Soundy

You first.

And what does power have to do with it then? We haven't been told anything about what power supplies are in use, what power wire is used... how do you come to the immediate conclusion that it's insufficient power? I know you sell cheap cameras, so you won't want to hear this, but: yes, cheap products IN GENERAL are like this. If $40 camera weren't this crappy, there'd be no market for $600 analog cameras. So here's what the pictures look like, as much as I can tell from how small they are: they look like an image that's too dark - either because of a poor lens choice, or an imager with poor sensitivity - being electronically boosted to provide a brighter picture, with inherent electrical noise being boosted along with the image. Exactly as one would expect with cheap cameras.

power is not enough to support this Ummm, what? OP: it's hard to tell from the tiny pictures, but honestly, those are cheap cheap CHEAP cameras, and grainy picture from them is to be expected.

Typically, the center pin is positive, and the barrel is ground. Double-check your cameras to confirm this - you should see one of these two symbols: The DCPPL model is certainly more convenient; even the DCPPT unit would be easier, as you can just crimp the wires with beanie crimps or butt crimps.

There are different ways to achieve motion-tracking PTZ. Some cameras do it internally; some use external hardware or software to detect movement and then control the camera. Realistically, in most cases, it's little more than a gimmick. The camera won't be able to track multiple different objects, and until you get into more advanced video analytics, the camera has no way of knowing what moving object(s) to track. You could have a person moving one way, the camera tracking it, then it could latch onto a bird moving the other way and track that instead. And ultimately, it won't be cheap. You're looking at anywhere from $1000-$4000 for a *good* PTZ to begin with, nevermind adding the tracking capability.

what kind of dvr @ 3 ftps? i have seen dvr 15-20 ftps @ D1

FWIW, I've never seen "marketing" from either KT&C or CNB... we've used a variety of CNB cameras for years, mainly because the were a "good" dome we could get from a local distributor. Our love of the VCM-24VFs comes 100% from using them on one job, finding them a "great" camera for the price, and settling on them as our "analog camera of choice". Others here have found them a good value too, which is why all the love for them *on this forum*... but I don't think any of that can be attributed to THEIR marketing, just word-of-mouth.

I'd think you're probably fine, but if the cost isn't that much more, there's no real reason NOT to get the heater models. Only thing I'd recommend is powering them off 24VAC rather than 12VDC, so the current requirements will be lower and you won't get the big voltage drop when the heater kicks on.

I have three IP cams (two IQ, one HIK) running via WDS connection using a DD-WRT'd WRT54G as a bridge point, and a DD-WRT'd ASUS RT-N16 as the AP. Works fairly well from one end of the house to the other (about 50'); signal quality shows about 55%, full 54Mbps speed. Probably wouldn't recommend it for a production environment, but it works alright for testing at home.

And what resolution ARE you using?

BTW, if you DO find out the heater is needed later, it's easy enough to order it separately and add it yourself - this is what we did at the aforementioned gas station.

I have one of these (nice low-light TDN camera) that works perfectly except for a seized servo that switches the ICR. If anyone happens to have an otherwise-dead model kicking around that will part with it for cheap or free, that I can steal the servo from, please let me know.

Well... go to someone else's house or an internet cafe or take your laptop to a Starbucks or something, and try it from there. Or just have a friend try to connect. Static IP isn't relevant to the port issue. You also don't need a static IP for this to work - it just gives you the convenience of the address not changing constantly. You can use a dynamic-DNS service to give you a domain name that will be updated with your IP if it ever changes.

There are many factors that go into "decent" video besides just resolution. Type of compression, and level/quality of compression come into play as well. "Sufficient" frame rates really depend on the specific purpose. 3fps, or even 1fps, can be sufficient for many installations. Check this demo for comparisons of different frame rates: http://www.panasonic.com/business/security/demos/PSS-recording-rates.html There are lots of DVRs out there that will do higher frame rates at higher resolutions, but keep in mind that analog video is limited to about 704x480 capture resolution. Also, remember that the higher the frame rates, the more storage will be required.

The live video is likely better because the cameras are effectively being piped straight through to the display, while recorded video has been digitized and compressed. You'll find this with most DVRs, particularly those that use hardware compression.

What DVR is it? If it's PC-based, make sure it doesn't have a firewall running. I just tested yougetsignal.com on my connection and it tells me several ports are closed that I know are open, so you can't necessarily trust that. Have you TRIED to connect from a remote location? Keep in mind that testing from inside your own network may not work, as some routers prevent loopback connections.

Sure it's not a DDNS function? What's the IP it's sending to?

This is something I've started doing for one customer: all recording goes to an external RAID array, and the DVR's internal drive is allocated only as a "backup" location in case the array is offline. That way, if the DVR goes down and needs to be replaced or even just have a loaner swapped in while it's repaired, ALL the data stays onsite, and new video simply gets added to it, so when the loaner comes out, again, the data all stays onsite and becomes available to the repaired/replacement unit.

I used two of these on one job - worked great and helped make a nice, clean install: http://www.muxlab.com/products/vec_quad_video_balun.htm#

If you're going to do this, do it right from the start, or you'll end up putting money into a cheap system, and suffer more losses before you discover that it's not sufficient. "Night vision", first of all, is a misnomer at best in CCTV cameras - in almost all cases, it refers to a camera that adds IR LEDs for semi-invisible illumination. In cheap cameras, it's used as a workaround for the fact that the cameras simply have poor low-light performance; instead, get cameras that will work well with very little light, such as CNB's Monalisa domes (VCM/VBM-24VF for vandal-resistant domes, DBM-24VF for non-vandal indoor domes). Forget about wireless. It WILL NOT work well until you get into substantially more expensive, purpose-designed systems. All of it operates in the same consumer bands as dozens of other wireless devices and are prone to all sorts of interference, and can be easily viewed by someone outside with the proper receiver. Remember too, that even with wireless transmission, you still need to power the cameras, so none of them are truly 100% "wireless" - given that point, you're better off to simply hard-wire the video as well, and avoid future problems.

I've only needed to add heaters to these cameras once, and that was a gas station install done under a pump canopy in a very damp Vancouver winter, so lots of ambient moisture got trapped inside the dome (we ended up having to add a couple silica desiccant packs to each camera as well, to soak up the excess moisture). Keep in mind these are IP66-rated domes, sealed (theoretically) against any water ingress except direct water under pressure - as long as the air is dry when you close them up, you should be fine.

DRX-16-CO-500 or PRO-16-CO-500 will meet all your criteria (I/O add-on card or network module not included, works well with Advantech ADAM-series modules, also available from 3xLogic). The "CO" models are 4U rack-mount cases; the "500" spec refers to 500GB internal data drive (again, I've found it works quite well to use the NAS for primary storage and designate the internal drive as "alternate" storage in case the NAS is offline). Video analytics are built-in to the software, as well as several other functions you may find creative ways to tie into your HAI system, like POS interface and people-counting, plus dewarping for panoramic cameras. All modules function on a 30-day trial basis that activates the first time you access the module, so you can test them before you have to register. You're right though, analytics module is a little spendy: MSRP is $400 per camera. As far as using the cameras with your HAI, any analog cameras, you could just split off with T-connectors, or preferably active video splitters, regardless of the DVR

I could post some night-time sample images, but I don't have any lux readings for the scenes, so they wouldn't really be valid examples.

The IQ511 is rated for 0.2 lux, 1.3MP (1280x1024) and will fit in a smaller DF5 dome housing (I know, because I've installed many of them in DF5s).