3 parts research
1 part hardware
1 part software
2 parts experimentation
3 parts politeness and civility

I will agree with this! I just wanted to point out that Snap is no different and I would go as far as they are one of the few that "actively" correct their problems. I'm tired of losing money EVERY DAY because of the s#$t we install (Bluray, TV's, Receivers, etc). Savant and Sonos have been rock stars!

Has no one picked up yet that the OP seems to be an end user? I am curious who sold him this device and why they are not in the picture.

If he is a dealer and Snap customer I am curious how he got access to purchase anyways since the knowledge level is obviously sub par.

The other option of course could be this is another manufacture upset at the market share Snap is taking. Why else would an end user know to post about surveillance cams here. There are other forums an end user would visit first to complain about surveillance cams.

If you are a CI, please stop being one or get some in house help.

Pencil and paper....

Hi Jason,

We tried reaching you several times today but were unable to make contact. I reviewed your recorded tech support call about the HDD failure and found the references to HDDs. Our tech support contact was answering your questions about adding additional HDDs to the NVR to expand storage and what HDDs we recommend. We do not use budget HDD drives nor was our tech support contact referring to our drives as being budget drives. There are three types of HDDs on the market 1.) consumer / retail for general PC use, 2.) AV grade typically found in DVRs / media servers and 3.) enterprise grade for high heat applications and longest lifespan (data centers). As noted above we use Western Digital AV grade drives. Our Quality Control team will be reviewing your returned unit to fully understand the issue.

We are embarrassed about our HDD error bug and I am sorry for the failure you had. The firmware to fix the bug is a top priority and will be resolved VERY soon. Please let me know if there is anything we can do to better support you. Hang in there with us!

Dear Lance,

Thanks for talking with us today so we could understand your use case and the issues you are having. I highly recommend you work with your surveillance integrator to build a system to properly address your use case that focuses on both the application and on your goals for capture/review. As much as I would like for that to be Wirepath, we currently do not offer license plate cameras nor do we recommend our current products for this specific feature, especially in your configuration. Furthermore IP cameras offer many streams, multiple formats and can be challenging to someone new to the product / category.

Quick summary of our call:
-Application: License Plate capture on entrance to commercial property.

-Past Setup: analog license plate camera -->AXIS ip encoder -->generic NAS drive recording. The issue was poor performance seeing license plates due to camera not being mounted at manufacturer recommend height, etc.

-Current Setup: Wirepath IP Camera -->generic NAS drive capturing events in avi format based on camera motion detection -->VPN -->remote review using Windows Media. A generic NAS drive will not offer a user friendly experience for searching videos, nor is Windows Media the best application for surveillance videos. H.264 is the preferred codec for surveillance, especially high megapixel IP cameras.

-Recommended Setup: Simplify the system to a license plate camera (specific for this function, mounted in manufacturer recommended location) -->DVR. To improve your capture rate and reduce false alarms , I recommend a driveway sensor or IR beam sensor to trigger vehicle presence to the digital input on a DVR. Understand that motion to a camera is the change in light. A dedicated sensor like a driveway sensor or IR beam will drastically reduce false alarms. This will give you the best image to read license plates while providing the most accurate triggering and the easiest method to archive and search individual events.

I hope this helps, let us know if we can be of further assistance to you or your professional surveillance integrator.

GPAUL - this poster's topic was rude and harsh, your responses have been above and beyond professional and way beyond my patience level and really late on a Friday night...for that, i'll be sure and buy you a beer at CEDIA!

I do appreciate the effort and the response Paul.  Any news on wheather this firmware will fix the resolution issue when switching from thumbnail to full screen?  This one, I feel should be at the top of the priority list as well as the hard drive issue.

Paul was too nice to say "don't install it incorrectly and then complain about its performance." I just said it.

I've gotta say one thing about Lance. He's got a thick skin.

Hey, you have to tip your hat to Snap AV, given it's an end user and the integrator ain't much help, I think Snap AV did just fine.
Trust me, if it was me this would have gotten REAL ugly fast (another reason why I'm not in sales) but the MULTIPLE responses, every one very professional and informative, and presented them with a workable solution, kudos Snap AV.

Make that 2 beers! I'll buy you one as well.
Last time we had a beer you and Andy were helping me with an ElanHD that didn't want to act right on the sunny California Coast. I believe a little catching up is in order. That's been a lot of years.

I'd buy a beer too, if I was going....

Good job by GPaul. I'm sure it's frustrating to have to defend yourself because someone either didn't know how to use something or was trying to go beyond the capabilities of the product. I just went through same thing earlier in the week...

Well done Gpaul... :)

Hi internetraver,
I am almost positive the answer is “yes” as we agree this is a HIGH priority bug to fix. There are a number of fixes/enhancements in this upcoming release and we will fully document the release notes. We have been testing iterations of the firmware for all of these fixes and will be working towards BETA this week. Alex will confirm this fixes the thumbnail issue you are asking about - if you are interested we can include you in our BETA release. Have a good weekend.

Chris-L5S, Whitevan, Zohan – Looking forward to it. I'll get round two, could be a long night, ha!

internetraver,

I believe you are referring to the issue with Control4 reading our response to a JPEG request. Control4 is fairly strict on how reads the data packet, as a result, it is not able to show the thumbnail of our cameras. We'll be making a change to conform to how Control4 needs it to be ordered in our next camera firmware update which will follow shortly after our NVR firmware update. As you suggest, it is our highest priority change for our cameras.

I'll be sure to invite you into the beta that we'll be rolling out shortly. Again, sorry about the issues, we are working to address them as quickly as possible along with other improvements.