RichardU

Hmmm. Don't have a 3D printer, but I think I could fabricate what I need with some aluminum plate, a few hole saws and a drill. Plus I'd have another excuse to use my powder-coating stuff. Any idea when we'll see these in the wild?

I wish there were an outdoor version of this camera. Seems like it would be great as a doorbell cam.

I'm evaluating the FTP abilities of my ACTi E33. Set up a dedicated fast computer that never sleeps running the latest Filezilla. Both the computer and camera are gigahertz connections. Scheduled the camera to upload a snap once every minute. Should be no problem considering it is supposed to do 15 frames per second. Instead, I average about 30-40 snaps per hour. Sometimes the time between snaps is ten minutes. Has anyone had better luck?

I just heard from Acti that they have a new Firmware available, V6.05.23-AC. So I tried it and voila, it fixed this problem. Anyone thinking about getting into IP cameras should realize these are still early days, and you can spend a lot of time diagnosing problems that require solutions like new firmware.

Here is an image from a brand new E33. Is this normal? It seems quite fuzzy to me, particularly if you zoom in to full resolution. This is a snapshot taken through the web configurator. I reset all settings to stock and then set max resolution. I have tried a different cable and switch but the result is the same. Thanks for your thoughts. https://www.dropbox.com/s/4kppcpy6o86xmby/ACTi%20E33%20stock.jpg

Thanks, buellwinkle. A little focus was helpful.

I had the same problem with an E33. Replaced the computer, switch, cable etc. but kept getting dropouts, particularly as the weather turned colder. ACTI replaced it, although it took them a week to duplicate the problem.

I'm trying to figure out how Milestone handles Stream 2 for my Acti E33. In the Management Application, under Hardware Devices, if you open the camera and then Open properties, under the Video Tab you can click on Dual Stream: Enable dedicated live stream. Is that all there is to it? As long as Dual Stream is enabled, will viewing that camera with the Smart Client or Android app always show the second stream? Is there any way to toggle between full resolution and second stream in those viewers?

Looks like Mobile operates the same on Go or Essentials and pretty much all the platforms with minor exceptions.

I think we lost some specificity when thewireguys said "this" is a higher end feature, and ilkevinli said "it" is in the Essentials version. If by "this" and "it" you mean the ability to turn on Dual stream, then that is also available in the Go version. What I was hoping to find out is if any version allows on-the-fly switching from the mobile client between stream 1 and stream 2.

So how is it activated? From the mobile client?

Thanks for confirming. It's unfortunate that it's all or nothing because it would be nice to see a lower resolution image, but still be able to go full resolution if there is something important to see.

Gladly. I had been trying a TP-Link POE150S POE injector. It worked mostly, but not well enough. So I dug out my old D-Link DES-1228P (which are somewhat notorious for failure). I don't trust it, but it's working for now.

I have now solved this problem by installing my camera on a separate network, and with better POE hardware. Thanks to everyone who helped. I have a brand new Milestone installation (latest version) with one Acti E33 (latest firmware). The video I record is SLOW. At times only one frame per second or so. So what is the best way to diagnose the problem? Here are some details: Clean up-to-date Win 7-64 installation. Gigabite connection. 3.00 gigahertz Intel Core2 Duo. 4 gig RAM. System disk is SSD. Data disk is WDC WD6400AAKS-75A7B0. This is my test platform. Are there tests that would help me narrow this down, or is more information needed, like settings from Milestone? Thanks, Richard

Excellent point. It's too bad they couldn't use the same term on both settings screens to reduce confusion. Thanks.

I am using 6.9 and I have changed it to H.264, but even when Camera Properties says H.264, the Camera Settings Summary still says MPEG. It has a block for Video Format. When you open the Camera Settings Summary it says "Querying..." for a long time, and then it finally reads MPEG.

I wanted to keep my IP Camera activity on a separate network from my regular network. I didn't find a tutorial for this exact situation, so I stumbled through. If you're trying to do the same thing and this can help, great. If you're an expert and can point out a better way to do it, even better. So here is the plan. I'm running Milestone on a Win7-64 server with two NICs. NIC1 192.168.0.123 is connected to the home network and the internet. NIC2 192.168.1.1 is connected to the camera (Acti E33), and later will be connected to a switch for more cameras. For NIC 2, in Control Panel / Network and Internet / Network Connections I did this: Then, I connected to the camera with IP_Utility (Acti softwre) and did this: It works. Comments welcomed.

That raises another question, which is, where to set the settings. Do you use the Web Configurator to access the Acti Camera directly, or do you do it through the Milestone Management Application? There are some inconsistencies, for example, even though both programs report the video format as H.264, the main Camera Settings Summary of the Management Application shows it as MPEG. To answer your first question, the Slowest Auto Shutter Speed is 1/30. I think I got that from one of your posts.

I will try moving the PoE injector to the camera location. I already have a continuity tester. This is the first I've heard of duplex for ethernet. Where are the settings for that?

The latest is: using a separate NIC helps, but when I connect to my cable (~100'), I get a lot of dropouts. So I'm wondering the best way to diagnose. Is that likely a POE problem, or cable ends, or am I simply asking too much from this camera/NVR? Something tells me my network topology is likely the problem. I need to find the best practices for setting up a second NIC. Do I need a second router, etc.

What built-in disabling facility? Earlier you said it should have one because it's Optex, but there is none evident and I see no mention of one in the documentation. Are you assuming?

Interestingly, I did need to setup the mobile server, and now it works. As for the Milestone demo, I think they were having problems yesterday because a lot of their stuff was flaky. Thanks for all your help.

I just tried the camera on a separate NIC with a short cable and I'm up to full 15fps goodness. So now I'll check the cable and if that's okay, it was the Network. The NIC I'm now connected to is not connected to a router. Am I correct in thinking I could add additional cameras to it through a dumb switch as long as I manually set their addresses?

I'm using 6.9. I think I've updated everything there is to update.

Electrical tape it is. Thanks.