groovyman

I've been using the Aver Nano DVRs for about a year and I'd like to provide the forum with some feedback from someone who uses it on an almost every day basis. I'm not going through every feature, just some of my likes and dislikes. I hope this can be useful to anyone considering a purchase of this system. Please keep in mind that these are solely my opinions based on my experiences with the Aver Nano EH1008H DVR. I'm not trying to talk anyone in or out of it. What may be important to me may not be important to you, and vice versa. Likes: - Hybrid. Can connect IP and analog cameras at the same time and Aver comes out with IP Camera updates very often. The list of supported IP cameras just keeps on growing. - Fanless & very quite, although this can also be a negative as the hard drive can run very hot. Make sure it's in a cool, well ventilated area. I use a laptop chill pad to keep it cool. They work very well and can be powered by one of the front USB ports or a power adapter with a USB charger port. There looks to be space for an internal fan as well as a fan power connector, but I haven’t installed one yet. The chill pads work great. - POS integration, however a separate data box is needed. I read where it supports some protocols without the data box, but after testing with Windows based point of sale systems I confirmed with the distributor and Aver that the data box is needed with the Nano. - User Interface - pretty straightforward and simple enough to figure out without a manual. Connect a mouse to one of the front usb ports and navigation is pretty easy. - Ability to set resolution and frame rate individually per camera @ CIF, HD1 or D1. Provides a max of 240fps @ CIF, 120fps @ HD1 and 60fps@ D1. As you set resolution and fps it tells you the fps you've used and what's available. I find this to be very helpful. - Can record remotely from another Nano DVR via the Internet. I think this is a very interesting feature. If you have multiple locations you can use each DVR as a sort of off-site backup of a camera or two from other locations. It works well, as long as you have available bandwidth. - Has a feature called Smart Recording which basically always records, but gives the ability to set frame rates for motion & no motion. For example, I might set 3fps when there's no motion and 7fps when motion is detected. I happen to think this is a great feature and I use it often. This can be set on a schedule on a per channel basis. - Record scheduling. Can use a combination of always, motion, smart or no recording. I typically use smart recording during business hours and motion during non-business hours. - Quality Setting (per channel). Basically, this adjusts compression - the higher the quality setting the lower the compression (creates larger files though). I'll use this occasionally depending on environment and what’s being recorded. - Backing up large segments of video to a USB flash drive (or external hard drive) is quick & easy. Last week I needed to backup 4 hours of video from 5 channels (involved an unruly employee during a shift). Marked it off, hit backup and all was transferred to a flash drive. It also has an option to include the playback player along with the video - no need to look around for a CD or download the player from the Aver website. - Playback & exporting to MPEG or AVI is very easy & straightforward. One feature I found that I haven't seen documented is when viewing 4 channels and exporting to MPEG or AVI, all 4 channels will be included in the MPEG or AVI file. So, when playing back the MPEG or AVI you'll see all 4 channels simultaneously. I found this by mistake as I thought each channel would be exported individually (you can export one channel at a time also). NOTE: This also works with 9 channel view, but each frame is so small it's hardly worth the effort. 4 channel works good though. - Playback has a slider bar/button that allows you to scroll through video very quickly and there are little indicator bars showing where motion was detected. These little indicators appear whether motion detection is active or not. I find it comes in very handy when looking for an event and all I have is an approximate time. The indicators give a good indication when there's motion vs. no motion. It's not perfect, but comes in handy. - User Accounts. Allows 32 users and provides many control rights to choose for each user. Can specify which cameras a user can view and also set a time limit on how long a user can stay connected or a date when the user account expires. - Smartphone app is pretty good – basically the same for Android or iPhone (haven’t used the Blackberry app). The latest version allows playback (just one channel at a time though). - Web Viewer. With the latest firmware, the Web Viewer was updated. I think it works much better now and has a sleeker look. Also, as with the smartphone app, it provides the ability to playback one channel at a time. It's no replacement for the Remote Console or CM3000 software, but provides a quick & easy solution for remote live viewing. I’ve had no problems in IE8 or IE9. - Lastly, about the company itself, Aver comes out with firmware & IP camera updates quite often, they hold live webinars on the use of their products (I've attended a couple) and I've had great experiences when I contacted support a couple of times. The people I dealt with were very knowledgeable and helpful. They even created a beta firmware release for an issue I was having and kept the fix in later firmware releases. Dislikes: - My biggest dislike has to do with Remote Setup. Not all settings can be configured remotely - way too many options are grayed out. Of the 10 sections, 5 cannot be accessed remotely. Of the 5 that can be accessed, some features are grayed out. The big ones for me are: Date & Time: I forgot to set daylight savings on some units, so I had to run around to each location to change the time (won't make that mistake again). Masking: Motion Detection Masking has to be done on the DVR itself. I had a situation where a building across a parking lot had a motion sensor floodlight installed. At night, every time a branch moves the light turns on and the dvr starts recording. I would have liked to mask that area from the comfort of my home, but no. I had to go to the location at night and have someone walk over and trigger the floodlight so I could click on 4 boxes to mask it out. Users: Cannot add, delete or change users remotely. This was almost a deal breaker for me. Anything to do with user accounts has to be done on the dvr itself. Thankfully changes to user accounts don't happen very often in my world, but when they do it's a real pain having to go on-site. Rebooting: Cannot remotely reboot the DVR. A schedule can be set to reboot, but the schedule settings are grayed out too. I like to reboot the systems once in a while just a matter of protocol. - Although it's very quick & easy to backup video to a flash drive from the DVR itself, backing up multiple channels using Remote Console can be a pain and Aver's Remote iBackup software seems very clunky, slow and downloads the playback software each time a segment is selected for download. For a location with DSL and 350k-500k upload it can be a long, boring process with an unnecessary software download. - All of Aver's software applications are fixed window sizes. Can't resize windows or move them around and some applications remain on top of others. This can be very annoying when wanting to multitask on a PC. For live viewing it may be best to use the Web Viewer. NOTE: I’ve had other DVRs with the same “feature”, so it’s not something new or specific to Aver. - Aver’s CM3000 & iMatrix software requires a screen resolution of 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1920x1200, 1440x900 or 1680x1050. My laptop has a native resolution of 1366x768 and I hate having to change it every time I want to use CM3000 or iMatrix. Remote Console will work at 1366x768 though. - Cannot obtain a contiguous MPEG or AVI file if video goes past the hour. For example, if I want to save an event to MPEG or AVI from 10:55 to 11:05 I'll need two segments, 10:55-11:00 and 11:00-11:05. I can then join them using a third party program. This is somewhat annoying, but I can deal with it. - Configuration of the DVR has to be done via the VGA port. If you don't have a VGA monitor, then a VGA to RCA converter will be needed. - Spot monitor port (BNC) cannot display 4 or 9 camera view, but it can cycle through specified channels. In some environments having a static 4 channel view would be better, but I can live with the cycling. Conclusion: Regardless of my dislikes, for the price I think this is a feature rich DVR. I'm very happy with the video quality (which to me is more important than everything else) and the performance of these systems has been great over the past year. They are doing the job they were intended to do, but, if the ability to fully remote control the DVR is something that's critical to you, then you might want to look elsewhere for a surveillance solution. Otherwise they're nice little units with a lot of features and are competitively priced.

I believe rory got banned and soundy got fed up.

There may not be many posts with the title 'I just bought utter crap', but here's a sampling of recent posts that basically say just that Let's keep it real Also, I've posted in the past that I've used some QSee systems at a few locations. Within 3-4 years they have all been replaced due to failure of one sort or another. IP Cameras Keeps loosing connection. viewtopic.php?f=19&t=35326 how to reset admin password on Dahua DVR0804LE-AS (This is scary) viewtopic.php?f=3&t=34614 Q-See QT 528 cannot port forward cannot remote view viewtopic.php?f=12&t=29871 Dahua DVr active x configuration viewtopic.php?f=3&t=35321 Dahua HFW2100 IR LEDs failing viewtopic.php?f=19&t=35299 Dahua firmware viewtopic.php?f=19&t=33328 Dahua 16ch POE NVR & HDBW3202 motion detect issues viewtopic.php?f=54&t=35301 Dahua HDB3200c Artifacts / Bright Colour Problem viewtopic.php?f=53&t=35296 dahua dvr (concerns blur) viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35281 Poor picture quality - new installation (QSee) viewtopic.php?f=6&t=34947 Problems with cameras connected to POE switch (Dahua) viewtopic.php?f=12&t=35266 Dahua PSS Software poor video quality viewtopic.php?f=6&t=30653 Need Help with q-see 600TVL cam acting up viewtopic.php?f=5&t=35214 Adding more than 4 cameras to QC808 viewtopic.php?f=3&t=34888 Dahua DVR login box fails to load viewtopic.php?f=3&t=35107 Dahua HFW2100 x TP-Link WDR4300 viewtopic.php?f=19&t=35035 connection problem Dahua IPC-HDBW3300 viewtopic.php?f=19&t=35132 Q-See. Are these people shameless or what? viewtopic.php?f=3&t=34538 Dahua FW2100 Night Vision viewtopic.php?f=19&t=35006

I believe different states have different requirements. Where I live (Florida) any type of electrical work needs to be performed by a licensed individual or business. But, surprise surprise, people don't always follow the rules. Florida services that require a license (electrical): http://www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr/pro/division/Servicesthatrequirealicense_Electrical.html

But after returning to this forum after many years away....all I see is cheap nasty product being bandied around by almost everybody but almost everyone is pushing these cheap junk systems. Yupp. Seems that many current active members discuss & recommend the cheap stuff rather than the better quality equipment. The end users are relying on us to inform them of quality products... so what gives... I believe this is due to quite a few professional members no longer being active (for various reasons). I heard a disturbing accustation that product PDF links are changed to other cheap brands and that other products are not allowed to be shown to end users - please tell me this is false Larry????? It's true. Sometime last year there was a perceived issue with an active member (or members). Afterward links to the member's company name, website and product line were removed. Today if you try to mention that member's company name in a post it will not show. I don't know how many company names this happens with. Again - this forum was set up when Larry wanted to learn more - there was no decent forum at the time - so he created one to assist others....how has it been hijacked by cheap imported crud? I don't think it was hijacked, just more people discussing inexpensive systems for residential & small business use. Quite a few of the more seasoned members with life experieince in the world of CCTV are no longer here. There are still some active, professional and very knowledgeable members here, but it seems the product they represent and know are out of the scope, reach and budgets of the DIY'er who is looking for advice on an inexpensive system for their home or small business. I don't post here very often anymore because it seems the most popular discussions surround dahua, qsee & costco, none of which I'm interested in. Also seems like when someone starts a discussion on more professional systems it's compared to the qsee & dahua, like they're some sort of benchmark. Rubbish I say. But, talk bad about these cheap systems and you're shot down.

Use Netviewer for one and Internet Explorer for the other, or Internet Explorer for both in separate IE windows.

Molex to SATA power adapter cable

Does the issue happen at regular intervals, like every 5, 10, 15min? I'm not familiar with your dvr, but some will record in chunks (usually configurable by the end user), such as 5min, 10min.....60min, etc. I'm just wondering if could be during the time when one chunk ends and another begins that the image blinks. Additional questions: When video is played back do you see any dropped frames? Does the replacement dvr have the same firmware version as the old one? Do you know what type of hard drive is installed? Not talking capacity - referring to make & model. Not all hard drives are created equal.

I can see it now: "But, but, your honor, someone on the Internet said it was legal." In my opinion, the best place to find out is by asking a lawyer.

DVR connected to Internet with default username & password = potential for someone to stumble upon, logon & change settings. If all 5 changed in one day I'd say malicious access happened.

I doubt all QSee product is Dahua. Also, not everyone on the forum recommends Dahua product. The ones who do are pretty vocal about it though.

this, by the way, is entirely possible - i've seen both analog (vcr) and high-end dvr/nvr systems that have had the time drift off, or even never had it set properly at installation. i had muxes, back in the day, that i'd set the time, and they'd be off by an hour within a month. vcr/mux systems would be much more rare in 2009, but certainly not unheard-of. Agree w/ GrouchoBoucho. I experience time fluctuations w/DVR's frequently. Other electronics as well. Very common. Couple of months ago I forgot to set the correct year on a DVR & it drove me nuts for about 10 minutes trying to figure out why there was no recording of the current date & time. Doh

It can happen. There are several ways to accomplish this, here's some examples: As mentioned before, a screen capture/recording program can capture the 4 channel+ view and output as avi, mpg or other video formats. Then there's dvr playback software that can output a 4 channel+ view to avi &/or mpeg - the Aver Remote Console software can do this (I happen to really like that feature). I suspect other systems & software have the ability as well. Another way is to just point a camera directly at the playback monitor and record. There are other ways, but I think you get the jist of it - it can happen and it's not difficult.

Wasn't appreciated - edited out.

Wow, that's some system you have there. I know you said it was more for construction sites, but initially I'm thinking something like this can be rented to events that have large gatherings. For instance, I see you're in Palm Beach, FL. I'm in South Florida also and know there are different outdoor events going on all the time. Maybe the organizers or law enforcement would be interested in monitoring activity at these events. Maybe even large venues like the BB&T Center would want something like this to cover the parking lots on event days, or shopping mall parking lots around this type of year. Basically, anywhere that large amounts of people converge & there's potential for crime. I'm sure anyone involved with a car break in, purse snatching, shopping bag snatching, etc. would have loved to have had a system like this covering the area where they got robbed. I think it would serve as a deterrent also. A few times I've had police ask my clients if they had any recording of the parking lot where their business is located. Maybe a system like yours could also be used by law enforcement or local communities to try and deter crime in areas like parks where drug dealing & prostitution is a problem. Just some thoughts. I think if marketed properly a system like yours can be sold or rented.

Call them and ask.

Too many variables to consider, such as: How much of an area needs to be covered? Do you want fixed lens (where the field of view is set) or vari-focal (allows you to change the field of view)? What is the lighting like at night? Do you think you need IR cameras? Is there direct sunlight during the day? How high will the cameras be mounted? Will cameras be mounted in an area where they can be prone to vandalism? What type of building material will they be mounted on? Will dome or bullet cameras be better for the enviroment where they will be installed? What's the weather like in your area (how hot/cold does it get)? Plus, many other questions to consider, but that's a good start. An area that gets very dark & cold may require a different system than a well lit area in the tropics

I'll put it another way..... 500Kbps can transfer 225MB per hour. That would be 5.4GB per day. In my area the typical DSL upload speed is from 300Kbps-700Kbps, so I think using 500Kbps is good for an example. At 3000Kbps, or 3Mbps (typical upload speed with cable in my area), 1.35GB of data can be transferred in an hour, or 32.4GB per day. Now, getting to the original questions......it all depends (really). Comes down to quality settings, fps settings & number of channels being streamed. It will also be affected by the number of users connecting to the dvr/cameras at the same time. I have clients with multiple retail locations and I've configured video walls for a few. One particular client has video streaming from 20 locations with 20Mbps download, and the remote locations have from 300Kbps to 4Mbps upload. In the locations with slower upload speed, remote live viewing can be very choppy (even with analog), especially if more than one channel is being monitored. But, if the quality & fps of the live stream is lowered then we'll get more fluid motion. Different dvr's have different settings for recording & live viewing (streaming). You really need to play around with the settings to find acceptable live viewing quality with the available upload bandwidth at the remote location (and download bandwidth at the viewing location). I'd attack the problem by first looking at how much upload bandwidth is available at the remote location and how much download bandwidth is available at the viewing location. You may find that you need 10Mbps upload to achieve what you want, but if the available upload speed is 1.5Mbps that changes everything. So, see what's available and work within those parameters. In my opinion, instead of asking "how much bandwidth do I need" ask "what can I accomlish with the bandwidth I have." Just one guy's opinion.

If they start asking questions, lie about it. Very professional.

Didn't see your post when I posted mine. A VGA switch box can be used, so no cable swapping. Allows the use of multiple vga inputs to one monitor.

What type of connection does the cable going to the 7" monitor have? I'm going to guess it's a BNC connection. If so, then it's really easy. 1 - Use a BNC to VGA conveter. Google it. You can find them for under $40. 2 - Get an LCD TV with RCA input and use a BNC to RCA adapter (BNC Female / RCA Male). If the cable feeding the 7" monitor is not BNC, please indicate the type of connection used. A Picture would be most helpful if you're not sure what it's called.

Maybe the Internet upload speed where the DVR is located doesn't have enough bandwidth to handle the streaming video. I experience this very often no matter what brand DVR.

I've used both. It all depends on the environment along with the type of cameras and their power needs. But, given the choice, I like to use power boxes instead of adapters. I've had several power adapters go bad, but never a power box - not even a blown fuse and I'm in Flordia where power surges and sags can be very common during the rainy season (which can be 7-8 months out of the year).

Have you seen the night time demo of this camera on youtube? You can clearly see a reflection of headlights moving up the middle of the video as the car moves closer. Interesting if this is the best demo video Qsee can post of this camera: This package doesn't seem like much of a bargain if there's flickering, reflections and, as another member posted, major cropping when dropping the camera's main stream to lower resolutions: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=32683 I guess the old saying "you get what you pay for" is holding true with these cameras.

If nvrdns was setup in the dvr I'd imagine it will update, but I'm not certain of the update frequency. You can try looking for a cached copy of the nvrdns webpage on your local computer. That might contain all the former ip addresses. Alternatively, do you have someone you can call at each site who can possibly give you their ip so you can manually change it back in the nvrdns service? As a last resort (and I hate doing this) can you ask someone at each location to reboot the dvr or Internet connection device (dsl modem, cable modem, etc.)? That may force an update.