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PeteCress

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Posts posted by PeteCress

  1. Posted

    Your best bet is the free ACTi NVR software. Their latest version, 3.1 is awesome, best NVR software I've every tried

    Which install did you use? I got a little case of mind-bog looking at the CD's directory.

     

    • Server v2.3.01
      .
    • Workstation v2.3.01
      .
    • Professional v2.3.01

     

    So far, I am favorably impressed with their documentation.... but I must have missed the explaination of what the various installs do.

  2. Posted

    Wow, that has to be a BI limitation. I'm running a lot of the ACTi cameras in a lot of locations with no issues like that but I'm using Exacq. Location I was at today has 9 IP cameras / 10 analog and two of them are 5211e cameras running at full 4MP resolution and there is minimal delay. Like a second or two max. They are set on variable bit rate high quality. My other 7 IP cameras are set between 1.5 - 3 or to variable also.

     

    I don't get horrible lag even when viewing the location over the internet in a web browser!

    Which version of Exacq are you using?

     

    For sixty bucks, I could rationalize trying "Start" just to see if there is any improvement.

     

    BI looked good for me (still doesn't look all that bad considering the price..) bco the support fora. But, unless I'm missing something, the web presentation leaves a lot tb desired.

     

    I haven't dug through Exacq's feature sets for the various versions yet, but a browser-based presentation for multiple concurrent users is a "Must"....

  3. Posted

    ACTi is supposed to roll out a 1080P PTZ camera soon that they demoed at ISC back in March that will come at a decent price, but decent price for a 1080P PTZ will still likely be about 3-4x what you paid. In theory, you can get a pan/tilt mount for your camera and control it from the camera and I don't think it's that's expensive to do.

    I started out thinking more is better rez-wise, but experience so far has been that 1280x1024 is really about the max when it comes to bandwidth.

     

    I tried my new 5311 at max rez and found, even just running locally, a 20+ second delay between something being in front of the camera and actually seeing it via Blue Iris.

     

    Right now, I'm running it at 1280x720 and the delay is minimal. At 640x480, of course, the delay is imperceptible.

     

    I have to wonder if I am doing something dumb LAN-wise. Does anybody else use BI with higher-rez cams?

  4. Posted

    Only thing I see so far is that, at night as it is now, the cam is not auto-refocusing and I had to open up the cam directly and click Live | PTZ | Refocus.

     

    Tomorrow we'll see if that's just an artifact of low light and/or night mode.

    Bingo... It seems tb an artifact of something to do with night. Re-focuses a-ok now that it's daylight.

     

    The owner of the biz where this cam is going tb installed would not buy in to a full PTZ cam.... but just the zoom/auto-focus on this one has me lusting again for a full PTZ...

  5. Posted

    You have to configure the zoom feature in BI. Click the PTZ tab when you add/configure a camera, check the box that says Enable Pan/Tilt/Zoom and select ACTi from the drop down. That will enabled the currently grayed out PTZ controls at the bottom of which you would use the magnifying glass icons to zoom in/out and you can set presets in BI. Have not tried BI with a zoom capable ACTi but if you run into trouble, I can double check it against the KCM-5611 which is the replacement for the KCM-5311 but should zoom the same way.

    Worked... Thanks!

     

    I even doped out the numbers at bottom of the web user's screen being the presets.

     

    Only thing I see so far is that, at night as it is now, the cam is not auto-refocusing and I had to open up the cam directly and click Live | PTZ | Refocus.

     

    Tomorrow we'll see if that's just an artifact of low light and/or night mode.

  6. Posted

    If you get anxious and want to start playing with it on Monday, see if you have an old 12V adapter, one that can put out about 1 amp or better. Should come with a green block connector that you attach the wires to.

    The cam actually came with a 12v adapter - and instructions on how to hook it up.

     

    The whole schmeer was $577 ($551 for the cam from CTI plus $26 for a bracket from B&H Photo.

     

    Can somebody explain to me why I layed out $914 for a Sony SNC-CH260 last year?

     

    I don't know that much, and I haven't given the ACTi a thorough workout yet. Having said that, what I have seen so far beats the Sony hands-down: there's just no comparison.

     

    Maybe something to do with durability?

     

    Or was it just stupidity on my part?

     

     

    Right now, I'm trying to get it working under Blue Iris.

     

    Got a pic, but no zoom capability...

  8. Posted

    The KCM-5311E will do a good job for what you need and it's priced well for it's capabilities.

     

    That's it then. I order it today - as soon as I can get a warm fuzzy feeling about one of the vendors. I'll get the recommended "Building" bracket too - although I suspect I will be reverting to something more stable..... theirs looks kind of long tb hanging out there in 45 mph wind gusts.

     

    The 5611 looks to me like a good night-time critter cam and I'm thinking about one for the back yard - maybe in conjunction with a couple of those separate motion-sensitive floods that people around here typically have above their garage doors. My experience so far with IR has been that it's not really adequate for decent detail/motion without very expensive supplemental IR. Also, that little ring of glowing red spots seems to scream "Here I am: steal me!"....

     

    Edit 2012 08-01 1220:

     

    Just fired off the order to CTI: $551, no shipping, no tax.

     

    Same outfit I ordered my Sony SNC-CH260 from. Had a 'problem' with the camera and they were responsive and did the right thing. Quotes bc it was really RCI on my part, but it CTI handled it well.

  9. Posted

    Well, it's turning out the way I expected: a *lot* less simple than somebody like me who knows nothing would think.

     

    That being the case, I'm thinking "zoom" in a camera that's already designed for same.

     

    This one is looks like it has possibilities: http://tinyurl.com/d43y24m (Acti 35x Zoom: KCM-5311E)

     

    Going price seems tb in the mid-top-upper five hundreds.

     

    My reasoning is that with 35x zoom, there has tb a sweet spot in there somewhere and all I have to do is find it.

     

    It's overkill in that I will never use the two-way audio or IR night vision. The 15fps frame rate is more than will ever be used considering my bandwidth constraints.

     

    Other than that, would anybody care to comment?

  10. Posted

    IQEye cams take CS mount lenses for maximum flexibility, and can be pretty affordable. You can get them with sturdy, heavy duty external enclosures as well. They take manual iris lenses.

    The distinction between Manual and Auto Iris lenses is starting to dawn on me.

     

    But it would seem that, for an Auto Iris lens I would need a cam that has whatever it takes to drive it.

     

    But do I really want Auto? I'm thinking maybe not bc this cam is only useful during daylight hours and it seems possible that a single manual setting might accomodate the variation in light between full sun and overcast - if not with professional photographic quality, at least well enough to see if windsurfers are planing or not.

     

    Have I got it right so far?

     

    Either way, what am I missing here:

     

    Auto-Iris $60: http://tinyurl.com/c59czl4

     

    Manual-Iris $165: http://tinyurl.com/c97h7gd

     

    Seems backwards on the face of it - which tells me that there's something I don't know.

  11. Posted

    I've got an IP cam here: http://xcam.zapto.org:8080/image/cam3

    (that's just a single still frame...)

     

    The purpose is to allow windsurfers to see if other sailors are

    planing or not.

     

    Right now, it's kind if iffey.... needs tb zoomed some more.

     

    Current cam supports zooming and is zoomed to 9mm. I'm shopping

    for another cam: one with fewer features, but replaceable lens.

     

    I would like to restrict the frame to the area between the hotel

    on the left and the green flag in the middle of the frame.

     

    Eyeballing it, that seems like a 50% reduction in field.

     

    I'm guessing a 20mm lens would do it, but want tb able to experiment if it does not.

     

    Does not have tb IP-66 bc I'm willing to put it into an enclosure.

     

    Recommendations?

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