SriCam Device Viewer NOT WORKING

[Del Boy]

My only reference to Huisun was because Zilink also sells a camera that looks -- and specs -- just like the Mini PTZ v1. Different camera. Didn't mean to cause confusion on that point.

OK, it's not the same specs, it has a different chipset. It has been copied. Different chipset means different software, one of the main reasons the Huisun is relatively good is the software.

I suspect that the same is for your Zilink camera and Sricam but I know nothing about either.

And the problem with the $100 to $150 these cost new, is that for that price, you'd be much much much better off with 1080p AHD (not that I'm recommending that either!). $50 second-hand, the first guy realised the mistake he made I guess.

 

[fenderman]

Please, show me where you're seeing a different chip set specked on the two cameras (Zilink & Huisun and its variants) since you seem to have found it.

As for the Zilink PTZ I picked up cheap, I don't know whether the "first guy" made a mistake, or the retailer just had it for a display. Not sure why you would jump to the most negative conclusion. The camera is performing remarkably well. To repeat: I have high-end, 5mp Acti cameras. In fact, I've got about thirty cameras sitting behind me at this very moment, of various brands and quality. The Zilink has a great picture for 720p, with good contrast, zoom, great color, auto-focus, presets and low noise. I have zero ("0") complaints with this $50 purchase. In fact, it's a much better deal than other cameras I've paid much, much more for and been less satisfied with the IQ.

I hope I don't have to repeat this every post but I'm not looking presently for any camera recommendations. I am very good at doing research. My only posting in this thread is because someone posted question that brought me here on a search for a similar question I had. Should have been a one-hit wonder. Instead, six pages.

What are the specs on the Huisun Mini PTZ v1 that differ from the similar Zilink I posted a link to? My experience is that most of these are the exact same hardware with a different silk-screened name on the front. And, yes, the firmware is tweaked and the supplied camera client is coded to look for the embedded "keys".

I am not in the market for any camera. I only buy stuff after a great deal of reasearch -- or spur of the moment if I see something I want to play with. Not looking for recommendations, but, thanks.

You are not very good at doing research or you would NEVER have purchased SRICAM. That alone shows that you simply didnt even do a basic google search.

 

[Del Boy]

Please, show me where you're seeing a different chip set specked on the two cameras (Zilink & Huisun and its variants) since you seem to have found it.

As for the Zilink PTZ I picked up cheap, I don't know whether the "first guy" made a mistake, or the retailer just had it for a display. Not sure why you would jump to the most negative conclusion. The camera is performing remarkably well. To repeat: I have high-end, 5mp Acti cameras. In fact, I've got about thirty cameras sitting behind me at this very moment, of various brands and quality. The Zilink has a great picture for 720p, with good contrast, zoom, great color, auto-focus, presets and low noise. I have zero ("0") complaints with this $50 purchase. In fact, it's a much better deal than other cameras I've paid much, much more for and been less satisfied with the IQ.

I hope I don't have to repeat this every post but I'm not looking presently for any camera recommendations. I am very good at doing research. My only posting in this thread is because someone posted question that brought me here on a search for a similar question I had. Should have been a one-hit wonder. Instead, six pages.

What are the specs on the Huisun Mini PTZ v1 that differ from the similar Zilink I posted a link to? My experience is that most of these are the exact same hardware with a different silk-screened name on the front. And, yes, the firmware is tweaked and the supplied camera client is coded to look for the embedded "keys".

I am not in the market for any camera. I only buy stuff after a great deal of reasearch -- or spur of the moment if I see something I want to play with. Not looking for recommendations, but, thanks.

Oh wow, I guess it's my turn to be attacked. I guess I was just too helpful. But I do want to continue to point out that a Zilink is not the same as a Huisun just in case someone mistakely takes your spouting of complete rubbish as some sort of knowledgeable recommendation. Read the link you have posted with the camera models. If you're that amazing at doing research as you self-proclaim then you will have already seen that the specs are completely different.

"I hope I don't have to repeat this every post" well you did say you wanted to leave... so stop coming back. If your Sricam is much better than stuff you paid more for then you're the fool. The Zilink and Sricam cameras have a rubbish picture and so poor build and design quality that the dome reflects itself back. Many people have complained on here about that and the videos on youtube are shockingly bad. I have one ("1") complaint with your $50 purchase in that it lead you here where you annoyed lots of helpful participants and recommended junk through implication of it being "great". You don't actually have to say "I recommend this camera" to be recommending it.

"What are the specs on the Huisun Mini PTZ v1 that differ from the similar Zilink I posted a link to?", well I hope I don't have to repeat this in every post, the chipset is completely different, therefore the software is completely different, not something you can silk-print. And your experience quite clearly means nothing. Facts are facts.

I'm out of this thread btw, although I'm sure you'll have some witty reply with how much cleverer you are then everyone on here. I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt but you can attempt to be condescending to someone else. That is if anyone comes along and wants to ever help you with anything, but hopefully this thread will act as a warning for anyone thinking of buying a Sricam or Zilink.

Bye! You can go argue with uberoverlord at the Foscam forums if you want some fun.

 

[Charlie Everitt]

I came down pretty much the same path as The Phantom except I contacted Sricam support (support@sricam.com). Lucy (support) always responded within an hour or less and helped me make it. I too plan to buy 3 more of these cheap cameras.
Except for pixilated, noisy images I like it fine for the price ~$23. I hope there is a fix for that. It works fine during the day time but looks like rain drops on
a windshield at night but still serves a purpose of keeping an eye on the yard. I have been using a similar camera mounted under the eaves of my shed for
4 or 5 years and this is one is an improvement.

 

[ColinH]

Oh dear, the aggro in here is very sad. Of course all cheap IP cams are a load of junk but it's 'horses for courses' when it comes to them. Here are some facts...we run an horse stud and have about 30 'cheap' ip cams all on the local area network. Most are mounted over the stables. We have had the following benefits from them. 1. Monitoring horses overnight where they are showing signs of unrest or possible illness. 2. Monitoring mares when they are about to foal - we have saved the lives of two mares/foals over the years because of this. We can look at our horses without having to go outside to the barns in the middle of the night and we don't have to cause the horses stress by switching on barn lights and disturbing them.
As I said, 'horses for courses'! All the cameras are fairly old now (several years) but still keep going. Unfortunately I bought some Floureon cams (they're Sricams really) as we are about to expand our stabling. The picuture from them are fine, more than adequate for our needs BUT...I write my own software to handle all the cameras and although the Sricams work fine with their own software viewer and although I can monitor their videostream (in Wireshark) I can't fathom out how to incorporate their commands (e.g. start video, PT) or how to handle their videostream in my software. Even the well known ISpy application can't deal with them. So I guess I'll have to send them back! Has anyone managed to disply video from these cams in a browser? Maybe I should email 'Lucy' first unless anyone here has some reasonable technical suggestions?

 

[ColinH]

Oh and I meant to add...the night vision doesn't look like pixellated raindrops AND another question...why do all (perhaps I've missed some) the video display apps insist on having a PT control - my software uses mouse clicks on the video image itself to pan and tilt the camera saving some screen 'real-estate' in the process and making panning/tilting much more intuitive!

 

[Telepad]

I AM BACK
just to tell to all SRICAM (and other under 150$) ip cameras haters, that all my Sricam cameras still working fine.
In all conditions!
I have bought a small 18 $ ip wifi cam 720p as well.
Guess what: it is working too, great 720p quality, stable, Android app perfect.
What now?
Oh, I know, I must wait another 3 or 5 years, then maybe will one Sricam die (or not) and our beloved Sricam haters willl be happy (or not).

 

[fenderman]

I AM BACK
just to tell to all SRICAM (and other under 150$) ip cameras haters, that all my Sricam cameras still working fine.
In all conditions!
I have bought a small 18 $ ip wifi cam 720p as well.
Guess what: it is working too, great 720p quality, stable, Android app perfect.
What now?
Oh, I know, I must wait another 3 or 5 years, then maybe will one Sricam die (or not) and our beloved Sricam haters willl be happy (or not).

Sricam is bottom barrel garbage.. and should be avoided at all costs.. stop misleading forums members..
Wifi is never stable.. sricam is never stable...mix those together and you are either lying or not properly checking your feeds..

 

[ColinH]

Well, another example of someone who finds his Sricam perfect for his needs...fenderman please stopcyour wild assault on this product and come into the real world. If people find the cheap IP cams do what they want that's just great. Now, please use your great knowledge and tell me if there is an ActiveX control that will handle ONVIF cameras - don't care if the cameras they handle are $20 or $500 - just need an ActiveX control. Can you provide this information or is it beyond you?

BTW...my Sricam is unbelievably stable. I've tried disconnectiing the switch on the LAN which is handling it and reconnecting and it never fails to come back on again. What evidence do you have that it's unstable? Facts please, not rants!

 

[fenderman]

Well, another example of someone who finds his Sricam perfect for his needs...fenderman please stopcyour wild assault on this product and come into the real world. If people find the cheap IP cams do what they want that's just great. Now, please use your great knowledge and tell me if there is an ActiveX control that will handle ONVIF cameras - don't care if the cameras they handle are $20 or $500 - just need an ActiveX control. Can you provide this information or is it beyond you?

BTW...my Sricam is unbelievably stable. I've tried disconnectiing the switch on the LAN which is handling it and reconnecting and it never fails to come back on again. What evidence do you have that it's unstable? Facts please, not rants!

He is a shill. I will NOT stop my assault on substandard cameras. That is why this forum was started. If you dont like it dont let the door hit you on the way out. I will not allow my users to be SCAMMED into wasting their money of crap. I will not allow you to insult me then be your free tech support. Go read the forum. IF that is too much and you want to act like an asshole let me know, I will ban you. You dont have the right to come to my forum act like a compete ass in your first posts and expect to be given free advice. You are obviously a newbie with no ip camera or technical knowledge.

 

[nayr]

Now, please use your great knowledge and tell me if there is an ActiveX control that will handle ONVIF cameras - don't care if the cameras they handle are $20 or $500 - just need an ActiveX control. Can you provide this information or is it beyond you?

only you are capable of understanding whatever nonsence this means; take your activeX and shove it.

BTW...my Sricam is unbelievably stable. I've tried disconnectiing the switch on the LAN which is handling it and reconnecting and it never fails to come back on again. What evidence do you have that it's unstable? Facts please, not rants!

that is not stability, that is you being a dumbass; stability is dropping frames when under load and stopping working suddenly after a few months in service because its summer time now.. there's plenty of failure reports and recording issues. Facts are not a strong point of yours; they require you to know wtf your talking about.

Any idiot can buy this shit; takes a special self absorbed kind of idiot to defend this trash after actually holding one in your hands.

 

[Outdoor_Jo]

WOW so almost a year since I last popped my head in here and it would seem little has changed

Oh and another year that my cheapo eBay cam & DVR system has been up and running and our first repair, year eight, so I'm not complaining, Cam1 and The cheap and nasty cabling has finally disintegrated inside the coax insulation. Seriously, I kid you not, We lost visual on cam1 so the first ting I did was check the coax, well you would right? it was not showing on the meter so we stripped it down and the inner core had quite literally turned to dust. So, lesson learned, buy higher grade coax when you come to service your cams. I'm taking an in house sweepstakes on which one goes next So what else ... oh yes, eight years and the HDD started to misbehave, luckily the system did throw up a HDD error so I managed to save a few bits of data that we needed to keep for legal reasons and then replaced and upgraded it as HDD prices have fallen so steeply we decided to double up on teh storage capacity and go for a much better brand of HDD.

So eight years and one HDD and one cable later, we are good though I do think the other cable will need replacing any time now but even so, it's not a bad investment at £345 or thereabouts for 4 cameras and a DVR.

Now then, the infamous Siricam, well, I have to agree it sure as hell aint nothing to write home about. Stability is shite, the so called zoom (that isn't) is shite the picture quality even in it's pretend 720p mode is avarage at best. Would I buy another one? Only for the pan and tilt drive and the waterproof housing because believe it or not, over here in the good ole UK just those are more expensive than the whole siricam system. And that's the point I guess. It works for me at the moment as it covers an area where there really should never be any activity so when siricam alarm goes off, I pay attention and look at the screen and yes I know, I'm using it as not much more than a visual movement sensor and OK, I do use it to patrol from east to west and back again but I have to do that manually because the patrol function has never worked.

Verdict,
Siricam
camera,= meh (technical term)

Software, = also meh, but not as bad as first thought once one has played with it for a while
Housing,= useful and good VFM (the trick is how to fit an altogether better camera guts into it

4 cam & DVR unit ala eBay,= 'bang on' as we say over here, meaning= actually quite good. To be completely honest, I'm very impressed with it and will soon be upgrading to the 8 camera unit as we are expanding our footprint. (the look on a toerags face when he finds you nonchalantly leaning against the wall with a cricket bat at your disposal is priceless ) and it will be nice to complet our very own 'ring of steel' lol Paranoia rules and all that.

So, question and please remember I'm based in the UK so shipping will be an issue but, what would any of you suggest for a budget weather proof ptz that's a little more serious and useful without the requirement for a second mortgage? Oh and I know haters godda hate but I have used several search engines and found a number of cameras that look like they might fit the bill, I just coujldnt find any that come recommended.

TIA

 

[Del Boy]

It's Sricam not Siricam.