rory

most new cameras say they are 600/650TVL now.

They arent that great, also image quality can be pretty bad during the day especially, on certain DVRs. But they are cheap and do the job in many cases. Their IR bullets are awful, and the box cameras are not as good as their Domes (normally its the other way around) .. so basically only thing worth getting from them are the domes.

Thats the first I heard of though anything is possible. I even tried GV800 on a via chipset once and it was a no go, drivers would not even install. However I had a GV250 working on an old Via chipset a couple years ago, while Geo said it would not. Luck of the draw I guess.

Why not just solder the wires together?

Sure, even better a dusk to dawn, though many clients that dont have light now, dont want to add it. Regular garden lights do very little BTW. I have a client that has PIR lights, but still IR cameras, as the PIR doesnt work all the time. My yard, 1 dusk to dawn, only 1 IR camera (cam3) where the landlord doesnt want me to add a light and too dark without it.

If by brightness he means the IRIS level then it will just make the whole image darker. White visible LED light is actually not as good as Infrared or regular visible light. Ive used Raytec White LEDs and would never again, total waste of money. Raytec does mention though that their White LEDs will not give the light distance of their IR.

No diff IMO. If anything they will let you digitally enhance the image with a sharpness feature but that can make it look worse in many cases, and uses more power. In fact I have older 480TVL cameras on the same job as 600TVL cameras and the old ones are a clearer image, and even 380 and 420TVL cameras that outperform them - they dont make cameras like they used to. They also differ in recorded and network quality from one DVR to the next. Dont buy the cameras for the TVL.

its not the IR that it has the problem with, its the object which is already whited out from the IR reflection, its just seeing a big blob of white. The IR is hitting the persons face or object with more light as it gets closer (further away there is less light), only way I guess is to decrease the IR power as something gets closer to the camera, like Smart IR - for example if you have a camera, say a really cheap 1/4" sharp color IR, placed in a car park the car park could look pitch black at night with no visible lighting as its IR is so weak, but if someone walks within 10 feet of the camera you could see their face and body, while everything else is still black.

Internal or External IR will always do that, but they have new "Smart IR" which helps. I say helps, because although now when a person walks right up to the camera you will see their face, the rest of the image is dark. Solution, tell the person dont walk so close to the camera Also in some cases can turn down the power of the IR .. but not on most bullets. I would say add visible light but I imagine you are using IR for a reason? With alot of new IR Bullets, if you disable the IR the camera stays in BW. TND IR bullets have gone backwards IMO.

Maybe start doing it for laptops first? Will be a much larger market, almost anyone can afford a $200 netbook, something that runs a full desktop OS also (they can wipe win7 basic and just load XP pro for the full OS)

a telephone number of someone with all the tools campbell has

I use the cheap DVRs now and they never lock up or crash .. less headaches

its a 5 year old EX82 .. dual CCD, separate color and bw camera .. photocell went bad and client said they dont care about the day anyway so just manually set it to stay in BW. I believe its BW 420TVL, probably 0.01 lux f:1.2. Nice thing is there is hardly any noise even when it gets too dark, if it gets too dark, it just doesnt see, its designed to be used with IR anyway. Seems that todays cameras suck so much they have to compensate like mad and hence a ton of noise, especially the single ccd Day night cameras. Oh yeah, I need to turn the IR up, I think I accidentally turned it down yesterday, that or the IR no longer works either. The IR will light it up alot more.

quite right, this is just standard BW here, compared to color

just spray it all the color of the fence and beam

Yeah the gell filled ("beanies" as we call them here) do last with the salt air, the others tend to go green over time ...

LE-A is the manufacturer's model number (Dahua) The QC 444 is actually the LE-AS, doubt they have the LE-A as they do mostly budget models from various brands. I would check the firmware version of the DVR, see if there is an update on QC's website.

Yes you could splice a new BNC to it, or just join it direct without a connector. Having the connector is easier for maintenance and adjusting the camera .. and warranty .. but occasionally it has to be done.

I find wire nuts now the easiest thing to use ... cut the power connector off twist the wire and twist the wire nut on .. easy to remove also but still secure.

Havent seen that, when does it happen, all the time or only at night? Other than noise, could be the camera chip and DVR compression not getting along. One thing to note though is that the QC444 is Dahua's cheapest DVR, the live and recorded quality is not quite as good as the LE-A which is one step up from that.

at this point I would take it down and plug it direct into the DVR and see how it is again. During installation anything can happen. One time I installed a dome camera, i put my portable monitor on it and it was fine, took it on and off a few times as I moved it around and then finally installed it in place. But the BNC got stuck, had a hard twist to get it off - I didnt think anything of it as that has happened many times before with different BNCs, DVRs and Cameras - but when I powered up the DVR that camera was blank - turns out the twist broke or damaged the inside of the camera's BNC cable end, thats how cheap that camera was ... I spliced on a spare BNC end I had and that fixed the problem. So yep anything is possible. And oh yeah, though it voids your warranty, I would cut that power end off and splice it together direct, just us some wire nuts. another thing, that power wire looks like high voltage wire? If so it can be picking up something, try using some 18awg instead, or lamp cord wire.

Havent seen it before. In the QC444 (Dahua) there is another option that helps "somewhat" ... Using the color feature on the channel in question, you can set different contrast etc for 2 different time spans, eg. day and night. If you turn down the contrast to approx 40 and up the brightness to approx 55-60 this tends to help, though its still just so so.

Try a local plastic shop and have them cut a square piece of thick plastic (to match the color of the pole). Make sure the screws are not long enough to go through that and touch the metal and also recess the screws that hold that to the metal and fill the top of that recess hole with caulk, this way making sure no part of the camera comes into contact with the metal at all. Also check the Camera's cable, if its a bullet or dome make sure its not kinked coming out of the camera.

Just make sure its a 7200rpm drive.

I know, just saying. Also it seems to be used for CMS software to search the local network for its devices.