Security Monitor Pro has a flexible scheduling system. To have 24 hour monitoring you can set a weekly schedule for every day of the week. Start the schedule at 00:00 and end at 23:59. In case of a PC restart, you can also add a schedule to begin your monitoring at Application Startup. Set the end time to be 23:59, and the weekly schedule will take over when the Application Startup schedule finishes.

Security Monitor Pro has a flexible scheduling system that can be easily configured to monitor and record your cameras during off-hours. For example, if your normal work schedule is 9 to 5 from Monday through Friday, select the scheduler and add a new schedule. Choose the cameras you would like to configure for monitoring, and in the Schedule Settings choose 'Weekly'. Select each of the days Monday through Friday and enter the times 17:00 to 9:00 in 24 hour format. Click OK and Security Monitor Pro will automatically begin monitoring at the scheduled time. More details about the scheduling system is available here: https://www.deskshare.com/help/SMP/scheduling.aspx

Yes, IP cameras can be used outdoors if they are kept in an outdoor enclosure or if they are designed for outdoor use. Some popular camera brands that have outdoor enclosures are TrendNet, D-Link, and Vivotek. A full list of cameras supported by Security Monitor Pro is available here: https://www.deskshare.com/surveillance-software-faq.aspx#9 Most enclosures will work in a normal or wet environment. If you are in a extremely cold environment, look for a outdoor camera enclosure with a built in heater to keep the ice from forming on the enclosure.

Security Monitor Pro has Pan/Tilt support for the FI8918W. After adding your camera, click on the preview window once or hover your mouse over the preview. The pan/tilt controls will appear. Clicking again or moving your mouse away will hide the pan and tilt controls.

You can log in to your PC using Remote Desktop or VNC to start/stop Security Monitor Pro. Both Remote Desktop and VNC have apps for the iPhone and Android phones as well as for a Mac or Linux PC.

You can detach the preview windows from Security Monitor Pro and arrange them on the screen, or on separate monitors, as you like. Right click on the preview window and select 'Detach Window', then drag the detached camera preview on to the screen you want. Your arrangement should be in the same position each time you start the software.

Security Monitor Pro can broadcast live video from your cameras. You can view the live video from a remote PC. To use broadcasting click Actions >> Start Broadcasting. You will receive a link in the log window that you can use to view the broadcast. This link will work from another PC on your local network. To view the broadcast from outside your network, please see the following article: https://www.deskshare.com/resources/articles/wcm_Internet_Streaming.aspx

When you start broadcasting Security Monitor Pro will start listening for a connection. Data is only transferred when you view a broadcast from a remote PC. If there is no client connected to the broadcast stream, there is no data usage. If you make a purchase of version 4, you will get free updates to all releases numbered 4.xx. When version 5 is released you will be able to upgrade at a low cost.

Directly connecting the USB cameras to the PC will allow Security Monitor Pro to see them individually. Viewing through a USB DVR device will show all the cameras in a single image. Any masked area you use does not appear in your recording. Nothing will be obstructed from view in the recorded video. More information about masking is available here. To get the maximum quality in the recording, click Camera >> Manage Cameras, select your camera, click the 'Edit Camera' button. Choose 'Actions' and click on the 'Configure' button. In the Video Recording Options move the slider for Video Quality to the highest level.

[quote=straydog]I have a Sanyo VCC-HD2500 which is supported by Security Monitor Pro. But when I select it and test the camera I get an error saying that the stream is not supported. I have tried both the formats supported by the camera. Any suggestions on other things to try? Thanks[/quote] I own a similar model of Sanyo's. It is the VCC-HD2300. You have to install Microsoft's NET Framework, and you have to install Sanyo's own plug-in for video. And if anything goes wrong, over time, then your first remedy is to re-install both again. They can get clobbered by other applications. Be certain you have the latest Sanyo firmware installed on your Sanyo IP camera. In my model of Sanyo camera, the firmware update did correct some bugs. Unfortunately, however, the Sanyo firmware installer only works with versions 6 or 7 of Internet Explorer. That means you will be inconvenienced, if you are using IE 9 that comes with Windows 7. In a worst-case scenario, you would have to send your camera to Sanyo to let Sanyo update your firmware for free. Much of this is undocumented by Sanyo. I learned it, via email exchanges with a Sanyo employee.

There are two settings related to drive space in Security Monitor Pro - the temporary working drive and the recordings drive. It sounds like you are using the default settings. Make sure the temporary drive has adequate storage space, a minimum of 1GB is required. You can check the 'Temporary Working Folder' you are using by clicking Tools >> Application Settings >> Advanced. If drive is full, click on the Browse button to select a drive and folder that has more space. See this page for an illustrated example of selecting the temporary folder.

It is easy to calculate the amount of space needed for recordings. Security Monitor Pro records at a default of 250Kbs. Converted to bytes this is 31kbytes per second or 1.86Mbytes per minute or 111Mbytes per hour. To record for 8 hours a day you will use about 1Gbyte per camera. Or about 8Gbytes per week for the 2 cameras on your 4 day schedule. A terabyte hard drive will hold about 2 years of recordings for you.

Security Monitor Pro supports USB and IP cameras. If you are purchasing new camera's, I suggest selecting an IP camera. Some good brands are Asante, Vivotek, Axis, and Trendnet. For a bullet type camera with infrared night vision, the Vivotek 8332 works well. Here is an article that explains the difference between CCTV and IP cameras and may help you select the right camera for your surveillance setup: https://www.deskshare.com/resources/articles/wcm_SecurityCamera.aspx

You can back up your Security Monitor Pro settings by clicking File >> Backup Cameras. The backup file will contain all your camera settings along with the schedule settings. There should not be any problems with activation. On your old PC, click Help >> Deactivate and you can install and activate the software on your new computer.

Security Monitor Pro can record continuously from your IP cameras. There are two methods to start recording - one is to click on the Record button on the camera preview. The other is to set it in the schedule to start continuous recording upon application start. Here is more information about scheduling recording The internet broadcast is easily viewed from the iPod/iPhone/iPad. This information is available in this forum post.

Security Monitor Pro can record from your cameras 24 / 7. First set up Security Monitor Pro to start with Windows. Click Tools Application Settings and select 'Launch Security Monitor Pro when Windows starts'. Next, you will need to create 2 schedules. Click Tools >> Scheduler. Add a schedule and under Actions, choose 'Video Recording'. Now, select your cameras and choose a Daily schedule. Start Recording at 00:00 and stop recording at 23:59. Repeat every 1 day. For the second schedule choose 'On application Startup' and make the end time 23:59. This will configure 24 hour recording, continuously. If the PC loses power, Security Monitor Pro will resume recording when Windows is restarted.

The Hauppauge PCI card should work in Security Monitor Pro, along with most of the BT878 chipset capture cards, make sure you are using the latest drivers. You can also use a USB video grabber to capture from your CCTV camera, but I have not seen one that will work well with multiple cameras. To get good quality capture from multiple cameras, I suggest using a video server. There is a full list of supported IP cameras on this page: https://www.deskshare.com/surveillance-software-faq.aspx#9 Look for the supported video servers from Grandtec, Axis, Pixord, Vivotec, and others.

The pan and tilt functions for the Foscam 8908 IP camera can be controlled from within Security Monitor Pro. Simply hover your mouse over the preview window and click once. The pan/tilt controls will appear on the preview screen. Make your adjustments, and when you are done the controls will fade from the preview window after a few seconds. More information about the on-screen controls is available here

Security Monitor Pro has a flexible scheduling system that will allow you to perform multiple actions at the same time. First, configure the alerts you want. Edit your camera, check the box for 'Start actions when motion is detected' and select 'Video Recording', 'Take Photo', and 'Email Notifications', click OK. Next, click Tools >> Scheduler and add a new schedule, select the Monitoring with Alerts box and set the start and end time you would like. Finally, since you would like to perform this twice per day, add a another entry in the scheduler with the second start and end times you want. More scheduler information can be found here.

Security Monitor Pro will capture audio from USB cameras. Click Camera >> Add New Camera and select 'USB Camera'. In the Camera Audio pulldown menu choose the camera to capture audio from. You can view a picture of the configuration screen here.