Soundy

That actually depends on the specific hardware and how it handles multiple cameras. It would be rare that multiple cameras would split up the resolution, but it is possible depending on how the manufacturer has implemented things. There's a lot of weird designs out there. Correct. The software is just taking in the signal from the card, via the card's driver. It can scale down the resolution from there, but it can't create higher resolution than the card produces. Doesn't sound like anyone here is familiar with them.

I'm in Vancouver area as well; we've used plenty of the VCM-24VF cameras, as well as earlier similar CNB domes, outdoors in direct weather (assorted Cactus Clubs, mainly) with no problems other than raindrops sitting on the dome. In all cases of direct exposure, they're mounted directly to walls, no pendants required.

I generally prefer static as well, for the reasons already covered. Plus on a lot of sites, the camera positions are already numbered, and I like to assign IPs to match the position for easy management (192.168.2.101 for camera 1, .102 for camera 2, etc., for example). There's nothing wrong with DHCP as such, but some systems (especially some cheap routers) implement it poorly, with short lease times and without support for reserved addresses. If set up properly, there's no reason it shouldn't work fine. I have seen instances where machines would reboot and randomly receive new IPs from a router... but those were a particular line of LinkSys routers that had that issue. I mostly use D-Link, and they almost universally have DHCP reservation support, so once a camera pulls an IP from it, that IP can be added to a reserved list so that it will ALWAYS receive the same IP. If you understand how DHCP works (or is supposed to work), there's little need for concern. With every IP assigned, a lease time is also set, that the IP assignment is good for. At the halfway point in the lease, a device will begin to poll the server for a renewal. It has up until the end of the lease period before the server will return the IP to the pool and make it available for another machine. Most client devices will retain the assigned IP indefinitely until it receives a new one, or until the IP is released. The problem arises when the server and/or client devices don't follow the spec properly.

The fact that he came up with the number indicating 43fps recording, which isn't possible with NTSC or PAL video?

A couple overviews of the whole camera, and a few of the inside, may help someone determine what make/model the camera actually is. If you can, look around for a label (probably silk-screened on a circuit board) with an "FCC ID" marking, followed by a number. If the camera was sold in the US, it should have one of these. That number can be looked up at www.fcc.gov and will give you at least a manufacturer.

Agreed, it will depend somewhat on the cameras you have and what DVRs or NVRs support them. Some cameras can write directly to network storage, no DVR required. That said, you could look at a Vigil NVR (see link in my sig); it will handle a wide range of network cameras (including generic HTTP support, if you know the camera's parameters) and falls within your budget. Being PC-based, you can easily drive your large screen through VGA or DVI.

It would take a *LOT* of force to actually crush the wire to the point it shorts between the core and the shield. You could drive over most coax with a truck and while it's not very good for the cable, it wouldn't cause a short, and likely wouldn't cause a break either. At worst, crushing it like that would affect impedence, which could affect loading and noise rejection. For a short, you'd need some sort of physical damage by an outside object. If you can, get ahold of a 75-ohm terminator, they make handy diagnostic tools: put one on one end of the line, then measure resistance across the tip and shield at the other end. A single reading will tell you if there's a short or open.

That is correct. TCP data "ports" have no relation to the network jack "ports" on the router. It is possible with some setups to use two DNS entries, like dvr1.domainname.com and dvr2.domainname.com, but generally that would require a webserver to handle the requests, and usually all it would do is then re-forward them to the different ports anyway. I don't know of any routers (at least not cheap consumer/SOHO models) that can do subdomain name-based routing.

The plan: we have a customer with several sites, many with IP cameras. They want to be able to have a monitor at each site that will randomly display a live camera from another site. The sites are already all connected via VPN, so I can access the cameras on any site from any other site. What I need, is software that will automatically switch from one to the next on a schedule, maybe every few minutes. These are all IQeye cameras, and I can use the IQstream utility to do a single camera in full-screen, but it has no option to sequence cameras or close after a set period of time. My one thought is to put it in a loop in a batch file, then schedule another process to kill the IQstream app every so often, but that would be glitchy at best. These sites also all have Vigil DVRs, so I can use the Vigil HD Viewer app, but while it will do a split-screen of multiple cameras, it won't do a sequence of full-screen views either. I don't need to record anything, just display. I know there will be bandwidth concerns; we'll deal with that when we get to that stage. Ideally this solution would have the ability to work with a streaming media server at the client's head office, where they have lots of upstream bandwidth available, so the stores only need to support a single stream... but before any of that happens, I first need to find something that will handle the displays the way I need. Thanks!

If this is a proper time-lapse type surveillance VCR, it should have trigger inputs that you can connect to the PIR as well, so that the sensor is directly triggering the VCR to start and stop recording. Then the camera can just stay on all the time. We've used the wireless Optex motion sensors for a similar purpose (in our case, to trigger a loud siren as a door annunciator for a noisy shop) - the "base" unit has a form-C relay output that can be used to switch either open or closed when the sensor is triggered; that could be wired to the VCR's trigger input (assuming it has one) to do the job. If the VCR doesn't do it, you could still use the relay to toggle the camera power - just run one side of the camera's 12VDC/24VAC power feed through the normally-open terminal.

vin2install is correct. The DNS setup only needs to point to the router's WAN address (the IP supplied by your internet provider). That tells remote systems the address to connect to. At that point, the router sends the connection to the appropriate DVR based on the port you specify. For example, say your routers use LAN IPs 192.168.0.101 for DVR1, and 192.168.0.102 for DVR2. Assume the DVRs use only port 80 for a web-based remote client... you'd set up the router to forward port 80 directly to 192.168.0.101, then you might set it so "public port" 81 is forwarded to "private port" 80 at 192.168.0.102. To access the two systems then, you'd use something like http://paparaaapa.com:80 (or with no port number, 80 is assumed) to view DVR1, and http://paparaaapa.com:81 to access DVR2: the router sees the incoming connection on port 81 and knows to pass it on to the second DVR's IP.

Does the camera have a standard BNC video out? If so, just use that for video over coax... the old fashioned way What type of connector is the serial port? If it's a DB9, try just using pin 5 (ground) and pin 2 (receive) for serial data... connect those directly to a serial port on the PC using pin 5 (ground) and pin 3 (transmit): pin 5 to pin 5; pin 3 on the PC to pin 2 on the camera. You can use Cat5 for this, or Cat3, or 18/2, or station-Z, or just about any other kind of wire you want.

I've done it with beanie crimps (both standard and gel-filled), standard butt crimps, solder-and-heat-shrink, 110 patchbay blocks, BIX blocks, and just about every other method you could think of, with no noticeable effect on quality. Plain and simple, if you have a clean, solid electrical connection, you should have no problem.

10mm will give a fairly tight shot with a 1/4" sensor... how wide an area does it need to cover at that range? More importantly, what's your budget? Take a look at CNB's Mona Lisa line of cameras - they're a vandal-resistant 600TVL dome with outstanding low-light capabilities. You'll generally find them in the $250-$300 range.

You initially said that you OPENED these ports - what does that mean exactly? Did you open them in the firewall, or did you FORWARD them to the DVR's LAN IP? If you simply told the firewall to unblock those ports, then they're not going anywhere; you have to tell it to route the traffic on those ports to the DVR. I can't think of any normal instance where opening OR forwarding ports should allow you to access the MODEM from the outside. It's entirely possible to inadvertently set it up so you access the ROUTER settings, but not the modem.

The term "balun" comes from "balanced/unbalanced". Regular composite video cabling is unbalanced. What the balun does is create a balanced connection over the wire, which allows it to better reject and/or cancel noise. When you don't have a balun at both ends, the line isn't properly balanced. Switching which end the transformer unit is on, MAY improve things, but it's still not a proper balanced line. Ideally, yes, you need the transformers at both ends.

You are right, I have no idea what you are on about, I only posted a chart which tells one the IR distances at different wavelengths for 2 particular IR Illuminators. Ive used both of them, and I can tell you they work as specked, obviously with good professional Day Night cameras, and the IR light stayed the same distances regardless of the camera I used (neither being a bullet or dome camera, but all were CCTV cameras, not IP cameras). Note on the chart there is a line that says clearly - with Extreme IR cameras. You're really not paying attention to what Chris is saying, are you? Yes, the charts are bang-on... for good cameras. What they show, though, is of limited use for other cameras, be they particularly poor quality, or of extreme sensitivity. They're useful as a rough guideline in general practice, but the numbers are only valid for the cameras they specify (or those similar), AND they're only valid for those specific illuminators. Chris's statements aren't an indictment of those specific charts; they're a comment on the industry in general and the need for specs that can be applied to ALL cameras and illuminators. If the same sort of standards existed as we have for photography, for both cameras and for illuminators, you could pull those charts out and they'd be useful for anyone's illuminators, with any cameras.

Welcome, from sunny (but not quite as warm) Vancouver!

You'd have to go to either a TV, or a dedicated CCTV monitor to get composite in... either way, it won't be anywhere near this cheap and still have any level of quality (especially on the composite up-scaling). If you want the monitors to all look the same (so they line up clean and pretty o the desk) you'll need a composite/VGA adapter for the last one.

I'll second that, I like the ICM system... I just use the BNCs with my SealTite universal compression crimpers, but their kits are pretty nice, and their stripper and crimper tools seem really solid and work really smoothly. I wouldn't mind picking up a basic kit, just to have some assorted other connectors for those odd situations you run into now and then, but I don't think I could convince the boss on the cost-benefit I do have one beef with ICM though, and that's trying to get the BNCs out of those F*$#(&ing tubes!

They look pretty sexy, especially starting at $209! Only thing is, according to the specs page, they're VGA-in *only*, so your "intercom" system would have to either be computer-based, or use some sort of composite-to-VGA adapter to get a signal into it. Also, for me, I would prefer DVI at that size and resolution (assuming you run them all at native resolution - I certainly wouldn't want it any other way). I have a 22" Viewsonic running at its full 1680x1050, and there's a noticeable clarity and stability to using DVI over VGA. Not a critical thing in your case, but for guards that will be sitting staring at them for 8-hour shifts, it might be nicer. But again, you can't beat that price (plus free shipping!) for a 22", and they do look great with the thin bezel.

This is actually very common in low-to-mid-grade 12VDC cameras. You only start getting away from it in cameras that have built-in regulators, which most often means dual-voltage or 24VAC-only models. Bingo! In fact, if it's just a pair of straight-through wires, what you have isn't even a balun; it's a half-assed adapter and nothing more. If you paid more than $2 for it, you got ripped off.

It was my problem with unvc too....I just found the solution! (at least for me) On your deskttop GV-800 icon = Rightclick = Properties = Compatbility = Run in 256 colors How does reducing color depth affect the inability to display overlays??

720p isn't even megapixel resolution anymore.

Your answer is in the immediately preceding post.