toelke

I'm planning to buy 3 or 4 VCM-24VF cameras. They'll be outdoors, one very close to the DVR (less than 25 feet), the others much farther away (>150ft cable run) If I use CAT5 and baluns for the cabling, will the baluns and everything fit in the back-box? Or should I buy coax+power cable at the local Frye's electronic store?

AC is usually defined as a sinusoidal waveform of alternating current (positive and negative current). But not all sinusoidal (or complex multi-frequency sinusoidal) waveforms are Alternating Current. I think very little current is actually being sent in the case of a TV video signal. And if I believe this: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/tv9.htm then it's all positive voltages - so no negative currents, so not an AC signal. Of course that's showing a 2V p-p; while the specs of these cameras are 1V p-p. So probably not the right diagram for cctv cameras. I am not regularly working in a room with a O-scope, and frankly don't care enough to find out exactly what a real waveform for a camera looks like. I'd say it's reasonable to say it "looks like an AC waveform". If the reference voltage (aka ground) is within the 1V p-p, then it not only looks like, it actually is an AC waveform. (The waveform is a set of sinusoids at various frequencies making a more complex waveform.)

So I'm currently leaning towards getting one of the CNB VBM-24VF, try it out, and then maybe get 3 more. But I have a few questions I'm wondering about. If I have CAT5 cable running along the surface of the wall, and this mounted on the surface of the wall, is there enough room inside the enclosure to make all the necessary connections? (I wouldn't want the connections to be exposed to the weather) Would this be over-buying on the camera? Is the DVR/monitor combo going to limit what's visible, and while the camera would be great if paired with a higher-resolution setup, it's overkill, and we'd be better off with a lesser camera that is cheaper? I think this is the system we have: http://lorexstore.lorextechnology.com/product.aspx?id=1847&nav=2 http://lorexstore.lorextechnology.com/pdfs/L20WD800_series_specs_R3.pdf I'm not positive - but the connections on the back are the same, and the front panel is the same, so I believe this is what we have. And the spec page above says for the DVR: Recording Resolution: 704x480, 704x240, 352x240(NTSC), 704x576, 704x288, 352x288(PAL) Lastly - is there some nice combination video Balun & power-supply wall-wart that could be used at the DVR/monitor end to supply the power down the line to the camera? I found plain BNC baluns. But I think I need something that'll look more professional than a split in the CAT5 sheathing and some wires going to the balun, and others off to a power supply.

Looking through other recent threads, I looked at this CNB camera ( VBM-24VF ) http://cnbusa.com/en/html/product/product.php?inc=spe&seqx_prod=1077#p_v1 I like it's variable focal length - would let us dial-in just how wide of a view we need. One thing that's not clear to me is just what angle it can point to... Could I mount it with the dome pointing perpendicular to the wall? And have the camera's view skimming the wall? Another thing I saw that I liked about it was that it apparently can use UTP, including for power. (which would be nice for installation - run one CAT5 cable up through the attic, across the attic, down the outside wall, hook it up, and I'm done) I see your points... And after thinking about it, I think we should use non-PTZ cameras... - get it set it up and leave it. If we have something that needs to be zoomed in regularly, just have a second camera zoomed in on that door. It appears on most of the specs - for example on the CNB above it says: Video Output Level 1.0 Vp-p (75Ω, Composite)

I'm sure I have channels available. It's an 8 channel DVR. There are 8 BNC ports, and 4 DINs. As you said DIN port 1 and BNC port 1 are the same channel. And we already have ports1-4 occupied on the DIN side. I don't have the model number handy at the moment.

I am on the advisory board of a church-run preschool. And we are adding security cameras to the facility. One of our church members donated a DVR+monitor+camera system from Lorex with 4 cameras, and that's been installed. Now we'd like to install a few more cameras. There is connections for up to 8 cameras on the unit. Four are DIN or BNC (and have DIN cameras on them already) The remaining four are BNC connections only. One of the cameras will be mounted about 100ft away (opposite side of the building). And IMO it'd be nice if that one had Pan/Tilt/Zoom. What's reasonable cable distance for these things? Is 100ft or 150ft doable without worries? Should I just go with the Lorex brand cameras? Or are there better ones I can get for the same money? If I don't go with Lorex's, what do I look for with video output? I see "1.0V p-p" for one camera's spec for video output - I don't know what that means though. What else should I look for? Thanks in advance for helping out our non-profit organization.