mike_va

Vitamin D analytics, nice because I can save weeks (if not months) of events and playback is so simple just use the up down arrow keys have it set at 3x playback takes very little time to review. I bought the full version, love it (great support). The interfaces appear to be designed by someone very good at this. The demo version is free, full functionality but limited to one camera CIF. Never had it miss something yet, also flawless email notification with a box drawn around triggering event. Distinguishes people vs. objects pretty well. Drawbacks: does not do audio, limited to 10FPS (don't care), 1.3MP (also don't need and seems to be a major project going higher with regard to lenses etc). At some point will augment with something to record a few cameras with audio continuously, have been playing around with various options. I got a demo of Exacq from you if I go that route I'll buy from you, appreciate also the support you provide on this forum. I've also tried Milestone (free version) and Blue Iris (demo, great support, inexpensive). Can actually get the Bosch to work transcoding the stream with VLC, quality not quite as good that way but did not try to optimize much and since I have unused encoders decided I could just try to use the service jack if it came to it (did test at a short distance and worked fine).

Yep, that would be the VDN-0495. I actually picked up a couple of the dome IP versions on the 495 in case it comes to that...they were a pretty good buy. Even that I would have to build a spot to mount one, I'm debating adding the other above the garage door. The nuisance is they are IP post not push like Axis, i.e. it needs a request for each jpeg if I'm understanding everything right so I'd be stuck using the service jack and an encoder...unknown if it could handle a long run.

Thanks, I only saw 2 examples. One was a dead ringer for the LTC7030, the other is a tad long.

Noted, appreciate the comments. What would really be nice is if something like the LTC0495 came in a bullet... I was even thinking the other night of trying out a Nuvico CB-HDE65N-L but when I read the power consumption was 8W and 14W with LED's gave up that idea...that's a lotta power to get rid of in a small enclosure, must run pretty hot.

Thanks for the idea but looks a little too serious, I have a HOA to contend with

Thanks, perfect! I know a little of what you mean about tough to work with, I just fit our Axis P1344 inside a Bosch LTC7030...pretty snug

Bosch 0620. Data rate goes up with sense up, as there is more information in the picture. 0x sense up is a 1/60s shutter speed.

Here are some example shots I did real quick, not perfectly focused etc just to determine what I could get out of these cameras at various shutter speeds. All lighting is a 23W fluorescent flood. The title I apparently can't edit and should say 3135 not 3130. It should be taken with a grain of salt, as other tests I've done thus far have shown that for a given FOV the 3135 can produce a more usable image of a person at night, seems to have better contrast somehow. Have not tried using 1/2 the FOV, i.e. using the same number of pixels to compare, perhaps the Bosch would win at that. The 3135 concerned me about not having an auto-iris, but seems to handle it fine. It is nice having two lenses, as the one on the 3MP can be stopped down (set at a higher f number for the daytime) to get a better depth of field. Seems having the higher resolution starts making these things apparent. In fact using analog cams has improved my skills with a DSLR, trying to coax out every bit of a roughly 0.3MP image... The Axis is much better than either of these during the day - perfect motion capture very much like a DSLR. Very good colors also and great exposure. Also very nice firmware and support. It is interesting to watch the data rate on the 1344 also, as information disappears at higher shutter speeds it goes down. The 0620 with sense up should be noted also kind of seems to exacerbate interlacing issues with the sense up and motion so worked better at 2CIF expanded. It is kind of amazing the detail it pulls out at 4x sense up, looking at the fence in the background.

Arecont AV3135, a little out of focus. Should be noted this was a f1.2 lens also, compared to the others using f1.0.

What we did was run RG59 and ethernet to each spot, and use a few pairs of the ethernet for power for analog cameras. I used solid core, twisted the wire ends together and then soldered at each end. Now if we ever get around to finishing the basement we won't have to worry hopefully about obsolescence. I think Cat5/6 is going to be around a while...

FWIW Was not impressed with the quality of the Acti, cheap though... Vivotek I've yet to see a great night pic at a decent shutter speed... No experience with the others I'm playing with an Arecont 3135 which is not bad although quirky, a little better night performance than my Axis P3344. With minor lighting pole light with 3 small bulbs I can get usable pics around 1/20s. You are obviously at a slow shutter speed as there is a bit of blur. Axis has great firmware, support and is a quality product. If you shop around you sometimes can pick them up on ebay around 4-500. Plus they do audio.

Just wondering at what point this starts to become the bottleneck, for continuous writing. I was running 16 cameras, 4 of which were 1.3MP and it seems to hang up on playback somewhat. Running only 8 cameras it seems fine, very snappy and responsive. Still have some processor left as it is a quad core athlon so don't think that is the problem. Thanks in advance.

Using a low f number lens also helps. MP (Arecont, Axis tried) don't have the sensitivity of the best CCD...yet. That is what I am waiting for. Hard to beat the Axis in daylight compared to analog, they are great at setting the exposure/shutter. It would be helpful if these vendors did not spec at low shutter speeds...or made clear what they were doing.

Thanks for all the info. I have a WD black I can take out of my Synology NAS, sounds like a good rainy day project.

Well I knew I would not get to sleep without trying this. With 11 cameras (4 at 1.3MP) I get peaks up to 60MB/s. Don't know what the drive is rated for in the computer for the C drive but probably not that great. I can see the lag as it tries to refresh the events view. Not sure how to get around this. Worst case I can add another computer or just keep running it on the ones I have set up. Analytics in the camera is not the way I want to go, but I can see why they do it... I have combination of 3 Axis and one Arecont, and analog cameras hooked up to an Axis 241S rack along with a few other things I am playing with. Kinda funny got back from a trip a few days ago walking through Dulles International Airport they had tons of Arecont. Art Institute in Chicago had various Axis cameras.

Well I was just trying this but it would only show me the drive with the OS... Tomorrow will move everything to C drive and see how it does. Need to sign off for tonight.

For example I see it peaking at 5MB/s with 3 cameras at 640x480 on the mac mini. This is what got me to thinking that might be the limitation with the W7 rig, once I add in 4x at 1.3MP and the rest of the cameras maybe this works out to being close to the limit? Not sure how to do this on windows yet but will poke around.

Yes, but the catch is VitaminD does analytics processing to distinguish people vs. objects and takes a fair bit of processor. For example, I can only run 3-4 cameras at 640x480 on an old mac mini core duo 1.66GHz (which is below their recommended processor). I bought the Athlon quad core to overcome this which worked for a while, but I keep adding cameras...

Thanks all, Windows 7 3GB DDR2 ram. Did not know the difference re DDR3 and DDR2 when I bought, seems to be easy to add large amounts of DDR3? OS is on a separate HD, both are SATA. I had to disconnect the DVD drive to hook up the second HD. HDS5C3020ALA Hitachi 6GB/s 2TB, originally bought as a backup drive from newegg. Here's something I found online, if that is really 65MB/s and not bits it seems like that is not the problem?

Thanks, noted. Would like to understand this so I can know what is limiting the system. The other possibility is the processor, so may try an I7 if it's not the hard drive.

It's VitaminD although I'm not sure that qualifies as VMS. It limits recorded frame rate to 10Fps. Someday may change but just so darn easy to review events. Network with the cameras I have on it now is running ~37Mbps, so no more than double that with all of them.

You could do this with a USB webcam and Vitamin D software if this is all you are trying to do. Demo is free but limited to 320x240.

Does using the mpeg-4 stream do better than 3Fps? It would take less bandwidth so maybe the server would have an easier time of it? What are the compression settings? You can also add some text to the 241S at least in date and time to display the data rate on the live view (see attached), which might help your troubleshooting.

interesting

Does this have the same low light performance as the AV3135? Called Arecont but no response. Thanks, Mike