It sounds like you are referencing the commercial camera(s), I do not have any specific walkthroughs for installation/use at this time. I will post in reply when I am able to get those put together.
However, any settings for the cameras would be found in the Video > Settings section of Alarm.com website.
Live Video: You can set HD Live View settings under the Live Video dropdown. You can select:
4 MP 2688x1520
Full High Definition 1920x1080
High Definition 1280x720
Currently it appears that Full HD is set.
Video analytics configurations have been done. This can be found in the Video Analytics Calibration section.
Information on onboard recording, including SD card compatibility can be found here:
Thank you! And sorry for somehow forgetting the models I am testing, they are ADC-VC728PF and ADC-838PF. I didn’t get them because they are business cameras, just because they have a little better resolution. I don’t see any utility in decades-old 1-2MP tech, when the video purpose is to recognize faces, read license plates, and similar safety functions. Other security companies sell 8MP cameras as standard, and go up from there.
Follow-up questions:
Why do we have to log into ADC site for some arbitrary settings? Nothing I can see prevents letting us manage everything in one place.
I can set resolution of doorbell cam on app, but any other cams I have to go to web site. Why/why not?
A setting on site called “video device image” tells me I have to go back to the app to adjust it. But on the app, can’t find it. Where is it, and what is it?
On the app, none of my cameras have live thumbnail images, just blurs. On the site, the latest images are shown clearly, just as we need them to be on the app. Why/why not?
Now that I have found the resolution settings you pointed to for all my cameras, I’m wondering why sell 1-2MP cameras but have them default to incredibly low resolution on install?
And related: now that I have maxed them up, what is the impact on my storage and bandwidth limits of my plan? Is there some sort of configurator which helps me estimate/anticipate this?
And also related: on the spec sheets I noticed fudge language about 4MP “asterisk”, remind me what this means, some feature is limited, or capability is reduced, when I use full resolution?
Why do we have to log into ADC site for some arbitrary settings? Nothing I can see prevents letting us manage everything in one place.
I can set resolution of doorbell cam on app, but any other cams I have to go to web site. Why/why not?
ADC cameras have most of their settings set in the website with the exception of Doorbell Cameras.
Why ADC does not have settings one for one between the app and website, I could not say. We have passed this suggestion/request on to ADC many times.
A setting on site called “video device image” tells me I have to go back to the app to adjust it. But on the app, can’t find it. Where is it, and what is it?
This is where you can adjust brightness, saturation, sharpness, contrast etc. and is typically found on the ADC website.
Can you provide an image of the error you are seeing? What browser are you using, and have you tried a different one?
On the app, none of my cameras have live thumbnail images, just blurs. On the site, the latest images are shown clearly, just as we need them to be on the app. Why/why not?
On the app, the thumbnail for the mobile app camera live feeds are periodically pulled from saved videos that were captured by the camera.
They are a place holder. on the app depending on the connection, I don’t believe it automatically generates that thumbnail. the image is just a thick blur of color
Now that I have found the resolution settings you pointed to for all my cameras, I’m wondering why sell 1-2MP cameras but have them default to incredibly low resolution on install?
Likely bandwidth issues, but I could not say for certain.
And related: now that I have maxed them up, what is the impact on my storage and bandwidth limits of my plan? Is there some sort of configurator which helps me estimate/anticipate this?
There is not a bandwidth “limit” for the plan. For cloud storage, the limit is clips, not file size. More on Alarm.com video storage can be found here:
For SD card storage, settings will impact what can be stored locally. For the 728PF
Approximate days of recording
Recording Quality
32GB
64GB
128GB
256GB
1920x1080 30FPS
1 Day
2 Days
5 Days
10 Days
1920x1080 15FPS
2 Days
4 Days
7 Days
15 Days
1280x720 10FPS
4 Days
7 Days
15 Days
29 Days
640x480 10FPS
7 Days
15 Days
29 Days
59 Days
And also related: on the spec sheets I noticed fudge language about 4MP “asterisk”, remind me what this means, some feature is limited, or capability is reduced, when I use full resolution?
I’m unsure what you mean here. Are you referencing the information from our website (below) or somewhere else?
Why ADC does not have settings one for one between the app and website, I could not say. We have passed this suggestion/request on to ADC many times.
Awesome, thank you for this. They show the classic behavior of lack of competition. Hopefully they will start to feel the pressure from RIng etc., who deliver simple modern user experiences, and step up their game.
They are a place holder. on the app depending on the connection, I don’t believe it automatically generates that thumbnail. the image is just a thick blur of color
My point was, this is wrong, the app is just a web view of the site, so it could and should act just like the site and offer all the same features. On the site, the same feature shows the actual last image:
This is where you can adjust brightness, saturation, sharpness, contrast etc. and is typically found on the ADC website. Can you provide an image of the error you are seeing?
One small update: ADC software is even cruder than I thought, and that’s saying a lot
From another forum discussion, I see that the reason the app directs me to the web, and the web site directs me back to the app, is because the web app does not support editing these camera settings in mobile browser. Amazing. ADC V723x camera - flipping the image - #2 by jwcsurety
I am looking into this with Alarm.com as there are some discrepancies on what specifically is needed for 4MP resolution/recording. It appears that initially you could only have 4MP when recording to the CSVR (not live or SD Card), but that may no longer be the case with more recent firmware.
SD cards are needed for onboard recording. Use case may change depending on what I hear back from ADC.
The CSVR is the commercial stream video recorder.ADC-CSVR200P, CSVR208P, and CSVR2016P are the various part numbers that support 4MP. We do not carry it but you should be able to purchase it from other vendors online.
You need the Surety Complete to use the SVR. You would need a plan for each service location, each plan would need to cover the amount of cameras in use. Surety Complete allows for the use of up to 4 cameras, additional cameras can be added in blocks of 4 with the Video add-on.
Live view on the website and app, and onboard recording (SD Card) can only be a maximum of 1080p.
In order to stream live view at 4MP, the camera(s) need to be connected to a CSVR’s local display, either the ADC-CSVR20XX series or CSVR126.
Continuous Recording is available at 4 MP if connected to the CSVR.
Your current service plan includes the use of up to 4 ADC compatible cameras. If more are needed for that location, then you would add the Video add-on. This is done via the System Manager tab of your Surety login.
Wow, it’s even worse than I imagined. No stream is actually 4MP anywhere. Only viewed directly out of the absurdly expensive SVR. And only using an absurdly expensive commercial plan. So analytics, which is web-based, cannot actually use a decent resolution for recognition. And we can’t view events in decent resolution from the site, or the app, or the panel, or even viewed directly off the camera’s SD card.
You know, I settled on ADC on the basis of the marketing video for the ADC-VDB770, which made its features and performance look space age. I found when I bought and installed it that it is actually painfully slow, the person is long gone by the time the app alerts me the bell had been rung, and it’s terrible at distinguishing between shadows, spiderwebs, cats and people.
And here again, with the “4MP” cameras we see that the marketing team is way out ahead of the engineering team. If there were truth in advertising laws, they’d have to make that asterisk in like 288 point font!
If you have not already done so, when it comes to Video Analytics and the VDB770, adjust the sensitivity of the Video Analytics rule if you find there are too many recordings. Additionally, Verify the Ground Zone is configured correctly:
Avoid overlapping ground zones with objects that are prone to movement (e.g., such as trees, bushes, or other objects that move in the wind).
Only draw the rule where the feet of the person should enter.
Do not increase the size of the Ground Zone to cover the whole of the person.
Do not include walls, trees, or other structures in the rule/selection.
After observing what the rule detects over a few days, consider adjusting the Detection Sensitivity slider higher for more triggers or lower for fewer.
If the current rule is not working as desired, deleting the rule, waiting 5 minutes, recreating the rule, and waiting an additional 5 minutes then testing may help to resolve the issue.
I’ve already done all those things, based on a similar support question when I first installed. But I have not tried your last suggestion: delete and recreate. Will try that next, thanks!
I would be using them with SD cards, but right now don’t have one in.
