Boogieman

Why not keep that windows machine running? Makes not sense to buy an expensive apple machine simply to run VMS software.

I use it on over 20 machines. Hikvision software is not as flexible and only works with hik cams. Depends on your needs. Get 8gb of ram. As far as the video card, in the past, it was not needed (integrated was fine) however, the developer has indicated in the release notes that he is adding hardware acceleration and it will be optimized for nvidia (but will benefit all users). Dont know how much of a difference it will make. It should be out soon so we'll know. There are other packages out there, exacq, milestone, avigilon but they are costly with a per camera license fee.

The lorex systems you are looking at are rebranded Dahua. They are good. IF you need a 2.8mm wide lens then why the motorized varifocal? Blue iris is fantastic but needs a powerful processor if you are going to have lots of 2-4 megapixel cameras. You can buy a haswell i7-4790 for 500 with full warranty from the dell outlet when they are on sale. Blue iris will be adding hardware gpu decoding soon and that should improve things significantly - we shall see. Its is important to set each camera to record direct to disk otherwise it will re-encode all the video and use lots of cpu. (record tab> file format) You can easily set blue iris to start when the pc reboots. There is also a free tool to monitor blue iris...If you use a dedicated pc, with a clean install, its super stable. I have many machines running BI with no issues. Once you use something like BI that offers lots of flexibility its hard to use a standalone NVR. But if all you need is basic recording, then go with an NVR. There are other packages out there that dont require lots of cpu, but they charge per camera (50-150), exacq, avigilon, milestone.

Am i right in saying that most 3/4 megapixel cameras display live video as 1080p which is approx 2 megapixels? Thus as you say makes the additional pixels over 2 mega only useful for zooming in? Or if you display on a monitor greater than 1080p...but yes...however, that is the whole point, you dont need lots of resolution for live video, the high res is important when reviewing video. Even 1080p cameras doent display at 1080p unless the camera you are viewing is displayed full screen which is not likely. Does that mean D1 resolution is fine? NO. The 4mp also have improved low light performance. Note that hikvison 3mp do not produce a significanty clearer image than their 1080p cameras as the extra resolution goes to give the camera more vertical field of view.

I've done what they recommend but still have thes issues. Any help would be appreciated buddy.. There are way to many variables... Did you buy quality baluns? Did you replace the junk cable? Have you tested the cameras with the DVR on a short run? Are your ethernet runs direct from the dvr to the camera or did you punch it down somewhere or use a coupler? Are your connections good?

Blue iris requires a powerful pc for 9 3mp cameras. You will need a haswell i7 not a first generation i7. They can be had for 500 at the dell outlet with full 3 year warranty - wait for the monthly sale, sign up at the outlet twitter page. The first gen i7 is weak and very power hungry. Blue iris will be adding hardware acceleration at the end of the month which may change things.

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Go with the 4mp cameras. Make sure the NVR seller is an authorized retailer or you wont get support or warranty and may be buying a hacked china region nvr.

Sorry but that is just a mess. Considering an 8ch 1080p complete CVI system (hd over coax) is 400 dollars...8 cameras, 2tb drive... http://www.costco.com/Lorex-8-Channel-HD-Analog-DVR-with-2TB-HDD%2c-8-1080p-Cameras-with-130'-Night-Vision.product.100218592.html

Thanks! I was unaware there were two different places. I will contact them today. Called the Online Ordering number @ 1-800-955-2292, Spoke with Drew, nice guy. He confirmed I didn't need the original box, the Ethernet cables or mounting screws/plastic plugs for the cameras. I only needed to bring the NVR, cameras and power supplies. He also confirmed that I did not need to have a current Membership to return the items. I am going to try out Zoneminder this weekend with the cameras. I have an old Zotac ND22HD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856173012 that I found laying around. I will try it out with that box and see what happens. If it works well enough, it has eSATA and I can plug in a 4TB drive to it to record to. If this works, I will return all the cameras and NVR, then go buy some IP cameras to replace the old ones with. Boogieman, THANK YOU! No problem...that is the beauty of buying from costco, an essentially lifetime warranty. dont mess with zoneminder its old and outdated.....dont think it will work very well with a bunch of high res cameras

At Planet Security USA we sell Karbontech technology. Much better and cheaper than Dahua and Hikvision. What is happening should be a cheap camera not tested by the distributor. We test everything, that's why it does not matter if the camera comes from our main manufacturer "Karbontech" or from Dahua, or other, we always test it. Lets be honest here, karbontech does not make any cameras...you slap your name on rebranded cameras.

synology will require you to buy 50 dollar licenses per camera. You will also have to buy a very expensive unit as the low end synology units are limited when it comes to frame rates... You might consider a pc running a vms, but there is also a per camera license for most. Look at exacq, milestone, avigilon. Dahua and hikvision both make good systems... Bandh sells the hikvision 4mp turrets. Make sure to get a hikvision NVR that has enough bandwidth to handle your cams. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=4mp+hikvision&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma&Top+Nav-Search=

What kind of cabling did you use? Bad cables can cause the problems you were having. try this system, its a rebranded dahua system http://www.costco.com/Q-See-16-Channel-HD-IP-NVR-with-3TB-HDD%2c-8-4MP-Cameras-with-100'-Night-Vision.product.100213199.html

I called Costco's warranty department today, they stated it was out of warranty by 1 month. I bought it on their website, so they were able to look it up in their system. I asked for "goodwill", which has helped me in the past. They denied me & recommended contacting Q-See directly. So I opened an RMA with Q-See again asking for "goodwill" and they just emailed me back stating it was out of warranty by 5 months. The only thing they would give me was pricing to replace parts. It was on a 9KVA UPS that gives it, other servers and network gear ~3 hours of uptime. It is unlikely this was due to a surge that did not take out the rest of the equipment or show up on the logs of the UPS's Network Management Card or the Powerchute Server that controls it. Thanks for the info on the cameras! Unless there are better options (please tell me if there are) I think I will pull the trigger on one of the Dahua NVRs. Any sites or dealers would you recommend buying a Dahua NVR from? You are contacting the wrong department. Dont call the warranty department. Call customer service and ask whether the unit is returnable under the costco lifetime guarantee. It is. I know folks who have returned 5 year old systems. You dont need their goodwill. Costco has a lifetime return policy on every item unless its specifically excluded. These systems are not. https://customerservice.costco.com/system/templates/selfservice/costco_en_us/#!portal/200500000001002/article/200500000003119/Costcocom-Return-Policy

This is an old thread, but it should be noted that internet speed has NOTHING to do with whether or not you should use an NVR vs DVR....

I have an old shuttle xpc that I can install whatever OS I need on it (though windows xp might be tricky), I did find one version of 7.0.5 on 4shared, however when starting it up I get an error for direct dray overlay, and it says that it can not read from the registry, then it crashes. It's running on windows 7 32 bit, with an amd sempron 2800+ at 1.6ghz, and has 4gb of ram. Video card won't be very good (probably 256 or 512mb) however I only need to capture from two cameras at most, probably just one. I did have an axis video server which was great, I used it to feed into some motion detection software but the damn thing died on me and I've been hoping for a cheap alternative ever since. You are likely going to have driver issues with windows 7...' If you are only using a single camera, why not just use an ipcamera with an SD card slot. You will get a much better image than you are getting now and you dont need to keep a pc running.

You are going to have a hard time getting this up and running. What pc will you be installing this in? what is the operating system? You may be better off buying a DVR.

I'm not very good at adjusting these things, quality wise. I'll let someone else chirp in on that one. iSpy is Open Source; denoting software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. There's definitely a script that can be updated to setup email to be sent on alarm. It's not hard at all and utilizes a script feature built-in. I thought port forwarding would be just as secure with a password.. Idk, but you can let me know if you need help setting it up Port forwarding a camera is not secure. There are always vulnerabilities in the firmware with patches coming very late if ever. Also you cannot view recorded video unless you camera has an sd card or you are recording to another destination as well. I have no intention of using ispy anyway...

Stop looking at the specs. Look for a reliable company...the specs are almost meaningless. Start doing real research on forums instead of looking a BS listings on amazon/ali/ebay.

ispy is not free. They charge monthly for remote viewing and alerts. The software is free (https://www.ispyconnect.com/pricing.aspx), but you're right; "remote viewing" and "alerts" aren't free. For remote viewing, use the IP of the camera, instead of the software. There is a script that can be used to allow free alerts to be sent from iSpy; bypassing the requirement of paying for it. I've used both options and the free software when I was trying it out! Port forwarding the camera itself is not a secure method. You also cannot view the recorded video. Bypassing ispy's alerts is certainly not legit and its a hassle...

Thanks for responding! The NVR will not power on. Power Supply is good, and after opening it, some parts are "darker" than others. (read burned or fried) I have already had to pull the CPU fan off and lube it so it would spin again. That was a few months ago. I used to do this with whitebox servers at an old ISP I worked for. I got pretty good at it. Regarding returning it to Costco. I will check with them tomorrow, but I still would rather replace this unit with another instead of pulling all the cameras down and returning it all. The purchase date was 9/2013. Manuf. warranty is gone, but it may still be under the Costco warranty. Though reading here: http://www.costco.com/concierge.html "Costco extends the manufacturer's warranty on Televisions, Projectors & Computers* to 2 years from the date of purchase." I am a month late. I am not sure if it will cover security cameras, they are mentioned at the top of the page, but not in the extended warranty section. Regardless, I am ok with scrapping it as I was not a big fan of its interface. If anything, I would like to move to something with more expansion. This unit will only handle 120fps. It definitely will not handle 240fps like the Dahuas. Do you have any experience with the Dahua's I mentioned, or know of anything I could use with the existing rebranded cameras? Costco will take the unit back anytime. Its covered by their satisfaction guarantee. It is NOT excluded by their camera exclusion as that pertains to photo cameras. Pull them all down, its worth it. Replace it with this system http://www.costco.com/Q-See-16-Channel-HD-IP-NVR-with-3TB-HDD%2c-8-4MP-Cameras-with-100'-Night-Vision.product.100213199.html Both your old system and this new one are rebranded dahua systems. Make sure your new system is on a surge protector or UPS.

ispy is not free. They charge monthly for remote viewing and alerts.

You are making an incorrect assumption that more megapixels means its a better camera. Start reading the forum..the best camera depends on your needs.

You were in fact lied to. There is no way to split it.

Try the 1.3mp 2100 series dahuas...most folks dont need "covert" no IR...usually amateurs do this thinking its better. The best solution is to add some outdoor lighting. Its less inviting to criminals.