Soundy

Welcome aboard!

It's not just that... as you note (and as most here know), there are some good Chinese manufacturers... there are also lots of them dumping cheap junk on the market. What makes matters worse is that there are thousands of shady online stores selling that cheap junk, that offer no after-sales service or support. So the majority of people buying "Chinese DVRs" end up with lousy products that come with flaky software, useless documentation, and zero ongoing support (such as firmware updates, technical support, warranty coverage, etc.)

You need to look at the current requirements of all your cameras, add them up, and see if the total falls within the capabilities of the power supply. That one you linked is rated for 10A total, which should be more than enough. Features like individually fused channels, self-resetting breakers, voltage-regulated output, multiple selectable or adjustable output voltages, overcurrent regulation/protection, UL/CSA compliance... Viewing angle is determined mainly by the focal length of the lens, and to a lesser degree by the size of the sensor. Viewing distance is determined by objects in the way.

Here you go: CNB VCM-24VF Dual-voltage, 600TVL, 2.8-10.5mm varifocal, IP66-rated vandal-resistant dome (put it out in direct weather if you want). Outstanding low-light performance with minimal ambient light, or add some external IR illuminators, or better, low-power motion-activated floods.

No no... leave the camera connector intact. Basically you're just taking the connector off the power supply, and adding it to the other end of your extension wire, so it can plug into the camera

Soundy, We occasionally use #5 welder's glass for manual iris lenses too. On many cameras, opening the iris fully will overload the video, making it difficult to focus. The welder's glass allows the same focus functionality with manual iris lenses as it does with auto-iris lenses. True, but then, if having the iris full-open overloads the sensor, then that camera will normally be operating with the iris partially closed, no?

Yeah, clearing the area to make a park. Keep in mind the 755 is on lower JPEG quality and sharpness settings (saving bandwidth and space, although I may boost them up just to do comparisons)... plus I found the HUGE resolution made display refresh really really slow on my netbook, which made it difficult to fine-tune the focus. I'll probably borrow the wife's i7 laptop and fine-tune it later. I have to watch the bandwidth because this and another 511 are connected to my network via a DD-WRT'd router acting as a wireless bridge - not ideal, but it was quick and easy and I did it mainly for testing purposes

As an installer, I've worked with a wide range of cameras from the cheapest to some of the biggest name brands. All the specs and reviews concentrate on the performance and such, but I never see mention of how a camera rates from an installer's perspective. Many of the big names (Pelco, Panasonic, Bosch, etc.) seem to have cameras designed by engineers that have never had to actually INSTALL one of them, or never talked to an installer. Some of them are a major pain to mount or adjust... others have some just plain GOOFY design elements. These style CNB domes are, frankly, one of the most installer-friendly designs I've ever come across. I've seen so many three-axis designs where things need to be locked down with screws (meaning, conversely, they need to be unlocked to adjust them)... sometimes they even use different screws for the different adjustments, meaning you need two or three separate drivers just to adjust a camera. The CNB's gimbal design is near perfect - FULL range of motion, easy to adjust, but solid enough that I've never had one slip out of place... NO locking screws required. The backbox design on the VCM is near perfect as well - lots of room for a balun or connector to fit inside, and in fact, with the GEM mini-baluns we use, the balun and BNC are a nice snug fit behind the mounting posts, making it a lot easier to keep the wires in place while mounting the camera to the backbox. If there was ONE issue I'd have with the design, it's that the mounting holes on the camera enclosure itself are too close to the rear protrusion. The holes are designed to match up to a dual-gang box, but the proximity to the cutout means there's not a lot for a screw to grab onto if you're drilling a hole for it (3-1/4", BTW). Drill a 3-1/2" hole, and chances are at least one screw will miss. If the cutout was even as small as 3", I could use EZ-anchors to secure the camera to sheetrock. The one plus with the size it is: the hole is JUST big enough for me to get my hand through to fish around for the wire runs

The other thing you could do, to save the trip, is snip both power ends off the cable... snip the barrel off the power supply, splice it to the camera end of the cable, and splice the power supply directly to the other end of the cable.

From what specs I can find on the DVR, looks like it does 30fps/channel at CIF (360x240) or 15fps/channel at DCIF (720x240) but won't do full D1 at all. Can't find anything on those cameras... Aside from the limited resolution, doesn't look like TOO bad a DVR. Dunno that I'd give $300 for it all... $200 *tops*, maybe offer $150.

What cameras are they? What lenses are they using? The idea with using welder's glass is to cause the iris to open fully in bright light to reduce depth of focus, but that only applies to auto-iris lenses. You can get around it by disabling the camera's iris-control function (often a switch or OSD option to toggle DC and ESC) - switching the ESC (electronic shutter) opens the lens iris fully. Or try focusing in lower light when the iris opens naturally. You'll also have night focus issues using a non-IR-corrected lens on a true-day/night camera. For welder's glass, you'd have to go to a welding shop, and you don't want anything darker than a #5 (I found some auto shops and tool shops that have the glass, but could never find anything lighter than a #. You can also use a photographic ND (neutral density) filter.

I assume this is a barrel-type power connector? There are a lot of minor variations in these things, often in the size of the center conductor... it's really not unusual. The camera's center pin is probably a little bigger than the cable's, so the cable's smaller hole won't fit it, but the other end's smaller pin does fit the power supply's larger hole. Easy solution: run down to the local Radio Shack or parts store and find a connector that will fit the camera, then solder or splice that onto the end of the cable. One of our distributors got a whole series of LCD monitors in once that the included power adapters didn't fit the monitors' power jacks (fortunately the manufacturer was quick to swap the power supplies for them).

Was recently given an IQ725 and 755 to test... dropped the 755 in place of the wide-angle 511 watching the end of my street: IQ511 with 2.5-7mm 1/3" MP lens (not all the way to 2.5, but close): 755 with 4.5-10mm 1/2" MP IR lens at 4.5mm: Top-left corner cropped to 205x205 pixels (note: 511 is at "high" sharpness, "superfine" quality; 755 is at "medium" sharpness and "high" quality):

The amount of data you're talking about in controlling a PTZ, though, there's really no advantage to one over the other. If anything it might be argued that a higher rate is more susceptible to noise, but I doubt it would ever be enough to cause a noticeable difference except in really extreme installs. The biggest reason for supporting multiple baud rates is probably to accommodate equipment that only supports one.

The Introductions forum would probably be a good start - click here to start a new thread, tell us something about yourself, and where you're located.

Unfortunately that PDF only applies to the 3xx and 6xx models - the 5xx don't have two LEDs.

Doesn't look too bad... I assume the light will mostly be facing down and the cameras mounted relatively high - as long as you don't have bright light shining directly into the lens, you're okay, although the backlighting will mean you don't get much more than a silhouette of a person. What I suggest is motion-activated lights mounted close to the camera - think about it: if you're creeping around in the dark and a bright light snaps on, what's your automatic reaction? You want to see if you've been spotted, so you look toward the source of the light to see if there's someone there. If there's a camera near it... bingo! nice, clear, well-lit face shot.

NO camera will be happy with lights pointed directly at it (at least not directly at the lens)

Understood. Unless this is a particularly crappy system, splitting the feeds should cause only a very slight drop in the image.

http://www.trendnet.com/products/proddetail.asp?status=view&prod=145_TPE-S44 Doesn't appear to have any management features.

What would work BETTER, if the system layout allows, is to feed the cameras into the DVR, then chain them on to the original destination from there (assuming the DVR has pass-thru inputs). Inserting a T-connector will cause a drop in signal level and a corresponding (hopefully) slight drop in image quality... chaining through the DVR would allow it to maintain proper loading on the cameras.

Yes.

Do you think this camera would be a good candidate for locations (2,5,6,7) of my diagram? What cameras would you recommend for the other areas? They'd actually work well in all your locations. The only consideration for something else might be in areas of complete darkness, as they work great with very little light... my preference in that case, though, would be a motion-activated flood light rather than a camera with built-in IR. Even an external IR illuminator would be preferable.

For the price and all-around versatility, you can't beat this camera: http://www.cnbusa.com/en/html/product/product.php?seqx_prod=1073 The 2.8-10.5mm lens gives you a lot of range; they work great with very little light; they work on dual-voltage (12VDC/24VAC so they're a good retrofit for existing cameras); they're a weather- and vandal-resistant dome that work well indoors and out. Not quite. On a 1/3" sensor (like the CNBs), 2.8mm will give you about 82 degrees horizontal FOV; 16mm gives you about 17 degrees; 6mm about 43 degrees. If you drop to a 1/4" sensor, the angles become 65, 13, and 33 degrees, respectively. http://www.sweeting.org/mark/lenses/cctv.php

I don't think there's anything preventing you from using different software with GV cards. The GV software itself checks for legitimate GV cards and will only work with those... but the cards don't check what software is accessing them. VideoInsight worked the same in older versions: the VI software only worked with VI-branded cards; however, I once put a VI card in a Vigil DVR (same chipset, same design, essentially the same card) and it fired right up and worked, since the Vigil server isn't checking for a branded card. Wow, that's impressive... aside from TV cards, that puts it up there with just about every other professional DVR package out there. This is like saying a certain brand of car is special because it comes with seats.