dorough

I head the security committee in my neighborhood which has two entrances. Both entrances have a flowerbed island in the median with AC power. I need to install a camera or two in each island to record vehicles and license plates. Our amenity center is a couple hundred feet from one of the entrances and has 9 security cameras which record to a 16 channel DVR. The other entrance is about a half mile away. I know this is a huge, if not impossible challenge. But does anyone have any idea how I might possibly be able to feed a video signal from those two entrances to the DVR?

Our neighborhood amenity center has a 9 camera, 16 channel DVR system recording 24/7. Frequently, people pull into the parking lot at night to do their nefarious deeds. as a result I'm usually calling the police several times a week to come escort them out. I'm looking for a way to simply let the intruders know that they've been spotted and are being watched. Something like a spotlight controlled by PTZ through the DVR comes to mind but I don't even know if such a thing exists. Is this possible? What are some other options that will help me shoo the idiots away?

What exactly would I need?

I have the new Q-See NVR system with two cameras. The resolution is indeed outstanding. You're right about the field of vision being rather narrow, so that's definitely something to keep in mind. If you decide to keep your current design, I recommend you keep the cameras' height in mind, especially on cams 1 and 4. With the current design, it looks like you stand a big chance of seeing more tops of heads instead of faces. You may consider moving camera 1 to the front right corner facing back to the left. That way, cameras 2 and 1 cover the front yard in two directions without too much of a birdseye view. Camera 4 may benefit from moving back so it can cover both the gate and the door. Good luck!

Any idea how I'd turn it on and off?

I head the security committee in my neighborhood which has two entrances. Both entrances have a flowerbed island in the median with AC power. I need to install a camera or two in each island to record vehicles and license plates. Our amenity center is a couple hundred feet from one of the entrances and has 9 security cameras which record to a 16 channel DVR. The other entrance is about a half mile away. I know this is a huge, if not impossible challenge. But does anyone have any idea how I might possibly be able to feed a video signal from those two entrances to the DVR?

I'm in the market for a new 16-channel DVR. Someone on this forum mentioned that they preferred PC-based DVR over standalone. Can anyone offer anymore insight into this?

I ended up getting a Digital Watchdog VMAX Flex 16 and LOVE it. It's very easy to configure & use. Here's the link: http://dwcc.tv/product_dvrs/dvrs_main.asp?id=99 To answer your question, the VMAX makes grabbing still frames and complete videos as easy as the click of one button. After that, I can distribute it however I wish... e-mail, private YouTube channel, etc. Does that answer your question?

I've never dealt with connecting sensors to a DVR. In fact, I don't even know what kind of sensors are available. What are some of the common sensors that can be attached and what would they be used for?

I have a Dedicated Micros ECO-9 DVR that recently stopped transmitting images over the internet. The unit works fine in every other way, so evidently the NIC or something on the motherboard went bad. Either way, I'm looking at about a $600-700 repair. So that puts me in the market for a new DVR with newer technology. This one is 8 years old. I have 9 cameras. Most of them are 620TVL. One is 700TVL. Evidently the old ECO-9 is not capable of giving me the best images over the internet... images are interlaced and sometimes just plain crummy. So, can anyone recommend a good DVR in the $1,000 neighborhood that would give me better image quality and still have good FF/REW, download & mobile device viewing (iPhone) options? And if $1,000 sounds too low, please let me know other options that may cost more. Thanks in advance!

This is for a home-owner association pool & recreation area. The cameras are analog. My main requirement is to be able to quickly scan through days/nights of footage while quickly switching between cameras. I don't want to have to wait for video to download to be able to review. My current Dedicated Micros ECO-9 performs well in that manner but the NIC just went bad so it's either repair or replace. Since it's 8 years old, replacement is looking like a better option, but I need to become educated on what's available and what will work best for me. Thanks for your replies!

Thanks Soundy. I've done a little more research and have a question about the user interface. I happen to have a Defender system set up in another location in addition to this DM ECO-9. The two differ dramatically in how they handle reviewing video. With the DM ECO-9, I can go to the main menu, punch in an earlier date and time, and the DVR immediately goes to that point in time and I can instantly switch between any camera, and FF/REW at will... even speed through a whole week or two of video very quickly, switching cameras all at the same time. With the Defender system, in order to view video from an earlier date and time, I have to go to the main menu and click on the desired day within a calendar. The system then returns a list of 30-minute blocks of time for each camera for that entire day. So it's quite a long list. To view a desired time, I must click on the matching time block and the system begins to buffer that 30-minute video clip. After it loads (which can be several minutes) I can scrub through that 30-minute block for that camera only. If I need to view a different camera for the same time period, I have to start the whole process again. There is no quick switching back and forth between cameras on the fly. So, I really need that on-the-fly switching capability that the DM ECO-9 offers, and to be able to fly through a week or two of video while quickly changing cameras. Does Dahua offer the same thing, or is it more like the Defender system?

We have a Dedicated Micros ECO9 installed at our neighborhood clubhouse for security measures. Our cameras are Vitek VTD-AR2812/VW Outdoor 620TVL IR Varifocal Dome Cameras (link below). When viewing the cameras on the monitor while at the clubhouse, everything of course looks great. But when viewing remotely, whether through NetVu Investigator or Observer or through the IP Cam Viewer app on my iPhone, the image looks awful. One of the biggest problems appears to be the interlacing. The Live/Recording resolution is set to the highest setting - 704x240. I can set the image size anywhere from 2KB-45KB - I have it set at 20KB because I can't see any difference between that and 45KB. With NetVu, I can't tell any difference between MPEG4 & MJPG. And I make sure that the transcoding is set to High or None. Any ideas as to how I might be able to improve the quality of my recordings? Is the problem in the camera or in the DVR? Thanks in advance! http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/753862-REG/Vitek_VTD_AR2812_VW_VTD_AR2812_VW_Outdoor_620TVL_IR.html

Are any certain brands or models better than others? I need good, reliable remote viewing over the internet with multi-speed FF/RR and still/video downloading.

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm by no means an expert here, so what do you mean by a D1? Can you offer some examples?