Orion

With Milestones latest devicepack and latest firmware it works, but thats it. The image quality doesn't make your hair stand up. It all depends on how you are planning to use the cams. Desired framerate? (Axis is better on that) Light? (Axis is better on that too) Image quality? (Yep, Axis again) Price? ( This one for Acti) Support? (Axis!!)

I have a couple of Acti 4200 on two sites. Works fine, no craches or freeze for 6 months. Be sure to use the latest firmware though. I had big problems with standard firmware and Milestone. Milestone only support Mpeg4 for 4200, so Axis 207 with Mjpeg gives a lot better image. Colors are very intense on 4200 and it's a pain to adjust things thru the web interface. Axis 207Mw is a bit more expensive but a lot better camera.

The info I got was that there will be a release of a soft that can handle a second monitor the same way that the old spot monitor. This was valid only for Geo NVR. I got the info from the Swedish supplier too. Are you saying that this woun't come true?

I got the info from your colleague Edwin when I met him in Sweden. We were talking NVR, so the extra soft might only be for the pure NVR soft?

Bikal Eyesoft looks identical to Novosun Cyeweb when looking at the screenshots. Wich is the original?

Now we are taking the same language! I agree to every word. Well written! The thing that bugs me is that MS doesn't leave a choise this time. It's Vista or bust, because XP is going out of sales. It would be possible to strip Vista down to the bones to make it more DVR/NVR friendly, but that is going to cost me time witch I don't have. (Same problem with Embedded really) Xp pro is nice that way, just install and ship. I got exactly the same price on XP pro and Vista pro as OEM. So the pricing doesn't bother me at all. Nope no support for Linux with Geo....yet....(Closing eyes and wishing)

The SDK I can understand that they want for them selfs, but the API is a bit strange. I guess that the major NVR soft companies don't even have to ask for the API Perhaps the API is reveals to much for the competitors

MJPEG and MPEG are video compression formats, they specify how video is to be encoded into binary form they do not however specify how those bytes go over IP in any way. Which port? What application layer protocol http,rtp,raw udp? See the issue, NTSC pretty much guarantees a working connection over a cable to a recording/viewing device, IP cams have no end to end standard every manufacturer is different but seems to be moving toward H.264 over IP using RTP(maybe). Look at HDTV at least they standardized on ATSC which is MPEG2 encoded over radio using 8PSK modulation, and a cable standard(cablecard) which is mpeg2 over coax using QAM modulation. So I agree with CollinR CCTV needs a full layer 5 standard and it should include compression formats and PTZ as well, look at the PTZ inconsistenices with analog now since NTSC has no concept of PTZ control built in. Justin I disagree on that the application layer should be standardized. Some application layer are good for different situations. For example the FTP protocol can be extreamly good to have on stand alone projects without access to internet and a cheap FTP server. I can't see the problem with a camera that supports some of the application protocols and another one supporting some others. The NVR soft should be capabe of handling them all. On standardized ports, I really don't know. Havn't seen any problem with it yet though. On PTZ, I do agree. The only problem that is a bit scary is when a manufacturer comes up with a brilliant idea that doesn't fit into the standard. I think that the camera manufacturer that have a good product that customers are ready to buy will have the cameras implemented in the major NVR softs like Milestone and so on, regardless of ports, application layer and even compression. So if it works in Milestone, Mirasys or Geovision, I don't really care witch layer they are using.

Can't say I agree with you there. A software could be open to a number of things and it's still not open source. It's just a marking of words of course. I would be excited if there would be a open source NVR soft that would be stable and good looking enough to sell, but I think we will wait for that for a long time. The standard for transporting the video over IP is fairly standardized, MJPEG and MPEG is the only ones I know about. A standardized OS for the IP cams would be a disaster. That would be an end to inovative new stuff from the camera manufacurers.

Whats your definition of open in this case? What I have seen is that IP softwares that support a wide range of third-part cameras is considered "open". That is that Axis and Sonys NVR soft are not open because they only support own brand of cameras.

Yep, Dipmap seems to be going up and down lately. Messes up my support service good

Intresting, thanks Rory.

I have built Pcs since Dos 3.0 so I have experienced every OS change since then. I have been in the fronline for all these OS and tested them before my customer asked for them. Sure, I' older now, but I'm hoping that I'm not a grumpy old man afraid of changes yet The thing with Vista is that it eats resources, is very unfriendly to third part software and as Rory said, slower than Xp. Customers with little computer experience have a big deal of trouble of handling Vista. I had customers turning down my laptops because I can't get laptops with XP any more. Nah, I think I'll give embedded a second chance. The prices shown in this thread is much lower then I remember. If I can get those prices in Sweden the problem is solved.

How do you mean? What stuff is expensive or how much is expensive? The stuff that is expensive is the embedded compilation pack. How much is it then? I can't remember the exact sum. I spoke to Microsoft last year about it and remember that I have to sell a lot of PCs to break even. The other disadvantage was that my PCs are tailored for the customer, so I would have to make one compilation every time I build a new one.

Spoke to Geo today and learned that embedded XP will be avalible. Hmmmm.....could be a way to go. To bad it expensive as hell