Soundy

Ridiculous. I do it just fine on my 1024x600 res netbook screen. I just set the camera display to full zoom and scroll the screen to the area I need to focus on. Resolution is the same at full zoom whether I'm viewing it on a 1600x1200 screen, or cropped on a 1024x600 screen.

If they have a gas-insert fireplace or gas heat, there's probably a fair-sized framework around the exhaust vent (often disguised as a typical chimney)... you could drop FT6 coax or Cat5 through that to get between floors. My townhouse was pre-wired with Cat3 for phone, all jacks running back to the incoming cable point at a junction box in the garage... the phone only uses one pair, so I've use the other three for video - tie them all together in the garage junction point, then I can tap near or at any phone jack. You could also look at various ethernet-over-powerline devices.

Try Avigilon SW it does. Avigilon does what? You know... THAT.

"$0-$500" is significantly more? You say the Vivotek is "quite expensive" - we don't know what actual amount you consider that to be. You want something cheaper... without knowing what you're getting the Vivotek for, it's hard for anyone to recommend something "cheaper".

I haven't had use for active models yet myself, but I've used passives from NVT, GEM, GVI and MuxLab, and all work just fine. GEM are probably some of the best I've seen for the price point.

I don't know how the price point compares, as I don't have pricing on the Vivotek cameras, but all of IQEye's cameras have the ability to send a still to FTP and/or email on a time-lapse schedule (ie. one per minute, hour, day, whatever), set up directly through the web interface, or on a time schedule (ie. at specific times) through a cron script. The ones I've used give pretty good color images even at night, through slowing down the shutter... if you're just showing landscapes, motion blur doing this probably isn't a concern. IR cut filters are actually common on all "decent" color cameras. True day/night cameras switch to B&W at night and move the cut filter out of the way. Only the cheap day/night cameras (usually the ones with built-in IR LEDs) don't use an IR cut filter, but electronically process to compensate for the color balance issues. As far as wiring, get a switch with PoE (power over ethernet) support, or use PoE injectors, and you can run power and signal on a single Cat5e or Cat6 cable. Many outdoor-rated dome designs include space for the connections inside the housing. Check out IQ's Product Selector for some options - they have outdoor-rated vandal-resistant domes that all fall within the $500-$1000 (MSRP) range: http://www.iqeye.com/products/productselector.html They also have a number of indoor cameras in the "$0-$500" range that you could use outdoors with an appropriate environmental housing, where all connections could be made inside the housing. As far as your local laws... someone else who's in England (we have a few) should be able to help you with that.

I don't know if it's "refusing" so much as making it a lower priority behind other features. For example, if GV cameras use a proprietary stream format, even with the SDK, it would be more work to integrate it than something that's just a simple modification of another existing stream. Most manufacturers will want to actually obtain one or two of the cameras in question as well, for testing that their implementation of the SDK works. I would expect at least some camera makers would be willing to provide demo models to better-known NVR makers to encourage the support... perhaps GV doesn't, which would move them down to the priority list. If you're an NVR manufacturer, needing to keep up support on the big names (Panasonic, IQ, Arecont, Axis, Sanyo, etc. etc. etc.), smaller brands - particularly those from competing NVRs - probably get dealt with "later", but not necessarily "never".

Yea it's a big network.... let me put it to you this way the old analog system was run with rg-59 to a central location in each bulding then they used NVT for a 50 pair from bulding (a) to central location of building (b) then they grabbed the cameras in building (b) and used a 100 pair to jump to bulding © where the 64 channel DVR is located. I would say the longest run from DVR to farthest camera is 3500-4000 feet. our setup is Server to core switch building A, fiber from building A to B and A to C, then in building C we jump from IDF 1 to IDF 2 with coper over 270ft then from all switches we go out to cameras with cat5 or coax converters. We will have some distance issues in the one building we will have runs from switch to camera that are pushing over 500ft.

I'd avoid running power over Cat5 at that distance... I'd suggest powering the cameras locally, if possible, and run all four over a single Cat5e run, using active baluns if necessary.

Norandy, the camera uses LEDs that emit infrared light, instead of visible (white or colored) light. The lens itself has nothing to do with the light used. See the labeling here for an example: The downside with this type of design is that they tend to have a "spotlight" effect - illumination falls off to the edges of the frame, and as objects get closer to the camera, they start to get washed out in the image. It's really no different than shining a flashlight on the area, except it uses light that's just outside the range of human visibility.

Anyone have some current suggestions for either of these types of devices, and some rough price figures? (Like, $100-$200 range, $300+ range, etc.)? I've been asked to quote to add some cameras to my own townhouse complex, including some out on our visitor parking lot, which currently has power running to a couple outlets and some lighting, but no signal lines and no option of adding conduit for it. Wireless might be an option, but since the DVR would likely go in the amenities building or a phone room, and neither would be line-of-sight to the lot, I'd rather look at something first that can use existing wiring. If I come back to the phone room in this building, where the lot lighting feeds from, I could suggest using an existing cable or phone feed in that room for an internet connection and remote access. If I was just running to my unit, the end unit closest to the lot, it would be easy... but I want to plan ahead for the time we decide to sell and move, at which point the new owner may not want to maintain the system on their own internet.

I get the idea he's already thought of this:

Just how dark IS it in this stable? There are day/night cameras that do very well in low light, but they do still need SOME light. Most cameras with LEDs are using infrared, not visible light, which shouldn't disturb the horses. I couldn't find any information on how sensitive horses are to infrared wavelengths, but you can get into longer-wavelength versions that get further outside the range of visible light. Depending on the area covered, it might work better to use a non-IR day/night camera or cameras, and separate IR illuminators to spread a more even illumination over a larger area.

What took you so long??

"Bluejacker" is the one thing I miss about my Treo *sigh*. Haven't found such a simple yet effective app for Windows Mobile yet...

Heheheh, all five pounds of him? He's sleeping on my lap right now...

Cameras with built-in IR are, as a general rule, cheap junk to begin with: instead of the added expense for building a GOOD low-light or day/night camera, manufacturers use a cheap color camera that can't see with anything less than a 100W light bulb, and add IR LEDs to compensate. There are exceptions, of course, but they ARE the exception, rather than the rule. I'd start by paying the extra for a GOOD camera that actually does well in low light... then add external IR illuminators if really necessary. Better yet, add motion-activated white light illuminators (LED or halogen flood lights). Not only will you get a better, true-color picture, but a bright light snapping on is often enough to chase away prowlers... or at the very least, the natural reaction is to look for the source of the light, which gives you a nicely-lit, clear face shot.

The question was whether GeoVision cameras will work with non-GeoVision software. Why look for other software? Because there's lots out there that's better.

You still haven't eliminated the possibility of a ground-loop. If that is your issue, a new card will have the same problem. Connecting directly to a TV won't show the problem, any more than connected a single camera to the DVR does. Using a different PC won't alleviate the problem either.

Interesting. Who, if anyone, OEMs the Geo cameras? 3xLogic is selling Vigil-branded IP cams... which are just relabeled Hikvision cameras. I can pull a stream (MJPEG or H.264) from a Hikvision cam I have using VLC... I haven't had a chance to try it with a Vigil camera, but I can't imagine it not working. Older versions of Vigil Server list Hikvision cameras in their setup, newer versions list them as Vigil cameras... but both versions of the software work with both cameras on the same settings. So... if you know who OEMs the GV cameras, you could probably use those settings in another NVR for them (unless GV has had them customized specifically to break that ability, which for me would be reason enough to steer clear - who would want to install cameras knowing that they'll be useless if they ever want to change the NVR in the future??).

I can't speak authoritatively, but I suspect this is not the case - unless the cameras are embedding some sort of DRM in their output, there's no reason they shouldn't work with most other NVRs... especially if you consider that they're probably just re-badged name-brand cameras. I think the "limitation" you're thinking of is that the GeoVision software doesn't require additional licensing to support their own branded cameras, where you need to purchase per-channel licenses to use other non-GV IP cameras.

The little bit of the garage door frames you can see through the IR fog in the first set, look pretty sharp already. Since these are probably NOT auto-iris cameras, there should be little or no change in DOF from day to night; thus, refocusing at night is 99% likely to make NO improvement. Note that if these are domes, you WILL have a nice clear picture when you take the dome off and eliminate the IR fog... but it will be back as soon as you replace the domes, unless you can adjust the lens gasket to provide better light sealing.

First thing I'd do is check if QoS is being used to manage bandwidth (the switches you listed ARE managed types as well), and if so, see if you can't allocate a little more to the LP cams. You could try plugging a laptop directly into a video server and watch the bandwidth monitor as some cars drive through, to determine about what your peak output of the camera will be. With most types of compression, you'll see a big spike whenever the scene changes rapidly.

Does the switch do QoS, or is the DVR's NIC set to use QoS? Could be the video servers aren't being allowed the bandwidth they need. Is there maybe another computer(s) on the network that are pulling streams from them? The spike in bandwidth caused by a fast-moving object could be overloading their streams, if there are too many streams being pulled.

^I'm waiting for my buddy to send me a screenshot from his iPhone... a few months ago he was an a local airport, fired up his WiFi to look for a connection, and found an SSID labelled "I HACKED YOUR CCTV"