Soundy

I've run into a few in my travels... they're okay, I guess... nothing special. Had to call their support line a couple times, they were fairly responsive and helpful, no complaints there.

To coin an old joke... there's a Japanese soldier hiding in there who doesn't know the war is over

My bad, the CNBs use a T-20 (just looked at one in my tool pouch). The Panasonic, Arecont, HIKvision/3xLogic, and several other domes I use all use the same bit. The multi-bit set is great, as is a MegaPro driver...

That all depends. Most standalone DVRs are based on embedded Linux and would use the ext2 or ext3 filesystem (as opposed to Windows' FAT32 or NTFS), and your average Windows PC wouldn't be able to read the disk without some additional software anyway. And IF you could actually access the disk, the files themselves may not be readable by the system. And then IF you could actually back up the disk and files to later restore them to another HDD, they probably wouldn't be directly viewable by the PC. And IF you had these files backed up, you'd still need to format another disk properly and transfer them back to that drive for the old to view them again. And even IF you did that, as we've seen here, many cheaper DVRs, if you just remove and reinstall the drive, will no longer read that drive. Keep in mind that whatever size that drive is, it'll probably be full and he'll need as much space on his PC to back it up to - if it's a 160GB drive, then he'll need 160GB of free space somewhere else to store it. A 160GB drive can be had for <$50. Of course, this entire exercise assumes the old DVR uses a SATA hard drive, same as the new DVR... depending on how old it is, it may well be an IDE drive that you can't plug into the new DVR anyway. Ultimately, he's probably not going to listen to any kind of logic or technological explanation of why it's not a good idea, so your best bet may be to simply look at the price of a suitable drive for the new DVR, then tell him it's going to cost 50% more than that to do the backup. Example: "Well, it's going to take me about 3 hours to do the backup, at $50/hr. Or, a new drive for your DVR is $100. Your choice." Edit: or just tell him straight up that he's a f***ing moron and not to ever call you again. Edit2: kinda like this: http://funehumor.com/fun_doc2/fun_0251.shtml

Ummm, wait... he doesn't want to buy a new HDD for the new DVR... what is he expecting to back up the old HDD onto?

Any HDMI splitter will be active by necessity and should have no problem supporting three outputs. Don't know if it will be cheap though. Composite video, you'll need an active splitter to avoid serious signal loss.

Soundy- Thx for the explanation...that makes sense. Do you have to buy a specific encoder from your particular analog camera company or can you use a general encoder and use with any brand analog cam? Encoders just accept an analog composite video signal - doesn't matter if it's a CCTV camera, a consumer camcorder, a TV, a DVD player... it doesn't care what the source is as long as if follows the appropriate video standard (NTSC or PAL). You DO have to make sure that your NVR supports the specific encoder you're using (as with IP cameras, not all NVRs will support all cameras). They don't have to be from the same company, but they do have to be compatible. We use Vigil, but they don't sell the software separately... there's Exacq, Avigilon, Milestone, Geovision, Aver... many many more, depending on how much you want to pay, what features you want, what kind of platform you're running on (Windows/MacOS/Linux), etc. Others here can probably give you some better suggestions for DIY NVR software.

NVR stands for "Network Video Recorder" - to wit, they don't record analog cameras, only network cameras. An encoder (aka "video server") is a box that you plug one or more analog cameras into, that then outputs an IP stream that can be recorded by an NVR... effectively turning an analog camera into an IP camera. Axis and Avigilon both have them, among several others that don't come to mind at the moment. This route basically means you don't need a four, eight or more channel internal card that for just two cameras that will eventually become unused.

T-25.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=20982

^Agreed -they're all different. Almost all will have an SDK available, but you'll probably need to contact the specific manufacturer for that unit.

If you're expecting/planning to move to all-IP later, you could look at straight NVR software and a couple encoders for the analog cameras.

I dunno how the first Sony compares, but with a CNB Monalisa line at least, if it's too dark for a decent shot, it's too dark for someone to walk through safely - if this is something like an apartment complex, the halls shouldn't be that dark anyway. If it's just in a private home... maybe consider a night light for the hallway, just something dim to provide enough light for the camera, and for safe passage at night (ie. not having to worry about tripping over something in the dark)?

Doesn't hurt to check, I suppose... that's not the only place to get them, either (we get them off-the-shelf from our local ADI warehouse), that's just the only pictures I've found of them online. They are a great value, though - out of hundreds installed, we've only ever had a few of them fail, and it's usually related to things like power surges or being jammed in a tight space with no ventilation (and a couple to another installer under-spec'ing and using a 1A board where they should have used a 3A). They're really solid and versatile little units.

The "3.5-8mm" samples here will give you an idea (yours will actually go a little wider and a little tighter): viewtopic.php?f=5&t=24549 Neither is really "more common" - it all depends on what makes the most sense for a specific installation. FYI, the cutout for flush mounting is a 3-1/4" hole saw. Don't go any bigger or there won't be anything left for the screw holes to cover.

Good point, although that really just reinforces what I said: simply receiving the stream and writing it to disk is not processor-intensive... it's all that other stuff that is, particularly the decoding that's required for everything else to happen (analytics, motion detection, transcoding, etc.)

Receiving network data and writing it to disk isn't particularly processor-intensive...

Umm, yeah, unless you have some USED cameras to list in the classifieds... there is no selling allowed here. Try it, and you'll be banned.

In fairness, I've seen sites that start out nice and clean, and get to states like that over years of stuff being moved, added, adjusted, repaired, and just plain monkeyed with. It gets to a point where the only fix is to disconnect everything, take all the gear out, untangle all the wires, test and relabel all of them, and possibly even cut a bunch of them back and reterminate... something that with a mess like that can be a couple days' work. And if everything is actually working, good luck convincing the client to pay for two days' work just to make things "pretty".

VCM-24VF comes with a 2.8-10.5mm varifocal lens - it will give you anywhere from about 25 degrees out to about 82 degrees horizontal FOV.

Nothing to see here, go on about your business...

Uhhh, what DVR?

That Lens Simulator is slick, thanks Carl! (Yeah, did a little cleanup... the noise has all be relegated to the bitbucket)... sorry, folks.

Honestly, the fact it's a CCTV camera isn't even relevant - the same thing would probably apply to putting up hanging pots, a TV antenna, an awning, new lighting... etc.