Soundy

Unless you're running a half-dozen hard drives, oh yeah.

The ones we have installed have been fine so far, once they're in and working... but consider yourself VERY lucky that you haven't had any broken or mis-assembled ones yet. Just installed the last two of this batch of six yesterday, yet another one had the "unpunched" set screws - one on the yaw ring, two on the backfocus. Had a chance to look at it under the light, and it looks like the screw was drilled, but never stamped with the hexagonal shape.

500W+ PSUs are so cheap these days, just go all-out and don't worry about it. My regular retailer has 400W Cooler Master supplies at $40, 500W @ $50.

I've worked on a few on a couple customers' sites... didn't see anything special about them, the interface was like any other Linux-based GUI DVR. Never had any PROBLEMS with them, just didn't see anything that set them apart from the rest of their field.

If you're not stuck on a standalone, Vigil does everything on your list except (AFAIK) built-in IR Remote support... but you could use something like a Firefly remote in "mouse mode" easily enough.

Funny, I have a couple Hikvisions that do something similar...

My first thought was that the cameras were drawing more power than the switch could provide, but the switch is rated for up to 55W total to the PoE ports, while the cameras are rated for 4.2W maximum each.

Okay, they're filters, not isolators... so grounding could still be an issue... I just can't think of where it might be. Active baluns next???

What are the "line isolators" exactly (make/model)? Have you tried individual baluns at both ends?

Shielded is not necessary. Direct burial is a good idea. What voltage are your cameras? You can run power on the Cat5e, but you'll get half the current draw and less voltage loss if you run 24VAC rather than 12VDC. Depending on the PTZ's current draw, you COULD run power on two pairs of the Cat5 and control on another, but that will really only be feasible with a 24VAC unit. You'd be better, instead of using a separate with for PTZ control, running a line of 18/2 or 16/2 strictly for the PTZ's power...

Does it work if you just use the IP of your connection? Try going to www.ipchicken.com to find it...

Frame rate vs. size is the tradeoff you usually have to make with cheaper DVRs. Fortunately, you very rarely actually NEED full framerates - most people, in most cases, would never be able to see the difference between 30 and 15 fps, and most would also find 7.5fps looks "just fine". Remember, you're not making movies here, so except for a few specific cases, you generally don't need full-motion video.

Yeah, in addition to GV having built-in DDNS support, pretty much all DDNS services have some sort of client utility, or a way to set it via a web browser (simple command line, Javascript, or Perl), or you can use a third-party utility like DynSite (I really like this one, it supports a ton of different DDNS providers, and has exportable/importable settings so I can easily import my settings on different sites). These methods will all work with any computer behind the router, so it could run on a desktop, laptop, the DVR itself, etc.

Problem with that is that the T-bar sticks up a good 1/4" (depending on the tile type) above the tile itself, so you'll have a gap there where you screw the camera down... and the tile will flex before the board, meaning it will be drawn upward as you tighten the camera down.

^Try dialing up the SBLC setting to even out the light/dark areas.

Can't say I've ever used Eclipse... ADI/Burtek here carries GVI, GEM, National Electronics, and MuxLab... haven't had any problems with any of them. I like the GVI and GEM tool-less models, personally.

Probably has as much to do with static IPs being more a "business" option, vs. "residential".

Well, it just gets better and better... Six more of these going into the current site. The first two to go in had issues... These cameras use tiny Allen-keyed setscrews to lock the back-focus adjustment and the yaw rotation. They nicely include the Allen key tool for them, however these first two, the sockets in the setscrews for the back-focus were too small and the Allen key didn't fit. The other one, the yaw-locking screws had the same problem. *sigh*. Tried the tools from both cameras, as well as a couple others from other cameras... no dice. And then last night, opened up the box to install another camera... the main yoke rotation adjustment, that lets the entire camera assembly rotate within the housing, is held in by three clips and two locking Phillips screws... and it was completely loose. Like, not attached. Like, another assembly FUBAR.

You don't NEED a static IP... you can use a dynamic-DNS service (there are many free ones) that will register a domain name that points to your IP, and if your IP changes, it updates the pointer automatically. The potential downside to this is that the changes can take time to propagate, anywhere from an hour to a day, so if it does change, you may not be able to connect temporarily. If the IP changes infrequently, this is not a problem (my cable IP is technically dynamic, but it only changes if they make significant changes to their network, maybe once every 18-24 months); some ISPs, I've seen the IP change daily or even hourly. All a static IP does is ensure that your IP won't NORMALLY change.... note that with most broadband systems, this doesn't GUARANTEE that it won't. Our main DSL ISP here recently restructured their network, and I had calls from several of our clients who had "static" IPs who could no longer connect to their systems remotely.

I usually use nylon anchors, concrete or hollow-wall type, turned on their side, and the camera mounting screw driven through that. Works for pendant and J-mounts as well. Sometimes I'll use a piece of wood, if one is available, but more often than not, the anchors are plentiful and convenient.

Some motion blurring at 1/60 is not unusual. The higher the shutter speed, the less blurring you'll get... however, you also collect less light, and thus get a darker and/or grainier picture. 1/120 will allow half the light of 1/60... 1/250 one-quarter of 1/60, and so on.

Welcome, y'all.

Sounds more to me like it's a simple four-baluns-in-one-box type unit. Perhaps the OP could give us the exact make and model of the unit. I might suspect incorrect wiring in the RJ45 (straight-through layout rather than T568-A or B), but that wouldn't account for the problem persisting when using the punchdown terminals. This problem STILL sounds to me like a ground-loop issue - the interference changing with the addition or subtraction of cameras just screams it. If the BNCs on the balun are all common-ground, that could be part of the issue, with each pair in the Cat5 run being a different length. One thing that might be worth trying would be to use four separate baluns *at one end first* - use screw-terminal or tool-less types, snip the RJ45 off, splay out the pairs, and put one pair on each balun. If that helps, but doesn't eliminate the issue, then try four baluns at the other end.

To test my understanding, My linksys will have 2 entries (8080 and 90) in "Port Forwarding" both pointing to the same 192.168.1.102 ? New pics: After fussing around the port forwarding is now 8080 and I did add the Gateway as discussed. When I turn off DMZ, I can no longer connect remotely... Thanks! You also have to set the "HTTP PORT" in the DVR to '90' for this to work, and then use http://108.1.xxx.xxx:90 to connect to it remotely. Either that, or just forward port 80 to the DVR and leave everything else as-is. 80 is the default port for http, so when you tell a browser to use http protocol (by starting a URL with "http://"), it will try to connect on port 80. If you want to use a different port, you have to specify it. Using port 90 won't make things work any better, BTW... it's simply a security measure to make sure if someone "accidentally" plugs your IP into their browser, they won't get your DVR by default. (It would also be necessary to use a different port if you're running a full webserver on the same connection).

Actually, that's only necessary if you're setting it up for DDNS or something else that requires the DVR to make an outgoing internet connection... it's still good practice to have the gateway there, but it's not required for the system to communicate with other 192.168.1.* addresses, including the router.