New Swann DVR 8 Net; Playback over net??

[HipsterDoofus 0]

Just got a Swann DVR 8 Net:

 

http://www.swann.com.au/show_item.php?item=241

 

Seems ok. The physical chassis seems to be designed and constructed well with good materials. Doesn't look and feel cheap.

 

Does anyone know how to playback over the net? Can get connected and view live video, but can't get playback to work.

 

Just figured it out. But you can't fast forward playback over the net. You can't search by date & time. This makes the network functionality pretty much worthless.

 

Of course the manual is written by someone that does not speak english as a primary language, but it is mostly comprehensible.

 

It seems to use disk space efficiently. Three cameras set to very high resolution (30 fps at 720 px) only ate up about 14 gb of disk space in about 6 hours.

 

Instructions for setting up motion sensing were unclear. And motion sensing was unreliable. Motion sensing did not trip on a person walking the entire length of the screen, ultimately coming within about fifteen feet of the camera. Motion sensing set on its most sensitive setting. Motion sensing always seemed to kick in a few seconds late.

 

Playback controls are *very* clunky. It only has a 2X, 4X, 8X & 16X fast-forward speeds. But you can navigate to the main system record menu and set a playback speed multiplier from 1 fps to 120 fps in about ten increments. This setting serves as a multiplier for the fast-forward speeds.

 

So you can set the playback speed multiplier up to 60 or 120 fps and review several hours in a few minutes. But if you want to slow things down to see individual events, you have to go back to the main menu & set the playback speed multiplier back down to 12, 20 or 30 fps.

 

Swann features it as a triplex dvr which means you can playback & record at the same time. You can playback and record at the same time, but the only way I could find to get out of playback mode is to push the stop button . . . which stops playback *and* recording also. So what is the point of a triplex dvr if you can't get out of playback without stopping recording ?????

 

Also, you can't adjust the playback speed multiplier while the system is recording.

 

You can't set individual cameras to record in color or B&W.

 

Got the network features running with a minimum of fuss. The dvr will not ping, so just open the software and attempt to connect. The network software is the standard Taiwanese clunky POS. As mentioned above can't figure out how to playback over the net. Would make exporting movies and stills more convenient.

 

It will export stills & movies out to a thumb drive. Then you have to use their clunky client software to convert these files into standard formats. Still image export doesn't work, it exports files that are mostly pixelated noise. So you have to export a movie and capture stills from the client software. Stills don't export with date-time labels or camera name labels.

 

It only took a few moments to export an eight minute movie, then another few moments to load it up into the client software. The exported movie was only 65 mb.

 

After setting it up I accidently hit some key combination that made it do a factory reset. Arggghhh. I think it was hitting the shift key about five times in a row.

 

Why are all of these consumer security dvr companies completely incapable of putting together a decent, usable security dvr???

 

 

ehh, after messing around with it and learning its idiosyncrasies, I guess it isn't that bad. Would like to get a Speco dvr, but a comparable Speco product would be twice as much money. I guess a Swann 8 channel net enabled dvr is ok for $600 . . .

Edited July 4, 2006 by Guest

[rory 0]

Not bad, they are getting better sources now

 

Do you have a link to the software and and IP to test?

[HipsterDoofus 0]

try this:

 

(link deleted)

 

oh, but I haven't opened it up to the Internet yet . . . still working out dvr operation & camera locations & installations . . .

Edited July 4, 2006 by Guest

[rory 0]

ahh yes that software ... always had problems with that for playback ...

[antonylord 0]

Is the Swann DVRx-Net series different from the DVRx-Net-Plus series?

 

(I can't find any references to a model without the 'Plus' bit but it might explain why a lot of the older post links end up in 404 Not Found on the Swann site)

 

Cheers, Antony