Soundy

Kinda depends on the equipment. Ultimately, you could drive over it with a truck, that would make for a pretty permanent deletion.

Of course it CAN be split... just a question of whether you'll be able to find a ready-made solution, or need to put something together yourself... or take something apart yourself! You might need to source the necessary DIN connectors and wire up your own splitter, or worst case, you can snip the wires, determine which pair are the video signal, splice a "tap" into that, and reconnect the others to get the power and audio through.

We're doing it, on the largest site with 22 analog cameras and five 1.3MP IP cameras, all running at an average of 4-5fps. We're using a Linksys SPE-1000P switch - eight 10/100 ports with PoE for the cameras, two GbE ports for the DVR and the NAS. Whole thing runs like a charm; the switch isn't even breaking a sweat, even with all cameras recording.

what is BTInstall? Sounds like the chips on that card are a version of the BrookTree 848, a very common chip used in a wide variety of video-capture devices. Neat thing with the BT848 chips, a generic BT driver will usually work with almost anything that uses them, even if the card's manufacturer didn't provide specific drivers (for example, an old card may have only Win98 drivers, but generic BT848 drivers for XP will usually work with XP).

I've found Noise Ninja works really well on high-ISO noise from a digital SLR.

What I don't understand is the reluctance to talk to the police about this. At least two people have suggested it, and you've tried to find every way around it right up to selling and moving away. The worst thing the police can do here is tell you there's "nothing they can do". You ASSUME that this person has no restrictions placed on his conduct, but you don't KNOW unless you ask the authorities; even neighbors won't necessarily have the whole story. I'd think if there's even the slightest chance that reporting his actions could get the threat removed, that would be the FIRST step to take. You can put in all the cameras you want... if he should actually (God forbid) attack your kids, you might have a crystal-clear recording of it, but the damage will already be done.

Don't see why not - I've set up a number of 8x1TB RAID arrays with Vigil DVRs, using iSCSI-attached Enhance Technology arrays... despite Vigil not "officially" supporting NAS, these have been working nicely. The array simply maps as another drive letter, and Vigil doesn't appear to know the difference.

The biggest problem with looking through glass is reflections, especially at night. I don't have any specific suggestions for mounting this thing, but you WILL likely need to come up with some way to "seal" the lens against the glass to prevent indoor light from hitting the glass right in front of the camera.

Forcing the supplier to fix their "error" would be my first choice as well... if they say "customs is a problem" I'd insist that they ship the correct cameras first, and that I'd only return the PAL cameras after I've received the new ones and confirmed that they ARE correct. After that, customs can screw things up all they want. Short of that, if these are 12VDC cameras, they won't care that the local power is 60Hz... if you can find a DVR or DVR card that supports PAL input, you could then use the cameras with that. Once the signal is digitized, NTSC or PAL won't matter.

Frankly, I've found that having training/degrees/certifications does not automatically mean someone knows what they're doing, either... all it proves is that they could correctly answer the questions on a test. I used to work in IT, a field in which I'm almost entirely self-trained (aside from one week-long "workshop" on Warp Server, 'way back in the day), and I've worked alongside MCSEs that I could tech under the table with all but one brain cell tied behind my back. On one site, one guy didn't even know how to swap out a floppy drive in a PC; another couldn't figure out how to set a Mac up for TCP/IP, because he didn't actually understand TCP/IP, he just knew the right places to plug in the numbers in Windows. (This is not a personal jab at anyone, BTW... just a general observation). This is one thread, I would love dearly if Scott was right. As the OP noted, manufacturers (particularly the cheap offshore ones) often misrepresent the specs of their cameras... if there was a simple way to get real numbers using some basic free software, it would be a huge boon to those of us on this end of the chain. But, so far nobody else seems to believe it IS possible, and others seem more interested in dissecting disbelieving questions than in actually proving this method. Knowledge gained has to be ACCURATE knowledge, or it's useless. Hey, I can claim to be able to start a fire using nothing more than a stick of gum and a paperclip, too...

If he has a prior record of this sort, chances are good that there are legal conditions in existence disallowing him from contact with children or possibly even limiting his proximity to them. If so, his actions may very well be breaking those conditions. Best way to know for sure is to contact your local law enforcement. If he does have such conditions imposed, they'll know (or should).

Simple fact is, it's not possible for VLC or any other simple computer-based media player to tell you an analog camera's TVL, as Scott claims, but he'll continue to do or say anything to defend his statement - including picking apart crirvine's poor English (sorry dude) - short of actually demonstrating it.

That ground should not be required. It might be useful if there's noise in the picture or other issues, but RS485 doesn't REQUIRE it.

Um, what ground wire? On the camera, or the controller? Ground should not be required - TX+ on the controller goes to RX+ on the camera; TX- goes to RX-. That should be all it takes. Only one pair of the Cat5 is used.

Unless the manufacturer provides something, I don't think there's any "standard". About all you can do with most of them is blow the dust out regularly - the schedule will depend mostly on the environment.

You know, you generally only need to post once. See reply here: http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=17272&highlight=

Are these wires labeled? With RS485, you'd normally use RX+ and RX- on the camera, connected to TX+ and TX- (respectively) on the controller (a few cameras I've seen label the RX pins as TX, I assume to tell you what to connect them to rather than their actual function). TX on the camera should not normally be required. Remember that once you're connected, you have to set your controller (joystick, DVR, whatever) to the proper port settings (baud rate, parity, etc.), and your software to the same protocol (Pelco D or P or whatever else is supported) and tell it the ID number of the camera. With many cameras, the port, protocol, and ID info is displayed when the camera boots up...

Nice! I gotta get me some of that!

Not to mention, IR is relatively distance-limited and would probably not be effective for illuminating an entire beach...

Video Insight DVRs do not require ActiveX for their web viewer - I've successfully used it on a number of browsers including Safari (Windows version), Opera and Firefox, as well as assorted different mobile browsers, including Blazer on PalmOS and Opera Mini on WM6. You can test it with your browser at http://www.demovi.com

One thing, if you do have to do outdoor splices... I've found it really helps to put a little dielectric grease (typically sold at auto-parts stores for use on battery terminals to prevent corrosion) into the ends of the barrel before snapping on the BNCs. That keeps water and damp air from getting inside the connection (actually, almost any thick grease should work). Using weather-tight compression BNCs is a good idea as well. After that, wrap the whole thing up tight with good-quality electrical tape - it doesn't need a ton of layers if you pull the tape really tight and stretch it a bit as it goes on, so it form-fits better. I've also successfully used a brush-on "liquid electrical tape". I've tried heat-shrink tubing, but the wide disparity in the diameters of the cable and the BNC fittings means it doesn't really seal tight unless you stack several layers.

Well, there's always alt.security.alarms - lots of intelligent, mature discussion there (not!) Hey, I'm an old-school usenetter as well, there are some definite benefits to the medium... on the other hand, the ability to embed pictures in messages can be particularly useful for visual topics like CCTV. And it can be fun too!

A lot is dependent on the forum software used... much like with newsreader features. This is a fairly old version of phpBB; the newer version is MUCH improved. A lot of functionality can be added by ready-made mods as well, and the php code can always be tweaked for different functionality if you have someone fluent enough in php. All that aside, keep in mind that you're NOT in Usenet any more, Toto One of the main differences with a web forum is that everyone is stuck with the same interface - you can't pick-and-choose individual features like you can when selecting a newsreader. Which is not to say suggestions are not welcome (obviously, they're asking for them in this thread) but there are always some limitations. BTW, as far as "user-selectable stickies" and the ability to ignore some forums... that's sort of the equivalent to thread and forum subscriptions. This version of phpBB does support subscribing to threads, which I believe you can then create a search for. Version 3 also allows you to subscribe to a forum. Subscriptions will the email you notifications when the threads or forums have new content posted. Sometimes what you want is possible, but in a different way

Oh yeah, no intention to confuse... like I say, just something as "food for thought". Two stops, btw, is equivalent to half the diameter of the aperture, so a visual approximation is fairly easy.

survtech is on the mark there... As for run length, RG59 coax is good for several hundred feet - I've had 400' runs with no problem. Passive baluns over Cat5e are good for anywhere from 1000' to 4000', depending on which manufacturers' claims you believe... active baluns can extend that significantly.