Anyone used a GadSpot DVR?

[gcimmino]

one thing i found is there is a VGA port in the back, with a plastic cap cover it, i'ved tried to plug a regular vga monitor with a gender changer adaptor to it, the DVR light on front panel shut off, looks like frozen, so if that vga port not function, why bother puting one there.

The newer models specs a digital video port that requires an optional VGA converter. Wonder if that's the same for yours?

 

[acheslow]

I am looking at purchasing this personally as well as recommending to 2 friends, if you had it to do all over would you still purchase this equipment?

How has your experience been with the cameras now that you have had them for a while?

Thanks

Ben

I'm not using any of Gadspot's cameras, only the DVR. I'm using Grefox cat5 cameras to feed it. Given the price I'm happy overall, but if I had some more $$ to spend for a more robust device I probably would. I'm having two issues that Gadspot support hasn't been able to help with so far that are preventing me from giving this a 5-star rating:

1) Several times a day the device says that there are too many users logged in to the remote network connection, so I cannot view the feed over the network until I reboot the DVR. This happens so regularly that I put a "reboot" button on my CQC interface next to the video feed. This happens even when nobody is actually logged in to the DVR.

2) When the network interface is working, it works great on my LAN or over the internet, but not through my company's network or VPN. When accessing the DVR through my company's network I can get to the device to log in, but the java applet does not load the video feed. This tells me that a port is being blocked somewhere, but Gadspot insists that the DVR only uses a single port.

I'm considering feeding the modulated video output into my PC DVR card so I can view it remotely with Orb, but my original reason for wanting this was to get away from a PC-based solution.

 

[Len12121]

I am considering buying the On Q camera system that works over cat5. I am planning to also buy an IP camera server so that I can view both locally on TV's and also remotely over the Internet.
Does anyone have experience with OnQ and what do you think of this idea ?

Thanks,

Len

 

[acheslow]

That is what I am using - Greyfox / OnQ / Legrand - just can't keep up with all the M&A activity. While you can can probably find a better quality camera, these work really well for my needs (and price), and I like that I can plug one in wherever I have a cat5 jack.

 

[Rustytek]

is it possible to upload a video for us to see the quality of recording

 

[deranged]

2) When the network interface is working, it works great on my LAN or over the internet, but not through my company's network or VPN. When accessing the DVR through my company's network I can get to the device to log in, but the java applet does not load the video feed. This tells me that a port is being blocked somewhere, but Gadspot insists that the DVR only uses a single port.

I am experiencing the exact same thing at work with 2 other Security DVR units.

1 is an everfocus unit and the 2nd unit I can't remember the name.

And they both use Java for viewing the video feeds.

They both work well through the internet but in a vpn tunnel they do not load the java applet correctly. I am the IT Security manager so I know our firewall is not blocking anything in the vpn tunnels.

could this be a Java thing ?

StevenE

 

[Rustytek]

does the gadspot send rs-232 codes when it records. If so, I could have it notify homeseer of any recordings made and wouldn't have to look at the dvr unless it made recordings.

 

[deranged]

According to the documentation, the rs323 is for ptz cameras only.

They do show alarm contacts that could be used to alert an outside application.

StevenE

 

[acheslow]

is it possible to upload a video for us to see the quality of recording

Finally got around to doing this. The original file was slightly better quality but still not great. It was a 20MB AVI which I had to edit and transcode down to a 2MB WMV. It was also taken at night so the picture is not the best.

http://www.cheslow.com/wp-content/uploads/...0406_212416.wmv

Also, here is a CQC interface I designed to monitor and control the DVR through the HTML/Java interface (click to enlarge):

 

[CollinR]

That looks like it's a now Arm Electronics previsouly KTL produced dedicated unit. I know what you mean about the UI delay, it's not too pretty. I can't remember if I could get 4CIF through it, the one I played with was 9 channel 30fps.

I don't normally sell them but I don't think they are overly failure prone. As long as it fits your needs it should go for a while.

 

[daredevil1]

I can't get anything to display on the TV when I turn the DVR on, any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[ltsmj40]

I would definitely not recommend this company to anyone. The customer srvice is poor and the products are not reliable.

 

[edyang]

I would definitely not recommend this company to anyone. The customer srvice is poor and the products are not reliable.

I think in the last year they've revamped their customer service and support. Now it's live 24/5 during weekdays. Their tech support folks are pretty knowledgeable and as for product reliability it's as good as anything out on the market. Considering their price points I think it's well worth a try, all things considered.

 

[electron]

I think in the last year they've revamped their customer service and support. Now it's live 24/5 during weekdays. Their tech support folks are pretty knowledgeable and as for product reliability it's as good as anything out on the market. Considering their price points I think it's well worth a try, all things considered.

You think? I hope you are 100% sure, since you represent said company