Toaster

Sorry for the delay in replying back....

Yes, it works as advertised! Many thanks.... Now if I can figure out how to add that app as a link in my HTPC - I can single click it from the menu and see the cameras.

I've already installed the CMS and your mod on all my laptops and computers across the house and the store - single clicking gives me access to home and store cameras... very nice. THANKS AGAIN.

" title="Applause" /> Ask and you shall receive " title="Applause" />

I can't wait to try this... THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good cables are necessary for a proper system, but the bar between "utter crap" and "more than sufficient" is actually pretty low in most cases. If the output isn't what you're expecting, it's rarely the cable. Terminations however, especially hack easy DIY connectors, CAN be problematic though.

That's exactly why I said in the original post the jump from cheap crap to something decent is ok, but after that its pretty much a level playing field. At least that's been my experience in A/V stuff anyways..... Like these guys talking about $100 HDMI cables are necessary for 3D TV, 1080p or HDMI 1.4a compliance, etc... My $3.00 HDMI which is years and years old, works just fine for 1080p, 3D TV, bluray, etc....

Just a follow up, in case anyone care's...

I had two of these diy systems, one at work and one at home. The one at work worked great, no issues with the exception of occasionally having to hit "connect" several times to remotely connect for viewing on my iphone - which was more than likely an issue with my cellular service more so than the dvr itself.

The other DVR quickly started to restart randomly... I finally realized it did it whenever the HDD filled up. My guess is the HDD had an issue, and NOT the dvr itself, though I never actually tested my theory by replacing the HDD - I'm 99% sure that doing so would have solved it. Instead the place of purchase offered me a replacement because I was unsatisfied with its performance and I took the opportunity to upgrade to 30fps d1 qt528 model, which I then installed at work, and transplanted the 428 from the store to home, so now the store get 30fps d1 and the house gets 7.5fps d1.

FWIW: Searching google for this model or the other q-see models I reviewed bring up this forum and my threads... there's just NOT a lot of info on these things out there, so I have a feeling other consumers like my self have visited here to read those.

I know most of you here are installers or industry professionals, but what I'd like to see are some video samples of analog camera setups. More than the few offered by our fearless leader Rory. " title="Applause" />

I'm simply a end user, and want to compare what I'm seeing on my inexpensive systems with the systems you guys are working with that most likely I can not afford Does anyone have a web site setup with analog and or ip camera samples? surely that's something you guys would have interest in as well?

The camera's look "OK" now - honestly I dont think the video will get any better with better cables but I wanted to ask ... I know cables sometimes makes a difference in A/V stuff, but usually the jump is from "cheap thin crap" to anything decent cable or better...but from decent cable to ultra high end usually doesn't yield much of a difference.... unless you've got the eyes of an eagle, and at that point you're not using analog cameras anymore anyway- you're on IP cameras.

The reason I ask, the first DIY system(s) I bought had really small cheap wires with 1/4 sony ccd cameras... the last system I bought (Q-see Qt528) came with bigger 1/3 CCD sony DSP cameras, and VERY impressive heavy duty cables. I have not tried the cables, but there appears to be a HUGE difference in the cables... if you can imagine the cheapie cable being about the size of a #2 pencil (maybe thinner) and carries both video and power. The other cable (the more heavy duty cable) is 2 separate cables fuzed together in more of a flat ribbon cable, and the video portion is easily twice the thickness of the cheaper cable... But I sure don't want to go through the hassle of re-running these wires for no reason

In analog systems, do the cables make a big difference in video quality? I've been using the "plug n play" cables that came with my bundled system(s)... which is pretty thin, I'm sure its cheap. Would buying baluns and running cat 5 give better video quality? or using thicker higher quality cables to each camera???

Just my rant: Having used a video surveillance system now, I would think this request or feature is common place, and I'm shocked its not part of the stock, out of the box - firmwares or options from MOST manufactures... cheap or otherwise... It just makes sense that people would want to be able to search motion based events - any time of the day 24/7, but only get notified of those motion events during certain hours......? I guess they have to make the more expensive ones worth it some how...

 

FWIW, I've installed and/or serviced literally hundreds of DVRs for almost as many clients, and not once have I come across the need to have it send email on a schedule. I'm pretty sure Vigil will do it, but I've never actually looked, because I've never needed to.

 

In the grand scheme, I honestly think your requirement is pretty rare.

Let me start with I'm a consumer... I'm the end results - the customer... I do not install these, I do not profit in this in any way.... I'm the "client" so to speak.

I'm SHOCKED to hear that business owners or home owners for that matter don't want email alerts about motion in stores or homes. I personally think that's one of the BEST features of this, I know when someone pulls up before we open or after we close. I RARELY get false motion alerts inside the store... I'll admit that some outside motion alerts are birds, bright lights or shadows moving, even some bugs crawling on the cameras... stuff like that. Even had spiderweb fluttering in the wind. But that's ok - I get the alert on my phone, I glance at it, if its nothing - I'm happy!

To read that most clients disable that is just dumb on their part... If you care enough to get the camera's, care enough to LOOK AT THE DAMN EMAIL. That's my opinion.

Now I will say that setting up superior motion detection, or anti-false alarm triggers and such would be excellent... But that's not really what I'm trying to accomplish. The only time I get false alarms (or lots of them I should say) is when it rains.

What I want is like I said above, SEARCHABLE MOTION DETECTED EVENTS 24/7 AND EMAIL ALERTS ONLY WHEN CLOSED. with more emphasis on the searchable motion detected events 24/7

Toaster wrote:

We had a storm last night and I had a couple of hundred emails this morning because of heavy rain from the outside cameras.

 

You probably already know this, but having scheduled email wouldn't have helped at all in this situation...

Oh yeah - I understand that. I was making the point about having the dvr continuously send out emails ALL DAY LONG - what a waste of bandwidth and probably will slow down our DSL connection...?

I think this thread has drifted slightly off my original topic...

Essentially what I want is the DVR to record ALL DAY LONG. I want to be able to SEARCH any/all of the cameras for motion events (like to see when a customer walked in for example), and only receive the motion email alert with a snapshot while the store is closed.... like say 8pm to 10am the next morning, but from 10am to 8pm which are business hours, no email is sent, but the motion detection is still activated.

What I'm trying to express is its not really the email sending part, as much as it is the ability to always search motion events.

Here's a scenario that might clear it up.

In the store we've got a counter, cash register and a tip jar... So I notice the tip jar is missing. It was there earlier today. Now, I want to go thru the video... Instead of searching ALL DAY LONG or manually skipping thru the recorded segments- I'd like to search the inside motion events, like the camera that faces the front door. Then bring up the camera that see's the cash register and tip jar. If I could search the motion events, I'd be able to see who took the tip jar very quickly... If I have to FFW thru the entire day's videos - I'm gonna be there a while.

LOL... Ok, let's see.........

YES, there is internet available.

YES/NO, there is a PC there, but NO it does NOT stay on 24/7 - for security reasons.

EMAIL FILTER, I looked and did not see a way to filter emails on or through gmail based on time.

As for 24/7 emailing, that seems wasteful and I'm assuming slow down not only the DVR if I wanted to connect remotely for viewing, but would eat bandwidth for no reason. Just ALWAYS emailing pictures of motion alerts... We had a storm last night and I had a couple of hundred emails this morning because of heavy rain from the outside cameras.

Just my rant: Having used a video surveillance system now, I would think this request or feature is common place, and I'm shocked its not part of the stock, out of the box - firmwares or options from MOST manufactures... cheap or otherwise... It just makes sense that people would want to be able to search motion based events - any time of the day 24/7, but only get notified of those motion events during certain hours......? I guess they have to make the more expensive ones worth it some how...

As in you can write a new firmware??? This is a tvt "me" series dvr. 8ch @ 30fps

wow...those are 'spensive......................................

The alarm I have in the store is a DSC alarm, I can't for the life of me remember the model number. Its all wireless and works great. Has a door sensor, glass break sensor, motion detector.... I guess I need to dig out the manual............

The problem is I don't fully understand what I'm reading, just like I don't fully understand the alarm inputs of the dvr - back to square one.

BTW: I checked gmail filtering, and I didn't see anyway to filter messages based on time of day sent or received....?

Just to update this topic, I recently tried a 1/3" sensor 3.6mm camera, and the viewing width increased most impressively. On the original 1/4" sensor camera's, I would get roughly 3 parking spaces in the parking lot... Replacing the camera with a 1/3" sensor camera in the exact same mounting spot I now get the ENTIRE 6 space parking lot area, the bottom of the roof line on the bottom edge, and street in the top edge... " title="Applause" /> AMAZING. 1/4" sensor sucks.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I have planned on doing... setting up an email filter... but that seems like a really dumb way to do this. I'm a little shocked this is NOT a feature already. And in the menu structure of the DVR it IS setup to schedule motion detection 24/7, but only ALARM you on motion detected during closed hours... but when I search for motion events, NOTHING shows up during open hours... I called tech support, and they simply dismissed me as saying it was not supported.

There is a motion detection schedule under SCHEDULE and motion and motion detection under ALARM - and I have it set the way I think should work - but obviously it doesn't............ OH WELL.

Sounds like I'd then have to re-wire my now wireless alarm system hmm.... I wonder if I would be able to actually get any advantage out of doing that...?

In terms of cameras, I love CNB's domes, like vcm-24vf, or dbm-24vf. Good bang-for-the-buck. Compared with a friends cameras which are much more expensive, they perform even better, while costing less!

The specs on those cameras look great, but (to me) that seems expensive ??? $180'ish per camera

But hey - I'm a cheap a$$

Hello again guys.......

I have a stupid question, that I'm sure most of you regulars will know the answer to. I currently have 2 CCTV systems, both Q-SEE, consumer grade... (I know - I know). One is a 30FPS D1 QT528 at my business, and the other is a 7.5FPS D1 QT428 (both 8ch). Ok, so both DVR's are actually made by TVT for what its worth.

They have alarm inputs on them, but I'm not quite sure whats the advantage of using those alarm inputs...? I have both set to record 24/7 at max res, cbr 2048k........

There are all these options I really don't understand, and I'm sure features I dont understand either. One of the big ones is: I'd like to record 24/7 (to be safe) but I'd also like to be able to search through video and only see motion activated events, however because of the way I have them set up, to send email based motion event alerts during CLOSED hours, when I search motion events I'm not seeing anything that happens while we're open (ie: 9am to 5pm), so I'll see events upto 8:59am and after 5:01pm but nothing in between... and of course Q-see is ZERO help.

I have an alarm at the store- but its a wireless alarm system......... and I don't think it integrates with this... should I maybe look into wired motion sensors or something??????

Does anyone familiar with the TVT (q-see qt428/qt528) DVR's know if its possible to record motion events 24/7, but only get the motion email alerts during CLOSED hours? (not while we're open)

The only way I've been able to achieve this is to only enable motion detection during closed hours and just record 24/7... which makes searching for an event really BORING. It would be so much better to search motion events all the time - but only get emailed alerts while we're closed.

I've got a qt428 and a qt528 (one home and one at work)... thanks.

I'm sorry I don't have any advice, but I'm curious from the OP, was the video ever recovered or salvaged?

Yeah man, that quad view system looks amazing! I'd love to do that, according to the youtube page its about $1500???

Like Seanhawg, I would very much like information, pictures - whatever you'd like to share " title="Applause" />

Anyone have any suggestions for a decent outdoor weather proof rear view backup camera for a car? The one I've been using was NOT weather proof, so it's about done.

Would like something fairly covert - That way people won't mess with it in parking lots and stuff.

I'm not sure which one the qt426 is, but my qt428 has he ability to "buzzer" on events like motion, disk full, ip conflict, video loss, and net loss....

I personally think the 8w LED (middle picture) looks the best balanced. The 11w LED and 65w traditional light look about the same... I see what looks like "ridges" on the largest planter on the top and bottom pictures, but do not see them in the middle picture, and I'm thinking those ridges are some kind of sensor spike for over exposure?

Depending on how the OUT port is wired, you may be able to just connect the camera to that (using the appropriate RCA-to-BNC adapter). If it's a straight loop-through, it should work.

You know, I never thought of that, but you're right. " title="Applause" /> If it's looped through connecting to the out should work.