SEANHAWG

One of my customers told me today that one of his friends had paid 15k for their 4 cam system. I cant imagine why it would cost this much. But anyone who pay this much for a 4 camera system is crazy IMO.

It was a twist on BNC but it wasnt a cheap one. I got a load of them in from a major retailer here in the US and they use only top quality cable and connectors in their system, I never really had any problems with them in the past. I am pretty sure it was a GEM brand connector. Cable was top quality too, Honeywell UV rated siamese cable with solid copper center conductor and solid copper power wires to boot. I dont think it was the connector in particular, more of it was the "connection" As I originally untwisted the connector and put a new one on and it didnt work. The only thing that worked was cutting the cable a few inches down and re-applying another connector. I dont think it was a bad original connection in the first place either as I usually tug and pull on them pretty hard after I install them to ensure that they will work for a while, and before I had the mishap it always worked just fine. I inspected the cut off conductor to see if could find the root of the problem and I couldnt find anything particular. No copper shielding was touching the conductor, the conductor was not bent or anything. I dont know much about electrics but I was wondering if it "sent some kind of surge" to the tip of the cable for lack of better terms that voided that part of the connection when I originally ripped the cable. Is this possible? Heck, i dont know, its a mystery.

Did you get the B&W version Birdman? It seems that I bought a camera like that not too long ago and it was color and gave a little better picture. I have a black pinhole camera that looks similar to the one you posted Simo and it gives off a superb picture for its size. I wouldnt use those in a real large room though, they would be fine for a small office setting or something of that nature where the light remains constant throughout the day but for most settings they are not an ideal camera.

Amen

Installing security equipment sounds easy enough until you try to do it yourself. I am installing my own system at home and every time I install a camera I just say to myself "So this is why the installers charge what they charge" Some people just dont understand that a good installer is worth every penny.

Have you set up your router for port forwarding? Can you login into your DVR from your local network?

Well I thought of that but it was a twist on connector and I untwisted it to re-install about 3 times. The only thing that worked was cutting it and re-applying a new connector. Beats me.

Yeah I had power, I finally got it fixed though. I dont know why this did the trick but I just changed out the connector that went into the DVR. It seemed that the connector was fine but I just cut it and put another on and it worked. Sure was alot of frustration just to find out that it was the connector

Thanks, I probably should have mentioned that I better stick with Analog for now. I would bet that another user on here could offer you more than what I could for that bad boy.

We buy used equipment. We are in the market for some used PTZ's in working order. This request will probably cater more towards the installer who takes down several pieces of equipment like this and replaces them with newer equipment. If you are looking to get top dollar retail out of your cameras, then we probably cannot buy from you, we have to buy to re-sell and make a profit. But if you are looking for a solution to make a quick sale on your older PTZ's than please contact us. Please email us your quantities and model #'s to: snelson@nellyssurplus.com Some other things we may be interested in: Used Color Cameras Used DVR's Zoom Cameras Zoom Lenses Auto-Iris lenses 1/3" Thins we dont need: Tube monitors Time Lapse VCR's Multiplexers B/W Cameras (unless they are PTZ's or Motorized Zoom) email snelson@nellyssurplus.com Thanks, Sean

H.264, MPEG4, MJPEG Just like TV lines, this is another thing I ignore, because it really varies from DVR to DVR from what I have seen. Unfortunately, this is another spec that is not reliable,(or undependable). The worst DVR I have ever seen was an Avtech which used MJPEG Compression, but I just got one of those little 2 channel mini DVR's in the other day that uses MJPEG and it has pretty decent quality, it was alot better than the Avtech anyways. I've tested a couple of MPEG4 DVR;s which were decent, but the best recording quality I have seen comes out of H.264 DVR's. And of course on the other hand, I have seen H.264 that look like junk too, some have more artifacts than Egypt. And I always set to the max bit rate when I test.

Just sell all of the used equipment to us and start over with brand new equipment.

Just make sure it has an RCA video connection.

I think thats the best thing you could use.

Are you sure? What DVR is it? I doubt it records anything over D1 which is 720x480.

Your right, no VGA port, guess they left that out to keep the cost down. It does have a BNC out and it comes with a RCA/BNC adapter to plug into a TV. If you really wanted to plug it into a computer monitor, you could always buy an RCA to VGA converter on eBay for $20-30, but my recommendation would be just to use a 13"-24" tube tv as that seems to look best on Analog cameras anyways. It will look better on a tube tv than it will on an LCD computer monitor or LCD TV. The only advantage to using an LCD TV or computer monitor is they are slimmer and take up less space.

Cool. Thanks guys.

we'll need alot more information on where you are at in the process with as much detail as possible.

Dont know which DVR you were referring to but I assume you were talking about the Atom because the Q-see records in D1 But with that being said, I would bet that it would be extremely hard to tell the difference between 4CIF and D1. I would go on to say that its probably not noticeable to the human eye at all. The only reason I say this is I wouldnt kick a good DVR to the curb if it recorded in 4CIF.

You got me thinking though, what if I had one of my PC's logged onto the internet at all times. I can then have remote access to that desktop, once I gain remote access to the desktop, I should then be able to go in and view my DVR and IP camera over the local network right?

Thanks for the tip but its a standalone. I always wondered what/if the advantages of a PC based system were over a standalone but I guess that would be one of them.

See my post about the QR414 I recently reviewed, its a very basic DVR but gets the job done for the budget consumer, has D1 recording, net viewing capabilties, etc: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=23787&p=142635&hilit=qr414#p142635 Feel free to PM me if you are interested in purchasing, I am thinking about carrying these full time and I have a few here to sell for a decent price, below your budget. Just be sure to get some good cameras to go with it, I dont recommend the Q-see cameras, but some of their DVR's are fairly decent if you are needing basic recording capabilities, this one is an example.

The problem is I already pay $70 a month for "high speed" internet that is a little faster than dial up, paying more money to these jokers is the last thing I want to do. If anyone has an option between hughes net and something else, go with something else. Just do a web search about Hughes Net and you will see that everyone hates it. The only reason people use them is that they are the only option available to them, just like me. I guess I am going to have to get the static because I am currently setting up a home system and I'll need to access my DVR remotely. I'll test my IP cams at my office for now. Oh well, thanks for everyones help.

Its a Hughesnet HN7000S Modem. I think AK357 is right judging by other forum posts I have read on other forums.

Yeah I can access my modem's admin but it doesnt really help, I cant really change anything. I assume I am going to have to call Hughes Net and listen to their Engrish. I went to IP chicken and it did give me a public IP but it wasnt my modems IP I also went to canyouseeme.org and it gave me a WAN IP too but it was different than IP chickens. The IP it gave me was the actual modems IP. This striked me as odd as I dont know what the IPchicken address was?