FranciscoNET

1 through 4 cameras stopped working 5 throught 8 cameras still works, HD SDI DVR works and allows you to see feeds from cam 5 to 8 on the 1 to 8 ch grid but DVR no longer records. POTENTIAL CAUSE OF PROBLEM: A faulty power adaptor that feeds the first 4 cameras (probably a power adapter that has one of those one IN to 4 OUT connector plugs) chech that power adapter, probably is of minimum of 4 amps at 12 volts DC that would need to be replaced if its bad. If you dont have power adapter but do have a CCTV power distribution box instead check voltage on the first 4 terminal. As for the HS SDI DVR not recording, most likely its hard drive failed, I would check hard drive status and if it is indeed failed, as is 0 GB being registered, a failure being registered or no HDD being detected I would change the hard drive with a 4 TB WD Purple (Surveillance grade) hard drive. So in short I would: 1. Make sure that all cameras are receiving 12 volts DC. 2. I would check the hard drive and replace if it failed. Notes: If you still suspect that the DVR as a unit might still be faulty and is the cause why cameras 1 to 4 isnt showimg up but 5 to 8 does, and you made sure that there is power being delivered to cameras 1 to 4, then I would unplug camera #8 and plug in one by one cameras 1 to 4 to see if those cameras that arent showing up on port 1 to 4 shows up on port 8 being one of the working port, if the cameras does show up on port 8 then plug all cameras the way they were and perform the following: Check that the brightness and contrast setting for cameras 1 to 4 hasnt been moved all the way to zero/down which would also cause the image to appear totally dark, revert brigjtness and contrast for tjese cameras to default settings (slidder in the middle for most DVR) and play around with many settings that retates to image controls and check that there isnt any black wallpaper/privacy mast/ocult enabled for the affected cameras. Do all that befpre ruling out that the HD SDI dvr is at fault and needs to be replaced.

I am assisting a customer who has been using this DVR, a generic Model number: ED6004ME 4 CH real time DVR for the past 2 and 1/2 years with no issues set to record at 7 FPS per channel at D1 resolution in High Quality mode. This DVR was installed by another installer who no longer answers his phone hence why he is my customer now. The issue that he is having is that after unplugging this DVR from the wall outlet [improper shutdown of the DVR] to perform certain electrical work, then when he plugged it back he noticed that it wont go passed the "Premiere Real Time High Resolution DVR Please Wait..." screen with the H.264 logo. When I arrived at the premises, this is what I did: I reproduced the problem by plugging in the DVR and seeing what I saw on the screen, it didn't go passed the Please Wait... screen after waiting about 5 minutes. Then I opened up the DVR, removed the hard drive's Sata power and Data connections and powered on the DVR, same problem. DVR's Specs: 1. On the Bottom of the DVR, a sticker reads: Model No: ED6004ME 2. The motherboard's center printed label reads: 2308SE V1.02 (first line), 2010.05.14 (second line) Then I took this DVR to my work shop to further troubleshoot it to see what can be done. In my workshop, this is what I have done so far: 1. I plugged in a new hard drive, same problem. 2. I removed the DVR's CMOS 3.3v battery, waited over 2 minutes, powered up the DVR, same problem. 3. I unplugged all cables from the DVR's motherboard (front panel cable, front USB cable) and powered up the DVR, same problem. 4. I further removed the Alarm interface that was attached to the right side of the motherboard and powered up the motherboard by itself, the only think being connected to the motherboard was my monitor's VGA cable. Same result. 5. After googling "ED6004ME", I found EasternCCTV as a possible manufacturer or distributor of this dVR, the website is http://www.easterncctv.com/download.htm which hosts many firmwares, mobile app, and desktop viewing software for many models, including the "ED6004ME" that I am working on. I downloaded the latest firmware for the ED6004ME, extracted the .RAR archive onto a 4GB USB flash drive, I plugged it into the back of the DVR then proceeded to power on (plug in the DC cable) the DVR. Next I noticed that there were immediate activity on my USB leds, the DVR took 15 extra seconds to display the same H.264 logo and then all leds activity of the USB flash drive ceased and remained solid lit in idle mode, so I think that the DVR may have succeded with the firmware upgrade, but I can't be 100% certain it did anything as the screen with the "Please Wait..." prompt looks the same and still hangs at that splash screen with nothing else happening. 6. I did a reflow on this motherboard in case if there were any bad solder joints. After I re-solidified all solder joints I plugged in the board and same issue. 7. I connected my Sata to USB adapter to this DVR's hard drive and plugged it in my computer which revelated four FAT32 partitions (one for each camera) and the 4th partition contains the 4th camera's videos in addition to a database file that the DVR uses for organizational purposes. I checked this hard drive and found it to be in perfect working condition, no bad sectors and no issues of any kind. So, I can rule out any hard drive based issues and proceeded to connect everything back to the DVR the way it was, and powered up the DVR, same issue, wont get passed the "Please Wait..." screen. I have attempted to search for a replacement motherboard to no avail. Does anyone knows where I can find a motherboard replacement for this particular DVR? I would like to do everything I can to resolve this problem. The ultimate decision would be to sell my customer a new DVR if no progress is made to get this motherboard functional again, or to find a replacement motherboard for this DVR. Here is a few pictures I took regarding this DVR and the problem: http://postimg.org/image/kbrg3hor1/ The Problem screen. It stays on this screen perpetually. http://postimg.org/image/4npkxxkwl/ The DVR (case opened) http://postimg.org/image/71dii79qh/ The Motherboard. My customer has assured me that he, or nobody else ever attempted to update the DVR's firmware, so I can rule out a bad firmware upgrade as the problem. Any JTAG, RS485 work around? Any HACKS that I can try?? Any ways to make the motherboard boot up the operating system off a USB flash drive so that I can see what happens? Any help I will appreciate it. I am committed to give my best effort at resolving this problem before I suggest buying a new DVR.

I have your solution that is more of a work around: Install Oracle VirtualBox which is (open source) freeware for all (home and business) users, then install a version of Windows that you have an extra license for (eg. Windodws 7 Home Prem. while using a W7HomePrem License Sticker that you have unused - from a broken laptop/desktop/trash?) then start your Windows 7 (XP, Vista, 8, 10 which ever version you installed) and then install the Windows client for the ANNKE AHD DVR. Setup the program to connect to your IP address/DVR Domain, full screen it, and now you have a nice window showing all of your cameras remotely from within your Mac.

All these are connected through the NVR's LAN Ports (or the POE port) and not the WAN Port ? What's the gateway setting on all cameras ? And did you disable the DHCP Server function on at least 1 of the NVR ? I never said that the IP cameras were to be connected to any WAN port. WAN port is your public IP address assigned to you by your ISP, I was referring strictly to LAN ports, connecting all these IP cameras to the LAN ports (as in behind the customer's NAT router) and assigning each IP camera a static PRIVATE IP address that falls within the range of the NAT's (router) range (eg. 192.168.1.2 ~ 192.168.1.254) but falls outside the router's configured DHCP servers IP assignment pool (eg. router DHCP server starts assigning IP's starting at 192.168.1.100 therefore statically assign the IP cameras starting from 192.168.1.2 ~ 192.168.1.99 as to avoid the risk of future IP conflict potential of the router assigning to a new LAN client an IP address via DHCP the same as one of your statically assigned IP addresses). So, yeah the only thing connected to the WAN port should be the ISP's internet connection (eg. the cable modem like in most setting). If that's the case, both set of cameras don't need to be on the same physical network, and you should have 2 independent network of cameras to the the NVR. You shouldn't need to have any physical network cable connecting the 1st 32 Camera to the 2nd 32 Cameras. I never meant to infer that the first 32 cameras are to be physically connected to the second 32 cameras. To put it simple to understand, I meant to have all 64 IP cameras connected to the NAT, behind the router, and the first NVR has 32 network switch behind it that is simply connected behind the router and again the second NVR is also connected behind the router all being part of the very same network, not double NATting here or anything like that, these two NVR's are simple network switches but with PoE capabilities. The idea of statically assigning IP addresses to each IP cameras eliminates the possibility of causing IP conflicts or other issues in the future. Here is a basic illustrative chart that I have created to show the configuration I am talking about: http://postimg.org/image/95x3fpzv5/full/

IF this were my project this is what I would do: I would assign each IP camera a static IP address and outside the router's DHCP server's IP address assignment range. If the router's default gateway is: 192.168.1.1 and the router is configured to start DHCP IP assignment starting at IP 192.168.1.100 (like all Linksys routers defaults) I would perform the following static IP address assignments: 192.168.1.2 for the first IP camera 192.168.1.3 for the second IP camera 192.168.1.4 for the third IP camera and so on and so on, the last IP assignment would be 192.168.1.65 for the 64th IP camera Then having done this, I would configure NVR #1 to use IP address 192.168.1.98 and I would configure NVR #2 to use 192.168.1.99 As I configure each IP camera, I would define and change its default admin credentials with a different one, I would probably use the same user name and very secure password for all the cameras. I would configure NVR #1 to use TCP port 25000 as its server port, port 25100 for HTTP and port 25200 for RTSP. Then I would configure NVR #2 to use TCP port 26000 for Server, port 26100 for HTTP and port 26200 for RTSP and then open up these respective TCP ports on the customer's router for 192.168.1.98 NVR #1 and 192.168.1.99 NVR #2, at that point the customer would now have remote access to all of the IP cameras that will eventually be connected to the NVR's. The last step would be to configure the user accounts for remove access and setup an account with an DDNS provider (domain) if the customer doesn't have a dynamic IP address. I personally use HiKVision products so for me its just a matter of assigning a non used user name for the "HiDDNS" and all the customer needs to remember is his HiDDNS user name followed by his DVR or NVR user name and password, but since you are using Dahua maybe your specific NVR has EasternDNS that you can use free of charge. Finally I would plug in all IP cameras to the PoE'd or non PoE'd with auxiliary power to the network switches or if you are dealing with NVR's that come with its own network switch behind (eg. 32 ethernet connectors behind them), then I would plug them in there, then I will attempt to perform an auto search to see if the NVR auto finds the first 32 IP cameras on the first NVR, if that succeeds then I would move onto NVR #2 and plug in IP camera 33 to 64 and perform the same auto search there. If auto search fails then I would add the IP cameras manually one by one by their IP addresses followed by their user names and passwords that you defined to the IP cameras earlier.

TVI, CVI and AHD also uses coax. My personal preference is HD TVI because its the best one out of the three. Also, HiKVision, the creator of the HD-TVI standard has just figured out a way to pass 4K Ultra video over Coax, making it the third generation HD-TVI that will soon be out to the market, now you will be able to perform 4K Ultra HD installation in HD-TVI format and keep your existing coaxial cables and its back compatible with all the previous HD-TVI cameras out there allowing you to use 1080P and 4K cameras interchangeably. Source: http://www.securitynewsdesk.com/hikvisions-third-generation-turbo-hd/ This is BIG news! I am so exited about this. Coax installation is strictly a relationship between the DVR and the Camera, there are no middlewares (as in switches, etc) in between, means less point of failures to consider. For an IP system, you have the following: * The IP camera * The Power over Ethernet capable network switch * The power brick that supplies the 48V power to the cameras connected to the PoE switch. * The Ethernet cables + RJ45 heads for each ends * VMS software at a rate of $60 per CH software license or a standalone NVR that may or maynot charge additional licenses per CH (camera). * Ability to transmit up to 8 MP video streams. * Maximum Distance: over 300 ft, if you require more than 300 ft you will need network switches in between. ( IP cam <--> PoE switch <--> PC/NVR ) For a Coax HD-TVI system you have the following: * The HD-TVI cameras * The 12V power distributor (example: 12v 20A 19 ports) * The Coaxial cables + BNC connectors for each end. * HD-TVI DVR and the manufacturer's VMS software to see the cameras remotely from any PC or SmartPhone (iVMS-4500/iVMS4500 HD to give an example), so no software licenses required, if you have a 16CH HD-TVI DVR, 16 CH's you get to monitor from any numbers of computers at any camera configurations at no additional costs. * Well, now we will very soon have the ability to transmit 4K videos over Coax when these 3rd Generation HD-TVI DVR's and 4K TVI Cameras hit the market, but that the very immediate moment we have full HD. * Maximum distance: 1,000 ft for the current 2nd generation HD-TVI, but for the new imminently incoming 3rd generation HD-TVI you can go to 1,500 ft in distance. ( HD-TVI Cam <--> HD TVI DVR ) So, it would be cost effective to remain coax using HD-TVI, and it would also be cost effective to perform new HD-TVI installations, less point of failures between the camera and the DVR means more reliability, and did I mention, longer runs per reach single cables that IP cameras cannot top at the moment. In some jurisdiction you have a minimum mandatory 30 days data retention policy, meaning that the DVR MUST retain videos for at least 30 days and going higher in Mega Pixels means that it gets harder and harder and much expensive to satisfy this requirement at your chosen MP of your choice. You can keep on using the same bitrate you used to when recording at 16 fps in full HD to record in 4 fps in 4K HD since after all, 4K is 4 times full HD in quality and this will provide you an even crisper image quality.

* AHD You are entering the least recommendable of all the analog HD formats in existence (HD-TVI, HD-CVI, HD-SDI and HD-AHD) You should read the following comparison guide to get a better grisp in which format to go to: http://www.hdanalog.com/compare/ So, pay a visit to the above mentioned website, you are going to get a grasp of more or less what are the technological capabilities of all of these formats in terms of side by side comparison. Just to reiterate, not in my wildest dreams would I do an AHD installation (if I am the one buying the equipment to be installed, unless the customer buys the equipment out of his own volition [in costco's/BJ's, etc] and is just paying me to hook it up), there is no way I can recommend a format that is not going to look as crisp as full HD supposed to look under all conditions. The analog formats that wins my vote by order of priorities are: HD-TVI and HD-SDI both of these formats will give you excellent picture quality, except that HD-SDI is limited to the lengh you can go and you can only use RG-6 or broadcast quality coaxial cable if you must go to the rated distance, with HD-TVI you can go as far as 1,000 feet on RG-59 cable which spool is 1/4 the price of a spool of RG-6 cable and is more tolerant to other types of cables such as UTP with corresponding HD-TVI balon's.

Hi, I am looking for a HDMI/Component to TVI converter that would allow me to hook up any HDMI or Component video source as input and HD-TVI as output that would allow me to record such content to my HD-TVI DVR in full HD. If anyone knows where I can buy such converters I would greatly appreciate it. I Googled it and didn't found anything, I have a feeling that such a device may not yet exist (but with lots of manufacturers creating many HD-TVI based gadgets I find that hard to believe that such a converter doesn't exist yet) but I could be wrong. Thanks.

I am going to recommend the same exact setup I use for my customers: DVR: KT&C HD-TVI full HD, 8 Channel would run you for $170 4TB surveillance grade Western Digital PURPLE: $165 KT&C KEZ-c2TR28V12XIR 0.01 Lux HD-TVI Full HD Camera: $110 x 8 = 880 (http://www.ktncusa.com/_media/KEZ-c2TR28V12XIR_vs1.2.pdf) Absolutely the best picture I have ever seen day and night, and supports 2.8mm to 12mm manual zoom (have to use a handy monitor or view via smartphone iVMS-4500 remote client while adjusting) 10 A 8CH Distribution Box = $50 50 feet premade coaxial cables at $12 each or 500 feet RG-59 coaxial cables at $50 each. Total, not including the cables is = $1,215 I know its a little over your budget, but this is the setup I can personally recommend to you after testing out different models of HD-TVI cameras and not being satisfied with the resulting image quality particularly at night, but with the KT&C KEZ-c2TR28V12XIR I and everyone I have installed that camera is super happy with the image quality, however as you can see, its not really a "cheap" camera in terms of price. Warning: quoted price is the best match scenario, you may or may not find these prices depending on where you purchase and who is your CCTV distributor/supplier. Maybe you could help me find a better choice than this unit: http://edigitaldeals.net/lts-platinum-8-channel-tribrid-dvr-hd-tvi-analog-960h-30fps-720p-15fps-1080p-2ch-ip-vga-hdmi-1x-audio-1x-sata-3yr.html I liked the Tribrid DVR but if you know of a better one I 'd go with your recommendation. Thanks. Al That DVR you quoted here is super fine. In fact, there is no difference what so ever between that LTS 8 CH Full HD DVR and mine KT&C 8 CH full HD DVR's, they are all HikVision rebrands using the same exact software, they all with work with iVMS-4500 on the iPhone and android smartphones (I have tested them) even though they come with their own in-brand created software (For Example, KT&C comes with OMNI Remote for both PC's and Smartphones, feature set are the same as HiKVision's iVMS-4500 software and both will work interchangeably so if you like to use iVMS you can use that or if you like to use OMNI you can use that). The following HiKVision HD-TVI Rebranded DVR's using the same software: KT&C LTS DVS I have personally done projects using all of these three brands and I can vouch for the quality and reliability of these three brands, and my supplier has assured me with a 2 year warranty for any of these three DVR's that they carry, so feel free to buy that LTS DVR, its at a great price of $179 based on what I saw on that page. Just dont use cheap cables, based on my experience you can get away with using those "premade" cables for up to 100 ft of distance with very very minimal loss of image quality or very minimal fading/shadowing of objects, but I personally like to use RG-59 Coaxial Siamese cables for distances farther than 50 ft.

a 30x Pan Tilt Zoom HD-TVI was the most I was able to find. However I found something that MAY be of use for you: http://www.ebay.com/itm/6-60-mm-MANUAL-IRIS-IP-MEGA-PIXEL-Camera-CS-Mount-Lens-/350305125086?hash=item518fd002de:m:mDB4SZsh7U7_ty2imFLkeQw "BRAND NEW 6-60mm MANUAL IRIS SEMI-WIDE TO SUPER NARROW DETAILED VIEW HIGH GRADE GLASS CCTV C/CS MOUNT LENS FOR YOUR CCTV CAMERA. MANUALLY ADJUST THE FOCUS, IRIS, & ZOOM TO YOUR EXACT NEEDS." "GREAT FOR IP CAMERAS, & MEGA PIXEL CAMS THAT DO NOT OFFER THE AUTO IRIS 4 PIN CABLE CONNECTION." Says the item's description. This lens only costs $79 which is again not bad for experimenting purposes.

I am going to recommend the same exact setup I use for my customers: DVR: KT&C HD-TVI full HD, 8 Channel would run you for $170 4TB surveillance grade Western Digital PURPLE: $165 KT&C KEZ-c2TR28V12XIR 0.01 Lux HD-TVI Full HD Camera: $110 x 8 = 880 (http://www.ktncusa.com/_media/KEZ-c2TR28V12XIR_vs1.2.pdf) Absolutely the best picture I have ever seen day and night, and supports 2.8mm to 12mm manual zoom (have to use a handy monitor or view via smartphone iVMS-4500 remote client while adjusting) 10 A 8CH Distribution Box = $50 50 feet premade coaxial cables at $12 each or 500 feet RG-59 coaxial cables at $50 each. Total, not including the cables is = $1,215 I know its a little over your budget, but this is the setup I can personally recommend to you after testing out different models of HD-TVI cameras and not being satisfied with the resulting image quality particularly at night, but with the KT&C KEZ-c2TR28V12XIR I and everyone I have installed that camera is super happy with the image quality, however as you can see, its not really a "cheap" camera in terms of price. Warning: quoted price is the best match scenario, you may or may not find these prices depending on where you purchase and who is your CCTV distributor/supplier.

Check for Ground Loop, that's the only thing that I can think off besides the possibility of the cameras being defective. Also try another camera to see how to they look using the same cable. Make sure that you are powering on the cameras in a central location where the DVR is installed and that you are not powering on the camera from a wall outlet that is located near the camera as that wall outlet's ground may not be common to the wall outlet's ground or may be on a different AC phase where the DVR is plugged in at which will give out video interference issues/ground loops. (using Siamese cables can help you with that as both video and power gets routed together), so power the DVR and all cameras using the same wall outlet, even if you have to use a 6-8 outlet power strip 15A extension. If you need to go longer than 100 to 150 feet do not use premade cables, instead use RG-59 coaxial cables. If you need to go longer than 500 feet do not use RG-59 coaxial cables (although it MAY work), instead use RG-6 coaxial cables. Try another power adapter/distribution box, may not be doing a good job at filtering AC line noise as part of the adapter's job of stepping (or rapidly switching) down to 12V AC and then rectifying to DC (Bad/Poor filtering Capacitor on the Power Adapter). make sure that the BNC heads aren't touching a nearby metal surface (example, installing a camera on a metal awning that happens to be grounded and then failing to cover the metallic BNC head with black tape before hiding the BNC connector inside the awning supports/other areas. Another example: after running electrical conduits and installing a squared junction box to install the dome camera in top of the junction box, failing to insulate the BNC head that you just hid inside the junction box and letting the BNC head make direct contact with the metalic junction box where at some point the conduit is making contact with any grounded area tied to a different phase = video interference, solution=cover all exposed metallic area pertaining to the camera's cable, BNC heads and any splicing you had to do. If you have checked everything and you are still experiencing problems, and you did not ran the original cabling, you may have to redo the cabling yourself as the original installer might have done a botched job. If you have to redo the cabling make sure you go with RG-59 Coaxial Siamese. *** The HD-TVI cameras and DVR's I deal with is of the KT&C brand and never had a problem with and I have done many old fashioned CIF-D1 to HD-TVI conversions successfully and I only had to replace wiring on one location (a church) because the original installer did a terrible job, splicing a cable as short as 100 feet multiple times in different areas (!!) and doing very long runs in excess of 250 feet using a very thing gauged cables (I assume they were as thing as AWG 24) which is no good for powering anything in excess of 50 mA and obviously its terrible for a HD-TVI camera so that one had to go in favor of RG-59 Siamese

Pro's of going the PC route: * Customizability * Brandability - You can change the boot screen to your own brand so on power on instead of displaying Windows' default bootscreen you get to display your own company's boot screen. * Can customize the DVR server software. Depending on the DVR server software you have decided to settle with, you may be able to customize all graphical images and company names with your own. For example, the one I used to use was Macro-Video with their D1 hardware encoding PCI/PCI-e DVR cards and they have a bunch of *.JPG's on the software's root directory you can open up with Photoshop/Gimp to customize and another jpg that displays a default company name that you can customize to your own company name. * You can login remotely via your own Remote Administrative Tool (subject to client approval of course) to help the client burn an evidence when something happens. Cons of going the PC route: * There is absolutely, and I mean ABSOLUTELY no PCI/PCI-e DVR card that can support the HD-TVI or HD-CVI standard which means that for traditional DVR sellers still going with the PC based route they are limited to D1 resolutions. * Setting up an NVR PC based is going to cost you an arm and a leg compared to what you can get with a standalone NVR. For example, the NVR can be CPU intensive requiring a good i5 as minimum and building such a system is going to cost you. A good VMS software will charge you at least $60 per IP camera, for a 4 CH setup thats going to be $240 just for VMS licensing! and thats just for the VMS, ONE software, you still have to pay for Windows license (Windows 7 OEM can optimistically be had for no less than $40 searching the right venues) and of course the cost of building the whole PC setup, in the other token, I see I can get a HiKVision 4 CH NVR with PoE for $97.99 with free shipping and that includes a whole funcional unit without the hard drive, no need to worry about software licensing or buying lots of parts, less than $100 I have a functional NVR that needs absolutely nothing else except for the hard drive. Pro's of Standalone DVR/NVR: * Its wayyy cheaper. Like mentioned in my PC con's example above, you can get a standalone HiKVision NVR for less than $100 with free shipping and that will get you everything you need for your NVR setup minus the hard drive. * It has way less power requirements than a PC and makes less noise than a PC. * Faster setup and turn around. No need to spend time installing an Operating System, Drivers, the DVR or VMS software. Everything is already dome and setup for you leaving you time to perform other work like setup remote access for customers, user names, opening a port on the router, setting CH recording frame rate, bitrate and image quality settings, etc.... * takes up less space than a PC and its easier to hide. Cons of Standalone DVR/NVR's: * You are stuck with whatever features the device came with * You can't customize is and rebrand it with your own brand name unless you buy an unbranded DVR/NVR. In my own experience I have been purchasing the unbranded KT&C HD-TVI DVR from my local CCTV wholesaler that doesn't display a brand on screen and doesn't have any brand sticker on the front plate allowing me to create my own company sticker and placing it there. But if you DVR is branded you can't say your DVR is a "John Doe DVR" to give you an example. * You actually have to travel onsite if a customer requires your assistance to "burn" an evidence and for most standalone DVR and NVR's like KT&C and other HiKVision based models they no longer come with a DVD burner which means that "burning" an evidence here means copying the videos over to a USB flash drive inserted onto the DVR itself or onto the customer's PC with the remote application software installed on the PC to download the video off the DVR (in the case of the customer having a computer configured to connect to DVR remotely, you can walk the customer to installing teamviewer (IF IF you have the commercial teamviewer license which costs upper $700's) as you wont be able to successfully walk a customer to installing TightVNC or other freeware RAT's (Remote Application Tool) and open up a port on their own routers and then give you their IP address and password for you to connect to and help them download the videos they want to save, it would be much better and time saving to just drive over to your customer place and physically help them with what they need. Personally speaking, I have been building PC based DVR's but when I discovered the HD-TVI standard and that there were no HD-TVI based DVR cards for PC's I finally made the decision to switch to HiKVision based DVR's and have been upgrading existing customers to the full 1080p HD standard per CH with existing cables - no need to remove cables and since a very top of the notch quality Full HD cameras that can see with 0.01 - 0.001 lux can be had for the same price as regular high end D1 cameras I can still remain competitive doing new HD-TVI installations as good Network Cameras that isn't buggy is still very pricey, going with cheap network IP cameras still comes with stability issues that can make you look really really bad

Based on a Google search I did, your time lapse vcr specifications are listed here: http://www.broadcaststore.com/store/model_detail.cfm?id=20513 Features: Up to 168 hours (1 week) record/playback capability (T-120) Over 300 lines (Color), 350 lines (B/W) horizontal resolution RS-232C control via optional SVT-RS1A Adaptive Picture Control (APC) for optimum head to tape match Audio recording in 2, 12 and 24 hour modes Loop through video in power off mode Menu driven settings - no video input necessary for setup Alarm scan/log capability Field advance/reverse playback capability Built-in time/date generator, 30 day backup Clock set in/out - Synchronizes time setting on multiple decks Available in 2, 12 and 24 hour recording speeds Clear playback with fine detail and excellent signal to noise ratio Adjusts video head bias to best match the tape being used A wide variety of recording options to meet virtually every user's needs Tape Format: VHF Recording System: Rotary 4-Head Helical Scanning System Video Signal: EIA/NTSC Video Input: Composite, BNC x 1 Video Output: Composite, BNC x 1 Recording Modes: 2-168 Hours Audio Recording: 2, 12, 24 Hour mode Horizontal Resolution: 350 Lines (B/W); 300 Lines (Color) S/N Ratio: 44 dB Time/Date: Yes Alarm Rec. Speed: 2, 12 hours or No change Alarm Search: No Alarm Scan: Yes Alarm Log: Yes Power Requirement: AC 120V, 60 Hz Power Consumption: 17W Computer Interface: RS-232C VIA Optional SCT-RS1A Mic. Input: Mini jack, -60 dBs, 600 Ohms Built-In Timer: 7 day/ 8-event Dimensions: 16 5/8 x 4 x 13 3/4 inches (420 x 100 x 340mm) Weight: 12 lb. 12 oz. (5.8 kg) Record Interval: 1/60 - 1.4 sec So, it looks like 1 week is the most data retention you can obtain from this VCR on a T-120 tape. As for your question in regards to the "REC CHECK" button, I would say concentrate on the Record button, insert a blank T-120 tape and plugin a video source and see if the VCR records, then see if you are able to change between speeds (2 hours [sP] thorugh 168 Hours). So in short just pay attention to two major buttons, the one that starts the recording and the other that changes the tape speed. Also you can explore the others that stops the tape, rewind and fast forward. Now, keep in mind that you only get 350 horizontal TV Lines, this means that if you hook up a 4 CH multiplexer to it each camera will get 1/4 of that pie, thats 87.5 TVL or you can opt for sequencial in which case each camera will be recorded in the full 350 TVL by taking turns once every 5 seconds auto switching in full screen. That's the limitation of the Time Lapse VCR method. I would go the Digital way and get a HiKVision HD-TVI DVR which can be had like for $170 +/1 for a 8CH DVR that would let you record full HD video. But if you would like to make full use of your investment you acquired for dirt cheap you can hook up one camera to your front house and record it using that VCR which will give you 1 week retention period unless you decide to use 4 T-120 VHS tapes in which case you can have 1 month (The standard legal suggestion for video retention).

You said you have a new router, therefore I know exactly what's the problem. You have probably wisely pre-configured your HiKVision NVR to use a static IP address which is what everyone would do in order to ensure that the private IP address never changes along with port forwarding to that specific IP address. Lets assume, your NVR is set to use the IP address: 192.168.1.77 because you had a Linksys router before, but now you got yourself, lets say, a Belkin router and now the default gateway of that router is 192.168.2.1 and have reconfigured all of your networking devices and are probably able to see your networking function in the external except your NVR. IF this is the problem, the solution would be to modify the NVR's IP address to 192.168.2.77 and Default gateway from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.2.1 and then set port forwarding appropriately to 192.168.2.77 Thats assuming this is the problem, this is only a solution to a hypothetical problem I am assuming you may be having. In order to find out what IP address your new router's DHCP server is assigning your computer now, press the WINDOWS KEY + R to open up the run box and there type CMD and then press enter. On the DOS Command Prompt type IPCONFIG and then press enter. You may have to scroll up if a long return is printed on the screen, but you are going to concentrate on either the Wireless LAN or Ethernet Adapter and see for something that looks familiar to this: 192.168.1.77 (my example of the IP address dynamically assigned by my Linksys WRT1900AC router to my Laptop) 255.255.255.0 (My example of my own subnet mask, this is usually this value for most routers, so probably your is the same) 192.168.1.1 (My example of the Default Gateway my router came set by default, can be changed, but usually there is no compelling reason to do so. Most Linksys routers uses this default gateway, most Belkin routers uses 192.168.2.1 as their default gateway and some others uses 192.168.0.1 by default, etc). Once you verify what IP address was dynamically assigned to your laptop/PC from your new router you will compare if the IP address statically assigned by you on your NVR matches your router's default gateway and assignable IP address for the gateway's range (example: for default gateway of 192.168.1.1 device can be assigned 192.168.1.2 through 192.168.1.254, typically I like to assign the device a static IP address that is outside my router's DHCP pool, for a linksys that is 192.168.1.99 or less while leaving 192.168.1.100 and up for DHCP blocks of IP addresses to be assigned by the router to other networking devices like laptops and PC's dynamically in order to eliminate the possibility of having an IP address conflict). Verify that you dont have any typos in the IP address configuration page of your NVR: For example, you meant to assign "192.168.1.88" but instead typed "192.169.1.88" (note the "9" instead of the "8" common error) or you assigned "192.168.1.88" while leaving "192.168.2.1" as the gateway. Typically some NVR's and DVR's would give out errors for such errors, but that is not something I can guarantee so its worth to check them out. Great! Once all that is done, do the following: For the IP address that you have your NVR statically assigned (using 192.168.1.88 as an example) and the server port (using 17700 as an example) and the HTTP port (using 16600 as an example) you will go to your router's gateway configuration page and create a port forwarding rule for these ports, additionally I would add the 192.168.1.88 IP address to the DMZ zone, specially if you are still having trouble after adding all of the ports. Now, check if you can see the cameras on your phone while having your smartphone NOT connected to your wireless network, turn off WiFi on your phone and make sure the phone is connected to your 3G/4G network, browse a test page just to confirm your phone has internet access and now try to access your NVR through your NVR's APP through your smartphone to see if it connects and you are able to see videos. If it fails, on your laptop/PC go to "whatismyipaddress.com" this will tell you what is your ISP's assigned public IP address to you, go back to your smartphone and modify your device list to make sure that it is reading the same IP address (example: 24.44.77.52:17700 using the 'SERVER PORT') make sure your credentials is properly set (user name and password of the NVR), if that fails modify the device this time using the "HTTP" port instead of the "SERVER" port (example: 24.44.77.52:16600). If that fails, connect your smartphone back to your HOME's wireless network and create a new device on your smartphone, this time connecting locally using your device's LAN's IP address (example: 192.168.1.88:17700, or 192.168.1.88:16600 if you are supposed to use the HTTP port instead of the SERVER port), then type your user name and password and try to connect, it is does connect this time is because there is a blockage somewhere between the private network and the public network in regards to allowing you, the external to your home's network user, to connect to your NVR, in that case, I would log in back to the router via the browser's configuration page, and check the status of the router to see what IP address its getting from the new cable modem your ISP sent you, if the IP address you are getting from the cable modem starts with 192.168.100.xxx or 192.168.xxx.xxx or 10.0.0.xxx, 10.xxx.xxx.xxx or 172.16.000.000 - 172.32.xxx.xxx then your cablemodem is double NATting you, you are using two private IP gateways, if that is the case then log in to your cable modem's gateway page to put your cable modem into bridged mode, that way your router should be getting an actual real public IP address from your ISP and your router should be the only NAT device on your home's network. If all fails after making sure that your router is getting an actual public IP address from your ISP and that the cablemodem is plugged into the right ethernet port in the back of your router (port labeled INTERNET/WAN) then perform the following: Scrape everything and start all over again, feel free to reset your NVR back to factury settings if you like, go to your router's gateway configuration page and change your router's Default Gateway to: 10.111.1.1 and DHCP's starting pool and ending pool to 10.111.1.100 ~ 10.111.1.150 (if you have more than 50 networking devices then up it to 10.111.1.254 or up to the number of devices you have) and save the settings, your router will reboot, wait like 60 seconds. Next, disconnect and reconnect to your wireless network in order for your PC to be assigned a new IP address from the new default gateway you just configured. Verify your laptop/PC is getting thew new IP address and that its not still stuck at the old gateway by pressing WINDOWS KEY+R, typing CMD then press enter and then typing IPCONFIG then enter to see the actual IP address you are getting assigned, if you see the old IP address then type IPCONFIG /RELEASE then press enter and then type IPCONFIG /RENEW and wait a few seconds, now you should get a new IP address from the new default gateway you assigned your router. next, go to the NVR and assign it: 10.111.1.88 as its IP address 255.255.255.0 as its subnet maks 10.111.1.1 as the Gateway For DNS use: 10.111.1.1 IF your DVR requires typing in a DNS. Next, assign port 17700 as the SERVER port then, assign port 16600 as the HTTP port next, assign port 15500 as the Media port (if applicable) 14400 for FUNCTION1 port 13300 for FUNCTION2 port 12200 for FUNCTION 3 port where there functions happens to be what ever its labeled on your NVR's networking configuration screen. Then save your changes. Double check the user and password on your NVR, if need be, erase the old user and create a new user with a new password and grant this user permission to connect and see the cameras. Next, go to your router's gateway configuration page and add these new ports and forward them to the IP address: 10.111.1.88. Optionally you can also add 10.111.1.88 to the DMZ. Now, go back to whatismyipaddress.com to confirm your ISP public IP address and write it down and see if you are now able to connect using your smartphone using your public IP address and server port, try the HTTP port if the server port fails. IF it still fails, install your NVR's remote software to your laptop then add your NVR's credentials to it and connect it using the NVR's Private IP address of 10.111.1.88 and server's port and it should connect while leaving the laptop still connected to your home's wireless network. Now modify the server this time taking out the private IP address of 10.111.1.88 and replacing it with your external public IP address and see if you can connect to your NVR this time. If it does connect now disconnect your laptop from your home's wireless router and connect it to any open hotspot that have an active internet connection or to your smartphone with WiFi tethering enabled in order to simulate that you are away from your home's network and see if the remove problem connects to your NVR's. If it does, then attempt to connect once again using your smart phone's app, if it fails then make sure you are using the correct version and software for your NVR, go to your NVR's manufacturer's website to find out what they call their smartphone app for your particular smartphone platform (Android/iPhone) and then search for this name on their respective app stores (Google Play for Android or the Apple Store for iPhones), install it and try again, this time it should work. //Edit to add: In case if its still not working, but ITS WORKING only when you connect to it locally and directly to 10.111.1.88 then change ports, some ISP block ports to if the port 17700 as Server is not working out for you, try a different port such as 27700 or 37700 or even a lower port such as 8800 or 9900 and be sure to edit the port forwarding rule appropriately on your router's gateway configuration.

Hi, I own a HiKVision HD-TVI 8 CH Standalone DVR that I purchased not only to upgrade my own house's Standard Definition system that I build more than 10 years ago but to see how good these DVRs are before I use them as my new default standard for all of my customer installations as a way to finally move to the full HD standard and I have been very happy with this system, lots of features, stability and most importantly for me, all recording are done using the .mp4 one of a standard video format that VLC, Media Player Classic from KLite Codec Packs, Windows Media Player, etc is capable of playing without having to use a proprietary player executable in order to play them even through HiKVision still does provide a video player executable to playback your downloaded from the DVR videos, its not needed in order to see the video. So, everything is great, great video format (.mp4) without requiring any conversions. You download the videos using the IVMS client and within 2 minutes you get 3 hours worth of footage all in .mp4, GREAT! Just want I wanted to see in a decent DVR. My complaint is, why all DVR manufacturers are still using that ancient outdated G.711 mulaw audio codec for users that needs to record using a microphone? Look, the industry went thru the hassle of upgrading to the High Definition video standard, did all kinds of optimizations in order to ensure that the video looks as beautiful and crisp as that of my TV cable box, we have three major standards which they are HD-TVI (1st place), HD-CVI by Dahua (2nd Place) and finally the older HD-SDi (3rd Place) not counting of course IP Cameras but where they did drop the ball was not upgrading the ancient G.711 audio standard from the Bell Systems 1980's invention to something more decent like mp3 or even the completely open source ogg compressed audio standard. Lets see a few technical analysis of the ancient G.711 audio codec: Disk space requirements: 20 Kilo BYTES per second, that translates to 1.2 Mega Bytes per minutes or 72,000 KB (70.3135 MB) per hour. Now, lets see how MP3 does: 128 kbps at a sample rate of 44.8 khz, Stereo takes 48 MB per Hour, but we dont need Stereo when we will be using just one full range microphone so: 128 kbps at a sample rate of 44.8 khz MONO (Monaural) can take as little as 24 MB per Hour and provided that you used a full range microphone you get crystal clear voice recordings just like you get crystal clear video recordings when done at 1080p HD, compare that to G.711's 70 MB per hour and you dont even get audio past the 11,000 Hz frequency response and people's "s" sounds like if they are "spraying it". Now, suppose you have trouble with spending 24 MB per hour on the audio recordings, you can still downgrade the mp3 or ogg bit-rate to something like 96 kbps at a sample rate of 22.4 KHz, mono and the disk space requirements would be aound 8 to 12 MB per hours and the audio would still sound infinitely better than G.711's 8 KHz sample rate at 64kbps wasting 70 Mega Bytes per Hour. WHY haven't the DVR manufacturers considered the mp3 or the open source freeware OGG properly compressed audio standard? A DVR that does production quality full HD recording shouldn't be paired with G.711 as the only selectable codec there. This is wrong and this needs to be fixed. If they want to leave G.711 as an option fine, but provide other options too such as MP3/ogg with a variety of bit-rate options for the customer to DECIDE. A good full range microphone can give you crystal clear recordings and make your evidence really stand out specially when what's being said is paramount to a case.

Being fully aware that the HD-TVL HikVision based (actually KT&C TVL) 8 CH DVR that I have only records audio at 64 kbps at a sample rate of 8,000 hz utilizing the G.711 mulaw PCM wave codec (!! why all CCTV manufacturers uses this ancient codec from the 1970's when there are better and even freeware open source OGG compressed audio codec that can produce a much more better quality audio using less space than that crappy G.711 codec) I have decided to add my DVR one extra function: be my cable box's DVR so that I can have DVR functionality on my TV without having to subscribe to my cable provider's DVR package and when I am on the go, I can leave my cable box on and tuned to the channel I want to record so that when I come back I simply fire up iVMS and replay the recorded show that I otherwise would have missed. I connected my cable box RCA video and audio output to my HikVision HD-TVL DVR CH1 and audio input and configured the DVR to record on CH1 at 704x480 30 FPS at 3,000 mbps for the best quality possible and made sure the colors matched exactly to what I saw on TV so that the picture quality can be indistinguishable (except for the HD to D1 downscale of course) at this setting I am using up 30 GB per day on the quota (partition) which is fine with me as I dont need 30 days of recordings of my cable box. As for audio, its some what acceptable when you are recording a show that only has voice as the G.711 mulaw wave PCM is optimized to record only at human voice frequency response range but not fine when there is music involved as the resultant recordings sounds like if you are listening to music from an AM radio station, a complete disregard to higher frequencies. So, what I would like to do is modify my HiKVision firmware (digicap.dav) to change the codec/bitrate and sample rate so that the quality of the audio on CH1 can be much greater, so I downloaded the HikTools firmware extractor which gave me one file: * cramfs.img (a hard drive image with a linux file system) I mounted this compressed image on my linux system which revealed a bunch of compressed files that I also extracted but was unable to find the configuration file responsible for audio to edit. I will appreciate any information and tools that can assist me at accomplishing the goal of improving the audio quality. Edit: I would like to add that its not illegal to treat your CCTV DVR as your TV's DVR if you only use the recording for your own personal use, no copyright infringement is being done and also its not illegal to modify the firmware of a device that you personally own and personally will be using as its part of fair use and you can do what ever you want with the device you paid for, so I find myself well within my rights to wanting to modify my DVR's codec to improve the audio quality.

Have you tried renaming the file extension to .avi and seeing if they playback just fine in a computer after installing your DVR's codec and if that's not available for download or on your DVR's mecia (CD that came with DVR) try "KLite Codec Packs" and see if they play back. If now, and you have a mission critical footage that needs to export, connect remotely to your DVR via your computer/laptop and see if there is an interface that allows you to download the footage to your computer in the .avi file format (I service Dahua compatible DVR's that offers the user two file formats when downloading videos from the DVR to the PC, one is the DVR's proprietary video ending in .dav and the other choice ending in .avi which plays just fine on any PC after installing KLite Codec Pack). The first question that I ask you is, what is the brand of your DVR card? Then I would Google up this brand and check the manufacturer's website to see if they have a support section for their DVR's. There, I would look up your DVR Model number and would download the supportive software pertaining to your DVR model number. Some DVR manufacturer just offer a blanket one-size-fits-all software that will work for all of their DVR models, if that is the case for your DVR then it would be much easier for you, just download and install the software and then the video should play back on the computer you installed the software, it probably comes with a dedicated player that will play back your .sf4 proprietary video format.

UPDATE: I ended up selling my customer a new DVR (HikVision HD-TVI) and two 2 MP full HD cameras. I am still interested in repairing the old DVR I have here with me (the ED6004 DVR) mainly to add to my set of my experience on how to deal with this kind of situation in the future shall I come across another customer that happens to have a DVR stuck at a "Please Wait..." screen, etc at no fault to the hard drive or anything obvious that would also cause it.

Dont dump it. First check if it powers on and if so if you know the admin password. Then if it does power on and actually do record (the hard drive is ok) you can then proceed to put it up for sale in an auction at eBay. You would be surprised on how many people there are that are willing to pay top dollar on vintage stuff (not sure if this DVR would be old enough to qualify to be called a "Vintage Item", but in the CCTV world, its pretty old enough, at least it looks like it) I can bet you that this DVR's top recording resolution is CIF, or probably CIF was too much back then when people were still using VCR's normally and windows 3.11 as their personal computer's operating system. Most likely its a real time QCIF (176x120) or 7 FPS at CIF (352x240) DVR.

You could try a USB video capture card, try http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7387020&CatId=1428 Supports input resolutions up to 1080p (1920x1080) via HDMI, you can attach the DVR to the HDMI port and view the DVR on the laptop's monitor. However this particular device seems not to have VGA input, only HDMI, if VGA is important to you then you can get a VGA to HDMI converter or get a USB video capture card that also supports the VGA format. A much more cheaper solution (non HD, 720x480 only) would be: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3584104&CatId=1428 That only supports RCA and S-Video input. Most DVR has RCA Video output that you can use to connect the DVR to the yellow video input of the USB video capture card and configure the DVR that way. If VGA is required you can use a VGA to RCA scanline modulator even though the resolution will be scaled down to 720x480 you should still be able to understand the DVR onscreen configuration dialog boxes/prompts and the scanline modulator supports regional PANable zooming features in case if you have to zoom in to a particular area.

no lights coming on, no hard drive activity and no type of signal on VGA out/bnc out-to-monitor, in other words the stand alone dvr looking completely dead seems sign to me that you have a failed power adapter. Check your DVR's power adapter with a volt meter against the power adapter's power specification (Most likely is a 12 Volts DC at 2 to 5 Amps power adapter), if the voltage reads OK on the volt meter that is still no guarantee that the power adapter is 100% OK, the volt meter will read out voltages, but it wont perform a stress test to test the power adapgter under a load (amperage test), there would be a possibility that the power adapter reads out 11.25~13.25 Volts DC but as soon as you plug any load voltages drops to zero. A good way to perform a load test is to connect a 12 volts 25W automotive incandescent light bulb and see if the light bulb lights up, or if you have an LCD computer monitor that requires a 12 Volts DC at ~2 Amps, plug in the power adapter to see if it will power up the LCD screen, or any other load you decide to use. If you are convinced that the problem is the power adapter, then you can find another 12 volts DC power adapter of around the same amperage rating or greater than the original (about 3 amps or more) and see if your DVR powers up. Disclaimer: I am using 12 volts DC as an example only, this does not guarantee that your DVR's power adapter IS rated at 12 Volts, always check your power adapter's label to see its rated voltage and amperage. your substitute power adapter MUST match the original power adapter's voltage and the amperage rating must be at MINIMUM the same as the original but it can be greater (remember, the VOLTAGE HAS to be the same, its just the amperage that can be greater or equal than the orignal). Example: 12V DC 3A = 12 Volts DC (Not AC!!) at 3 Amperage. I have serviced different types of Stand Alone DVR's and the ones that seems that they had died completely (no power-on sign of any kind) in reality the power adapter of the DVR was at fault, once I replaced the power adapter with MATCHING DC voltage with a little bit higher amperage rating so that it can last much longer the DVR started working again. Example: The original power adapter said it was a 12 Volts DC at 3.5 Amps and that power adapter was damaged, I got a replacement 12 Volts DC power adapter rated at 4.5 Amps so that the power adapter doesn't have to work forcefully if the DVR happens to be consuming anything near 3 to 3.5 Amps of current. I always make it a point in getting a power adapter rated at a higher amperage so that this kind of power adapter failure doesn't repeat itself in the future.

Your mistake was that you went with a CMOS camera. You should always go with a CCD camera for best image quality. I have replaced many CMOS cameras that my customers have installed themselves because they complain that at night/low illumination all what they see on the screen is more red artifact floating around the channel and they could barely see any details (even with the CMOS camera being rated as "infrared" with 24 LEDs). I give them a 700-800 TVL CCD camera, and once I complete that installation these people gets impressed at how neat the image now looks at night/low illumination. There are lots of good sellers at Ebay, so I would not discriminate Ebay off.. I have purchased indoor/outdoor dome 800 TVL CCD 24 Led IR cameras for $55 with free shipping off a USA based seller and these cameras has turned up to be excellent for day and night, very sharp image detail on my D1 DVR at highest recording setting.

I am in the CCTV Installation and Computer Repairs business in New York State. Although I have been doing computer repairs for more than 15 years, I have been doing CCTV installations since 2006 (7 years). I have never hired anyone to help me do anything, and most of my jobs have been a 1 man operation, and those that have not been a 1 man operation were because my father helped me (large and big multi-day projects). Now, I am presented with a self made dilemma. I call this self made because this idea originated from me. The idea is about hiring someone to refer me new CCTV jobs in the neighborhood and in turn I will pay this person a 10% commission. Background of this person: This person that I am going to be hiring is living a very miserable life, no jobs, rents and bills are piling up. To make matter worse, the head of house hold recently suffered a stroke, and this person was the source of income, even though this person is fully conscious, he is semi paralyzed, on a wheel chair, but he can speak. He is being taken care of by his lady (not married), his lady cannot do anything outside as she has to stay home most of the time looking after for him. There is a 20 something year old lady (daughter) whose job pays minimum wage and is not enough to even pay the rent alone. This 3 member family goes to the church that my father goes to and he is helping out this family with some money every month in donations. A lot of people on my father's church has gathered to help this person out financially. So, trying to help out this family, I have proposed a 100% commission based job offer to the daughter of this family, the job consists of that she has to go roaming locally searching for business in needs to have a new CCTV system installed, and if she finds a qualifying job (that converts) I will pay her a 10% commission. A typical 4CH CCTV installation runs for $1,600 so she will earn 10% of that. If she finds enough paying jobs, this can easily turn into a full time success job for her, satisfying her family's bills. My questions here is the following, since this is my first time hiring anybody for any purpose, I would like to know, what papers or documents should I prepare to give it to her (my employee)? I am thinking, maybe the paper should be a contract sheet that the people she refers to me must sign and she returns the signed document to me telling me that this business wants the CCTV job, or maybe just a flyer with my phone number that she will simply hand over to the owner of the business with some explanations/presentation that she will do on site (after being trained by me?) I don't exactly know how to proceed on this area that would allow her (my employee) to gain conversions as easily as possible. This is the first time that I will have an employee under me. I would like some pointers on how to best proceed, I would like to proceed as perfectly as possible and would like her experience to be as pleasant and converting as possible. I will greatly appreciate any help I can get regarding this subject matter. Have a great day!

hi at 10% there is just no money in it. you will then loose money. your biggest problem is she has no experience of sales ........ or design. Thats what I thought, how do arrive at the $1600 for 4Ch, is that labor only? Assuming you make additional money elsewhere per install. No, the $1,600 price is for everything, labor, PC DVR + accessories 4CH PCI Full D1 Hardware Compression card, 700 TVL CCD 24 Leds IR 0.01 Lux Cameras, Siamese cables, front 19 to 24 inch monitor (my choice - unless customer specify otherwise), 12V 1A per CH 7 Amps Transformer Circuit Braker with auto reset plus anything else required to complete the project. Believe me, my profit oscillates within the 50% of the total asking price range (-/+ 10%) and the reason why I cannot charge any more is because of stiff competition in my area, I have truck load of competitors doing jobs for as little as $800 using systems they buy as BJ's with cheap CMOS cameras. Even though I can never compete on price, obviously my hardware is of alot greater quality than a cheapo BJ's entry level DVR, but I compromise at an average of $1,600 for a typical 4CH installation. You might be thinking that I am charging too low, but on the area I operate charging $1,600 for 4CH is already seen as almost reaching sky high. I get most of my materials, such as the Full D1 hardware compression DVR card directly from the manufacturer, and I have taken advantage of volume quantity discount to get even a better price. I have been dealing with this same DVR manufacturer since 2008 and as early 2012 I switched to their full D1 version of this card. The software is extremely stable, never crashes, can tolerate uptime in excess of 180 days or more on a Windows platform. So far, everyone that I have given this DVR server has been extremely happy, they can see the videos on their iphone, android, kindle, and PC/Macs. I am speculating that she will be giving me at least 1 qualifying lead per day after she gets maybe 5 to 10 no's. I do not have any plans to offer her any type of compensation, other than the agreed upon compensation, which is the 10% payment when she refers me a paying customer. She will only get paid if the customer pays. Like I said, this will get a 100% commission based job, there wont be hourly payments. By the way, she doesn't drive, so she wont be using a vehicle. She will start roaming her own neighborhood by foot, business to business doing presentations, and then she can take it to other neighborhood.