tweak'e

not bad at all. hope you don't have to many problems with the hardrives.

a few different systems around. for eg avermedia make a mobile DVR. cameras small mini camera will do the job. ok especially for inside the car. outside gets tricky. full size cameras are better but harder to fit. the single biggest problem with mobile DVR (including laptops) is vibration kills hardrives (also rapid heat changes). i go through one every 6-12 months. really need to use SSD drives but they are limited in size and are expensive.

nice way to do the front cams. my 1304 dropped an HD screw onto the board and burnt it out so i'm back onto my old one. a lot of the cheap reversing kits use cheap cmos cameras which can be horrible in low light or changeable light. also i would keep away from wireless (they still need power cable so you still need to wire them) as the wireless screens pick up all other wireless cameras around and cop a lot of interference. trouble is there is huge amounts of gear that use that frequency range. i know of people who pick up baby monitors, security cameras etc when driving past. for the sake of a few meters of cable its not worth the hassle.

i run a ktc mini cam for the front. despite being higher res its not a big step up from the previous 420 cheapy. but it does handle changing light a bit better. biggest change was the lens. going from 3.6mm to 6mm made a lot of difference. but still it doesn't get plate numbers unless you almost hit them. rear is just a standard cheap 420 CCD reversing camera with an older sony chip. tho lens has been changed which is not really suited to the camera so colour washes out but it gets number plates out to 5m easy enough. the lower res doesn't seam to be much of a big deal, the lower res cameras tend to work better in low light. even a 380 would work fine and i would even look at getting B/W. (or adjustable camera so you could switch it to B/W). big draw back is externally mounted cameras cop rain and dirt. you have to keep cleaning them. much better if you can put them behind the window where the windscreen wipers can keep the window clear. IR is best mounted separately.

hi ya Scruit. are you still using the avermedia unit?

what sort of mounting do you need? to be covert you need to fix it into bumper or door rather than an external mount.

looking to buy a KPC-DNR700. can any one recommend an online shop? found one on ebay and one shop which is selling it at half the price ??? or suggest another brand of similar spec?

not to sure, i've only seen up to 500gig. however the big limitation is often the DVR. my DVR only handles up to 400gig anyway. if you really need 1T or more then its time to upgrade the DVR.

quite possible that it won't work. a lot of the adaptors don't allow the ata commands through. you still can get ide hard drives, IDE AV drives. don't worry about speed, if the DVR is made for IDE then any new IDE drive will be fast enough.

hi all. my mob1304 just dropped a hardrive screw into the power circuits and fried itself quite nicely so i'm up for a new one. any recommendations on where i can get a AVerDiGi MOB1304 (international version a i run PAL cameras)?? i don't think the Avermedia agents in this country bring them in at all.

are you sure? MOB1304 is analog mobile unit.

someone care to translate all that ??

this the one ? http://www.aliendvr.com/docs/pro/alien_dvr_features.html i would check that it is recording on D1 and most likly will have a compression setting, ie need to set it on highest quality.

what sort of range are you looking to use it at? what sort of area do you need to cover? no real loss of resolution due to being a pin hole. just restricted a bit in light and viewing angle. a board lens is usually smaller than a variable lens, so a bit easier to hide.

toying with the idea of upgrading a cam. a local site has KT&C Varifocal Bullet Camera in stock. IP 67 rated but whats that mean in reality. I've had water problems before. its going to get covered in water and mud. how water proof are these really?

you need to work on your english there mate cameras are mounted on a vehicle. just worried about them leaking through the lens adjustment part. the rest i can seal up.

have you installed your video card drivers? otherwise its sounds like you havn't installed the DVR software correctly. i've got a vineyard DVR here to, never found anything else that would play the video. its only mjpeg but its propriety.

good to see it getting out there. about time too. i wouldn't call it THE new standard, just A new standard. it won't be better than IP but rather provides an upgrade path from analogue to digital. i would expect it to bridge the gap between analogue and digital. it should be good for small installs without having the hassles of IP. i never did see the point of having a digital camera, convert it to analogue (which is subject to cable quality etc) then convert it back to digital at the DVR.

DVR will format it on start up. it can pick up all the old data again. they only do a quick format ie remove the index page to the book. so it just reads the hardrive and writes a new index again. been there done that but that only works if data hasn't been deleted. also highly recommend to turn off any windows anti virus. not sure why but it sometimes it stuffs up the data on the drive. (probably writing to the boot sector).

when you assigned a drive letter to it you probably formatted it. the software now won't find it. put it back into the DVR, odds are it will repair it and hopefully you will still have the data on there. normally you just connect the drive to the pc, windows will not see it, but the DVR software will see the drive.

i assume because you ask for motion activated its for recording when vehicle is parked rather than when driven. have a look at http://www.mobilewatchman.com/ the EDS system.

if you like CNB try http://www.cnbtec.com/en/html/product/product.php?seqx_prod=45 but with pinhole lens. otherwise have a look at the likes of kt&c. they have a range of mini cameras that come with pinhole lens. getting decent pinhole lens can be a problem. the other thing is installing it so its close enough to get a decent picture on whats happening. you may have to get creative in what you hide the camera in and ensure there is good lighting.

as far as CCTV goes i'm amateur/hobbyist. however i've worked in other electronic/electrical/retail industry's, working for various firms and also self employed (my own business). i get to see both sides of the fence, from a customer and business point of view.

its just a Chinese company spamming.

you sound like your from the 1950's and still cling to industry protection. i've worked several trades and in every one a better informed customer is much much easier to deal with. especially as good CCTV is so darn expensive. to a lot of people even cheap crap is expensive. the more they know what they are getting the happier they are, you get less warranty call outs for silly things. if they know enough about the industry they also will know why its best to get a professional to do the install instead of the local handyman. the problem with industry protection is it tends to isolate the industry from the customers its trying to sell to. its basically self defeating. you only see the customers that HAVE to have it rather than the much bigger mass market that WANT it. the industry becomes closed off, so it gets minimal innovation and other industries overtake it. take a look at what its like at the moment. you have a small professional market but a huge, loud and proactive cheap crap market which is just about flooding the industry. if the professionals don't raise their voice and educate customers they will become an insignificant minority.