Soundy

Well in that case, have it fire a James Bond-type magnetic tracking bug at the bottom of their car and just follow them home.

This isn't really a "security camera" topic (maybe a mod can move the thread to the appropriate area), but... My standard advice to anyone looking for a DSLR is: look at your specs and price range and narrow your choice down to two or three models, then... GO TO THE STORE AND USE THEM. Handle each of them, turn them around in your hands, work the controls, navigate the menus, fire some test shots, swap some lenses... and choose the one that is MOST COMFORTABLE FOR YOU! Ultimately, the best camera is the one that gets used, and a camera that you find confusing and frustrating and uncomfortable to operate is more likely to sit on a shelf collecting dust, where all the specs and measurements and arguments in the world will mean absolutely squat. Nobody else can tell you which model or brand you'll enjoy using, and ENJOYING photography is the most important thing!

http://mythbustersresults.com/episode73 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OCoeLf-DTk

You'll have to take that up with Torontonians - they're all convinced they're the center of the universe too! Welcome aboard, from Vancouver, BC (on the Wet Coast)!

I know of none, but I can think of a few drawbacks to it... One, the video has to be converted/transcoded to MPEG-2 for that... which can be a long and CPU-intensive process, which is not something you'd normally want to do ON your DVR. Two, it's not nearly as space-efficient as the codecs typically used for CCTV - at lowest quality, a 4.7GB DVD will hold about 6 hours video, while a data DVD will allow you to put several hours' worth of several cameras. For example, DVR-specific file formats allow proper playback of video recorded at lower framerates, while transcoding for DVD-Video playback requires converting to 30fps (well, 29.97fps for NTSC drop-frame video), which in itself greatly increases the storage space needed. That may be fine for short clips for use in court, but I often see the police wanting half-a-day's output of several or all cameras, which would require multiple DVDs. Three, most DVRs embed timecode and other authentication data in their native video, which allows users (lawyers, police, court officers) to prove that the video hasn't been edited or tampered with. Once you convert to a different format, you lose that proof. Again, a playable DVD-Video might be handy for courtroom playback, but you'd still need a native version that can be authenticated. Most DVRs I've seen that will export AVI, have to convert the video on-the-fly, and it takes FAR longer than exporting directly to their native format, and also takes a lot more space. Rather than exporting video in AVI, it's usually better to export in the DVR's own format, then convert that later as necessary. The conversion will probably go a lot faster anyway.

The "proper" solution here is simple: a quad or multiplexor with proper loop-through connections. Disconnect required cameras from DVR, connect to quad inputs, connect quad outputs to DVR inputs... all done. Clean, simple, won't give you any problems, no worries about loading or signal loss.

What do you mean by "send a message remotely"? Are you looking to send an email or SMS (text message) to someone when an alert is generated? I can't think of a lot of use for VoIP on a DVR - what, so you can talk to it??

Hey, when do WE get to come down for some snowmob... er... I mean, TRAINING??

It might be possible to replace the CDRW drive with a DVD writer.... but that would largely depend on how the DVR supports it. It's really had to tell anything else without at least a make and model of the DVR.

why they hating on my aluminum ladder? i got it free Sad thing is, the holier-than-thou attitude over there puts this place to shame. I mean, yeah, I use aluminum ladders - both an 11' folding ladder and a 10' A-frame. I also don't work anywhere near high voltage 99% of the time. I have a 14' "Featherlite" fiberglass ladder, and lemme tell ya, "Featherlite" has gotta be a classic case of false advertising. I know in that thread, they were going on about finding open electrical boxes in ceilings and such... well, my aluminum ladder will be sitting on carpet or tile or something else non-conductive... meantime, the closest grounded metal item to me when I'm up in a T-bar ceiling is the T-bar itself, which is gonna be right there whether I'm on aluminum, fiberglass or wood (personally, I prefer a wood ladder over the others).

You just couldn't resist, could you?

Welcome aboard!

Just to toss in my couple of cents... I much prefer compression as well, mostly for their convenience, but they can be a little picky when it comes to stripping the wire (depending on the connector, at least, some are pickier than others). Nowhere near as picky as twist-ons though, and with twist-ons, your wrist gets pretty darn sore if you need to do more than a few patches. Two- and three-piece crimp-ons are what I see the most, and we tend to use them just because they're cheaper, but dealing with all those separate pieces (especially the three-piece with two or three center pins) can also be a pain in the arse, especially if you have to terminate multiple connections in a tight or hard-to-reach or high-altitude space, or anywhere that there's little or no room to stage things out. Plus, all the multi-piece crimp-ons I've seen put each connector in its own little baggie, which adds an extra level of annoyance, especially when in tight spaces. For my money, compression is the way to go.

Oh, and as for your subject-line question, "how does anyone make it in this biz?"... there are two ways: crank through lots of cheap low-margin junk and make your money on sheer volume... or provide excellent customer service and be knowledgeable about the equipment you sell and install, and make it on word of mouth and solid, no-BS sales. Of course, nobody here operates on the former model...

I don't know exactly what they use (optical or electronic stabilization, vibration absorption in the mounting, etc.) but we have a Pelco Esprit PTZ on top of a 50' tower on one site, and it has very little problem with wind shake. I can turn the camera around to see the lighting rod on the tower and see it waving like crazy in the wind, but the camera remains pretty solid (not 100% motionless, but still quite good).

Hey Zach, welcome to the site! Well right off the top, I think the most important question for your immediate issue is, what's the budget? If you're not looking for "dirt cheap", I'd suggest checking out the Vigil systems at http://www.3xlogic.com and IQEye megapixel cameras at http://www.iqeye.com - no, I don't work for them, I'm just a tech for a very satisfied seller/integrator with some very satisfied customers running Vigil systems (we currently have 16-channel Vigil systems in Western Canadian gas stations for two of Canada's largest oil companies, some analog, some mixed, and some all-IP/megapixel, as well as hybrid 16- and 32-channel systems in a major upscale restaurant chain, in addition to a number of other customers using our Vigil + analog/megapixel systems). Vigil systems do support your requirement for multiple site integration as well. The 3xLogic website includes photos and videos, as well as links to resellers, and if you don't find one close to you listed there, just contact them, and they should be able to point you to someone. They do have a couple people who participate here, who I'm sure would be happy to chime in. I could also suggest some resellers for IQEye megapixel cameras and various other systems, although they're here in the Vancouver area... One other thought on your need for something FAST: even if you can't get a DVR/NVR in place for the weekend, you might consider starting with IP cameras that have onboard recording (SD card), like IQEye or Mobotix, that you can put into place and get things recording... then wire into a more extensive system later on. Edit: Just looking on 3xLogic's website, there are at least two Authorized Partners in Georgia (not sure how close they are to you), Absolute Security in Toccoa and Gainesville, and CBE in Montgomery. Check out http://www.3xlogic.com/authorized-partners for more. The map at http://www.iqeye.com/partners/certified-partners.html will show you certified IQEye partners in your area as well.

That looks like a marginal PC to run a DVR on (depending on the RAM and drive space you have in it), but honestly, you could get a far better all-new system for probably less than it would cost you in total to upgrade it. Check out the two base systems here for about $300: http://a-power.com/home-457 - just as an example... and that's a brick-and-mortar store (online-only stores will be even cheaper). If you upgrade your current system, it's not just a new motherboard, but a new CPU, new RAM (that one uses DDR, which is twice as expensive as the current standard, DDR2), a beefier power supply (230W won't even start up a modern board), a bigger hard drive (that one lists as shipping with 20-80GB max; 800GB+ is common now), and most certainly a DVD writer. About the only thing worth keeping would be the case... Getting a different card, you'd still need to at the very least upgrade your drive space substantially... and probably RAM as well. IF yours has the DVD-ROM option, you'll also probably want to go to a DVD writer there too. Again, at that point, you're better off with a new system.

First, auto-iris has nothing to do with remote zoom. A lens's iris controls the amount of light passing through the lens; auto-iris allows the camera to control that itself to adjust for changing lighting conditions. Without knowing make and model (or at the very least, form factor - dome, bullet, box, etc.) of your cameras, it's impossible to say if the lens can be upgraded to even allow manual zoom and/or auto-iris. Chances are though, it won't be possible, as the lens typically needs to be integrated into the camera to allow the camera to drive the zoom motor(s).

For a mere 50m (max), you should actually be fine with Cat5e. Doubled-up 24ga. should be fine, even feeding regulated 12VDC to an IR camera (worst case, add the brown pairs in for a little extra bulk). Siamese is nice most times, but tends to be a lot pricier than something like coax + station-Z or similar, and IME it can be a PITA if you need to pull it around tight corners or through small openings. Just pull a single run of Cat5, slap on some baluns, and be done with it.

FWIW, CAT5 is relatively robust when using RJ45 connectors, but 24AWG is relatively fragile when stripped. A tiny nick can result in a break, which is why many alarm installers will only use 22AWG. So, CAT5 will work, but if it were my project, I would use 18AWG (or Siamese) now and pull CAT5 later. FWIW. The only thing REALLY wrong with this is the suggestion to pull the Cat5e later, especially if the site is a new or renovated construction. If the budget allows for the extra cable, and you really expect to use it later, pull the Cat5e NOW, even if you're using separate coax/power runs. New cable runs are ALWAYS a labor-intensive pain in the arse, so why duplicate the effort when you can do it all at once?

Friend of mine recently had his Jeep broken into... all they took was the ashtray. Doesn't take a lot of brains to be a crook, eh? Just keep in mind up-front that a camera system will do NOTHING AT ALL to *prevent* crime, at least not in and of itself. It can record crime, hopefully help police catch the criminals, and thus stop (at least temporarily) future crimes. It can sometimes be a deterrent... but given the intelligence of your average criminal/vandal, a lot of times they don't even see the deterrent, or if they do, simply don't care. The point of this is, don't expect incidents to magically stop the minute the cameras go in! That said... Well, you're on the right track so far They're pretty common (hence a lot more discussion about them), but I wouldn't call them a "standard". Actually, the cards themselves are pretty wide-spread; like many other DVR brands, they're based on a commonly-available chipset, and a number of other systems use almost exactly the same cards; the only thing that's "special" to GeoVision is the software that's bundled with them (and the fact that the cards themselves are tied to the software: the firmware is "tweaked" so that the GV software will only work with GV-branded cards). You'd probably do fairly well with a GV system, for the price, but there are lots of others out there, many of them (IMHO) substantially better in both hardware and software. It really is an industry where you get what you pay for. They're mostly for deterrent, but such signage IS required by law in some areas. Here in British Columbia, for example, you're not required by law to inform people they're being recorded by audio OR video, and video is admissible in court without such notification, BUT audio recorded without others being notified is NOT admissible as evidence. You can record it, but you won't be able to use it later in court, unless there's signage informing people that they're being recorded. That's here. You'll need to check your own local or regional laws for what's required there. Beyond all that: if you need quality video, your first concern before the DVR should be the cameras themselves. If your initial video is shyte, the way you record it will be irrelevant. The biggest problem with "package" systems is that none of the cameras and lenses are particularly suited to any specific need, but instead just designed for general all-around use with easy mounting and wide views. So, you need to figure out what you need to see, and where you can put the cameras, and go from there. Unfortunately the shape of your driveway doesn't lend itself well to "choke points" - tight areas that anyone entering has to pass through, allowing you to have a tight, detailed shot... like the front door of a store. Then you can look at the lighting situation - street lighting, backlighting, etc. - to determine the type of camera necessary. IR cameras are common for low-light, but in most instances, the use of IR is, IMHO, a cheap hack workaround to use cheaper cameras, instead of simply using better, more expensive cameras with good low-light support. If the area is dark at night, I would recommend a quality camera, along with a good motion-activated floodlight or two. One, visible light will always provide better picture than IR; and two, the lights themselves snapping on can be a huge deterrent on their own. Someone creeping around in the dark wanting to avoid being seen will be startled by 1000W or so of halogen floods suddenly bathing the area in light, and is just as likely to simply bolt.

Yes, you can. You'll need video baluns to properly transmit the signal over twisted pair, and I'd recommend using two pairs for the power. Typically, I'll use the blue pair for video, and the green and orange pairs for power (if 12VDC, the green and green/white are ground and orange and orange/white are power), but that's nothing written in stone, that's just my own convention. If you list what equipment you have (make AND model numbers) we should be able to tell you what will be useful to you and how.

I dunno about GV's take on the idea, but Vigil has a Central Management utility that shows not just the health of your DVRs, but stats like software version, total/active/recording cameras, CPU usage, free/total disk space, active remote connections, days of retention, and date/time of the oldest footage. You can have it email or sms notifications to you as well, if number of active or recording cameras drops below a set level (ie. camera video loss), if days of storage drops below a defined threshold, or on a number of other criteria, including of course, if the VCM server loses contact with the DVR. Little more inclusive than just having Google check whether the server is there or not

Don't think that's a similar problem, or anywhere near similar. Sounds almost like a corrupted user profile - depending on the laptop and what software is provided for power management, sounds like it probably stores the various power profiles within the user account (which would allow multiple users to have their own customized power profiles). You could test that by creating a new user account and setting that one to auto-login and see if it retains the settings through multiple reboots. If it turns out to be the case, copy over your important data from your old profile (Desktop, My Documents, Favorites, etc.) and delete the old profile.

Just to be clear: pins 3 and 5 are the pins you use on the DB9 serial port on the computer. RS-422 *should* be the right setting for the camera - pin 3 on the serial port would go to RX+ (some mark it "RX(A)"), and pin 5 to RX-/RX(B). What "Rx/Tx" light is this? Most PTZs, when you power them up, will briefly display info like baud rate, ID number, etc. on-screen. Remember that baud rate and comm parameters (data-parity-stop bit, such as 8N1, 7E1, etc.) must be correct as well, or the camera will receive data, but not be able to read it. Now here's a trick I've found with some cameras connecting to a PC serial port: sometimes you have to power up everything with the wires connected the "right" way (pin 3 on the port to RX+ on the camera), pin 5 to RX-), then swap them without restarting or rebooting. It's odd and it SHOULDN'T work, but sometimes (often?) it does, and is the only way to get it working without using a full-on active converter/adapter. Once you're sure all other settings are correct - baud, ID, com port, etc. - if it still isn't working, try that (I actually have a DB9F plug with tails out to small alligator clips to facilitate this in testing). Edit: something else to try, if that doesn't work... I have actually seen cameras where instead of labeling the connectors' functions, they label it as what you're supposed to hook it to. In other words, when you see "TX(A)/TX(B)", the label would be telling you that those pins are to be connected to the TX lines from the controller... not that they ARE the TX connections. In essence, on these cameras, the TX and RX connections were "reversed". SO if nothing else works, you can try that as well.