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buellwinkle

Dahua cameras now at Costco

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So am I understanding this correctly...

 

These:

http://www.costco.com/Q-See-High-Definition-720p-2-Pack-IP-Cameras.product.100003461.html

 

Are the same as:

 

http://www.dahuasecurity.com/products/ipc-hfw2100-7.html

 

I did read this review on the Costco site which makes me a bit concerned about using them with my Blue Iris system.

 

"I briefly got the cameras to work and the image quality seemed decent but the software is so bad that I am immediately returning the cameras tomorrow. There is now way to access the cameras through a standard http address. You are forced to use the ridiculous software that came with the cameras. Forget about using these in a typical ip network setup where you want to record with 3rd party software."

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So am I understanding this correctly...

 

 

 

I did read this review on the Costco site which makes me a bit concerned about using them with my Blue Iris system.

 

"I briefly got the cameras to work and the image quality seemed decent but the software is so bad that I am immediately returning the cameras tomorrow. There is now way to access the cameras through a standard http address. You are forced to use the ridiculous software that came with the cameras. Forget about using these in a typical ip network setup where you want to record with 3rd party software."

 

Not sure what that fellow did but they work fine with BI as many here have stated. I have 3 in a BI with plans to add more.

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I run BlueIris with 7 Dahua cameras and I'm quite happy with the setup. I may be in for a surprise when the temps drop this winter though

 

I run Blue Iris too, and as much as I want to buy these Dahua camera's, my fear is that they will stop working when temps in a Canadian winter hit -30 Celsius.

 

So airing on the side of caution as I cannot have my system stop working due to cold temps.

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Not many cameras rated that low without a heater. Keep in mind that the camera generates heat and the -10C rating is the cameras temperature. The ACTi bullets are rated -20C if that helps and they give off a good amount of heat.

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I run BlueIris with 7 Dahua cameras and I'm quite happy with the setup. I may be in for a surprise when the temps drop this winter though

 

 

What does your NVR consist of a purchased unit or home baked?

 

I run BlueIris on a Windows Server 2008 machine (core i5 @ 3ghz w/8GB RAM) and a 1TB HD.

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I run BlueIris with 7 Dahua cameras and I'm quite happy with the setup. I may be in for a surprise when the temps drop this winter though

 

I run Blue Iris too, and as much as I want to buy these Dahua camera's, my fear is that they will stop working when temps in a Canadian winter hit -30 Celsius.

 

So airing on the side of caution as I cannot have my system stop working due to cold temps.

 

I'm in Nova Scotia so I'll let you know how the cameras perform. It doesn't get Alberta cold here but we'll see -25C. My plan if they fail at low temps is to add a heat source if need be. I have access to a top notch Electrical Engineer and he said he can fix me up if it's an issue.

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So am I understanding this correctly...

 

 

 

I did read this review on the Costco site which makes me a bit concerned about using them with my Blue Iris system.

 

"I briefly got the cameras to work and the image quality seemed decent but the software is so bad that I am immediately returning the cameras tomorrow. There is now way to access the cameras through a standard http address. You are forced to use the ridiculous software that came with the cameras. Forget about using these in a typical ip network setup where you want to record with 3rd party software."

 

Not sure what that fellow did but they work fine with BI as many here have stated. I have 3 in a BI with plans to add more.

 

You have 3 of the QSee Costco versions?

 

The Dahua branded ones work with BI for sure, but the review from the Costco web is for the QSee version, which may have custom firmware.

 

I'm looking forward to someone actually trying the Costco versions and addressing this, since this is a great price. They do have 6mm lenses, but replacement lenses are inexpensive, as Buellwinkle pointed out.

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I got them in, not bad, 2 days from Costco. Works great, 1.3MP no problem, actually better because when you select 1.3MP it shows you the proper aspect ratio where Dahua branded cameras stretch the 1.3MP to wide screen. The TCP/IP is setup for DHCP which is different than the 192.168.1.108 that Dahua has as a default. The 6mm lens is actually a good size for me. The other oddity is the HTTP port is 85, they don't tell you that as they probably don't want you to use the web interface and use their NVRs instead. I used a port scanner to find it.

 

Lenses are still on a slow boat from China, so bear with me and I'll test that too.

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I got them in, not bad, 2 days from Costco. Works great, 1.3MP no problem, actually better because when you select 1.3MP it shows you the proper aspect ratio where Dahua branded cameras stretch the 1.3MP to wide screen. The TCP/IP is setup for DHCP which is different than the 192.168.1.108 that Dahua has as a default. The 6mm lens is actually a good size for me. The other oddity is the HTTP port is 85, they don't tell you that as they probably don't want you to use the web interface and use their NVRs instead. I used a port scanner to find it.

 

Lenses are still on a slow boat from China, so bear with me and I'll test that too.

 

I wonder if you can use Dahua's firmware on it and get back to original settings.

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I wouldn't risk it, it works better than Dahua basic firmware in some regards. I have it mounted and working now with IP Cam Viewer. When I have more time, I'm going install BlueIris on the NVR PC so I can have my mix of Dahua and ACTi. The only way you would no it's different is the Q-See logo on the camera and on the software.

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Here's the image from the Q-See bullet in 1.3MP mode. Click on the image to see it larger and then click on the 4 arrows in the lower right side of the image to see it full size

 

203617_1.jpg

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I got them in, not bad, 2 days from Costco. Works great, 1.3MP no problem, actually better because when you select 1.3MP it shows you the proper aspect ratio where Dahua branded cameras stretch the 1.3MP to wide screen. The TCP/IP is setup for DHCP which is different than the 192.168.1.108 that Dahua has as a default. The 6mm lens is actually a good size for me. The other oddity is the HTTP port is 85, they don't tell you that as they probably don't want you to use the web interface and use their NVRs instead. I used a port scanner to find it.

 

Lenses are still on a slow boat from China, so bear with me and I'll test that too.

 

i got a 2.1mm lens from ebay, i could not get it to fit my 3.6mm camera, ir board has too small a hole in the middle! just a fyi.

i got a 2nd 2.1mm lens from another ebay seller coming as well.

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Buell, any chance of a night shot with that camera? Have you actually installed the Dahua bullet? If so, do you see any

difference at all between the costco and the dahua? Is the web interface the exact same but just with the qsee logo?

Thanks!

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I got them in, not bad, 2 days from Costco. Works great, 1.3MP no problem, actually better because when you select 1.3MP it shows you the proper aspect ratio where Dahua branded cameras stretch the 1.3MP to wide screen. The TCP/IP is setup for DHCP which is different than the 192.168.1.108 that Dahua has as a default. The 6mm lens is actually a good size for me. The other oddity is the HTTP port is 85, they don't tell you that as they probably don't want you to use the web interface and use their NVRs instead. I used a port scanner to find it.

 

Lenses are still on a slow boat from China, so bear with me and I'll test that too.

 

 

Did you note what version of ONVIF it has?

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I saw the image at night and it look really good but I have a extra illuminator. If I remember, I'll do it tonight. And no difference in the interface other than it says Q-See in the upper left hand corner. I've never gotten ONVIF to work with any Dahua camera using Milestone. It works fine with RTSP and have used that with BlueIris, IPCamViewer and VLC.

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this was posted by a user Lantis over at Synology Forums

 

Connect via ONVIF and it should be ok. The trouble is the documentation for ONVIF for this camera is non-existent, and you can only rely on other forum members to supply the information for you

 

IP Address : (ip address of camera)

Port : 9988

Brand : [ONVIF]

Camera Model : Generic_ONVIF

Username / password : admin/admin (default)

 

NOTE - username/password of ONVIF is not the same as the one configured in camera, so if you're going to expose port 9988 outside, you need to change the default password (to change that, I don't know yet). If you really need to access it outside (e.g., IP Cam Viewer of Android), better to expose the 554 port and access via rstp.

 

port 9988 for onvif apparently?

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I saw the image at night and it look really good but I have a extra illuminator. If I remember, I'll do it tonight. And no difference in the interface other than it says Q-See in the upper left hand corner. I've never gotten ONVIF to work with any Dahua camera using Milestone. It works fine with RTSP and have used that with BlueIris, IPCamViewer and VLC.

 

I can get a Dahua to work in Avigilon with ONVIF quite easily. It auto recognized it. Just no motion detection.

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I saw the image at night and it look really good but I have a extra illuminator. If I remember, I'll do it tonight. And no difference in the interface other than it says Q-See in the upper left hand corner. I've never gotten ONVIF to work with any Dahua camera using Milestone. It works fine with RTSP and have used that with BlueIris, IPCamViewer and VLC.

 

I can get a Dahua to work in Avigilon with ONVIF quite easily. It auto recognized it. Just no motion detection.

 

 

Supposedly Dahua is running ONVIF 2.0, and you need ONVIF 2.2 for motion detection. So, unless Dahua upgrade their ONVIF, Avigilon won't be able to do motion detection with these cameras.

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I saw the image at night and it look really good but I have a extra illuminator. If I remember, I'll do it tonight. And no difference in the interface other than it says Q-See in the upper left hand corner. I've never gotten ONVIF to work with any Dahua camera using Milestone. It works fine with RTSP and have used that with BlueIris, IPCamViewer and VLC.

 

I can get a Dahua to work in Avigilon with ONVIF quite easily. It auto recognized it. Just no motion detection.

 

 

Supposedly Dahua is running ONVIF 2.0, and you need ONVIF 2.2 for motion detection. So, unless Dahua upgrade their ONVIF, Avigilon won't be able to do motion detection with these cameras.

 

I was aware of that. I just was hoping that the Q-See version might have the newer ONVIF. I was looking at another 2mp China brand and it also appears to have 2.0. It makes me wonder if they all are using the same core components.

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The NVR deal is actually really good. It's the 4-channel Dahua POE NVR. I wish we could change the firmware to convert to an 8-channel or 16-channel (I assume the hardware is the same).

 

If you assume $150/camera, then the NVR and 1TB HDD is only $99.

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The NVR deal is actually really good. It's the 4-channel Dahua POE NVR. I wish we could change the firmware to convert to an 8-channel or 16-channel (I assume the hardware is the same).

 

If you assume $150/camera, then the NVR and 1TB HDD is only $99.

 

definitely a good deal, i've told my family members if you want something good and cheap, this would be the one. i might buy 2 of these kits to set up for my 2 uncles.

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You may be able to change the firmware, maybe by booting off Linux from a USB drive and exploring the possibilities. Also, do a port scan on this puppy and look for a telnet or ftp port left open, it could be possible to log in that way. Heck my NVR PC was actually an NVR at one time from a company that went out of business. I loaded Window 7 and ACTi NVR on there and I got a cheap NVR setup the way I want.

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