Subscriber Discussion

Suggestion For Digital Watchdog Trial Programs

Undisclosed #1

•Apr 13, 2017

IPVMU Certified

Digital Watchdog, (Network Optix), has a pretty nice trial:

unlimited free live monitoring forever
4-camera recording for 1 month

After the month is up, you must either buy licenses or it stops recording and reverts to live view only.

Which is fair enough.

However, I think it would be better if it kept recording after the trial expired, but just denied access to the video until you bought the licenses.

You might get an extra sale or two from people like me who were just planning to get around to buying the licenses any day now, but due to arrogant laziness haven't quite gotten to it yet.

But in the mean time there is an "incident" and your wife wants you to pull the video because you might have given the impression that the system was "good to go". A term which I'm sure everyone here understands, doesn't include licensing acquisition, as that is merely a financial transaction and doesn't involve technical installation and configuration of sophisticated equipment.

But still you dread making that argument and would gladly just buy the dang licenses right now if you could get the video.

Please say it works like this already :)

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(2)

Jay Hobdy

•Apr 13, 2017

IPVMU Certified

I think the husband should buy the licenses anyway to avoid this issue again :)

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(3)

Undisclosed #1

•Apr 13, 2017

IPVMU Certified

In reply to Jay Hobdy

It's too late for me I know;

this was really for anyone else who may fall into the same trap.

and also for DW maybe to convert a few more freeloaders.

I can only guess that there are many people using DW free on multi-camera systems in live-only mode, since it's a good piece of software.

And if you are using it free long enough, knowing full well it's limitations, something will inevitably happen that you wish you could get the footage of. Even something that you saw live.

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Sergey Bystrov

•Apr 13, 2017

NetworkOptix

Hello U1

I'm the product manager for the product and I got your point.
we will consider it, but have to warn you it's not super easy to implement.

Developers are going to ask: what if you had license(permanent) and by some reason it was removed, do you still have access to the archive?
And other million questions like that.

Not saying "no", thank you very much!

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(1)

Undisclosed #1

•Apr 13, 2017

IPVMU Certified

In reply to Sergey Bystrov

Developers are going to ask: what if you had license(permanent) and by some reason it was removed, do you still have access to the archive?

Have them re-install the license and then they can access the archive?

Does that scenario happen often?

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Sergey Bystrov

•Apr 13, 2017

NetworkOptix

In reply to Undisclosed #1

U1, I was just giving you one example(just an example) of the issue.
I'm not saying it's typical. Although the scenario where you take storage with recorded footage out of the system to investigate somewhere else - is quite typical.
But again the point is that is just one of the examples.

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Kyle Folger

•Apr 13, 2017

IPVMU Certified

I can't recall if they do this or not, but a simple way for the future could be to sign up for an account to begin the trial using an email address. After activating the trial license, this could send a trigger to the email account. A few days before the trial expires, an email could be sent alerting you to the trial expiring. This way, you don't forget about the trial expiring and at least get a reminder.

Any time i setup a trial though, that's what it is. I don't expect to do anything but try the software. I would already have a working system that is recording for anything important and run the software on the same server as my working system or test it on an additional system.

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(1)

Sergey Bystrov

•Apr 13, 2017

NetworkOptix

In reply to Kyle Folger

agree

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Undisclosed Integrator #2

•Apr 14, 2017

The problem with "re-coding" the entire DW/Optix platform for recording without valid licenses is that the video is unencrypted video files on the storage array.

I've been installing Spectrum for close to 5 years and have over 100 systems deployed (and 1200 IP licenses).

Whoever is installing the software should KNOW that the recording for 4 cameras is only temporary. I think if NAG messages can be implemented every time you log in, this will remind you to purchase licenses WAY BEFORE the demo expires. I normally receive these warnings, but it's not implemented in the IOS/Android app (that would be valuable).

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Undisclosed #1

•Apr 14, 2017

IPVMU Certified

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #2

The problem with "re-coding" the entire DW/Optix platform for recording without valid licenses is that the video is unencrypted video files on the storage array.

Are they in a container that can be played directly from VLC, for instance?

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Undisclosed Integrator #2

•Apr 14, 2017

In reply to Undisclosed #1

Correct! The file structure is brillant because you can re-organize your files and then "Rebuild" the database.

Point is: buy the licenses and use the software to playback video. The search function is the best I've ever seen.

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Undisclosed #1

•Apr 14, 2017

IPVMU Certified

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #2