Amcrest NVR and Swann Camera compatibility

[morden]

Hi,

I want to Fry's and asked for the best, and was directed to an Amcrest 5MP NVR and Swan 4MP security camera. I just need a single camera for now and didn't want to buy a system with several cameras I don't need. I could kick myself for not asking about compatibility.

I've never set up a system like this and have no baseline to compare expectations to. I got the basic interface of the NVR set up easy enough. From what I gather, connecting the camera should be plug and play, but it doesn't work and I can already hear the finger pointing if I call tech support for either device...

So, I just want to understand the basics of how an NVR communicates with a camera and basic troubleshooting steps. So, when I plug in the Swann supplied ethernet cable to the NVR 'hub', the infrared lights glow so I know something is happening, but the NVR doesn't recognize a camera present. From what I gather, the NVR is supposed to assign an IP address to the camera in the 10.1.1.x range, but I don't see any evidence it's getting assigned, or supposing it does, what else has to happen? Do these devices connect on a standardized set of ports? Does the camera need to be setup with name and password etc?

any info appreciated

 

[nayr]

Plug-n-Play only works with matching vendors, otherwise you need to manually configure the camera to be on the network and manually add it to the NVR.

One vendor cant automatically configure another vendors cameras easily

 

[morden]

OK, good info. So next is how do I manually configure the camera? In general terms.

Do I connect the camera to a router or something? I mean, if I connect it to a router, should it get assigned an IP, and then I just connect to it via a browser and log in?

I actually looked on the Swann site for info on configuring the camera, which came OEM with no documentation. But what I can find appear to be video guides on how to make Swann cameras work with Swann NVR, rather than directly configuring the camera.

 

[nayr]

almost never do they come with DHCP enabled out of the box; typically the'll have a fixed static IP and you need to configure your computer to match its network, then login and change it to your network.. if you have internal PoE you'll have to do this through the PoE switch on the NVR and determine what the NVR Network config is to set it too.

IIRC Swann are Hikvisions.

 

[morden]

Well I'm stuck for now I think. Here is a link to the documentation:

SWNHD-818CAM Manual

No info about how it's configured by default. A similar unit:

SWANN HD-820CAM (Hikvision DS-2CD2032) 1080P IR Bullet

is 192.0.0.64/24

And it appears there's some Hikvisions software that can help, downloaded, but then the obvious hit that I can't connect to it from my computer without now buying and external power supply -- and that's just to see if it works with no guarantee.

I tried setting up my NVR to 192.0.0.27/24 and the built in ping tester fails to .64.

Well, at least the manual has tech support's email. We will see if they are willing to answer and provide the default IP. (assuming I don't return something tomorrow)

One final question for now: the NVR wants me to provide a port number and login credentials as well when I do a manual add. I suppose I need tech support to give me that information to?