GeoVision GV LX4C3D1 Four Channel Compact DVR

So lets say you got a store or two with some decent cameras and a VCR or ancient DVR. Well that thing will one day break, or you can’t find, or are sick of messing with video tapes, and want to enter the 21st century of video surveillance. How easy would it be to migrate to this? How about taking the same cables that run from the cameras, and connecting them to this puppy, and you are recording to a tiny box that has a foot print smaller than a piece of paper (9.6 x 7 x 3.4 inches, 244 x 176 x 86 mm for you foreigners). It’s like installing a GeoVision DVR card in your PC and turning it into your recorder without the hassles of the PC platform.

The benefits of this is that it’s an embedded Linux O/S, NOT Windows, so it’s immune from viruses, constant annoying Windows reminders, and uses much less electricity, so you can say you are a green company saving the planet.

GeoVision has been the leader in DVR cards for years, and their GeoVision Center V2 Central Monitoring Station Software is up to version 8.5. After spending 3 days getting certified in it last month, we have developed a deeper love, almost a lust with GeoVision. Not only can you access the video from up to 500 DVR’s from all over the world, you can view the live images from up to 800 cameras.

However, that don’t mean squat if you got 2-3 stores and just want to keep a handle on them. The free version lets you watch up to 160 cameras from 5 DVR Card based DVR’s, NVR’s, or Compact DVR’s. Installing 1 of these at each location, and not having to drop some coin on replacing the cameras yet is a great way to transition to the 21st century. When you are ready, GeoVision makes some great IP cameras, though when you can still get decent 550+ line analog cameras for 1/2 the price, and you are on a budget, this product is a God send. When you are ready to go digital, we’ll take you there.

Later…

Wendell the Chameleon
Spy & Surveillance Products Expert
1-877-339-3-EYE-SPY
EyeSpyPro.com/GeoVision GV LX4C3D1 Four Channel Compact DVR

GeoVision 4 Megapixel Fish Eye Camera

That’s all changed in the last few months with GeoVision launching a ton of new IP cameras, and one of the coolest is their GeoVision 4MP Fisheye IP Camera 360 degree megapixel cameras. While the ability to film a complete room with one camera, and the ability to break it up into either 2 or 4 quadrants, and have them rotate with software enhancement is cool, the auto tracking feature blew us away.

When the auto tracking feature is enabled, the camera will automatically track a person or object when it enters the picture, while they walk around the room.

And their latest version of their 8.5 software has many, many improvements. If you are running older software, you must upgrade to 8.5 for many reasons. One is the ability to run higher frame rates due to it utilizing the CPU more efficiently.

And the latest version uses the Sandy Bridge feature in the new Intel CPU’s that let the software hand off some of the processing to the GPU, instead of dumping it all on the CPU, resulting in a 20% drop in CPU load from 70% to about 50%. I am foaming at the mouth!

If all that has your head spinning faster than Linda Blair in the Exorcist, give us a call and we can splain it in layman’s terms.

Later…

Wendell the Chameleon
Spy & Surveillance Products Expert
1-877-339-3-EYE-SPY
EyeSpyPro.com/GeoVision 4MP Fisheye IP Camera

Sniff, brings back good memories of Soi Cowboy!

According to Western Digital CEO John Coyne, it will all add up to a significantly reduced supply of hard drives into 2012. CRN reports that prices on hard drives are already rising in distribution channels and companies in the industry are watching inventory closely; some distributors may be stockpiling drives rather than selling them until the situation on the ground becomes clearer. Just how the shortage will ultimately affect consumers is also up in the air and will depend on how Western Digital and its distributors allocate existing inventory.

PC makers are taking notice, however: Apple CEO Tim Cook is on the record as expecting “an overall industry shortage of disk drives” and a Dell spokesperson said the company is “working with our hard drive suppliers to address potential impact for the remainder of the year.”

Due to the rapid daily fluctuations, we are not able to keep up with the constant changes on our web site, and any orders for products that require hard drives will be higher than posted until this problem settles down. Any order for Digital Video Recorders or Network Video Recorders, or anything requiring a hard drive will be higher than posted, and we will notify you of the price before we run your order.

It’s best to call us before you make an order to get a current price.

Later…

Wendell the Chameleon

Spy & Surveillance Products Expert

EyeSpyPro.com/NVR

If you have CCTV cameras that are working for you, you have 3 options if you need to expand:

• You can leave it alone and add more CCTV cameras, running more cable, though you can go to a video balun set up to make that easy.
• You can invest in a Hybrid DVR that will allow you to hook up analog and digital cameras.
• You can buy encoders that will convert the feed to digital, making the camera a network camera.

We will cover the Hybrid DVR in this post, and cover the encoder idea in another post. A hybrid DVR is a great way to transition into the digital world, as it’s still a fully functional DVR that you are use to, it will also let you expand with network cameras, which you can’t do with your current DVR.

Speco H.264 16 Camera Hybrid Pentaplex Digital Video Recorder Family with Network DDNS Video Server

You can also add Internet access, and Speco has FREE software you can download to give you the ability to view your video over your Blackberry, Android, iPone, iTouch, iPad, or Windows Media smart phone.

If you want more info, visit the links above, then give us a call to help find the best IP camera for your needs.

Later…

Wendell the Chameleon
Spy & Surveillance Products Expert
EyeSpyPro.com/Speco H.264 16 Camera Hybrid Pentaplex Digital Video Recorder

SleuthGear makes some great hidden cameras with DVR, and they take their most popular one, the SleuthGear HVR Cube Alarm Clock Video Surveillance System and add nighty vision so you can see what’s happening even when the human eye can not.

The SleuthGear Covert NightOwl IR Cube Clock Camera

This self contained, 1 camera video surveillance system records the video to SD cards that are hidden from view. In fact, the only thing showing on the camera to let anyone even know it’s a hidden nanny cam, is one small silver a/v port on the rear.

It takes up to a 32GB SD card, so you can record up to 5.5 days of solid video, weeks in motion activated mode, using 320 x 240 video @ 30fps.

Big clear video, and can see in the dark, what’s not to like about the The SleuthGear Covert NightOwl IR Cube Clock Camera? You set it up easily, like a DVR, by plugging it into a TV or VCR. You can set time/date, motion activation, scheduled recording, masking, and so much more.

If you need watch your babysitter, your children, spouse, elderly parents caregiver, or just want a good Nanny cam, you should check out the Night Owl hidden camera.

Later…

Wendell the Chameleon
Spy & Surveillance Products Expert

EyeSpyPro.com/The SleuthGear Covert NightOwl IR Cube Clock Camera

A new feature is Noise-Suppressor, destined for adjusting the noise-suppressing system of the built-in video camera. We like this mini DVR for many reasons. One is it’s the only pocket DVR that we know of that also has a built-in video camera, has two built in microphones, and takes up to 32GB SD cards. Though for quicker boot up times, you might want to use a 4GB or 8GB. Also use the a quality SD card for the best results.

And, it’s not much bigger than a matchbox! A FAT version will record up to a whopping 8 hours per charge! The uses for this the mAVR Mini DVR are endless; mount in a model plane or helicopter for a great way to record the trip. Pick up the windshield adapter and let it watch your car to keep punks from keying the paint or damaging your ride. You can hook up a body worn camera for mobile surveillance, or hook up an external camera to record inside or outside video surveillance.

mAVR Professional Grade Micro Audio and H.264 Video Digital Recorder

But don’t listen to Wendell, here are comments from one of our customers that rated it 5 Stars!:

Worth the extra money.

Posted by Mitch on 15th Apr 2009

Hey I wanted to tell you that so far I have been thrilled with the micro DVR that I bought from you guys. Its been flawlessly reliable. No dropped frames or audio. Has a respectable battery life. And it is so small.

Also, batteries and external chargers are not too tough to find. That is important.

It was pretty expensive so I was nervous about it. Plus buying this kind of "spy" gear is such a shot in the dark. Some of my cheap gear is my best gear. Lots of cheap gear was garbage (so actually expensive) and some of the expensive things were garbage too…

anyway, this russian made micro DVR is fantastic I am glad I took a chance on it.

My use is always body worn or in a purse or a backpack for my work. and it will almost always hooked up to a external camera of some sort with external power patched directly to the camera.

I think one thing that makes this russian dvr perform better is the proprietary recording format. Initially I thought it was a pain to have to do the conversion thing, but I have noticed on my other dvr’s that they drop frames when they start making a new AVI file. but this unit does not drop a frame. seems to keep the audio and time sync very stable. Plus that recording switch seems to make sure it keeps recording no matter what happens with the buttons.

I have only used it three times for "real work" so there may yet be undesirable surprises. But so far I am impressed and I think it is worth the extra expense. And the size is great. I certainly have not seen anything smaller out there.

On the minus side, the built in camera is not suitable for low light use, but in brighter light the image is on par with the average cell phone cam.

Also of note, these guys were super fast on the shipping and have been very helpful.

I couldn’t have made up anything better. Thanks Mitch!

The only downside is when used with a body worn camera while moving, the H.264 format, which compresses the video, leaves some pixilation. It’s not that bad, and if the camera is kept still, there is none. We posted videos on the page for the mAVR Professional Grade Micro Audio and H.264 Video Digital Recorder.

Later…

Wendell the Chameleon
Spy & Surveillance Products Expert
mAVR Professional Grade Micro Audio and H.264 Video Digital Recorder

There are a lot of vacant buildings and factories, and they can be cleaned out of all copper wire, pipe, and anything else not bolted down quicker than a dog that fell into a river full of piranah!

Heck, brazen tweakers will even steal copper wire from buildings that are occupied!

So setting some type of video recording system to monitor over your facility would be a small investment compared to the cost to re-pipe & wire a large factory.

You probably want to have visible weatherproof cameras, though you can always put up a smoke detector hidden camera or sprinkler head camera as well.

Set up your Digital Video Recorder or NVR in a secure room for your control center, and watch all of the cameras from any Internet accessible computer.

We can put together a 4-32 camera system to watch over most any location as well as provide the crew to do it. If you have any questions, give us a call @ 1-877-3-EYESPY (1-877-339-3779).

Later…

Wendell the Chameleon
Spy & Surveillance Products Expert
EyeSpyPro.com/VideoRecording