Pictorial review of AVTECH AVN80X!

[goldserve]

I ordered two Foscams to monitor my frontdoor and backdoor but I found the Foscams to be inadequate in capturing a full motion succession. I looked around and found a reference to the AVN80X so I looked into it a little more and found the price to be more than resonable for the features (~$200 shipped).

Here are some features from AVTECH's website:

[buellwinkle]

I provided my comments in your questions. I know they take at least a 3 day holiday during New Years. I'm not getting feedback from anyone including ACTi people in So Cal.


1. Ability to flip the image when I mount the camera upside down
Go to Config -> Camera -> Advanced -> Flip = ON

2. A URL that allows me to add the camera to Iphone App LiveCams Pro (URL for static jpeg image, RTSP URL)
I tried it with IP Cam Viewer but they don't offer an option for that model but you should be able to specify the brand, model and http port number and it will work, it worked that way with BlueIris software and I didn't have to specify any other port or maybe it just knew what port.

3. MUST HAVE!!! Format the E-mail message so iPhone mail program can decode it and PLEASE output MP4 format so special software is not required on iPhone!
Don't know, it works fine on my PC, but it is in some proprietory format. You do know that you can look at the camera and video recorded on it remotely from their free EagleEyes app. So when you get a push video alert, it will display the last video event and then you can look at live video or recorded video (from its SD card slot).

4. FIX other browsers so Firefox can view the camera web interface (was working before firmware update)
I know, it's weird but it works on other people's Firefox or Safari but I must have done something like installing codecs for other products that messed it all up.

5. FIX Mobile iPhone safari browser can not log onto the camera webpage (404 error)
Why do you need it to work with iPhone Safari? It works very well with their free Eagleeyes app. I can view multiple cameras, do virtual ptz, works great.

6. FIX the ability to browse files on my 32GB SDHC card and download them onto computer
Never tried removing the SD card and reading it on my PC. What do you see? You can FTP video events to your PC or to a NAS drive like a WD MyBook World Edition NAS. I can tell you that even on very high end cameras like Mobotix, you can not do this.

7. FIX the dialog box to select 5 seconds of video to send to e-mail on trigger
I can select 5,10,20 and 40 seconds. What I find is that it keeps recording as long as there is motion, for how long I don't know but if I set it to 5 seconds and move around in front of the camera it will record longer.

8. Finally, add support to upload static picture to FTP site every xx seconds for sites like www.sensr.net
I agree, love this feature on Axis and Mobotix cameras, but most cameras don't have this. Ideally be able to FTP a specific file name so you can link to it on your website and have it update like every 15 minutes.
_________________
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[goldserve]

Thanks for your reply.

1. Could not find Advanced in the web config section.

2. Do you know the URL to the static image and the two other streams coming from the camera? There seems to be no mention of this and it shouldn't be treated like a black box...

3. I just realized what I must click to be able to view recorded video in the eagleeyes app but I still like to store a backup of all the video recorded and sent to my hotmail just in case. The iphone mail app barfs horribly on the format of the e-mail message, not to mention the AVC encoding of the video.

4. Okay, Firefox works perfectly fine now. Although I do not love the use of Java which makes everything slow. I should be able to view the video stream from any browser, HTML5 compatible. Even the foscam site was working from mobile browsers. Take a look at Ubiquiti's Aircam web interface. It is fancy without using Java.

5. Again, I want my friends and co-worker to be able to load up the webpage from their phones and view the video to show off to them.

6. IE has the button to view the files on the card (backup) and the ability to play the recordings but when I press play, I always get an error.

7. Under Trigger menu, you press the link on e-mail and the default is 3 seconds. You can choose 1,3,5 but when you press SAVE for 5 seconds, nothing happens. You have to press cancel. I was not referring to Trigger Duration dialog box.

Cheers!

[buellwinkle]

Maybe you need a firmware update, could have been old stock, it's in the camera configuration section, no web config.

Do not know the URL for other features, but their tech support should provide that.
_________________
For network camera articles and reviews, visit my blog at http://ipcamnetwork.wordpress.com

[goldserve]

1. I do have the latest version: 2036-1098-1001-1000. When I mean web config, I mean the webpage configuration, Camera section. No advanced is in there...Can you show me a picture?

[buellwinkle]

Sorry, it's on the AVN801 and AVN812, but not the AVN80X. So it may be a firmware difference. My firmware is 1027-1021-1021-1008


_________________
For network camera articles and reviews, visit my blog at http://ipcamnetwork.wordpress.com

[goldserve]

Whoa, there are definitely some changes/improvements in the later models. There should be no reason they don't keep the changes in the avn80x since avn801 is a cheaper model right?

[buellwinkle]

Yes. And the 812 I just got has firmware 1032-1022-1024-1008, but overall looks the same. The 801 is less expensive and I believe the 812 is the same price. The 812 has 802.11g/n WiFi and all the features of the AVN80X, but no SD card slot. It does have a USB slot for 3G but don't know how that works yet.
_________________
For network camera articles and reviews, visit my blog at http://ipcamnetwork.wordpress.com

[goldserve]

It's really too bad they removed the SD card slot on the 812. I really dig the ability to store more than a few months of motion activity without the need for a nas.

[caseydoug3]

Buellwinkle, I'm still thinking about this camera as well. In a different thread (http://www.networkcamerareviews.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6563), I laid out some concerns based on what I read in the manual, and you assured me that the camera has more flexibility in its event management than I had feared:

[goldserve]

caseydoug3,

I think you are right in the lack of ability to record automatically via a timer. I have the AVN80X and all it allows is recording on External or Internal (PIR) alarms. Each recording can be up to 40 seconds. When you manually enable record, it can record up to 10 mins.



I don't know why the limitations as I don't know the processor usage and memory while it is recording but I suspect the 10 min record limitation is due to the amount of RAM inside to buffer the video before it is written to SD (in the case of the avn80x but not avn801 or avn812). With a firmware update, i don't see why the camera can't be scheduled to record 10 min files indefinitely.

The software on the PC VideoViewer has the ability to schedule records to the PC HDD so you can stream the video and record to PC.

If you can contact support, I would like to see requests from the community to make their firmware much better than what it is now. I still think this is a great buy considering I was replacing Foscams.

[caseydoug3]

Thanks, goldserve. What about the trigger configuration? Is it the same as the second image I posted?

[goldserve]

The trigger config is the same as what you have posted.



Again, I do not get all the limitations for the trigger events and conditions. I sure hope they are able to change this in firmware updates. The latest firmware update was 12/29/2011 and they added SSL to e-mail accounts. I'm sure hopeful they'll listen and add more options in the future. I want the ability to upload static jpegs to FTP every xx seconds.

[goldserve]

As of right now, I see that their new AVN812 has many features I would want implemented but is not present in their most expensive AVN80X camera. I tried to get in contact with support for the last week but no replies. It is a little sad to see all the outreach on their Facebook page but no replies from support.

I have no regrets buying the camera but I would think twice about recommending this company.

[goldserve]

With some help, I was able to figure out the RTSP address.

rtsp://<user>:<pass>@<ipaddress>/live/h264

User can be guest. VLC works well to view this stream.