Soundy

That depends on the balun and its specific design. Think of a balun as a "twisted pair to BNC adapter" - there are different styles that can be connected in different ways. For example, this is this is the most common style (two terminals on one side, male BNC on the other side) that you can connect directly to a camera and DVR: For example, here's one way you could do this, with four cameras on one floor: - Pull a Cat5 run from the phone closet on that floor, to each of your camera locations. - Use one of the above baluns on the camera, with one pair of the Cat5 (I normally use the blue pair). - Split out two pairs of wire for power (I normally use orange and green) - Put the power supply(ies) for your cameras in that phone closet as well - Connect the power pairs for each camera to the power supply(ies) - Pull one Cat5 run from that phone closet to your DVR location - Connect each pair of that run to the video (blue) pair of each camera run - At the DVR end, just put one of each of the above baluns on each pair, and connect directly to the DVR. Now that's just one option... again, there are lots of others, depending on the designs used. Here's a unit I've recently discovered: http://www.easterncctv.com/accessories/ev04p-vps.htm The nice thing with this unit is that it has baluns and power supply in one, so you don't need a separate power supply for the cameras. With this, you'd simply terminate each Cat5e run with an RJ45 plug, and plug it into the appropriate channel. The "4 in 1" port would be for your run down to the DVR. Then at the camera, you'd use one of these: http://www.easterncctv.com/accessories/ev01p-vp-t.htm Finally, at the DVR end, you'd use one of these: http://www.easterncctv.com/accessories/ev04p.htm - along with a set of short Cat5e patch cords to connect to the DVR. You could also go with eight-channel versions of the above units, for more than four cameras, although you'd then need two Cat5e runs between floors (four cameras per run). There are quad units out there that have short male-BNC tails as well, so you don't need separate patch cables.

GeoVision can be set this way as well (you get a brief glimpse of the desktop while it starts). Capture IDR and other similar systems replace the Explorer shell with their own shell as well.

A basic splitter (BNC T-connector or RCA Y-cable) should be acceptable for a two-way split. Any more than that, you'll definitely need some sort of active splitter.

I've installed for three different major Canadian oil companies... all of them spec CIF @ 1FPS as their "requirement". Even with IP cams, they only require 1FPS. We usually go higher, often as drive space permits to maintain their other requirement of 30 days' retention... but never have I had a bigwig come to me and insist on higher framerates. Higher is nice... but frankly, not usually necessary. You can avoid that by going prepay-only (like all stations in BC are, by law). The EV08P-VPS provides power to the cameras over the Cat5. There's a diagram of the pinouts used on the EV01P-VP-T product page. Basically, you terminate each end of the run with an RJ-45 (make sure you use the same wiring - T568A or T568B - at both ends!), plug one end into the VPS, and the other end into the VP-T, then connect the VP-T to the camera, and connect the corresponding BNC on the VPS to the proper channel on the DVR. No extra wiring required.

Still pretty nebulous: it would be a simple matter to remove or replace the Windows startup logo and have the system boot straight into the DVR software without a Start menu, and it would look just like any other "embedded" unit. Vigil systems, for example, have a "kiosk mode" setting, where the Vigil server app starts up in place of the second instance of Explorer that would normally provide the desktop interface. Even if there is other software installed (their XPE build removes mail, games, and other such apps), there's no access to it while Kiosk Mode is enabled. Again, if I removed or replaced the Windows boot logo, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. Look at it the other way: a system that DOES let you install other software, means you can install things like your IP camera finder utilities on it (Vigil comes with finder/config utilities for IQ, HIK, Arecont, Sony, Sanyo, Axis, ACTi, Panasonic, and a number of other brands of IP cameras), and use the built-in IE to access the cameras: basically, you can do everything you need to configure the cameras from the one machine. You can also install things like disk diagnostic utilities (WD Data Lifeguard, Seagate SeaTools), or health-monitoring utilities (HDTune, etc.) that can alert you by email or SMS of impending hardware failures. If you lock down permissions properly, you can then easily prevent users from installing anything else or mucking with the system.

Yes, although if it's a full heater/blower housing you might want to run separate power for that. Since most of these housings use 24VAC, though, the current demands are a lot lower, as well as the losses - over a shorter run, it may not be an issue. You could, if the camera's current demands are low enough, and/or the distance is short enough: one pair for video, one for control, two for power. Sure.

I recently used two of the 16-channel versions of this unit: http://www.easterncctv.com/accessories/ev08p-vps.htm I can't recommend this thing highly enough - baluns and power supply in one unit, makes life so simple (Also recommend Eastern CCTV!) At the camera end, you can use this unit to split out power and video: http://www.easterncctv.com/accessories/ev01p-vp-t.htm (you just need to snip off the barrel plug to tie into the CNB's connector). Then all you need are short BNC/coax jumpers from the EV8 to the DVR. One thing to keep in mind with doing gas stations: if you want to put the cameras ON the pump canopy, you either need a canopy that's attached to or very close to the building, or you'll need to prepare to run trenching and conduit, and most jurisdictions have pretty strict regulations on how those things have to be run, too. Otherwise, you'll need to mount the pump cameras on the building.

I doubt there are any settings that would improve the composite output of the DVR. VGA and the closest matching resolution is the way to go.

How do you define "embedded" though? Most more advanced standalones are just a non-standard-form-factor PC running some version of Linux - other than the shape and the presence of buttons and a jog wheel on the front, what's the difference between that and a tower? These are smaller than most standalones you'll find, yet are PCs running Windows XP Embedded with the same software and capture hardware you can get in a cube, tower, wall, or rack-mount case: http://www.3xlogic.com/prod/983/mvr-series-micro-video-recorder

Don't worry about the IR, it'll be fairly useless at any range unless you get into higher-end units. CNB Monalisa cameras will work great with very little light and should give you a great image under standard retail lighting. Here are a couple examples from one gas station we did recently:

Using VGA would definitely help, especially if the DVR will output widescreen resolutions natively. Consider what's happening otherwise: you're taking an analog camera, digitizing it at around 704x480 pixels, compressing that digitized image, then outputting it at 525-line resolution (NTSC spec), and into the TV where it's being scaled up by a factor of 2.25 vertically, and worse, is also being stretched horizontally by being scaled by a factor of 2.727272.... plus, most lower-end TVs do a quick, low-quality scale function - no interpolation, no smoothing. You might get an improvement by turning off the stretch (most TVs will call this "normal" display), so at least it's resized by the same amount in both dimensions, but going VGA from the DVR to the TV would be your best bet.

We use 3xLogic Vigil hybrid DVR/NVR systems, they work with a vast range of IP cameras and don't require any sort of annual licensing - you pay once for the system and each license, and that's it. Frankly, I don't understand this "annual re-licensing" thing - you mean I have to return to a site once a year just to update license keys, or my cameras will stop recording? Anyone who uses such a model has gone Full Retard.

I've never dealt with the, personally, so I couldn't tell you... just going from general experience, that most companies tend to be fairly helpful.

In theory, a hybrid should simply record whatever stream the IP camera sends it, without cropping or resizing or downscaling it unless specifically told to do so. If a standalone is doing this, I'd kick it to the curb. Vigil is another turnkey PC-based DVR/HDVR/NVR that will take whatever resolution the camera throws at it.

never know if you don't ask! I know some PC-based SCRap base their registration on the MAC address of the system NIC, which wouldn't have changed.

There is a Fujinon 15-50mm we've been using in CW454/504 domes... it's like, the ONLY other lens that will fit inside them

Have you tried contacting i3 about a new key? http://www.i3international.ca/en/default.htm

So just the Cat5e wiring can supply BOTH power and video? What is a "baluns"? Yes - Cat5 has four wire pairs: you can use one pair for video, and two or three others for power. A "balun" (short for "balanced/unbalanced") is a little device that you use at both ends of the Cat5 to properly "adapt" the wire to the video connections.

While it's most common to have problems with signal lines running parallel to power lines for long stretches, it only takes some part of your system to be near the source of the noise for it to get in and potentially affect everything. You could try filtering the power to the DVR by plugging it into a UPS and then unplugging the UPS from the AC source, leaving it to run on battery only. You could do the same for the camera power (or if they're 12VDC cameras, try powering them off batteries - if you have 12V or even 14V cordless tools, those batteries will work for testing). I've seen even a line crossing power at a right angle cause problems: when I was doing IT support at a digital-arts school, we had a set of computers on one wall that 80% of the time would not pull an IP from the DHCP server. They had a link, the runs tested fine on the cable tester, and the rare times the machines did get an IP, they would communicate on the network. Stranger still, they would get an IP probably 90% of the time when booting from a network-attaching boot CD, but then fail 4 out of 5 times under Windows. The problem was limited to only the computers on that one wall, so I traced the conduit that the runs were in, up the wall, and across the ceiling. It crossed a conduit with the power run to the light switch at one point, and they'd used the "best practice" of crossing the two at right angles, so that didn't seem likely... but after testing several other things unsuccessfully, I came back to that point, and pried the network conduit further away from the power conduit, increasing the gap from maybe 1/4" to about a full inch... and magically, the computers all started getting their IPs properly. Just that small distance was all it took to reduce the interference enough for things to work.

I'm a fan of dome cameras in most instances, and CNB does make some decent ones, and some very good ones. Look for the models with the Monalisa chipset - particularly, the VCM- and VBM-24VF are excellent vandal-resistant domes for their price range; look at the DBM-24VF for an indoor dome. You'd generally think so, wouldn't you? I'd recommend using Cat5e for the wiring, along with baluns to connect to the camera and DVR, rather than coax cable with separate power. It will be cheaper in cable costs, and just less hassle on the whole. I would suggest not cheaping out on this. You're not protecting your home, you're protecting your business. Built-in IR in cameras, especially in cheap ones, is usually done as a work-around for a camera that has poor low-light performance. Save the hassle and just get a camera that does well in low light to begin with. Around a hotel, you're probably going to have plenty of light anyway (liability concerns - can't have it so dark that customers are tripping over things), and the Monalisa models work great with very little light. If they can reach the camera, they can probably just yank down the whole tile. Consider vandal domes for these, but don't get too hung up on it if there's a good cost savings in going non-vandal. BTW, the proper term is "vandal RESISTANT". There's no such thing as vandal PROOF. 16 channel DVRs can go up to thousands of dollars (or quid). Given that you get what you pay for, consider what a low-grade toy you'll be getting for £260.

You can remove a camera from the building and let it hang from its wire to determine pretty quickly if it's a ground-loop issue... if it's EMI, then lifting the ground likely won't help. As has already been stated, it's probably a factor of your signal line running too near to other power: when the compressors start, the lines supplying them carry a lot of current, which creates a pretty substantial electromagnetic field around the wire. That in turn induces a current in another wire running close to it... in this case, your RG59.

Never. Geovision cards won't, and neither will anyone else's. 640/704/720/740x480 is based on the limitations of the NTSC video standard that the cameras use to output their signal. 600/700TVL cameras can't get around that either - the camera itself could be 10,000x7,000 resolution, and the analog video output would still be limited by the video standard. To get beyond that, you need a different way to get the signal into the DVR, and right now, that means either IP (via the network), or HD-SDI (which is a different, much more expensive type of card).

Put the camera on the other side of the glass. /thread

It's not really a valid comparison, as you're measuring only DC resistance, and video signals are going to be more affected by the capacitance of the wire pair. I think you mean STP - shielded twisted pair (as opposed to the more common UTP - unshielded twisted pair). That's always a factor, although as rory mentions, design and build quality of the baluns can have a effect on the final image quality as well. And FWIW, you don't have to use twisted-pair wire with baluns. I've run video and power over plain station wire (un-twisted, 22/4 wire), and I've used various types of speaker wire with baluns as well.

You did not understood correct. Wired vs. wireless has no bearing on image sharpness; neither does IP vs. analog. Megapixel vs. standard is the difference, and megapixel requires IP transmission, but it doesn't matter whether it's wireless or not.