Soundy

A ground lop occurs when you have two separate ground paths at different potentials or of different lengths. For example, the video signal's main ground path the the DVR is via the shield of the coax wire. But if the camera body is grounded to the metal pole, that metal pole is then grounded to earth (and probably via the electrical ground wire as well), which then gives another path to the DVR via its power ground. Having the two separate paths can cause interference, or create another point for noise to enter, or can reduce the system's ability to reject noise that's induced. Physically isolating the PTZ from the pole would be the best way to eliminate this. Some more reading on the subject: http://www.siber-sonic.com/electronics/GLoopwhatis.html http://www.fmsystems-inc.com/manuals/GNDLOOPart.pdf

Just offhand, I'd suspect a ground loop. Is this a metal or wooden pole? Is the body of the PTZ attached to something grounded? What happens if you unmount the PTZ from the pole? Electrical interference is possible, but you can eliminate this easily if the interference changes when the light is off vs. on.

I'd move to a place with less brick... But seriously folks! If by "header" you mean the white casing that surrounds the whole door area.... that can come off without affecting structure at all, it's just a soft (probably pine) trim piece. There should be a 2x6 or 2x8 frame behind that that you should be fine notching a bit, IF necessary... however, there should also be a sheeting of 1/2"-3/4" plywood or OSB or something else similar on top of the 2x6/2x8 that you could probably cut enough depth out for a board camera to fit. In fact, easiest process if you were go that route would probably be something like this: 1. Determine what size hole you'll need for a lens hole (pinhole lens is probably best, in part because of their conical end). 2. Drill a hole that size through the casing and back into the sheeting/framing behind it, to give yourself a pilot. Remember to angle it upward a bit so the camera is looking downward. 3. CAREFULLY remove the casing. 4. Use a spade or Forstner bit to make a suitable sized hole for your board camera (again, remembering to angle it up as needed). Make a smaller hole and chisel out the corners for the camera, if you prefer. 5. Use a countersink bit in the back of the casing to make a space for the tip of the pinhole lens to fit. 6. Mount the camera in the hole - stuff some paper in to hold it in place temporarily. 7. Put the casing back in place. Adjust camera position as needed and then anchor it with silicone or similar adhesive before reattaching the casing. For the wiring, you could remove the casing on the inside and fish the wiring underneath that.

Aye, and there's the rub: if you're installing a DVR, it's usually because you're interested in the RECORDED video. Lots of times these cheap systems seem fine... until you really need the video, and then you discover that the clarity you need just isn't there.

All of the above! "Night vision" - people tend to think of the "night vision goggles" they see in the movies. I've seen too many instances where they think that a basic $20 bullet with a dozen IR LEDs will light up an entire yard like the daylight and let them see everything clearly. TVL is CCTV's equivalent to megapixels in the digital-still-camera market. With pocket cameras in particular, it's been an ongoing race to cram in (and advertise) more and more and more megapixels, with no consideration of how that adversely affects low-light performance. I've seen people who think a 15MP P&S camera will actually produce better pictures than a 10MP DSLR. Then they wonder why the pictures of their kid blowing out his birthday candles looks like shyte... by the same token, TVL has become something that most consumers don't actually understand, they just figure that more is better with no consideration of other factors, so the manufacturers tend to inflate the number as much as they can get away with... FPS... same thing, the "more is better" mentality takes over, without consideration of the trade-offs, or the actual REQUIREMENTS (yeah, 30fps looks nice... no, you don't NEED it all the time). The real kicker is that as much as some think the only way they'll get smooth, lifelike movement is at a full 30fps... PAL does it just fine at 25fps... and film is typically a mere 24fps (until you start getting into IMAX and technologies like that). The other one to watch out for is sellers pushing recognizable names... like how many times do we see here, people with "I have this Sony camera..." and "this one must be better, because it's a Sony camera". Well, no, it's not a Sony - it uses a Sony sensor that's the same Sony sensor as a zillion other cheap-ass cameras, as well as a number of better cameras that back it up with better processing. And sorry to say, just having the name "Sony" on it does not automatically make it "good" (this applies to a lot of different areas of electronics, BTW).

We use mainly GEM and GVI - same price range, both tool-less (cheapie-cheapie ones notwithstanding), both work just fine.

[quote="rory"][quote="Soundy"]The Geo cards I've come across all have their own audio inputs... disabling the PC's audio would have no effect on that.[/quote] Yes, if the PC audio is disabled, then the Geo Audio does not work, and Geo will popup an error when it loads.[/quote] Well that's um... kinda... er, I guess one more thing to add to my "WTF GV????" list.

Well first of all, the specs on that page say it records with MPEG4 compression, which would normally be an .MP4 or maybe .AVI extension. You could try renaming one and seeing if the player is any happier. http://lmgtfy.com/?q=6802i SKY-6802i appears to BE the model number... the manufacturer is "Shenzhen Skybest Electronics. Co., Ltd". They may have generic drivers for it. It's a Techwell chipset, not BrookTree, so I don't expect the btwincap drivers would work.

Can you please make it more simple for me, i didn't understand your explanation... The camera uses 12V so if i have a48V injector output with 400mA the camera takes only when it needs ? Any electrical/electronic device will draw only as much current as it requires. 400mA is the *maximum* the injector can provide at 48V. Since the POWER remains constant (again, assuming 100% efficiency, which is impossible in the real world, but is what we usually deal with for the sake of keeping things easy), as the voltage changes, the available current changes inversely-proportionally. Given that Power = Voltage times Current (P=VI), that gives you 48V * 0.4A = 19.2W. Step it down to 24VDC, you'd have up to 800mA available; at 12VDC, you get up to 1.6A (sorry, calculated wrong above).

Check the Windows Firewall settings?

I did some testing recently with a number of baluns, ranging from some cheapie GEM units that run about $15/pair, to some surge-protected NVT models that run about $40 *each*, and a few in between (most in the $20/each range). I connected a CNB dome to one end, a Vigil DVR to the other, and about 120m (around 400') of Cat5e still coiled in its box in between... Honestly, there was very little noticeable difference across any of them. The only really visible difference was that the cheapie-cheapie ones had some rust on the screw terminals that seemed to have an intermittently detrimental effect on the connection... but at the same time, one of the $20 GVI's appeared to have a spotty BNC connection that caused some noise and color shifting when I moved the balun around. Overall, it looked like the price differences were mainly accounted for in construction quality (I have had a few of the $15/pair ones fail in the field), plus the better ones had more convenient tool-less connections; the screw terminals on the cheaper ones tend to be a real pain to use.

The Geo cards I've come across all have their own audio inputs... disabling the PC's audio would have no effect on that.

Well, that's 19.2W... stepped down to 12V (and assuming 100% efficiency, granted), that's 1.2A available.

Audio level wouldn't make a difference to file size since WAV is an uncompressed format. Assuming 16-bit, 48kHz audio, it will be 96kbytes per second per channel, regardless of level or content.

You couldn't have put all of these in a single post?

The LinkSys injector.

I've had an IQ511 running off one of these for months.

The Linksys will power your camera without difficulty. When the question was asked regarding 12VDC, I inadvertently refered to the output of the Terminal unit. The Base unit, which is all omer needs, supplies 48 volts/400ma (over 19 watts excluding loss). More than enough to power any Class 0 thru 3 IP device. Using switches would be the way to go for multiple IP's but for 1 or 2 I prefer the injectors. I've also seen problems where some IP's act a little flaky when they receive PoE near the 100 meter limit and had to power them locally. As for reliability, we have several Mobotix on injectors that have been running for almost 2 years without a glitch. I have that same LinkSys setup, acquired from a customer that was upgrading their AP. The "base" unit (on the left) does indeed work fine to power a PoE camera, but the PoE IS only available on the port as shown. The power supply included is actually 48VDC output; the "receiver" unit steps it down to 12VDC on a standard barrel plug. Actually, the problem with that diagram is, the access point is NOT the same a router, and the network as shown is not actually connected to anything else. Where the camera is, should be a router or switch on the main network.

Matt, while I might agree with you, there are cameras out there that basically meet the specs for 720p and 1080p. The Honeywell HD3MDIP we are testing, as well as a number of others are 1280x720. In that respect they are 720p. Could they be hooked directly up to an HDTV? It would depend on the TV, but likely not in most cases. To qualify in that respect they would have to have either Component or HDMI outputs. None do that I know of. The Sanyo VCC-HD4000 has a HDMI output, as well as an analog output on BNC. I do still agree that using 720P and 1080P designations is mostly marketing hype, though.... That's my point. Most megapixel cameras may meet at least the RESOLUTION specs (if not the signal output specs), but many actually EXCEED those specs (1080p is, after all, ONLY 2MP, and 720p doesn't even qualify as megapixel). There's no point in LIMITING your camera designations by HDTV terminology, if not simply for marketing.

That phenomenon is known as "ghosting". It's a good indication of either cheap cable, or damaged cable, or possibly poor/incorrect termination. Baluns over the Cat5e wire should avoid that.

Providing the wires haven't been cut, you should have two connectors: a barrel-type power connector, and an RCA or BNC video-out connector... similar to this: In this picture, the connector on the right is power, and should work with any of a hundred standard 12VDC power adapters with a tip-positive output (note the "Polarity" diagram): The yellow connector is an RCA-type, like on a VCR, DVD player, etc. It can be connected to a video input (usually also a yellow jack) on most TVs. Alternately, it may have a female BNC connector - same video signal, just a "professional" locking-type connector: The designation "4-9mm" refers to the variable focal length of the lens, which relates to how wide or tight a shot it gets. 4mm would be a "wider" shot - larger area covered, less detail. 9mm is a "tighter" shot - smaller area covered, greater detail.

Why not just PoE cameras that do that themselves?

Applying "HDTV" terminology to megapixel cameras is, as far as I'm concerned, strictly a marketing thing. HDTV and related terms like 720p and 1080p are sexy terms that the average consumer can relate to. They know their 1080p LCD TV looks great compared to their old TV, so by extension, a 1080p camera must look a lot better than their old-style cameras. The connection between "analog" and "megapixel" isn't so readily clear.

I hope he's not billing you for all this time! It's possible he's getting firmware updates for the DVR, although those shouldn't be necessary for getting it installed and working - it can always be updated later. Ditto if he's downloading a remote client. As for the time it's taking, maybe he's on dialup? I'd ask him for specifics on what he's downloading that's taking so long... if it's the manual, RUN! (Edit: hmm, $600 for DVR *and* 8 cameras?? Yowtch... cheap cheap cheap).

All of these look like "dumb" units (ie. no intelligent processing like onboard RAID or anything, thus no actual firmware) so the only reason I could think of that any would have a drive size limitation is if the USB-to-SATA host controller it's using has a size limitation. Beyond that, it's possible that the ad copy is just so old, 1TB or 1.5TB was the largest drive available when it was written...