bpzle

I'm not familiar with that system but I can tell you I've had to replace HUNDREDS of hard drives in my day that were installed in all sorts of systems. Given the error you are receiving, I'd be willing to bet that's all it is. Try installing a new hard drive. Format it and see if that works. Also find out what the manufacturer of the drive is. If its a Western Digital, Maxtor or Seagate, they often have 3-5 year warranties and you might be elligable for a free replacment.

I'm not familiar with that system but have you tried a firmware/ software update? Sometimes manufacturers come out with added features that are commonly requested. Maybe you'll get lucky and they added it. Sorry I couldn't a better help...

Have you checked out Avermedia?

Any early morning joggers on that street? It would be cool to see the amount of blur, if any.

I was too when I started looking around. Apparently its the norm for consumer HD. Sony does make CCD but their like 1/5" and have horrible lux.

thanks for posting all the pics! what's the speed limit on the street? I'm curious about how fast the vehicles are traveling...

That's what it shipped with from a authorized Aver distributor... Valid CD Key too.

Great recommendation rory! I just finished setting an account. Works great!

Did you use MJPEG or H.264 on Arecont? MJPEG looks of course pretty and better then H.264 Both. I was commenting on the camera's physical appearance, not the picture quality.

And I forgot to mention I don't have a host yet for my domain. So I need a free one of those too if I want to use it to redirect traffic to my dvr. lol

DVR uses ActiveX.

It's definitely one of the more attractive looking IP box cameras I've seen. Is it just me or does Arecont's box cameras look like something from the 70's? The first time I laid eyes on one I thought "there's no way that ugly thing captured THAT beautiful picture."

Or give em a couple McDonald's cheeseburgers. My dog's can sound vicious when the door bell rings but that's about all their good for. Feed them and you have 2 best friends for life.

Rory, what codec are those video links in? My WMP didn't find any...

THAT sounds pimp, I'd love to see pics of that finish! Me too! PM with a picture? I was thinking of chipping out a single brick on my front porch and replacing it with a hollowed out one (have many left over from construction). I wanted to put a cheap wide angle board camera in it. There's a lot of black spots in the texture of the brick and a small lens wouldn't be noticeable at all. My front porch is grand and highly visible from the street. The only position I get without being seen from the street is 18 feet up in the corner. Any place else and it would be very obvious, tacky, and stick out. Great for knowing if someone is there, but bad for knowing who.

And by the way, who installs intrusion panels "properly" anymore? Lol. Isn't that an oxymoron? Home builders and monitoring services pay crap for installers. Like most home owners...my alarm panel came with the house. It's not a total loss, however. With a few tweaks and mods like I already mentioned, it can be a pretty tight security system with not much invested. As mentioned earlier, it's all about the cost to benefit ratio. Why would I add glass break sensors, change out the panel, pull new wire they way "I would have done it", upgrade the PIRs, ect just to protect a 50" plasma, a couple computers, and high end kitchen cutlery. That's what insurance is for. Please, take my crap. I'll get new and better everything!

That's not the case anymore - pretty much ALL modern PIRs have some form of "pet immunity" feature. Even without it, a properly placed and aimed PIRs has very little susceptibility to being triggered by animals. Not if you have a properly installed alarm system - a good installer will put it somewhere that's not obvious. I have 2 90lbs labs. There's not much these beasts wouldn't set off. Short of mouting PIRs 5 feet off the ground or infared beams everywhere, I'm not sure what would you mean by "properly placed and aimed." I've never see motion PIRs mounted that low. Nor would I ever do it. Your right, wall warts shouldn't be mounted near the panel but power can still be pulled inside the panel. Any idiot can read "AC."

I've heard of even the dumb criminals know not to open windows or doors. Instead, they smash a window and climb through. Homes with pets can actually be a greater traget because the PIRs (if present at all) are obviously bypassed. Once their inside they pull the battery and AC power to the panel so they can easily take your stuff out through the front door. An easy last defense for this without adding window break sensors is to either enable the tamper feature on the panel OR break the contacts on an existing zone with some magetic reed switches that you mount to the inside of the panel. Example, they open the panel and alarm goes off. They can probably still pull power before the panel dials the central station so that's why I take it a step further. I used a relay on the bell to open contacts on a normally closed circuit going to my dvr. I always use normally closed in case some is trying to rip out or cut wires. The dvr instantly text messages me and a few other family members to be alerted that something is up.

I'm confused at what your trying to do... Are you A: trying to record anything paged over their PA? B: Output playback audio from the DVR on to their PA? Or C: use the 2way audio function of the DVR (if applicable) to remotely "talk back" to people on their PA?

I don't believe anything was mentioned to indicate THAT sort of electrical problem. From what I gathered, the problem sounds related to sharing the pole's 220vAC with the camera's power supply. HOWEVER, safety should always be a concern. Make sure the pole and electrical enclosure for the light are both properly grounded. If not, YOU will become the ground. Not good. Working around high voltage can be dangerous without the proper knowledge and experience. When in doubt, hire a professional. Cover my travel expenses and I'd be more than happy to assist further.

How many rj11 cameras do you have? Knowing the typical quality of rj11 style cameras... I would be inclined to saving that $25 plus shipping per camera and using it to invest in a much better camera. Less complicated, and I think you'll be much happier with the end result for not much more cash. Plus you don't run the risk of flip flopping pairs for power/video and frying something.

I never use voltage detector test pens. They are unreliable and sometimes too sensitive to isolate where voltage is present. Use voltmeters to ensure the presence of voltage. The first thing I would do is disconnect both ends of the coax run and make sure the BNC connectors are not touching anything metal. Use a decent voltmeter and switch it to AC. Use the black test lead to find a ground on the pole somewhere and use the red to test both the braid and the dielectric (core) of the coax. Test with the pole light on, and off. You should not see voltage of any kind. If you do, you have a short to line voltage. I would also switch the meter to ohms and check for resistance to ground on both the braid and the core of the coax. You should not see any resistance going to ground on either the braid or dielectric of the coax. If you do, your shorted to ground somewhere. Next, make sure that your getting 12vDC or 24vAC (whatever the camera uses) from the power supply. I would also highly recommend fusing the output of the power supply with a fast acting 250ma or 500ma fuse. Lastly, but probably the real issue, it sounds like there is a problem with the line voltage at the pole light. There's too many possible issues to list, but either way only a QUALIFIED ELECTRICIAN needs to troubleshoot. High voltage is not for amateurs and ESPECIALLY malfunctioning high voltage. So, you can either A: get slammed with the service bill from a decent electrician or B: remotely power the camera from a known working power source. I would definitely chose option B. You ran coax, I'm assuming you could easily run low voltage power (18/2).

I use Surefire for my flashlights..... Not cheap but the best. http://www.surefire.com/E1B-Backup Yes! A lot of co-workers make fun of me for spending $100 plus on a flashlight (have 3) but if you use something 30 plus times a day, every day it's hard for me to put a price on it. They work every time and I'll put my life on it (actually have many times). Also, I picked up this beauty from Lowes with a 20% off coupon (from USPS relocation envelope). http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=109739-353-PS40-2A I LOVE this thing. It's extremely small yet powerful, fast, has lights, and will drive any screw into almost anything. Perfect for CCTV and hours of our inevitable ladder work.

If you do absolutley HAVE to have a motion tracking ptz, definetly install a fixed wide angle camera to capture the entire scene. Your going to miss a LOT if you dont. I saw the demo from that thing and it was just as crappy as I'd imagined. Poor thing was working so hard but just never could get a worth while picture of anything!