Soundy

Yes, but not all are visual information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTSC#Lines_and_refresh_rate Okay, I was off by three... in any case, you won't find an NTSC DVR that samples at over 480 vertical pixels, so the point is the same: your biggest limitation in "image quality" is the video standard.

Did you try sending Larry a PM? I believe he's the only one who can change user levels.

I wouldn't even bother - I've generally just connected PTZs directly to the RS232 port and it works just fine. Only ever ran into one PTZ that didn't like that.

Yeah, something dark over the railing won't fix the problem... but I bet you see the grass area brighten up and become grainy to match the back patio.

One of the big problems we found with cameras in the back areas of restaurants is that all the grease in the air gets on the domes and builds up, and over time, actually soaks into the plastic and can't be simply wiped off.

How wide are the lenses? The wider the shot, the more area it covers, the less detail you'll get - that's just physics. The answer to that depends partly on how you define "quality". It starts at the camera, of course... with analog cameras, you're bottlenecked by the video standard itself (486 vertical lines for NTSC - you can't get higher vertical resolution with analog). Then there's the sampling resolution of the DVR - CIF, 4CIF, D1, etc.). And there's the compression used - all DVRs use some form of "lossy" compression, where a picture is analyzed and data that's deemed "extraneous" is discarded. The higher the compression level, the lower the image quality, but the less space and bandwidth used. There are lots. You're talking about a PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom). They're not cheap though, and they're not particularly beneficial in most cases without a human operator, because despite being able to move and zoom in on something, they can still only see that one thing at a time. If you zoom it in on a section of sidewalk to get a clear facial shot, you'll miss someone sneaking by on the lawn around it... if you widen the shot to get the lawn, you lose the detail of someone coming up the sidewalk.

^Two words: service loop. Make sure you leave plenty of extra wire coiled at the end of your run, so you have plenty to allow you to move/adjust positions. If there's no room behind the camera, leave a coil in the first available location "upstream", so you can pull more out if you need. Wow, we run into this all the time - stuff getting moved and added and removed and changed constantly in the course of construction of some large restaurants we install for. But really, the only thing you can really do about it make sure there's something in the contract that lets you bill for extras when that happens and someone else's idea/mistake/brainstorm causes you extra work. The worst was a couple sites ago when they decided that all the IT and CCTV head-end stuff wasn't going to go in the staff area, as originally planned, but into a special server room being built off the loading dock... of course, they decided this two days after we finished pulling all our runs to the original location... as usual, we left about 15-20 feet of extra cable... and of course, we needed about 60 feet more to get to the new location. Doing all the extensions, fishing them up through the ceiling of the ceiling of the mechanical room and tying everything in... then disconnecting all the splices, pulling the original runs back out the hole they told use to use, to re-run them through a new hole, and re-splice them... the whole thing added over a week. Two guys, full time, 6 extra work days, because things kept changing on the fly.

This. If you look at how dark the lawn is in the second picture, it's clear the bright white railing is affecting the exposure, forcing the camera to dim the overall image so the grain doesn't show so much. In the first picture, the overall darker scene means the camera is boosting the gain, and that's where your noise is coming from.

Rarely have an issue with this, and I live in Vancouver, where we have two seasons: the rainy season, and the monsoon season. That said, I've successfully used Rain-X to substantially extend cleaning/service intervals for car wash cameras...

Are you sure it's a "legit" GV card?

These cameras work very well with very little ambient light, so IR is probably not necessary in most cases. See some examples here: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=25383&start=59 If you do need extra lighting, my preference would be motion-activated white light - not only does it give you a nice full-color image, but if someone is prowling around in the dark, a bright light snapping on will almost always get the reaction of looking toward the source of the light, and if that's fairly near the camera, well... Yeah, not sure what they're talking about there... UTP isn't "shielded" unless specifically stated. The objection is probably more due to the fact that a SINGLE pair for power may not carry sufficient current for higher-powered cameras like those with IR... but the baluns I listed specifically use one pair for video and the other three for power, which three 24-gauge wires is pretty much equivalent to one 18-gauge wire. The balun doesn't do anything special, it just connects three pins on the RJ-45 jack to a single pin on the power connector.

You still have to get power to a tablet anyway, or it won't run more than a few hours... make life easy and run Cat5e through the wall and use either VGA baluns or HDMI-over-UTP extenders at both ends. This is the thing: even if you find a cost-effective way to get video wirelessly to the monitor, you still have to power the thing, there's just no way around that. So regardless of what else you do, you still have to pull wiring to that location somehow. Pulling a signal wire along with it shouldn't be any more difficult.

A few 16-channel options, depending on what you want to spend: http://www.dahuasecurity.com/English/product_info.aspx?type=339&&css=0&&id=8 http://www.dahuasecurity.com/English/product_info.aspx?type=349&&css=1&&id=34 http://www.3xlogic.com/prod/599/pro-series-hybrid-video-recorder The Vigil is a nice option (albeit a good bit pricier) because they're a fully hybrid system, meaning if you want to start upgrading to IP cameras in the future, you just have to plug them in and configure them in the DVR. The Dahua DVRs are outstanding standalone units, but not hybrid. Camera - easy: CNB VCM-24VF 2.8-10.5mm lens gives you a lot of range in adjusting your FOV (2.8mm will give you around 82 degrees). They're flush and surface mountable so they can be kept relatively low-profile. IP66-rated, so well suited for outdoor use (even in direct weather). And you'll have a hard time finding anything even close to the price range that works as well in low light. Also suggest, for a really clean install: http://www.easterncctv.com/accessories/ev16p-vps.htm for a combined balun/power supply unit, then http://www.easterncctv.com/accessories/ev01p-vp-t.htm on the camera end - terminate your Cat6 (overkill, BTW - Cat5e is more than sufficient) with RJ45s and just plug'em in. Then if you want to upgrade to an IP cam in any location, you simply unplug the balun and plug in the new camera, the move the other end from the VPS to a PoE switch. I wouldn't even bother with the coax and 18/2.

Ah, I think the box linked above is probably the best bet, then - almost all DVRs stream H.264 now because that's more efficient for internet viewing. I can't think of any DVRs offhand that I *know* will stream MJPEG...

The MJPEG stream will only let you view the DVR - are you hoping to control it from the touchscreen as well? Because I don't see that being possible. If you just need to display video, how about this: http://www.homeauto.com/Products/Surveillance/SurveillanceOverview.asp#87A00-1

In theory, sure, but I don't know how far I'd trust the QA of the assembly process of cheap cameras - they may simply not be put together properly. Ahh, see, this is the other common problem with these cheap bundled systems: the connectors are semi-proprietary, not in the connector type itself, but in the pinouts used. Even with just four wires, there are 24 possible combinations... if it uses all six, you have 720 possible combinations. If you want an adapter, you're limited to either getting one from the manufacturer, possible specific to that model... or building your own.

Even at 10fps, unless you're watching fast-moving objects, most people might feel that something looks a little off, but would be hard-pressed to put their finger on just what. As for exaggeration... it's not that figures are inflated or falsified, I don't think, but more like... well, say you have a 3MP camera that will only do 15fps at full resolution, but can do 30fps at 2MP... so on the shiny brochure and packaging they'll put "3MP" and "REALTIME 1080p" in big letters (not right together, of course), but the fact that if you do run at 3MP you only get 15fps is relegated to the fine print, or worse, only listed on the spec sheet. No different really, than DVRs proclaiming "REALTIME RECORDING" in big letters, but not telling you up front that that's only at CIF, or only on one or two channels.

I usually say that if CCTV equipment runs the range from a Kia to a Ferrari, Lorex would be a broken, rusty bicycle, missing one wheel, left to rot in a ditch. On that scale, Lorex would be a blue bike, Swann would be a red bike, Night Owl is a white bike, and the Q-See at least still has both wheels. You may not want to hear it, but the fact is, yes, they're ALL bottom of the barrel, which is why they all cost about the same. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of stuff is the same gear by the same manufacturers sold under different names. Why do you want PTZ controls - do you have a PTZ now? If not, and you're planning to get one, you'd be better off to put that money toward a better DVR and save the PTZ for somewhere down the road. They cool to play with, but without a live operator, they don't give you a lot of benefit. Rather than a bundle of underperforming pieces, you'd be better off to put more toward a good recorder and one or two decent cameras, and then add more cameras as budget allows.

Wire with Cat5e, terminate with RJ-45 (plug or jack, as appropriate), use suitable baluns at both ends. If you want to get really clean, try one of these at the head end: http://www.easterncctv.com/accessories/ev16p-vps.htm - combined 16-channel balun and power supply. Then put one of these for each camera: http://www.easterncctv.com/accessories/ev01p-vp-t.htm If you want to switch to IP later, just unplug the line from the VPS and plug it into a PoE switch, then unplug the other end from the balun and plug it into a PoE camera. The only catch to using baluns is that you can get ground loops if you have cheap 12V cameras with a shared power and video ground... but make sure you use decent cameras (dual-voltage type, ideally) and that's not an issue.

If the DVR has a "spot" output (probably composite video, BNC connector), you could run that into an A/V input on your TV. If the DVR supports browser viewing without requiring ActiveX, you could try pointing your Smart TV's browser at it.

Here you go:

Just think of the relay output as a computer-activated pushbutton - you'd wire the strike as you normally would with a power supply and trigger switch, except you wire the relay contacts in place of the switch. Use something like this: http://www.rutherfordcontrols.com/products/electric-strikes/4-series/ - get one that's fail-secure (meaning it's locked when NOT energized), then wire it through an NO contact. When the contact closes, the strike is energized, and unlocks. Remove power, and it's locked again.

NOOOOOOOOO EEEEWWWWW I've installed so many of those HS2100s, and they're HIDEOUS to work with. BLECH *spit spit* ACK THHPFT!

This is why we don't do residential We've done jobs in the past where the customer wants to just cheap out on everything... the problem with them is, they tend to be the highest-maintenance type - and I'm talking about the customer, not the gear! Always with questions, always with problems, always wanting things tweaked... and always wanting it for free (aka "under warranty"). Rule of thumb: if they want to pay as little as possible for the gear, they'll probably want to pay as little as possible for you, and they'll want to squeeze as much out of you as they can for the pittance they've given you. The boss went to meet one guy once, who wanted a quote for his store... after a few minutes of chatting, the guy told him, "You know, I'll be getting some other quotes..." - okay, nothing unusual there - "...and I'll probably be going with the cheapest one." The boss's answer: "Well, ours won't be the cheapest, so I won't waste any more of your time." I suppose it's a necessary evil when you're getting started, making your name, building contacts and street cred... Here's an analogy you might want to use that most people can grasp (tweak to your own specifications): think of shopping for a CCTV system like planning a move, and you're looking for a truck to rent. "Domestic" systems would be a little Ford Ranger... "Prosumer" would be your F-150... and "Professional" or "Commercial" systems would be a 5-ton cube van. Any of them will do the same job - but the bigger the job, the less efficient and effective the smaller truck becomes. You COULD move an entire 4,000 square foot house's worth of stuff with the Ranger, but it's going to take you forever, and the bigger items might even break the truck. The bigger trucks may cost more, but they save you time and work, and usually save you money in the long run.

If you meant from your power supply then yes, it should work fine. If I recall, that camera will operate with voltage between 10 and 30v, do make sure your supply is sufficient to account for voltage drop over the length of the run. 4 conductors at 150ft should be fine. +1 - I see no problem with this plan.