I am setting up a system for a friend who only wants to be able to view his cameras live. I was thinking of running the cameras to a multiplexer any other ideas?

Using a mutliplexer would be fine. They can select to display any one of the cameras, or autosequence between all the cameras, or display 4/8/16 at a time, etc..

Or you could purchase a DVR that has a video output and will essentially create a tile of cameras for you. That may actually be cheaper in some cases.

Thanks for the input

You asked for other ideas, so...

Is this to view locally? My family can care less about viewing remotely or playback, but everyone likes the option of seeing the cameras on TV. So I installed a modulator from ChannelPlus. Now when someone rings the doorbell you can turn to channel 72 on any TV in the house to see the front door. Then of course, they can pick up the closest phone and speak with the visitor through the intercom! 8)

I have 4 cameras on the modulator. we picked channels 72, 74, 76, and 78 because they weren't being used by our cable company.

The cameras would be viewed locally. Your set up sounds pretty nice and convenient. I will do some research on the modulator. How much would I be looking at spending on the modulator. Is there also a way to have the tv automatically tune into the channel 72 (in your case) when the cameras sense motion..

C7 in CA, do you have cable TV? Do you have High Def, and/or DVRs (cable company owned), and/or do you have "on demand" video?

Just curious if you were modulating with digital signals, and/or High Def signals??

I have CATV straight into a ChannelPlus amplifier. I also feed the ChannelPlus Modulator into the amp. The amp outputs to the TV's in the house. I have TiVo but no cable boxes.

The amp is DTV compatible. I don't really know what to expect when the whole DTV thing hits Feb. 09. But I have an HDTV now and it receives the modulated channels, so I don't expect that to change. The TiVo TV's will get the TiVo HD upgrade but the others will probably only get converter boxes. TiVo HD passes analog signals now, so I don't expect that to change either. I don't know if the converter boxes will pass my modulated channels or not? I guess we will see.

ouijadon, if your DVR has alarm outputs then you can trigger whatever you want to happen. It is just a matter of finding the correct interface. There maybe an off the shelf solution for changing channels. If not, I bet it would be a good project for an electronics guy. I envision the alarm contact triggering a relay that fires an IR emitter that changes the channel? I bet it is something our fellow member "Scruit" could come up with.

Personally I wouldn't want it changing the channel, but popping up Picture In Picture of the front door camera would be cool!

http://xantech.com/

REMOTE VIDEO SWITCHER (USING IR):
http://xantech.com/products/av_distribution/RS41AV.htm



PRE-AMP A/V DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM:
http://xantech.com/products/av_distribution/ZPR6810.htm

Computer to IR:
http://xantech.com/products/controllers_switchers/rs232ir.htm

Video Sensor Module:
http://xantech.com/products/controllers_switchers/smvid01.htm