My Digital Video Security Setup

OK folks. Here is my system.

Application: 1600sf quik mart

Cameras:

3 Sony SSC-CX13v color cameras (solid cams so far)- behind registers facing customers

4 Sony SCC-CD33v Domes - retail floor ; 1 is a spare for when one goes down ( 2 failed so far, both repaired free by sony)

1 bullet camera (solid cam) - used as door entry camera

1 hidden camera - for inventory store room ( very handy item indeed)

2 MD-4 (supercircuits) mini domes for top view over registers- have not gotten these to work yet, have to recheck my connections.

4 Outdoor Pro-Paks- Heated housing with TG2Z3514FCS & YCH-02 (3.5- 8mm DC A/I Lens / Hi-Res Color Camera)

Digital Video System

Geovision gv800 16 cam

Dell Dimension PC 2GHZ Pentium 512 ram - no mods yet

1 western digital 250g HD

1 western digital 120g HD

1 western digital 120g HD - failed after 10 months; will become backup drive once fixed.

Windows 2000 professional - latest service packs;

Misc:

1 Ganz 14 color monitor - I attached bullet cam to its hanger (vmp-046 bracket)

1 Altronix 16 cam 24v power supply

1 Stealth 4 cam 12vdc power supply

3 panavise deluxe mounts for Sony SSC-CX13v's

DSL Service for remote monitoring

I think thats everything, if not I'll add it later. I am satisfied with this systems so far, although I am not extremely happy with it. With what I was reading on the various web sites, I thought I would have more trouble with the geovision card than the other stuff. That just has not been the case. Two Sony domes and 1 harddrive have failed so far. I was very surprised the Sonys went down after about a year each but they have very good warranty service. The harddrive will also be replaced for free by Western Digital.

Questions, comments? Want to share a system you setup.

Thats what this forum is for.

Nice system.

Question. How much time do you get out of that 370gigs of space.

Hello F150 ,

I can usually get about 12 days worth of video. The cameras are set to motion detect only but sometimes they run at length anyway because of the video noise that the cameras pick up. I found that playing around with masking certain sections of the view helps but not in all situations.

So is that go or bad?

larry

We have installed nearly 20 Geovision systems. so far so good

Yeah I think with dvr cards the computer is the critical component. I am going to add fans to the harddrives. Lack of proper ventilation was probably the reason behind the HD failure. The fans are only about 15 bucks each and they don't draw much current.

Some Tips.

Geo has motion sensitivity settings and that may help reduce your noise problem, not using correctly shielded or good grade copper can also produce noise.

I have done over 272 Geo systems so far, they are an awesome system so if you have any questions I can sure help you out!

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2003 7:21 pm Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yeah I think with dvr cards the computer is the critical component. I am going to add fans to the harddrives. Lack of proper ventilation was probably the reason behind the HD failure. The fans are only about 15 bucks each and they don't draw much current.

Stear away from Western Digital or IBM drives, seagate or maxtor and never mount them next to each other, buy the brackets to extend the IDE bays and use cooling bays with LED lights to detect temperatures.

You can use rackmounts as they keep the air flow going and keep the conexant chipsets cool especially if you are to mount a Real Time Card Next to them.

A UPS will solve 95% of all DVR problems if it can be a software ups.. as because the buffering of files into memories is not closed on blackout or sag in power, it leaves corrupted video files in the HDD which should also be partitioned so as not to strangle the swap file, corrupt files = reboots and problems.

Welcome to the forum DVR_Expert_Australia!

Thanks for the tips. This is exactly why I started this forum. I searched for info and could not find enough before I placed the order for the equipment so I had to make guess on alot of it. With 272 installs of Geovision your knowledge is valuable.

A UPS will solve 95% of all DVR problems if it can be a software ups.. as because the buffering of files into memories is not closed on blackout or sag in power, it leaves corrupted video files in the HDD which should also be partitioned so as not to strangle the swap file, corrupt files = reboots and problems.

I have a UPS but did not install the shut down software. I was afraid it would mess up the GeoVision software. I will install it now.

Stear away from Western Digital or IBM drives, seagate or maxtor and never mount them next to each other, buy the brackets to extend the IDE bays and use cooling bays with LED lights to detect temperatures.

Are you saying stay away from Western Digital, IBM, Seagate and Maxtor - or just the first two in the group. Because if all four, who else is there. I will order the extentions when I order the cooling fans.

Are you saying stay away from Western Digital, IBM, Seagate and Maxtor - or just the first two in the group. Because if all four, who else is there. I will order the extentions when I order the cooling fans.

I think he means go with seagate or maxtor, as their hard drives are normally stronger or last longer. Maxtor has some larger hard drives too I believe, and Seagate has faster ones. (not sure been out of the PC hardware game for a while).

If you were in the Bahamas as well as a UPS, id suggest a Line Conditioner, as a UPS will not protect you from damage to hard disks and other hardware due to low voltage dips, etc. Ive seen computers literally fried even with UPS installed. We have some of the worst Power Equipment in the world here. Ive had a line conditioner for 5 years now, and never lost anything, everyone i knows that do not use a LN have gone through harddrive after hard drive or mother board after motherboard, or power supply after ..you get the point. As i also worked in the alarm service business for 5 years for a major monitoring company here, ive seen i with every type of electronic equipment; Hard Drives are just very fragile.

The computer stores here have burned equipment on display for clients to see what not having one can leave you with, BUT, that is here, FIRST world countries have better Power equipment.

Our power goes off at least 3-5 times a week, sometimes 2 hours, or as long as 2 days. Its soo normal here that we are 'kindof' used to it. Basically its government spending money in the wrong places.

On another note, you may want to look at a standalone machine, still with UPS and LN, as its soo easy to setup and almost totally maintenance free.

Wow there are some good points in here.

1/Firstly, I meant to say buy Seagate or Maxtor they will fail less, try to buy 7200 Spin hard drives too but never mount right next to each other, you can purchase extender brackets to mount extra drives.

2/ Purchase drive cooler bays and if you are mounting this many drives of that size you should be usuing a bigger power supply for the computer, try to use rackmounts for the airflow and if there is an extra mount for a fan in your case then use it, especially exhuast fans, you can put small heatsinks on the connexant chips but be carefull.

3/ The GV600, GV900 (200Fps) and GV1000 have gain control settings for each camera and that should fix your noise problem, power spikes and light changes can also affect motioned recording and use of a line filter is great option.

4/ Relays through the optional I/O board will alow you to use sensors to detect movement and this is much more accurate.

5/ Only use intel chipsets and make sure your video card supports hardware overlay or you will not be able to go to full screen. Geovision will release motion pop up next week, making each camera go to full screen when it detects movement, they will also relaease POS interface and Object counters as well as thumbnail indexed searching and the Web option will be new as well, they also released their own codec and I would suggest you warn your customer not to upgrade untill you check compatability.

6/ Geo uses post and pre event recording which stays in memory, therefore if the power goes out and no UPS is there it will not close its AVI file and therefore you have corruption on the second drive (never record to the default path) this leads to the index getting confused, there are many ways to fix the probem, 1/ Software UPS 2/ Use thumbnail view (only works in XP) in the video storage folder and view each folder as individual dates and in thumbnail view, if dates are out of order or seem weird, then there probably will be corruption in the folder, also if when you change to thumbnail view it does not preview on each folder what is inside each date (pictures) then it probably has corruption and if it wont play in windows media player when you try to open the suspected corrupted file then you need to get rid of it.

3/ Run the repair database utility always after any removal of video files.

I told Geo of their issue and they wrote a repair AVI utility but I have not tested it yet OHHH and yes this happens to all products on the market except linux based dvr's

Lastly, you do not need to buy branded cameras to get good performance, half of them are re-badged anyhow! PS bet you like the Ganz gear.. Oh yeh and never use a bullet to view a door unless from an angle as most bullets do not have auto iris and not many are wide dynamic so your customers face might look black and shadowed if bright light is behind them.

Lastly, you do not need to buy branded cameras to get good performance, half of them are re-badged anyhow! PS bet you like the Ganz gear.. Oh yeh and never use a bullet to view a door unless from an angle as most bullets do not have auto iris and not many are wide dynamic so your customers face might look black and shadowed if bright light is behind them.

branded cameras makea big difference, if you buy the right one. with digital video the qualit of the picture is only as good as the camera itself. that said, though just because you buy a sony or ultrack doesnt mean its going to be a better picture or last longer than a cheaper provideo bullet camera . it just depends what you need and what you are happy selling/using. testing many brands of cameras will help as someare better than others for different situations. I havent seen one company that makes one full line of great products, mostly just they make a couple good ones, and same with the others.

Id stay far away from the noname brands like some cheaper companies sell as theirs, when they actually are just bought from asia and had stamped their logo on it. I had many problems with some cameras like this in the past, and some with the major brand names also! For instance Sanyo cameras are inexpensive (compared to others like sony, Kalatel, etc), and give one of the best pictures i have seen yet, with 520TVL in color. Though i wouldnt use them for every situation.

In my opinion either Sanyo or Ganz are the best cameras on the market, Sony does not release all of its CCD chips to other manufactorers however there are many grades of Sony chip available to the market and some manufactorers use cheaper grade ones and really it comes down to the components used to generate the signal as well, for example how good the electronics are. However you can buy good quality Korean cameras that in my opinion are not that much different than Sony but they do not have the overheads therefore the cost is less and you can buy direct not from a distrbutor.. there are guys that are very cheap in Korea and they sell Sharp and Sanyo chipped cameras,, in my experience the order of quality in manufacture goes... Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese and I will only sell Japanese and Korean.. Japanese Manufacture is always the best!

The sanyo Cameras Rock!! especially the one with built in motion tracking.. no one else does 520TV lines yet that I am aware of, mind you the Ganz camera range is Cheaper and very very good indeed, so is Panasonic but they recently had problems with their CCD chips.

yes, i do like the features Sanyo has in its regular cameras, and its domes.

I hooked up 1 panasonic and it had some good backlighting. Didnt like the look of them i saw on the web, but this one looked 'normal'!

I havent checked out Ganz yet will take a look now.

Its expensive though for us to buy from asia, since we are so far away, but you guys are right there Maybe i should move! I have some family over there, my brother is supposed to be moving there soon, getting his australian citizenship straight now

In my opinion either Sanyo or Ganz are the best cameras on the market, Sony does not release all of its CCD chips to other manufactorers however there are many grades of Sony chip available to the market and some manufactorers use cheaper grade ones and really it comes down to the components used to generate the signal as well, for example how good the electronics are. However you can buy good quality Korean cameras that in my opinion are not that much different than Sony but they do not have the overheads therefore the cost is less and you can buy direct not from a distrbutor.. there are guys that are very cheap in Korea and they sell Sharp and Sanyo chipped cameras,, in my experience the order of quality in manufacture goes... Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese and I will only sell Japanese and Korean.. Japanese Manufacture is always the best!

 

The sanyo Cameras Rock!! especially the one with built in motion tracking.. no one else does 520TV lines yet that I am aware of, mind you the Ganz camera range is Cheaper and very very good indeed, so is Panasonic but they recently had problems with their CCD chips.

Have you used many Ganz Cameras? Are they as good as Sanyo? I like their housings, and i currently use the computar lenses. They seem cheaper than Sanyo?? Cheap is what we need here in the bahamas due to high customs tax, but i also still need quality.

I dont like the look of their mux, prefer black/charcoal colored like with Kalatels, but maybe i can use their quads.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks

Rory

In my opinion either Sanyo or Ganz are the best cameras on the market, Sony does not release all of its CCD chips to other manufactorers however there are many grades of Sony chip available to the market and some manufactorers use cheaper grade ones and really it comes down to the components used to generate the signal as well, for example how good the electronics are. However you can buy good quality Korean cameras that in my opinion are not that much different than Sony but they do not have the overheads therefore the cost is less and you can buy direct not from a distrbutor.. there are guys that are very cheap in Korea and they sell Sharp and Sanyo chipped cameras,, in my experience the order of quality in manufacture goes... Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese and I will only sell Japanese and Korean.. Japanese Manufacture is always the best!

 

The sanyo Cameras Rock!! especially the one with built in motion tracking.. no one else does 520TV lines yet that I am aware of, mind you the Ganz camera range is Cheaper and very very good indeed, so is Panasonic but they recently had problems with their CCD chips.

Rory,

Ganz are pound for pound the best quality cameras for price in the market, i am not biazed but Japanese seems to be always the best, I mean these guys make Computar lenses too so you get the best combinations, Their wide dynamic cameras are second only to Ikagami but half the price.

I agree with our OZ associate in that the Ganz are definitely top quality and a very reasonable price. I used to be a master distributor for Computar and Ganz and found them exceptionally reliable and backed by a factory who is second only to Pelco when it comes to customer service. Maybe equal to Pelco.

I agree with our OZ associate in that the Ganz are definitely top quality and a very reasonable price. I used to be a master distributor for Computar and Ganz and found them exceptionally reliable and backed by a factory who is second only to Pelco when it comes to customer service. Maybe equal to Pelco.

ok thanks both, ill have to get my hands on one of them.

Rory

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Originally posted by AVCONSULTING:

I agree with our OZ associate in that the Ganz are definitely top quality and a very reasonable price. I used to be a master distributor for Computar and Ganz and found them exceptionally reliable and backed by a factory who is second only to Pelco when it comes to customer service. Maybe equal to Pelco.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why did you stop selling them, we have had no problems with them at all, just curious?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Originally posted by AVCONSULTING:

I agree with our OZ associate in that the Ganz are definitely top quality and a very reasonable price. I used to be a master distributor for Computar and Ganz and found them exceptionally reliable and backed by a factory who is second only to Pelco when it comes to customer service. Maybe equal to Pelco.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why did you stop selling them, we have had no problems with them at all, just curious?

I dont think he is in the biz as much anymore, not sure, i think he owned / managed a secu company for years that sold them, which is probably what he means.

Rory is right. I sold my company to an international distributor called Richardson Electronics and retired to, what else, consulting. The last refuge before going to the old persons home. I've had many years experience with CBC which is the parent company of Ganz, Computar, etc. I know the owners and all the people at the factory and they have the greatest service around, except for maybe Pelco. The products are very good and reasonably priced. You can't go wrong with them.

we currently deal with a Mr Toyota, tell me why the US Ganz (CBC) sells different models to the Japan office?

Any tips you can give us in dealing with them?

I'm not sure what they do in the other areas of the world since I only handled the U.S. distribution. Here is the link to the web site showing the models I carried. The regional office for CBC is in Torrance, CA about 5 miles from where I live so I'm still in touch with the RSM, we have lunch about once a month. If you have any specific models you have a question about I can ask him and see what he knows.

www.cbcamerica.com

We sell their entire range of PAL cams, I wonder why two different models for same company? I would be keen to know prices too.

Is there an Australian site for the cameras? I don't know what cameras they have for other areas in PAL version. Of course all the cameras here are NTSC. Here is a link to a distributor and you can get dealer prices by signing on and getting a password. No charge for that. They just don't want end users getting on the site and looking at wholesale prices. They usually mark up around 20% from their cost so you can figure out what distributor is pretty easily. Hope it helps.

http://www.vsscctv.com/ManufacturerProducts.asp?ManufacturerID=127

Thanks

Can you email me a password? digitalsecurity@westnet.com.au