Squiffy

lol - I presume it'll be monitoring via the web? (groan...)

> Also the camera that I have came with a 500ma power supply. In the manual it says minimum is 500ma, recommended is 1Amp. Would there be an advantage to getting the 1 amp power supply such as better picture or a longer IR range at night? It may be that voltage drop caused by the IR switching on is perhaps reducing the s/n ratio of the camera. The additional noise, random in nature, appears as grain and may trigger the motion detection. Or it may simply be that the s/n ratio of the camera is causing it, regardless of any voltage drop, in which case a higher capacity PSU will not help. Are there any settings on the DVR you can tweak that relate to motion detection? Have you checked the PSU voltage when the IR kicks in?

With four cameras, that looks about the best you can do to me. You could perhaps cover the front bedroom window by changing the position of the yellow camera to the other end with a 45 degree view encompassing the bedroom window and the side of the house. The trees/bush foliage might make that a bad idea though, it's hard to say from a top down view. Having said that, the purple/red camera should provide some coverage of the bedroom window area.

With the current consumption of most cameras and the capacity of the small type of 9v batteries, then I would say your experience is to be expected. If it has any LEDs (IR, or one acting as a 'power light') then you could disconnect them to prolong the life.

The commonest failures with CCTV cameras (and indeed most electrical equipment) tends to be the drying out of electrolytic capacitors. Most often this will be in the PSU/regulation section. 'Capacitor plague' is also a problem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague Obviously heat plays a major factor in reducing the life-span, some designs are clearly better than others in that respect. If used in an extremely hot environment, then some kind of additional heatsinking would be advisable.

I personally would aim for 720x576 recording resolution. The compression used to store it on the hard drive will ultimately dictate the quality, but MPEG4 and MJPEG usually give good results when a "best recording quality" option is chosen. I would think a £400 limit for a good specification is possible, but you may need to shop around. In terms of value of money, the AVTech range of DVRs (often rebadged) are worth a look. I opted to get some cameras from Lilin, which were old stock being sold off quite cheaply, worth a look for the budget conscious: http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/LILIN-CCTV__W0QQ_armrsZ1

If you want quality, then I would say the record resolution of that DVR of 352×288 is too low.

FWIW, B-grade is currently cheaper than that eBay seller: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=228044

http://www.flickr.com/photos/64025349@N00/3804952489 For those wondering where this is from, see here: http://www.oneandother.co.uk/

Something overheating? PSU playing up? Intermittent power cable connections?

You'd need to know which crystal - there are a few inside the AVC787. It's also unclear if that's the actual problem. I suggest removing the top lid and seeing if the problem still exists, or occurs only after it's been switched on for a while. If the problem is indeed a reference oscillator that's slightly off frequency, the crystal itself may not be the problem, but the components around it may've changed value slightly (they tune it to an exact frequency).

Sounds like the DVR to me. Possibly a crystal reference oscillator has drifted off frequency. Is it used in a well ventilated area?

Using an F connector for video shouldn't be a problem at all. F connectors may seem crude, but they offer a reasonable performance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F_connector

If quality is set to highest then that will be equivalent to the highest bit-rate, so no change required. Is the image quality of those files exactly the same as you saw on screen when originally viewed on the DVR playback of the recorded footage?

What password are you using? "111111"?

As pointed out, you need an active composite video splitter, which is an inexpensive device. However, check your monitor input to see if it has a switch on the input, as some have a 75 ohm resistor which can be switched in or out of circuit. This is required for impedance matching, switching it out of circuit may give good results without using an active splitter.

I'd suggest using VirtualDub and VirtualDubMod. Although intended for editing, the playback is ideal for CCTV viewing. In addition, there are plugins you can use to zoom and enhance the video if required.

How about trying setting a username in the DVR itself, then trying again?

This may be of some use: http://rapidshare.com/files/266518583/400software.zip.html I can't remember where I originally downloaded it from, but it also had the DVR400M manual for download (I think it was a well known retailer site). I haven't used it, although I have virus checked it, use at your own risk obviously.

Personally I'd like to be sent a demo model, to see how well it performs in low lighting conditions...

If spotted on a street corner, then it's probably Auto Iris...

Another thing I'll add about the quality is that it seems quite low considering your system. I wonder what specification and settings you have on the DVR for quality? The compression artifacts are appreciable, it looks overly compressed to me, again you might want to check your settings for that and verify that the AVI files are not being recompressed from the original recording.

My immediate impression is that the video level is adjusted too low in these clips, the caption text should be peak white (unless it's set as grey), which isn't the case. You'll also obviously want to consider better lighting in the future. Im not sure cleaning up the video will give adequate results to provide recognition, although it will perhaps make people more inclined to at least watch it. You might want to put it up on YouTube and notify a local paper of the URL to see if anyone recognises the suspects. I've attempted to enhance what I consider the most useful frames, but the results aren't that helpful:

I think this will be of interest to some here: http://www.darkreading.com/insiderthreat/security/app-security/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=219000196

Hacking the WiFi is easy if it's using WEP, which some people still use, just make sure it's not you or a client...