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On second thought, the NVR probably doesn't have a separate encoding setting, and just sends the cam signals straight to the HD. Some PC based systems re-encode for various reasons, but NVRs usually don't to help reduce performance hits.

Yes, that's usually how it works, but you never know just how the programmers have done it until you try. Some systems will let you re-arrange the layout in and between each window, so you can put your priority cams in the first window, and so on.

What's your i-frame set at for the NVR? Some systems will only let you seek to an i-frame, though the likelihood that your i-frame is at 30 seconds seems pretty small. As for CPU load, this kind of processing does put a good bit of load on the system. Encoding is done at the camera, so decoding is usually the big load, either for display or for motion detect. If the cam's doing motion detect, that shouldn't affect the recorder's load much. Generally, resolution and frame rate have the biggest effect on the CPU load, but it can depend on how the software is written.

You can improve the washout problems by enabling BLC (back lighting correction). This selects a smaller area of the image to set the exposure for. It will under-expose the darker areas, though, so it's a trade-off. Hik's BLC on the 2CD2xxx series isn't very good, in that it doesn't allow you to specify a detailed area, just a general area like center, top, etc. Don't know if they've improved it on the 5MP cams. Still, it's worth playing with it to see if it helps your situation. WDR helps with this kind of thing in the daytime, but tends to increase noise at night. Again, give it a try to see if it helps.

That's because the IR covers a different area than the lens, even when there's a hotspot in the middle of your image. It can be difficult to get rid of the IR reflection completely when you're near a wall or overhang. Another option is to put a separate IR illuminator a little way away from the cam and disable the on-cam IR, but that's another piece of gear and another wire.

POE+ may not help if the problem is line loss. Over a distance, it's voltage drop that causes trouble, not necessarily power. POE+ has more power to provide by supplying more current, but if the line loss is dropping your terminal voltage too low for the camera, pushing more current through will make the problem worse, not better, as the voltage will drop even more, the wires will heat up more, which leads to higher resistance, and so on.

Sounds like you may need vendor support on this one. I ran Samsung/Techwin DVRs for years (still have one in service) and they were very robust. Since this is a rackmount, I'd take a look at if it's got any standard PC items, like power supplies or memory. I find that random reboots are frequently caused by one of these items. If it were a PC, I'd start by disconnecting everything possible, then adding them back one at a time. Start with hard drives and memory (if it's standard modules, and not soldered in), leaving in just enough to start it up, then see if it reboots. Likewise, if it uses a PC power supply, you can replace that to see if things improve. The other trick I use for random reboots is to leave a camera watching the screen so I can see what happened right when it rebooted, in case there are any useful errors or messages.

It's all just random Dahua naming. If you collect the versions over the years, they change the naming convention frequently. What matters is the model numbers (that changes over time as well), the language (Eng), the video format (PAL vs NTSC), and the revision/date. DH_IPC-HX5(4)XXX-Adreia_Eng_P_Stream3_V2.420.0006.0.R.20150311.bin General_IPC-HX5(4)XXX-Adreia_Eng_N_Stream3_V2.420.0006.0.R.20150311.bin

The 2032 has been around longer, is cheaper, and is the most popular mid-range bullet cam out there. The EXIR cams use one or a few high power IR LEDs instead of multiple 5mm IR LEDs. For instance, the 2032 uses a bunch (30-ish) of low power 5mm IR LEDs. Most of the EXIR cams use a single high power IR LED, while the i3/i5/i8 cams use 1, 2, and 3 high power IR LEDs, respectively.

What's your quality setting? The grass and shadows are pretty heavily compressed - this almost looks like Dahua instead of Hik. That would make sense if you're only getting 1.5Mbps from 2 x 3MP cams.

Yep, in a nutshell. Having a choke point is better than auto-tracking, but you don't always have a choice about that.

Unmanaged switches are cheaper, simpler, and supply no user data; managed switches are more expensive and typically more robust (being corporate grade), and allow you to see things like power usage per camera, as well as allowing you to power cycle individual cameras remotely, but require more setup. Blue Iris will run as many cams as your CPU can support (64 max, I think). The main increase in CPU load is caused by resolution and frame rate, but a modern i7 can support 12-15 cams running 1080p at 10 fps without much trouble, and probably more. Milestone's license fee is $50/cam, I believe. I don't think it's a yearly fee (probably have to re-license on major software revisions), but I've never run it except in the limited free mode, so someone with more experience would have to answer that. So, for 10 cams, you can run Milestone on an inexpensive PC for $500 in licenses, or you could put the same money towards a better PC and buy Blue Iris for $60. I may be off on the numbers, but the principles are good.

What you need for this is a longer lens that will catch cars going down the middle of the lot and fill the field of view. You can do this with M12 lens bullet and dome cams by changing the lens, but you'll hit a limit of how long a lens can be physically and still fit in the case. I've got a 25mm lens on a Hik 2032, and it barely fit, requiring longer screws for the sensor board. Box cams are easier to do this with, but the lenses (typically CS mount) are more expensive, and they require an enclosure to be weather proof, making the overall cost a fair bit higher. If you want night shots, you'll need external IR; a bullet cam's IR will be OK at short distances (35', at a guess), but not much further, and box cams don't typically have built in IR. To keep it simple, a good compromise might be the Hik DS-2CD2T32, which is offered with an optional 16mm lens (about as long as you get in a factory M12 bullet cam), and up to 3 IR LEDs (i8 version). If the 16mm lens is zoomed enough for that location, this would do the trick pretty well. http://www.hikvision.com/europe/products_show.asp?id=9889 Not many reviews on it so far.

I prefer Hikvision to Dahua, but it's a bit of a coin toss; the differences aren't huge and they both offer similar cams. For the PC, a lot depends on the software you end up running, but it's always a good idea to overbuild for future flexibility. Two popular programs: Blue Iris: Inexpensive, powerful, great support, needs a powerful CPU (like in your build) to run a lot of MP cams. Milestone Xprotect: Per-cam license when you go beyond the limited free version (Go), doesn't need so much PC power. Both are available in free or demo versions, so it's not a bad idea to install them and try them out. Avigilon is also popular for corporate use and is fast and powerful, but is fairly expensive. You'd need to get a quote from one of the Avigilon reps, as they don't have pricing listed online. For POE switches, you can run them all from a 24 port switch, but these tend to be pretty expensive and are noisy. Depending on how spread out your cams are, you might want to look at running multiple 4 or 8 port switches instead, and connecting them back to the main switch/router.

USB_DP/USB_DM are the differential inputs for USB data. If you google wifi module, you might find some helpful info on similar boards.

You could try posting it in the For Sale forum. They were expensive when new, and I don't know enough about them to know if they're still worth anything.

Yeah, the Hik 3MP cams today cost 1/3 what my first 1MP cams did not many years ago, and have a lot more capability. Hard to beat that much cam for the price!

Usually, "language mismatch" means it won't update due to the upgrade not matching the region designation of the camera, so nothing should have been changed. That said, it's hard to rely on what Hik does with the firmware, and they've been mixing things up a good bit. If it is bricked (won't reboot, no video available), best bet is to reload 5.2.0 using tftp (search the site for details). It can be tricky to do this and still have it in English, though.

That's a focus tool, for checking focus and setup of cameras without having to run back and forth to a PC. There's some discussion of it here: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=34149&start=15 Looks like they don't make this any more.

The market for sub-MP IP cams isn't very strong any more. The Hik 2CD2012 1.3MP has a 704x576 stream, but it costs nearly the same as the 2032, and even more at some sites because the demand is lower. Most Hiks have a lower resolution substream as well. You won't find decent quality IP cams for much less than the Hiks in any resolution.

Have you tried setting the cam to a fixed IP in the 192.168.254.X range? I don't have a Hik NVR, but I think they use the Hik protocol for talking to the cams, and don't have a DHCP server. I could be wrong there; someone with more experience can speak to this.

Yes, it's mostly the Chinese cams that are causing problems, due to hacked initial firmware that allows them to act like English cams. Usually, you'll get a language mismatch error and it won't allow the update, but some people have bricked their Chinese cams with 5.3.0.

In general, you can just put the IP address of the wireless camera in and the NVR will see it, assuming the NVR supports that particular camera. Some don't support other brands. There are cameras that use proprietary formats, but if you can see it with your browser and the NVR supports the cam, you should be able to connect.

Finding replacements for this kind of thing can be tricky. I'd start by googling any markings on the board. I tried this with an IR board with zero success, but you never know. As far as what the wires do, the non-power wires are likely the signal inputs, but the best way to figure it out would be to trace what pins on what chips they go to and see what those do. Not easy, and likely not worth it. I'd also look with a magnifier for things like cracked solder joints, junk between traces, and such. Another long shot, but I've fixed a few things doing this.

Is that a Chinese cam, or a US/Euro cam? The Chinese cams have CH in the serial number.