Does sricam suck?

[Paw Bear]

Hey all. I'm new here, just been fiddling with inexpensive ipcams. I see some folks getting down on Sricam and I'm wondering why. The one I bought has decent picture, P/T work pretty well. I've got it set up thru port forward and that's working great.
Since I've never used the spendy stuff I don't know the difference. What's inferior about sri/fos stuff?

 

[fenderman]

Hey all. I'm new here, just been fiddling with inexpensive ipcams. I see some folks getting down on Sricam and I'm wondering why. The one I bought has decent picture, P/T work pretty well. I've got it set up thru port forward and that's working great.
Since I've never used the spendy stuff I don't know the difference. What's inferior about sri/fos stuff?

Garbage firmware, garbage hardware (youll see soon enough).....The "spendy" stuff is not that much more expensive. Dont port forward those cameras, HUGE security risk.

 

[nayr]

depends on what you have, the lower end stuff is slow and drifts presets.. firmware is lacking basic features, Poor standards implementations, no documented API access, Dropouts and Resets are frequently reported along with high failure rates.. and by the time you get up to there higher end equipment your within tossing range of much higher quality equipment from Dahua or Hikvision..

Cheap PTZ's are largely a gimmick with how long they last in the field.. the same money is often better spent on a couple quality fixed cameras with smaller FOV's that can watch more than one thing at a time and gather more data overall.

 

[Paw Bear]

Alrighty, thanks for the input, man. So far I've got every stock feature on the sricam working properly, the picture quality is better than the $5k surveillance setup in my retail store, and I'm exploring the FTP possibilities. You've got a point with the P/T; I've ready found it's not a real useful feature. I guess now I'll just keep testing it and keep an eye on the reliability.

 

[fenderman]

You 5k system is really old or you got ripped off .. sricam is a horrific camera and should never be used .

 

[Paw Bear]

Yeah, already got it, dude: you've got some vendetta against the sri models. Maybe it wasn't obvious that i wasn't responding to you.

Not sure why you're so paranoid someone might find a positive use for it. If you're correct then I'll learn my lesson. In the meantime I'm going to buy another one and add it to the network. Hope that doesn't keep you awake at night.

 

[fenderman]

Yeah, already got it, dude: you've got some vendetta against the sri models. Maybe it wasn't obvious that i wasn't responding to you.

Not sure why you're so paranoid someone might find a positive use for it. If you're correct then I'll learn my lesson. In the meantime I'm going to buy another one and add it to the network. Hope that doesn't keep you awake at night.

No vendeda, they are garbage cameras along with foscam/wanscam/wansview and all the copycats. Dont get offended. You are a newbie to ip cameras and simply have no clue. Instead of acting like an asshole, read the forum and LEARN from others mistakes, learn about the importance of FIRMWARE stability as well as mechanical build quality. The purpose of this forum is help users avoid mistakes like you have made. Instead of taking our advice you seem to need to justify making your purchase without ANY prior research. Doubt you will buy another one..you likely already have issues with your current model that you do not wish to disclose or you are so technically inept that you dont even know you have a problem until you will try and review footage.

Regardless, if there there is something you dont like about me or my forum then you can leave and dont let the door hit you on the way out. I will no longer be taking crap from newbies who think they can come here and act like complete assholes in their first three posts. There are plenty of other forums out there who with a few posts per week (if that) and mostly spam that will ooh and ahh over that bottom barrel garbage.

 

[Paw Bear]

Maybe you hadn't noticed, I was extremely polite and gracious toward someone who actually took the time to discuss some issues to be cautious of. Actually I had looked around this site several times before I signed on and all I found was you beating the same drum ("They SUCK! They SUCK!") with little useful explanation. So I thought I'd ask directly and guess what I got. ("They SUCK! Agree with me, dammit!")

If that's what you call useful conversation then you're absolutely right -- I'm on the wrong site. My bad. If it was called 'Dahua-Hik-and-BI-exclusively.com' I wouldn't have had the mistake of stopping here.

 

[Q™]

Fenderman's got a lot of experience @Paw Bear, and he has little patience for a topic which has been discussed time and time and time again. You chose to title your topic "Does sricam suck?" and the answer is "yes, Sricam does suck." The minutia of why Sricam sucks, how much it sucks and how it could suck less is largely irrelevant. It simply sucks. Trust what @fenderman is telling you; get rid of your Sricam and purchase a Dahua, Hikvision or Longse camera...you'll be better off if you do.

 

[Paw Bear]

Hey Q. Genuine thanks for the response.

I have no doubt that fender has experience here, and I stated right up front that I'm a noob to the ipcam scene. It doesn't seem like it should be necessary to point out that I studied networking and electronics in college, or that I literally have decades of experience in consumer camera sales/professional photography and even some photojournalism thrown in for good measure. For all the difference it makes, I guess I know a few things about volts and lenses.

I have to respectfully disagree with something you said, though: Sricam is largely absent from the conversation on these pages. It's not hard to see why -- ask for some of the finer points on that topic and ya get shut down. He likes dahua? Fine with me. Ask for the difference? Whoa! Better not go there! I see people on YouTube saying, "Gee, this cheap camera gave me better results than I expected..." I'm having fun with it, and I've said repeatedly that over time i might find that it's a bad purchase. I'm totally open to that. At this point I've become apathetic to certain conversational input and even the fact that discussions of even cheaper equipment -- loaded with factory bugs -- are met with high-fives and smiles here.

But if you want to get up to speed on a product you've got two choices: ask the guys who claim to know or try it yourself. Looks like I'm headed up road #2 here. That's fine too. So far things are going pretty well.

Anyhow, thanks again. Have a fine day.

 

[fenderman]

Hey Q. Genuine thanks for the response.

I have no doubt that fender has experience here, and I stated right up front that I'm a noob to the ipcam scene. It doesn't seem like it should be necessary to point out that I studied networking and electronics in college, or that I literally have decades of experience in consumer camera sales/professional photography and even some photojournalism thrown in for good measure. For all the difference it makes, I guess I know a few things about volts and lenses.

I have to respectfully disagree with something you said, though: Sricam is largely absent from the conversation on these pages. It's not hard to see why -- ask for some of the finer points on that topic and ya get shut down. He likes dahua? Fine with me. Ask for the difference? Whoa! Better not go there! I see people on YouTube saying, "Gee, this cheap camera gave me better results than I expected..." I'm having fun with it, and I've said repeatedly that over time i might find that it's a bad purchase. I'm totally open to that. At this point I've become apathetic to certain conversational input and even the fact that discussions of even cheaper equipment -- loaded with factory bugs -- are met with high-fives and smiles here.

But if you want to get up to speed on a product you've got two choices: ask the guys who claim to know or try it yourself. Looks like I'm headed up road #2 here. That's fine too. So far things are going pretty well.

Anyhow, thanks again. Have a fine day.

You miss the point in that we have EXTENSIVE experience with sricam and similar garbage camera both here (this forum is only 2.5 years old) and on other forums.
NO ONE gets shut down for discussing Sricam. What generally happens with assholes like you, is that you become defensive about your poor choice and failure to do even the slightest bit of research and post in a rude passive aggressive manner. I provide a TON of leeway, more than any other forum moderator. At some point if you continue acting like a jackass, you get banned. Its really that simple. I sure hope you buy more of them, you will have additional reminders about what a fool you were not listening to those more knowledgeable than you.

I will continue warning my users that sricam is garbage and for a few more dollars you can get a solid reliable brand.
Finally please dont brag about studying networking in college after admitting to port forwarding a sricam...

 

[twinclouds]

depends on what you have, the lower end stuff is slow and drifts presets.. firmware is lacking basic features, Poor standards implementations, no documented API access, Dropouts and Resets are frequently reported along with high failure rates.. and by the time you get up to there higher end equipment your within tossing range of much higher quality equipment from Dahua or Hikvision..

Cheap PTZ's are largely a gimmick with how long they last in the field.. the same money is often better spent on a couple quality fixed cameras with smaller FOV's that can watch more than one thing at a time and gather more data overall.

Any suggestions of better IPCams?

 

[nayr]

Dahua sets the bar on PTZ's and are quite affordable when compared to other PTZ's in its class..

Sricam PTZ's with comparable features are only a fraction cheaper than a Dahua.. If your willing to spend $400 on a Sircam, then invest the 25% more on a $500 Dahua and you'll get far more return out of that $100 than most anything else you'll ever do in your life.

Unlike fixed cameras, PTZ's have mechanics in them.. moving parts complicates things dramatically and due to friction anything with moving parts is bound to fail eventually.. so pay for quality or you will be replacing these things far more frequently than you ever wanted too... a cheap no-name fixed camera is much less risk than a cheap no-name PTZ.. one's a bicycle, the other is a car.. while I'd ride a $100 knockoff Chinese bike down the street, not sure I would drive a $200 knockoff Chinese car down the street.

If your not willing to invest in a quality PTZ; then I'd suggest you put the money in more cheap fixed cameras... you'll get better results and the'll be far more reliable.. 3-4 cheap fixed cameras will always outperform one cheap $300 PTZ.

 

[twinclouds]

I just want a basic wifi camera for outdoor and night vision. The cheap Sricam works o.k. with Android apps but not not reliable with the recommended software (Devise viewer). It works when on ethernet but the software cannot find it when on wifi. Not sure why. Is there any suggestions or should I get another better one?

 

[Bruh sound effect 9]

@fenderman whats portforwarding?

 

[SouthernYankee]

Simply port forwarding is opening a port on your router so it will automatically connect to a device on you network.

Look at it as if you left the backdoor to your house unlock.

Use Google search.