Security Cameras General Discussion

[selym]

Hello,

First of all, I was bummed I had to sign up to ask a pre-sales question. Did I miss a contact form somewhere?

Anyway, I am really interested in buying one outdoor 750e to start, but I have some questions I would prefer answered by a real person instead of trusting I understand the documentation I may find. Hope someone doesn't mind helping. 

-Is there an ethernet port on this unit, or do I have to depend on either wireless or ethernet over power?

-If I purchased just this one unit, do I need any monthly subscription if I want to be able to view the camera live over the internet? (I can set the networking up myself, but I'm wondering if the software is included for me to do so)

-If I purchased just this one unit, do I need any monthly subscription if I want to set a path for it to record on a local nas unit?

-If the computer is off and it records to the on board storage, when the computer is turned back on, does the footage begin recording to the computer again automatically? (How about the footage on the camera...am I able to copy that footage down to my computer, or would I physically have to pull the min sd card?)

Basically, I just need to know if I can wire this thing up to my router, set it up to view it live over the internet if I want, and and set my own recording configurations without having to pay a monthly fee. 

Thanks,

Selym

[UselessS]

The cameras are basically PoE IP cameras...the HomePlug stuff is in the packages they sell, but you can bypass the HomePlug stuff if you can run ethernet cables from the cameras to a PoE switch ( many of us here are PoE ).  The master kits are the same as the add-on kits...the master kit just includes the HomePlug network adapter for the router side...so if going PoE, just get add-on kits.

Logitech provides free web/mobile access, but it is limited to viewing live video stream and will time-out in a couple of minutes.  The yearly $80 subscription adds ability to view recordings on the camera microSD, remote configuration options, and the time-out extended to 10 minutes I believe ( time-out means you'd have to click something to keep it going ).  Web/mobile access goes through Logitech servers which then connect to your cameras ( one at a time )...so doesn't matter if PC is running.

Motion triggered recordings are always done on the microSD...when the Alert Commander app on the PC is started, it will copy clips from the microSD to your disk that it does not already have.  The clips remain on the microSD until it is full...then older clips get overwritten...so the bigger the microSD/SDHC ( up to 32gb ), the longer before this happens.

If you have a NAS, you can use that as the storage location...via a mapped drive on the PC ( that's what I do )...but the Alert Commander app on the PC is the mechanism that pulls the clips from the cameras ( cameras don't "push" clips...PC "pulls" them ).  This is all part of the basic functionality...the subscription stuff is purely a web/mobile thing.

...hope this helps.

[selym]

That was extremely helpful. Thank you very much. 

I don't really need to be able to view live streaming video, although I do like the novelty of being able to do so for a few minutes.

I think as long as I leave the computer always on, I could always access clips remotely via my own setup through the nas.

Thanks again for clearing this all up. 

[ByteLess]

how are you planing to pull from your NAS?

Yes you can always copy stuff from NAS, but it will not stream ofcourse.

Do you have anything in place to stream those recordings from your NAS to mobile device?

[UselessS]

Not sure who you directed the question to, but my NAS is just a mapped drive on the PC...so Alert Commander copies the clips to the NAS when it is on.  Besides not consuming local disk space, it is also accessible from other PCs in the local network ( clips viewed with VLC or whatever ).  The other PCs can view the live stream via RTSP in VLC as well.

As for a mobile device, I suppose that would depend on the device and it's capabilities...a pretty broad category these days <g>

[ByteLess]

If I understand that correctly NAS is a network Strorage.

It doesn't have any kind of capability to stream to any device.

If you have DLNA setup at home you can always pull your recordings withtin the same network but again that will be copy from NAS to the device storage and hten play from there, but how to do that if you are outside the network (with static ip ofcourse) 

In order to stream those videos to a any device you need some kind of stream server isn't it?,

Otherwise you have to copy the whole file from NAS to the device and then play from local cahce/drive. 

[UselessS]

Well, my NAS also supports DLNA...so you can play clips directly from it there too ( such as via Logitech Revue ).  I've never had the need to try to make it available outside of my network...though I suspect that is doable too if one really wanted to do that.  For a PC or other device that sees the NAS as simply a storage device/drive on the network, playing clips that you navigate to is pretty straightforward.  We may be talking apples/oranges here, so sorry if I didn't understand your context/intent.