blake carstensen

Looking to add a DW IP camera to my Lorex NVR system. I've searched and found one topic where someone has mated swann cameras with Lorex. I have followed these steps but no success. I suspect the DW has some underlying defaults which do not allow to be connected via plug and play on the Lorex NVR Models: DW C-MPA20M Lorex LNR380

Here are some photos from the NVR software

Good evening! I want to invest some time and money into a new surveillance system for our home. Consider me a consumer, and one that went against his own better judgement and bought a costco 4 channel 1080p NVR system by Lorex. After collecting dust for 6 months I finally installed it, and soon after - was having problems and multiple occasions. The cameras are hardwired in - and the system is a set it / forget it kinda thing for me until something catches my eye to view the footage. Thats when I find cameras have not recorded motion when they should have, and become disconnected by themselves. Anyways - I would like to spend 800-1,500 on a 4 camera system. My preference would be a set up, where my office computer is the control center with a external dedicated hard drive - but might be easier to have a self running "box" and I just tap into that box from my office computer and make changes so forth. I have done my best (but I'm eager) to educate myself quickly on brands and what to look for etc. Price range could be the Hikvision to Axis brand. One thought I had, was to have 1 or 2 quality cameras, such as PTZ controlled which can follow a "suspect" automatically? And the other cameras could be a 2mp bullet type just for overall view. Below is a link to one of the cameras which WAS working and DID record an incident at our house - this might give a gauge on the improvements some of your suggestions will make. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/76516329/Clip.wmv some of you deal with these systems all the time - and pricing / budget comes more intuitively to you than me finding a mass amount of suppliers / scales of prices for similar products (overwhelming). So before I spend money on cameras which fool the uneducated consumer (drawn to high MP rating rather than senor quality etc.) I'd like some input for you!

I'll snap some photos of the menu: here is a thread I found that is similar to what I was hoping to do: use of PCNVR software, a POE switch and IP cameras viewtopic.php?f=19&t=39387

tom - sorry to misguide with my photo of the screen, that is the monitor attached right at the NVR. Right now the NVR is actually an 8 channel one - however I know as I add more cameras, I'll have to take down the frames per second. the NVR is POE the file export from the NVR is a .MP4 file - I then used online software to convert to .wmv for people to view online. the quality isn't much different from what you see on this file and the screen. https://www.dropbox.com/s/j8v7cwexol7tli2/Clip.wmv?dl=0

the settings i have for the camera are highest quality / 1080p 20fps I believe Please be considerate that I've come to this forum again for help about surveillance system - I'm not here to be a part or even read a debate for the sake of a debate about Costco returns.

well I guess I cant say that I've tried so we will have to give you the benefit of the doubt

Correct - My wife works at Costco and they have become more firm with returns due to people taking advantage of them (cant blame them). The user interface of the NVR system sucks if you ask me - my old DVR card I had 10 years ago bought from Ebay running BNC cameras was way more user friendly. Preference would be to plead with Costco to take the return (its been a year) or sell it, since I only paid $500can (clearance) for it - I can sell it to others on local used sites. I'll post up a building layout so readers can see the location of the cameras - my intention would be to have two quality cameras down low (or low quality but adjusted properly to capture facial features at night) - and upper camera(s) would be intended to view the front yard and some of the street - offering a view of suspicious neighbourood activity / vehicles going by - since in my opinion, people sometimes poke around a neighbourhood before they do a B&E the following nights / days

Wondering if anyone has seen a product for spot lights which could be triggered via survallience, typically motion. Imagine someone jumping a chainlink fence, setting off the motion detection on the survallience system, then having a spot light, or lights turn on and zero in on the position and move as the objects moves. if not it would probably be an great way to scare intruders in commercial area's. A source of light which is tracks movement will scare some of these guys away when then get uncomfortable thinking their presense is been given away with the high candle power lights which are also providing apparent movement.

thats exactly something that would work with what I'm talking about

To clarify my idea with the current situation at work. The building is fenced off with your typical chainlink. Has about 4 acres of land. The building is a Large pre engineered building about 60' tall 80' wide and 140' long. Right now there are your typical lights which are on during the night. Having some common sense, and relatives who own an RV dealership, this typically only aids in theives to see what they are doing and really doesn't scare anyone away anymore. What I would find useful would be powerful spotlights located at each top corner of this building. With the engineeirng that is available today it wouldn't be rocket science I'm sure. Using triangulation two spot lights would be activated and be motorized to pin point a strong beam of light onto the area which is providing motion detection on the survallience system. Not that movies are a great reference to use, but look at your typical prison escapes. Light that does not move, just provides a good light to work with, once you have strong beams of light which are tracking you, you loose huge confidence with your plan, often giving up. This system being at an un manned building may also provide the false sense that someone is monitoring the building to activate these lights.

Hello all, I've come and gone off this forum before. I'll start by introducing myself as a 25 year old male with common sense backed with percistance and innovation. Reading some of the posts on here, must really intimdate people from doing some of these installations themvelves. Perhaps in my experience I didn't do something right, or really doesn't come to hard to me. Anyways being like your typical person, I started off cheap. Mainly because not everyone wants to dedicate thousands of dollars towards a system that they have no experience with and don't know what to expect. I got myself a $40.00 DVR capture card from E-bay. Judging by the poor use of the english language on some of the instructions, i'd say it was imported from overseas. I remember someone on here verified that it uses my computers reasources rather than its own. The program isn't the most comfortable to use with my 2 camera's. The motion detection seems to be poor, and manipulating some of the settings such as file saving location in the directory just isn't there. Viewing remotely is not clear, and I understand I would have to download the hardware from the disk that came with this system, onto any remote viewing machine. The camera's used I assume are of low quality as well. 480 lines of resolution. Uses the Anolog connections and has the IR led's. One brand was "Axtronix". For the 250.00 bucks I spent on this system with wiring and patience, its provided some comfort. Since I just purchased my first home, i want to upgrade to a new system and better Camera's provided the cost is justified. 4 camera's will be sufficient, one for every corner of the house. Since the lot is only 45' wide and 80' deep, the range is not neccisary but would prefer a wide viewing angle. One Camera would probably be covering a distance of about 0'-50', while the rest 0-20'. I have not educated myself thoroughly with IP vs anolog Camera's. One "I.T." guy I know indicated the IP camera's make it easier for remove viewing, which I suspect could be correct. Since I know IP addresse's are associated with the internet and have minor experience with them. What Camera's would you recomend for someone who believes in survallience to be used to avoid theft etc. I find keeping on eye on day to day activity on the camera's for something suspicious will prepare you for a hit, or help you identify that suspicious neihbour or person. Meaning the quality does not need to be military grade, but hoping for a clearer image than what I am currently getting (quite gritty). from the homework i remember doing a couple years ago on Cards, the Geovision appeared to be a good bang for the buck and was talked about highly on here and many places. I would enjoy something which provides a good software program that allows for ACCURATE motion detection. My current DVR only allows me to select an area with a drag and drop window (rectang), so I am not able to work around high traffic area's for example that I may not want to set the camera off, resulting in more recorded video thatn I need, and more time wasted time overviewing a day's activity, which will then result in my procrasinating because I don't want to spend 15 minutes of my day watching essentially nothing. I know some programs offer alarms etc if motion is detected, new objects sensed, objects removed etc. All of which is very neat and appealing. Wondering if there is one company that offers all? (I'm a guy, I like having stuff that I won't use but just to say that I can). The DVR would be installed into my personal / home business computer. Right now I have a tigabyte external harddrive for my work project files and for DVR recording. my computer properties are as follows: windows XP pro, service pack 3 intell pentium 4 , 2.4ghz 512 mb ram Nividia GeForce FX5200 (older type of mother board connection, unfortunately) While I am remodelling the whole house, I wanted to have the capability of turning on the master bedroom TV (which doesn't exist yet) to view the DVR screen at night for example, if something was heard for re assurance. It would also be convienient to view the same thing on the main TV as one of the video inputs. with all that in mind, What would you recomend for a DVR capture card (unless you think some Standalone would do adaquatley) and which camera's would you recomend upgrading to. The dome camera's make any onlookers quite aware of the security and provide a nice clean installation. One corner of the house could use a camera that pan's and woudl hopfully track motion.

thanks for the heads up cheers, Blake

hey guys, I read the topic "Sticky: Video Capture Software for Generic DVR Cards" and tried to follow the steps from one of the supplied links. unfortunately after downloading the btspy utility (btspy2.0.0.zip from the Prebuilt Executables) I install the software and this message opens up once I try to open it: "cannot access the bt8xx registers" any ideas?

Hello guys, about time I found a forum which has some activity pertaining to this stuff. I recently bought one Camara off ebay, a DVR card and neccisary cabling. I intend on buying 4, for the parimeter of my property. the program which came with the DVR card, is user friendly but obviously made in a foriegn country due to improper english. My main and only disapointment with the software is the motion detection. The program only allows me to select a box. I would much prefer being able to select many individual areas within one camara view, or being able to manipulate the motion detection area into a shape other than a box. Iam aware of some programs that do this. Because my first camara is located at the front of my property, the motion detection gets triggered frequently at night time because of passing motorists. The lights shine onto any vehicles of my own in the camara's view and sets of the motion detection, which I would assume there is no way around it, but why I now want a program which allows me to manipulate the area for motion detection other than a box. the DVR card is made by Axtronix, which you can google, and find on ebay. I recently asked them about this, and they sent me a "updated version" of the program, and unfortunatly now when I set it up, it claims that no hardware is found , which I assume is the DVR card. Any ideas? Thanks, Blake

Hello guys, I'm trying to set up a parimeter view of our property using unfortunatly low priced goods, however having no experience with this stuff I do not know if I am getting what i pay for or not. Right now I purchased a camara and the DVR capture card with 4 camara hook ups from Axtronix. I found that the DVR card is manufactured by a company called "Wave", and suspect the software which came along with this is too, because of the poor english. since I was new to the field, I purchased a fairly cheap DVR card at 30.00 dollars US. which came with the software. The camara was a Ebay kind of deal, much like the rest of the stuff, and was 50 dollars. I find that my screen having the view of 4 camara's when the system is at idle, shows good quality, now when I zoom in to one specific camara, the image is quite blocky. I dont know if this is what i should expect or not? it seems Geovision has a good reputation on here. And I'm asking for input if you feel that purchasing a Geovision DVR card would be worth it? I have no idea on cost for these. what is in directly relation to image quality? I would assume that all parts of the system are, but i would expect the DVR being the part which will give a good or bad quality of picture.

Thanks mark, I believe infact that it is a Wave-P card as well since I saw that under my hardware list which has been installed on my computer. Anyone know of any DVR software packages which work with this card? I find that the software supplied is improper for motion detection. Thanks, Blake

if it means anything there was a chip on the card when I installed it (and I suspect it still there )

the following is an image captured with the Axtronix video camara. Its nice because it gives a broad view of the front of our location, but unfortunatly because of the DVR software I can only select a box for motion detection rather than being able to manipulate shapes to go around vehicles etc. I want to do this rather than selecting the whole screen because there is a busy road in the front of the property, at night time the glare from the headlights on the vehicles and or wet pavement sets the alarm for the DVR off. I'm wanting to find software which I can manipulate properly so that I can have this whole system configured so that I will be woken up when any motion is properly detected. here is the link to the camara: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=280160182712&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=018

this is an image of the dvr player using the following camara which I purchased off ebay. Seems to be better quality than the other more expensive of the two camaras which I purchased. I dont like this one because of the narrow viewing angle which is zoomed in quite a bit, but it seems to be good for identification purposes. see link for camara information: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=330164736003&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=014

of options tabs:

here are some screen shots of the system for any reference:

I'm using XP

BUMP