metafizx

wondering if there is any recording s/w out there that allows you to setup multiple settings per camera over the 24 hour day. the reason is you might want different settings for contrast/brightness/quality, etc for different times of the day / night. for example, the Arecont 3100 DN has "moonlight" mode, which would be awesome to switch to when it gets dark, and use a different setting during the day. I don't know of any recording s/w that allows multiple settings like this. would be a useful feature IMHO.

i guess it's a case of RTFM. thought that someone could paste the string they use... used a http debugger, and got something useful...the manual has more but wasn't totally clear.

hi, just got the Arecont 3100DN. anyone know the mjpeg path ? thx

you might go for something like the ACTi ACM-1231 comes with free s/w, and is in an outdoor housing w/ IR if you go cheap on the cameras, you get poor performance that is the main difference. 1 camera on a home network should work fine.

that must be it, but there are some unexplained critters. for example, I was trying out a IR cam tonight indoors at a shop looking down from a second level balcony. Lights on, there's nothing apparent in the air. Then.. switch lights off, observe image on monitor, IR is picking up weird flying things all over. lights on, nothing there. WEIRD ! I do think some of it is just debris in the air, dust particles and junk floating on air currents -- the IR seems to magnify their presence. but there are also "flying" objects that appear like bugs, certainly not stuff floating.

visible light is way easier to work with, unless you have a requirement for IR. IR you have to deal with focal shift and different lighting compensation. In my experience, IR is a difficult thing to get right. You need to spend money to get the proper lens, lighting, and camera to make it effective.

geez I didn't know there was so much dislike for vivotek floating around. I've only gotten one of the wireless models, and it worked when Axis didn't. Although I have to agree I didn't care for the image too much. maybe the other models are worse ? for a cheap IP cam, it was usable IMHO unfortunately there aren't that many low cost wireless IP cams that work. I wish Axis would fix the problem with the 207w.

I think your budget is too low to meet your objectives. any decent IP camera is going to cost $300+, x 4 = $1200+. that leaves you $300 (or less) for a recording solution. not including any networking costs. if you buy all ACTi or all Vivotek, they have free recording s/w. but you still have to supply an adequate PC. this system won't give you any zoom or pan capabilities. that's a lot more $$.

I haven't tried the ACTi cameras yet, but have been tempted. my experience with Vivotek has been decent. What I liked was that it worked, when the Axis camera has a problem still. I definitely would buy more Vivotek's. The free software is a nice feature. However, I'd like to try ACTi's free s/w too. While Axis claims they are working on a fix, it has been 2 months since I opened the ticket. I am a patient person, my customer was losing patience, and that's where Vivotek bailed me out. I still hope that Axis fixes the wireless problem with the 207w, since I have a bunch of these cameras. Good image when they work. the image on the vivotek was ok, but I didn't have much time to experiment with it. I just ordered a Arecont 3100, 3MP hoping to use for detailed viewing.

ok, thanks, I see the only way to change the network password is via the Video Server E, not the OSD. Probably the web app you can change it too...but I don't use that right now.

Hi, I have a re-branded AvTech DVR, just says "4CH MPEG 4 DVR" on the front. circuit board says "AvTech 760M". Anyway, cannot connect via network with "Video Server E". I was able to connect successfully in the past, but for some reason it rejects the login attempt. I have the correct network info, as the Search finds the DVR. I tried changing the IP address, port, password, etc..but nothing works. I have the admin and password "0000" entered, but cannot get it to work. says "login procedure failed" Does anyone have any suggestions ? Perhaps the CMOS is corrupt ? also to add, I have tried disabling the firewall. I have even connected the DVR directly to the PC by cross-over. this is very simple, static IP on a LAN. like I said I had it working prior, but now it won't work. even tried installing Video Server E on another PC and that didnt work either. argh!

**SOLVED** was a stupid problem...another post reminded me that the network login password is "admin" WHY didnt that pop out from the manual ? I don't see any place to set the network password with the OSD.

most computer techs should be able to help.

usually this requires the following: 1. fixed ip address on your NVR PC 2. determine the port the NVR is sending out the remote, may have multiple ports 3. in the router, setup port forward(s) to your NVR ip address what this does is map the ports from LAN ip to the WAN. if you have Dynamic Address for your WAN ip, then you will need to setup DynDNS or No-Ip for tracking the ip changes. the newer routers will support dynamic address updating, and also you can configure the NVR to have the dynamic ip updater installed there. hope this helps.

PTZ, you manually can pan tilt zoom the camera, if you want auto, then you setup panning sequence(s). probably overkill for the driveway, that's why I suggested the fixed camera. 1 port POE adapters are easy to find, should not be an issue.

if you don't want a PTZ solution, then you might consider something like this camera: ACM-1231/ACM-1232 It is weatherproof, day/night, 1.3 MP, POE, and pretty low cost. The varifocal lens goes down to 3.3mm. you will need a wide angle to cover that whole driveway. ACTi also has the NVR Professional, which says its free up to 64 channels. I have never used this camera, but it is very appealing.

basically there isn't exactly what you ask for...but if you don't mind delving into Linux, then ZoneMinder might work for you... http://www.zoneminder.com/ low cost ones that might interest you are: blue iris cyeweb by novosun a reasonably priced one, that I've used and works well is Visec

just some comments on this vivotek camera. I haven't used all the features, but overall I think it's a decent low cost wireless IP camera that works solid. I wanted to get some pics uploaded but I had to install it at my customer (he's the one with all the Axis 207w's that don't work right). I mainly got this cam because it has wireless. There aren't that many IP cams that have wireless, low cost, and WORK. this one seems to work well. The Axis 207w definitely has a nicer picture, but I didnt try a good lens on the Vivotek (which is CS mount) pros: - megapixel (1280x1024) - low cost - wireless G - stable - cs mount lens cons: - image quality good but not great ** - slow frame rate to get high quality stream (MJPEG) The other strong features, is Vivotek supplies free recording software. I didn't stress it, but it seemed to work ok. Also it has a CF card slot for local storage. dual codec, and dual stream (meaning there are 2 ports for 2 different streams) ** I'd like to test it further before I condemn the quality. It wasn't bad, just not great.

hi, I just bought a Vivotek 7139 MP cam. So far seems pretty decent, still trying to figure out what settings work best. Not a bad camera for less than $300 and has 802.11G wireless and 1280x1024 res. Anyway, the first thing was to get the right HTTP request for the MJPEG frames, and thought I would share it...since I struggled to get this info. I hooked up a HTTP Debugger to get the data, since it wasn't obvious in their manual. And no demo program I used worked for this model, except Vivotek's free software. {IP ADDRESS}/cgi-bin/sysinfo.cgi {IP ADDRESS}/cgi-bin/viewer/getparam.cgi?capability_nmediastream&network&videoin_c0&capability_audioin_codec&capability_videoin_codec&camctrl_c0 {IP ADDRESS}/video.mjpg?cam=1&camera=1&size=2&quality=2 Here is the output from my debugger session: GET /cgi-bin/sysinfo.cgi HTTP/1.0 User-Agent: asynchttp Host: 192.168.1.130 Pragma: no-cache HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized Date: Sat, 24 May 2008 08:13:30 GMT Server: Boa/0.94.14rc21 Accept-Ranges: bytes Connection: close WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="streaming_server" Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 GET /cgi-bin/sysinfo.cgi HTTP/1.0 User-Agent: asynchttp Host: 192.168.1.130 Pragma: no-cache Authorization: Basic cm9vdDoxMnF3YXN6eA== HTTP/1.0 200 OK Date: Sat, 24 May 2008 08:13:30 GMT Server: Boa/0.94.14rc21 Accept-Ranges: bytes Connection: close Content-type: text/plain Content-length: 265 GET /cgi-bin/viewer/getparam.cgi?capability_nmediastream&network&videoin_c0&capability_audioin_codec&capability_videoin_codec&camctrl_c0 HTTP/1.0 User-Agent: asynchttp Host: 192.168.1.130 Pragma: no-cache Authorization: Basic cm9vdDoxMnF3YXN6eA== HTTP/1.0 200 OK Date: Sat, 24 May 2008 08:13:30 GMT Server: Boa/0.94.14rc21 Accept-Ranges: bytes Connection: close Content-type: text/plain Content-length: 705 GET /cgi-bin/admin/getparam.cgi HTTP/1.0 User-Agent: VVTK (ver=40) Accept: */* Host: 192.168.1.130 Authorization: Basic cm9vdDoxMnF3YXN6eA=== GET /video.mjpg?cam=1&camera=1&size=2&quality=2 HTTP/1.0 User-Agent: VVTK (ver=40) Accept: */* Host: 192.168.1.130 HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized Date: Sat, 24 May 2008 08:13:34 GMT Server: Boa/0.94.14rc21 Accept-Ranges: bytes Connection: close WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="streaming_server" Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 GET /video.mjpg?cam=1&camera=1&size=2&quality=2 HTTP/1.0 User-Agent: VVTK (ver=40) Accept: */* Host: 192.168.1.130 Authorization: Basic cm9vdDoxMnF3YXN6eA=== HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: multipart/x-mixed-replace;boundary=--myboundary Server: Vivotek Video Server Date: Sat, 24 May 2008 08:13:34 GMT Cache-Control: no-store Pragma: no-cache Content-Language: en SID : 0 Audio Mode : None Privilege : 127 Connection: close

perhaps it is IR bounce-back from your camera that is causing the haze, not the street lights. look to see if there is something close by that might reflect the IR back into the camera. This is a common problem.

I really like the 207w, but running into a problem where they won't reconnect to the WLAN after awhile. This system has (3) 207w cameras connected to the same Access Point and a wired Axis 221 going to a Linksys router. Access Point is an Engenious 3220, 802.11G only, 128bit WEP. Auto Channel is on (but doesnt seem to be the reason). There is never a problem with the wired camera, so it seems to be a wireless issue. Initially when powered on, the 207w's all connect and work well, but after a period of time some (or all) of the cameras will disconnect and not come back up until the camera is rebooted (powered off/on). Sometimes they will come reconnect but then drop off some time later. The amount of time varies, they can stay connected for hours or days. I have tried the Linksys Wireless Router by itself, and the same problem happens. The wireless signal reported by the 207w varies from 60% to 90% for the Linksys router, and 100% for the Engenious AP. I don't think it is the signal power. I have a Panasonic BL-C30 connected to the same system, and that always stays connected. So I wonder if it is a problem with the 207w? has anyone run into this issue, and have a fix or suggestion for this problem ?

hi affie, you might want to post this separately. but as it pertains to the problem I am having with the 207w, it might be the same. Initially I did have some interference that I tracked down using WiSpy analyzer and got rid of it. However, it was not the cause of the cameras disconnecting. That particular problem seems to be a firmware issue with the camera, and I am trying to get Axis to fix this.

I ordered an IR lens but not here yet, I can get day pics however. this camera is not a speed demon like Arecont or Axis when set to MP res, but then again it was under $300. the pics max out at 8 FPS for high res. good quality and frame rate is ok for most purposes. you get 30 FPS for the 640x480, but again for quality images you need to set it lower.

http://www.httpdebugger.com/

ok, I am making progress with my test case. posting all to Axis, hoping they can figure out what is going wrong. But this is what I found out so far, for those who are interested: I looked more carefully at the server report and this is what I see.. Initially the camera works for a few days, but then it gets into a WLAN connection problem. The correct ip address is 192.168.1.122, but for some reason the camera keeps trying to set the address to 169.254.34.50. My SSID is "oceanbreeze" there are NO other SSIDs with that name. The encryption is WEP, not WPA. But reading the log it seems like the camera is very confused as to what AP it is connecting to, keeps losing the "real" connection and setting up a bogus connection, and it fails over and over. resulting in very low frame rates and intermittent loss of connection to the camera. This is the problem, but it gets worse, and actually stops. Rebooting will bring it back to normal operation, as the other two 207w's are operating fine in this test. the series of events in the Log are: ---------------------------------------- -Session timed out due to client inactivity -Restart WLAN -Deleted IP address "fe80::240:8cff:fe7a:9818" for eth1 -Deleted IP address "169.254.34.50" for eth1 -Deleted IP address "192.168.1.122" for eth1 -New IP address for eth1 is "fe80::240:8cff:fe7a:9818" -failed to get eth1 IPv4 address -sntp.c, line 148, getaddrinfo Name or service not known -WLAN restarted -WPA connection send failed: Connection refused -lost WLAN link -link changed, Cell/AP: 00:1A:70:AC:19:D4, Speed: 48000000, WPA: OK -Deleted IP address "fe80::240:8cff:fe7a:9818" for eth1. -New IP address for eth1 is "192.168.1.122"