Jasper

I was checking out dome cameras and ran across this one, which has a nice 50db S/N. Anyone here have any knowledge or experience with this camera? .5 lux, is that low enough for putting ove the top of the bar drink serving area? Thanks

Eh!, those cameras suck. Saw example live feeds for both types. Poor auto iris on the BW, not to mention the resolution didn't look so hot either. The color and BW domes were better, but still not good. Well that old saying I keep seeing around here is very true "You get what you pay for", usually. I can't believe Mcdonalds, Burger King and many others are using these crappy cameras. Must be a load of bull?

OK, how about this. I have a company that is trying to sell me on some BW/color camera's, square & domes that both use Sony Ex-View Chips have 480TVL and .0003 for BW and .05 for color? The guy I spoke to couldn't give me the S/N ration and is going to look it up for me. And he claims they some pretty big corporate accounts and named names. I would mention the name of the company, but I think the dealer forum would be the place for that. Thanks

Thanks, I can stop being concerned about that then. Now I just have to make sure the Dell motherboard that is in the system I just ordered is compatible with the GV-1420 card so I don't have any lockup problems. I wish dell would just post that information somewhere. Maybe they do and I just don't know where to find it? Anyway, thanks for the reassurance of the video card.

I just bought a new system with the above video card which uses HyperMemeroy technology, which basically uses some of the computers RAM as it's own. The system is a Dell Dual Core 2.8 (I know I am wasting one core, but well it just came with 2, what could I do?) and 1GB RAM DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz. For the Geovison 1420 card it is recommended that you get a card equal to or greater than an ATI 9550. I looked up the spec on both and decided, ah!, I am just going to ask you guys if you have any experience with the ATI X600 SE card. And most importantly will this be enough power? My guess is yes, but that’s a guess. Trying to compare AGP x? with more power but less bandwidth to communicate that power against PCI express 16 with more bandwidth but less power, yikes! Any Feedback appreciated as always.

The last two posts will get you your local IP address, but not your true IP address if you are using a router, in my case anyway. This site that Rory provided is great: http://www.whatismyip.com/ That's sure beats going into my router setup everytime to check on my real IP address and not my local non routeable address. Thanks Rory, I will be using that from now on.

If that is the major consideration I should be ok then, it does support DirectX version 9.0. Thanks

Thanks I will look into how to hook that up. Very good detterent and lots of nice light for the cameras to say "Smile your on candid camera". As far as resolution is concerned a picture truly is worth a thousand words. That picture I saw of Rory's BW 420TVL camera looked very clear. He has some nice comparison shots. Sample photos like that are very helpful. Specs and reality are sometimes very different. Thanks

Thanks for the response. The part that is confusing to me is that I have not run accross the specs for the X600 SE, which if it follows the same spec differences between the X300 and X300 SE, the X600 SE is only half as fast in overall throughput as the X600. Should be OK, but still don't know for sure.

I have not seen any tweak that worked in the registry or elsewhere, not that it's not possible, but I have never found it. I have tried different things and I still run at the same speed between 4-6 Mbps. Which is fast enough until they upgrade me 6+Mbps in the near future at no further cost. Broadband Competition is heating up again. Must be like Rory said: Dial up Don't you just love Broadband progress! I'm from the 300baud days

Questions: 1) Is ADSL possible and what thing to look out for? 2) Do I need to add/change to a router to my current using ADSL modem ? 3) Do I need a static IP or DDNS? 4) If possible provide the concept or procedure will be best and appreciated? 1) Yes you should be able to use DSL 2) I don't think you need a router. but I could be wrong? 3) A static IP address is always preferable over a dynamic IP address that keeps changing on you, some ISP's will charge an extra $5 for a static IP address 4) I think Scott got you covered on that end. I am not sure I fully understood what exactly you were trying to do, anyway I tried to help. If you don't need the protection of a hardware firewall (Router) or other features such as port forwarding, etc. A router will just complicate things for you. On the other hand if you do need a router I recommend a Linksys as they are reliable and very user friendly and almost everyone has one, so you can ask questions and a lot of people will be able to assist you.

MPEG-2 produces the best quality between it and MPEG-4. MPEG-2 files can also be easily converted to DVD complaint files and burned to DVD for playing on standard DVD home players. MPEG-2 uses less CPU to compress files than MPEG-4. Hardware compression is preferable than using the CPU if you have that option. So the power of the computer is a very strong factor if you are not using hardware compression. MPEG-4 uses much more compression, uses much less hard drive space, I have seen 4.7GB DVD's (MPEG-2) compressed to a 700MB while retaining a beautiful picture. If your computer is powerful enough to handle real time MPEG-4 compression that's what I would use because you save so much space and you can reverse compress those files back to DVD format easily as well if you want to burn them to DVD. Also MPEG-4 version 10 seems to be even more effective at maintaining a higher quality image and compressing files even smaller. H.264 is the name of the advanced video codec that is used to accomplish this task. MPEG-4 files are also very easy to stream across the internet for remote viewing The bit rate is so much lower than MPEG-2. MPEG-2 is not practical unless you have enormous bandwidth on each side. Even then I would still go with MPEG-4 because it is technically superior in just about every way. The other file format you mentioned I am not familiar with. Maybe somebody else in the forum can discuss the pros and cons of that format.

Sorry about that I keep forgetting, I guess I am tireder than I thought. Thanks for all the information, much appreciated.

I have not really looked into the full capablities of the Geovison software. The motion floodlights on a timer is the easiest solution the more I think about it. I just need to put a timer for it to come on after hours when the bar is empty. I thought maybe their might be a way to activate the lights through using the Geovision software when the camera detects motion, but who wants to run cable unless they need to, if Geovision is even capable of that feature?

Yeah, I think the idea of putting in some flood lights with a motion sensor and a timer would be the solution. Do you know if there is a way for me to use the Geovison software to maybe help me in this regard? You must be an all-nighter like me. It will be daylight there pretty soon. Thanks again.

I like that WizKid bullet specs of 560TVL, but doesn't have IR and don't want to spend money for an Illuminator. Well maybe a burglar will bring a powerful enough flashlight? I saw those pictures in another thread of the 420TVL bullet camera and I am impressed with the image quality. You said the IR on those were basically useless so maybe I'll try the WizKid? Have you ever used the High-Res WizKid bullet? If the IR doesn't really work on the other camera than I might as well go for the WizKid or look for another camera that does have IR that will work

Wrong place to post that question. Also realized that bullet camera is 380TVL not 420. Anyway, oops.

That's why I like your advice because I can spend weeks researching and because of your experience with so many products you know what is good. If I was to buy that 420TVL bullet CVC-325WPSW you recommended would that compare to some of the cheaper 480TVL cameras you have seen? If I was to go up to 520TVL BW would that be overkill if recording at 640x480 on a Geovison using MPEG-4? If a 480TVL or 520TVL camera would make a difference in overall quality do you know of any bullet cameras with IR that you could recommend or is the CVC-325WPSW good enough? Thanks

That is the same thing I was trying to figure out in the beginning. You need to look at the specs for each camera to get an idea. Alot of them will have an estimate of the horz x vertical. TVL This is a measure of the resolution of a video device. Higher number is higher resolution. 380 TVL is considered medium resolution. 480 TVL or greater is considered high resolution. What resolution would you like to capture at?

You might want to check this site out: Lots of good information and other links to other sites. Good sample images. Hope this is helpful http://www.x20.org/thermal/

Hi, I have been really having a difficult time trying to pick out the proper cameras for my application, which is a ****tail Lounge. My current thinking is 4 color dome cameras’ (3 with varifocal lenses, 2.8 or 3.6-8mm or >) for monitoring the bar area (1 night vision capable) and one color day/night bullet camera to monitor the back room where several coin-operated games and two pool tables with lots of neon signs around the room. Would an IR/Cut filter be necessary to get the proper colors? 1 dome will be mounted from behind the cash register pointing down at the register. My current thinking for behind the bar is: 1 color dome night vision capable camera (in case of break-in), 2 color domes with low light sensitivity and one high resolution dome for over the cash register. I’ve looked at Sanyo, Gantz, Wizkid, Speco, etc I wish I could provide a link to a few photos to show you the areas, it seems fairly well lit, but I don’t have a site to pull them from at the moment. My budget is about $1000 or so for five cameras. I will be using a Geovison 1240 capture card and software. I've read through many posts and it seems the consensus is black and white for bar applications, but if a reasonably good quality image can be produced in color, they prefer them. Any feedback greatly appreciated, Thank you.

Left one out, my god you responded so fast I thought you were in the next room. Thanks. I'll be busy for awhile checking those out.

Well I guess I knew in the back of my mind that Black and White was the best choice. Now I can concentrate on finding High Res BW cameras. This is going to be a big step up for them. They are currently using a 1996 Focus FS-412Q observation system connected to a VCR. I wish I could find the manual on it just to see what the cameras specs were. They work ok, but the bar is going to like the features of the digital system. Rory, the camera specs on that bullet above look pretty good, that camera can operate up to 90 feet of water? I'll also be interested to see a screen shot from that Sanyo Day/Night dome your installing. What's the model number? Here is a pic of the back room where I want to put the bullet camera. Wonder if it would be worth it to get something above 420TVL for this camera for sharper image to see someone going in or out of the those two doors? Any recommendations on the domes would be great. (Thanks Rory for the host)

I have had several hard drive enclosures. My newest favorite one is a Venus DS3 made by AMS I believe. It has silent fan, very small foot print and durable. They have USB 2.0 or Combo Firewire 1394A and USB 2.0. USB will give you maximum of 34MBps while Firewire will give you 40MBps. USB 2.0 you cant run cable up to 5 meters, if that is an option. I bought my enclusre at www.newegg.com, no affilation, just a computer junkie.