Soundy

They're called "voltage regulators" One of these fits nicely inside most Altronix cans: http://www.electronicproductonline.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1770 (sorry, yes, it's a store link - I can't find a manufacturer's page).

This is key - it's an auto-iris lens, meaning in bright light the iris closes down, which gives you greater depth of focus... so something at a certain distance may be in focus over a wide range of adjustment. When it gets dark, though, the iris opens up and lowers the depth, so a much narrower range of distances are in focus, and the distance that you set the focus at in the daytime may now be out of focus.

Well, looks like Rory has enough flood lights on the yard to keep the camera from switching... which is probably why the headlights don't "bloom" as much.

They're actually 12VDC or 24VAC, so either will do... something like this would work fine: http://www.rpelectronics.com/rpr-1201a6-n5-ac-dc-adapter-12vdc-1-6a.html

Those drives aren't seeing continuous, prolonged read/write operations, though... and if these are Windows-based machines, I believe most versions of Windows from 2000-on have power settings that default to spinning down the drives after 20 minutes of inactivity.

Is drive performance really that important? I would assume that as long as the drives can keep up with the stream, we would be ok. Check the highlighted bit. And yes, performance will matter - you're streaming four megapixel cameras now, and possibly more later. You're putting together a fully-wigged-out machine with ridiculous amounts of RAM; don't bottleneck it all by scrimping on the drives (retail around here for a 2TB/64MB/7200 Caviar Black is only $188, vs. $130 for a 2TB/32MB/5400 Caviar Green). RAID5 is good for your data volume, but I'd suggest a hardware RAID controller rather than software. For your boot volume, just use a small-ish drive (80GB-120GB), and image it onto another drive (external, DVD-R, thumb drive, etc.) with Ghost or DriveImage or Paragon or Acronis or something once it's all set up - if the disk fails, it's a simple matter to just pop in a new one, and restore the image.

Use the Caviar Black drives, not the Greens. Green drives don't have the performance and aren't designed for 24/7 operation.

what type and make of camera are you going to be looking at. zoom depends on how far you need to see This is a handy lens calculator: http://www.isorainbow.com/lens_calc.htm You select the sensor size of the camera you're using, the distance to the target object/area, and the width of field you need to cover at that distance, and it will give you the required lens length. Most cameras will list the sensor size somewhere in the specs, but in general: Cheap domes and bullets tend to be 1/4" sensors. Better domes (newer CNBs, for example), most box-type cameras, and lower-end megapixel models, tend to be 1/3". Mid- to high-end megapixel cameras (Avigilon aside) are usually 1/2". Varifocal domes and bullets are USUALLY limited to upwards of 12mm lenses.... beyond that you typically have to go to box cams with C/CS-mount lenses. These are all generalizations, BTW - there are exceptions, but this applies most of the time.

My wife calls them "BC Boxes" Zoomed right in to 10.5mm, at 50' away, that camera would cover about a 23' wide area, which should almost cover two cars... or gives you a fair bit of leeway in exactly where you park your car, and still allow you to see people milling around it. Your positions look pretty good, except the upper camera would be blocked by the tree from seeing the car. I'd probably look at using the lower position for a tight shot on the car, and the upper position for a wider shot of the yard and sidewalk. BTW, there are some other good examples of lens angles, here: http://www.ezcctv.com/cctv-lens-guide.htm

Which camera did you try? There's a wide variety of CNB cameras with different features and capabilities, including different low-light performance. An IP camera won't necessarily work any better. First of all, IP is just a different interface: you could have two identical cameras, one with analog output, and one where the analog video goes to an internal IP encoder, and both would have identical image. IP mainly comes in handy for megapixel video, because analog video standards don't allow the higher resolution. Second, all else being equal, megapixel cameras tend to have poorer low-light performance than analog, because the physical pixels on the sensor are smaller, and thus collect less light. So no, just dropping an IP camera in there won't, in itself, solve your problem. I haven't run across an IP camera yet that requires a license to work. What DOES usually require licenses, is the NVR software itself. There are a wide number of licensing schemes in use... some NVRs, you buy a license for each camera you want to add; others, you might buy in "blocks" (5, 10, 20 cameras, etc.). A few just have a flat rate for as many cameras as you want, and still others are free (but as with most free things, of limited functionality). Some camera manufacturers give you free software that allows you to use as many of THEIR cameras as you want, as well as buying licenses to use other cameras with it.

^Right... the speed limitation is in the interface, so using a SATA drive through a PATA adapter will just choke it off to the same speed as a PATA drive. It should WORK (although some DVRs might not like it), but you won't really gain anything other than a larger selection of drives.

Wow... for a minute I thought that looked like a buddy's house that I'm helping with some cameras... in fact, it's almost an exact mirror image of his place! He's going for four or five of the VCM-24VFs as well, and a GeoVision system. Oh... we're in the GVRD too Drop me a PM, I can hook you up with some CNBs.

There are "AV-grade" PATA drives but they aren't as plentiful... and in fact, PATA drives in general are getting harder to find. Might be easier to find "enterprise" grade PATA drives.

Some SATA drives (mainly older ones) also have the ATX power Molex.

Understood. You could use something like an AverKey to take the VGA output of a computer and downsample it to composite, then feed that into a DVR input. Just set the machine to fire up in low res (800x600 is probably best), create a shortcut for your page link in the Startup folder, and set the browser to start in "Full Screen" or "Kiosk" mode... should work fine.

720p is still <1MP. Sure the pictures are pretty but you're still limited in resolution. Even 1080p is barely 2MP. Go check the "MP cameras pictures and demos" thread for some 16MP Avigilon samples.

That sort of "wobble" can often be caused by electrical interference, usually by cabling running too close to strong EM sources like fridge motors, fluorescent light ballasts, etc. With cheap systems like this, it's also possible that EMI getting into one cable run is affecting all of them intermittently. Check the locations of your cable runs before you go to the effort of replacing them all...

Hmm, we get them from a local distributor (here in BC), who I believe gets them shipped from the US... whether direct from CNB, I don't know. I'd suggested contacting CNB USA and asking them about authorized resellers.

Impossible for anyone to say without knowing at least the make and model of your DVR. Some are very forgiving and will work with almost any drive with the right interface (PATA or SATA); some are very picky and only work with a few drives. Usually the DVR's manual will list what drives are supported. Depends on what you mean by "types"... PATA vs. SATA? Both are IDE (Internal Drive Electronics). PATA (Parallel ATA) have a wide 40-pin data connector; SATA (Serial ATA) have a 7-pin card-edge type connector:

Once again, nobody here can know that for sure without at least knowing the make and model of the panel; there are many of them on the market with different capabilities and features. It may not be possible at all for the main panel to send the trigger to the sub-panel, and if it is, the sub-panel may require an additional optional module. The two may not be connected in such a way to make this possible, either. This is all information your local alarm technician will have to look at for you, as most of it will be specific TO THAT INSTALLATION.

You realize that method won't be interactive; end users will only be able to see whatever the page is displaying at that moment. If you want users to be able to actually USE the pages, you need to either use PC-based DVR(s), or set up computers with browsers and remote clients for the DVR(s) (or DVR(s) with web-based remote access).

Interesting... I can't find anything that states an IP rating or any other indication of it being outdoor rated, but there's also nothing on CNB's site that states it's indoor-only. However, it does appear to be the identical housing to the VCM models, which ARE IP66 outdoor-rated (VCM - Monalisa / VCB - Blue-i)

Where in Canada are you?

QFT. There's a lot more to what makes up the price than just TVL.