Costco Lorex System Adding Non Lorex Cameras?

pred43

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@EMPIRETECANDY cameras are Dahua OEM and work well with the Lorex system as Lorex is a Dahua OEM as well (albeit stripped down versions of Dahua cams and the cameras Andy sells). Axis or other brands could be problematic as it is best to match brands of NVR and cameras. Forget about the Reolink - total trash and won't work with the NVR.

Many people here use Andy's cameras with a Lorex or Amcrest system without a problem since they are all Dahua. They work just fine with the Lorex app or Amcrest NVR app.

Keep in mind the Lorex all in a box kit is a very stripped down version with less than ideal MP/sensor ratios among other things, like bandwidth limited NVR and lesser quality. It is built cheap to sell cheap.

When we had a thief come thru here and get into a lot of cars, the police couldn't use one video or photo from anyone's system but mine. Not even my other neighbors Costco Lorex $1,300 8MP system provided useful info - the cams just didn't cut it at night.

His system wasn't even a year old and after that event has started replacing with cameras purchased from @EMPIRETECANDY here based on my recommendation and seeing my results. Andy's cameras were literally plug-n-play with the Lorex NVR. By the time we got inside, the cameras were already showing on his monitor. He is still shocked a 2MP camera performs better than his 4k cameras and he cannot figure out why- it is because his 8MP Lorex system was on the same size sensor as the 2MP so his cameras need over 4 times the light. Sensor size and optical zoom is more important than MP.

See this thread I put together demonstrating the value of focal length over MP, complete with camera recommendations based on distance to an object with which you would want to IDENTIFY (and all the cameras should work with the Lorex NVR).

this has been a very help forum. I replaced one of my cameras with one suggested….plugged into Lorex NVR and it’s not as plug and play as I hoped. It’s recognizing the camera but it’s a black screen and shows what the attached pic shows. Any help would be massively appreciated!
 

mat200

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this has been a very help forum. I replaced one of my cameras with one suggested….plugged into Lorex NVR and it’s not as plug and play as I hoped. It’s recognizing the camera but it’s a black screen and shows what the attached pic shows. Any help would be massively appreciated!
Hi @pred43

Check that the substream info is appropriately put into the NVR .. ( search for that info in the threads, I don't recall the details at this time .. )
 

wittaj

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Yep, either the substream isn't active and/or you now exceeded the bandwidth of the NVR. If substreams are active, then Drop bitrate and FPS and maybe even resolution of cameras to get below the NVR bandwidth limit.
 

pred43

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Yep, either the substream isn't active and/or you now exceeded the bandwidth of the NVR. If substreams are active, then Drop bitrate and FPS and maybe even resolution of cameras to get below the NVR bandwidth limit.
Ok Ty. Only have 2 cameras on a systems that is suppose to hold 8. This would be the 3rd.
 

pred43

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Yep, either the substream isn't active and/or you now exceeded the bandwidth of the NVR. If substreams are active, then Drop bitrate and FPS and maybe even resolution of cameras to get below the NVR bandwidth limit.
sorry for the dumb question, but how do I know if substream is active?
 

wittaj

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Ok Ty. Only have 2 cameras on a systems that is suppose to hold 8. This would be the 3rd.
Unfortunately the number of cameras are irrelevant. Some of the lower end NVRs have such low bandwidth that 3 or 4 high MP cams at 30FPS and max bitrate can max out an 8 channel NVR.

sorry for the dumb question, but how do I know if substream is active?
In the camera gui, make sure that the substream is enabled.

If you click on the camera in multi-cam view to solo it out - does the image show up then (would be mainstream).

The multi-view screen uses the substreams.
 
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Hi there, i need some help regarding setting up replacement cameras that are different brand ( Lorex)
I have Q-See NVR H16CN1.1-2 16 channel and 3 cameras went off (stopped working ) so i had some spare Lorex IP cameras extra and i replaced the 3 pieces that stopped working but for whatever reason they are not showing up on the monitor but on the settings they Ip address of the cameras shows up but i cant ad them manually because it says you reached the maximum number of the cameras . Anybody can help me ad those cameras and be able to view them normally ?
any help would really be appreciated
 

mat200

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Hi there, i need some help regarding setting up replacement cameras that are different brand ( Lorex)
I have Q-See NVR H16CN1.1-2 16 channel and 3 cameras went off (stopped working ) so i had some spare Lorex IP cameras extra and i replaced the 3 pieces that stopped working but for whatever reason they are not showing up on the monitor but on the settings they Ip address of the cameras shows up but i cant ad them manually because it says you reached the maximum number of the cameras . Anybody can help me ad those cameras and be able to view them normally ?
any help would really be appreciated
FYI - cross posted here ..

 

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this has been a very help forum. I replaced one of my cameras with one suggested….plugged into Lorex NVR and it’s not as plug and play as I hoped. It’s recognizing the camera but it’s a black screen and shows what the attached pic shows. Any help would be massively appreciated!
I have a Lorex system...make sure you have provided the camera login credentials in the NVR setup otherwise the NVR can "see" the camera but not access it which is why you have a black screen.
 
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I have a Lorex system...make sure you have provided the camera login credentials in the NVR setup otherwise the NVR can "see" the camera but not access it which is why you have a black screen.

even after logging in the cameras with the credentials still the cameras Lorex with the Q_SEE NVR show black (no image) is it any other way to get this cameras working properly , maybe some type of settings
 

pred43

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I have a Lorex system...make sure you have provided the camera login credentials in the NVR setup otherwise the NVR can "see" the camera but not access it which is why you have a black screen.
yeah I am about to go try and get it working. Camera is working bc the motion light comes on when I approach. I have registered or logged in the camera, others didn’t ask me. But I will try that. Appreciate the help
 

Starglow

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even after logging in the cameras with the credentials still the cameras Lorex with the Q_SEE NVR show black (no image) is it any other way to get this cameras working properly , maybe some type of settings
Yes....log into the NVR. Click on the GEAR icon and then select Remote Devices. Check the added device list to see if your camera is there. If so check the "Status" dot to see if it's red or green. If it's green then the camera should be working properly. If it's red then click on IPC Reconnect and see if the dot turns green. If the camera isn't listed in the added device list, then click on device search at the top of the screen so the NVR will search the network for cameras to add. My NVR is Lorex, but not the same model as yours, but hopefully the GUI menus are the same or similar.
 

pred43

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Yes....log into the NVR. Click on the GEAR icon and then select Remote Devices. Check the added device list to see if your camera is there. If so check the "Status" dot to see if it's red or green. If it's green then the camera should be working properly. If it's red then click on IPC Reconnect and see if the dot turns green. If the camera isn't listed in the added device list, then click on device search at the top of the screen so the NVR will search the network for cameras to add. My NVR is Lorex, but not the same model as yours, but hopefully the GUI menus are the same or similar.
Trying to do this now and I can’t seem to even get logged into the NVR. Says password wrong. I reset emails me a temp password says that’s wrong. I’d like to take a hammer to it next
 

Starglow

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Trying to do this now and I can’t seem to even get logged into the NVR. Says password wrong. I reset emails me a temp password says that’s wrong. I’d like to take a hammer to it next
Make sure you are typing the password correctly paying careful attention to upper & lower case sensitive characters, if applicable, and no added blank spaces.
 

pred43

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Make sure you are typing the password correctly paying careful attention to upper & lower case sensitive characters, if applicable, and no added blank spaces.
It’s all numbers, but I’ll make sure I did not have any spaces. Thank you again
 

pred43

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Yes....log into the NVR. Click on the GEAR icon and then select Remote Devices. Check the added device list to see if your camera is there. If so check the "Status" dot to see if it's red or green. If it's green then the camera should be working properly. If it's red then click on IPC Reconnect and see if the dot turns green. If the camera isn't listed in the added device list, then click on device search at the top of the screen so the NVR will search the network for cameras to add. My NVR is Lorex, but not the same model as yours, but hopefully the GUI menus are the same or similar.
I finally got in, dot is red. Try to reconnect IPac and it’s asking for camer password. How am I suppose to know this password for a new camera?
 

wittaj

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Unless you set the camera up and are not using the NVR POE port, the camera should assume the user and password of the NVR.
 
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