Have you guys had multiple bad experiences with Acti (several models)? I'm trying to get a feeling for one or two bad products vs. the whole company.
On paper American Dynamics looks fine, much more expensive though. DEL when you say add them to the list are you saying the good list or the avoid list?
Axis and Mobotix are the cream of the crop, at 2x or more cost. I'm looking for the happy middle ground.
We have a site where we've tried almost every IP based manufacturer out there for beta testing, there's the good, the bad, and the average. Acti just won't cut it, performance and reliability from our experience, but maybe we're more demanding than an average residential consumer. AD seems to provide the "bullet point" of their hardware does XYZ, but when it comes down to it, the implementation of the feature is either lacking, missing common features or simply doesn't work (or work properly).
As far as AD, we have weekly phone calls with them regarding 2 of their largest installs of their Videoedge product line, both hardware and software, consisting of multiple encoders, NVR's, software and cameras in enterprise level installations. Their encoders tend to brick quite often, we have one closet that is on it's 5th encoder, for no apparent reason (we did find one unit with loose screws wedged between the board and housing). We jokingly say their cameras have an expiration date on them like milk, just lasting as long. We tend to see cameras drop on the level of 8-32 on a weekly basis....a lot from poor design, housings that leak, NIC's that are placed at a low point and moisture control which consists of a dessicant pack within the camera, that can't be replaced or accessed, so condensation becomes a huge issue, even on cameras with heaters and blowers. Firmware and support is a huge issue, we've had cameras with firmware that just stopped working, streaming, or even just defaulting on a regular basis, contrary to engineering statements. On their NVR's, we discovered that their support for a particular camera line (Arecont) has known issues "A through H" on a document their sales is unaware of, only a senior product engineer knew of all the "known issues"
AD tech support, honestly, scares me. Until you get past a tier 2 tech, it's utterly useless 9/10 times. I've had 5 techs provide just as many answers, with only 1 being correct, even citing improper instructions for how to ghost, partition and rebuild some of their equipment, even going against their own tech documentation with steps and procedures. I had them brick a pair of DVR's with their techs on the phone providing direction and support. Same happened with me asking for a driver to drive a legacy matrix...they denied it existed until I got to my 3rd tech that admitted it did exist and was a custom driver (engineered for another of our sites) then I spent a day trying to get the driver to work, only to have an "ah-ha" moment remembering old DOS commands to realize their instructions and engineering documents and extraction programs were wrong.
I can say, honestly, I have not had as much bad information and hardware as I have had with AD. Even the issues we've had with Pelco since the Schenider buyout with batches of bad PTZ's.