I recently bought a factory refurbed DV8M8-H5 to essentially upgrade and extend the life of my analog system which is directly integrated with my Blue Iris server / IP system. It was one of the only units I could find that still spec'd 2MP HD1080p @30fps across all eight inputs simultaneously and also offered both H264 and H265 encoding among other desirable features and capabilities. And it was only 100 bucks direct from Amcrest.
While I wasn't looking for a Pentabrid unit in particular, I have found the additional IP capability very useful to the degree that I can sort of figure out its actual performance hit on the rest of the system relative to different channel loading schemes. I generally understand the limitations and how they may affect the IP segment of the unit, but don't know the impact on everything else or have a specific means to determine much there either.
It's currently running six 2MP 1080p analog cams smoothly at 30fps (with intentionally high bit rate settings for testing) and various IP cams and settings in all four IP slots with mixed results -- with highest resolution being 5MP scaled back slightly in frame and bit rate 'to fit' the spec. It all works, but seems like it is really close to just falling over which it has done a couple of times already with what I thought was much less demand on the system than currently. One of the IP cams is a 2MP 1080p Wyze Cam v3 that is being reported as a QQVGA device in the configuration and simply will not retain the correct information no matter what I've tried. I'm guessing a firmware compatibility issue there, but it's set up as 'custom' with its default RTSP Main Stream MRL in the DV8 as is required for it to even register at all. No sub stream. Save correct settings and click away, click back, and it's at 160x120 which obviously looks like crap and is unacceptable. Have tried with it being the only IP camera with the same results. If I could fix that, I'd be much happier about the unit.
My contact with Amcrest Support on the issue has been frustrating to useless to say the least. I was simply told to use the commonly available data sheet to calculate everything according to the published numbers. I explained that's what I used as the sales brochure to buy the unit in the first place and was seeking more detailed information regarding the unit's max in/out bandwidth capability and actual throughput specs, etc..., basically several additional specifications of interest that were NOT included in the data sheet. This was three days ago with no response and prompted another request today for any type of productive correspondence from them. Not holding my breath. We'll see...
That brings me here to what appears to be real dialogue among real live humans! Yay! LOL
So do any among you have access to more detailed information about the unit? I've seen reference to it and the 16 channel version which I would presume uses a different processor (though the resource allocation is still probably laid out the same). Is there a detailed firmware features resource out there somewhere that would apply? It looks like the same GUI common to quite a few vendors and seems like something should be available if one knew where to look. Hell, I just discovered by accident that I can control the OSD of a cheapie ZOSI 4-in-1 camera directly from the unit instead of climbing a ladder with a laptop to do it with the inline joystick on the cable! Now THAT would be useful information to have available in a user manual instead of the warnings of third party cameras not being advisable due to lack of feature functionality.
There are two weeks left until my return deadline and I'm currently on the fence. I really like the unit overall, but it does exhibit some odd behavior that may or may not be related to its processing capabilities/limitations. Having that information available would certainly help determine if that's what I'm experiencing or it's something else altogether. And it IS a refurbed unit to begin with, so that's also in the mix.
Aside from seeking additional technical information, I'm also interested in anyone else's opinions or experience with the unit. The closest thing I've found that is currently produced with similar functionality is a Dahua unit (which Amcrest essentially is, of course) for over three times the cost of the DV8. (I love my analog, but not that much!)
Thanks to anyone who took the time to read this whole post and TIA for any enlightenment or assistance anyone may be willing and able to share.
Pogo
AMDV8M8-H5 Throughput Spec and Detailed Operator's Manual / Firmware Reference Resource
Re: AMDV8M8-H5 Throughput Spec and Detailed Operator's Manual / Firmware Reference Resource
Hello and Welcome to the forum..
About the Amcrest unit, I have a 16ch version and I have 7108-AI Dvr both of them are 8mp DVR's
So my guess is that you might be asking about a NEWER FW, Keep in mind that if you happen to change no matter what anyone says it is a 1 way street. You won't be able to go back to Amcrest FW.. What might be able to be done on a NVR will not be able to be done on the DVR's so keep that in mind.
Next, I hate to say your asking a DVR that has IP to do things that even the Amcrest NVR's are not to happy about. I used to use the Wyze over RSTP on my NVR's and then there was an update in the camera from Wyze and since then it didn't work as well as it once did. Not that it really ever worked well. When it comes to the DVR's personally I would keep the Dahua and or Amcrest cameras as they are limited to IP channels anyway.. However Amcrest cameras work great with my 7108-AI and AMDV8M16-H5 DVR's. However I don't use the 7108-AI DVR with IP cameras anymore but did test that it could just doing so removes the AI ability so why would you pay almost 300 for a DVR and lose the mean function for the price?
So I don't know what mode your Zosi works in. I know that I have TVI cameras that I can access my ON Screen Menu using OVER The Coax. However I have older PTZ cameras that I have to use RS-485 of the DVR's to access the OSD. I do have a couple that have Over Coax ability however it isn't supported by Amcrest so I have to use RS-485 for them as well. However all my TVI cameras I can access over Coax for OSD and all presets that were built into the cameras like one of my 2mp with Alarm and lights I can set off the camera using a Preset where using the cameras makers DVR the camera can work off Alarm menus but it is only for the maker so I am glad that I found the preset because the maker says there isn't one (Trying to protect their camera being used by other brand DVR's) I found the Preset as it is high at 119 and most Amcrest devices are normally max to 80 so good that the Amcrest Over the Coax can work to 255 with the right settings used in the 8m16-H5 and my 7108..
So if your Zosi using RS-485 then you can use that or if you know what Over the Coax setting it uses if it does? Then yeah being able to setup and use that for changing the settings is great. Some of mine are zoom cameras and I can use Presets and over the coax to access them so it is good that they work even though at one point I was told by long ago support staff they don't work with my cameras. I was happy to find out that wasn't the case. Normally say that incase it don't I was warned to start with lol..
Outside of that your DVR is able to run 80mbs streams so I wouldn't max out the camera settings as you will run out of Encoding. What I love about my DVR's is that i can setup my Snapshots at a size I want rather then be stuck at VGA (640x480) like I am on my NVR's. Also setting up h.265 for all channels is great as well. Just not so much if only able to use Chrome as the playback mode or for Live View so I use ASP on Windows 10 the NEWER Version is better then the older one for me anyway...
About Dahua Units. THere are so many different ones out there and it is hard to know what one is really close to the one you have. I mean there are some older Dahua out there that would work with just 2mp but having some other IP cameras that you want to use it is hard to say what one is really going to work for your needs.
None of them will work 100% to anyone's needs if they are different branded cameras then your DVR's or NVR's brand and even then when something goes wrong with your connection or something outside of the normal built todays cameras for the brand of recorder your using the answer is almost always the camera is told old for the system.. With that said I have many machines, Some Hikvision OEM, Some Dahua, Some Amcrest and to be Honest Amcrest while not 100% happy about everything. I have had the best Support by Amcrest then I have from any of the other support or my devices.
About the Amcrest unit, I have a 16ch version and I have 7108-AI Dvr both of them are 8mp DVR's
So my guess is that you might be asking about a NEWER FW, Keep in mind that if you happen to change no matter what anyone says it is a 1 way street. You won't be able to go back to Amcrest FW.. What might be able to be done on a NVR will not be able to be done on the DVR's so keep that in mind.
Next, I hate to say your asking a DVR that has IP to do things that even the Amcrest NVR's are not to happy about. I used to use the Wyze over RSTP on my NVR's and then there was an update in the camera from Wyze and since then it didn't work as well as it once did. Not that it really ever worked well. When it comes to the DVR's personally I would keep the Dahua and or Amcrest cameras as they are limited to IP channels anyway.. However Amcrest cameras work great with my 7108-AI and AMDV8M16-H5 DVR's. However I don't use the 7108-AI DVR with IP cameras anymore but did test that it could just doing so removes the AI ability so why would you pay almost 300 for a DVR and lose the mean function for the price?
So I don't know what mode your Zosi works in. I know that I have TVI cameras that I can access my ON Screen Menu using OVER The Coax. However I have older PTZ cameras that I have to use RS-485 of the DVR's to access the OSD. I do have a couple that have Over Coax ability however it isn't supported by Amcrest so I have to use RS-485 for them as well. However all my TVI cameras I can access over Coax for OSD and all presets that were built into the cameras like one of my 2mp with Alarm and lights I can set off the camera using a Preset where using the cameras makers DVR the camera can work off Alarm menus but it is only for the maker so I am glad that I found the preset because the maker says there isn't one (Trying to protect their camera being used by other brand DVR's) I found the Preset as it is high at 119 and most Amcrest devices are normally max to 80 so good that the Amcrest Over the Coax can work to 255 with the right settings used in the 8m16-H5 and my 7108..
So if your Zosi using RS-485 then you can use that or if you know what Over the Coax setting it uses if it does? Then yeah being able to setup and use that for changing the settings is great. Some of mine are zoom cameras and I can use Presets and over the coax to access them so it is good that they work even though at one point I was told by long ago support staff they don't work with my cameras. I was happy to find out that wasn't the case. Normally say that incase it don't I was warned to start with lol..
Outside of that your DVR is able to run 80mbs streams so I wouldn't max out the camera settings as you will run out of Encoding. What I love about my DVR's is that i can setup my Snapshots at a size I want rather then be stuck at VGA (640x480) like I am on my NVR's. Also setting up h.265 for all channels is great as well. Just not so much if only able to use Chrome as the playback mode or for Live View so I use ASP on Windows 10 the NEWER Version is better then the older one for me anyway...
About Dahua Units. THere are so many different ones out there and it is hard to know what one is really close to the one you have. I mean there are some older Dahua out there that would work with just 2mp but having some other IP cameras that you want to use it is hard to say what one is really going to work for your needs.
None of them will work 100% to anyone's needs if they are different branded cameras then your DVR's or NVR's brand and even then when something goes wrong with your connection or something outside of the normal built todays cameras for the brand of recorder your using the answer is almost always the camera is told old for the system.. With that said I have many machines, Some Hikvision OEM, Some Dahua, Some Amcrest and to be Honest Amcrest while not 100% happy about everything. I have had the best Support by Amcrest then I have from any of the other support or my devices.
Be Safe.
Re: AMDV8M8-H5 Throughput Spec and Detailed Operator's Manual / Firmware Reference Resource
Also something that not all machines can do that the Amcrest can. In the picture below you can see from my ASP I have just removed all my channels on my DVR and pulled in my 16th channel from my 4216E-AI NVR that happens to be a Amcrest 853EW PTZ camera.. Some machines can only pick up IP from 1 channel of a recorder or IP camears.. I don't know how many IP yours unlocks but not only can the 16ch unlock to 24 ch AKA 8IP channels, You can also turn off other normal channels to make them a total IP only recorder. So I have other cameras normally on my DVR but turned them all off for this to show an IP channel even on ch5 if you look at the picture you will see it says in Ch5 and is from ch16 of my NVR.. This makes it so I can even access the PTZ controls of the camera. SO there are many reasons I like the Amcrest DVR's that I own over the others that I have. I mean I do have some 5mp DVR's that only give 2 ip channels but again they are AI and doing so you no longer have Ai function so why would you..
Wyze cameras are great for what they are. But are not great for connecting to any 3rd party recorder if they were they would have turned on ONVIF and not just RSTP and that is one of the reasons it don't work well with Amcrest.. Or even my other branded recorders that I have tried them on. I no longer buy Wyze anymore. Amcrest offers better for the money..
Wyze cameras are great for what they are. But are not great for connecting to any 3rd party recorder if they were they would have turned on ONVIF and not just RSTP and that is one of the reasons it don't work well with Amcrest.. Or even my other branded recorders that I have tried them on. I no longer buy Wyze anymore. Amcrest offers better for the money..
- Screenshot (4067).png (90.4 KiB) Viewed 2786 times
Be Safe.
Re: AMDV8M8-H5 Throughput Spec and Detailed Operator's Manual / Firmware Reference Resource
Thank you so much for your response. I'm very grateful for your consideration. I intend to reply in greater detail when time permits.
On another positive note, my prodding of Amcrest support actually resulted in a response from them today as well. While not nearly as informative as yours, it is encouraging nonetheless and seems to have been escalated to the next tier for additional consideration.
Regards,
Pogo
On another positive note, my prodding of Amcrest support actually resulted in a response from them today as well. While not nearly as informative as yours, it is encouraging nonetheless and seems to have been escalated to the next tier for additional consideration.
Regards,
Pogo
Re: AMDV8M8-H5 Throughput Spec and Detailed Operator's Manual / Firmware Reference Resource
So to follow up more thoroughly, I'll begin by again expressing thanks for such a comprehensive response to my rather rambling request for information about the DV8 DVR.
I must say that I'm generally happy with the unit for my purposes. As mentioned, the original intent was to rejuvenate my analog system with a more capable DVR than my original Swann DVR1590-720HD system since the cabling was already in place and still in good condition. And I happen to prefer analog over IP for certain applications, not to mention stability. (My Swann system ran for 8 years straight without one single problem until the day I shut it down and sold it.)
As for the brand interoperability issue, and after trying several other DVRs before the Amcrest, the tri/quad/pentabrid DVRs all seem to have decent compatibility with any of the 4-in-1 cameras. The Zosi, Annke, and other cheapie DVRs claiming to be 5K ~ 8K "Lite" capable are all cheap because of their method of achieving such claims while having very little bandwidth or processing power to do so. In the cases of the ones I tried, none delivered the specifications published, many of which were conditional and seemed more like disclaimers than spec sheets. Trying to achieve the claims of those units with even minimal loads was extremely frustrating to the point of futility and finally realizing they were not the solutions I required.
Realizing my budget would need to be increased for anything much better led me to the Amcrest on a tip from a member over at ipcamtalk who has one. I stumbled upon the factory refurb AMDV8M8-H5 and decided to trust the published specs and go for it. I was reluctant based upon my recent experiences with the others making less than accurate performance claims with their specs. Call me gun shy.
After spending considerable time with the Amcrest but with only a limited number of analog cameras to work with, attempts to replicate a full load on the unit for testing were impossible without trying to do it by using the IP section at a higher than recommended bandwidth/resolution level to mimic eight analog 1080p and four 8k IP channels (or thereabouts). This was basically to try confirming the published specs in order to commit to the unit and order the remaining compliment of analog cameras and a hard drive and call it done. Everything kept coming up short. Close, but short. And not unexpectedly considering my methodology, but I was hoping for more conclusive results nonetheless. While Amcrest support was a disaster, your response here has more than made up for it and provided much of the overview I was looking for.
I initially tried a ZOSI 5K "Lite" DVR and couple of their $15 ZOSI 1080HD 4-in-1 cameras to play around with. The DVR fell considerably short for my needs and was returned but the cameras were a bit of a surprise and I kept them. Fast forward to the DV8 and a couple more of the ZOSI cheapies and an Amcrest 1080BC36 for comparison and I'm getting a pretty good idea of where I can probably go with this. I like the Amcrest camera a lot and intend to buy at least one more while also considering higher resolution models as well. The ZOSI OSDs are accessible from the DVR which is a game changer for my opinion of them. Very cool little units for the money if one's expectations of them are modest.
As for the IP side of things, I'm currently running two Swann (Hik) 5MP HD-850s set at 4MP/15fps/4096bps with H264 encoding and two WyzeCam v3s at their default 2MP/1080p/20fps/1024bps with H264 encoding. That's right at the edge of what I understand to be the edge of the bandwidth capability of the IP section, though what that actually is and how it's derived is still an unanswered question at the next level support tier at Amcrest. Regardless, it's been loaded down pretty heavily for a few days with no display aberrations (aside from the Wyze issue) or other obvious performance issues -- though it is still without a HDD so I'm completely in the dark about what impact that will have on the bigger picture.
The v3s are using the Wyze RTSP firmware and the wz_mini_hacks bootloader on the SD card to make it an entirely different camera complete with POE wired connectivity via the micro USB port and a UCTRONICS USB Ethernet adapter. In that configuration they'll give the 1080BC36 a run for the money all day long -- but actually cost around $20 more to set up with the adapter. LOL While the Amcrest is indeed a nicer, more professional style camera with all the fine tuning features, it's still hard to beat the v3 night vision performance with cameras costing three times as much. But I'd still opt for the Amcrest on pure quality and value per dollar.
My problem with the WyzeCams is the DVR insists on changing their resolution to QQVGA no matter what I do. That's below the lowest bandwidth setting for remote viewing of the camera itself! I can delete the Swanns and only have one WyzeCam on the IR section and it still reverts to that resolution. They work perfectly with Blue Iris, VLC, and TinyCam. Any additional suggestions here would be tremendously appreciated. I have a couple of ideas but am open to anything that may help sort this out. BTW, ONVIF doesn't seem to be a requirement for successful registration of an IP camera if the correct RTSP MRL is used. I'm curious why searching in IPC mode doesn't return results unless the targets are expected to be Amcrest cameras. And searching by ONVIF also seems to have limitations, perhaps due to version/revision of the standard in the current firmware?
You may wonder why I would use the DVR for cameras I already have provisioned in Blue Iris. There are two main reasons. The first is redundancy and additional flexibility in recording along with multiple trigger availabilities for the same camera between the two systems. The second and possibly more important reason is to use the Amcrest View Pro app for fast remote access to the more important Blue Iris cameras. That app is absolutely killer.
Simple. Reliable. Secure. FAST! I love it.
I wondered about designating 'normal' channels as IP channels and was told it is actually possible to designate all 12 as IP channels on this unit if desired and as you mentioned. I would by a NVR for that many more IP channels first, but it would be convenient to duplicate five or possibly six Blue Iris channels on the DVR for my particular purposes if possible. I sort of understand what's involved, but not completely how it would be done.
And speaking of firmware a couple paragraphs back, it appears that the unit has the latest (and probably final) firmware to be issued for its generation of hardware. I intend to remain with it until there's a good reason not to and will jump off that bridge when the time comes!
Apologies for being so long-winded and somewhat repetitive of my initial post.
Thanks again for your input. You've been extremely helpful and your time is very much appreciated.
I must say that I'm generally happy with the unit for my purposes. As mentioned, the original intent was to rejuvenate my analog system with a more capable DVR than my original Swann DVR1590-720HD system since the cabling was already in place and still in good condition. And I happen to prefer analog over IP for certain applications, not to mention stability. (My Swann system ran for 8 years straight without one single problem until the day I shut it down and sold it.)
As for the brand interoperability issue, and after trying several other DVRs before the Amcrest, the tri/quad/pentabrid DVRs all seem to have decent compatibility with any of the 4-in-1 cameras. The Zosi, Annke, and other cheapie DVRs claiming to be 5K ~ 8K "Lite" capable are all cheap because of their method of achieving such claims while having very little bandwidth or processing power to do so. In the cases of the ones I tried, none delivered the specifications published, many of which were conditional and seemed more like disclaimers than spec sheets. Trying to achieve the claims of those units with even minimal loads was extremely frustrating to the point of futility and finally realizing they were not the solutions I required.
Realizing my budget would need to be increased for anything much better led me to the Amcrest on a tip from a member over at ipcamtalk who has one. I stumbled upon the factory refurb AMDV8M8-H5 and decided to trust the published specs and go for it. I was reluctant based upon my recent experiences with the others making less than accurate performance claims with their specs. Call me gun shy.
After spending considerable time with the Amcrest but with only a limited number of analog cameras to work with, attempts to replicate a full load on the unit for testing were impossible without trying to do it by using the IP section at a higher than recommended bandwidth/resolution level to mimic eight analog 1080p and four 8k IP channels (or thereabouts). This was basically to try confirming the published specs in order to commit to the unit and order the remaining compliment of analog cameras and a hard drive and call it done. Everything kept coming up short. Close, but short. And not unexpectedly considering my methodology, but I was hoping for more conclusive results nonetheless. While Amcrest support was a disaster, your response here has more than made up for it and provided much of the overview I was looking for.
I initially tried a ZOSI 5K "Lite" DVR and couple of their $15 ZOSI 1080HD 4-in-1 cameras to play around with. The DVR fell considerably short for my needs and was returned but the cameras were a bit of a surprise and I kept them. Fast forward to the DV8 and a couple more of the ZOSI cheapies and an Amcrest 1080BC36 for comparison and I'm getting a pretty good idea of where I can probably go with this. I like the Amcrest camera a lot and intend to buy at least one more while also considering higher resolution models as well. The ZOSI OSDs are accessible from the DVR which is a game changer for my opinion of them. Very cool little units for the money if one's expectations of them are modest.
As for the IP side of things, I'm currently running two Swann (Hik) 5MP HD-850s set at 4MP/15fps/4096bps with H264 encoding and two WyzeCam v3s at their default 2MP/1080p/20fps/1024bps with H264 encoding. That's right at the edge of what I understand to be the edge of the bandwidth capability of the IP section, though what that actually is and how it's derived is still an unanswered question at the next level support tier at Amcrest. Regardless, it's been loaded down pretty heavily for a few days with no display aberrations (aside from the Wyze issue) or other obvious performance issues -- though it is still without a HDD so I'm completely in the dark about what impact that will have on the bigger picture.
The v3s are using the Wyze RTSP firmware and the wz_mini_hacks bootloader on the SD card to make it an entirely different camera complete with POE wired connectivity via the micro USB port and a UCTRONICS USB Ethernet adapter. In that configuration they'll give the 1080BC36 a run for the money all day long -- but actually cost around $20 more to set up with the adapter. LOL While the Amcrest is indeed a nicer, more professional style camera with all the fine tuning features, it's still hard to beat the v3 night vision performance with cameras costing three times as much. But I'd still opt for the Amcrest on pure quality and value per dollar.
My problem with the WyzeCams is the DVR insists on changing their resolution to QQVGA no matter what I do. That's below the lowest bandwidth setting for remote viewing of the camera itself! I can delete the Swanns and only have one WyzeCam on the IR section and it still reverts to that resolution. They work perfectly with Blue Iris, VLC, and TinyCam. Any additional suggestions here would be tremendously appreciated. I have a couple of ideas but am open to anything that may help sort this out. BTW, ONVIF doesn't seem to be a requirement for successful registration of an IP camera if the correct RTSP MRL is used. I'm curious why searching in IPC mode doesn't return results unless the targets are expected to be Amcrest cameras. And searching by ONVIF also seems to have limitations, perhaps due to version/revision of the standard in the current firmware?
You may wonder why I would use the DVR for cameras I already have provisioned in Blue Iris. There are two main reasons. The first is redundancy and additional flexibility in recording along with multiple trigger availabilities for the same camera between the two systems. The second and possibly more important reason is to use the Amcrest View Pro app for fast remote access to the more important Blue Iris cameras. That app is absolutely killer.
Simple. Reliable. Secure. FAST! I love it.
I wondered about designating 'normal' channels as IP channels and was told it is actually possible to designate all 12 as IP channels on this unit if desired and as you mentioned. I would by a NVR for that many more IP channels first, but it would be convenient to duplicate five or possibly six Blue Iris channels on the DVR for my particular purposes if possible. I sort of understand what's involved, but not completely how it would be done.
And speaking of firmware a couple paragraphs back, it appears that the unit has the latest (and probably final) firmware to be issued for its generation of hardware. I intend to remain with it until there's a good reason not to and will jump off that bridge when the time comes!
Apologies for being so long-winded and somewhat repetitive of my initial post.
Thanks again for your input. You've been extremely helpful and your time is very much appreciated.
Re: AMDV8M8-H5 Throughput Spec and Detailed Operator's Manual / Firmware Reference Resource
So on my 8m16-H5 and other DVR's that I have from Amcrest and or Dahua with IP camera channels anyway lol. To change on my system and I am going to guess it is going to be the same for yours as well. Looking at the GUI, Main Menu, Camera, Camera Type, when you enable 17-24 and I am going to guess maybe they offered 8ch 4 IP channels I am not sure I didn't' look up the model. So that would be as you said 12 channels. Anyway on mine, I disable CH16 and I can make it IP, Once I do that all other channels 15-1 will give the Check box to open the Channel type to IP when you do this the channel BNC in the back will no longer function for any mode. So if I only enable the 17-24 it will not open then options until I disable the 16th channel and enable it as an IP.. Then in that Camera type area it will let you change any of the Analogs your not using and make them IP channels.
So lets say you wanted to make your system 4 ch 5mp or other, I say 5mp because that is ones I have the most of on my Analog DVR channels. Then you could make the other 7ch into ip channels.. So for mine, I normally don't turn on the IP channels because I have NVR's. I did move my 853 onto my 4116E-HS 8th port and so I turned on my DVR's Ip channels from 17-24 and added the 853EW camera into my cameras 24th channel. From the GUI you can click the + button in the grid view and add your IP cameras starting at the last channel. If you do it from the Camera area in the DVR it will load it the next open IP channel.
Edit: Some of my older DVR's only have 2 channel IP if I give up 2ch BNC. Then I have some Hikvision DVR's that have 8ch DVR with 2 IP and a 16ch DVR with 2 IP without giving up. The 8ch is newer and I can do the Disable BNC on that one too for a total of 10IP channels if I wanted.
They are good for a Transition recorder if someone was looking to change the BNC over to IP they could use the DVR and one at a time change over to IP and by the time they have all the channels they wanted in IP buy a NVR
So lets say you wanted to make your system 4 ch 5mp or other, I say 5mp because that is ones I have the most of on my Analog DVR channels. Then you could make the other 7ch into ip channels.. So for mine, I normally don't turn on the IP channels because I have NVR's. I did move my 853 onto my 4116E-HS 8th port and so I turned on my DVR's Ip channels from 17-24 and added the 853EW camera into my cameras 24th channel. From the GUI you can click the + button in the grid view and add your IP cameras starting at the last channel. If you do it from the Camera area in the DVR it will load it the next open IP channel.
Edit: Some of my older DVR's only have 2 channel IP if I give up 2ch BNC. Then I have some Hikvision DVR's that have 8ch DVR with 2 IP and a 16ch DVR with 2 IP without giving up. The 8ch is newer and I can do the Disable BNC on that one too for a total of 10IP channels if I wanted.
They are good for a Transition recorder if someone was looking to change the BNC over to IP they could use the DVR and one at a time change over to IP and by the time they have all the channels they wanted in IP buy a NVR
- Screenshot (4092).png (88.4 KiB) Viewed 2668 times
Be Safe.
Re: AMDV8M8-H5 Throughput Spec and Detailed Operator's Manual / Firmware Reference Resource
Another brief follow-up;
Amcrest support finally replied with answers to my bandwidth/throughput questions and a link to a more detailed user manual than the quick start guide that came with the unit (or that I was able to locate online myself). It's helpful, but still lacking detail in some areas and completely neglects certain features and settings in other areas.
The bandwidth is 48Mbps max in/through/over/under/sideways/down -- however one is able to manage it for their particular purposes in whatever manner they choose to load and configure the unit...., but with a GigE LAN port to make it seem faster. LOL
I currently have it completely loaded up with one 5MP and eleven 2MP cameras -- four are analog and eight are IP. According to a bandwidth indicator available at the bottom of the 'Reservations' page I'm cruising at around 17.5Mbps on average in the absence of major scene activity among the cameras. All are set at 30fps/2048bps CBR except the 5MP at 20fps/4096. There's a mix and match of H264 and H265 encoding among them at present. H265 doesn't necessarily seem to play nice on everything, probably for several reasons. (I find it easier to just revert to H264 than fighting it at this stage of my learning curve with the unit.) The analog cameras are dumped over to my Blue Iris server and don't add much additional load to the CPU or use much bandwidth either. It's a nice, clean arrangement that is actually beginning to work out as I was hoping would be the case.
The main issue I'm still scratching my head over is the insistance by the unit of reducing a Wyze Cam resolution to QQVGA when even the low def stream on those is 320x240. It's very annoying and needs a solution.
I've also just added a HDD and am getting my feet wet with the Amcrest way v. the Blue Iris way. The multi-zone flexibility per camera is very cool and extremely easy to use. I think I'm going to like that. I'm currently just recording the four analogs 24x7 with event/motion alerts to see where the needle goes on the resource meters before asking it to do much more -- and to guage the potential impact on general camera activity-- if any.
The other cool thing is how adding IP cameras to more than the advertised number of analog channels actually works on this unit -- and probably most that have auxiliary IP capability. Just disabling the last analog channel only creates one slot to add an IP camera to the next slot down. Open up analog channel 8 to activate all the designated IP channels -- in my case 9 thru 12. A newly registered IP camera gets the next available channel.
This does not allow any other anolog channels to simply be clicked off to become available as another IP channel; only the ones designated as IP channels when other analog channels are still active..., at least in the case of the DV8M8 firmware version I have. The key to adding as many IP cameras as you like is to start at the lowest channel necessary as the first blank channel for adding as many additional cameras as you may want above (below?) that channel -- starting at channel 1 if you like. Obviously a little silly to do all that with a DVR, but certainly easy enough and is nice to have such flexibility -- which was another feature I was hoping for with this unit.
All in all I'm liking this DVR more and more as I become more familiar with it. Running duplicate feeds between two systems can become a bit tedious, but maintaining focus on a given set of objectives and not getting crazy distracted with a bug on a lens is the key to minimizing frustration and achieving the desired results.
It's coming along, but I still have plenty of questions.
And sorry, a not so brief follow-up.
Amcrest support finally replied with answers to my bandwidth/throughput questions and a link to a more detailed user manual than the quick start guide that came with the unit (or that I was able to locate online myself). It's helpful, but still lacking detail in some areas and completely neglects certain features and settings in other areas.
The bandwidth is 48Mbps max in/through/over/under/sideways/down -- however one is able to manage it for their particular purposes in whatever manner they choose to load and configure the unit...., but with a GigE LAN port to make it seem faster. LOL
I currently have it completely loaded up with one 5MP and eleven 2MP cameras -- four are analog and eight are IP. According to a bandwidth indicator available at the bottom of the 'Reservations' page I'm cruising at around 17.5Mbps on average in the absence of major scene activity among the cameras. All are set at 30fps/2048bps CBR except the 5MP at 20fps/4096. There's a mix and match of H264 and H265 encoding among them at present. H265 doesn't necessarily seem to play nice on everything, probably for several reasons. (I find it easier to just revert to H264 than fighting it at this stage of my learning curve with the unit.) The analog cameras are dumped over to my Blue Iris server and don't add much additional load to the CPU or use much bandwidth either. It's a nice, clean arrangement that is actually beginning to work out as I was hoping would be the case.
The main issue I'm still scratching my head over is the insistance by the unit of reducing a Wyze Cam resolution to QQVGA when even the low def stream on those is 320x240. It's very annoying and needs a solution.
I've also just added a HDD and am getting my feet wet with the Amcrest way v. the Blue Iris way. The multi-zone flexibility per camera is very cool and extremely easy to use. I think I'm going to like that. I'm currently just recording the four analogs 24x7 with event/motion alerts to see where the needle goes on the resource meters before asking it to do much more -- and to guage the potential impact on general camera activity-- if any.
The other cool thing is how adding IP cameras to more than the advertised number of analog channels actually works on this unit -- and probably most that have auxiliary IP capability. Just disabling the last analog channel only creates one slot to add an IP camera to the next slot down. Open up analog channel 8 to activate all the designated IP channels -- in my case 9 thru 12. A newly registered IP camera gets the next available channel.
This does not allow any other anolog channels to simply be clicked off to become available as another IP channel; only the ones designated as IP channels when other analog channels are still active..., at least in the case of the DV8M8 firmware version I have. The key to adding as many IP cameras as you like is to start at the lowest channel necessary as the first blank channel for adding as many additional cameras as you may want above (below?) that channel -- starting at channel 1 if you like. Obviously a little silly to do all that with a DVR, but certainly easy enough and is nice to have such flexibility -- which was another feature I was hoping for with this unit.
All in all I'm liking this DVR more and more as I become more familiar with it. Running duplicate feeds between two systems can become a bit tedious, but maintaining focus on a given set of objectives and not getting crazy distracted with a bug on a lens is the key to minimizing frustration and achieving the desired results.
It's coming along, but I still have plenty of questions.
And sorry, a not so brief follow-up.