English
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Troubleshooting
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 41) 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 seperately - 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, no
mixing PAL and NTSC cameras just is not going to 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:
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 34 for
more detailed information about setting motion detection.)
1. Mask any redundant movement.
This includes the 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 nightvision is active).
3.
Adjust your image settings
(see “Camera: Display” on page
20). 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.
