Soundy

No. You've put a lot of thought into it, but the one thing you're missing is the current requirements for the IR, which alone will probably be over 500mA. When this plan is said and done, you'll have only one pair running power to the analog camera, to carry anywhere from 500mA to 1A - at 200' that simply isn't sufficient. There's no way to do this that doesn't require either a second power wire, or powering at least the analog camera locally. The ideal method would be to add an IP encoder for the analog camera, run that and the PTZ into a switch, and just feed them both over the network. Actually, I shouldn't say NO way, since it would theoretically be possible to tap off the PoE power and feed it through a voltage regulator to knock it down to 12V for the IR camera... but with the IR, and the current demands of the PTZ, you're probably going to exceed the 15.4W spec for the PoE supply. There is no "standard" for this; it depends on the baluns. One other problem with your plan: it's highly unlikely that your PTZ will work with the other camera's IR. Except for cheap color IR cameras, all color cameras include an IR-cut filter over the sensor, since IR wavelengths tend to have negative effects on the color balance.

CMOS chips tend to be static sensitive - use a grounded iron and follow proper handling procedures, be sure not to apply too much heat to your semiconductors, and you should be fine.

These cameras are very low current draw (180mA @ 12V) so they'll run fine using 12V over two pairs. When using a dedicated power supply, whether 12VDC or 24VAC, I generally use the blue pair for video, orange and green for power, and leave the brown as a spare. In a few instances, I have two 24VFs running on a single Cat5e at 12V with no issues (they'll actually work at something like 10V, so they can handle a pretty substantial voltage drop). More recently, I've been using these units: http://www.easterncctv.com/accessories/ev16p-vps.htm - two per site on the last two big jobs (30-31 cameras each). They're a combined balun and power-supply unit that uses pins 1 and 2 for video; 3, 4 and 5 for ground; and 6, 7, 8 for +12VDC. They have self-resetting overload protection on each channel as well, and have been working absolutely flawlessly with the 24VFs, as well as a couple of Panasonic WV-CW504 domes. One of these: http://www.easterncctv.com/accessories/ev01p-vp-t.htm at the camera end makes the whole installation nice and painless (just snip off the barrel plug and wire directly into the 24VF's power connector), although where space is tight I've also used our regular GEM mini baluns and just split out the necessary pairs.

Second the suggestion for a 3xLogic hybrid - a 32-channel 960fps hybrid will run you about half the cost of that Exacq monster. Also suggest adding an external RAID array to whatever system you use - we're doing 8x2TB, RAID6+hotspare on our recent sites, giving them upwards of 90 days or more. RAID6 allows two drives to fail without data loss, and the system will automatically rebuild using the spare if a disk fails. A more efficient method is to image the system once it's built, then just restore the image if anything goes wrong. Takes about 15 minutes to put it right back to the way it was when first put into service, configuration and all.

Saw an article years ago in a Reader's Digest about some of the things people steal from hotels. One New York hotel had once reported the theft of an entire marble fireplace...

My Groucho is a toy hoarder. Stuffed toys, squeaky toys, balls... we'll collect them all off the bed before bedtime and put them in a box or basket... by morning there's at least a half-dozen toys back in the bed. At the park, he'll snatch any unattended ball, stick or frisbee...

All Windows-based NVRs will likely do this. Windows will slow to a crawl if there are a large number of files in one directory. Best, Christopher Vigil does it with several levels of folders - F:\Data\20120330\08\014412.mjp, for example, would be March 30, 2012, 08:44:12am, camera 2 (first two digits of filename is the channel number, counting from 00). VideoInsight and GeoVision do something similar.

All looks good! According to the specs I found (http://www.costarvideo.com/products/products.aspx?id=111), those PTZs require 24VAC power, where the VPS units are 12VDC, so you'll need a separate 24V power supply for the PTZs. You can still use the VPS for the balun function, and split out one pair of those Cat5 runs for the RS-485 control.

Define "doesn't work"? Can you not turn the zoom or focus barrels? Do the lock screws not loosen? Do the barrels turn but won't achieve focus? WTF?????

WAY, WAY too many variables to accurately calculate throughput if you're using VBR (variable bitrate) cameras, because the actual data will depend on things like amount of movement (change in the scene), contrast, saturation, codec used, codec compression settings, bitrate caps, etc. etc. Many will allow you to set a bitrate cap that it won't go over (starts to lower quality to stay under the cap), which will give you a rough number to work from. With CBR (constant bitrate) cameras, most will allow you to define the bitrate, so you can just add up those numbers, and codec varies the picture quality to maintain the bitrate.

Never work - have you ever tried to slip an entire planet under your jacket and slip out the door with it without being noticed??

Only such restrictions are in the Classifieds forum, I believe.

I don't know how Avigilon does it, but some systems pre-allocate files for the video, then write the video data into those blocks of files. This has the advantage of avoiding disk fragmentation, as the original files can be created as single contiguous chunks of disk.

My horror stories actually go far beyond the drivers. I asked FedEx to ship a bunch of packages Vancouver to Calgary ground. They sent it air. Then they wanted us to pay for the air shipping. Ummm... how about, NO? They wouldn't let us ship on our account again until we settled up... so we didn't. Bought something with my AirMiles once... they sent it UPS. The day the delivery came, I was home the whole day... never heard the doorbell (which is right outside my office door)... just happened to go look out the front window in time to see the truck out front. If the guy knocked at all, he must have used his pinky. Certainly didn't seem to get the concept of the little lighted button beside the door. By the time I ran downstairs, he was driving away. Left the little sticker on the door, so I called immediately, told them what happened... they said he had other stops to make and they couldn't send him back - I COULD STILL SEE HIM DOWN THE STREET! They said he'd come back tomorrow; I told them I wouldn't be in tomorrow and asked if I could schedule it for a couple days later. They said no - my only other option was to pick it up myself... and not at any of the three "UPS Stores" within 10 miles, noooo... only at their central depot, a good hour's drive away. And only during regular work hours. And if I didn't get it within five days, they would send it back. Thanks, UPS... but no.

The markings on the lens indicate it's a varifocal - there should be two of those small screws on the lens: one to adjust the zoom (barrel is usually marked "W" for wide at one end and "T" for tele at the other), one to adjust the focus (often marked "N" and "F" for near and far). Loosen the appropriate screw counter-clockwise enough so you can turn the barrel, then lock the screw down again.

Look for a pinhole camera. There are cameras designed specifically to go in a door like a peephole lens:

You're not listening. Forget the size; concentrate on the resolution.

Simple fact is, a bigger TV won't automatically give you more clarity or detail. It's all about the resolution, and in the case of the TV, the actual physical pixels. A 1080p 20" TV/monitor will be sharper than a 720p 20" TV/monitor, period.

I would say, check with the individual sellers with your specific needs. Tell them up front what you require and confirm that you'll be able to return it should it not meet those requirements.

I have horror stories about both and will avoid them at all costs. We use Purolator at work and despite some annoyances now and then, there haven't been any major clusterf**ks like with the others.

Camera TVL is (mostly) irrelevant. The cameras are being digitized at 720x480 (for D1). 720x480 being stretched to 1280x720 means it's being resized 1.7778 times horizontally and 1.5 times vertically - neither is going to resize without artifacts. It's going to look like crap no matter how you slice it.

Size isn't a factor so much as resolution. D1 is 720x480, so in theory, a monitor that has 720x480 physical pixels will give you the clearest picture if you view the camera fullscreen; otherwise, the monitor will try to "stretch" the image to fill the screen. You'll find few if any LCD displays that are over 1920x1080, mainly because that's the maximum needed for 1080p HDTV. Bigger screens just mean bigger pixels; the main advantage is viewing at a greater distance. If you want clearer images than that, you need to go to higher-resolution cameras... CIF vs. 1.3MP (click the second picture to see full resolution):

Cheap junk. The owner needs a reality check - this ain't the movies. If you want an optical zoom, someone needs to be sitting watching the cameras to initiate the zoom at the time of an event. Otherwise, all you can do is digital zoom, which is essentially taking the image into software, clipping an area, and blowing it up: things get bigger, but you don't gain any clarity. Plus, with a fixed camera, optical zoom will ONLY zoom in on the middle of the frame... if you need detailed video of a certain area (say, a cash drawer), you're better to just have a camera permanently zoomed on that area. For real-time zoom to be of any practical use, it needs to be part of a pan-tilt-zoom camera... right there you're increasing the price of that camera 3-4 times, and again, it's of limited value unless there's someone sitting there driving it. It will only record what it's aimed at; if it's pointing in the wrong direction, then what's outside the area it sees isn't recorded. So. The only viable option if you want to record a wide area and zoom in after the fact is to go to HD cameras of some sort. See some examples here of recording high-res and zooming in after: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=11322&start=501 Is there existing coax? If not, consider Cat5 with baluns for analog video: the cable is cheaper, easier to work with, and more versatile for future expansion. This is a quality analog camera at an excellent price: CNB VCM-24VF - extremely versatile and out-performs many cameras costing 2-3 times as much. Overrated. And a misnomer. "Night vision" cameras are generally cheap cameras with poor low-light performance, that make up for that by adding cheap IR LEDs - think of an LED flashlight shining on the subject but with IR instead of white light. Get cameras with good low-light performance (see above) and be done with it.

The problem is, the answers to ALL of your questions will depend on the particular unit you're talking about... and as you note, there are so many no-name units out there, it's hard for anyone to know for sure what facts apply to which units. Don't worry about "extra features" - simple solution: don't use them. Most will have the ability to disable unwanted options like onscreen displays. Also, the vast majority you'll find WILL retain all settings and options indefinitely when powered off.

I don't know what cable you're using, but regular Cat3, Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6 and Cat6a are four pairs only... However, according to Wikipedia,"Although cable assemblies containing 4 pairs are common, Category 5 is not limited to 4 pairs. Backbone applications involve using up to 100 pairs." You'll RARELY RARELY see anything other than four pairs though.