Jasper

Dude your getting a Dell! What do guys like if you don’t like the super, duper, wuper, Dell? I like Dell. When it comes to buying a camera(s), specifying an estimate of how much you want to spend will help narrow down your choices. Spend some time reading through the camera section of the forum. There is plenty of information there regarding cameras. Then once you get and idea about what you might like ask a question.

I just measured the resistance on a 50ft length of some thin Siamese cabling that I purchased. It measured 3.9 ohms resistance.

Do you really need a DVR card? I have an ATI All In Wonder Card that has motion detection ability. But if you don’t already have a capture card then check out each DVR card out to see what video formats they can record in if the DVD ability is of high importance. I have a GeoVision system here now and it uses a proprietary codec for recording at 720x480. You would need a card that could record in a common format or find a program that will do the conversion for you. They may even have one for the GEO, but I don’t know because I haven’t looked into it.

I can’t comment on the setup, but I can tell you don’t need premier for this simple task, unless you need a lot of customization and video effects. When I create home movies I capture to MPEG-2, use VideoRedo to edit it. VideoRedo is the best editor I have found for editing MPEG-2 video. It is very fast too because it doesn’t have to re-encode any video. I then use NeoDVD by Mediostream which is the fastest encoder/transcoder I have used. NeoDVD can transcode many different types of video (all the common formats) to VOB (DVD files) for burning to DVD.

Has anyone been able to get a DSL ISP provider to give you more upload speed if you give back the equivalent in download speed?. Probably not, but I had to at least ask the question because I don’t know for sure. My client has SBC Yahoo for their DVR. They have 1.2mbps downstream and only 300+kbps upstream. What a waste.

If you want to burn the video into the DVD file structure for playing the disc in a stand alone player you will have to record in MPEG-2 optimally as that is DVD’s native compression. There are other codecs that you can convert to DVD, but you have to check out the codecs that are being used by the various DVR cards you are looking at. If you record to MEPG-2 you can use NERO to transcode the video to VOB files that can then be burned to a DVD for playing back in a stand alone DVD player.

Just found this thread. Are the compression fittings the ones most installers choose to use? http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=1852&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

So are you now using crimps instead or the twist ons? I like the idea of the twist ons because you don’t need the crimping tools. What crimps and crimpers do you recommend?

The weird part is I just clicked on a link earlier in the thread and it took me to their website which shows that same cable in black? Which is better; West Penn or Coleman's siamese cable?

Earlier in this post SpyTown said the West Penn cable didn’t come in white or black. That is the two colors I would use the most. Do you have a link to some white and black cable with similar specs or better? What about this Coleman cable SpyTown mentioned?

After testing the thin Siamese cable I have decided not to install it. It is too thin. This stuff is not suitable for pulling, unless it doesn’t get stuck on anything. The cable is very rubbery and will get caught on things very easily. The package it came in did not list the gauge of power wire, 24AVG? Unless somebody else has some recommendations I think I am going to go with this stuff: http://www.lowvoltagewire.com/product.asp?itemid=135&catid=32

I sent him your regular email address. I guess he didn't contact you. Maybe he called like I suggested.

Nice link. I like how you can play the demo video side by side with different frame rates. Here is a link that allows you to choose different frame rates on a video showing a guy stealing something. http://www.palmvid.com/templates/fpsdemo/frv.html

I love VNC. It’s slim and trim and does the job very nicely. (I don't mean for watching video) And it’s free. Highly recommend this program.

You have to play it back on the Time Lapse VCR. (24 hour tape?) It won't work right on a regular VCR. What does the tape do when you play in on the regular VCR?

Yeah whoever put that on their list is a true marketing genius. That is the best advertisement they could have come out with to dissuade people from buying their product. If they want to sell anything they need to take that reference off their list. It isn’t helping them.

This is true, but for my purposes, which is to avoid having to go into the browser each time it works. After doing a side by side comparison of Geo’s MultiView and the Remote Viewer program Rory wrote I am convinced Rory’s program is superior. I tried several multi-cam sites last night and found that Rory’s program loaded the cameras quickly whereas Geo’s MultiView program took forever to load. A couple of times I got tired of waiting for the MutliView program to load the camera views so I just disconnected. His program is much more responsive as well. The Geo software looks amateurish and does not handle multiple cameras as well as Rory’s program. I was able to easily connect and load 16 camera views in a matter of seconds. Also his program looks much more professional. I like the mini view it offers so you can easily keep an eye on things as you work on your computer. Also you don’t have to deal with any of that browser business. It has a clean interface and has better controls.

No Rory. I finally got it working though. What I did was got the Active-X components to finally install on my Laptop by setting the security settings correctly to allow them to install. I used the web browser by specifying 192.168.1.4:81 (webcam server is 80). Since I already had copied the MultiView files into the Program Files directory the install bombed when it found MultiView was already running in memory. I terminated MulitView. Deleted the V7020 directory and started over again with the browser. This time I got the prompts for creating the directory structure and the install worked flawlessly. I then verified that the files were installed correctly, they were. Then I created a shortcut on the desktop pointing to the MultiView program. Now I never have to use the browser again on my Laptop or two other computers I tried this on. I setup two hosts in MultiView, one with port 80, the other with port 81. Both of them connect to the DVR with no problems. Glad I figured that out. I only want to have to deal with that browser once if I can help it. I hate dealing with those security settings.

I couldn’t get that to download on my PC or my laptop. I turned off the security center under component services thinking that would let me install the Active-X on my laptop, but didn’t work. I get a blue screen with a little square box in the upper left hand corner of the screen. Is there a program that will load this or can it only be done through Active-X prompting?

I tried that. I copied the files over from my PC to my laptop and attempted to run MultiView. The program launched, prompted me for my ID and password. Then it loaded into memory (saw it in the task mgr). But it is not finding what it is looking for. So I terminated it from the Task Manager. The component name that windows wouldn’t let me load was: OCXChecker_6110.cab. Which could be the first of a couple if I remember correctly. Your program must not be loading all the required components for MultiView to work.?

Yeah, The browser works with the :81 suffix to the local LAN IP, but the router did not need to be port forwarded and the WebCam server has port 80 as the setting. I was just hoping there was a way to install the MultiView program without having to go into the browser. But I guess even if you try to load (register) the components from elsewhere you’re still going to have to deal with Windows security settings. I wanted to copy the pre-installed MultiView program files from one computer then install them onto another without having to use the browser. But I guess I have to deal with the browser. Oh well.

I was asking why you have to punch in 192.168.1.4:81 to get a prompt for the Active-X every time you use it. When all you have to do is set the WebCam server to port 81. Type in the IP above, download the Active-X and then never have to type the suffix :81 again. You can then switch the port back to 80 in the WebCam server and never have to enter the browser window again. Just run the program from the hard disk. I just tested it on a Laptop and quit when I ran into the Active-X components failing to install due to security settings. So I have not verified if a directory is created with the executable file “MultiView.exeâ€

Rory, Does your program load the Active-X components and create the directory that contains the executable for MultiView? If it does you don’t even need to use the browser. If it does where is the directory created for the MultiView program? If not then the browser would have be used at least once to successfully install the Active-X components and the MultiView executable. After that a person experiencing the same problem I encounterd could do way with a port forward to 81 and just run the program from the hard disk. This is the path of the MultiView I am talking about. "C:\Program Files\v7020\DMMultiView\MultiView.exe" Is this program put in that directory by way of the browser Active-X components being installed and whatever else it does? Or is the program installed through some other mechanism that I am unaware of? Such as being installed with the main DVR software and not as a stand alone program install?

Forgot to mention I did not change the port number from 80 in the MultiView software to 81 at any point during the past few tests. I have two entries there now. One for port 80, the other for port 81. They both work when run from the hard disk. So the previous tests are valid. (I think) I have run the test locally and remotely. I VNC to a client PC and then it from there and it works fine when run from the hard drive. Just logged on there again to double check. Used both port 80 and 81 remotely. Was able to log on without incident running the program from the hard drive.