Soundy

Outdoor-rated vandal domes are just fine in restaurant coolers, particularly if they have heaters (in the domes, that is, not in the coolers). Mark, I'm in the GVRD as well, we handle a major local restaurant chain and they've been very happy with the CNB domes we've been using (some of them replacing Extreme domes that overheated and died, many replacing cheap junky IR bullets... yes, that fogged up in the coolers. There's a bit of an art with some domes in coolers, if they aren't internally sealed, because warm moist air from outside the cooler can get into the dome and condense on the cold surface... but this hasn't been a problem with the CNB designs we're using.

As I understand it, it's completely legal to record surveillance audio in BC... however, for it to be admissible as evidence in court, there must be warning signs in the premises that audio is being recorded (although this is not the case with video, oddly enough). I'm not a legal expert, however... you'd be better to consult a lawyer for confirmation.

ASUS's website doesn't even list that motherboard... you sure that's the right model number? Anyway, the pins you're looking for are labeled either RESET or RST on every motherboard I've ever seen... IF they're labeled.

How about for 8-channel units then? Or just use dual-voltage cameras, and/or go all 24VAC, and avoid the problem altogether.

DON'T use individual power adapters with that many cameras, if for no other reason than the logistical nightmare of tangled wires and power bars necessary to support it all. A single 32-channel regulated 12V power supply with individually fused outputs is recommended... or if you can't find a 32-channel model, a pair of 16s will do. Something like this: http://www.altronix.com/index.php?pid=2&model_num=ALTV615DC416UL

Depends what you mean by "control" but if you're talking about pan/tilt/zoom controls, then no, you don't need a DVR; you just need an appropriate controller - joystick type, keyboard type, or just a computer with the appropriate software.

Yes... minus whatever portion of the screen the software interface itself uses.

I couldn't name you any in the US, but you should be able to find it on their website at www.iqeye.com

So what is this solution, Alex? I've been playing with VLC to do it, and if I could get the cameras to play the stream for a short period and then stop, it would work. If I could get VLC to switch to a new stream after a set period of time, it would work. It SORT of works in that I can force a new instance of VLC after a delay, and that loads another camera, but it doesn't re-read the command line parameters or config file, which means I can't have it load a new caption or logo overlay for each view, which isn't a REQUIRED feature, but would be a good selling point (ie. a title stating which camera is currently displayed).

Actually, if you want a decent low-profile dome cam, check out a Pelco IS90 - small, clean-looking, really good picture, no need to monkey around with replacing the innards. They come with both a clear bubble and black mask (pictured), and a smoked bubble.

What should they do if they find other systems to be problematic then? Spend excessive resources to work around someone else's design problems? Sometimes you start building things one way, things work fine for several hardware revisions, then you find newer hardware has problems... is it cost-effective to go back and redo everything from scratch to attempt to MAYBE make it work on that hardware, or do you just say, "this isn't very good hardware, we don't recommend using it"? Look at it this way, how much more pissed off would you be if they DIDN'T list the supported hardware, you bought something else that they know doesn't work well, and then you had all kinds of problems, only to THEN call them and have them say, "Oh yeah, it doesn't work very well with that, we don't recommend it."?

What sort of monitor? If it's VGA, you can use a VGA balun to run over Cat5e... or just use a 50' shielded VGA cable. We get them at a local computer retailer for about $30.

We've recently been using IQEye Alliance-series domes in retail installations, they're fairly low-profile and very clean-looking megapixel domes. Before that, we used IQ511 megapixel box cams in Pelco DF-5 domes for these same retail clients. Either will work great and should be inconspicuous enough for your purposes. If you go analog, most any small box cam in the Pelco enclosure should work nicely. There are lots of other options, of course, but these are a couple I'm familiar with.

Check out ak357's "plug-and-play" IP cameras, they look ideally suited to what you're doing - no static IP or DDNS required. http://cam2life.net/

Yeah, and a wimpy 15w pencil iron? Please, that's for girls! This is the only way I roll: GO BIG OR GO HOME!

Nah, I prefer Xersin multicore solder. Still using a spool I got from Radio Shack some 25+ years ago That Kester stuff is junk! ;o)

Tip: If you remove your pantyhose and put a couple of wraps around your fingers, you should not suffer as much damage to the skin, Sally. As far as pain in your muscles and ligaments, I recommend you change beverages from mineral water bottles to mini kegs for the purpose of strength training. You left out the part where I question why anyone would willing want to subject themselves to this when there are plenty of other options available. As you say, lack of proper tools is not an excuse. A few twist-ons are great to keep around for those "oh crap" moments when you don't have the tools handy, but... Do you use the super-expensive tape that will still work at -20? Would be cheaper and easier to just use crimp/compression at that point, no?

You have to make sure all the other comm parameters (baud rate, etc) match the camera, and you need the correct camera ID selected for PTZ control to work.

Interesting link there, tom... I wonder if this is useful for DVRs in general? Well, that certainly addresses pochrist's concerns - for Avermedia at least, it's not a matter of being "under Intel's thumb" but a matter of not trusting the stability of those other chipsets. I see they DO list some AMD motherboards and ATI chipsets that are tested and known working with their systems. This is nothing unusual, of course - back when I was working IT support for a digital-arts school, 8-9 years ago, we had a couple of high-end digital video workstations (Discreet, Avid) that were very, VERY specific about the motherboards they would work on - not just chipsets, but only a very few motherboards that would work with them AT ALL. I can hear the "Well, I have a gaming machine using those chips and it works great" but this sort of video processing is a whole different matter - gaming needs its power in bursts and a lot of it rests on the GPU; DVRs need to do CONSTANT heavy processing and are much more I/O intensive on a consistent basis. A weak I/O chipset is as deadly to a DVR as a weak GPU is to a gaming system.

Kinda jumping the gun a bit - the Paralympic games are just getting underway: opening ceremony is tonight!

Welcome aboard!

A polarizer will block reflected light when adjusted properly, which could cut sun glare off reflective objects... but it will also reduce the overall light by about two stops (1/4 the light getting through), which will darken EVERYTHING in the image. Again, it's hard to say whether this would be more hindrance than help, without knowing the actual application.

I dunno about R**y's tweaks, but the first place you want to start is with nLite...

"Recommended" doesn't necessarily mean "ONLY works with"... usually it means, "this is what we've tested it with and know for a fact that it works well". That said, the main thing to consider when going to Win7 is not just whether the software runs (which it probably will), but whether the hardware has driver support (which is much less likely). Unless there's a burning need for >3.5GB RAM, there's probably little need to go to 64-bit, and even less need to go to Win7 for a DVR. Remember, a DVR 's OS doesn't need to be pretty and friendly and latest-and-greatest... it NEEDS to be efficient and stable.

Resolution and framerate are two parts of the quality equation... the other is compression. All else being equal, you won't see a significant difference between 640x480 and 720x480. It may be measurable, but it won't be noticeable in most cases. 720x480 is the upper limit for analog NTSC video capture resolution - if you want higher than that, you have to get into megapixel cameras, which realistically right now means IP cameras.