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Higher bitrate is better quality. Whether it's enough better to justify the lower max record time is an individual decision, and there's always a point of diminishing returns. I'd test it in varying conditions with a lot of fast movement. If you set the bit rate really low, just for comparison, you should see a lot more pixelization around fast movement, and it'll give you an idea of what to look for between, say, 4096 and 8192.

Yeah, I noticed network dropouts every night at 2 am, and that's when I saw the daily reboot feature that I had missed before. I turned it off, and haven't seen any problems. My 2100 has been running for months with no issues.

Yes, an SD cam would be able to record internally without a PC or NVR. However, you'll need something to send the alerts and video out, so the trick is coming up with a system to do that. With no internet, you'll need a cell enabled system. http://www.eyeseecamera.com/ makes a GSM enabled camera, but I don't know much about it. Otherwise, there's no way to get the data out of the camera or recorder to your phone. Another option would be to connect it to a GSM router, which may require a PC. Temperature detect instead of motion detect requires alarm inputs on the camera that can be connected to a PIR sensor. No camera is wireless - the choice is whether you need 1 or 2 wires (power and data). Many cameras run on POE and only require one cable, but others require both a power cable and a video or network cable. This sounds like an expensive project, due to the no-internet requirement, but I could be wrong. I'd post this request in the IP cam forum, where people have done this sort of thing more.

The NV5000 card has an composite video out RCA connector - it's the yellow jack at the top of the card bracket. I've never used it, but it's presumably a standard TV out like the old days. To use this, you have a couple of options: - A TV that takes an RCA analog input - A PC monitor that takes an RCA analog input (not common now, but I used to run these) - A device that converts an RCA analog output to VGA/HDMI/whatever is compatible with your monitor. These are readily available on ebay and other places, and you want to make sure you get one that converts RCA composite to VGA, not VGA to composite (some work in both directions). Here's a cheap example of the latter (I have no idea if it's any good or not): http://www.ebay.com/itm/TV-RCA-Composite-S-video-AV-In-to-PC-VGA-LCD-Out-Converter-Adapter-Box-Black-/190801866243?pt=US_Video_Cables_Adapters&hash=item2c6cad6e03 and a more expensive one from Monoprice, whom I'd trust more: http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10114&cs_id=1011407&p_id=4722&seq=1&format=2

First off, any that don't specify 1/3" are probably 1/4", so you should avoid those. After that, it's a toss-up. 1.8mm is going to be very wide angle, and you'll have a fisheye effect (straight lines will be curved, for instance). It'll cover quite a lot of area, but your pixels per foot will be low, and the ability to ID a person, say, 20' away will be limited. 3.6mm is a popular lens size, and 2.5 will be even wider angle. When I buy from DX, I tend to buy the more expensive lenses (ie, $5 instead of $3!), and read the reviews to see what other people said. I then buy a couple of different ones, since the cost is so low and the delivery time is long. Some of the DX lenses have no markings at all, and you'll want to find some way to label them as soon as you get them to avoid confusion. Another alternative to DX is to look on ebay. I look for metal bodies and glass lenses, as an indicator of slightly higher quality, but just like DX, it's a gamble.

Here are a few key questions when looking at brands: - Are they supported by the software you want to use? - Do they publish the strings you need to get the streams, in case of software that supports generic streams? The HTTP and RTSP strings are both pretty critical. - What's the technical support like? Do they have good resources on their website, especially multiple versions of firmware? Are they responsive to questions and problems? - Are they popular, such that you have other options for support, like forums? Dahua has terrible support, and firmware is mostly available through your vendor or forum friends; official firmware sources are nearly non-existent for many of us. I didn't see any firmware for download on Gadspot's site, but I didn't look too hard. I know Gadspot's been around a while, but I rarely buy anything that I can't find some reviews on.

1/2.3 is 0.43", so a 1/2" lens should work fine. You'll have a slightly smaller field of view than using it with a 1/2" sensor.

Interesting. What's the failure? Does the camera work correctly as a QSee? It could be that the QSee software has code to keep you from flashing a QSee to Dahua firmware, and is preventing you from changing. In that case, you'd need to do the TFTP update from the full software package, which requires a special serial cable. So far, this is only availalbe from Dahua suppliers; I don't know of any end users who have used this system yet.

The channel=1&subtype=0 settings give me full resolution on my HFW2100, either on VLC or in the Aver recording software. I use this: rtsp://ip-address/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0 (the software has separate fields for port and login/PW).

I'm only using IP on the Aver NV6240-16, no analog, so it records at the same resolution as Blue Iris, except a few more cams - 4 x 1MP, 1 x 1.3MP, 1x2MP, and 1x3MP, and 1 x 0.3MP, mostly 10 FPS, with a 5MP thrown in the mix sometimes for testing. The main difference is that I've got 8 channels recording motion detect, and the other 8 channels recording the same cams full time for missed events. This is around 21MP, and the Aver software's max is 40MP, I believe, so there's still room for more MP in theory.

Good point on the IR. Mine is far enough away that the IR doesn't wash it out, but up close, it would be a problem.

No difference on the HFW-3300C. I had already tested it on my main PC, an i5-2500k, running BI demo, and it still looks like an encoding issue from the Dahua. I haven't bumped up the FPS yet, but I have the new PC running with 9 cams, including a 5MP, at 50% CPU or so. One big difference is that I don't see a big jump in CPU when multiple cams start recording, compared to the i3. If I turn them all on to constant record, it goes way up, but a big chunk of the CPU usage is the Arecont 5MP, which I probably won't use. It's been on a few weeks with no issues, and I believe I'll switch it over this weekend. I'll post some detailed results as soon as I get the time. So, there are 2 problems with this PC that the other identical boxes don't have. The main one is that the network connection drops out every few weeks, and is unrepeatable enough that it's very difficult to troubleshoot, so I have a Windows script that pings my POE switch every 10 minutes and reboots if it fails to connect 3 times. So far, that's worked very well. Unfortunately, I think the Windows scripting engine is the culprit in a software hang that also happens when my memory footprint grows too large, and that's also hard to troubleshoot. When I get the new box running, I'll disable it and see. My concerns over losing event capture at just the wrong time or missing motion detect (it's happened to all of us, I'm sure) is why I have two independent systems running. I like the BI flexibility and interface, but the Aver NV6240-16 box can record all the cams with both motion detect and 24x7 recording on the same CPU as the BI box. I only get 3-4 days, but if something happens that the motion detect doesn't catch, I can go back and find it on the 24x7 recordings. Yeah, probably a little over the top for a home system, but I love to solve problems, and the PCs and NV6240 weren't very expensive...

Yeah, I have several of these lenses, bought from a variety of places, and some that came on cams. Again, I really doubt that "Mega Pixel" or Mega is a brand name. I've got a fair bit of experience with Chinese optics outside the IP cam arena, and I'd guess there's a factory or three that stamp their lenses with this. Whether it's even true (MP rated, that is, and how many MP is that?) is not something I'd bet on without testing, and even then, I wouldn't apply the results to a lens bought from another vendor or manufactured in another lot. Folks who have mid- to high-end optics gear manufactured in China will tell you that quality control and spec control require constant supervision of the manufacturing facility, and that you can't take anything for granted without verification. You're just not going to get that with these inexpensive lenses unless a vendor has jumped through the required QC hoops. Seriously, even a $30 lens isn't something that would give me a warm, fuzzy feeling when it comes to quality control.

I've never done an NVR, but here's how it works with cameras. First, you need the correct software for it. This will usually be a large .bin file - the ones I have are around 12MB, and the name usually includes the model range, the version number, NTSC vs PAL, and the date. Here's a typical example for an HFW3300C and other similar models: General_IPC-HX3XXX_Eng_N_V2.103.0000.0.R.20120724.bin Once you've got that, go to the web control for the camera, find the firmware update section, point it to where the file is, and go. It may take a few resets after to get everything back to normal, and some settings may be different. Mine had a fixed exposure time set that caused the screen to be white until I changed it back to auto. Be sure the software is the correct version, don't do this over wireless, don't do anything to interrupt the power or network connection during the upgrade. Anything that interrupts it will require a more complex recovery that your dealer will have to help with.

Someone else should probably verify this, but when I tested my HFW3300C on mjpeg, it looked like a bad acid trip. Very ugly colors and artifacts, not a pretty picture. This was both on Blue Iris and on the IE webpage viewer.

This is the basic problem with buying Chinese lenses. You can't really tell by looking if they're the same or not, though you can guess in some cases. I haven't seen the lenses you're referring to, so I can't say. Once you have them in hand, it can be easier, but that's a gamble, especially if they're expensive. FWIW, I doubt MEGA is a brand name, any more than IR is, but I could be wrong. If you go to CS mount lenses, you can buy $25 lenses that appear to have the same specs as a $300 Fujinon. It's easy to tell the difference, due to branding, and it's obvious when you mount them, but board cam lenses don't seem to have branding, or even labeling in many cases. So, one basic law of optics applies - if it's cheap and new, it's probably not high quality. I don't think the Chinese have managed to overcome that. Unfortunately for the buyer, too cheap generally means mediocre quality, but expensive doesn't mean high quality, as some people mark DX lenses up and re-sell them for much more. Maybe RageCams is doing that - hard to say without actually comparing them. http://www.m12lenses.com is the in-between alternative; hopefully better quality than DX, while cheaper than Rage. If they don't have what you need, you're probably out of luck without spending more money. If you want a reference point, try pricing lenses from some of the big boys who use M12 lenses on their MP cams - Axis, Mobotix, etc. You can probably assume these are better quality than the no-name Chinese lenses, though they may well be made in the same factory.

Yeah, that's the big trade-off between dedicated NVRs and PC based systems. Dedicated is much stabler, while PC systems are much more flexible. A lot depends on what your goal is - home security, corporate security, hobby, etc - and how critical it is to have 24x7 uptime, as well as whether you'll be adding more cams or MP in the future. I had dedicated DVRs in the analog days that ran for years without requiring any maintenance or troubleshooting, while PCs need regular reboots if you want to keep up with security updates and such. I've never run a NAS for recording, so can't comment on that. As dexterash points out, you want a NVR PC to be dedicated, it has to be high quality components, and it has to have the power to support what you want. Still, you can get a $600 PC that will fill the bill on that, and NVR software that's everywhere from free to thousands of dollars. I have 2 dedicated PCs that run 2 parallel NVR systems right now. These aren't used for any daily tasks - email, web browsing, Office, etc - as that can reduce the stability of a system quite a lot. Both are i3-540 based, with 4-8GB RAM, a 2TB HD, and Windows 7 Embedded. One's got an Aver 6240-16 card, monitors 14 cams at about 24 MP, and rarely has a problem. I install Windows updates and reboot every couple of weeks. It has overhead to add more cameras and MP, no problem. The other runs Blue Iris, a $50 NVR program, that's an excellent value if you don't need corporate grade features. It runs 6 cams at 6MP total, and can't handle much more than that without running out of power. I have to reboot more often, as there's an intermittent instability that causes it to crash now and again, but I have a watchdog program that reboots it if it loses contact with BI. I'm also in the middle of testing a new BI box, with an i5-2570k CPU, that handles a lot more cams and MP, and is very stable so far. So, one approach would be to download the demo version of Blue Iris, or other free/demo software like Xprotect Go, and play around with it. You'll soon get a feel for what you like and don't like, and what you need; this will affect what level of software you want and the cost.

What are the BI stream settings you used? For night image sizes, this jpg has a lot of sharpening artifacts, which are pretty common on inexpensive MP cams. They add a good bit to the bitrate and file size, since they're essentially rectangularized noise, and don't compress well. If you can reduce sharpening, it will get rid of some of the grain and should reduce file size as well. The over-sharpening doesn't bother a lot of people, though.

I have to set my bitrate a bit lower for the Dahua 3MP to work with BI, and what I found is that I get pixelization when things change. This is especially noticeable when moving the camera around - when it moves and stops, it's very pixellated, and settles in over a few seconds to a good looking picture again. This makes sense, as the more pixels change, the more data needs to be sent out, and the bigger an effect a low bitrate will have. It may be that lower bitrates are good for smaller changes in the field of view. Also, the shadows tend to be quite ugly at low bitrates. When half my lawn is in shadow, the bright half looks nice and detailed, but the shadowed half is blotchy and blurry. It may be that they focus their processing on the more detailed areas, which also makes sense. I'd really like to turn this back up to full bandwidth...

Those are the serial communications connections for TFTP access. TFTP is used when a camera's unable to start due to having the wrong firmware loaded, and can be used to unbrick a camera. You need a .img firmware file, which is different than the .bin file used when updating the firmware normally.

If you want a view that includes both faces and packages on the porch, the light will probably be too close. I have a front door cam that's about 8 feet to the side, and it gives a good view. The equivalent in your pic would be to mount it at the top of the bay window to the right, right at the intersection of the window, bay roof, and wall. This would help keep it inconspicuous as well. The only downside is the light, which may cause some glare, but my porch light is in the same spot, and doesn't cause a problem. I'd recommend using a ladder to set up the cam in different spots and see how the view looks, both day and night. I use a towel, books, and bungee cords on the ladder to adjust the camera as I need it and keep it from falling off. Once you've tried it in a few spots, the solution may be obvious.

You might want to try ragecams on ebay. They have quite a range of gear, claim to offer good service, and I had good luck with a lens I bought from them. Shoot them an email and see if they have any good advice.

Thanks, teknologs, that's very helpful. I don't have the dome, only the bullets, but it gives me something to check out next time I open one up.

If you know the distance, you don't need remote zoom, just the correct focal length. This can either be a fixed focal length lens or a manual zoom that's adjusted to the right setting and locked down. A zoom is more flexible, because you can set it anywhere in its range that fits your needs, but is larger and heavier than fixed focal lenses, and often has poorer quality than an equivalently priced fixed focal length. Virtually any camera with a removable lens could fit your needs. CS mount lenses are bigger, bulkier, and more expensive, but there's a much larger range of them available, especially in long focal lengths and/or high quality optics, and they're usually faster as well. Board cam (12mm) lenses are small and compact, generally slower, and are less expensive, but are very common on inexpensive or compact cams these days. Other questions to help narrow it down: - Budget? If it's a few hundred dollars, that cuts out many cams. If you can spend a thousand or more on a lens/camera combo, you have many options. - Low light or no light use? This requires external lighting or IR, a fast lens, a bigger sensor, or a combination of these. - Indoor or outdoor? Outdoor cams can have less flexibility in lens options, as the space is usually limited by the enclosure. - Does size matter? If it needs to not be obvious, that lets out many box and bullet cams, and dome cams limit lens sizes. - Cams with auto-focus can be very useful in a situation where a slight shift in focus can cause blurring of the target. This is more likely with fast lenses, as the depth of field is narrower. Your requirements may well be similar to a license plate cam, which is designed for reading plates at a distance.

Remember the old joke: How do you make a small fortune in the security cam biz? Start with a large fortune!