acmaster

not yet I sent an email back to them to try to get the exact details. What do you think so far though is it way out of price range for a system? I know it's hard to tell without the exact specs hopefully I'll find out soon.

Seems a bit rich but depends on the equipment selected. My guess is you should be able to do a lot better.

Hi,

I need to protect a small retail office. Interior is rectangular and then two exterior doors.

I am looking at 4 interior cameras, most likely ceiling mount but could be wall mount. And two outdoor cameras covering the doors and parking area (30 ft away).

Budget is fairly open within reason. I'm looking for good quality day and night cameras minimum 3MP, a NVR suggestion that has good playback capabilities and good mobile remote capabilities from and Iphone.

I have experience with Hik cameras and was thinking the 2732 vari-dome but not sure what other 'better' options might be out there. Would you use the 2732 indoors as well? I'm also unsure of the Hikvision NVR quality.

Any thoughts?

V5.1.2 build 140116 in one camera

and

V5.1.0 build 131202 in the other (this is the latest I see on Hik site)

I have brand new ACTi E77 10MP outdoor dome cameras available. I simply bought too many and looking to get my cost out of them. They have never been used.

I can provide more details if interested.

FWIW,

Those Hikvision cameras are excellent value for the price. Paired with the NVR is the easiest way to go. I believe some of their models include a POE switch in the NVR. Swann at Costco is Hikvision. I'm not sure how it compares with the 3mp models mentioned but that might also be a cost effective way to go. W

I've asked several installers about the type of Cat 5e/6 cable that they use for residential deployments. All of them said standard Ethernet. I asked whether plenum cable is necessary for a residential installation and they said no. I've seen some differing opinions.

What type of Ethernet cable should be used for residential runs?

thanks....

Why plenum cables for a residential install. I understand the benefits of plenum but is it a must? Also can you use standard ends/ connectors?

I am running in to issues where there are gaps in the Milestone recording that can last a few minutes to a few hours. I currently only have 2 HIK 2332 cameras on the system but the recording drops for both simultaneously and then comes back. Sometimes the drops are not exactly simultaneously.

I suppose it could be my switch but has anyone seen anything like this?

Certainly visibility acts as a deterrent. Unless of course you are suspicious of an employee which in that case better to know who than to deter.

The solution would be to switch profiles. Thanks for the suggestions. I will give it a try this week.

a

Thanks Max,

Interesting you should mention MD. I am finding with Milestone, it is very inconsistent. Even when sensitivity is set down I'm seeing it log motion when none is there. Not sure if its the shadows triggering it. Also when there was legs and feet in the upper part of the screen it didn't detect it as motion. I'm sure I've just got to get the settings down since I'm new to it.

If I can fix my BI issues I will give it another go but unfortunately my time is running out with it. Currently it does not connect to any of my Hik cameras. I keep getting address errors.

a

I was running H.264 but for some reason it kept switching to MJPEG. I've never quite figured out why I was getting the screen. I wonder if Lemm figured it out. I then ran in to issues with BI and Hik and eventually shelved the problem and started playing with Milestone Go. Everything came up fine with Go.

I have two similar Hik cameras getting their time from the Microsoft time server.

In order for them to have the same time, I have to set one for DST and one without both set for EST?

They are using different firmware. One is using a newer firmware not available on the Hikvision site. It came with the camera.

Any explanation for this?

Are they all the same subnet?

I have no suggestions for you but while we are at it, whoever answers can you recommend a reliable NTP IP Address.

So I've been seeing this too.

Its quite puzzling. I also noticed that the encoding changes from h.264 to mjpeg.

If you look at the camera properties you will see an extremely low fps and bit rate but there is some. It seems to be triggered by changing resolution. I'd like to know if you've determined why.

That's it? That's the only reason?

I will give Milestone a spin. Thanks again.

Good point.

I just want to be able to read the plate initially.

I'm using the 2732 set to 12mm. I'm getting a bit of a blurry image. I believe it is focused properly.

What is a reasonable 'Exposure Time'? Are there any other settings such as DNR level? That should be considered?

Depends. iVMS4200 to me is not the easiest to setup and get working properly but it is free and it uses minimal CPU but may not be so much an issue with the i7. BlueIris has it's following, can do some unique things others can't. For example, someone has a weather plugin to insert weather info in the video. I use it on a project to display cameras on a website because it's easy and works with all browsers.

 

I personally would use neither as my home NVR solution and I'm happy with Milestone XProtect. They have a free 8 camera version but is limited to 5 days recording, otherwise it's about $49/camera but worth it to me.

Thanks for the feedback as always. I may try the free license however 8 and 5 days are a bit light for me which means a significantly more of an investment than BI. But as you point out may be worth it. What are the 2 or 3 key features you like over both?

a

Using a 12mm Hikvision value series camera what are the best settings to increase the chances of capturing a License Plate day/night as they drive by 40 - 50 ft away?

That being said if it were all Hik vision cameras would you still go BI?

My system is a I7-4770K NVR

I've been playing with BI demo version for a few days and while I'm impressed with its feature/price point, I'm disappointed with its resource usage. I have set it to D2D and its much better. How does Hik's SW compare with BI. I like the fact you can configure in IVMs Hik cameras (my setup is 90% Hik Cams). Does the IVMS support ACTi cams as well?

Which would you use?

I built an NVR trialing BI. Its a 4770K. Unless you set BI to direct to disk I don't believe it will support more than 6 cams before hitting 100% utilization. I'm not sure how Hik SW does on utilization yet.

Does it really make sense to not just invest in an IP based system? That is a great deal but you will try and future proof which adds cost. Baluns add cost and eventually everything will be IP so spend a little more on an IP systems and be truly future proof. JS...