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BurstElement

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Posts posted by BurstElement


  1. As mentioned above most standalone recorders are designed so as to inhibit editing and I would recommend you steer clear of them for this application.

     

    You are probably better off asking this sort of question in a forum dedicated more to recording / editing of video... e.g.

    http://forum.doom9.org/

     

    Having said that, you "may" find that some of the PC based equipment (i.e. DVR cards) could be of use to you if coupled with appropriate (non security related) software.


  2. I don't know the law over there, however, over here the verbal agreement would be hard to prove and would not go far in a court of law.

     

    The bounced cheques would be your best bet here, a bounced cheque equates to fraud if they had no intention of paying.

     

    The other possible recourse would be go to court to gain permission to remove your property from the site, then once gained be sure to collect anything you brought to the site... bnc connectors, cable, power supplies etc.


  3. You have to remember that these systems are designed for a particular price point / purpose... i.e. low cost DIY monitoring.

     

    Of course most of us here are used to installing and using cameras of far higher quality than these and consider them to be "rubbish"... you have to consider that if using a professional installer the labour cost would usually be similar to the price of the hardware... this alone makes it a poor economic choice for an installer or customer of an installer to want this grade of hardware.

     

    You really need to tell us what you are trying to capture and in what sort of lighting situation, however, from experience i think you might be better off with a different / custom system.

    If you are trying to protect against customer theft / harassment during business hours you probably don't want / need IR cameras.

    Dome cameras are typically 30-40% cheaper than an equivalent IR camera and will look neater if you only require business hours surveillance.

     

    I don't think most ice cream shops would require 8 cameras either... probably 4-6 cameras at most depending on the size of the shop.


  4. I was told this too but in the end I realised that this is what they called their new "DVR Viewer" software that is included with the Digigaurd series onwards... it does not allow you to view multiple machines on a single screen like one would expect, there are just a series of tabs down the bottom that you can use to select DVR1,2,3,4 etc. all shown one at a time.

     

    Also the "remote independant operation" they talk about is just a second channel on the built in video web server that allows you to control the call output of the ASIC, i.e. you can only view one channel at a time independant of the main monitor output


  5. The D/V port is for AVTs VGA01 VGA adaptor... it is just a composite to VGA convertor, the ASIC in these machines does not provide an RGB output.

     

    Do not try to connect a monitor to this by using gender benders etc. as there is power running through two of the pins that is intended to power their proprietary composite to vga convertor... this would be what is causing the "heat" on your cable.

     

    I complained about their labelling of this connector many times, when they eventually changed it on their newer models they changed it to VGA!!! At this point I had no response but to throw my hands up in the air and bang my head against the table.


  6. There would be a way to do it but AVT hold all those cards close to their chest... they have a self test interface built into the DVR that is activated by the rs232 interface that I tried to get them to give me info on for ages... after I argued that without this tool we could not effectively eliminate customer damaged returns and they chose to repair non-warranty machines FOC rather than letting me know their secret service mode details.


  7. haha the "M" is the mainboard... e.g. AVC787 mainboard is 787M.

    A DVR with a 760M mainboard is an AVC760.

     

    I think you will find what has happened is the firmware upgrade you have used was not compatible with the firmware revision you had.

    This is why the original firmware was missing the MCU.BIN and PLAYER.BIN

     

    PLAYER.BIN is the active X control for the web interface from memory.

    MCU.BIN I don't really know but it could be the boot loader or similar.

     

    The solution to these types of problems is to replace the mainboard... unfortunately AVT are selective about doing this and will usually not replace a board for the end user.


  8. Seagate SV35 all the way... much lower failure rate when used in standalone systems.

     

    The write strategy is optimised for cctv... they use the buffer to minimise writing to the disk which in turn reduces wear and tear on the disk.

     

    i.e. Normally the hdd in a dvr (assuming its only got one hdd) would be writing constantly and only using the buffer when unable to write to disk fast enough, with these drives they use more of the buffer and then write to the disk in bursts.


  9. In Australia the warranty is typically not voided when a customer does such things as hardware resets, changes hard drives etc.

    However... where this was part of the warranty terms the onus to prove where the blame for the fault lies shifts from the seller to the end user.

     

    i.e. if you buy a product that develops a fault within the warranty period and you have not breached the "warranty terms" and the supplier thinks you have damaged the unit somehow then it is the suppliers responsibility to prove that something you did damaged the unit.

    If you have breached the warranty terms then it is your responsibility to prove that the fault was not caused by yourself.

     

    Most suppliers will be reasonable with this sort of thing but it is usually best to send them an email to ask for advice / permission so that then you have "written" evidence that they will advised this course of action or said they permit it without voiding warranty terms.


  10. There are many dvr's that would fit into your budget / requirements...

    Avermedia

    Dynacolor

    Hikvision

    just to name a few that haven't been mentioned.

     

    You are probably best off to take a tour of some of the local security merchants stores and view the hardware for yourself, all of us are likely to state our preferred / stocked brand / models simply because that is what we're familiar with.

    When searching for a DVR I'd recommend bringing your own camera so that you can compare the quality of your old system and the prospective system with a controlled video source... often security merchants will have their displays setup with the latest and greatest 1.3 megapixel IP cameras or similar (mine included) and may not give you an accurate representation of the dvr when used with "your" cameras.


  11. You haven't told us what brand / model the dvr is... you may or may not be able to do what you want depending on the model / brand.

     

    RS232 can be used for many things (model depending) including:-

    *Control PTZ cameras

    *Mimic front panel buttons via PC

    *Update firmware

    *Use for system integration / POS integration

    *Upload programming / settings

    *Enter self test and similar manufacturer back end systems

    *Connect a PPP modem

    *Connect a GPRS / 3G modem

     

    I have never in my life seen an RS232 port used for video footage backup though.

     

    Also Scorpion has linked you to a site has software that allows you to control PTZ cameras (supporting Pelco-D / P) directly from your PC.

    Here is a more direct link to the software / section of the site that states you can control Pelco-D/P cameras...

    http://www.commfront.com/RS232_Examples/CCTV/Pelco_D_Pelco_P_Examples_Tutorial.HTM


  12. Hi Tom,

    Re: presets / ID's What speed domes are you using?

    AVT have had 3 different versions of the camera I now consider to be AVP311... 4 if you count the IP camera.

    The latest version of AVP311 has the same sort of interface as AVP321 but may require a firmware upgrade on your VWS for it to work properly.

     

    Re: viewing multiplex pictures

    AVT's "CMS" is supposed to support proper multiplex video in its latest version, however, I am yet to see this version.

    Previous versions are just souped up versions of their DVR viewer... I think they have some work to do here.

    Refer to my signature for further information.


  13. Yes!!! And I might add, that the Intellicam units use Texas Instruments DSP's

     

    I quote from Intellicam's site...

     

    "Texas Instruments dominates the Video DSP market because they simply

    have it right. Unparalleled performance, unparalleled reliability, and value only made possible by the enormous number of H.264 processors sold by this world leader in DSP technology"

     

    Interestingly enough, when you Google Hikvision and look at the processor specs, no mention of the type of processor.

     

    Processor Type: DSP ??????

     

    Personally, I feel much more comfortable knowing that those units I install have TI's name on it. Also provides immediate name recognition and some sense of comfort to the buying public.

     

    OMO ( Only My Opinion )

     

    Hikvision use Techwell DSP's... http://www.techwellinc.com/press/30.html?PHPSESSID=efbdb98d2b2e7133024cde3029de1b31

    Lots of the mid level DVR's are using these DSPs lately... I expect that more will follow on their "next gen" DVR's.

     

    AVT, Yoko, Dynacolor and many others use (on their current generation) Pentamicro DSP's... http://www.pentamicro.com/en/at2041.htm

     

    As for Intellicam and TI DSP's if they use the DaVinci then I agree with you but if they are using one of the other DSP's from TI then there isn't that much of an advantage.

    Usually companies that use DaVinci would advertise it as such because they don't come cheap.... http://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine.aspx?Msid=59500000&Mkw=TMS320DM648ZUT7

     

    There are truckloads of other DSP's and DVR solutions but the above 3 solutions are the most common in the mid level of the market, DaVinci is towards the higher end.

    The consumer end of the market all seem to use the Vineyard SOC's... http://www.vineyardtechnologies.com/gseries1.htm


  14. The green image could be a codec problem... try using Video Lan Client (VLC) or BSPlayer to playback the dumped video as these have their own built in codecs and do not pay any attention to what Windows codecs you have installed.

     

    The network problem could be anything depending on how simple or complex your network is... try grabbing a laptop and plugging straight into the back of the DVR using a crossover cable, if this works then you know its the network not the DVR.

     

    Also you might want to try restarting the DVR, I have found that certain DVR's act strangely when you edit certain settings and don't reboot.

    Usually these are video output type settings (VGA refresh rate etc.)


  15. Bingo!

     

    You guessed right! AVTech is the manufacture, but who ever goes to Taiwan, and buys in bulk, and pays a fee can have the product privately branded!

     

    Yes, they have the exact same qualities, and flaws.

     

     

    CPCam is the "sales" arm of AVTech. They are actually competing with their own "customers"!

     

    This is why you will find CPCam products to be a little more than AVTech products.

     

    CPCam "is" AVT...

    WHOIS information for: cpcamcctv.com:
    
    [whois.enom.com]
    =-=-=-=
    Visit AboutUs.org for more information about cpcamcctv.com
    AboutUs: cpcamcctv.com
    
    Registration Service Provided By: TaipeiNIC.net
    Contact: domain@taipeinic.net
    Visit: http://www.taipeinic.net
    
    Domain name: cpcamcctv.com
    
    Registrant Contact:
      AV TECH
      SILVIA CHUECH 
    
      10F,E Building, No. 19-11 San Chung Rd., Nankang,Taipei, 115
      Taipei,  115
      TW
    
    Administrative Contact:
      AV TECH
      SILVIA CHUECH (kugai.hsu@avtech.com.tw)
      26553866
      Fax: 26553855
      10F,E Building, No. 19-11 San Chung Rd., Nankang,Taipei, 115
      Taipei,  115
      TW
    
    Technical Contact:
      Taiwan Domain Name Service Center-TaiwanDNS
      TSAI HSIN HSIU (service@taiwandns.com)
      +886.62809156
      Fax: +886.62809813
      1Fl., No. 12, Lane 225, Shianbei St.,Bei Chiu
      Tainan City,  704
      TW
    
    Status: Locked
    
    Name Servers:
      dns1.name-services.com
      dns2.name-services.com
      dns3.name-services.com
      dns4.name-services.com
      dns5.name-services.com
    
    

     

    The CPC product is what AVT sell to installers and end users and also what they use as an excuse to bypass distribution agreements.

    To be honest there is much better hardware out there... even at the same or better price points.

    e.g. the manufacturer that Q-See uses for their DVR kits is very good for the low end dvr's (like AVT's new lower cost DVR... forget model no)

    Avermedia's 1304NET is a worthy competitor to the 760 and AVT can't compete at any higher levels as they are lagging behind in R&D as noted in my signature.

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