Soundy

Are you talking about poles that any standard camera enclosure could be mounted to, or something that integrates the enclosure (covert or semi-covert)?

Problem there is, a basic motion-detection system HAS no way of knowing what's "critically important" and what isn't. Is it a burglar... or a leaf fluttering past the camera? A vandal... or a bird? Headlights coming into the driveway... or just passing by? Until you get into video analytics, your average setup like this would generate probably 10,000 "false" alerts for every one "real" incident. No amount of mail filtering will get around that. Analytics helps, but only to a degree.

Fine, let me rephrase: I've never had a client require it. I've had a couple ask for it, get tired of it after a couple weeks of getting uninteresting still shots, and have me turn it off. Don't see the point in forcing something on them they don't want...

You probably already know this, but having scheduled email wouldn't have helped at all in this situation... 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. When you think about it, if a rainstorm is causing all those emails to be generated overnight, then you have bigger issues with this plan than limiting what hours emails are sent - you need better motion detection to start with, or better yet, video analytics. I think your best solution, though, goes back to this post: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=25344 It addresses the issue with outside movement triggering alerts, as well as the possibility of operating hours not always matching the schedule you set up.

I think with the SDK, he was looking to implement something that worked via the DVR's remote client. What about the idea discussed elsewhere of triggering email notifications via the site's alarm system and the DVR's alarm inputs?

Yeah, nothing wrong with a plastic bubble anyway... just as long as it's not cheap plastic, like you'll find on $5 cameras (dummy or otherwise).

If the lens manufacturers don't list the lp/mm specs, you could always contact them and ask them. They probably HAVE those numbers, even if they don't publish them.

Since we're trying to send email here, I'd say we can assume the existence of a network connection as a prerequisite

Still your BEST option...

Why not check with some local installers or even suppliers and ask if they have any dead dome cameras kicking around? Something WITH all the guts will look even more real. Most would probably be happy to just give you a couple - means they don't have to haul them to the recyclers.

Ah, that works then. So what they'll need to know, is the ports required by the DVR. First is usually port 80 for the initial connection - if you run another webserver on your connection, you may need to change that setting on the DVR. I would assume you have a static IP to go with this business account; if so, you don't NEED a no-ip account. You might want one for the convenience, but it shouldn't be required.

Never done a side-by-side, but I haven't found any sort of noticeable difference *inherent* to using one over the other.

Knowing this now, there are actually lots of options to get your time-based email alerts. If your alarm panel has a PGM output, or something similar, you may be able to tie that into the DVR and then configure it to send email only when there's an alarm. Then rather than having to worry about the hours (what if someone stays late? what if everyone leaves and locks up early?), the feature would be operational whenever the alarm system is armed.

What router are you using? Unless it's an all-in-one gateway device (modem/router combo), I doubt your ISP will have the info on it, or the desire to walk you through it. Most don't support user-provided equipment.

The 484 series are great cameras. Little spendy on the whole, but what they do well (particularly, handling bad backlighting with the SDIII), they do REALLY REALLY well. We've used the CP484 (box) and CW484 (dome) extensively for years specifically to handle harsh backlighting situations.

Some systems will install a stripped down version of Apache or some other web server along with the DVR software installation. Or the DVR software itself may have an internal HTTP server - it doesn't require anything really heavy-duty for this purpose. No-IP, AFAIK, is just a dynamic-DNS service. It allows you to assign a domain name to your connection, and will automatically update that name record if your IP changes, but all that does is allow incoming connections to find your router. The router still has to be configured to route the necessary ports through to the DVR. If you can view it on the LAN, then the card and software are not related to the remote-viewing issue. Any other system you use will have the same requirements for forwarding ports to it; at most, the only thing that would change are the specific ports used.

Inherited one of these recently... doesn't start up, hoping someone here might have an idea. I plug in the power... I get a brief beep and the power LEDs flicker on for a second, then go out. And that's it. Tried another power supply... nada. Checked the voltage on the mainboard just downstream from the power connector: solid 12.06VDC. Any other ideas?

I dunno why the auto-iris wouldn't respond better to the IR... yet another reason I prefer motion-activated lighting over IR. A good low-light camera like a CNB Mona Lisa will give you better picture with very little ambient light anyway.

WAT? Ummm... wow, I had an idea, but now my brain hurts. Oh yeah... kinda a hack, but how about setting up a filter on your mail client that just discards alert emails outside the desired times?

Okay, so your problem is, you have cameras with very power IR capability, and it's naturally "overpowering" on close objects. Imagine if you took a spot light, something bright like the alley light on a police car, and shone it on a piece of paper three feet away - the reflection would be blinding. That's what's going on here - you have a super-powerful light source, and nearby objects that are highly reflective to that light. So your options are either to adjust the cameras to avoid the foliage... move or remove the offending foliage... or disable the IR in the cameras (or swap to non-IR cameras) and use external illuminators that can either be placed so as to avoid lighting up the foliage, or that can control their output power as needed.

Um... no. The new version isn't "destroying" the card... assuming it is a cloned card, the software that came with the card would have been hacked to allow it to work with it; if you downloaded the *legitimate* software, it will recognize that it's not a legitimate card, and simply won't work with it. If you got a different hacked version of the software, it's probably designed to work with a card that's hacked in a different way... and again, won't work with it. Either way, we can't help you here, as we DO NOT support illegal hardware and software. Your only other option is contact GeoVision and request the download from them, not get it from a torrent. If it IS a real card, it will have a serial number that you give them when filling out the download form; they can then verify that it's real, and provide you with the proper software for it. Keep in mind that even if it is legitimate, newer software may not work with an older card, so simply downloading the latest version won't necessarily work with the card you have. Again, going through GeoVision will ensure you have the proper version for that card.

Yeah, lotta ifs... not enough info.

Alright, called them... tech was very helpful, he says it should be five years on this unit. Gave me a ticket number, I did the online RMA form... will see where it goes from here. Thanks, Chris!

This looks like a good fit for the OP in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=56&t=25316&start=0