I bought my first q-see DVR (digital video recorder) about 3 years ago right here on amazon.com. It was known as a "PENTAPLEX" which meant you could do 5 things at the same time record live video from multiple channels, backup the hard disk, view video remotely over the internet, view video locally on a TV set, and search through recordings to find out who took your recycle bin full of cans. Pentaplex and Triplex are names given as to how many activities the unit can do simultaneously.That unit is still running after driving the neighborhood drug dealers out of their rent free abandoned home (and having them arrested numerous times it povided key evidence of license plate numbers, video of drug deals going down, spousal abuse -you name it the police department got it. For that matter the PD could log in over the internet to check up on who was there if they wanted to)
I live on a 2 block long road full of modern quiet 4500 sq ft homes, and across from me was a 60 year old 931 sq ft original house that had become the neighborhood drug hangout a place to go smoke a bowl, ride your motorcycle through the front door of the house and out the back, to hook up with the homies, etc. It definitely did not fit in the crime rate rose the house adjacent to the drug house was robbed 5 times in 3 months. Both me and my next door neighbor installed MONITORED alarms and we formed our own neighborhood watch. His was a .357 and mine was a 9mm.
The Q-see was instrumental in getting rid of the trash. It provided numerous photographic enlargements of license plates, video evidence used in court to convict the individual squatting there, and more 30 second drive by drug deals than I could count, happening every 3-5 minutes right in front of my house.
I installed 8 cameras covering every angle possible, 2 PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom like the casino's use) domes that I could controll remotely over the internet to see what is going on if I was not home, and motion detectors, microphones all of this was OVERT meaning it was blatant that you were on camera if you came nearby I had to put up a sign because legally I could not record voice without notifying the people (video is OK) due to wiretapping laws that are outdated, so I put my sign on the 60 year old tree in front of my house warning people they were under video and audio surveilance. In 3 months we had the dealers out, the rightful owners back, they had to demolish the house because it was so badly damaged, and then they built a brand new 4500 sq ft home in keeping with the neighborhood.
About Q-see
Q-see brings the $12,000 DVR that the casinos use to catch card cheats down to the price a homeowner can afford. I recommend any home first install a MONITORED alarm system and make it BLATANT that one is in place (big bell box outside in a conspicuous place) this will rid yourself of 90% of the crime because criminals know where to look for these and when they find them, they walk on to your neighbor's house to rob instead. After an alarm comes video evidence of WHO did WHAT and WHEN with PROOF. Q-see gives you this.
What do all the numbers mean? What is H.264?
When dealing with video (which is inherently analog) and you go to digitize it, you would normally find yourself swamped in data, because video is 30 pictures per second, each 740x480, full color (or b&W at night with IR vision cameras). Imagine a 1.3 megapixel camera taking 30 pictures per second your memory card would be full in a couple minutes at the most.
The broadcast industry faced the same problem when the FCC mandated that they "go digital" recently there was not enough room on a channel to put raw high definition television. So they did what we do on our PCs when we have a bunch of files they compressed them. This process is known as coding and decoding and is abbreviated CODEC for those of us who dont like to type alot. MANY codecs exist divx, h.264, h.263, mjpeg, etc. H.264 however crams the best quality picture into the smallest amount of disk space. It's used by the satellite providers to give you more channels than they could without it. Best of all, it's free. No royalties to pay.
You're going to hear alot about frames per second. 1 video channel is 30 frames per second. That's for one camera. If you have 8 cameras, then it 8 times 30 or 240 frames per second that your 8 camera DVR must record (if you want smooth free flowing video like you are accustomed to on TV) now you don't need free flowing video you can cut from 30 to 15 frames per second and still get reasonably smooth video. The point is that any DVR has a limit as to how many FPS (Frames per Second) it can record. You get to decide which cameras get the best picture, and which ones only take 2 pictures per second (as an example) if you do not have 240 frames per second.
The second number to throw at you is resolution. VGA is 640x480 and is about VHS quality. HD is 1920x1080 and will blow your mind after being accustomed to VGA quality video (blu ray is done in HD as an example) In the world of surveilance video the more pixels you choose to record, the less time you can record on a disk. So they invented QVGA which stands for quarter vga they divide a VGA screen into 1/4ths and you are left with 320x240. That's cell phone size video and when you see it blown up onto a big screen tv set it looks pretty bad. Another standard is CIF which is 352x288 pixels better than qvga, but not as good as VGA (about VHS or the old video standard).
What I like about this product is you can configure how much quality you assign from the product's ability to record to each camera. That way the cameras for areas where people are standing (front door for example) take 3 frames per second of CIF or VGA quality video. The cameras that cover high speeed motion the street with cars zooming by or the sidewalk with bicycles, they can record at 30 frames per second for smooth video. Again for 8 channels you need 240 frames per second to record all 8 channels at full framerate (30 FPS).
The good news!
The 408 from q-see supports 240 frames per second, so every camera can have full motion video. Cameras 1 and 2 are special though, as they are sampled at a higher resolution called D1 or 702x408 pixels (sure beats CIF) while cameras 3-8 are recorded at CIF resolution. I've been getting by on JUST CIF for 3 years, so this is a step up!
Can I Install it? Is it legal?
I am not an attorney, so this is not legal advice, but from what I found on the net, you can record video of your property without giving notice. However, this product can also record audio. To do that you must put up a sign in a conspicuous place that tells passers by that video and audio surveilance is in use then you are compliant with all the laws.
Can you install it probably if you can wire an 8 track player into your 1977 buick. Here's what you need to know.
1 everything you will need is on amazon.
2 I've reviewed most of it so read my reviews
3 my email is in my profile so if you get stuck email me
4 every camera needs 2 things a video connection and 12 volts to run the camera. x 8 cameras and you will want a 12 volt power panel like the one I reveiwed here: Q-See QS1018 12 Volt 12 AMP Power Distribution Panel Connects 18 Cameras
5 should you decide to record audio, you will need 1 a microphone for each channel (8 of them) 2 a mic to line level amplifier (about $20) 3 some microphone cable. This gets into recording gear the sennheiser C2 is a good deal since you get 2 mics in a set, 4 sets would get you 8 mics, and they are very sensitive able to hear a whisper at 100 feet. But they need preamps. ART Tube MP Microphone Preamp Here's just one example it will only handle one microphone, and costs more than the mic, so you might look around for 8 channel preamps beause the microphone needs 48V to run itself, and it gives you a very low level output on a XLR connector (3pin pro stuff) and you need to amplify that .007 volt signal to about .700 volts (100x or 20dB for those who speak dB) to run the line level inputs of the 408. Of course you could opt to just have 2 microphones.
6 what's this I hear about night vision it it that expensive military stuff? No. How night vision works is when the sun goes down a sensor tells the camera to turn on a whole bunch of IR LEDs (infrared light emitting diodes) these look to have a dull red glow to you, but 36 of them shining into your front yard is like a 1000W light turned on. Best part is the subject walking through can't tell the infrared spectrum is beyond what us humans can see so it still looks dark, except on your camera, where although its black and white, it is fully detailed with facial recognition possible.
7 How about motion detection can these replace those alarm motion sensors. The answer is: it depends. Inside, I'd say yes, but outside, I'd say no. The reason is that IR is not visable to HUMANS, but BUGS love the stuff, especially spiders who spin webs over your camera lenses where it's nice and bright at night. And that spider will trigger any motion detector even if you kill off all the spiders, the number of flying insects that love IR light is amazing. Every night I capture about 50-80 bugs flying through a motion capture zone.
8 what is a motion capture zone? Your camera brings back a big area as much as the lens lets it see but you may not want to capture the entire area, just a sub part of it, such as your front walkway without getting the sidewalk. You can exclude the sidewalk and the street but if someone or their dog comes into your front yard, you trigger the motion capture event, and it records until the motion stops. This saves tons of storage by not having to store video of your front yard all night long. It also gives you an idea of how long something happened a 50Kbyte file is probably a bug while a 1 megabyte file is probably a person. In between are cars, people walking by, dogs, cats, etc.
9 how can I get rid of all those extra recordings and only get people. Simple you use a tool called a PIR (passive Infra Red) detector it looks for the body's heat they are about $40 at security stores, and guess what they run off 12V and give back a signal when someone is walking through their protection zone (where you point them). That signal that someone is DEFINITELY there can also be used to start the recording (there is a terminal block on the right lower rear panel where you hook up one sensor for each camera input if someone crosses the sensor, they also start the recorder but bugs, spiders, and all the tiny things won't set off the sensors. Now you really cut down your night's recordings. Indoors its not a problem unless you have a bug infestation in your house. Get a bug zapper.
10 OK I have all this stuff how long will it record. On my 16 channel system I can record for 17 days on a 1 TB disk drive. One of the things I like about q-see is they let you use your own disk drive say you just upgraded the 1TB disk that came in last years computer to a 2 TB disk and now its laying around, right? q-see lets you open the case and change out their 500 gb sata drive for your 1000 gb sata drive and you just gave yourself twice as much storage.
11 do I need to use all 8 cameras. Absolutely not. You can use channels 1 and 2 which are the high quality channels only and add cameras later as problems develop or you can do what I did you have a dual system overt cameras that people can see and avoid, and covert cameras that catch them when they do. It's a great way to divide and conquer.
Summed up, you will be running alot of coax cable (at least 8 pieces for a full system) the cameras come with skinny coax, but I prefer rg-59 as a minimum and rg-6 for long runs. Q-see also makes "siamese" cable its coax with 2 power wires along with it the advantage is from one reel you can run power and video without needing 2 separate spools of cable.
Earlier I mentioned PTZ domes these are loads of fun if you get a camera with a 400x zoom lens. From my house I can zoom in on the stop sign at the end of the road and see the bolts that hold the sign on the pole! You get an IR remote with the system much like your TV set, and there is an output for your TV set (composite video 740x480 or so resolution). There is also a higher resolution output for multiple images like at the quickiemart it uses VGA monitors you have laying around when you went to hdmi or dvi for your video card. That's one of the things I like about q-see I can recycle alot of my computer equipment into surveilance gear. I even went so far as to get a 1 in 4 out VGA distribution amplifier so I could see the q-see signal at many screens in my house. My older unit has relay outputs which I wired to buzzers to tell me when someone was walking up to my door I usually beat them to the door with the advance notice. you can customize your system based on your skill as an electrician and programmer in software. For indoor cameras, it intergrates nicely with your alarm system program your alarm to close a relay when a door or window is violated (opened) and have a camera (inexpensive 30 dollar type) pointed at that door inside wire the relay from your house alarm to the alarm trigger for the camera associated with the corresponding door and you've just eliminated the need for the motion sensor (they are better outside at night)
In summary, q-see has brought the ability to record security video to the consumer price range. I do not recommend the shopping big-store specials that come with 8 cameras because the 8 cameras they come with are usually the cheap indoor variety, and often you want an outdoor camera instead.
Q-see has been around for a long time and instroduced new features, like the ability to send video to your cellphone (in this model) Again do you want a call about every moth at night? If not you need to use quality motion sensors to trigger the system. With the internet connection you can view your 2nd house or cabin remotely over the net to check in on things. (again start with a good alarm system and at least get a permit from the city ours are shiny reflective like streetsigns and just a little flashlight warns the would be burglar that the PD will be there in 2 minutes if they break into this home)
Good luck with your install. It is a diy project, but plan a couple of weekends to fine tune the system. When done, you can have a great surveilance coverage of your property.
Support for ALL smart phone operating systems is EXCELLENT. QSee has written a dedicated app "Meye" for each phone (Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, sorry no WP7) It's VERY fast at streaming to my Android. It all went together so easily I just couldn't believe it. I bought this expecting to have to hack it here and there to get it to do what I want.
As the very diligent reviewer above said, this is not a $3k security system, but it is more than plenty for any small to medium sized area. You're not getting HD quality bank security footage with this thing, but man does it beat getting up to go see who's at the front door...or anywhere else around the house for that matter. All I do is flip to channel 3 on any of my TV's or hit the Meye app on my phone (its almost instant!).
A note:
Setup was easy for me because I'm moderately tech savvy. For network viewing, I had to fiddle with my network configuration due to the limitation on the DVR's IP address configs. If you want to use a static IP it needs to have all 12 digits for some reason. I couldn't get it to work with something like 192.168.1.5 (it needs like 192.168.100.005). Consider using a static IP for devices that broadcast such as this one to assure you don't loose signal because your router decided to reset...**VIDEO REVIEW EXTENDED** Search y-tube for my channel, dfizzbom, and watch an almost eight minute extended review. Multiple vids covering the package, a camera mount hack, and how to setup the multi client software. Hope this will help all those interested in this system!
Did a ton a shoppingthis is a great deal. What you're really buying into with this package is an 8 channel dvr with pre installed hard drive, and the cables. This is the heart of the system. The cables are of typical quality and are fine. The dvr, from all that I have tweaked upon setup, is outstanding. This dvr rivals that of a much more expensive dvr we use at my employment where I monitor another camera systemMUCH more expensive. The dvr in this package is very capable. Big points for that. NoteI used a 15" LCD computer monitor via VGA and setup menus and cameras are perfectly sized. A 19" monitor is great, but not absolutely needed. Another note about resolution choices per channel. This dvr, greatly so, also includes HD-1 [half D1] as a choice on ALL channels too! So actually, from lowest resolution to highest, you have the choice of CIF on all channels, HD-1 on all channels, and D1 on the first two channels if you want that. HD-1 is a very nice step up from CIF and since all channels support it, it's really great. That's a nice feature in this dvr.
The cameras is where you get into 'starter' kit. They are capable. They do very well in daylight. They can be tweaked in the dvr to have perfectly acceptable color representation and if you're not happy, you can also make them black and white. All doable. Face recognition is very very good in daylight, and I have my cams temporarily placed two stories up. The live feed has perfect real time movementnot studder steps in live mode. Where the cameras fall a bit short is angle of view and live picture quality at night. 53 degree angle can be fine if you're pointing straight out into the back yard from second story. But point it down to a space you want to cover, and the angle gets tight. Don't expect to cover the entire side of the house below from the peak of the roof when pointing down to the ground. Better to mount one camera under a first floor eve and side swipe the whole area for full coverage. The night vision does it's job too. I have mine pointing down to a doorway below from a second story window temporarily. The patio has an eco bulb for added light. The picture is grainy and would not make for easy identification. But, when I install the camera properlyunder the first floor eve swiping that door area, it will crisp the image up and be fine. Proper placement and added light is a big plus at night. But remember, these are really starter cams and although they seem capable, obviously the cameras is the area that you'll look to upgrade over time. And that's fineyou get going right away with 8 acceptable cameras, beautiful thing. Since I'm using only five, I have three extra to put in line should one or more break, while I wait for replacements. That is the biggest reason I got double the channels and cameras I needed, not to mention the extra cables too.
Remote veiwing works. I have no plans for mobile phone viewing presently, but remote pc veiwing is what I wanted and it works. It takes some studying to get a grip on how to do it. It's not hard if you read up. I SUPER HIGHLY recommend viewing this wonderful free video crash course-
wifi-wiz.net
It's an integral part of setting up remote viewing for any consumer. Read and watch everything there, especially the ip cam section, and you'll be all set. I can offer a couple of tips quickly. Do not forward port 80. You won't be luckyinternet providers block that port and mine does as well. Avoiding that will save time and hassle. I forwarded port 89. Also, q-see manuals and vids suggest only TCP connection type setting in the router. In my experience, you need choose 'both'TCP/UDP. One last tipafter initailly setting networking in the dvr to DHCP and after reboot, set it to STATIC and reboot. Then enter the new static IP of the dvr into your router and all should be fine. If you have a traditional simple cable modem [non-combo modem/router] and a router, the process will be much easier for you. Remote viewing is excellent. All three pc's have downloaded and show the remote view no problem. That's what I wanted mostlyto keep an eye on my home while I'm at work.
You can try, but you won't find an 8 channel system with hard drive installed and EIGHT cameras included for this price anywhere at the moment. Don't miss the deal.If the hardware had any quality it would be a great system. 6 cameras died in the first year, 3 dvr replacements by the factory and it still does not work properly. 3 video cables with shorts from the factory. 2nd HD in the dvr. These units are the epitome of Chinese made crap. Internet accessibility is pretty handy but causes the system to lock up and quit recording. You must be on-site to reboot. Bottom line I am sorry I bought the unit and sorry I did not return it initially. I would not even recommended this unit as a toy.
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