bantham1

This is a RCA type Siamese. There is no telling what gauge the wire is. I ordered a box power supply and RG59 18/2 95% copper wire. I am going to have to re-wire the whole house but I think I can use the cheap cable to pull the other wires. My attic has about 1.5 feet of clearance and it was a heck of a job. How many volts should it be reading?

inside it is fluctuating between -1.4 and -.8v...outside at the end of the siamese it is fluctuating between -160mv and -55mv

My multimeter was set on AC instead of DC.....When I set it on DC, I am getting a negative voltage reading. What do I need to probe with my multimeter? I have a male 2.1mm pigtail end.

At my power supply inside it is reading 38v. Outside at the end of the siamese it is reading around 15v. This is off a 110vac outlet with a 12vdc 1amp converter.

I currently have a block power supply which is 5amp. I have four cameras running on the power supply via a single pigtail to 4 outputs to the cameras. The power supply is UL listed and seems to work fine. My question is if I expand my system past 4 cameras, should I buy another one of these blocks, or replace it with an actual power supply box. I notice the boxes have fuses, but how necessary and useful are the fuses.

Are the cheap IR's such as the 48 led models worth it? I am going to upgrade to 484s Panasonic cameras and I may need IRs on a couple of them. I am planning on running a 1x2 power splitter from the siamese cable to power the IR, so I do not want to overpower the wire and the power supply (1amp per channel).

I would rather have a 600 dollar IR with a dedicated power supply, but my budget will not allow this. I can say from experience light is light. Sure, power to the leds, size of leads, and beam pattern do make a difference. I have many cheap Chinese flashlights that will shine just as bright as one of my surefire lights which can be 10 times more in cost. Are they as nice, no.....but they do get the job done. Cameras and optics are a different animal. I am trying to illuminate 50-60 feet not a whole football field.

Price lowered to 425 shipped for ALL FOUR via fedex ground insured. These cameras would be a great system for a business or residence.

I have 4 dome 540 TVL cameras with Sony HQ1 chipsets. The have been mounted and used for a few weeks, but are in great condition otherwise. The cameras work great and are a good camera for a startup system. They provide color in fairly low light with the HQ1 chipset. I am looking to upgrade my system and need to sell these. I am asking 500 shipped for all 4 cameras. PM me if you are interested. I will include 4 1000ma power adapters to plug into siamese RG59 cable. Here is a picture of a screenshot of the cameras(NOTE THAT SNAPSHOTS WERE TAKEN THROUGH A REMOTE BROWSER WINDOW AND LOOK BETTER WHEN VIEWED AND DOWNLOADED DIRECTLY FROM DVR): http://s792.photobucket.com/albums/yy204/alschmid/?action=view&current=20091102_170348.jpg Here are the specs of the cameras: • 2.8-10mm Advanced IR Lens • 32°~125° Viewing Angle (F1.6) • NEW 1/3" Sony HQ1 CCD ICX638AKA • High sensitivity (+7 dB over existing Sony products) • New Spectral Sensitivity Characteristics • Increased Aparture Ratio • Advanced color filters/wavelengths/pigments •Total Pixel Count 811(H) × 508(V) • Ultra Low Lux 0.01 (IR OFF) 0 Lux (IR ON) Featuring the NEW 1/3" Sony HQ1 CCD ICX638AKA • High Sensitivity (+7 dB over existing Sony products) • New Spectral Sensitivity Characteristics The ICX638AKA CCD features an increased aperture ratio resulting in improved Light focus onto the photodiodes, increasing angles of incident light rays which occur at a wider lens aparture. New color pigment advancements within the color filters result in shorter wavelengths within the blue end of the color spectrum achieving an increased ratio in the spectral sensitivity of +7dB, causing improvements in color vibrance and clarity in low light. Designed specifically for improved Video Camera Security™ products' performance. Spectral Sensitivity Characteristics Comparison: http://www.sony.net/Products/SC-HP/cx_news/vol49/pdf/icx638_9aka.pdf

100 feet of cable

50-60 feet is all I need. I just do not want to over power the system. What is the maximum Amps I can run on 18/2 siamese? I could prob get away with running a cheap IR without another cable, but if I upgraded the power supply I am assuming I could run the max the cable could take.

What would be the most economical DVR in terms of recording quality comparable to an Avermedia 1304? I do not see any 8 channel Avermedia DVR's available. Stepping up to the 16 channel EH5116 is around 1300. It would be nice to have a DVR with better motion detection masking and a better network interface. Other than that, the 1304 is really a great unit.

Is this model available in the US?

I had a CPCAM CPD561 and the quality was not as good as the Avermedia.

Has anybody ever had a power block cause a failure to all cameras as a result of a short on one camera line? I may upgrade at this point if so, because I am installing 4 Panasonic 484s cameras and would hate for a short to take all 4 of them out.

Thanks for the replies everybody. I went with four of the Panasonic CW's based upon mixed feedback. I saw some screen shots of the CW's on the forum that looked pretty good. I may have to add some cheap external IR's but if that is the case, it should not be a problem.

Can anybody provide insight on Samsung Techwin products. This is supposed to be a new model. How good of a camera is the 4160?

I was lucky enough to find a used one cheap on an auction board. You can google it though and you will find some US resalers.

Were the screen shots made through an internet browser view window, or directly from the dvr? My pictures posted were made through an internet browser window and the quality is quite a bit better directly from the dvr, but I cannot seem to find an easy way to create a snapshot on the Avermedia 1304 other than through a browser window. Usually a browser internet connection window results in poorer quality compared to the actual recording on the dvr. I was expecting to see better results from the 4160's compared to my pictures from my inexpensive domes(for sale now in the classified section). Your DVR would be a suspect, as the 1304 is pretty high quality in recording (get one!).

I need to sell these. Anyone interested can PM me with an offer. Here is a picture of the camera. They are in excellent shape and work perfectly. All metal construction and very durable: http://s792.photobucket.com/albums/yy204/alschmid/?action=view&current=Camera.jpg

The Panasonic pictures do look good. Nobody here seems to have experience with the Samsung cameras. Specs on the Samsungs look good, but I don't know how they will live up to them. Where did you get your 484s at?

That did the trick. Power reset was all it needed. Thanks. Picture seems worse on HD tv than VGA output/standard monitor though.

I cannot get the composite video out to work on my 1304. The vga works with my monitor, but when I try to use a bnc connector to rca, I do not get an image. Do I need to use the vga port and get a vga to rca adapter?

I flipped the switch and it did nothing? Do I need to change another setting on the menu?

Any chance on posting those pictures?