MaxIcon

Yeah, this is normal operation for the IR filter. As it moves, the camera sees it going across the field of view, rather slowly per dexterash, and detects it as motion (along with all the pixels changing color).

Another alternative would be an Aver NV6240 card in a mid-range PC. $500 for the card, $600 for a PC, and the rest on whatever cameras you can afford. I'm running an NV6480 now, with 20MP or so recording on 16 channels, in one of my old i3-540 boxes, and there's lots of CPU room to spare as long as I don't watch all 16 channels at once. No per-cam licenses, tons of supported cameras, and it's been solid and stable. The user interface is a little primitive and they don't update the software that often, but the capabilities are strong.

Lol! Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Please put away the banhammer!

Yeah, 720p on the QSee - I forgot about that. Before I built my new i5-3570 box, I tested on an i5-2500k, and had good results. I run Blue Iris, which, at $50, is the best value in low-cost NVR software by a long shot, and is quite capable and flexible. It's got a renewable 15 day trial download that's not crippled, but puts a watermark on the video. There's a great support community over at cam-it.org. My i5-3570 is currently running 8 cameras, 10MP total, at 10 fps with motion detect, and hits about 60% cpu on a dedicated box. 8 1080p cams would probably be around the limit, depending on the motion detect and pre-trigger settings, and running them at full frame rate would likely not be an option. Most general surveillance users agree that anything over 10-15 fps is unnecessary, especially due to the rate it uses HD space, but this is a personal preference. The Dahua 8 channel NVR maxes out at 15 fps/channel at 1080p, I believe. Other software is less CPU intensive, though usually costs more, and some have a per-camera license. Others would have to chime in on that. If you buy all the cams from one manufacturer, they'll generally have a free package that will handle them, but not other brands. Decent 1080p cams are currently around $300 or so, and Dahua's 3200S is around $225, but is just now becoming available, and prices are dropping in general fairly rapidly. The 2 and 3MP Dahuas don't always play well with Blue Iris, though. Buellwinkle's reviewing the new ACTi line, which is around the Dahua prices or slightly more and from a more respected manufacturer, but there's not a lot of experience on these yet. To keep camera costs down, you'd have to start with 720p, then upgrade later as the costs come down.

At this point, those of us are interested in mid-range consumer systems are waiting for the reviews on the Swann/Hikvision. The QSee/Dahua 4 and 8 channel systems have been pretty well reviewed, so the question is whether you can live with the warts. The other option is to build/buy a PC, buy your own cams, and pick the software you want. It's more work, requires more expertise (and develops more, too), and likely more expensive, but far more flexible, both in the short and long term. For 8 1080p cams you're liable to need a fairly serious PC, like an i5-3570, but this would depend a lot on the software you choose. One of the plusses of this is that you can start with a few cams, get some experience, and figure out where to go next, rather than getting a full system that will need to be replaced en masse if it's disappointing.

I don't use on-camera motion detection, and my software uses pre-trigger frames, so I get the full clip of a few seconds before the change and 30 seconds after. What yours looks like is the IR filter is partially out of the way, but not completely, which is an interesting piece of timing. The dark band is presumably the frame for the IR filter. I'm not sure how fast the filter transition is, but they're typically pretty fast. Having a high frame rate would make it easier to catch the in-between setting. Traditional still cameras with shutters can do this when using a flash, and it's fixed with what they call synchronized flash, but it's not normally considered a problem with surveillance video. If you can change the trigger time for motion detection, that would prevent this from causing an alert. I set my motion detect trigger at 1 second to minimize triggers caused by bugs and such.

Or to put it more precisely: Does the QSee NVR support Hikvision cameras, and does the Swann NVR support Dahua cameras?

The first one is caused by a firmware setting that reboots the camera every night at 2 am, which is enabled by default. I turned mine off months ago with no issues. The second is somewhat normal, as the change in so many pixels at once is seen as motion detection. There's no way around that that I know of.

That's too funny! Ironic website name. It looks like this is only based on revenue, not any kind of user ranking or quality standard.

Best depends on many things, including your budget. Avigilon is clearly a better overall integrated system, and is professional grade, with prices you would expect. Dahua is mid-range consumer or bottom-end small business grade, and is for people on a tighter budget. We'd all like Avigilon systems, just like we'd all like to drive Mercedes and BMW, but some people don't have that option. You have to be more specific about your needs and resources.

It's nice and compact, though I don't care for the integrated mounts in modern consumer-grade IP cams. Looks like it might be based on a Hikvision Raptor DS-2CD2012-I, from the google results: http://www.hikvision.com/en/Products_show.asp?id=6968 This is a 1.3MP cam, but is clearly the same model line as the Swann cam. Software version came up with this: http://www.hikvision.msk.ru/search/2013-02-06 (translated from Russian) Searching on Hikvision Raptor came up with this press release: http://www.secsolution.com/notizia.asp?id=2456 There's a Hikvision slideshow for 2012 here that shows the Q4 introduction of "New Platform - The Raptor", including a bullet cam.

Does Gadspot make their own gear? Probably not. If not, then it depends on who makes it for them, and what models they are. For instance, QSee is often considered junk, while their 720p 4 cam and NVR bundle is made by Dahua for them. Not the best equipment, but quite good for the money, and definitely not junk. The same applies to all the brands listed. They just slap their name on somebody else's gear, and a good experience with one bundle doesn't mean anything about another bundle from the same brand. A good rule of thumb for inexpensive analog bundles is that the cameras are not very good, while the DVRs may or may not be OK. You'll find this experience echoed in many, many threads here.

That looks a lot like the mount my Vivotek IP8332s came with, and I've had good luck with them. What I really like is that it appears to use a standard mount fitting, so I can mount it to any of the variety of mounts from my analog box cam days, some of which are quite sturdy. I find the Dahua style built-in mount annoying, because you have limited options on how and where to mount it. Dropping it down 2' from the eave, for instance, isn't an option, unless you want to hang a junction box pendant down and mount the Dahua to that, which would be a bit unsightly. The short pigtail would be a problem, though there are solutions for that - outdoor electrical tape, inline junction boxes, whatever. Another thing I like about the IP8332 is that it's got a standard RJ45 jack on the PC board inside the camera, so you can replace the pigtail with a standard cable. Still, this ACTi series is looking quite good for the money. I don't have any ACTi cams yet, but as close as they are in price to Dahua, it's tempting to try one. Presumably they have better support than Dahua (like anyone could be much worse).

Hi Max. There's no model number. I bought it for a very cheap price ($5). It's like this: http://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-471454125-adaptador-injetor-poe-tp-link-_JM I think I'll put a POE switch... because I also have a problem with the router (TP Link WDR4300) not talking with the camera... Those chinese devices are full of problems. OK, that's an odd one. It looks like it was bundled with their TL-WA901ND access point, and is a passive injector. It's not clear what voltage it takes, but it appears it provides the voltage directly to the ethernet port, so it's a passive POE injector with no separate output at the other end, which is an unusual configuration. It may have a non-standard pinout, as well, so there's a risk to the equipment at the other end if you go too high in voltage. I'd go for either a POE switch or one of TP-Link's TL-POE150S injectors. If you're going to do more than one POE camera, you should go for an inexpensive switch; otherwise, the TL-POE150S is a good bet for a single cam.

Many IP cams are sold in NTSC and PAL formats. Dahua's firmware, for instance, comes in both versions. Other cams have a setting you can tweak so they'll support either one. What the difference is in terms of real-life imaging (aside from frame rates), I don't know, but people have reported rolling pictures when using the wrong version, just like in the analog days. ETA: There's a vendor posting that these cams are now available, over at cam-it.org. Shipping to California was $27, so presumably these are coming from China. I left a few questions about shipping time and firmware support, and haven't seen a response yet.

Curiously, another problem with Dahua over-processing is their excessive sharpening in low light, which is the opposite of the over-softening problem. This is on the HFW2100; I don't have the dusk experience on the 3MP yet. On mine, it over-sharpens so aggressively as the light dies that my Blue Iris NVR detects it as motion, and records constantly for a while at dusk. Once it switches to BW mode, the motion detect goes back to normal. They don't have any settings for this. I'd sure like to see Dahua get some more basic features into their firmware, like sharpening control, day/night threshold and hysteresis, and such.

Yes, you can run it with passive POE, just like any camera with a separate power input, but the TP-Link adatpers are generally hybrid, not true passive. What's the model number of the TP-Link? A passive POE injector just takes the DC you put into it and sends it out the other end. The Dahua runs on 12Vdc at the power input, so that's what you'd use with passive POE, and it should work, no problem. The TP-Link should have come with a 48Vdc PS. The TL-POE150S is 802.3af compatible, while the TL-POE200A/B pair are not and need to be used as a pair.

Have you tried a firmware update? That may help if TP-Link is still supporting it. Most of the problems I've seen with home routers failing have been due to the cheap Chinese wall wart power supplies going bad. This can be hard to check, as the output may look good with no load (when it's easy to measure), but drop down when it's plugged in. You can check with a meter by opening up the router, but this isn't recommended unless you're comfortable poking around in the innards of electronic equipment.

No. There are lots of finicky little details in IP cam performance, and firmware features and functionality are critical. Dahua's not exactly top-end in their firmware performance and support, but they're better than many of the no-name Chinese cams. I know their limitations, and live with them for the relatively low price. I wouldn't buy the Swann system without seeing some reviews by experienced users (the Costco users generally don't fall into this category), unless I wanted to do the testing and supply the info to the community. I like to do that kind of thing, but not usually with stuff this expensive. So far, there are only guesses as to who makes the system, and that's a key piece of info. I'm looking forward to seeing someone's review of this gear.

The Dahua version of the camera has a setting for color, bw, or auto mode; presumable the QC cameras do as well. This only affects the IR filter and video mode, and doesn't affect whether the IR LEDs turn on or not - they'll always be on below a certain light level, but the camera won't see much IR if the IR filter is in. You can also unplug the IR LED board if you don't want them on at all. This doesn't affect anything else.

Dunno about the rest, but I've got an HFW2100 and an HFW3300C running on my Aver NV6240 box with no problems. The 3300 hiccups now and again, but overall is fine.

Lots of people are having trouble with Windows update KB2670838, which is a prerequisite for IE10. There are lots of reports of some PCs running OK, while others fail after this update: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_update/update-problem-kb2670838/62e4aafb-e73e-4610-83ec-8629a60777be?auth=1

There are some important things to know about what lens to order: - Is it CS mount or M12? CS mounts are about 1" across at the threads, and M12 are 12mm, or about 1/2" across. - Is it auto-iris? If it is, there will be a wire going from the lens to the camera, and you'll want another auto-iris lens to replace it with. If not, you need manual iris. - Does the camera use infrared? if it does, you'll want an IR compatible lens, as IR and white light focus at different places without this, and one or the other will be blurry. - You'll want to get a lens rated for a 1/4" sensor. One for a 1/3" sensor will work, but will give a smaller view than the same size lens in 1/4", which won't help your problem. You'll also want to decide if you want a fixed focal lens or a zoom lens, like you have now. Whatever you get, you'll need a smaller rating than 3.6mm, like 2.8mm, and a zoom would give more adjustment room. I used to buy from these guys back when I ran analog cams, but I don't know how they are any more. Maybe others can provide recommendations. http://www.apexcctv.com/c-58-lenses.aspx

Firmware reports from the cameras would be good too. That can help figure out who made the camera originally.

Really, it boils down to one thing (in the US, at least) - does the image allow identification of a suspect beyond reasonable doubt? For instance, could you tell the difference between two similar looking people standing next to each other in an image? That actually takes pretty good resolution and clarity, and low compression.