UK Newbie Says Hi

[gtwibell]

Hello from the south of England. I've had an IP-based system based around 1 Xvision XP3000 dome camera and 1 Sanyo VDC-HD3500P camera. Until now I've been using Security Spy software NVR on a Mac Mini with direct attached RAID for recording, motion detection etc.

Now the Mac and RAID are no longer required for other duties (and I'm keen to lose the noise and power consumption) and there's been a rise in break-ins locally I'm moving to a HIKVision hardware NVR, adding 3 more same type Sanyo cameras and deploying Raytec and Clarius IR illuminators for night time cover.

This has thrown up a problem with the Sanyo cameras (now obsolete) which I'll post about in the cameras forum.

Hope to contribute to the forums too and already have a simple HIKVision mod. to reduce fan noise which I'll also post about.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Welcome to the forum!
It sounds like it will be a win/win arrangement.
I'm curious why you're adding Sanyo cameras to a Hikvision NVR. Do you want to push the boundaries exploring compatibility issues?

 

[gtwibell]

The cameras are actually working surprisingly well with the NVR. They have in-built, stand-alone motion detection which among other things can be used to set alarm conditions and/or record onto SD card when motion is detected. But despite all the cameras having formatted, correct-spec, Sanyo branded SD cards fitted the option to turn on motion detection remains stubbornly greyed out. I've tried changing (then changing back) pretty much every option that might be related but still no joy. The camera manual just blissfully assumes motion detection can be switched on and offers no clue as to why it might not be so.

As far as I can see it is not NVR-related as it should work stand alone according to manual.

 

[alastairstevenson]

the option to turn on motion detection remains stubbornly greyed out.

I've tried changing (then changing back) pretty much every option that might be related but still no joy.

Is it possible that motion detection is mutually exclusive with another apparently unrelated enabled feature? Just guessing.
For example, there is a Dahua camera where if one smart feature is enabled, others are not available.

 

[gtwibell]

Is it possible that motion detection is mutually exclusive with another apparently unrelated enabled feature? Just guessing.

That's what I'm thinking but I reckon I must have exhausted most of the options by now.

 

[alastairstevenson]

I must have exhausted most of the options by now.

Specific browser / browser plugin?

 

[gtwibell]

Specific browser / browser plugin?

Safari, Opera and Firefox on Mac. IE8 on Windows XP with all Sanyo ActiveX controls enabled.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Oh well. That's as good a collection as you can get.

 

[gtwibell]

Nailed it! Changing back light compensation from OFF (the default) to any other setting un greys out the motion detection button.

Now to see if enabling it on the camera enables the motion detect recording function on the Hikvision NVR.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Wow! I bet you were chuffed.
I see the Hikvision NVR appears to have native Sanyo support - is that how you have them connected?
Do the cameras support ONVIF?
If so, it may be interesting to see if they generate ONVIF Event Notifications for motion.
You can see that, and lots more info, with the very good open-source tool ONVIF Device Manager from sourceforge.net
If they are ONVIF compatible, and on the same LAN segment, it will find them automatically.
Give ODM some logon details (top left of the window) and the Events are on the Events page.
And the 'ONVIF port' is in the URL at the bottom of the Identification page.