bpzle

Wow... that's a lot of crap running on one power supply. A pretty old on at that... I'm lucky to get a power supply to last 4 years, at a fraction of the load you're putting on it.

If you want the best, Surefire. Not cheap but it's hard to put a price on something you use a couple dozen times a day, every day...

Yes

how about the obvious: crappy software?

So I can't be the only one... Everywhere I go I'm constantly looking at ceilings and walls and checking out who's using what. I just can't help myself. Some of what I've seen is absolutely hilarious. I've seen some 1970s-80s looking equipment still use. One of the funniest I saw was a dome, that probably weighed 75lbs and was the diameter of a child's swimming pool. I just wanted to start a thread and see if you guys had stories or even pictures of removing some really old CCTV gear. What's the oldest stuff you've removed, and was it still working?

Not sure if it's been said... but the lens is probably not on correctly. You'll find some set screws around the base of the lens, near the sensor that lock the lens to the sensor chassis. Loosen it and firmly push on the lens to make sure it is as snug as it can get against the sensor. If that checks out good... the other possibility is that you've zoomed in or out past the limits of the lens. Try zooming in/out just a tad and then attempt to refocus. Also, what are you using to focus? A laptop? That can be a real pain in the arse due to lag time. Try using a cheap portable DVD player with a video input. Ya ya ya we know Rory CRTs are better but good luck finding one. Hope this helps

+100 Fisher Price attempt at a big boy problem... ditch the child's toys. Crime is not a temporary problem. Invest in a permenent solution.

Lots of crazies out there, this is the best one I've seen so far haha

My Axis rep swears a P3343-VE would capture plates both day and night on vehicles traveling 15-40mph with the only light source a standard pole mount street light at an intersection. The camera would be roughly 75 feet from the scene. I'm kinda doubtful but I'm tempted to play with one on the dealer loaner program. Thoughts?

I know next to nothing of satellite equipment... But I have a job where I need to insert a modulated CATV channel onto existing coax that is currently being used for satellite. I tried using diplexers but never could pass through the satellite signal to the receiver, even without adding the modulator. Here is what was already at the site, and obviously works. I tried adding diplexers and but ever after receiver reset and having nothing connected to the ant/cable input on the diplexers I never could regain satellite signal. Here was my original plan for adding the modulator, but it never worked so I resorted to troubleshooting.

also, I've never seen a modulator with a built in notch filter. A specfic filter must be used dependent on which channel you wish to create with the modulator.

I gave up and put in vga distributors over cat5, had to home run each cable and add specal recievers to each tv. No, those are not splitters. The pics are the exact make /model of diplexor I was using. Supposedly, the reason I could not use diplexors was that in the house 2 of the 6 sat recievers were HD. That's the answer I got from the sat nerds on another forum. Doesn't make sense to me, but oh well... I used something I was more experienced with.

Anyone know of alternatives to Mier enclosures? Anyone ever built their own? I need to house a DVR outdoors that (worse case) will be in 0-100 degrees Fahrenheit. Obviously, I need fans and a small heater. I'd like to be able to pole mount the enclosure.

Thanks for posting this! Great tool for customers!

@SpyGuy10 Just curious... what experience are you drawing from other than reading spec sheets on the internet?

Are you making home movies or trying to store high resoltion evidence for as long as possible? 99% of the time there is no need for anything more than that. There's a lot more than spec sheets that go into my suggestions...

Actually we've already been using their Pixims domes. I like the recessed housing, looks good in ceiling tiles. Picture quality is nothing special... dynamic range isn't that great either. But recently I've been getting lots of DOAs. 6 out of 9 to be exact... Kinda rediculous, just wondering if anyone else was expriencing this.

Specifically Pixim cameras? Feedback? Reliability?

stupid question, I know... but are you sure you have your monitor plugged into nvidia graphics card, and not accidently into the integrated one on the pc's motherboard? Also, make sure you have the latest bios update on that vostro motherboard. I've seen some real quirky stuff happen on Vostros and that was the fix... The last possibility is the power supply is under powered... if you're using a graphics card, capture cards and other pci/pci-e devices, lots of usb acessories, hdds and optical drives... a stock psu could be struggling to keep up. However I would think that you'd be experiencing additional issues other than what you're having. Frequent crashes, etc

Codecs and compression quality should be very important to the OP and his question. That greatly affects the finished image of any camera he chooses... Who cares if something can record (or even worse upscale) in 720x480 if the compression quality is garbage? He's doing research and trying to make an educated decision for a cctv system that meets his needs. In order to do that, I'm helping him to think of questions he probably otherwise would not know to ask... Look at the overall picture, literally. And btw- nothing you do to a Lorex camera will make it look good. While Lorex is probably the best brand you'll find for cctv at Fry's, stay far away from their cameras. A few of their DVRs are decent, but still a far cry from what an experienced CCTV supplier could offer you...And for probably less money too.

oh... haha... yes you're correct. mob is still available. i was thinking eb

they have stopped production here in the US. If you can wait, I hear a rumor that Aver is coming with out a 4 ch hybrid standalone unit that it supposed to be even cheaper than the 4ch pure NVR standalone.... I'm patiently waiting myself.

Pixels are only a small piece of the puzzle... I've seen CIF look 10 times better than "D1" many a time... the compression quality and bit rate are very important. Funny though... you'll never read about that in spec sheets. H.264 CAN look really good and comparable to less compressed codecs, but it's been my experience that "budget DVRs" lack the processing power to properly compress a good quality image in h.264. Manufactures have misled people into thinking that if it's h.264, then it's the best! Not so much. I'd rather have 10 days storage of good footage in MPEG4 than 30 days of worthless footage in a poorly compressed h.264. Again, h.264 can be a good thing... but ONLY if it's executed properly.

Don't go to Frys for cctv. Its trash. All of it. I've tested everything they have on their shelves... well at least 2 years ago I did just as an experiment and learning experience.

I missed this one only by a few hours, I drive through this airport ever day. What makes it funny is no one got hurt. I wonder if she still had to pay the toll? Lol!