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flynreelow

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Posts posted by flynreelow

  3. Posted

    I know this topic has been talked about before, but I am wondering your thoughts on a nice turn key baby monitor. I would like for it to come with a small portable monitor, and also give you the option for viewing online and through an ipad app.

     

    Price is not really an option, just looking for a great daytime and nighttime image, and the specs above. Curious to see what you guys use to view the baby.

     

    Thanks

  4. Posted

    For $250 you can try it, LOL. They are smart, they only allow a low resolution trial with one camera. Ideally if they can change the software to do analytics on a camera's second low res stream, but record from the main stream, I think that would be efficient.

     

     

    I know when I had talked to Vitamin D, I was able to get a free 1 week pass to use there non trial software so I could test it with a higher res camera. You may want to email them and ask them.

  6. Posted

    I used VitaminD and switched to Sighthound for the upgrade. It does use a decent amount og CPU usage, but I have a dedicated box for Sighthound+BlueIris and it is not an issue. Their support is awesome as well. I sent a couple emails and they were quick, friendly, and helpful. The web console though is rather slow, to a point I dont even use it. They do have an Android app that is so-so.

     

    I had too many false positives with other motion alerting. 100s an hour. Sighthound fixed that issue for me.

     

    This may be a stupid questions, but why do you need Sighthound and BlueIris?

     

    What are the specs of the computer?

     

    How many cameras do you run, and at what resolution.

     

    I really liked Vitamin D as well. Thought their motion detection was awesome. IT was nice to come home at the end of the day and just go through the specific video clips that had the motion I was looking for.

  8. Posted

    Has anyone used Sighthouse Video Software (http://www.sighthound.com/) They were bought out by Vitamin D, which I used on my MAC. I thought this software was amazing when I had used it, but TBH I havent used alot of other software out there. I thought their People Tracking was excellent, and the clips were easy to go through at the end of the day.

     

    They now support HD, which they hadn't before. Anyone familiar with this software? Would love to hear your thoughts

  10. Posted

    Always liked the concept of VitaminD, my only reservation is CPU needs. They claim a fast dedicated quad core PC can handle 4-6 1.3MP cameras, which scares me because I have mostly 3MP cameras. So does that mean I can run 1-2 cameras on say a modern day i7? What would I need for 8 cameras or maybe that's not even possible with consumer grade PCs.

     

    I would download the demo and try it but it's limited in resolution, so it doesn't help me prove out if it's feasible or not.

     

    I would email them regarding a trial that supports your true camera resolution. I have done this in the past, and VitD gave me a user name a password and a week to play around with the full software.

     

    Its worth a shot....

  11. Posted

    I think I've been using Vitamin D with my cameras since 2011, but the lack of updates and some features has made me start looking at other software. This weekend I noticed that http://www.vitamindinc.com redirects to http://www.sighthoundlabs.com.

     

    Has anyone here tried the beta?

     

    I have used Vitamin D software in the past, and I really enjoy it. The only thing I didnt like about it, was that it didnt support better cameras with a higher resolution. 2mp, 3mp, 5mp, etc.

     

    This new software states "upgrade to the paid versions and get any resolution your camera supports."

     

    I may check this out. Their motion tracking is great...

  15. Posted

    Dahua is getting way too much love here. Let me interject with my Hikvision mini bullet with a factory 12mm lens. I got it for a specific purpose but threw it up at my house pointed down the street until I get up to our weekend home this weekend. The license plate is readable at about 90' away, not too bad.

     

    227591_1.jpg

     

     

    do you have a write up and review for this camera. looks very nice.. would love to see one of your nice reviews with sample moving footage, etc.

     

    Thanks!

  18. Posted

    A security installer that has given me a quote for 2 Outdoor 1.3 MP and 2 2MP cameras, NVR, Router, Monitor, and installation is coming in at $5000USD. 3 yr camera warranty and 5 year warranty on workmanship. He tells me that this would be adequate for residential.

     

    My questions:

    - Is this reasonable?

    - Is IC Realtime a good brand?

    - Are these good cameras? ICIP-D1300 1.3 MP Dome and 2 Megapixel 3-9mm VF Full HD Vandal-proof IR

    Network Dome Camera SD and PoE

     

    Ill fly out, and do this for $4400

  19. Posted

    I wish that the developers of VitaminD would update the software to work with cameras that have resolutions higher than 1280 x 1024. It's great software, but hasn't really seen any major updates in ages.

     

    SecuritySpy http://www.bensoftware.com/securityspy/ is another choice for Mac OSX software.

     

     

    I asked Vitamin D about this, and they say its in the "works"

     

    Since you have used both, how is Security spy? Better or worse than VitD

  20. Posted

    Great work! Where in California do you live?

     

    Here's the Hik, blc enabled, set for "down":

     

     

    The first clip works nicely. I was able to capture the full license plate as the IRs turned off. What exactly does blc do, and what other settings are tied to this?

     

    Its really to bad WDR doesnt work to well on these swanns/hik cameras. Kind of a shame, as WDR on nice cameras really help out reading license plates at night.

    220593_1.png

  21. Posted

    Welcome to the forum! Can you tell us what model Mac Mini you have? Is it a dual core or quad core? Dual Core

     

    I don't think there is a version of Blue Iris that runs natively on the Mac, will you be using bootcamp with a Windows partition? Hmmm....I thought I saw it avilable for Mac....is there software beaides BI that runs natively on the Mac? I will probably use Parallels 8.

     

    Will you be using the internal drive or an external drive for the camera recordings? Internal....although I have a WD My Passport 750gb that I guess I can use

     

     

    Vitamin D runs on the mac, and it works very well.

     

    http://www.vitamindinc.com/index.php

  23. Posted

    These cameras have the same type of warning that the Swann bullet cams had "Compatible with Lorex NVR only. Cameras are not intended to be connected to the local network directly". Do you think this just means it is a royal PITA to get it to work without an NVR?

     

    I received and installed one of these cams today to work with Blue Iris. Everything works great! It was a heck of an upgrade from the Q-See 1080p dome. The setup was tricky as the default IP was 192.0.0.64. You can either use the Hikvision software or just temporarily set a laptop to the that subnet, hook it into the same switch as the camera...then login using the default ip. The default username was different than the swann branded bullets. It was admin/000000. Once you get in you can set the network specifics to your LAN settings. Overall VERY impressed with this camera, and haven't even gotten a chance to play with the settings. Fingers crossed on the IR (being a dome and all) but the area I put it in is pretty well lit so I might not need them.

     

    Cant wait to see pictures and video. Let me know if you need a place to host videos.

  25. Posted

    My observation, albeit with a dahua 2mp mini dome, is that it's actually better to adjust brightness/contrast a slight bit for this. Assuming both settings default at 50, I up the brightness to 53 and bring down the contrast to 48. This small tweak makes the night image brighter and during the day, it has little consequence to the brights and contrast, but makes shadow areas brighter. Of course, I'd prefer to make an even more custom setting for night and day, which I will be doing via scheduling time periods in the camera for that. The only drawback to scheduling time periods is that sunrise and sunset times change slightly throughout the year, and then of course throw in DST. But as you've shown on these Hiks, WDR can be hit or miss and one size doesn't fit all times of day either. Toss up, but I think I'll probably prefer a balance of brightness/contrast for day & night as opposed to an auto setting to try and wrangle it all in for the best.

     

     

    This makes a lot of sense.

     

    Can you set brightness and contrast of each individual camera for different times for day and night? Is this through the swann or HIK software?

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