Swann DIGITAL VIDEO RECORDER, Manual

Page 1: ...English 1 M4 8000H051212E English 4ch 1080p SDI Digital Video Recorder ...

Page 2: ...d regulations that prohibit or limit the use of cameras and to comply with the applicable laws and regulations FCC Regulation for USA Prohibition against eavesdropping Except for the operations of law enforcement officers conducted under lawful authority no person shall use either directly or indirectly a device operated pursuant to the provisions of this Part for the purpose of overhearing or rec...

Page 3: ...25 Menu Layout 26 Advanced Configuration 27 Display Camera 28 Display Output 29 Recording Encode 30 Recording Option 31 Recording Schedule 32 Search Playback 33 Search Backup 34 Search Event 35 Search Log Search 35 The Playback Interface 36 Network General 37 Network Advanced 38 Network Advanced DDNS 39 Network Advanced NTP 39 Network Advanced IP Filter 40 Network Network Status 40 Network Advance...

Page 4: ...you can connect to the different inputs outputs of the DVR Everyone s setup will vary a little bit it depends what cameras came with the DVR if any and what device s you ve already got Stage 2 Basic DVR Setup The DVR needs a few things to be set properly before it can do its thing Follow the instructions from page page 11 to page 24 to get everything working 3 Optional Advanced DVR Configuration T...

Page 5: ...my of electrical components and also poses a high risk of electric shock Avoid dusty locations Dust has a tendency to build up inside the DVR case leading to a high risk of failure or even fire Only install the DVR in a well ventilated space Like all electronics the circuitry and hard drive in the DVR produce heat and this heat needs a way out Do not open the DVR case except to install swap the ha...

Page 6: ...ly Full HD These kinds of televisions downscale a 1080p signal to the resolution of the screen For the best possible image use a television monitor which can display 1920 x 1080 or higher 6 USB eSATA1 Port To connect an external hard drive or a flash drive to which you can backup footage Accepts both USB and eSATA devices such as USB flash drives USB hard drives eSATA hard drives For the best resu...

Page 7: ...VR Connect your cameras to power using the a power splitter if included Connect the power adapter s to a wall outlet If you ve got a monitor with VGA but not HDMI connect it to the VGA output on the DVR If you ve got a TV or monitor with HDMI in connect to the HDMI port on the DVR Connect an ethernet cable from the LAN port on the DVR to a spare port on your router Connection Diagram ...

Page 8: ...as this Swann PTZ SDI dome Connecting Additional Devices Connect the mouse to the front USB 2 0 Port This port can also be used to connect USB devices to backup to but you ll need to unplug the mouse to do it An external hard drive with an eSATA port can be connected to the eSATA port on the DVR and can be utilized in the same manner as the internal HDD The combination USB eSATA1 Port is used for ...

Page 9: ...the sensor consult the documentation for the sensor The Alarm In number does not directly correspond with a channel number these can be set later see Alarm Sensor on page 46 in Advanced Configuration for details 12V Active DC power output Connect any sensor device inputs which require 12V DC here The Alarm IN connections share common 12V DC connections GND The ground connections The Alarm IN and A...

Page 10: ...curately as possible The USB Mouse Recommended The easiest way to operate the DVR is to use the included USB optical mouse we put together the look and feel of the menu system specifically for mouse friendly navigation The controls are pretty easy to remember heck there are only two buttons It couldn t be simpler Left click Selects an item or confirms a choice Right click Opens the menu bar from t...

Page 11: ...to be displayed in Video Standard Choose between NTSC for the USA Canada Mexico Japan Korea and some other regions or PAL UK Europe Australia and some other areas If this is set incorrectly images captured under certain conditions such as under fluorescent lights or near a television will appear to flicker Resolution How many pixels the DVR will output Typically you ll want to set this to be equal...

Page 12: ...omplex aspect of configuring the DVR but if your router supports DHCP and UPnP then there s nothing to do here Recommended Don t change anything Ensure that the Network Access is set to DHCP and that UPnP is enabled on your router it should just work If your router doesn t support DHCP Then you ll need to manually assign the address of the DVR If you ve already setup your network we assume you kno...

Page 13: ...ount Name and Password you re using Before DDNS will work you ll need to register an account with the DDNS provider of your choice We recommend SwannDVR as this is a free service which we support directly Boot up your computer and sign up at www swanndvr com Email If you want the DVR to send email alerts as alarm events are detected then you ll need to configure an outgoing email server for the DV...

Page 14: ... If you re using pool ntp org ensure the port is 123 Sync Triggers the DVR to automatically synchronize its internal clock with the time server immediately If your DVR is connected to the Internet and the network is correctly configured this will update almost instantly System Time The DVR s current clock reading DST Configuration You can configure the DVR to automatically update it s internal clo...

Page 15: ... can they alter any settings User The most customizable level of access to the DVR You ll be able to set a User account to have as little access as a Guest account or nearly as much power as an Admin account User accounts will probably make up the majority of accounts registered to a DVR if there are multiple users requiring varying levels of access Finishing the Setup Wizard When you choose Finis...

Page 16: ... the file called MyDVR Windows vxxxx exe the x represents numbers showing the version and run this file You may be asked by UAC User Account Control to allow MyDVR to make changes to your system Select Allow or Continue You llseeaninstallationwizard Simplyfollowtheprompts to install the software Once the MyDVR software has been installed it should automatically detect your DVR on your network Mini...

Page 17: ... ll need to remember it if you ve changed it Enter your Username and Password Choose Login Note Multiple Monitors The MyDVR software does not support hardware acceleration when using multiple monitors On some systems this can cause significantly reduced performance Ifyouexperienceslowplaybackorthevideoisnotbeingdisplayed at all disable all monitors but your primary one Selecting WAN mode even over...

Page 18: ...ur channels at once 2 x 2 Volume Control Alters how loud the audio output from the DVR will be Remember that the final output volume will also be affected by the master volume control of your operating system as well as the levels set on speakers or amplifiers connected to your system CPU Loading How hard your computer is working to decode and display images as they arrive from the DVR If this is ...

Page 19: ...while the transcoding takes place For best results try not to over burden your computer just let it transcode the footage in peace Auto Login When selected MyDVR will automatically login and open the Preview screen for the DVR it is currently connected to Simply un check Auto Login if you don t want MyDVR to do this anymore or you want to change the default device you ll just need to go through th...

Page 20: ...manyimagespersecondtheDVRwillcapture Realtime is 30fps NTSC or 25fps PAL BitRate Limit The maximum size that your video files will be The higher this is set the better recordings will look however they ll also fill the hard drive faster Recording Advanced Config see page 31 Overwrite Whether the DVR will erase old recordings to make room for new ones or not Pre record Whether the DVR will cache an...

Page 21: ...e nothing else uses this port The default value is 9000 This is the port number you ll use when logging in over the Internet from the MyDVR software or remote access from a mobile device HTTP Port The second of two ports the DVR needs to communicate over your network Ensure nothing else uses this port The default value is 85 NTP Setup see page 39 NTP Domain or IP Address The server you intend to u...

Page 22: ... type you d like the DVR to react to By configuring the Action for these events you can create any combination of audio alerts see below or auto emails to be sent for different event types Audio Warning Sounds the DVR s internal buzzer Send Email Commands the DVR to send an email alert Show Exception Shows any alerts that occur at the bottom right corner of the main screen Double click on the aler...

Page 23: ... the same frame rate as your cameras The Swann SDI cameras can be changed between 30 25fps to ensure that they do not see the flicker of lights using the different AC power refresh rates Ifyourpoweris60Hzyourcameraswillbesetto30fps if your power is 50Hz your cameras will be set to 25fps If you buy Swann cameras from a region with a different AC power refresh rate you will need to change the camera...

Page 24: ... just a few short years ago You ll need a compatible mobile device At the time of writing there are apps for iOS iPhone iPad and Android based devices We re working on apps for other mobile platforms The apps for both iOS and Android are free to download and use To download the latest mobile viewing apps operating guides and to check the compatibility of your device log onto www swann com swannvie...

Page 25: ...here s motion detected The motion icon indicates that the DVR is detecting motion coming from this camera It doesn t necessarily mean it s recording the camera icon will be there too if that s the case Video Loss indicates that the channel displaying this has lost the feed from its camera This may be caused by a disconnected damaged cable the camera may have lost power or the video standard might ...

Page 26: ...neral Motion HDD General Option Backup Advanced Video Loss S M A R T User Lock Email Settings DDNS NTP IP Filter Output Schedule Event Log Status Exceptions PTZ Information Shutdown Maintenance Reboot Recording Search Network Alarm Device System Shut Down Menu Layout ...

Page 27: ...led earlier see MyDVR Local Configuration on page 19 or you can use the DVR s built in interface Quick Reference Some of the more common reasons to have a look in the Advanced Configuration include Altering the Recording Schedule The recording schedule is one of the most important things to get right when configuring the DVR More information about the schedule can be found at Recording Schedule on...

Page 28: ...y out but setting the contrast too high will degrade image quality Saturation Alters how much color is displayed in the image The higherthesaturation themorebrightandvividcolorswillappear to be Again setting this too high can degrade image quality Hue Changes the color mix of the image this can have very dramatic results It s somewhat like moving through a rainbow Remember Your image settings will...

Page 29: ...sion can process not display Typically this will be 1080p as even screens which don t have that many pixels can still display the image just with less detail Check your television s documentation to learn this value If your television can t display 1080p then use 720p instead Transparency You can set the DVR s menus to be partially transparent see though in case you need to keep an eye on things w...

Page 30: ...The actual amount of data that the DVR will use to record video The main stream uses a variable bitrate to record video the more movement occurs in the video the higher the bitrate will have to be When there s little movement in view the DVR will automatically reduce the bitrate to conserve HDD space If the amount of movement in a recording would require a higher bitrate to accurately record than ...

Page 31: ...ry useful for example if an intruder or potential target triggers the motion detection but pauses in view having post record enabled will get a much better look at them 30 seconds is the recommended length for the post record setting but it can be set higher the options are 1 2 5 or 10 minutes depending on your unique circumstances Pack Duration Pack Duration is a measurement of how long the DVR w...

Page 32: ...ng to choose from Normal The DVR will constantly record for any period where Normal is selected You won t miss anything but constant recording will fill your hard drive very quickly The DVR does record the equivalent of a DVD film every two hours on every channel so that s rather a lot of data Typically we suggest Motion as a better recording mode for most users Motion The recommended recording se...

Page 33: ...hannels at once you may notice that they re not quite in sync and in extreme cases may be displayed in near real time instead of real time Why The DVR only has so much processing power and we ve configured it so that it has more resources dedicated to recording than to playback While you re playing back footage the DVR continues to monitor and record normally Recording from up to sixteen channels ...

Page 34: ...ranscoding is just a shortening of translating code Transcoding while a straight forward process is very processor intensive You may notice significant slow down or apparent non responsiveness on your DVR while the transcoding takes place While the backup process is executed the DVR will display a pair of progress meters The top one indicates the progress of the current video event the lower one s...

Page 35: ... motion detection feature The search function operates in the same way as the main playback search the only difference is you ll select an Event Type rather than a Video Type The Log Search displays a list of events presented in chronoloical order the most recent events will be at the end of the list The Log will list all events that the DVR monitored whether or not any footage was recorded as a r...

Page 36: ... Fast Forward Speeds up playback Slow Plays back footage at reduced speed Press multiple times to further reduce the speed 1 2 speed 1 4 speed 1 8th speed 1 16th speed and so on Recording Type Whether the video being played back was recorded under normal recording blue or based on motion or an alarm event red Hide Console Maximizes the area on screen for playing back your footage by hiding the on ...

Page 37: ...be something like 255 255 255 0 Default Gateway This is the address of the way to the Internet to continue the road analogy this is like your local access point to the highway This is an IP address in the same format as the others and is typically very similar to the IP address of the DVR To continue the above examples it might be something such as 192 168 1 254 Auto DNS Static DNS Choose how you ...

Page 38: ...e when logging in from a mobile device or the MyDVR software so if you change it remember what it is HTTP Port This is the port through which you will be able to log in to the DVR Like the server port it will need to be forwarded properly in order to ensure smooth latency free communication The default value is 85 as this port is seldom used by other devices or applications If there is another dev...

Page 39: ... is the email address you used to register the account The password is whatever you selected when you registered Static and Dynamic IP Addresses In much the same way as your home network can use static or dynamic IP addresses many Internet providers don t issue or charge more for a static IP address for users The easiest way to find out is to contact your Internet service provider Alternately you ...

Page 40: ...you re not sure what you re doing is more likely to break things than make anything better Network Advanced IP Filter Network Network Status The Network Status screen displays a quick summary of your network settings You can t alter things here see the General and Advanced tabs for places to actually alter things Note that the values displayed in the image to the left are examples only Your networ...

Page 41: ...ct SMTP server SMTP port SSL or TSL requirements and so on SMTP Port The SMTP port used by the email provider of your choice This field will automatically self populate if you use one of the presets Sender Address The address you re sending the email from This will be the username you ve set up for the email server you re using followed by and then the email server For example youraddress gmail co...

Page 42: ...ures of the DVR for each channel We suggest that motion detection is under most circumstances the most practical recording method for the DVR to employ How it Works Once motion detection has been enabled for a channel it will register to the DVR as a Motion Event Thus you can use the Motion recording mode in the schedule to trigger the DVR to record when motion detection triggers an alarm signal E...

Page 43: ...You can change what time s each period starts and ends to best match the changing lighting conditions in your location Typically values between 5 and 10 will give good results in the daytime At night you may get numerous false triggers unless you raise the sensitivity setting perhaps as high as 25 30 This is because of the extremely high detail of the SDI cameras especially when they use active in...

Page 44: ...ges Try adjusting the Image Settings see Display Camera on page 28 for details to fine tune the brightness and contrast to get a more stable image Limit the motion sensitive area to only the areas in view that a target could be In particular large featureless areas in the camera s view are the ones most likely to give false triggers turning off the motion sensitivity to any area a target cannot mo...

Page 45: ... alarm output terminals The alarm output must be correctly connected and configured Alarm Motion Detection Action Audio Warning The DVR will use its internal buzzer to emit an alarm tone It sounds like an old computer indicating an error or a large truck backing up Send Email The DVR will send an auto email alert when the event type you ve selected occurs The Email Settings button will take you to...

Page 46: ...tects an alarm event generated by this sensor Selecting this option will open the Action sub menu where the behavior can be customized AudioWarning The DVR will use its internal buzzer to emit an alarm tone It sounds like an old computer indicating an error or a large truck backing up Send Email The DVR will send an auto email alert when the sensor you ve selected detects an alarm event The Email ...

Page 47: ...these are alarm outputs Hold For The amount of time you d like the DVR to maintain the Alarm Output status Please note depending on the configuration and intended purpose of your external alarm device it may or may not continue to be in an alarmed state once the DVR s signal has ceased Schedule You can alter the alarm output to only be active on certain days and for certain times The schedule oper...

Page 48: ...ternet This may indicate a problem with the DVR s configuration a fault with your network or a problem with your Internet Service Provider ISP IP Conflict This event will occur if the DVR detects another device on the same network with a conflicting IP address It s a little like two houses with the same number being on the same street one house might get the other s mail or get woken up at all hou...

Page 49: ...imultaneously External USB drives can only be used for backing up footage S M A R T Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology gotta love a good acronym is your hard drive s way of telling the DVR how it s going Status The current condition of the hard drive It should say Good If it says anything else this indicates there s a problem with your hard drive If there s no problem there s little...

Page 50: ...e that this setting matches the requirement of your device Address 0 255 The command address of the PTZ device you want to associate with this channel Accessing the PTZ Controls The PTZ controls can be accessed from the LiveViewing screen by choosing the PTZ icon on the menu bar Note for Remote Access and Mobile Device users The PTZ functions of the DVR and compatible cameras can be controlled rem...

Page 51: ...ve an adjustable iris Also called an aperture Not all cameras support this function Preset A Preset is a position that the camera is in which is saved to memory to be retrieved later Patrol Initates patrol mode also sometimes called cruise mode You ll need to define a series of Preset points for the camera to patrol between Exit Closes the PTZ controls PTZ Context Menu Camera No Switch quickly bet...

Page 52: ...lly tell the DVR exactly when it commences and ends in your locality First turn DST on We suggest setting the Daylight Saving Time Mode to Date and manually entering the dates and times that daylight savings time applies to and from in your locality Note Some NTP servers are NOT fully compatible with DST This may cause your system to double count adding one or removing one more hour than they shou...

Page 53: ...uests and Operators Guest By default a Guest user has access to the live images on the DVR and can search through recorded events They cannot change any settings or configure the DVR in any way Operator The default permissions of an Operator allow them to access and configure all aspects of the DVR You can easily customize the level of access each individual user has Simply choose the Permission b...

Page 54: ... and build numbers help us track down any known issues or catalogue new issues as they come to light It also helps us figure out if you re running the most recent firmware on the DVR and whether you d benefit from an upgrade System System Information System Device State The Device State menu contains information about devices and their current state If you don t know what any of this means this in...

Page 55: ...s This must be done after a firmware upgrade to ensure proper operation of the DVR You can retain your settings recording schedule and so on by using the Import Export Configuration function before upgrading the firmware Configuration Export Creates a file containing all the settings you ve customized including your recording preferences schedule user list and so on To export your settings Insert ...

Page 56: ...ing and so forth Some less obvious things which might cause false triggers include the flickering of screens monitors or fluorescent lights reflections of movement in windows mirrors and so on lights which are often turned on or off shadows passing and so on We can t possibly imagine what you re going to find in your unique circumstances so we encourage you to experiment 2 Fine tune your sensitivi...

Page 57: ... Each number in the IP address cannot exceed 255 Assigning the IP Address information to the DVR We recommend doing this locally on the DVR itself even if you can access the DVR via the network using the MyDVR software in the meantime If you re connected remotely and the networking information changes you might lose the connection to the DVR Open the Network General menu on your DVR see Network Ge...

Page 58: ...0 x 1080 1080p Frame Rate Up to 30fps NTSC or 25fps PAL Feature Display Single 2 x 2 Recording Bitrate Up to 10Mb 10 240Kbps per channel Record Modes Manual Motion Detection Schedule Sensor HDD Interface 2 x SATA Fixed HDD 1 x eSATA Live 1 x eSATA Backup Capability SATA2 up to 2000GB 2TB per drive Playback Search Time Date Event Lists USB Interface USB 2 0 for Mouse and File Backup Upgrade PTZ Con...

Page 59: ...sociated with its use are the responsibility of the end user This warranty applies to the original purchaser of the product only and is not transferable to any third party Unauthorized end user or third party modifications to any component or evidence of misuse or abuse of the device will render all warranties void By law some countries do not allow limitations on certain exclusions in this warran...

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