Birdman Adam

For RG59 the twist-on BNCs should be fine. If you want to get fancy and spend more, go with compression or other options... Personally, I would go with cat5 + baluns. You will enjoy having a power distribution box! Its nice having it all connected to one PSU, instead of crazy wall-warts plugged in a strip! With the VCM-24VFs there is a back-box that can contain you video + power connections. For the other cams, they can be connected to an outdoor electrical box to house connections... The 9-port 12VDC PSU I used: VCM-24VF back-box: Store the DVR in a safe place! You will need something to send mouse movements all that way to the DVR, right?

I have not experienced the huge amount of noise you are getting. Have experimented with a little 5w bulb with the same camera I posted above... Also, there is an option to set the day/night switching sensitivity. I think its like 'day/night sensitivity'. I found it works, but not super-great. EDIT...Photos: ~8:30PM, sunset ending. Camera is still in color, just barely... ~8:40PM, sun has set, camera switches to BW. Just remaining 'sky light' ~9:30PM. No light, except for dim moon. Too dark! This is the same for the other 8 cameras, except the 2 indoors switch over faster.

Tom what do you mean the VBM-24VF is no longer made by CNB??? Also, where is the new model? I'd like to see what they've added/improved. Here is a screencap from a recording back-up from a Samsung SRD-870 of a VCM-24VF: IMO a beautiful picture. In testing, faces can be seen easily. At night this cabin has motion lights, and dim lights that stay on all night. The picture is great 24/7.

With the volume of data from cameras in a casino...I'd think having its own gigabit network would be best...

LOL this is the cabin we put in the 8-cam system and alarm system in. Not my place - but its really a beautiful place, big pond w/fish, tons of trails, etc! Honestly I wish I could put in the identical CCTV system (and alarm system for that matter) in my house. It turned out so great!

Thought I'd put in another pic for the 24VF series... VCM-24VF, defaults, probably about 4mm. Recorded on a Samsung SRD-870DC, D1, maximum quality. This is a screencap of a small video test-backup. Distance like 15'-20'. Video sent through ~60' cat5 with baluns.

Maybe apply that Rain-X stuff? (If it's on the outside of course!)

Well if you want IR, just get normal IR (humans can see a dull red). You don't need the totally covert IR (we can't see this at all!). I hope you will use more than one camera to cover this area if you want to be able to identify people all the way to the back!

As long as the camera is: 1. sealed with low-humidity air. 2. properly sealed from the outside (~IP61+) This should not happen. Are you positive moisture is building up on the inside lens, and not on the outside of the enclosure?

Nope, the DVR handles the detection all the way. It looks at the picture from the camera, and decides whether there is motion. So go into the main menu, and there should be options...somewhere... If its recording for no reason, then maybe the sensitivity is too high. Don't reduce it too much or else you will miss things! Ideally, you can catch everything, and only have a few false captures.

First off, you need a serious alarm system if you don't already have one. I always prefer that you wire in normal spotlights/floods/etc and get the motion type. Place the camera near the lights, so that when they turn on, people look at them (and the camera).

Well sounds like the security people didn't live up to their promises... Sounds fair to me that they should pay! However, this lady was being a bit dumb, just opening the door without any identification!! I'm always looking out the windows the moment someone pulls in my driveway!

Used these before, worked great. They are just 'generic' baluns, but worked great.

Honestly the best solution is to increase storage size. I loaded up my DVR with 4TB so that I can record 8 cameras at max quality and 15FPS!

So the computer is shutting down when it pulls 480W from a 600W PSU? Sounds like a crappy PSU. A thing I should point out is on most mobos today, the electrolytic caps are those stronger 'solid-state' ones. I think these are working better these days... BUT in PSUs, they are still using the old electrolytics with the brown, ,blue, or black wraps and pressure-releases on top. Plus these are submitted to more heat. If there is no warranty on the PSU in question, I'd open up the PSU in question and have a look around!

Soundy just wondering, but why not blue cat5? If you have high-power IR cameras/PTZs/other high-amp loads, it would be good to run 18/2 (or 16/2) power cable along with the cat5 runs. With doubled up wires using 24VAC, cat5 can power a lot however.

BTW I can vouch for the 'capacitor-plague'. I have probably saved over $1000 in monitors that would not power up, simply because cheap caps failed, and the PSU output was too rippled.

How I have used Cat5 cable with baluns: Use the pigtail baluns. Its just easier for tight spaces... Get them so that they fit inside you camera enclosures. I have a color scheme: Orange pair for positive power. (Could be 12VDC or 24VAC, etc). In case its AC, +/- doesn't matter! Green pair for negative power. Power lines are doubled-up to handle voltage loss at longer distances. Brown pair for Balun. Brown/white for left Balun connection, Solid Brown for right Balun connection. If you switch them up, the picture WILL look like shyte. One time I forgot and switched them, the picture was B/W with all kinds of crazy-ness! Blue as a spare, or if the DVR won't be checked by a person for long periods of time, Blue is a tamper loop that goes to the alarm system!

Yep, defaults are almost always ideal. You can always set the settings back to default by choosing an option, forgot what its called!

Even with the other PSU you have?

Watts are different from VA. Size accordingly! VA takes into account the reactive load. Computers are not purely resistive loads. A computer may draw 200W, but when you add in the reactive part, its actually pulling 250VA. Same for some camera PSUs (they are SMPS's just like computer PSUs). Keep the AVR percentage as low as possible, but 10% is fine. 25% could be scary for computers! Think about it: 25% of 120V is 30V, so a 25% AVR could go as high as 150V, or as low as 90V. 500VA will probably be fine with a 4CH DVR, and camera PSUs.

I think I could identify the guy if I saw him again, but only because he looked up. 1. TVL does not matter much. NTSC signal (how the video is transmitted), maxes out at 720x480, so any camera with TVL higher than 480 may be good, but it isn't necessarily better than a camera with exactly 480TVL. Any decent camera over $100 will work well for this close-quarters recording. 2. The camera needs to be lower, preferably at face level. It would be best for you to put it in the door (like a peephole). There are many places that sell great cameras for this. 3. What matters much more than TVL is getting a good recorder (DVR). I'm not good at that so others can chime in!

My best and most probable guess is that the over-current protection on the PSU is cutting power to prevent damage to the PSU. Solution is to get a larger-capacity PSU. If you have a multimeter/kill-a-watt, use it to see how many watts the PSU draws from the wall. If its within like 80+% of the PSU rating, then your working the PSU too hard. So say you have a 250W PSU drawing 220W with the computer under a moderate load. That PSU won't let it draw much over 250W before its going to shut down. Another test you can do is use a multimeter to watch the voltages of the rails (12V, 5V, 3.3V, etc). Watch and see as they dip down some once you work the computer hard! I actually have an old Dell P4 machine in which I can hear the fan slowing down when the CPU is at 90+% load!

Forcing the camera to see a certain way in different situations. For example, you have a camera in a dark alleyway. The camera is automatically slowing the shutter too much, resulting in blurry motion shots. You can manually tell it to up the speed, resulting in a darker (but less-blurry) image!

Well I'd start by taking it all apart - gotta get to the PCB. Most likely, there is a jumper or similar on the camera as well.