UpdateStar is compatible with Windows platforms. UpdateStar has been tested to meet all of the technical requirements to be compatible with Windows 10, 8.1, Windows 8. The MDF file format can be read by Deamon Tools, Alcohol 120%, MagicISO, WinMount. And can be converted to ISO with this freeware, mdftoiso.com. This model, the NVR3. I tested is the 4 channel model available for as little as under $3. This is bargain compared to other NVR’s or the alternative of setting up a PC with NVR software. It was fairly easy to set up, the menus are responsive and the interface is intuitive. More like an i. Phone app than Windows PC. Had 4 cameras plugged in, 2 of them 1. P cameras, 2 were 1. MP cameras, all actively recording and the menus were very responsive. For testing purposes I used a 1. TB Seagate 5,9. 00 RPM drive that I purchased locally for $6. NVR to be quite enough to use in a bedroom. Attached to a HDMI port on your TV, you can get a view of your cameras as quickly as you can switch to the HDMI input on your TV. Pardon the image quality, but I had to take pictures of the TV screen to show as there’s no way I found to take screen snapshots from the NVR. This is the live view, what you see after you have the cameras set up. In this case, I have 4 cameras setup, the NVR was a 4 channel model, hence a view of the 4 cameras in a grid. P in a 1. 6: 9 aspect ratio, the other two where setup in 1. MP mode which has a 4: 3 aspect ratio, but it displayed both in the same manner but did so a pleasing way with the images not looking stretched or distorted. You navigate with the included mouse, the front panel or remote control. To go back to seeing 4, press “mult” on the remote or right- click the mouse and select “View 4”. Right clicking with the mouse is how you get into the interface and looks like this in the middle of the screen.
Selecting “Main Menu” takes you to the main menu where you can start navigating and configuring the NVR. Selecting “Remote Devices” is where you go to configure the cameras. You can click IP search to find them automatically. In my case I already had the cameras configured for the reviews so I clicked “Manual Add” and you can see the screen below, not that many options and the defaults seem to work for most people. For Dahua, select “private” as the camera manufacturer. Below I show how I setup my Axis camera. Selecting “Settings” from the main menu brings up another menu with lots more options. You have to set up the network options to access the NVR remotely with a web browser. Clicking on the “Network” icon takes you here where you configure the IP address just as you would a network camera. For remote access outside your network you’ll have to configure port forwarding for this address and port. Motion detection is set by the camera, but you can change it from the “Detect” option on the settings menu. Each camera is selected separately using the Channel drop down. One thing I’ll warn about. By default, this NVR will record all cameras all the time for continuous video. With 1. 08. 0P cameras, you can quickly fill up a 1. TB drive, maybe get a few days out of it. To only record motion detected events, select “Schedule” off the settings menu, select Channel All, Weekday All, uncheck Regular and check MD for period 1 (2. Save. You can select different recording schedules. Say you don’t want it to record from 7- 8. AM and 5- 1. 1PM while you are home and moving around the house, you can set the schedules accordingly for all days or by day of the week. This is how you look for and play recorded video. As you can see above, their’s a timeline along the bottom that shows the timeframes where video was recorded. In my case, I’m only showing one camera, but you can see all 4 camera at the same time and they pop up as you play the timeline and it finds a recorded video. Here’s a blown up section so you can see the timeline better. In the lower right, there’s a tiny icon that looks like a grid. Clicking on that shows you the videos recorded by time and each represents a file. You can play by clicking on the time and it will play on the left. If you want to export the video so you can watch it on your PC for example, stick a USB stick or USB drive in the front USB port on the right side of the NVR and check the boxes of the videos you want to save. There’s a disk icon on the lower right, click that to save the files to disk in DAV format. You will then need the Dahua player program found on the camera CD’s to play them and export them to AVI format if you wish. WEB BROWSER INTERFACEIf you wish to operate the NVR remotely from a PC using a browser, go to the IP address and port you specified in the Network settings and it should pop up. Click the Open All button to load the cameras on the grid and this is what it would look like with 4 cameras –Selecting a single camera view from the choices below allows you see one camera at a time if you prefer the larger view. You can also configure the NVR from the web interface but I find the interface on the NVR easier to use. Click Search from the tab on top pops up this menu where you can select time range, which channels to search and it provides a list. It’s limited to the first 1. Clicking on an event will play it back on the main screen. The NVR works pretty well considering the price and package. They claim to support a limited set of other brands of cameras. I tried Axis as that’s the most popular and found that while it worked, it did not work well. The picture kept dropping and I couldn’t get it to record motion events, only continuous recording. I would personally recommend this to anyone that has Dahua cameras but not for use with other brands of cameras although this may be improved in future firmware releases. The web interface was not as intuitive or responsive to use as the direct interface. I would use this primarily on a TV where you want to use it most of the time and then use the browser interface when you are away from home. There’s available smartphone apps from Dahua for IOS and Android called i. DMSS that will work with this NVR and the cameras directly. Click here to go to the company web page for the camera. What That Hook by Your Airplane Tray Table Is For. Sometimes the best things in life are right in front of you but go unnoticed. Take, as today’s example, the little hook on airplane seats. During a recent flight, my seat neighbor took off her cardigan and hung it on a hook. My mind was blown and I felt silly for not realizing this hook existed. There I was, sitting on my own cardigan like some kind of caveman. So I copied her and sheepishly admitted to not realizing this was a thing. That’s what that’s for.” Apparently, I wasn’t the only one surprised by this. Life gets pretty exhausting if you’re always afraid of getting dirty. I try to remember this mantra . Of course, its utility isn’t limited to your cardigans and jackets. You could hang your headphones, chargers, hair ties, and whatever else works. It’s super convenient for clothing that you don’t want to get wrinkled, though. Not all planes will have them, but both my United twinjet flights did. It’s one of those things I’ve never really noticed, but now I’ll probably look for them on every flight (and also complain when they’re not present, naturally).
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November 2017
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