Re: Good source to buy Hikvision items at.
A big "thank you" going out to MilkIsBad. I did order the 2CD2632F-IS units from him. They arrived today in good working order. For those who are interested:
Overall I am very happy to have found MilkIsBad. I am officially a happy camper.
Any chance on getting prices? My bad on the model above. I meant to say that I am looking for 2 HikVision DS-2CD2632F-I(S) units in English.
A big "thank you" going out to MilkIsBad. I did order the 2CD2632F-IS units from him. They arrived today in good working order. For those who are interested:
- These are HikVision cameras with some rebranding. They do not have "HikVision" printed on the outside (mine had no branding other than a small sticker on the bottom). They are made of the same materials (I have an actual HikVision branded unit from another source; they are identical).
- The rebranding appears to be only physically cosmetic (ie. lack of printing on the barrel) and in the UI. Functionality is identical to HikVision's branded cameras.
- The UI looks the same with 2 exceptions: 1) the front page has a different image when logging in and 2) the color scheme is different. Other than that interaction with the UI (menus, wording, layout, etc) are identical.
- The units I received were regionized for the US (I believe this is done by HikVision to sell into the US market). This is important because of the next bullet...
- I successfully updated both units to the latest US firmware (v5.2.3) with no problems. The UI comes up with the HikVision branding (and color scheme) and is shown in English! Woo Hoo! Note that the UI only offered English (no other language options).
- LTS Security (company I purchased from) provides a 3 year warranty.
- With these units the audio works correctly (unlike the ones I purchased from Amazon ... and sent back).
- The price was a tad bit higher than those I found on Amazon but only by a few dollars (as in <$50 difference). But these come with a junction box. This is something HikVision sells separately. I don't know if I will need to use it, but it is a nice addition and makes up for price differentials.
Overall I am very happy to have found MilkIsBad. I am officially a happy camper.