Initially discovering the new cameras:
Like anything else regarding tech, there is usually more than one right way. While quick-start pamphlet did outline several different "discovery" methods, I found it MUCH easier to just attach the new camera to my network, then login to my router/WAP and click on the page that displays all LAN connections to find the IP of the new camera. Then went to my laptop, and pointed my web browser to that IP. From there, it was just a trivial matter of changing the camera’s IP (and making it static in a range outside of my DHCP router pool). Next camera, rinse wash repeat. . . Once I had my cameras settled-in on the LAN, then I went and added them to the Amcrest mobile app via their respective static IPs.
SD Card & no playback content - SOLVED:
Note, I’m initially attempting to go NVR/DVR-less, so I’ve bought 128GB microSD cards for each new camera. Setting up motion detection, schedules, etc… was straight-forward. However, I can’t get any playback content. I spent like an hour scratching my head, fiddling with sensitivities, thresholds, schedules, rebooting, re-formatting the SD card - you name it - ‘nada!
Interestingly, I would see the SD card’s free space going down, so I knew “something” was being recorded !!
Okay, remember I said being a brand-spanking-new owner of IP PoE cameras (with storage)... as the “feature” responsible is indeed well known in the seasoned Amcrest community already -- aka Time/Date synchronization.
Here’s why it took me so long to catch-on to it . . .
Accessing the camera’s web-gui via the browser, the playback console accurately reflects the CURRENT data/time, so...…….. I thought, since this web page is coming from said camera, the camera already has the correct time. WRONG. Likely an activeX plugin mechanism accessing my remote laptop’s local time/date was driving the playback tool’s date filter. So, I went back to the cameras settings, and found the camera’s clock to be decades off (aka epoch). So since the GUI’s playback interface naturally filters content on date/time, the camera’s recorded content and the playback view were on wildly different viewing dates - hence showed nothing to playback. Setting/sync’ing the camera’s local clock resolved the issue (actually setup NTP to my router). Now my cameras & the playback tool are tracking the same time, playback content is now accessible
Now, while this was “bad on me” for not initially setting up the camera clocks, I’d suggest that if Amcrest software developers choose to reference the remote browser’s clock for the Playback console’s time (rather than the camera’s time), that new feature be added so the GUI software be smart enough to compare the two and notify via a popup or warning note on the screen. Had the Playback tool done that, I’d have intuitively noticed my error much much quicker is all I’m saying.
The good-news, is that I’m happy with the Amcrest experience so far, going NVR-less might actually work out for me, and I look forward to becoming the next new “resident expert” in the next few weeks - LOL .
BTW, the SD card of choice for me is the, 128GB Samsung EVO Select U3.