitself when it ran for more than a week. I opened a ticket with Netgear, posted it on the forum.... problem identified but they never released another firmware to fix the issue. I had to throw away them into garbage eventually... I was stupid that I didn't return it to the store since I had high hope for such big name company. Think about it, in order to run a business to save money, after a product has been shipped out of their door, many management don't want to spend resources or environment (they can re-use the QA environment for newer products). The goal for all these companies is to make money at the end of the day. Perhaps, they will just fix some minor bugs like day light saving time, just to show that they are doing something. Seriously, look at Lorex web site's FAQ. Anyone with decent technical background will laugh. The problem is that Lorex didn't make the product, Hikvision does. Lorex would just provide basic support and provide stupid answer. Nowadays many professional alarm system installers do surveillance camera installation, it's a huge and growing business for residential. If I were one of those installer professional, I would not recommend Lorex to my clients anymore. Despite the stability frustration, I still like my Lorex cameras/NVR in a way because there was a car theft broken into my car on our driveway several months ago and LNR280 captured every single details in the dark. I went to the local police station and gave CD to the cops and the officer played the video on the spot and said "Wow.. that's really high quality video, now we have a suspect. I hope everyone has such system like you.". Wondering the newer LNR 300 series has same issue. I have a friend just bought the LNR 380 (NVR is diff but all cameras are same as mine)... maybe he has to wait for several months and then I will ask him. After thinking about it, maybe there is a reason of why there isn't a lot of people complain about it on Lorex official review page or forums like this. If the person lives in an area where there is having occasional power outage, the system would shutdown and restart for cold reboot which resets everything automatically from time to time For me, my Lorex is on uninterrupted power supply. Hmmm......

Hi spotmom, I know that I am not alone in this world If you get anything from Lorex support, please share with me..... I am really frustrated too. For your monitor issue, I suspect it is the screen resolution issue but I doubt it is related to the disconnecting issue. I have a 720p/1080i HD TV (note: This is older model HD, this is not FULL 1080p HD TV) and when I plugged the HDMI cable, I couldn't see anything. So I needed to use another computer monitor to temporary let me connect and then I was able to change the resolution manually to a lower resolution. By default, Lorex's output is at full HD 1080p. Lorex is NOT smart enough to do auto detect, I guess. After changing the resolution... and I plugged in the HDMI cable again and it worked. I guess this is similar to the DVI/VGA... In your case, try playing with the screen resolution, there is a settings (a dropdown box) you can choose 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x720, 1280x1080, etc... if I remember correctly. If you have another computer monitor or TV, try them too. Before I had Lorex HD PoE system, I have been using Geovision card on a Pentium 4 computer for 10 years. Of course it was low quality analog video since HD or PoE wasn't available at that time. But my system has been rock solid stable 24/7, the only problem I had was 1-2 times hard drive failure during the decade, not related to software/firmware issue. Now I understand why Geovision deserves to be on the enterprise market.

I upgraded to the latest firmware V2.2.3 build 131225 too, but it doesn't really fix the issue. PROBLEM ANALYSIS: Do you guys also notice something interesting? If you are recording using "continuous mode" (not using motion), go to the Playback section and check out the last 10 days on any camera. You will see from time to time, there were empty slots. You can also check the log too. In other words, the camera disconnected randomly and then re-connected by itself. The offline is about 10 to 30 seconds. In the event of emergency of a break-in, for example, that will not be recorded. Thanks, Lorex. This can be reproduced if your system has been up and running for more than 1-2 months 24/7 non-stop without power outage. Read my analysis below. If you have set up the "Video Signal Lost" email notification, you will get tons of emails every hours. I received like 30-50 emails every day. Try it yourself. SUSPECTED BUGS: I suspect this temporary disconnection is related to the serious disconnecting that I posted originally. It seems like there is a serious bug on the NVR firmware (perhaps on camera firmware too, not sure??). Basically if you do a cold start, the system let you run for X days and then it memory leaks or some bugs trigger the 10-30 seconds disconnection and eventually the whole camera frozen or NVR port got deadlock or stuck UNTIL you physically un-plug the RJ45 and re-connect, or cold reboot. MY SOLUTION: To solve the problem temporary, you cannot just do a soft reboot remotely. You need to shutdown the whole NVR for a cold reboot (completely power off and then start again), since soft reboot doesn't disconnect the power to the cameras. A cold reboot can give you around 20-30 days without issues, during this period I don't even get a single "Video Signal Lost" email. So, a cold reboot gives me stable 24/7 recording for 20-30 days for my 8 cameras. If you ignore it, I guess after another 5-6 months, your camera will be completely frozen (symptom I originally posted). When I start receiving the notification email, then it's time to do a cold reboot. Sigh.... MORE PROBLEM - Database or File system Corrupted Another issue I want to share with everyone - after the firmware upgrade, one of my cameras couldn't do proper playback. The timeline was screwed up, the frame just jumped from one day to another. However, I was able to download the individual videos files. I guess the database or files index were corrupted. The solution was to format the HDD. You have to do it using the mouse connected to the NVR, you cannot do it through the web interface remotely. But after formatted the HDD, everything is back to normal. Arrrgg... MADE IN CHINA - Lorex HD made by Hikvision No wonder why Lorex is only in the consumer and small business market, now I know why. Because it sucks so badly, I cannot believe these didn't catch by their QA. This tells you they haven't fully tested their product at all. No wonder why I don't see big corporation or government use Lorex. As many of you know Lorex HD series (both NVR + cameras) are made by a China company called "HikVision" although Lorex customized the firmware, perhaps the programmers messed up Hikvision original code. LOL.... Honestly speaking, I am not sure if that's HikVision or Lorex's problem. But from consumer point of view, Lorex should be responsible. There is no need to try to contact technical support, those tier-1 support guys don't know anything. Don't waste your time.

I have installed my Lorex NVR (LNR280 - 8 channels with combination of LND2152, LNB2153 + LNB2151) about 6-8 months ago, and it has been working fine 24/7 until recently I found that cameras would randomly disconnected for no reason. It happened to 2 of my cameras in the last 30 days. Both cameras are located indoor with regular room temperature, so it shouldn't be weather or temperature related. In the Log of NVR, it just showed "IP Camera Disconnect", nothing else. Here is what I did trying to understand the root cause: 1. When I inspected the disconnected camera physically, the camera was still warm.. that means the ethernet connection was still fine, supplying the power at least. It crashed and hung??? 2. Then I rebooted the NVR thinking it would fix the issue, but it didn't help, camera still disconnected 3. Finally I unplugged the RJ45 cable and re-connected the cable and camera came back to live and worked again. My friend has the exactly same system and similar random disconnecting happened to him too. My NVR version is: V2.2.3 build 130412 Anyone have similar issues? help or tips is appreciated. R.B.

(This has been moved to IP/Megapixel Cameras and Software Solutions)