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Anyone here buy this set yet? Reviews? The Costco site has only one so far, but it is favorable.

Ok, got it up and running.

Will explain later, in case it helps anyone else.

Please do, as it may push me off the fence on this deal.

They said they need the Serial number of the NVR (fine, I have that) and the date that is on the NVR.

How can I get the date if I can not login to the NVR and see the date. I was seeing a 'start date' with their iVMS/SADP application software.

This date changed, ranging from 1970 to 2026, no rhyme or reason.

So, in looking into this, it appears Hikvision (and Lorex) need the current date of the NVR (month, day, and year) because they use it (with the serial) to generate a code that is good for that 1 day only. Thus, once the NVR hits 12am, the code no longer works. This could be a problem when dealing with support in a different time zone.

Also, you say you can't get the current date from the NVR. Is there no way to view it without logging on? Have you tried a port scan to see if there are any open ports on the NVR such as 23 (telnet) that might show the date even if you can't login? Does the NVR main board have a button cell battery you could pull for a while to potentially reset the date to whatever the default date is? If so, hopefully Hikvision knows what that date is or you could see if someone here with a working NVR could pull the battery and see what the date gets reset to... If you can figure out the current NVR date, see if Hikvision will generate the code for that date, the next day, etc.

Just some ideas. Good luck!

Thinking about buying this set before the deal ends. Are those of you who already have it pleased generally? The 2 recent reviews at Costco are not good and mention some issues of concern such as the camera not staying in place on the swivel no matter how tightly screwed and insufficient quality for face detection. Anyone here have such issues? Seems like a good buy for the money--cheaper than buying the equivalent Hik from China or the 2 U.S. dealers I have found online (both of whom appear to be OOS). I know that these are apparently the older model domes, but I'm not overly concerned given the price and fact that I mostly want/need the bullets.

Excuse me?? Avigilon's pricing is confidential and available though authorized partners only. If you want pricing contact your local Avigilon dealer.

 

My only reason for commenting on this was the fact that someone mentioned the Dahua is a cheap Avigilon. I have a Dahua camera for testing the image is not bad but the lack of support / manufacturer access is a non starter for us. I have customers that request a 4 hour "part in hand" support contacts. Manufacture support is a must have for this level of customer.

Confidential pricing is a non-starter for me. If you want to sell something, be upfront about pricing. If you aren't upfront about that most fundamental part of the transaction, then it makes me wonder about everything else.

The switch can be any speed, but the cameras are 100mbps, so the network runs at 100mbps, even if the switch and NVR supports Gige, it's irrelavent. When you connect via TCP/IP, there's autonegotiation that's done between the devices to come up with the lowest common denominator. For example, if one device is 100Mbps, MTU 900, the NVR is 1,000Mbps, MTU of 1500, it will autonegotiate to take the lowest common denominator, so the it will take the 100Mbps because that's the fastest that device will go, it will take MTU 1500 because that's the fastest the other device will go.

 

The issue to me is cable placement as #1, the second issue is having a seperate switch for half the cameras, seems untidy, but it will work, but all the cameras will send via a single connection from switch to switch, not perfect but it will work. Even if the internal switch is a router makes no difference, you can still plug the NVR and the cameras into an external switch.

Didn't realize the cameras are only 100mbps, so that is a limiting factor with both the POE and non-POE model. That said, the connection between the GigE port on the NVR and the GigE port on the external switch connected to it should still be 1000mbps. Ultimately, I'm not sure I see a downside to the -P version, other than added cost. If I decide I don't want to use the POE ports for the other reason you mention, I could still just use an external POE switch off the network port... What am I missing?

The reason for avoiding the NVR with the built in PoE switch is now you have 2 seperate switches, meaning 4 + NVR are on one internal switch, 4 on another so any traffic from one switch will feed into the other, all through a 100Mbps straw. Besides, the price of the 16 port switch vs 8 port may be $50 (when on sale). The other issue is wiring. I like to have my router and switches in one place, the NVR may be totally somewhere else and I want the option to move it and moving it may mean moving 9 ethernet cables, ouch. Just looks cleaner than having an NVR under a TV with 9 ethernet wires coming out behind the TV which already has it's own set of wires to deal with.

Not sure I follow this. The specs for the NVR3204/3208/3216 and NVR3204/3208/3216-P (POE version) both indicate they have 1x 10/100/1000mbps RJ45 network port. The -P version also has 4 POE ports. With either, if you connect an additional POE switch to the network port to support more than 4 cameras, you will be limited to 1000mbps (not 100)--unless you are saying the internal POE switch has only an internal 100mbps link to the network port, which seems unlikely.

I also found a thread debating whether the -P version is a router or switch (may be part of your reasoning?):

http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=32432

I don't see a definitive answer to that and do not see why it would be a router. I would guess both versions include a DHCP server though, to make it easy to assign IPs to the connected cameras. Am I mistaken? Looking to buy and trying to decide which way to go. Thanks.