DVR Recommendations

These DVR's are so unlike it is apples and oranges.

I was thinking more like apples and Yugos.

Have you seen or installed any of these units before? If you did I don't think you would be lumping them together like that.

Okay, I'll help you out a little.

Higher end price wise. Good solid product over the years. Although it's not a big company, DM has a world wide footprint. DM uses its own OS, that is good and bad. DM is not field restorable (they won't provide you a with a CD or access to an image to use to restore the drive). Must be returned to factory when hard drive fails. Most products to date have been a combination of old style mux with DVR. Product has advantages when used with staff with little training (push button and see image). DM is not for IP camera and Megapixel yet. Even with limited access control integration, it's not the best choice for enterprise applications.

Poor reliability. One way or another you'll learn who your local GE rep is if you own a bunch of these. You'll get to know the warranty status as well as the repair status of each unit as well. Same problems as DM with hard drive failures (and they will fail). Expensive for what you get. Rube Goldberg screwball PTZ controls when using more than one unit. Uses wavelet compression (about the oldest style) so poor use of retention resources. No direct tech support for returning product (only through distribution unless you're direct with GE - you would not be posting this here if you were). Soon to be discontinued I suspect. Not for IP camera and Megapixel.

High price, lots of feature add ons. Supports some video analytics. Can't trust anything with Rapid Eye on the same products for sale page. Has some POS integration features and works with Honeywell access gear.

Are you talking about the Toshiba Surveillix? Never seen one. But I have seen a Serval Cat in a zoo. Getting too close to either may yield similar results. Japanese manufacturers, by serving their own market, seem to have different ideas about what is important to build in a DVR. Sometimes it doesn't translate well into a good product for a US market.

I've worked on them and pulled a lot of them out. Never sold one. Not much special about them in my opinion. Although PC based there are few PC advantages. Small company.

Never heard of it, other than the kind cops like to spray on drunks.

Lower end of the DVR pricing scale. Older units had weird software, especially for record on motion settings and viewing live video. The new style is Dell-in-a-Box with a grabber card. They work okay. Easy to set up. If you like Dell boxes (ease of repair options) and you don't want to spend a lot, you'll probably like this box. Not into IP camera and Megapixel. Small company.

Never heard of it either.

Mace is a low price unit that is sold through distributors for retailers. I bought one to play with. It is simplex, but networks (lan & wan) ok. Feels like it may be Linux based, but can't tell for sure. Standard boot up hides any signs of the OS. I may jerk the hard drive and take a look at it. I had one in service 24/7 with no shutdowns or reboots for over a year in the old office. It worked. I have to set it back up on my demo rack in the new office yet, but will soon.

You forgot to look at Winblows based stuff like Falcon & Pelco.

Falcon & Pelco have similar architecture but Pelco costs a lot more.

I've not had many failures with the Pelco stuff. Had one DOA. There are some funky setup issues. Make sure the guys at Pelco actually understand your questions. I sent one unit back only to find out the first guy I dealt with didn't understand the problem, and told me a good unit was bad. Not unusual for Pelco though. I think their telephone tech suport is mostly scripted with only a few guys who really know the product. Should setup to autoreboot atleast once a week like any Winblows machine.

The Falcon stuff is nice, but backups to CD are Winblows based, and not integrated into the program. Yuck. Also, have had drive, and CD drive failures. Probably a large part of the much lower price. Ok if you are a good PC tech. Can easily use Norton Ghost to mirror an initial setup to a backup drive for in the field repairs in the future. Like I said, not bad if you are a decent PC tech. Lan is easy, wan is not bad. Should setup to autoreboot atleast once a week like any Winblows machine.

Add on to comments about DM. Some intermediate versions require command line abilities on the part of the tech for full setup. Otherwise pretty point and shoot. LAN setup is the easiest I have ever seen. Wan setup can be a pain with some of the older models as they only used one port address. They can be upgrade to support other ports with software upgrade, free, but requires command line experience or step by step instructions from DM tech support. Lan is point and shoot. Older versions you point your browser to the IP of the unit and it lets you download the viewing software across the lan directly from the unit. Newer versions allow direct browser viewing with a tiny applet. I have a DM unit in my demo rack running with no problems, and I have used it as a loaner a few times as well. Note: I have a bunch of DM units in the field, and so far I have had two fail. Both at about 4-5 years in continuous 24/7 use. Both cost about 750 to rebuild including both hard drives. Had another start showing drive problems at about the same age, but a burglar broke into the building and set fire to the unit by heaping paper all over it, and pouring some kind of accelerant on the paper. The insurance company replaced this one, and the police took it to see if they could recover any video off the drives. It was still working when it was assaulted, but one drive was flaky.

Kalatel... only if you don't like the client. Yech!

Geovision. Winblows based, and really flaky to setup for networking. Basically an open internet video server with crude PW protection. Yuck. Stability is mediocre, and they play feature and add-on price games with the client. Also, watch out for illegal clones and software pirates selling these or similar through the grey market.

Installers and Olson.

On Feb 24, 7:39=EF=BF=BDpm, "Robert L Bass" wrote:=

Life and DEATH

any experience with GeoVision capture cards?

Geovision. Winblows based, and really flaky to setup for networking. Basically an open internet video server with crude PW protection. Yuck. Stability is mediocre, and they play feature and add-on price games with the client. Also, watch out for illegal clones and software pirates selling these or similar through the grey market.

I have played with setup on three of these. Tech support was ok.

Are they all simplex? They one I bought to play with sure is.

I have been disappointed in all of the combo units I've seen. Lorex is another one. Also, Sylvania & Philips. Actually I think these are actually all the same units relabeled.

I was considering the 650 for that lady I was posting about a few weeks ago here. Two cameras and going back to her puter...maybe modulate to TV..maybe. Nothing fancy really. This is all that would run on the puter nuttin else - probably wouldn't set it up for internet viewing either.

Winblows?

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@41g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...

I brive a dus wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@h25g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:

I have dealt with mace also and he is right. they are extremely helpful.

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@41g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...

But are they lower priced by lack of features? Like I said, they one I bought to play with is simplex. Its a 16 channel unit.

Supper helpful! Thanks!

What about Speco Tech? Any other recommendations?

Thanks, Miles

Never used any CSI/Speco DVRs. I have used some of their cameras in the past, and they tend to last pretty well. I thought their DVRs were little expensive for the features listed, but like I said. I have not tried any of them.

I have one installed about 6 months now in a residential "nanny" job. No problems so far.

Used 5 days a week for about 12 hours a day. Viewed continuously via internet every day it's in use by three children of an invalid parent being cared for at home by hired help. Smoke detector camera with three cameras.

Bosch Divar MR series Digital Video Recorder