rory

Ive looked at the Comart SDK, its okay but I still preferred the one that Geo uses. Comart is widely used though. Also the cards with SDK are much cheaper, not saying that means its not as good. In fact its probably better for developers and hence why people like VI use it. Conexant is only on some Geo cards as far as I know. I cant speak for VI as they wont sell their cards/software to anyone but Americans. Kind of sucks if you ask me.

All my applications need to see in low light to pitch dark. Not to mention I dont know of anyone willing to spend that kind of money right now in this international depression.

Hi, user cant remember the password so need to reset the password, just for remote access. Any ideas? I dont have the unit here to just test it. Do you just pull out the battery and wait a while? I see nothing in the manual about this. Thanks, Rory

How does the software compare to say, GeoVision, and how many years have they been around?

Possibly, though one thing to note is that GeoVision is the software developer, while a card manufacturer, from last I checked was S. Korea, makes the cards. Still though from what Ive seen and used its one of the best around. That said Im not too happy with 8.3, they are kind of like Microsoft, it just keeps getting slower (needing a faster PC). I am looking around at others now. Nice thing with Version 7.xx it would fly on a celleron system, 8.xx changed that, and 8.2+ is even worst. Though I did an 8.12 on a celleron recently (upgraded from version 6.xx) stripped down XP and tweaked and it runs great. I know one thing though If I lived in the US i could make a fortune online reselling super fast tweaked Geo DVR systems.

I think there should be a mod where certain members (not me!) are given different member levels, i mean there are a good handful of members that spend alot of time here offering alot of good info. Maybe even a thankyou level like when someone likes a post people can say thankyou to it if it helped them out. Stuff like that. Seen it on other forums.

I saw a 4 channel DVR advertised on Alibaba with 480fps before .. i was like WHAT?! LOL

Seen them, but too expensive.

but then its useless for outdoors if it cant see in low light. why not just slap a logitech webcam in a housing then, save plenty $$

thanks .. now you know what i want to see pst. night time video

LOL. I agree. I really hate slow shutter, its just trying to make the camera better then it really is.

Um guys, CCTV Manufacturers have not really been 100% honest with Specs for the past couple decades, what makes you think IP Video manufacturers will be any different? BTW, isn't Avigilon supposed to be the best for day night IP video?

LOL. not even a mask. and they leave the lights on, they have money to "burn" aye? Didnt he even know what he was stealing

Hey Rory, how are you doing bud? Good question and it mostly based on the quality of the product.. GIGO effect is always in place... you use crap hardware, do expect it to fail fairly soon and expect it to cost you more in the long run, unless if your customer is willing to pay for it.. In every case that I am involved with our end users, we offer full three years warranty on both the hardware and the labor across the board without any questions. That makes it difficult for you to carry too many brands and forces you to stick with selected few. Labor charges will not be low nor I will encourage anyone to do so.. Average cost of the labor from our matrix is around $75 per hour for such a task (and higher in some cases).. worked for us for over twenty years in this company and for me over thirty years... Of course, this above assessment is based on the fact that such product could fail at least once within such three years time line.. so cost of the labor is covered.. however, there have been cases that we had a bad batch of the same product, which turned into a nightmare... so I understand the dilemma very well... Then again, you can not expect to be profitable all the time for every job, so at the end, everything somehow balances out... at least from my perspective anyway... hey, ive had better days. i ended up in the clinic from a bad wasp sting on my right hand, allergic reaction caused my right hand, of all hands, to blow right up, its still huge and painful but hopefully will get better with time. I dont know which hurts more, the sting or the clinic fees. I just dont see how an installer/system integrator can warranty labour, where fuel charges these days are outrageous, they would have to sell a $100 item for well .. $1000 to cover any possible trips to the client. If they dont then it would be near possible to stay in business. Anyway im a tech, my time is money. I rarely even mark up the product if and when I sell a client a product, my goal is to make the labour, the money troubleshooting installs that others could not fix/install properly. I guess im a little different from your average system integrator

i dont warranty anything, its ridiculous to do that here unless you have tens of thousands dollars worth of stock and can afford months between sending items back and can get clients to actually pay for the warranty - then again that would be called a store and that I am not. A $100 item costs approx $300 landed here, now if that goes bad and you have to send it back, add another $300 for shipping and customs, you see, nobody is going to buy a $100 item for $1000. I am not a store, a CCTV store does not and will not survive here. Even the big alarm companies, they will charge the client to send it back, its not products that sell everyday like an alarm panel, to keep the price down they have to loose the warranty. People here are more interested in initial price. Obviously if the product arrives bad thats a different situation. So yes it has to be a product that I am comfortable with enough that it will not likely fail right away. As to later down the road, everything can go bad, especially electronics, from lightning to brownouts, nobody warranties for that here. In fact I dont know anyone here that really warranties any electronics besides the initial purchase date, like the stores will normally give you a 30 day warranty which is reasonable time to install it. Heck, i got a limited 9 month warranty on my $40,000 jeep cherokee, a very limited 9 month warranty. Just for another example, a local PC store sells hard drives, if they are bad, he just throws them away, it is not worth sending them back to the manufacturer/distr. customs and shipping just costs too much. As to labour, I do the job right the first time. Otherwise there is always a charge for labour. Again, prices are much higher here. Remember my initial message was regarding whether I care for a warranty or not, which I dont as it means nothing to me since I will just throw the product in the garbage if it goes bad.

1 year warranty on labour? How do they make a living?

do what we do, when it dies just throw it away and buy a new one

check out http://www.videolarm.com tons of housings for analog and IP. Everybody sells them, they've been around for years.

Still working on it, the camera is just too good That area actually looks darker in real life than the pic. I know what you mean, though. I hope to have a few more in the next few days. thanks

that night shot looks like day light compared to my night applications any real day night examples? Though thanks hardwired, camera is still impressive.

warranty plays no role at all in my decision on any product for anything.

No idea. If this is a card though, can you open up the PC and take the card out, see if it has a name or ID on it?

its the SATA version now, so would be EB1304NET-SATA. BTW I mentioned GeoVision as thats what I know, but there are other good DVR cards as well. Rory

Eclipse does have some decent products, in fact their cheap color bullets still blow away ALL other manufacturers in the industry in the color bullet category for image quality and colors, for the cost or not, Ive used them for years - the only problem i have with them is they are only 1/4" - their light handling sucks too but so do all cheap cameras. The rest of their stuff is pretty much like all other Taiwan products out there. I really dont use their other products, though have in the past, but I wont say they are good or bad. Their Domes that came with the Panasonic CCD were a big mistake IMO, that chip had issues with Geovision cards - same problem as with the Sony HQ1, black borders around image, and if with Geo then would have had same issue with other DVRs. Ive used many vandal domes and it really doesnt matter, for example the Extreme CCTV vandal domes we tested, after mashing it with a sledge hammer, ok it wont break through, but its still damaged enough that one cannot see anything anyway - so much for trying to stop a vandal, they just blind the camera and it is useless. Apart from the RMA which is useless to us in this country, I agree, I wont recommend anything unless its tested. Actually its the total available pixels that matter. If you check the specs in many cases 480 and 520TVL cameras will be the same, though 480 spec is not listed anymore much these days anyway. However that said, there is not such a huge diff between most 380 and 520TVL cameras these days, not so much that is the end of the world if a client can only afford a cheap color dome as opposed to the higher resolution one - its not like going up to megapixel quality - while it can easily be a diff of $100+ retail which adds up in the final cost - remember there are ALOT of poor people in the world that CANNOT afford certain things, and they have to make do with what they can. Ofcourse i still recommend the higher resolution. Agreed, CNB, KT&C, brands like that who are the actual manufacturers, short of going Bosch and Panasonic or Extreme. And yes definitely, one gets what they pay for.

Well for full features and still budget you could look at a PC DVR like building a GeoVision system, 4 channel, GV-600-4. Just need a basic Intel PC, anything like a 945 chipset with at least a P4 will do - celleron is pushing it with their latest software. Software comes with the card and you get all the features. Since you mentioned you have PC experience this could be your best bet for that side of it. They sell IR Remotes for them also. Just be sure you use a reputable store as there are many clones out there, software version that comes with it should be up to date (eg. 8.2 / 8.3) Another option is a 4 channel stand alone, ive used the Avermedia 1304NET in the past, its not as cheap as say the Avtech but it has an IR Remote and the live and remote video quality is much better than the AvTech and others - but it might run you out of the budget. For a real budget there is the AvTech, and there will be other brands in that price range also. Cameras? Really depends where you will buy these from, if you want to get the DVR and cameras from the same place, then you will need to get what they sell. I would recommend something basic to keep the cost down and since you have motion lighting you wont really need IR. Decent day night cameras with IR will cost you, the cheap ones, which some call Day Night, are just Color IR and wont have a IR cut filter, so the color will be washed out. Definately make sure whatever camera it is, CCD, Sony, 1/3", lens around 4mm. Look for CNB for Day Night IR bullets, Color and Day Night Domes, etc, KT&C for the basic color bullets. First decide on the DVR as that will determine what money you will have left for the cameras, wire, power supplies, connectors etc. Oh yes, best to get a distributed FUSED power supply if you can. Thats a single box which powers all the cameras, each output is fused. A cheap one for cheap cameras is fine, heck myself I just use at my home a 2Amp plug in transformer and have my 4 bullets spliced into that, hey it works and its cheap - 1 power supply goes though, all cameras go down. If doing for a client I wont recommend this though, i go individually fused unless they REALLY cant afford it. Cable, RG59 Siamese is best but whatever you can afford. Coax keep at least 1' away from high voltage, thinner cat5 (with baluns) or all in one RCA cables keep least 2' away. thats all i got right now. Sorry I cant suggest a retailer as per the rules but you could check out the advertisers, or a member could PM you regarding this topic if they are so inclined. if you find something you like, and want to post it here so we can check it out, please post the manufacturer info or text only instead of the store link, thanks. Rory