Hi all,
I bought a couple Amcrest cameras to find which ones I liked before I did my complete install. And it is a good thing I approached it that way because as far as I can tell, the cameras are fairly useless
The intended design of my system is simple; I plan to have a number of cameras all run back to a central managed switch. From here, the data will be offloaded to NAS devices as needed based on the i/o requirements that I had hoped to gather through my testing. My management machines connected to the secured VLAN are all Linux based.
I have upgraded the firmware on the cameras when I bought them to: version 2.400.0001.15.R (Build 2017-03-28)
I am able to connect, and view the feed with the NACL Extension. However, that's about where the working and useful software stops.
1. First thing I noticed is that the SMTP alerts are completely not functional - even testing on the same subnet as the mail server itself. This is an elementary programming task, why doesn't this work?
2. Second, I setup the storage to try FTP to a NAS device. The FTP test connection works just fine. However, no data is ever sent/recorded from the cameras. I have tried every setting from continuous recording to motion detection and no data seems to be outputted.
3. Third, I setup the storage to try NAS (which I don't know if this means Samba?)... no test button so I can't tell if it thinks it is working, but no data is sent or recorded on the NAS device in the configured folder
On top of this, the embedded live view doesn't work in the web browser... ok, so yes, this is a web browser platform problem, but why would they even put this in? Seriously, this is a big UI problem.
Ok, so I switched over and tried to do some testing from a Synology DS416 that I am using for testing. I installed the Surveillance Station software. I configured the camera... with some success.
4a. Live view from the Surveillance station was unable to display the picture, albeit the setup did pick up a still to use as an icon. This makes it impossible to use the Suveillance Station Detection area, which makes motion detection useless.
4b. An initial test was able to start recording continuously... however, Surveillance Station gave no indication that recording was underway. The software told me the camera was connected, but was unable to see process running status or a timeline of recordings.
4c. I deleted the camera from Surveillance Station in order to redo the work and see what else works/didn't work....
5a. The camera configured, but now gives an "occupied" status. Whatever that means.... The only good thing now is that the camera does pass the "test Connection" button.
At this point... I can't see how messing with the Amcrest cameras and Software is a good use of anyone's time. If you are looking for a system that's usable and even base-line for a professional setup, this doesn't appear to be it. This is literally for my home and it's not even living up to a "home system" category. What gives?! I thought Amcrest was supposed to be a good system?? Are other people having this many issues with the software?
My requirements are minimal; I need to record from my cameras, triggered by motion, and store the files on NAS drives on the network (any standard transfer protocol is fine). I'm seriously disappointed.
Cameras working, Software not.
Re: Cameras working, Software not.
p.s. This is posted in the General Forum, because in Amcrest software fashion.... the technical forum is broken and logs me out as soon as I try to create a thread.