Soundy

Well, you have a pretty good stock of options out there for cameras, from basic VGA-res consumer-grade cameras to $10,000 uber-cams I've set up a few sites now using PoE switches, and it sure is a dream to not have to run separate power. My one suggestion would be to make sure you have at least one gigabit port for your PC; most cameras have only 10/100 interfaces, and will actually work fine even at 10Mbit with lower framerates, but the more you have, the more load will be concentrated on the PC's connection. If you have plenty of dedicated wiring, I'd also recommend keeping your cameras and NVR on their own network... in part to keep the traffic off the rest of your LAN, and in part just for keeping everything nicely organized. There are a number of IP-only NVR systems out there... the one I'm most familiar with is Video Insight. It also has the option to add an analog component (with the appropriate hardware) so it does allow that avenue of expandability... just in case you should need to go there in the future. Personally, I really like the Vigil systems from 3xLogic/CAMACC, but I'm not sure if they actually have an NVR-only system yet; all the ones I've dealt with have been hybrids and the software has required that the capture hardware be present. Hopefully they're working to get past this. The one drawback to IP is that it's still somewhat more expensive than analog. The upside to that is that if you're going all-IP, you save a fair bit on the capture hardware... and depending on the circumstances, a single megapixel camera can often give you the equivalent coverage of two or three analog cameras (meaning, you can use a wider lens on one camera to cover as much area as multiple IP cams with tighter views, and still get the same detail). The other catch is that IP cams have a bit of catching up to do for low-light, and most (at least of those I've used) don't support auto-iris lenses yet, which can be an issue if there are wide variations in the lighting. The video is all digitized in-camera; the recorder needs only to store the incoming data stream (and in some cases, re-process/re-compress it). No specialized hardware is required, nor is a special video card. Most systems' onboard VGA should be more than sufficient for display; 3D isn't necessary. Nope, although if you're using more than just a few cameras, I'd recommend a gigabit port (see above regarding the switch). Again, pretty much any modern machine should have that on-board as well. Check out Video Insight's "IP Server" offering. Again, if the need ever arises, the necessary hardware and software can be easily added to provide analog support as well. I believe the license is purchased on a per-camera basis, so anytime you need to add another camera, you just extend the license (you'd have to talk to them about pricing though). I'd love to recommend a look at Vigil as well, but again, I don't know if they make a "pure" NVR system yet (would be worth looking into). For cameras, we've been really happy with the IQEye cameras - we've mostly used the IQ511 "box" cameras, and their A11 "Alliance series" dome cameras. The 511s can be bought in a kit that includes a 4-12mm lens and can use any manual-iris C- or CS-mount CCTV lenses; the domes I've used come with a 2.5-7mm lens, but I believe there are other lens options available as well. All their cameras support PoE, and start at 1.3MP and go up from there.

I know VideoInsight DVRs have a webserver component that allows you to watch any of its cameras in a web browser, including more mobile browsers. I've used them with a MotoQ, Treo 650 (PalmOS), and several different Windows Mobile browsers, and I know they support Crackberry too.

Yeah, we've done the one-guy-watching, one-guy-focusing stunt too (except we just use our cel phones with Bluetooth headsets - much more convenient!). It works, but it's kinda a hassle... "Little more, little more, no stop! K, go back the other way, back, back, little more... okay, stop... now back JUUUUUUST a bit... okay, right there, lock it down... nope, nope, it moved, tweak it back a little, NO, other way, other way..."

Score! Nicely done, good troubleshooting!

That's what I do... although you can do one better and eliminate the PoE injector if you can find a wireless router with built-in PoE supply. Soundy have ? for u the way I understand u have your laptop with you when you are on the top of the ladder right ? or one person on the ladder and second just walking around and guide first ? Depends on the site... my laptop is a 15" widescreen so I can sometimes leave it below on a counter or table. For lower heights I use a painter's stepladder with a tool shelf, so the laptop can sit on that. For slightly higher installs, I'll usually balance it (carefully!) on top of the stepladder. Anything beyond that, we generally use a man-lift (we own a 20' scissor-lift), and I'll set it across a corner of the railing on a non-skid matting (I'm working on a clamp-on holding table). For a while I was using an 11" Sony VAIO laptop that was a lot nicer for working at heights And as I've mentioned elsewhere, my co-worker has an Archos 5, which has a built-in browser and WiFi, so he just uses that.

That's what I do... although you can do one better and eliminate the PoE injector if you can find a wireless router with built-in PoE supply.

Well, the OP stated right off that he'd already checked on the legalities in his area... But this is the important part: the laws regarding this vary widely, and it's always best to check with local authorities, rather than on a web forum where people participate from all over the world. I don't know if it applies to all of Canada, but here in BC, to my understanding, audio recording is allowed without notification, but is not admissible as evidence unless there's signage stating that audio is being recorded. There are no such requirements for video recording. For phone calls, recording is legal as long as at least one of the parties is aware of it - which means you can record a call as long as YOU know about it; there's no requirement to tell the other person (obviously, this is intended to guard against third-party wiretapping).

What you're looking to do with the power is more commonly known as "phantom power" and is very common for audio (usually used to power condenser microphones)... but I'm not aware of anything that does it for video. It should be possible, but may require some hacking (as evidenced above). PoE operates on a similar concept. OR, you could simply look for gear that supports Coaxitron protocol, which runs PTZ control over the coax. That may limit you a bit, as I believe it's dependent on the hardware itself - the only place I've seen it in use was with a specific brand and model of MUX that fed the signal over the coax, and took control input from a joystick/keyboard plugged into the MUX. I think it was all Capture equipment.

The term you're looking for is "spot output" or "spot monitor". I know I've used a couple different quads that have them, but I couldn't tell you a name or model off the top of my head. It's a feature you're far more likely to find on a multiplexor. Short of that, you could do what scorpion suggests, although honestly, a simple T-adapter will probably do the job just fine.

Good answer Little nebulous - you must be a marketing guy One thing that people keep getting confused, too: analog vs. IP is not the same question as standard vs. megapixel. Standard-res cameras also come in IP variations, and as has been discussed, megapixel/high-def cameras are also in development that don't use IP. The two just get used interchangeably because IP is the only really viable transmission method for megapixel video currently on the market.

Heheheh, but that's the beauty of it, these things sell themselves!

Another example... same establishment, one a MACE dome, the other an IQ511 mounted right beside it. The dome runs through a TVS text inserter (see upper-left) and was left in place specifically for that function, as that's one thing that's not yet easily duplicated with an IP camera. Both snaps taken at the same instant. MACE dome, 1/4" sensor, 3.6mm lens, recording at D1: IQ511, 1.3MP 1/2" sensor, 4-12mm varifocal lens adjusted to give approx. the same FOV as the dome, mounted to the dome's immediate right: In the video, you can clearly see exactly what the servers are entering into the terminal screens. BTW, this site was another one of those instances where all I needed to do was show the owner a couple shots from an IQ installation on another site, and his immediate response was, "I want that." Sold him three cams for this store, and one for another he owns.

Veracity HIGHWIRE IP Over Coax I've used those - very handy! Little spendy for most cases, although there are instances where it's well worth the cost (like adding IP cameras to gas-pump canopies, where all the conduit is sealed before the station goes online). Nice that they run on both 12VDC and 24VAC, too, so they powered off almost any existing analog camera's feed. That aside, my comment you quoted was referring specifically to normicgander's note on 424M, and other analog-HD transmission methods.

MACE analog dome camera, 1/4" sensor, 3.6mm lens, recorded at 1CIF: Same position, IQEye 511, 1/2" 1.3MP sensor, 2.8mm lens (note dome camera at bottom of frame): /thread

You could try VLC media player along with the K-Lite Codec Pack - between them they'll handle almost every media format known to man. It's likely a more common format (MJPEG, H.264, DivX or something) with a non-standard filename extension.

Greetings from just a little ways north in Vancouver, BC. I grew up in the middle-of-nowhere, BC, so I know what it's like living a hundred miles from the nearest traffic light!

To a point. With Windoze at least, anything over 3GB RAM won't be recognized if you're running a 32-bit version of the OS. It doesn't hurt anything having more, just anything over that is wasted. You have to go to the 64-bit version of XP or Vista to take advantage of more than that.

Vigil is at www.3xlogic.com or www.camacc.com - they make turnkey DVR/hybrid/NVR systems. VideoInsight sells turnkey systems as well as DIY hardware/software packages - www.video-insight.com Both have people representing on the forum.

Several IP cams do have a composite-video out.... most of the IQs have one that's active for a few minutes after power-up and show a focus-aid window, and a few have one that's active full-time (like the Alliance-series domes)... those are handy if you're using it for something like an ID shot and want to drive a customer-awareness monitor.

Most IP cameras have a built-in webserver, which aids in the aiming and focusing via laptop. What I've started doing recently is taking a cheap WiFi router onsite, and plugging one of the LAN ports into the network with the IP cameras... then I can use that to access it wirelessly with my laptop. I can also plug the camera directly into the router and access it wirelessly (note: this assumes your laptop has wireless). A PoE-capable router would be particularly useful here. See this threadfor more discussion of this... I also have a retractable ethernet cable with a crossover/straight switch that I use to plug directly into the cameras. While this removes the PoE power source, the IQEye cameras we use all support 12VDC power, so I also pack along a 12V/4.5Ah gel-cell battery that I use to power each camera locally, as I'm working on it. While the laptop is also handy to run the camera's locate/configuration tool (IQfinder for the IQeye cameras), to really trim down, you can even use these methods with a "netbook" type computer (anything that can be done via web browser, at least), or do as my co-worker is doing, and use an Archos. He has the PVR dock for his, so it will take analog input (and the super-hi-res screen is REALLY nice for adjusting analog cameras), and of course, it has built-in WiFi so he can browse the network cameras with it.

You may have trouble finding a DVR capture card and software that will work with Vista (at least, your options will be a lot more limited)... and really, you don't want your everyday PC doing double-duty as a DVR, as not only will the DVR functionality eat up resources, but any heavy processing you're doing could affect the DVR capture as well. Having worked with a number of different standalone units and not being too impressed with any of them, my personal recommendation would be a separate PC (doesn't have to be anything outrageous for your purposes, a $300 bare-bones system will do, or a used older machine, anything in a P4 or Athlon64 or better will do), with a card and software such as GeoVision (which I've not dealt with, BTW, they just seem to be popular here as a low-cost solution) or VideoInsight (which I have dealt with a lot and they're quite good). Either route should get you into a suitable PC-based DVR for under $1000. As far as the PTZs, I don't know about the GeoVision, but VideoInsight fully supports most models, and it doesn't require a particular capture card - you can feed the PTZs off a standard 9-pin serial port on the PC (or if it doesn't have those, using a $10 USB-to-serial adapter).

I can't speak for any sort of standalone units, but the Vigil DVRs will do what you want, in a slightly roundabout way - camera permissions are assignable to user groups, but you can create an infinite number of fully-customized user groups. Worst case, you could create a separate group for each user, with that user being the only member of his group. I believe (although I'd have to look to be sure) that Video Insight will do what you need as well.

Yeah, you'll have a pretty hard time finding something that will record at HIGHER framerate that your local video standard supports... particularly since you'd have to get a specialized camera to be able to output at higher than that framerate as well. Even if you could record higher than PAL's maximum 25fps, no standard CCTV camera will output more than that anyway.

Yeah, one thing to keep in mind, you really need high-speed, broadband internet (cable or DSL) for this to be viable. It can "work" with lower-speed connections, but it will be very limited.

As scorpion notes, you'll need a modulator for this - your analog camera video operates in a completely different frequency band than your satellite and TV antenna inputs. A simple version would be the devices that are used to modulate video games onto channel 3 or 4, for a TV to tune. A more readily-available one might be a VCR, that can take a composite video input (the yellow RCA jacks) and output it on channel 3 or 4. More typically, these sorts of installations use a commercial unit that output to a channel in the 200-300 range - most cable providers leave a "hole" in their programming for just such uses (for example, channel 199 may be listed as "security camera" and carries no other programming). These tend to be a bit pricey, however. If you want something that you can feed into the dish inputs on your satellite boxes, though, that's a whole other matter... I wouldn't be surprised that such a thing exists, but I've never seen one, and I can imagine they'd cost a pretty penny.