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Alternately, why not just shoot the camera? That takes care of everything! There are multiple techniques for fooling automated analysis; some are appropriate at different times than others. This would not attract as much attention in, say, San Francisco as it might in downtown Sacramento. A ski mask usually attracts the notice of LEOs pretty much anywhere. The concept came from WW2 techniques for disrupting analysis of battleships. Using the same ideas, you could apply nearly invisible IR reflective/absorptive patterns for night use that would have similar effects.

Lol! What could go wrong? I guess it's better than Russian manufacturing and Chinese programming!

I don't know either of those, but Hik makes their firmware readily available on the web, while Dahua requires you to go through a vendor and won't supply firmware directly to end users. If the AE vendor can provide you with software support, there may not be much difference in support, but if not, Hik will be easier to keep updated. You'd want to double-check that by going to the Hik support sites to see if they have firmware available for this device. This is also assuming the Hik device uses English firmware. If it's Chinese only, like they do with some of their cams, that can limit your options. You'll probably want to verify that before ordering unless you can read Chinese.

WD claims the Purple is optimized for multiple stream concurrent read-write, which helps surveillance performance. Here's an article comparing the Purple with Seagate's Surveillance line. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/surveillance-hard-drive-performance,3831.html Those without patience for techno-gabble can go straight to the conclusions page: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/surveillance-hard-drive-performance,3831-10.html A few quotes from the article: ETA: A user on cam-it.org replaced his WD Blue with a WD Purple, and reports that his viewing and playback are much smoother than before. Not hard data, but something.

Many dash cams have motion sensors, but you'd want to be careful about not running down your battery while parked. Google dash cam motion sensor and you'll get lots of good stuff on the first page.

I meant that this would load the new firmware, but you're right, it's important that the interface would be Chinese at that point. This update would also need the hacked file to convert to English.

When a new version comes out, you have these options. Someone correct me if I have any of this wrong; I don't have any Chinese cams. - Update with Chinese firmware, then load a hacked file or do the directory hack recently posted to give English access. Trying to update directly with English firmware will give you a Language Mismatch error. - Update to English firmware via TFTP. - Buy and install CBX's region change patch and never have to worry about it again.

That looks pretty good. Where'd your lens come from? I got my 25mm lens yesterday, and it's a 1/2" lens, which is good in this case, as it adds more equivalent zoom and gives better edge resolution. The specs are very good for an inexpensive lens, but I won't be able to mount it until the weekend to see if they're pulling my leg. This is the link to the lens I got. The MT9P031 listed in the description is a 5MP sensor, implying this is a 5MP rated lens, but it's only $10 shipped, so that seems unlikely... http://www.ebay.com/itm/25mm-1-2-inch-Cmos-MegaPixel-Board-CCTV-PC-camera-Lens-M12x0-5-for-MT9P031-/121375945476?pt=US_Surveillance_Accessories&hash=item1c4291f304#ht_1184wt_916

Day and night schedules will affect all users, and the exact setup depends on the version of software the cam's loaded with. Here's a thread that gives a bit of detail: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=41294&p=248921

No, they don't update automatically, and yes, it'll work fine if it's not updated. I have cams that haven't been updated in years, with no problems, but these mid-range Chinese cams like Hik and Dahua tend to add both bug fixes and pretty good feature improvements at a steady pace. Things like profile switching, WDR, smart IR, better recording options, and such have all been added recently. If you don't need or want whatever comes next, it's fine to stick with the old firmware.

Don't know if you can read German (I can't; maybe this is you!), but there's a thread on what appears to be the same cam here (IPS-911): http://www.synology-forum.de/showthread.html?38147-ONVIF-Support-unvollst%E4ndig Sounds like you got a bad camera, though.

Generally, you don't even need 8192 kbps unless you're running a high frame rate. I see no obvious difference between 8192 and 4096 kbps at 10 fps, even with lots of motion and detail. YMMV, as always.

You can fine-tune it from there, but yes, that's the typical Hik 2xxx low-light image. Those horizontal lines are a Hik signature. Many low-light improvements can degrade the daytime images, so a lot of people (including me) set up profiles to switch settings between day and night. Still not perfect, but better than nothing. Here's what helps low-light images: - Increasing noise reduction, which softens daytime images. - Reducing sharpening. Sharpening the low-light noise causes the black and white dots (the white ones are most noticeable. This can also soften daytime images. - Increase the maximum exposure rate from 1/30 sec to 1/12 or longer. This causes motion blur, but really improves the low light image. 1/30 will give some motion blur, like if someone's running by, but seems to be the best trade-off. - Reducing contrast and adjusting brightness can help as well. - WDR often increases low light noise, but a small amount of WDR can help bring the details out of the shadows. Best bet is to go into the image controls and try them all one by one. I like to adjust them between 0, 25, 50, 75, 100, which makes it obvious what effect they have and which ones will help. Then, you can start seeing how different settings affect each other. It takes some time, and it's good to keep detailed notes and screen shots with the different settings labeled, but this is how you get to understand the cam's capabilities and adjustments.

Yes, that's the latest English version (assuming it's not the 5.1.6 that was pulled from the website and replaced later), so upgrading won't matter until a new version is released.

Always good to be suspicious of the claims of $91 camera vendors. I'm not saying they're misleading anyone, but I'd bet it's a patched Chinese camera at that price. If so, yes, it's international now, but may revert with a software update. IMO, the main issue with Chinese tagged cams is the upgrading difficulty. If I bought Chinese cams, I'd probably do the CBX fix just to avoid the time required fiddling with them in the future, but for those who don't need firmware updates or don't mind spending the time, it's not a big deal.

My IPCVP setup uses DS-2CD2432F-I for the 2032 cams. I picked that since they're both 2xxx series cams; don't know if that will make a difference. Mine is HTTP port 80, ch#1.

After you change that, the camera has to switch modes or be rebooted. If you enable it at night, it won't turn the IR on until you switch to day and back or reboot. That's what I've read, anyway - I haven't tried it myself.

Does the SN have "CH" in it? If so, it's a Chinese cam. You could also try to upgrade to the current English version of 5.1.6 to see if you get the Language Mismatch error. If so, you have a patched Chinese cam; if not, you have the same software as you do now.

I'm a Blue Iris fan, but lots of people like Xprotect Go, which is free but limits how long recordings are kept.

Sounds good. I'm looking forward to hearing how that works out. I've got a 25mm ordered as well; same thing - may fit, may not, but it looks like it's close. Mine's a few weeks out, probably. It claims to be for a 5MP sensor, but it wasn't too expensive, so I'll believe that when I see it. Here's what the lens and camera vendors need to spec to get rid of the guessing: - The lens length and back focus length, which tells how far the top of the lens will be from the sensor when it's focused. - The distance between the sensor and the glass on the camera, which will tell if the lens will hit the glass when focused. - The width of the hole in the IR board and the width of the top part of the lens, which will tell if the lens will fit into the IR board hole if the wide part is below the IR board level. At least some vendors are starting to spec those things.

Do they both have the same firmware version? It may be that the plugin from one isn't working well with the other.

Yes, the 16mm was on the 2032. I'm also looking at 25mm, as I'm also testing for budget plate capture on the street with the Hiks, and 16mm isn't quite enough, even in the daytime. It's a tough nut to crack, as you know. This is the 16mm I got, because it looked like a standard size for these cams: http://www.m12lenses.com/16-0mm-F1-8-Mega-Pixel-CCTV-Board-Lens-p/pt-1618mp.htm The only 25mm they have looks like it's going to be too big for the IR board hole, so I haven't figured out what to order yet. The other issue I've had is that the image quality isn't too good so far on these longer lenses that fit on the Hik. I'm guessing they have to do some design trade-offs to get that much zoom into a compact package. The 16mm above has a lot of chromatic aberration and a fairly short depth of field, making the focus even trickier. M12Lenses was reported to be working on stocking 3MP rated lenses, which may help the IQ, but I haven't seen any yet.

I have two DS-2CD2032-I cams, both Chinese versions with Chinese firmware, purchased from CCTV Camera China. One has V5.1.2 build 140116 and the other has V5.1.6 build 140412 firmware that the vendor applied the hack to give English UI (well, multi-language capability). I don't normally use IVMS-4200 so I'm not sure what's supposedly broken, but it seems fine to me... Have you updated either of these with English firmware and had them continue to work with iVMS4200? I don't have any Chinese cams, so can't test any of this, but it seems odd they'd add that to their release notes if it wasn't implemented. Anything's possible with Chinese tech support, though.

According to user comments on the Amazon page, these are Hik cams that they're using with Blue Iris, so you should be able to connect with no problems: http://www.amazon.com/Lorex-LNB2153B-Outdoor-Bullet-Power-Over-Ethernet/dp/B00EDTZKFO I'm not sure why you'd buy the Lorex version instead of Hik, but there may be a good reason.

This is from V5.1.2 build_140116 Release Note: 1) Chinese firmware IP camera will not be able to connect to iVMS4200