james121515

Indeed you're right I probably shouldn't have weighed in with what amounts to little more than band-aid solution instead of a thorough solution, but the scary thing is this kind of solution is exactly what Samsung's CCTV tech support told me back when I first got a unit and called them trying to get my cameras to work.

If you want to access your DVR from outside your local network, use your public IP address, which can found by going to ipchicken.com. The user name and password is whatever you set for your DVR. Also make sure to open the ports on your router by logging into your router, and forward the port range specified by your DVR manufacturer. (To log into your router and open the ports, open your web browser and type 192.168.0.1 into your address bar of your browser, then go to the port forwarding section of the router configuration page)

I use the same ISP for both my home and business, and for some reason my ISP has ports 80 and 81 blocked at home when accessing the DVR from outside my LAN. Try 81, 82, or 83 and see if that doesn't work. Your actual public (WAN) IP address can be found by going to ipchicken.com. That is what you will use when viewing your cameras from outside your LAN. (e.g. from your iPhone app over cellular). Also, if you are a cable subscriber, I wouldn't even bother with Dynamic DNS. For me it was a pain in the neck getting it to work. Even if you have a "dynamic" IP address, cable providers seldom ever change your WAN IP address. For example, it's been over a year since the last time my IP address has changed. You might as well treat your dynamic IP address from your cable provider as a static IP address. The only time this might be an issue is if you are out of town and it just so happens to change while you are gone, then you won't be able see your cameras until you find out what your new IP address is.

Samsung has a very nice emailing service which emails you anytime there is an event: motion detection, video loss, password change, among others. For my purposes, motion detection is going to be the most important thing to be notified about via email. The only thing is that the thing is constantly emailing me all day long about motion detection. You can set it to email you in various intervals, up to 30 minutes. So, during opening hours, I receive an email every 30 minutes, which is becoming a burden as it tells me nothing. What I would really like is if it could be set to only email at certain hours in the same sense that you can schedule the DVR to record during certain hours. But as far as I can tell, there is no way to schedule the emailing service. Either it's on and emailing you all day, or it's completely off. Perhaps there is an email client where you can schedule incoming mail to be suppressed/deleted at certain hours? Google searching has indicated that microsoft exchange, gmail, and Apple mail do not have this functionality. Can anyone recommend a solution for this? Also, out of curiosity, do any of the other budget level CCTV systems such as Swann and Q-see allow scheduling of the SMTP service? Thanks for your time! James

So I just returned the unit to my dealer. I told him about the horrible night vision quality and the flash light effect, and he tried to make some preposterous argument about how "Well it's night vision, you are literally seeing in the dark, you can't expect to have the sharpest image in the world buddy". I told him I already owned another unit at work, and showed him the pictures to prove the difference in quality, and he relented. I then went to Sam's and purchased another SDR3100 for my home. You can see the difference in quality below. (again this is from the iPhone app streaming, it's even better on the DVR)

Looking to install four cameras: two indoor two outdoor. I plan to return this SDE unit anyway as the night vision quality is awful compared to my other Samsung SDR unit at my business, which uses BNC. I would like to get something similar to what I have at work since I am familiar with the Samsung software and I know that the other unit at works flawlessly. It's my understanding that BNC is essentially coax. Since there is coax running all over my house, If I got a unit that utilizes BNC, could I somehow use this to my advantage? In particular, I want to put a camera right outside the window of a room that already has coax running to a wall plate that is right by the window. The only thing is that that coax is already being used for a television. If I can't somehow split the coax to be used for both? I apologize I am new to this. I might be getting in over my head and should consult a specialist.

I need you professional opinion on whether or not I should return this unit. My first CCTV system was an SDR3100, brand new from Sam's, for my small business, which works flawlessly. I liked it so much I wanted to get something similar for my home, so I purchased a refurbished SDE3000 from a local dealer. One of the big selling points for me was they are powered via CAT5. But now, after two weeks playing with it (I haven't officially done a full installation yet out because I wanted to evaluate it first), I am starting to have some buyer's remorse. The night vision on these has gotten bad. The picture quality is so grainy you can't make out anything while in the dark. I attached a screenshot from the mobile app of both from my business, which has the SDR3100 that still works very well, and my new SDE unit for my home. One thing I notice is that on the unit at work, when lights go out, you can clearly see the infrared lights come on on the camera. On the CAT5 cameras, you can barely see it. So this might have something to do with it. I have already tried tweaking with the brightness/contrast settings for the cameras via the DVR, and this is the best I could do. I suspect, but don't know, that this is the price you pay for the convenience of CAT5: quality. And also perhaps for trying to save $100 by buying a refurbished unit. Should I just return this and buy the same SDR3100 model that I know works well? The first image is from my small business, the SDR3100, which as you can see below, the night vision is fantastic! And this is from the mobile app, it looks even better viewing from the DVR. The second photo is this new SDE unit, which you can see doesn't come close in terms of night vision quality.

Thank you for taking the time to write a thorough response to my question. So is it pretty much impossible to use my home's existing power wiring to run a video signal, even with the higher end "Powerline" adapters? I wish there was something I could do as running wires through my home is a nightmare as every wall has very thick horizontal studs (fireblocks) about 3 feet above the ground. Is it somehow possible to use my home's existing coaxial cabling? We have not one but two coax cables running to every room in our home, which would definitely make our lives easier, if it's at all even possible.

Any idea why it isn't working?

In case anyone else runs into this issue, it turns out the problem was the Webviewer port 80. For some reason my ISP was blocking port 80 over WAN. A call with Samsung's tech support had them change the port forwarding range to 80~81, which got it working.

I am sure this topic has been brought up but googling has not yielded a clear answer. I have an SDE3003 which uses CAT5 cables to power the cameras as well as transmit the video signal to the DVR. I just bought a NetGear PowerLine adapter so I could avoid having to run the CAT5 cables through the attic and walls, but unfortunately, this does not work. The cameras only work if connected directly into the RJ45 jacks on the DVR with a CAT5 cable. I thought maybe our electrical wiring doesn't support this, but I tested the Powerline adapters with a computer and modem and am able to access the internet over our power system, so I know the adapters work. Is it just not possible to do this with CAT5 security cameras?

Hi guys thanks for your responses. So on the DVR I can set to have either Sensor Detection, Motion Both, or both, turned on. Under Sensor Detection, my options are "OFF", "N.C.", and "N.O.". I do not have an option for PIR. What is NC and NO?

Hi everyone, So I just got an SDE 3003n for my home. (I have an SDR 3100 at work for a few months). The two units are almost identically in terms of the software except for one difference. This unit has something called "Sensor detection". What is the difference between the Sensor and Motion detection? The user manual basically describes it as if it is the same as motion detection. What exactly does the Sensor do that the motion detection doesn't?

Hi everyone, With Samsung SmartViewer, anytime I save a recording or backup a recording from the DVR over the internet, the file is saved as a .sec, which as far as I can tell can only be opened and viewed in SmartViewer. In fact, each .sec file is saved with a corresponding executable, so that it only opens in the application and only in windows. It would nice to convert these to regular video, such as an mov file or mp4 file. Is this possible?

Hi thanks for bringing this up. I actually tried this, but when I click "okay" when disabling DHCP on the second router, I am asked to enter at least ONE DNS address.What does this mean? What am I suppose to put in for the DNS address? The DNS of the DVR hooked into the non-DHCP router? I am using SDR3100 with Linksys routers.