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Troubleshooting
Addendum: Third Party Hardware
Q:
The images from my cameras are black & white and/or
flickering. What’s up?
A:
Most likely, your Video Standard isn’t set correctly for your
region. Check out the section on PAL/NTSC (“System: General”
on page 50) for more information. As a rule of thumb, set
your video standard to NTSC if you’re in the USA or Canada, or
PAL if you’re in Europe, the UK or Australia.
If this is happening to only
some
of your cameras, then there
may be a problem with the compatibility of those cameras. If
you’ve got them from a kit, then this shouldn’t be the case at all
and it indicates that something quite strange is happening. If
you have cameras purchased separately - particularly if you’ve
found them online or from overseas - then they might not
match the standards of the cameras you’ve already got. The
DVR can only support one video standard at a time:
mixing PAL
and NTSC cameras does
not
work
.
Q:
I can’t login to or unlock the DVR - it says my password is
wrong.
A:
The default username/password combination for the DVR is
“admin” with the password section left blank.
The DVR does have a default password (“12345”) but it should
be
disabled
by default. If leaving the password section blank
doesn’t work, try 12345. If that doesn’t work (and you haven’t
set a password of your own that you’ve forgotten) then
something strange has happened - contact
Swann
technical
support (contact details are on the rear cover).
Q:
The DVR will boot up and show live images, but there are no
menus being displayed. Why?
A:
There might be a fault with the hard drive installed in the
DVR. Before the menu system is displayed, the DVR attempts
to detect the drive that is connected. If there is an ambiguous
signal preventing the DVR from ascertaining whether there is
a drive connected or not, then it will keep looking and waiting
for the drive to respond.
If you’ve just installed a new drive, disconnect it and see if that
fixes the problem.
Q:
How do I eliminate false-triggers on my motion detection?
A:
There’s no guaranteed way to eliminate false triggers, but -
in the majority of cases - you can fine-tune the DVR’s motion
detection settings to reduce the number of false triggers
you’re likely to get. (See “Alarm: Motion” on page 42 for
more detailed information about setting motion detection.)
1. Mask any redundant movement.
This includes obvious
things like trees blowing in the wind, roads with cars passing
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 sensitivity.
There’s no substitute for getting a
volunteer to play the part of intruder and experimenting. Some
cameras are just more “touchy” than others; some lighting
conditions are harder to get the settings “right” for. As a “rule”,
CCD cameras require a lower value than CMOS cameras, and
that motion detection is going to be more sensitive at night
(whenever the active infrared night vision is active).
3.
Adjust your image settings
(see “Display: Camera” on page
28). Unlike many image adjustment options, the DVR pre-
processes video, which means that, when the DVR looks for
motion, it’s looking at your already processed images. By
reducing the amount of video noise in your image, you can
increase the accuracy of the motion detection dramatically.
Typically, the settings that most often require adjustment are
Brightness
and
Contrast
.
Video noise
is a problem with any video signal. It’s the very
slight change in brightness and/or color of pixels between
frames, and it’s commonly regarded as being “just one of
those things” when dealing with digital imaging. By tweaking
the brightness and contrast, you can usually remove a good
deal of this noise, as it tends to be most pronounced near the
blacks (the really dark bits) and the whites (the really bright
bits) of your images.
Q:
I’m getting too many email alerts from the DVR.
A:
There are a few things that might help, depending what’s
generating the email alerts. Here are a few possibilities:
•
The emails are for real events, however it is telling me
about it multiple times.
This indicates that the DVR is functioning properly, but that
the
Interval
setting for your email alerts is too low. Increasing
the Interval time will decrease the number of email alerts the
DVR sends.
•
The DVR sends email alerts when nothing seems to be
happening.
This suggests that there might be something amiss with your
Motion Detection settings.
The most likely explanation is that there is something in
view of your cameras which is moving, or causes the illusion
of movement. Have a look at “Alarm: Motion Detection
Configuration” on page 43 for some more information.
•
The DVR keeps reporting errors (such as Video Loss,
HDD Error or similar).
There seems to be a hardware or configuration fault with the
DVR. These are most often caused by a faulty (or simply poorly
connected) connection or cable. Check the integrity of your
cables and connections.
Due to its nature as a networked device, the DVR is often
required to operate with third party hardware. We do
everything we can to ensure the DVR is compatible with as
many third party devices as possible; there will always be
some that require a little extra configuration.
Routers
I’m using a router which doesn’t support DHCP addressing.
or
Some devices on my network require STATIC addressing.
You’ll need to set the address of the DVR manually. You’ll need
to:
•
Find Your Networks IP Address Range
•
Create a Unique IP Address
•
Assign the IP address information to the DVR.
Finding your Network’s IP Address Range
First, you’ll need to know the
IP address
,
Subnet Mask
and
DNS Server
of
at least
one other device on your network. It’s
easiest to find these addresses by using a computer on the
same network.
For Windows-based PCs:
•
Open the
Start Menu
, navigate to
Accessories
and open
Command Prompt
.
•
Type “
ipconfig
” and press
Enter
.
•
Your IP Address information will be displayed.
For Mac-based systems:
•
From the
Apple
menu, select
System Preferences
.
•
Click on the
Network
pane.
•
Click on the
Advanced
button and look under the
TCP/IP,
DNS
, and
Ethernet
tabs.
Creating a Unique IP Address
The IP Address of your computer will be made up of four
groups of numbers, separated by periods:
aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd
The first three groups of numbers (
aaa.bbb.ccc
) must be the
same as the other device on your network. The last number
(
ddd
) must be changed to something unique that nothing else
on your network uses.
For example:
If your computer’s IP address is 192.168.1.10, then a suitable
unique IP address for your DVR will be 192.168.1.210
Note: 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: General” on page 37).
•
Select
Static
addressing.
•
IP Address:
Enter the unique IP that you created for the
DVR here.
•
Subnet Mask:
Enter the same value as the computer’s
Subnet Mask.
•
DNS Server:
Enter the same value as the computer’s DNS.
The DVR should now be accessible via your local network.
Before you can access the DVR remotely, you’ll need to
Forward Ports
(STATIC addressing does not support UPnP,
see below).
I’m using a router which doesn’t support UPnP. How do I
“forward ports”?
It depends on what type of router you have. There’s no
standard procedure for forwarding ports - each manufacturer
has their own user interface and procedure for customising
the behaviour of the router.
First, check the router’s documentation - the instructions may
be there.
If your router’s documentation doesn’t describe the method
for port forwarding, then open a web browser and navigate
to
www.portforward.com
- they’ve got instructions on port
forwarding for (literally) thousands of different routers.
We can’t offer much more information about forwarding ports
here, as this is a process totally dependent on third-party
hardware. If you do run into trouble, we suggest contacting
the manufacturer of the router.
Alternately, if you’re using an older router which doesn’t
support UPnP, then it might be time for an upgrade - modern
routers are increasingly powerful and are (in most cases) easier
than ever to setup. We think that UPnP is a fantastic feature
that’s well worth having, not just for DVRs.
