Soundy

You only need to use one service, not all of them. The most efficient and reliable is probably to sign up for a DynDNS account and set it up in your router.

I get that part, but here's what I'm unknown on: The camera has auto-iris will will reduce the amount of light, thus affecting the shutter speed (camera can also act to use the electronic shutter, and will slow it down as there is less light). Which one wins? Does the auto-iris reduce light to the point where the shutter is set the slowest speed, which seems counter-productive to capturing moving objects? Or is the camera smart enough to reduce it somewhat using the auto-iris, still allowing the shutter speed to remain high? "Which one wins" would depend on the camera, its specific design, and its settings.

Right, but it lets you check for short, open, or significant damage in one step. 95% of the time it will reveal the flaw. If a 1000' length of cable is bad in one spot due to manufacturing problems... why couldn't it be bad every 500', 250', even every 50', or in numerous random spots? It would be hard to get stress damage on a piece of wire that's never left its packing box. *ducks out of the line of fire between Tailbone and Rory*

I've done something similar to power a remote network switch - 24VAC over 18/2 wire out to the location, then an adjustable voltage regulator along with the switch inside a NEMA box.

Samsung has several 8-, 16-, and 32-channel models.... http://www.samsungcctvusa.com/products/Products.aspx?CategoryID=4&SubCategoryID=3

In my experience, "auto iris" and "DC iris" are almost always used to refer to the same thing; chip-controlled exposure is more commonly called "electronic iris". Many cameras differentiate by labeling the associated switch as "AI/EI", with a separate switch for "DC/video". In any case, pretty sure the OP is talking about DC iris... and the answer is, "it depends". Most DC-iris cameras provide an adjustment for the user to set the drive level; if this is dialed down too much, the camera may compensate by lowering the shutter speed... depending on the camera's specific design, of course.

In your opinion how "bad dielectric or crushed sections" affect video ? Like Tailbone said, "Bad dielectric will induce an impedance bump and will degrade picture or add noise." A badly crushed section of wire can do the same. Depending on what cable tester he's using, this may have already been checked. My own preference is to stick a 75-ohm terminator on one end and then measure the resistance at the other end - anything substantially higher or lower than 75 ohms indicates a problem. In any case, all this dances around the statement that cable STILL IN THE BOX tested as bad, and as much as bad crimps are a possibility, I find it a stretch to think that they're bad on four out of five runs, AS WELL AS those on the box itself. Not knowing the exact tester used, we're also assuming that the cable needs to be terminated for testing.

But Rory, I don't think anyone else in the world has the same kind of skewed, f**ed-up costs you have to deal with...

We use Cat5 almost exclusively. We're installing a lot of IP cameras, so it's handy to have it already in place for future upgrades... and handy to not have to carry multiple different types of cable - I can carry four boxes of Cat5 in the same space in my van that it would normally take for one box each of Cat5, RG59, and station-Z. Typically, I'll use the blue pair for video (blue for signal +, white/blue for signal -), the green pair tied together for power ground/neutral, orange pair tied together for power positive/line, and leave the brown pair as a spare or for RS-485 control. There's no particular reason for these color choices, they just made sense to me at the time, so it's what we use. I recommend whatever you feel comfortable with, but we find Cat5 works well for us.

Thankyou for the fast reply. Yes I am using rather cheap cameras that use 12VDC. Im kinda lost in your post. What is ground-loop issues? Does RG59 carry the power wire also? I will need to research what 18/2 is because Im a newbie. My runs will be no more than 300ft for each cam if that. RG59 coax does NOT carry power (except for a few cameras that use a proprietary system; it is generally for video signal only. 18/2 is 18 gauge, 2 conductor wire, which is commonly used for power. Over longer runs, 16/2 (16 gauge, 2 conductor) may be used. As noted, we usually use "station-Z" wire for power when we're using coax - that's a 22/4 wire (22 gauge, four conductors), as it's also useful for other purposes, and means we don't have to carry as many different types of wire. Ground loops are a phenomenon that occurs where there are multiple ground paths of different length (or more to the point, of different resistance/potential) for a signal to follow. With cheap cameras, both signal and power use a common ground (there are grounds on each of the power and signal wires, but they're connected together internally). When you use a common power supply, you're then creating multiple paths for each camera, as each camera's signal is grounded to the DVR, not just through its own signal-ground wire, but through the power wire, back to the power supply, then to another camera, and back again through that camera's ground... and so on with multiple cameras. Normally this isn't a problem as the resistance is low and the runs are relatively short... however, when you add baluns, these put a transformer in line with the signal lines at both ends of the run, effectively adding substantial length and resistance to the signal ground. Once you add in the distance of the signal "bouncing" through other cameras, you end up with significant differences, which can create ground loops... in essence, the ground wire then acts like an antenna, picking up all sorts of noise and interference. This can be avoided by separating the power sources - using individual transformers for each camera will usually negate the problem, since the power grounds of each camera aren't connected together. Cameras with built-in power regulation achieves the same end as well.

Siamese is even more expensive than separate RG59 and 18/2. Retail here for Cat5e is about $100/1000' box. RG59 runs about the same. RG59+18/2 Siamese... $158. For a 500' box. That's over three times the price of Cat5e, and well over twice the price of coax and separate power.

That picture looks pretty good for ANY analog camera. Are you sure the problem isn't with your DVR setup? Does the "noise" look like shifting color patterns? Because that's not uncommon for B&W cameras with certain codecs when the DVR is set to record in color...

It's possible a little water did get inside when you sprayed it down - not enough to be noticeable anywhere, but enough to create some dampness inside... dampness that would remain there until conditions were right to allow it to condense, at which point it would drip down and pool. Also, remember that IP66 does not mean "gas-tight" or "submersible" - it designates specific sealing against dust and direct spray, but it doesn't guarantee water will never get into it. I've seen water trickle slowly in through the wiring entrance on an IP66 enclosure to the point that it pooled inside... it took a couple months to get to that point, because it was just a very small trickle over a long period of time.

We use Cat5/baluns almost exclusively these days, but then our "standard" camera is the CNB VCM-24VF with 24VAC power, so voltage drop and ground loops aren't an issue (this camera would be worth looking at for your needs, BTW - dual voltage, true day/night, good low-light performance). Another option with Cat5 is that you could power "farther" cameras locally, and run multiple video signals (up to four) over a single Cat5 run. Whether that actually makes sense for your setup, I don't know, but it does give you more options.

Cat5 will allow you to run power and video on a single cable - one pair for video, two or three pairs for power. The caveat is, if you're using cheap 12VDC cameras with baluns, you risk having ground-loop issues. If they're AC or dual-voltage cameras, or have built-in voltage regulators, then this shouldn't be a problem. Cost-wise it depends mostly on the price you can get your cable and baluns for - around here, Cat5e and RG59 both retail at almost exactly the same price, but with coax, you also need something for power: many people use 18/2, but we typically use station wire (22/4). The longer the runs, generally, the more the cost benefit leans toward UTP/baluns, since the cost of the baluns will be the same whether your run is 10 feet or 1000 feet, whereas the cost of the power wire will go up with the length of the run.

I'd go into the attic first and look at the structure and locations and directions of the rafters or joists... then drill from below, starting with a small bit to make test holes before drilling the big hole. If you're in a house, the only thing you should have to worry about running into is the joists or rafters (or wires or vents or something, but those should be easier to avoid). A stud finder is your friend.

Anyone got some good suggestions? You know, the customer-awareness monitors with the built-in camera like you'd put at the front door of a store... Two catches: it will need GOOD backlight compensation (one would HOPE this is a given with this type of design)... and it will need to not look too ugly or "industrial". I was sure Bosch and Honeywell had such devices but finding stuff on either of their websites is an exercise in frustration...

Keep me posted... I might be dropping you a PM

do you mean i can use this wire instead of RG59 for video If there's an unused pair of wire in the phone on control runs, you could use that with video baluns to transmit video; most elevators will have AC power, and many will already have an outlet on top of the roof, to power the camera. And regardless of the ago of the elevator, most buildings should still have some sort of service contract or at least a service company they call to maintain the thing.

"Directly" with a crossover vs. via a switch/router will make no difference, unless the switch is faulty.

Is there an "FCC ID" number printed or silkscreened on the board anywhere?

The drive should have a jumper to limit it to 1.5Gb/s transfer rate, try setting that. I used to have an Athlon64 motherboard that wouldn't recognize drives set at 3Gb/s but worked fine when they were set to 1.5Gb/s.

Dream system? Avigilon IP cameras and NVR

Did you miss the part where he already used a proper cable tester/cerifer and came up with failures in most of his runs, including the cable that was still in the box? All shorting one end will do is tell you if you have an open/break in the wire... it won't tell you if there are other shorts along the way, or issues like bad dielectric or crushed sections. Search the forum, there are previous threads dealing with experiences people have had with cable that was bad right out of the box - usually cheap offshore stuff, but ISTR one or two instances of good name-brand coax that was defective from the manufacturer.

There are several options for this - check some of these: http://gemelec.com/index.php?page=shop.browse&category_id=68&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1 http://www.veracityglobal.com/products.aspx BTW, do you really NEED 25-30fps? In many cases, you won't even know the difference at 10-15fps. See some examples here: http://www.panasonic.com/business/security/demos/PSS-recording-rates.html You would almost certainly need to reduce the bandwidth for this, either using lower resolution, lower framerate, higher compression, or some combination thereof. I take it this is being done over a standard internet connection of some type? Cable or DSL? Do you know what the upstream rates are for the site with the DVR? One benefit of IP cameras is that your remote viewing site could connect to individual cameras directly... if you're using dual-stream cameras, you could view a low-bandwidth stream remotely while recording the high-quality streams locally.