DVR NVR Help

Our NVR and Tribrid or Pentabrid DVR recorders allow use of 3rd party IP cameras not purchased from CCTV Camera World. IP cameras and the recorder talk to each other over the network and have to sync URL for video, audio, PTZ controls, and motion events for each of these data types to pass from the camera to the recorder. If the URL for each of these data types does not sync, then that function will not work. The ONVIF standard tried to standardize this but its implementation is manufacturer dependent. It is not necessary an ONVIF camera you purchased elsewhere will work with an ONVIF NVR from us or a different vendor. Among manufacturers that are compatible with our recorders, we find AXIS cameras to have the best implementation of ONVIF and are the easiest to set up as an ONVIF camera with our DVR.
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Knowing how to network your security cameras is crucial to installing and establishing Internet connectivity to your security camera system. Security camera networking on a network with one router is not overly technical nor difficult, so hang in there! This article will help you understand basic computer networking, how it applies to your security camera system, and how you can be in complete control of remote viewing your system without any monthly charges besides what you pay your Internet service provider (ISP).

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Whether you have an IP, HDCVI, or Analog security camera system, CCTV Camera World offers security cameras with a built-in microphone, giving you the ability to stream or record HD quality footage with audio for each camera. Setting up your DVR or NVR to stream/record video with audio requires a few simple steps, explained in the text and video below.

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If you have an older or inexpensive computer monitor or TV, chances are that it may not support all the different resolution outputs available on our security DVRs and NVR. Selecting a resolution unsupported by your monitor may leave you locked out of your video recorder unless you either connect it to a 21.5" or larger computer monitor from a reputable manufacturer like Acer or Asus. Depending on the model of your NVR, you can also adjust the resolution of the Display using your web browser. Continue reading →

Traditionally viewing your security cameras over the web has required the use of ActiveX controls in Internet Explorer (IE). This can be hard to do since many ActiveX controls are unsigned and trigger a lot of error messages in IE. It is also very difficult for the layman to figure out how to enable ActiveX controls correctly to view their security cameras or security video recorder from their web browser. Another reason for having another browser based option to view your camera system is the fact that IE will soon be discontinued by Microsoft. Continue reading →

It is expected that hard drives inside a DVR or NVR recorder may fail. Hard drives having moving parts inside that can fail. There is no knowing how soon a drive may fail, as it all depends on build quality for the production run from the hard drive manufacturer, the temperature your security video recorder is running at, and whether any vibrations may be impacting the drive. Whatever the reason may be, it is a good idea to run a health check on your DVR's hard drive.
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Among the many email alert options available on our Security Video Recorders, one of the most important is Video Loss Alert to keep an eye on cameras going bad or being tampered with. To enable such alerts for IP cameras, you need to enable IP Camera Offline alerts in our NVR Recorders. The simple steps outline below will show you how to enable such email alerts on a NVR recorder purchased from CCTV Camera World. Continue reading →

All of the DVR and NVR video recorders offered by CCTV Camera World have the ability to send motion and alarm alerts. These can include emails alerts with or without a snapshot of the incident. You can send alerts based on motion detection, hard disk failure, or even camera loss. Integration of your email account and configuring email alerts can be challenging for the user unfamiliar with how email servers work. In this guide we demonstrate how to setup you Office 365 email account with our security video recorders using the web service menu. Depending on the model and year of manufacture of your DVR, the menu may not be identical, but this guide should still be easy enough to follow. Continue reading →

Sometimes setting changes on your IP cameras and NVR may not propagate over to SmartPSS easily. Using a computer with SmartPSS, an IP Camera, and a NVR with each device attached to the LAN we made some camera settings changes. We found that changing the name of an IP Camera via its web interface will not propagate the name change to the SmartPSS Device Pool. However, if we force SmartPSS to look in the right spot, those name changes will come through. Take a look at this quick video to see how to change the name of your IP camera in SmartPSS to match the names on the Camera and NVR.
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Connecting IP cameras to an existing network is a tricky task for first timers. You'll have to understand a few principles to really be efficient at setting up your new IP camera system. Continue reading →

Sometimes it makes sense to down-convert the image of your IP security camera to a lesser resolution than it's built to cap out at. The camera will have less work to do when encoding video. The data stream will be a smaller size eating up less bandwidth. The NVR will better be able to handle the encoding as well. You'll be the beneficiary of more available storage time with the same storage device. With higher resolution cameras you'll be able to record at a higher frame rate after lowering the resolution making the video more fluid. Continue reading →

Hikvision IP cameras are growing in popularity in the US market. From the home user to professional full facility installations the number of mounted Hikvision cameras is growing at a pretty quick rate. As with all surveillance manufacturers if you aren't using their NVR you'll be left trying to figure out how to use it with the Onvif driver. Today, we're going to show you how to accomplish that task. Continue reading →

If you've ever gotten the message "Over Decode Ability" on your NVR's monitor and wondered why it's there, then you're not alone. The majority of folks that see this have a system comprised of 4MP security cameras or 4k security cameras. Let's go ahead and define it:

Over Decode Ability - The maximum processor time is being used to convert video to a usable form and deliver it to your monitor. No additional streams can be displayed.

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Finding that you've forgotten the password to login to your DVR or NVR can be frustrating. If you've attempted to log in with the wrong password more than three times you account will be locked for 45 minutes, not allowing you to enter another password. These are security devices. They have a locking feature to prevent unauthorized users from accessing your storage or settings. Continue reading →

If you've been considering purchasing a IP camera system and are wondering how hard it is to configure the system since it is IP based, then you need to watch this video we made. We get a large number of callers every week asking how hard it is to setup a security camera system using PoE cameras versus BNC cameras. Some customers even think they need an IT person to get the system going. Well, thanks to advances in technology and lots of refinement in coding, connecting a PoE IP camera to a PoE NVR is truly a plug and play task. Watch for yourself! Continue reading →

If you have more than one location where you have deployed one of our security DVRs or NVRs then you are probably wondering how you can view each security camera recorder through one interface. For that we have our Smart PSS program available to our customers in both Windows and Mac version. Using this Central Management Software you can perform a variety of functions, including viewing, playback, and download. Continue reading →

So you're having trouble viewing your security camera system remotely, and you've already read our articles on forwarding your ports. Unless you pay your ISP (Internet Service Provider) for a static IP address you will need to set up Dynamic DNS (DDNS) in order to access your home network remotely. This article will explain what DDNS is, how to get free DDNS service, and configure it on your security cameras and security DVR recorders purchased from CCTV Camera World. That's right, you can even create DDNS entries on our IP Cameras. Continue reading →

Accessing the web service on one of our DVR's, NVR's or IP cameras requires that you use a compatible browser. Attempting to log in remotely to one or all of these devices with an incompatible browser will produce unpredictable errors. What is a compatible browser? A compatible browser is one that can use ActiveX controls. Therefore, you must use one of the following two browsers:

• Internet Explorer 11
• Mozilla Firefox

Given that ActiveX is a proprietary Microsoft technology it is best to use IE 11, but if you are unable to use it due to whatever reasons, Firefox is good as a backup. Here we'll go over the necessary steps to get the ActiveX controls working for the Web Service on your surveillance cameras.

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NAS storage devices are prevalent and relatively inexpensive these days. They can not only be used to store your personal or business documents, pictures, and videos, but they can also be used as a redundant backup point for your security camera system. The video below shows you how to configure settings for your NAS on our digital video recorders (both NVR or DVR) so you can commit live video backups via FTP. Continue reading →

Cloud storage has become increasing popular the last few years for storage solution needs that arise in companies. It has also become very popular as a solution for off-site storage and backup of footage from IP cameras and IP camera systems that need lots of storage space, as recording in HD resolution is very memory intensive. HD video uploads require a high bandwidth and immense amounts of hard drive space. As security camera video quality keeps getting better with the advent of higher resolution CMOS image sensors, this only adds to the need for more storage space . Continue reading →