Soundy

How/where do these need to be mounted? Will they be on a wall, suspended from the ceiling, attached to desktops, floor-standing? Do you need to do a matrix or grid layout (two or three across, two down, for example), or have several in a row for multihead cards? Lucasey makes a number of different mounts for LCDs and CRTs - http://www.lucasey.com/ I've used a number of different cheap wall mounts of varyingly complex designs and features, as well - stuff from Costco, liquidation stores, etc. And I've seen some really cool custom designs - LCD mount points should all conform to VESA spacing specs, so building something custom is usually pretty straightforward, if necessary.

I don't know this machine specifically, but in general, I'd say it's likely not possible to read the disk in Windows - most standalone machines use some form of Linux as an embedded operating system and would thus most likely use the ext3 filesystem. The ethernet port is not for network storage, it's for remote viewing... most systems support both web-based viewing and a remote client application.

It's possible, depending on the DVR. I don't know about AvTech, but Vigil will allow the level of control you want via user accounts - you could set up a "Guard" user group and disable viewing for those covert cameras, for example, yet still log in remotely with the Administrator account to view and configure all cameras.

Here's an example, BTW... This is a standard analog dome camera at CIF resolution: This is a 1.3MP (1280x1024) IQEye camera in approximately the same position (you can see the dome in the lower-left of this view):

Based on the replies to this thread, i have decided to reduce the number of cameras to 16. All of a sudden, the PC-DVR based approach starts to look a LOT more affordable. Also, this might be a stupid question, but someone on this thread mentioned that using IP Megapixel cameras would help reduce the total number of cameras required? Why is that? Is the Field-of-View wider for IP Megapixel cameras? Yeah, I mentioned it in the post immediately preceding Because they're higher resolution, megapixel cameras allow you to use a wider field of view with more detail. For example, assume you're comparing to a 640x480 resolution analog camera... 1.2MP is 1280x960 - twice the horizontal and vertical resolution, or four times the total resolution. Thus, you could cover four times the area with the same level of detail... or the same area with four times the detail... or anywhere in between.

Sure there are... but a small battery in a small recorder will only last so long. I've used a small unit with internal HDD, battery, and 4" LCD... works great, but the battery will last for MAYBE two hours' recording, if the LCD is off. It's a simple equation of battery time vs. size - the more time you want out of it, the bigger it has to be, no way around it. It doesn't take long until you hit the point of diminishing returns, where the size of the battery hampers the portability. Not at all. A car battery should run a small unit for days. If you use a separate high-capacity deep-cycle battery with an isolator, as described above, you could probably run the thing for a couple weeks and still be able to start the car.

This is something to consider - in some instances, a single 1.3MP camera can give you the same coverage as two, three, or even four analog cameras. With proper placement, it may be possible to greatly reduce your camera count.

From what I've seen of them... yes you can. They're not "junk" by any means, but they're hardly top of the heap, either. Take a look at some of 3xLogic's VIGIL offerings - www.3xlogic.com. Little pricier than GV, but once again, you get what you pay for. I FAR prefer them to GV, as does one of our major clients who we're slowly upgrading from GV systems to Vigils.

Absolutely 100% not possible. WAY too much bandwidth required, unless you have dedicated T3 or fiber lines at both ends. Never even get close with standard broadband, especially since most ISPs severely limit the upstream bandwidth. Not even close. You get what you pay for. 'Nuff said.

Well, I'm a cheap skate (or maybe just thrifty) and hate to post this (admin please remove if this violates the rules) but when buying things the thrifty buyer searches everywhere. Yeah, I dunno that I'd be trusting my jobs to "thrifty" cable... remember this thread? http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=17877

The answer is right there in front of you: "the issue has ceased now that I removed the splitter altogether." Splitters CAN often work just fine, but they are never an ideal solution, because you're reducing the signal to each device by 50%. Worse, if one of the devices doesn't present the proper load to the signal, it will cause an even greater loss to both of them, as well as increasing the risk of ground loops and susceptibility to interference. What might help, is if this monitor has a looped "video out" jack on the back - most good CCTV monitors will properly load this pass-through jack, and you should be able to feed the camera into its input, then run from its output to your encoder. Of course, there's no guarantee this will be 100% either, but it should be better than what you're doing now. The best solution, of course, is an active video splitter.

I've also seen DVRs (Video Insight) that give you 320x480 as an option. Whether playback shows properly (non-stretched/squished) depends on the codec and the playback software. VI footage recorded at those 320x480 or 640x240 will be distorted if played in WMP or VLC, but playback properly within VI, for example.

Three things to remember: 1. The listed framerate is divided amongst all inputs. Sometimes the max is fixed (60fps/8 inputs = 7.5fps, for example); sometimes the max available per channel depends on the number of inputs used. 2. NTSC video is 30fps, period; PAL is 25fps... so even on a 480fps system, you still won't go over 30fps per channel. 3. The higher the framerate, the more storage you use. 15fps is virtually indistinguishable from 30fps by most people, but will use half the storage (approximately). 7.5fps will still look reasonably smooth, but will use about 1/4 the storage of 30fps... or looking at it another way, you'll get four times longer retention at 7.5fps than at 30 - a month rather than a week, for example. Summary: high framerates are *yok yok* overrated. Worry about image quality - resolution, compression, etc. Don't get hung up on massive framerates.

Go with the higher resolution. You don't need "realtime" framerates on security video - we're not making movies or TV shows here.

Where do you find 1000' of Cat6 for $60??!! I'm lucky to find Cat5e for that, wholesale! Retail on 1000' box of Cat6 is $200+!

Depends on the software, but most will let you display a range of different layouts, with whatever cameras you select, like these:

A "battery isolator" is what you're looking for there, sold mostly for campers and trailers... allows you to run two separate batteries for the car and the camper (or DVR) systems, mainly so the camper draw doesn't drain the battery you need to start the car, yet still allows the alternator to charge both.

"HTML is OFF" means you aren't allowed to embed HTML codes in your message. This is usually done for security purposes, to prevent people from embedding malicious code in their posts. BBCode is an HTML-like formatting code that most web forums use for things like embedding pictures, formatting text, etc. Where it says "BBCode is ON", you can click on BBCode and it will open another window explaining it and listing some of the supported codes. When you click, for example, the "IMG" button, it places a BBCode IMG tag in your post, and marks the button with a * to show that the tag is "open". After you enter your image link, you click the button again, and it will place the /IMG tag and remove the * from the button. If you have multiple formatting tags started, the "Close Tags" link will close those off with the "/slashed" version. That's all that link is for.

There's a lotta stuff that will probably be fixed when/if they ever upgrade...

Did you actually read the original post? "Anyone tried an IDE to SATA converter (to allow you to plug a SATA drive into a device that is expecting an IDE hard drive...)"

Might help to actually hand-dry it as well, rather than letting it air-dry.

Try regular dish soap - "cuts through grease" and all that. I usually keep a pack of Windex wipes or similar sort of glass-cleaner wipes onboard. One thing I've found though, some kinds of plastic domes, particularly Lexan, tend to absorb grease if it's left on for a long time. One restaurant we do, the kitchen grease that had coated the Extreme domes over time was left there for months, maybe years, and there was NO getting it out again.

I don't deal a lot with AiPhone other than the odd LEF-3/LEF-10/LE-D pump intercom setups at some gas stations... but it seems to me AiPhone does have a "video enterphone" product that combines the video camera right into the front-door intercom, and a viewing screen on the apartment end. Why not ask your AiPhone rep or supplier what solutions they have?

Just occurred to me, but I suspect all SSD drives will be SATA, so... that would be a problem for him right there. Oh well... could always get a new DVR