If you do not wish to setup the Seedonk service, and you are comfortable with port forwarding on your router, there is no need to use the softwares on the CD to setup your camera. The initial configuration has to be done with the camera connected to the router in a wired manner. DHCP is enabled by default and the IP camera promptly picks up one from the router. Visiting the IP address using a web browser from another machine on the network presented the login screen. With the default username / password (admin/admin), we were soon up and running.

A gallery of the setup options available on the web page is provided below. There were some mild annoyances such as the requirement of the VLC plugin to use Firefox for viewing / configuration. Also, there were frequent prompts of some functions not being supported in a non-IE browser, but the functions seemed to work OK even in Firefox.

The wealth of setup options provided make it clear that the IP70 also caters to users wanting more analytics and management features. Some of the advanced features provided by Compro that is not usually found in other entry level IP cameras are:

  • Dual stream encoding (with user configurable stream properties)
  • User configurable tradeoff between higher frame rates and better picture quality
  • Configurable brightness / sharpness / saturation / white balance and other video parameters
  • Multicast setup
  • Analytics (motion detection / trigger and event setups / scheduling / IO response / audio detection etc.)
  • Recording to NAS (SMB/NFS) / local storage in case of network failure

All in all, the Compro IP70 seems to have got the feature set right, making it an attractive option for home users as well as professional home automation system installers. There is also a comprehensive guide online [PDF] describing each and every feature of the Compro IP 70.

Unboxing the Compro IP 70 Seedonk and ComproView
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  • ComproStore.com - Monday, August 1, 2011 - link

    Please visit our website we offer all the great Compro Products, IP60, IP70, IP540 PTZ, IP540P PTZ, IP570, IP570, we have the best deals around with the Compro Line.
  • jman7 - Friday, August 19, 2011 - link

    I have two of the IP540P camera which are step up from this. They removed in latest firmware in all models the ability to records to SMB, NAS or any type of server. All consumer models you derivatives of the same firmware. You can record pictures but not video to a server in the latest firmware. They added the ability to monitor your video over the Internet but took away the necessary features. I reverted back to the latest firmware which did support to recording to SMB shares but that usually locks up the camera at around the 15 hour mark or so. It does have great video for remote video but if you think it will reliably record your home your are mistaken. They have claimed since April that they will restore firmware features but so far nothing.

    I have found many other owners of Compro video products saying the same things about their cameras. I feel duped by Anandtech these products are buggy and useless and any honest review would have picked up on this within the first day. The iP540 mentions a firmware that Campro never released to customers. Evidently they responsively release firmware to reviewers but not customers.
  • A.K. - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link

    The root cause of this issue is that Compro has added a new P2P service feature called Seedonk Server onto the 2.0 release and had to make tradeoff due to the insufficient memory space; the tradeoff is the SAMBA NFS recording function.
  • A.K. - Friday, August 26, 2011 - link

    Compro does apology for users who are replying on the SAMBA NFS recording function and will release a special version of the 2.0 firmware with the SAMBA NFS 2.0 (however without the Seedonk Server function) will be available by the mid Sept.

    However, if anyone want to recording their video from Compro IP Camera, now they launch their own NAS/NVR product to the market, all firmware support the recording to their own NAS/NVR is no problem.
  • X man - Saturday, August 27, 2011 - link

    On current FW, I can use Synology server for Video Recording. And their excellent mobile solution on iPhone/iPad/Android Phome make the camera (IP70 and IP540) good IP Cameras for Home Users.
  • paul.dpoint@gmail.com - Tuesday, August 6, 2013 - link

    --- Great article. I know a company that sell's also a cheap and quality ip camera. www.dpointtectnologies.com

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