Directly connecting the USB cameras to the PC will allow Security Monitor Pro to see them individually. Viewing through a USB DVR device will show all the cameras in a single image. Any masked area you use does not appear in your recording. Nothing will be obstructed from view in the recorded video. More information about masking is available here. To get the maximum quality in the recording, click Camera >> Manage Cameras, select your camera, click the 'Edit Camera' button. Choose 'Actions' and click on the 'Configure' button. In the Video Recording Options move the slider for Video Quality to the highest level.

[quote=straydog]I have a Sanyo VCC-HD2500 which is supported by Security Monitor Pro. But when I select it and test the camera I get an error saying that the stream is not supported. I have tried both the formats supported by the camera. Any suggestions on other things to try? Thanks[/quote] I own a similar model of Sanyo's. It is the VCC-HD2300. You have to install Microsoft's NET Framework, and you have to install Sanyo's own plug-in for video. And if anything goes wrong, over time, then your first remedy is to re-install both again. They can get clobbered by other applications. Be certain you have the latest Sanyo firmware installed on your Sanyo IP camera. In my model of Sanyo camera, the firmware update did correct some bugs. Unfortunately, however, the Sanyo firmware installer only works with versions 6 or 7 of Internet Explorer. That means you will be inconvenienced, if you are using IE 9 that comes with Windows 7. In a worst-case scenario, you would have to send your camera to Sanyo to let Sanyo update your firmware for free. Much of this is undocumented by Sanyo. I learned it, via email exchanges with a Sanyo employee.

There are two settings related to drive space in Security Monitor Pro - the temporary working drive and the recordings drive. It sounds like you are using the default settings. Make sure the temporary drive has adequate storage space, a minimum of 1GB is required. You can check the 'Temporary Working Folder' you are using by clicking Tools >> Application Settings >> Advanced. If drive is full, click on the Browse button to select a drive and folder that has more space. See this page for an illustrated example of selecting the temporary folder.

It is easy to calculate the amount of space needed for recordings. Security Monitor Pro records at a default of 250Kbs. Converted to bytes this is 31kbytes per second or 1.86Mbytes per minute or 111Mbytes per hour. To record for 8 hours a day you will use about 1Gbyte per camera. Or about 8Gbytes per week for the 2 cameras on your 4 day schedule. A terabyte hard drive will hold about 2 years of recordings for you.

Security Monitor Pro supports USB and IP cameras. If you are purchasing new camera's, I suggest selecting an IP camera. Some good brands are Asante, Vivotek, Axis, and Trendnet. For a bullet type camera with infrared night vision, the Vivotek 8332 works well. Here is an article that explains the difference between CCTV and IP cameras and may help you select the right camera for your surveillance setup: https://www.deskshare.com/resources/articles/wcm_SecurityCamera.aspx

You can back up your Security Monitor Pro settings by clicking File >> Backup Cameras. The backup file will contain all your camera settings along with the schedule settings. There should not be any problems with activation. On your old PC, click Help >> Deactivate and you can install and activate the software on your new computer.

Security Monitor Pro can record continuously from your IP cameras. There are two methods to start recording - one is to click on the Record button on the camera preview. The other is to set it in the schedule to start continuous recording upon application start. Here is more information about scheduling recording The internet broadcast is easily viewed from the iPod/iPhone/iPad. This information is available in this forum post.

Security Monitor Pro can record from your cameras 24 / 7. First set up Security Monitor Pro to start with Windows. Click Tools Application Settings and select 'Launch Security Monitor Pro when Windows starts'. Next, you will need to create 2 schedules. Click Tools >> Scheduler. Add a schedule and under Actions, choose 'Video Recording'. Now, select your cameras and choose a Daily schedule. Start Recording at 00:00 and stop recording at 23:59. Repeat every 1 day. For the second schedule choose 'On application Startup' and make the end time 23:59. This will configure 24 hour recording, continuously. If the PC loses power, Security Monitor Pro will resume recording when Windows is restarted.

The Hauppauge PCI card should work in Security Monitor Pro, along with most of the BT878 chipset capture cards, make sure you are using the latest drivers. You can also use a USB video grabber to capture from your CCTV camera, but I have not seen one that will work well with multiple cameras. To get good quality capture from multiple cameras, I suggest using a video server. There is a full list of supported IP cameras on this page: https://www.deskshare.com/surveillance-software-faq.aspx#9 Look for the supported video servers from Grandtec, Axis, Pixord, Vivotec, and others.

The pan and tilt functions for the Foscam 8908 IP camera can be controlled from within Security Monitor Pro. Simply hover your mouse over the preview window and click once. The pan/tilt controls will appear on the preview screen. Make your adjustments, and when you are done the controls will fade from the preview window after a few seconds. More information about the on-screen controls is available here

Security Monitor Pro has a flexible scheduling system that will allow you to perform multiple actions at the same time. First, configure the alerts you want. Edit your camera, check the box for 'Start actions when motion is detected' and select 'Video Recording', 'Take Photo', and 'Email Notifications', click OK. Next, click Tools >> Scheduler and add a new schedule, select the Monitoring with Alerts box and set the start and end time you would like. Finally, since you would like to perform this twice per day, add a another entry in the scheduler with the second start and end times you want. More scheduler information can be found here.

Security Monitor Pro will capture audio from USB cameras. Click Camera >> Add New Camera and select 'USB Camera'. In the Camera Audio pulldown menu choose the camera to capture audio from. You can view a picture of the configuration screen here.

The latest release of Security Monitor Pro maintains the sequence of cameras, and also maintains the position of the detached preview windows on your screen. You can download the latest release here.

It is easy to configure Security Monitor Pro to sound an audio alarm. Click on Camera >> Manage Cameras, click the 'Edit Camera' button , then select 'Actions'. Here, check the box for Audio Alarm, and click 'Configure'. You can choose the audio file you would like to sound as an alarm, the amount of time you would like to sound the alarm for, and the volume level. Use the Test button to make sure it sounds the way you would like. The manual has a lot of information on how to configure alerts on motion detection.

Security Monitor Pro supports many standard windows capture cards. Click Camera >> Add New Camera, then under the type of camera select 'USB Camera'. Your capture card should be displayed in the USB Video list. Select your device and click on 'Test Camera' to get a preview.

The preview size in Security Monitor Pro is controlled by the dimensions set in your IP camera. Click Camera >> Manage Cameras. Click Edit Camera for each camera set them to the same dimensions. Try using both at 320x240 or 640x480. Also, you may need to also set this directly in your camera properties. Click Camera >> Camera Properties.

Security Monitor Pro has a flexible scheduling system. To monitor during weekdays, create a weekly schedule for Monday through Friday starting at 5PM and ending at 9AM. Now create a second weekly schedule for Saturday, and Sunday, starting at 9AM and ending at 8:59AM. This will cover the weekday nights and the entire weekend through Monday morning at 9AM. More details on scheduling is available here.

[quote=DeskShare - Support]Security Monitor Pro takes advantage of the advanced resources available on your PC. I would recommend using Windows 7x64 because it is built on a newer Windows kernel that makes the most of the CPU processing ability and has better multitasking and threading.[/quote] That's what I figured as well. Thanx for the info. Michale

You can use Security Monitor Pro with your Gmail account. Start TLS and SSL refer to a secure connection. When you configure the email in Security Monitor Pro, select 'Outgoing mail server requires a secure connection (SSL)'. The port number for Gmail's secure SSL connections is 465. Update the info and your email will now be sent.

You can use Security Monitor Pro to FTP photos to your webpage and provide a 'live' view of your cameras. Here is a sample HTML and Javascript page that will show a updated camera image every 30 seconds: <html> <head> <title>Sample Security Monitor Pro Camera Photo Page</title> </head> <body> <img src="camera1.jpg" width="320" height="240" border="1" name="refresh"> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> <!-- var t = 30 // interval in seconds function Start() { document.images["refresh"].src = document.images["refresh"].src+"?"+Math.random() setTimeout("Start()", t*1000) } Start(); // --> </script> </body> </html> You will need to change the name of the image using the folder and filename you have defined in the Security Monitor Pro FTP settings. Change the value of t to the number of seconds between image updates. Try using a refresh interval that allows enough time for the image to be captured and sent by FTP to your web server.