Mac users: How are you dealing with recording and playback?

[junior466]

Just wondering if other Mac users out there could share how they are using their camera's recording and playback features.

Please share your apps, tricks and tips!

[tim oden]

Well, Junior466, I've been eagerly awaiting a reply to your question, too. We Mac users who've blindly leapt onto Amcrest's excellent cameras, hoping for the best, are either momentarily satisfied or certifiably insane. I've seen both ... looking back at me in the mirror and often at the same time. The result is I've spent many more hours researching how to set up this rig than remain in my life to use it.

I'm running four gorgeous IP2M-841's hardwired on my Cat 6 Ethernet LAN with dual WiFi as backup for each, all monitored on my late-2012 27" iMac running 10.11.6. My impression is that Amcrest is doing its best to accommmodate Mac users, but frankly maybe it's just too late. Using Amcrest IP Config I can control most settings—but only after 17,293 hours of reading text written by someone who has never used it, resulting in countless cycles of trial and error. Meanwhile, other settings are present and changeable but utterly irrelevant. Which of the many controls apply to your cameras or configurations? Nobody knows until you set (and SAVE) one. If it ignores you, well, that's how you know you can't have it. What if that setting, let's say manual focus control or a framing preset, is really, really, really important to you? Oh, don't be silly.

The IP Config's multiple subcategories of camera settings are complex, redundant, poorly organized, hard to grasp in a glance or in a lifetime, and hopelessly cloaked in absurd taxonomy. Maybe you know to never set your anti-dither like the relay-out delay relay alarm also in the storage schedule pre-event record control. But for idiots like me, luckily there's a help manual available at "?" on every page to remind me the app's manual writer doesn't know the answer, either.

Most diabolical of all are the ever-moving, totally overlookable, same-colored "SAVE" buttons on exit that you must save-click to save each of the saved dozens of parameters you've saved or it's not saved. It's the ultimate built-in GOTCHA if you forget to click just one SAVE (listen for the muffled chuckles). In short, the Amcrest IP Config app is not a Mac user's ally. It's not on your side. Instead it puts the joy of using these superb cameras on the other side of a marathon obstacle course with tons of traps you must learn to survive.

Perhaps if my LAN was PC-based with 8 bullet cameras and a DVR, this would be perfect for me. But I'm Mac-based and I record (manually or via motion-detect) not onto a DVR but onto 32Gb chips I put in each camera.

I know Amcrest IP Config is just for setup, but nothing else works for me to monitor. Admittedly I may be too fatigued, but I can't make Amcrest Web View, Smart Play or Surveillance Pro work on iMac. So I get no multiple-camera windows on the iMac—which was why I bought the stuff—but I can watch recorded playback. On iOS (iPhone & iPad) I can occasionally get 4-screen views if I'm genuflecting properly, but never any playback or setup settings.

I'll welcome anyone's advice: I'm now tempted either (A) to pack & ship it all back to Amcrest begging for a refund, or (B) to shove the Amcrest Install DVD into my PC running Windows 10—a total mystery to me—and start over. Would a PC be any better?

Don’t get me wrong, though. The cameras are elegant, technological wonders at reasonable prices. So Junior466: Thanks for listening to me whine; speak up if you still want notes of my Amcrest recording and playback functions, tips about coping medications and affordable group therapy. And if you've heard from other Mac Amcrest users, please pass along.

Tim

[Melvin]

Hello tim oden,

Thank you for the feedback. Are you able to login to the web interface of the camera using any browser or you can only use the IPConfig tool? If you type the ip address of the camera on safari and install the p[plugin it gives you a better view of the camera and play back and also all advanced settings. For multiple view though, you will have to use tje Surveillance Pro software. PC would be a better option if you want to monitor all at once. You can also set up recording to the PC using the PC NVR feature. If you do not mind giving us a call in, we will be happy to look into this issues with Mac as well.

[lederermc]

I have a WD My Book Live NAS in my basement. It is 2TB and cost a bit over $100 several years ago. I record mp4 files into it via the ftp option in the cameras. I can mount the WD on my Mac's and I can view "completed" mp4 file with quicktime player or VLC. However, I find it easier to copy the files onto my hard disk before looking at them. Also, for retention it is best to run the file they ffmpeg since the mp4 files amcrest writes are a little bit flakey. ffmpeg can also be used to join mp4s into longer time frame files (like a day's worth).

[tim oden]

Melvin, thanks for your inviting reply.

Answers: I can log into a camera's interface:
1. pretty reliably via IP Config (defaults to Safari with plug-in success)
2. through Safari direct if it loads the plugin (50-75% success rate)
3. through Chrome's App Launcher to Amcrest Web View (100% success BUT...)
4. through Firefox and Opera, never.

For surveillance, sounds like you recommend a wholesale move from Mac to a PC.

I’d love to call in for help. What phone#, day & hour is best? Thanks for your patience with all of us.

Tim

[iHouseServer]

I can relate. I run a house with 6 Macs, including an OS X Server. I love the Amcrest HD-CVI system, but it's not perfect. I've tried a lot of methods, including dumping over $400 into SecuritySpy. Ends up, I didn't need software that extensive since I already have a DVR. Talk about a costly oops. In your case, however, SecuritySpy could manage all the cameras in one centralized program and record locally onto your Mac. Leave the 32GB of storage in each camera and have a dual storage system for redundancy. If your house gets robbed, they'll be taking the Macs... but maybe not the security cameras!

[lederermc]

I've changed my recording set up. I now run a script in crontab that captures my cameras rstp streams subtype=1 with ffmpeg. I use the codec copy option so it doesn't re-encode. The files are viewable with VLC or mpv. I have now set the CAM's storage option to write to the SD card. Motion snap shots are also emailed to a gmail account.

[jessicapatel123]

hello
i'm new user.Mac address is powerful address.it is not change every system have one mac address.


regards
jessica patel

[maxbraketorque]

I have a WD My Book Live NAS in my basement. It is 2TB and cost a bit over $100 several years ago. I record mp4 files into it via the ftp option in the cameras. I can mount the WD on my Mac's and I can view "completed" mp4 file with quicktime player or VLC. However, I find it easier to copy the files onto my hard disk before looking at them. Also, for retention it is best to run the file they ffmpeg since the mp4 files amcrest writes are a little bit flakey. ffmpeg can also be used to join mp4s into longer time frame files (like a day's worth).

I am doing something similar. Rather than an NAS, I have an FTP server setup on my home Mac, and record to my Mac that way. That directory is also shared on a web server also running on my Mac. The web server runs all transmitted data through https, and the camera video directory requires secure login. This way, I can conveniently watch the mp4-based video footage from anywhere in the world provided my remote internet connection has sufficient bandwidth. What I will eventually do is switch over to an NAS stored in a hidden part of my house so that if there is ever a robbery, they won't find the NAS.