Marshall

Can anyone suggest an IR illuminator that is a good bang for the buck? For instance, the Speco IR-200. [edit by mod-store link removed] Has anyone tried one? I am looking for an area of about 25x25 yards to be lit for a Sanyo VCC-HD4600. Some of these devices use bundles of low quality emitters, so even though there are many LEDs, the performance might be poor. I can build these units myself, too, but the time involved in machining the heatsink and soldering the driver to the emitters is sometimes more of a tradeoff than just paying the price for a built one. I have used 940nm P60 emitter engines before which worked well for throw on units I have made, but they didn't cover the wide area I would need from this setup. I wasn't looking to spend more than $130-ish, though. So the high-end units are out of the question for me. Thanks

Hey guys, I just set up a pretty decent home security system. I bought a new PC to run the system from the attic of the home, the PC has a 2.8GHz dual-core AMD X2 Athlon II, 500GB HDD, 4GB DDR3 RAM. I am using a new Netgear 4-port 100Mbit router, a 19W output single port POE injector to power the single camera, CAT6 wiring, and a 2TB WD Caviar Black HDD inside of a dual fan eSATA external enclosure, connected to the PC through a PCI-e x1 2-port eSATA controller card and eSATA cable. The PC display and controls are brought to me from the attic of the home via CAT6 wire. I used a Tripp-Lite VGA/audio-over-CAT5/6 converter to bring the video and audio down to my desk, then for the peripherals I used a USB-over-CAT5/6 junction with a 4-port powered USB hub at the end. There is an old cruddy Dell "decoy PC" at the desk, which would look to a burglar like it was the PC being used in the house. Of course, like the title says, the cream of the crop in the system is the Sanyo VCC-HD4600 1080P megapixel camera. Our house was robbed a little over a month ago, then about 2 weeks ago, they came back again and left the same vehicle tracks, but they did not break in the second time. There was a security sticker in the window when they came back. I'm not sure if that sticker was the reason they didn't break back in, or if it was because they did not see a new LED TV in the position upstairs of the first one that they stole. I think they could care less about the security system, and they are waiting to come back for another TV or whatever else they have on their mind. So I'm hoping the new Sanyo gets them and is a worthwhile investment. OK, to the issue at hand here. The system is up and running, I am on the final step of mounting and boxing in the camera. I am going to be cutting out a hole in the garage wall, placing a piece of polycarbonate glass in the hole, sealing it with silicone, and then mounting the Sanyo camera up against the circular window. After it is adjusted, I will be boxing the camera in with a wood frame and covering it up with plywood. Now, here is the one thing I am concerned about right now. Is it alright for these cameras to run very hot? This camera has just been sitting out in the open on a shelf, running off of POE, and the metal case feels about like 115F to 120F. This has been with a room temp in the garage around 70-75F. I am worried that when the camera is boxed in and the garage hits 100F, the camera is going to cook. Can it handle the heat, or will anything possibly be affected? My current idea was to place an 80mm 5800RPM computer fan on top the box pulling in, and the same fan on the bottom pushing out. This would really draw some air through the box, but then I compromise camera protection. My initial idea was total protection from a burglar, or from insects like spiders getting in the box and building webs on the camera. I suppose they might have a hard time making it past a 5800RPM fan alive, but if there's a will... I'm guessing that I'm just overreacting to the heat. I mean surely if this thing runs that hot sitting there, Sanyo knew that and designed it that way, I think (I hope). Let me know your suggestions on that. Also, I have been using the trial version of NUUO NVR. I don't know the price yet to buy the retail software version. Can anyone tell me what it costs, and if it is worth it just for a single 1080P cam. Is there other software you might recommend that is cheaper or free? I don't necessarily have to have a free recording solution, I just want to get the best bang for my buck if I do need to spend the money, and I've only had time to use the NUUO so far. Thank you all.

Oh. The software does not tell a person that, so I had no idea it wasn't a problem with the software.

Ok, having a problem with Milestone Go. When I set it up, it keeps changing the motion jpeg frame rate back to 3ips. I closed the program, set the camera to "max", which should be 5ips, and when I open the program again it defaults back to 3 in the camera settings. Also is it true that Go does not have hard drive space recycling? I have a 2tb hard drive which should provide 20 days of video or so, but Go will not let me change the number to anything but 5 days to keep video. I don't feel very secure having a system that only saves video for 5 days. I never knew this was going to be such an ordeal getting straightforward software for an HD IP cam that works.

Can you give me some details about Avigilon? For instance, do they have different tiers of software, and can you give general pricing on it? I tried going to the website and downloading, but apparently I have to contact a dealer. So I called the company, they gave me a contact cell number, I called the contact and left a message, but haven't got a call back. I'm kind of pressed for time, every minute without useful software is a vulnerability to missing evidence. The robbers have to drive down a long lane to see if anyone is home when they make a re-attempt, and if they see a car once they get up the hill, they must quickly turn around and leave the property. I may already have them on video doing so, but without a useful search feature for motion detection on our road, the giant file of video is so far useless. I am going to get the Milestone Go, just to get something running that's better than NUUO, but I like the screenshots I am seeing of Avigilon. Thanks

Thanks guys. I don't think there will be a problem with the camera. At first I thought to myself, "why would a camera need to be getting so hot?" But the more I thought about it, I realized that a 1080P H264 cam is doing a lot of work inside there. I assume it has to have some sort of built in video processor to handle the encoding and compression, so that it spits out a manageable data stream over the network. My single cam operates at about 7MB/s of data, give or take a little, in 1080P/30FPS/H264 mode. Anyways, I have some issues with NUUO NVR I would like to discuss. I hope to find software that alleviates these issues. The first problem I have is with the video I render as an output file from the program. The video looks good in full quality, but every few seconds, about a quarter second of frames are missing. So a person walking in the video will be moving smoothly, then suddenly they teleport ahead a couple feet. I have replayed the video to make sure it is not a processing problem, but the frame skips always happen in the same spot, indicating they are not actually there. I would not believe this could be a camera problem, as a 1080P cam at $1000 is likely going to be built to film quite smoothly. Okay, my next issues that come up could be some sort of setup or user error, but as best as I can tell, I have tried about everything to see if I could change something to fix them to no avail. Maximum recording resolution unattainable. The Sanyo VCC-HD4600 has a maximum MJPEG recording resolution of 2288x1712. However, I cannot get NUUO NVR to achieve any form of motion JPEG recording. The only place I find resolution settings in the NVR program is under setting>system setting>camera tab>camera settings button. Under 'video type' there is a drop-down menu. However, the only option in the drop-down box is H264. There is no MJPEG option. But why? Does this expensive program really limit you from using the supported camera recording formats other than H264? I even went about the setting via another route. See, if I tried to change the Sanyo camera to MJPEG mode in its web console while NVR was running, as soon as I set the MJPEG mode to any of the larger resolution formats, as soon as I clicked 'set' to reboot and apply, the camera would reboot, but startup in 640x480 MJPEG mode. I knew this was NVR causing it, because if NVR wasn't running, then the Sanyo would stay at whatever res you set it to. So I tried to set the camera to 2288x1712 while NVR was closed, and then opened NVR, but as soon as the program was opened, it would force camera settings back down to lowest res again. Basically, NVR just doesn't accept anything but H264 resolutions available on the Sanyo it would appear. That one is the biggest bummer, because although 1080P is great, 2288x1712 delivers maximum resolution for identifying things like license plate numbers, and that's what I need from my system. Okay, onto my next problem with NVR. I cannot get motion to be documented along the timeline in the time/date search area. Basically the program allows you to select multiple colors for things it appears you want to see documented, such as general motion, missing objects, lost signal, etc. That would be great if the program would actually do something with those colors that I choose. I am going to post a picture below. Notice that in the picture of the search, along the timeline, all that is shown is a long red line. That long red line represents the time the camera is recording, and the line ends at the current time. But what about those other colored lines above? When there is general motion, such as vehicles driving up, which happens multiple times during the day, shouldn't I be seeing a blue line in the graph documenting that motion? The only thing I ever see is that red line, and I have no clue what all the other colors are for or when they are used. Okay, final problem with NVR. Motion searching slow in realtime. Let's say I perform a 'smart search' on general motion using NVR. So I draw a box on the area I want to detect, select the area so it turns red, adjust the sensitivity, then click search so it will stop video when it detects the motion. At this point I realize the 'smart search' is really a 'dumb search', because it begins searching at real time 1x speed. Are you kidding me? I have 24 hours worth of video, the power of a computer processor at disposal, and to detect movement during that time I must wait in real time? That's the most worthless feature I've ever seen. The video should be scanned at 64x or 128x speed for movement, not real time! I can't sit at my screen all day waiting, NUUO. What's worse than that is the fact that the search functionality for detecting movement is horrible. If I draw a box on the road coming towards the camera to detect the motion, then set the sensitivity to the highest setting, the software does not even detect the movement until the vehicle has driven halfway up the road towards the camera. Now get this, if I set the detect area to the entire screen, on maximum sensitivity, it detects a bird flying across the blue sky, but immediately after, it cannot detect a vehicle driving down the gravel road. The programming is downright goofy. It's like its algorithm must see a large difference in contrast to successfully detect, instead of being able to detect a group of any color pixels suddenly changing, which would nearly always indicate movement. Unless someone can tell me that I am simply doing everything wrong, and show me how to make use of this software so it becomes effective, it would appear it is no more than 1 star software with a 5 star price. Out of the software recommended, do any of those have superior motion detection and searching built in, with a fast search ability? Or do any of them document movement that has occurred during the day on a graph? I like those ideas, if I could just find a way to get working versions of them. Thanks

44 views and not one reply. I was just looking for a simple, "I also have a Sanyo and it runs hot as well" comment but I guess we've passed that point. I thought I might be using the Nuuo NVR software, but at close to $500 there's no way I'll be sticking with that one. Its kind of funny how prices just happen to go through the roof on products that some people need to have, like security.

We have been experiencing vandalism in our laundrymat on a regular basis. We tried a fake camera a long time ago, and someone actually ripped it down and stole it. We have these very small dome cameras mounted on the ceilings, and they have horrible resolution, and have not helped us in identifying suspects. I have since acquired some better cameras, but they are larger units. They are Samsung cameras, the larger 30X zoom type that they make, about 2.5x2.5x6" in size I'm guessing. What I need to find is an enclosure that will deter these people from stealing the zoom camera inside. The people don't seem to be afraid of being caught on video, so I can't imagine what they will attempt upon seeing what's inside the dome. Any suggestions on where to start looking for a strong enclosure? Thanks

Thanks for the response. The cameras I purchased were not purchased for this duty, they were purchased for brief outdoor use in daylight and I got them at a good price, so I have extras. They look like the picture, only with the lens removed (front is almost flush). If right from the start you recommend not tempting them with the cameras I have, and going with a vandal-resistant dome camera, that is fine. I just want something with good resolution, and safe of course. If the cameras are $100-200 each, and I buy two, that is OK, price-wise. My plan was to record the video to the PC that I have on the other side of the wall using a capture card. I will probably need to buy another 1-2TBs of hard drive space I'm guessing to get a decent amount of footage saved. Does this look like a decent capture card? http://www.dvrmaster.com/product-854-affordable-geovision-mpeg-4-h-264-pc-capture-card-30fps-display-amp-recording-4ch-video-1ch-audio-windows-xp-vista-compatible.html

I have two brand new Samsung SDZ-300N security cameras for sale. They are brand new in box, I ask $170 for each which includes shipping. I paid close to $300 for these cameras each new, so take the deal while it lasts! I bought a bunch of these cameras to build wireless video systems for a shooting range, and these are leftovers I don't need. These cameras have some of the best quality for an analog signal I have ever used, and are 30X optical zoom. My eBay username is Marshall952, and I have over 70 feedback at 100%. You can pick the cameras up locally in Ottawa, IL if you are close enough. Thanks. Here is the manufacturer info page, replace the (dot) with an actual dot, wouldn't let me post native link due to post count: samsung360(dot)com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=10&category_id=8&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

With a 32X zoom, assuming the objects are still and not moving at all, you should easily be able to read a vehicle license plate at over 300 meters.

You won't make friends with anyone posting your SPAM in peoples threads. Can a mod please delete and/or ban this guys postings?