bcarusi

They did ask a lot of questions (although I notice none of the blanks were required - I only gave them my email so I could get set up) - And they didn't charge me anything - I did just find the reference to the $99 per year but best I can tell that is a possible charge after the beta runs out a year from now. I don't know how they could enforce it since they do not have my credit card number. I suppose they could cut me off but no way to charge me I don't think... Anyway - it was interesting in that I had to tweak my motion detection settings to get the snapshots to give me exactly what I wanted (before I adjusted I got a lot of people's backs walking away) - They are missing instructions on how to do that. But now I like the snapshots - I get little grabs of what is going on at home and at my business and dont have full motion video bogging down my connection all the time -I kind of like it. Sounds like I'm in the minority though. Oh - and I didn't open any ports - I'm not really sure how it works but the router is completely locked down. I think it is like dyndns. BC

That is what I've been playing with (See other thread here)... http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=26338 It works well for me (The free software accesses you from the DVR via Skype) Not sure it has caught on yet though. I'm about 2 weeks into using it with no issues so far. BC

Howdy: I just installed a new application that I was wondering if anyone else had used - The company I bought my system from has a free software package that enables your DVR to skype you - and there is a nice little desktop application that lets me quickly page back and forth through still pics of motion (detection) timestamped. Much easier for the casual monitoring than eating up all the bandwidth of real time video. I'm impressed but have not heard much about it. Screenshot and link below - Thoughts? That is a pic from their website - The page for it is here: http://www.amperordirect.com/pc/r-resources-security-special/z-reference-security-cam-link.html I'm asking because I'd like to use it in more applications but wondering how reliable it is etc. Seems good but havn't seen much discussion yet. BC

Actually any good coax cable... I ended up running RG6 Quad Shield on the advice of a prewire book (http://www.bocsco.com/prewireyourhome.zip ) and it turns out that I got more distance with less noise. Clearly it is not a result of the increased frequency performance of the RG6, my bet is that the double shield is what helped. Anyone seen a comparison of RG59/RG6 for non-modulated video? BC

I've now bought 4 systems from http://www.amperordirect.com The website needs a little work, but they seem to sell mostly Aposonic and I've been extremely pleased both with the quality and the service (They have some great tutorials and will help you through setup) BC

Well, noone complained about the slight change in topic, so I'll continue until "nudged"... I got the wireless camera system from Sam's Club - frankly it was on off-brand but it works pretty well. The cameras have about 30IR LEDs and they say they work on 2.4GHz - the two cameras and the receiver were $180 (I think that was actually high for the quality) - but the "receiver" is just a small stand alone unit that puts out composite video - so I just ran my video cable from my R22 DVR that I got from amperordirect.com and the receiver feeds the DVR. The only problem I had was power out at the driveway, so I tapped into the 110 wire running to the light on my mailbox, inserted an outdoor plug, and power the camera from there. Camera actually has audio as well but I havn't found a need for that out at the driveway. That same website has a great intro to security systems tutorial as well as a walkthrough of a commercial installation start to finish (that I actually copied closely at my Church) - all that is kind of hard to find, it is under "resources" in the security section. Quality of the picture? not bad - I can clearly make out license plates and when there is not a car int he driveway it is a great view of the front of the house, but the quality is not as good as the hardwired dome cameras I have most of the rest of the house. I chose the 1/3" sensor cams for about $80 each from the same place. Only camera I regret is one I picked up from a street vendor at the night market in Hong Kong - funny how you really get wrapped up in how much you save when you get a $10 camera... But it came with a free watch BC

Just for fun, with the same scene issues in mind. Is there a relatively low cost PTZ camera that might work well? We use it sometimes to put a baptism up on screen and that way we could just use one camera. I can't seem to find anything in the $500 or less range - my expectations might be too high. Thanks for the above advice - I understand some of the issues now. BC

Sorry it took so long, but here are a series of pics - In order they are no lights, house lights only (no stage), "Normal" stage lighting, and full on... With an empty stage it is kind of hard to tell, but when people are up there and you are at normal or full on you pretty much just see white blobs. Zooming in would probably solve some of the lighting issues but the camera is fixed zoom - BC

The OnQ camera is actually pretty good - it has a balun built in to work over cat5 and in normal office conditions has good picture quality. It has been installed for about a month - problem is that I used it because that is the one the guy in the tutorial used - I know someone who works for OnQ (another division) and they slipped me one so I didn't feel comfortable calling their tech support in case my friend did not get it through normal channels. I think I'll give that panasonic a try - it is most definitely very wide dynamic range. For the application, I've begun looking into PTZ options as well - difficult enviornment... Thanks for all the tips. The tutorial I used is on amperordirect under resources in the security section - pretty good but they left out the part about the camera having trouble in bright light. Thanks again all. C

Not sure I have the right technical word, but I'm having an issue with brightness balance. Long story short, I found an excellent tutorial online that goes through a complete security / surveillance installation start to finish; it was pretty in-depth at 50 or so pages, but in any case, the installer put a system in a church and documented the whole thing. I was inspired and ended up buying that system for my home and one more for my own church but... The camera in the worship center looks great at "normal lighting" but on a Sunday morning when all the stage lights are on it pretty much is one big white blob... I'm using one of the On-Q bullet cameras (excellent quality but does not handle the dynamic lighting in that room well). How does one handle stage lighting? I'm guessing that my issue is that there is so much "darker area" around the edge it is just not adjusting properly - is there a better camera to recommend? The DVR is an aposonic R22 if that makes any difference. BC

I'm new but I thought I would share - (I posted in another thread about my home setup as well) - Last year I put in an Aposonic R22 that I bought from a dealer in Houston - (can't recall the name off the top of my head) - but is was about $250 for the 8 channel version. I happen to have a long driveway, and a brick mailbox with a light - my kludgy solution was to use a wireless camera with a receiver in my garage where I converted back to analog to feed into the dvr. The wireless camera (with IR) points back up my driveway toward my house so I cna see the whole house front plus catch license plates of cars that pull in my driveway. I suppose that a thief might not be gracious enough to pull up in my driveway, but it was the only solution I could come up with. I've had good luck with it being able to grab license plates. I was actually considering putting another camera pointing up the street to catch cars driving by as I live near the entrance to the neighborhood. Just a thought. BC

Cheap DVRs... Well, I just ordered one from China - a company called Bessky. Prices were VERY cheap but shipping was high. I should receive in the next week or so and I'll post a short review. In the meantime, the one I have in my home is the aposonic R22 - it is an 8 channel. Definitely a Chinese model, but they have distributors here in the US that provide tech support. I bought it because I wanted full remote setup (via browser) and access from my android phone. There are others that do that, but this one was pretty flawless. The place I bought it actually offered a setup service - I let them log into my home computer and they took over and set the whole thing up for me. I don't recall exactly but I think I paid about $250 from some outfit in Houston - I would have to look it up if you wanted to find them. BC