So after purchasing a few cameras, and having some of my own, I was surprised to find that the standard software recommended to use on pc "Amcrest Surveillance Pro for Windows" does not have all the feature sets like the phone app "Amcrest Surveillance Pro" for control and operations of Amcrest cameras. For a project in one of my properties, I have 4 IP4M-S2112EW-AI cameras, with come with deterrent lights, a siren, and other features. On the app, all functions can be controlled and activated and configured, but not on the desktop version, such as the siren and deterrent lights. I find it a bit odd that for such a diverse feature set of cameras, many configurations and options are spread across different pieces of software and apps. I think it would be incredibly beneficial to have the windows software provided by Amcrest to have the ability to control and manage all of the features possible on a camera like the phone app, and if its not supported, simply be a null entry. Technically, there is the camera GUI, however, having one computer or centralized place to view and control it outside of an NVR would be huge.
Side Notes and context: I am new here, so forgive me for any informalities or errors. Yes, I am aware that this is probably very difficult with various generations of product that all need to be compatible to some extent, but I do feel like other than the amazing camera quality and feature set of these cameras for the price, it would be these small annoyances in software that would make it easier to use. Also, if anyone is aware of a way that all camera control can be done via a software program I am all ears, but from my understanding and with talking to support it is currently not possible.
Centralized Featureset for software
Re: Centralized Featureset for software
Hello and Welcome to the Forum,
Yes ASP is an older software that Amcrest was nice enough to supply for free to the owners of the Amcrest devices. I say this because having many different brands of cameras I can tell you there are only a few that have offered Desktop Camera Management software. There are some that are starting to offer it after many years of being told the truth about what the brand the camera was and to get IVMS4200 blah blah but yeah a few of them just started to carry their own branded software. Even though that company is about 3 to 5 years older then Amcrest. IVMS is for Hikvision and will kind of work in OEMs for them as well. In IP mode.. Anyway.. Amcrest now has Orion that has the AI features and offers more for the current line of Amcrest cameras.. However there is a lot involved in that software and while someone has reported issues trying to uninstall it, I have had it on 2 different computers and I have uninstalled it on both computers without any of the issues they mention. My guess is they didn't stop the Server before trying to uninstall it.. I have even installed the software on this current computer and runs without issues. Not everyone has the same spec computers so I can't say that all will have same results.. Had it on a i5 9500 with 1650GTX and 16gb ram.. It ran fine I was just testing it out on that computer to see how it works on that.. Current computer that it is running on right now is a I7-10700 16gb Ram, Super 2070 GPU. They both worked well with Orion. My only issue is that the Software isn't very easy to install and work like it is with the Amcrest Surveillance Pro was. I will admit when I first installed that I couldn't get PC-NVR to work lol. Outside of that it was easy.. Orion, Has a Server, then Client software and to add devices is like trying to put a Puzzle together. After the first couple adding it will be easy until you have no more devices to add, Once you go back to add a new one again have to figure it out again..
One thing that I have issues with Orion is if I have added a NVR, Then install a new camera on the NVR after already having the NVR added, The camera don't seem to come into the software, I have to remove the NVR and add it back.. Might be just me but that is an issue I personally have with it.. ASP kind of had same type of issue for me, Seeing I have many devices and they get moved around at times, on ASP if NVR was added and then move camera to different channel it will still show up on the ASP as channel it was added to. I can get the ASP to update to current setup without removing the NVR so that is good but I don't feel I should have it, When adding or removing it should just update as it loads each time..
Yes ASP is an older software that Amcrest was nice enough to supply for free to the owners of the Amcrest devices. I say this because having many different brands of cameras I can tell you there are only a few that have offered Desktop Camera Management software. There are some that are starting to offer it after many years of being told the truth about what the brand the camera was and to get IVMS4200 blah blah but yeah a few of them just started to carry their own branded software. Even though that company is about 3 to 5 years older then Amcrest. IVMS is for Hikvision and will kind of work in OEMs for them as well. In IP mode.. Anyway.. Amcrest now has Orion that has the AI features and offers more for the current line of Amcrest cameras.. However there is a lot involved in that software and while someone has reported issues trying to uninstall it, I have had it on 2 different computers and I have uninstalled it on both computers without any of the issues they mention. My guess is they didn't stop the Server before trying to uninstall it.. I have even installed the software on this current computer and runs without issues. Not everyone has the same spec computers so I can't say that all will have same results.. Had it on a i5 9500 with 1650GTX and 16gb ram.. It ran fine I was just testing it out on that computer to see how it works on that.. Current computer that it is running on right now is a I7-10700 16gb Ram, Super 2070 GPU. They both worked well with Orion. My only issue is that the Software isn't very easy to install and work like it is with the Amcrest Surveillance Pro was. I will admit when I first installed that I couldn't get PC-NVR to work lol. Outside of that it was easy.. Orion, Has a Server, then Client software and to add devices is like trying to put a Puzzle together. After the first couple adding it will be easy until you have no more devices to add, Once you go back to add a new one again have to figure it out again..
One thing that I have issues with Orion is if I have added a NVR, Then install a new camera on the NVR after already having the NVR added, The camera don't seem to come into the software, I have to remove the NVR and add it back.. Might be just me but that is an issue I personally have with it.. ASP kind of had same type of issue for me, Seeing I have many devices and they get moved around at times, on ASP if NVR was added and then move camera to different channel it will still show up on the ASP as channel it was added to. I can get the ASP to update to current setup without removing the NVR so that is good but I don't feel I should have it, When adding or removing it should just update as it loads each time..
Be Safe.