yakky

You have to look at it from both sides. A customer is not doing his due diligence if they don't shop for the best value in their eyes. If you aren't showing them what value you provide compared to your competitor, you are the one that is failing.

Anyone notice that this board seems to attract some _REALLY_ cheap people? I am very frugal. but I'd like to think I'm not cheap. I'm just amazed at how many people around here are looking for the absolute bottom dollar items. $30 cameras.... $100 DVRs.... and then they end up either frustrated or buying more expensive stuff.

I'm going to look through those cheap H264 DVRs on eBay and see if any are D1

How much money do you think you are going to save on a cheap POS DVR versus getting a quality unit? You can buy a good 8 channel unit for $150.

A camera with WDR will do fine in that situation. CNB 24VF series or Qvis Eye34s have worked well for me.

I have a Foscam, its not exactly PTZ, ie it doesn't zoom, more like PTnoZ. Its a total toy even compared to a $50 wired security cam. No IR filter means washed out images at day, poor IR means very little light at night. Its only good for getting a feel of what is going on.

Yeah, that camera is mounted at the top of the 3rd story. For day shots, the image quality will be the same. In tricky lighting situations it won't. The DSP on a camera makes a huge difference in what you see. I'd encourage you to buy a pricier camera from somewhere with a liberal return policy and test it out. I too tried to go the cheap route, but quickly realized that at night is when most of the bad stuff happens, and at night, cheap cameras stink!

I've seen the videos shockwave put up, IMO they are very useful if that area is already covered by other cameras. Worst case, the other cameras get some footage, but if the tracking does its job, you get even closer footage.

Any junk camera is fine for monitoring daytime activity. Its when you get into nighttime activity or trying to ID faces is when you get into trouble. If you are after small covert style cameras, CNB makes some based on the 20s camera/DSP. They do ok at night with some light but really aren't suitable for anything more than seeing what's going on. Unfortunately they don't make any small cameras based on their 24VF.

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The above video is my VFL-20S.

My IR cams definitely get 10x the hits at night compared to a CNB TDN camera (24VF series). IMO its only an issue if you review footage on a regular basis. If you review footage based on real events, it is not a problem.

What makes them so bad? Support after the sale. You can get brand name cameras under $100 now. The Qvis Eye-34N at $70 is hard to beat. Even the CNB 24VF series in the $120 range. So getting a no-name effio based camera in the $70 range doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Might want to state your budget...otherwise you might be some expensive recommendations. If you search, there are some nice tracking PTZs in under the 1k range.

Zoneminder is free and works very well.

Not sure if anyone is reading this, but I'll keep updating anyway.

 

I got a variety of cameras that I'm going to try out. If they don't work I'm sure I can sell them here at work as it seems there are a lot of people interested in upgrading their CCTV systems.

 

I'll have at my house today/tomorrow...

 

1x AVerMedia Hybrid 16 Port NEH1116H

1x Seagate Barracuda 7200 3 TB 7200RPM SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive ST3000DM001

2x CNB VCM-24VF 600TVL 2.8-10.5mm Vandal Proof Outdoor Day/Night Dome Security Camera with ICR Technology

2x VideoSecu 700TVL Day Night Outdoor Security Camera Vandal Proof 1/3" SONY Effio CCD Wide View Angle Lens 28 Infrared LEDs for CCTV DVR Home Surveillan

1x CNB WCL-20S Fixed High 600 TVL Weather Proof IR 90Ft Cam (6.0mm)

1x VideoSecu 18 Output 12 V DC CCTV Distributed Power Supply Box for Security Camera with lock PWD18 1NK

1x VideoSecu 10 Piece CCTV Security Camera DC Male Power Plug Pigtail Cables PC01T C58

6x VideoSecu 100 Feet Video Power BNC RCA Cable for CCTV Security Cameras 1JE

2x VideoSecu 150 Feet Video Power Security Camera Cable for CCTV Surveillance DVR System Installation CBV150 C13

2x 200ft Foot All-In-One Siamese BNC Video and Power CCTV Cable for Security Camera Surveillance Video System

 

I am currently not putting cameras on my poles as originally planned. I'm going to place them around my house for now and monitor the immediate area. I'm hoping mounting the WCL-20S on the corner of my house facing my lightpole will have enough light with the IR to get some decent video.

Good stuff, I'm interested in seeing how the VideoSecus comare to the CNBs, as well as the antics of this guy as well.

You know, you could easily make your point by showing a few youtubes of the same shot with a similar priced Dahua camera and YOUR favorite brand. Day shots, tricky lighting, and then some night shots.

That might make a strong argument. Claiming that people are shilling... not so much.

Wow... you sure did give a strong argument. I know I'm convinced.....

You'll have a rough time with anything at night through a window. Does it need to be covert to people inside and outside the house, or just outside? What is your budget?

A lower mounted camera is going to be your best bet. Megapixel cams with $5k NVRs are useless when they get the top of peoples heads. Overhead cameras are great for seeing what is going on, not people's faces. Mount a small/hidden camera right above the door.

Hello, I'm Mexican,

television systems expert.

I'm starting in cctv systems

I like to learn and share experiences

Greetings from Mexico Cit

Welcome to the forum. Your country has some of the most amazing beaches and food in the world!

A dedicated DVR is going to be a much better and cheaper solution in the end. 100 yards doesn't sound too terrible. Personally I'd rather spend a weekend with a trenching machine than play with wireless issue for years, but its your choice.

Define reasonable amount of money. I'm sure you'll hear from a lot of pros, that there are no consumer level wireless cameras that are worth a hoot. The general advice is wired unless it is impossible to run a wire to that location.

Both TFT and Dahua units I've had will only record to internal drives, there was no option to record to external. They only export to external drives.

It would be nice if some of the manufacturers would have a demo system set up you could log in to. I've seen some info on the Clover systems as well, but no details about if it is browser independent or not.

 

ActiveX is a Windows/IE thing. I have tried IE under WINE and also vmware/XP.

 

With my current system, there are some other issues going on which are most likely firmware related.

Yeah, it would be nice to try before you buy. Really, the Dahua based units are the lesser of two evils. There is some really cool stuff you can do with a Dahua via rstp and looping back a channel. You essentially will have a console view. There is another site that has great writeups, sdks, sample code and clients but the forum admin here won't allow links to it.

I feel your paint though, I went through the same WTF moment when I was shopping. I went with a TFT based unit (Night Owl) and ended up returning it and going with an E**surv Dahua based unit. I'm much happier with it all around.

Curious if anyone has a true browser agnostic client. Both the Dahua and TFT based units require plugins. TFT based units have a Safari plugin but its rather unpolished and there are issues with various versions of Macs. For linux, you are screwed.

Dahua has clients for Mac and Linux but their Web interface only works with PCs. Running IE in Wine isn't so bad though. The Dahua mobile clients are also superior to TFT.

What exactly are you looking to do? From your message sounds like you are doing some sort of marketing.

You can get an OK DVR for $100. You can't build a decent DVR computer for that much. Plus the DVR is maintenance free, where a PC needs care and feeding.