CollinR

If you have an FTP server installed on the remote storage box you can use most FTP apps to syncronize the directories. Geo does a good job of organizing their video files.

Yup thats the one. Make sure you follow the PC requirements (Intel Northbridge!) and I personally suggest Nvidia graphics cards. The cameras and cabling play an equal role in quality.

I use a 6' glowrod. http://www.lsdinc.com/cgi-local/search.cgi?user_id=878936&0_option=2&0=84-202&database=data/Dbase1.txt&template=templateblowup2.html

No I'm suprised people say different. Is the hard and software really there yet? Nope, At least not that I have seen for CCTV. LPR will be one of the most positively effected areas, the imaging is basically the same but with different components. If you have a CCD camera that works in any application a camera that rather then convert it to analog NTSC it encodes to whatever format you will have the same end result in quality but possibly more data in the picture. LPR will get it when you only transmit 320*240 BUT it's only the 320*240 surrounding the actual plate. The rest is cropped in the camera, so now your bandwidth is well back under control. Identifing things in video streams isn't exactly new but getting it and cropping into the camera will be a while.

How you going to supply power? 4 cams takes up all the pairs. Not that I would run power for 3 cameras over 1 pair of 24 gauge or anything... You are going to wind up running more then one cable.

I'm baffled... quality megapixel dominates NTSC. Rory, I gotta disagree. If you isolate a subnet of IP cameras you have the CC part covered (nothing says you have to bridge to the real LAN). The TV part however you are spot on but IMHO you can't have decent picture quality on television standards. Further by the "digital camera system" who isn't using CCD cameras? All megapixel really means is a different transmission method because conventional NTSC stuff can't handle it. I'm sure once Extreme starts into the IP business there products will be superior to other IP products just like their analog counterparts. I feel alot of you guys look at IP based on whats available at Best Buy, thats not really fair unless you compare Sam's/Costco CCTV systems against them. IP can do NTSC as well as much higher qualitys, multiples of interlaced 640x480 quality level.

The hardware and software you use can effect the on screen local video, obviously as does the configuration settings. Geovision is pretty crippled in the configuration of the captured video, I haven't found a way to fully configure compression. ie I want 9000 mb/sec CRB 640x480 MPEGII. Instead you can select the resolution, transcoding codec and you have a slider that adjusts the transcoding compression level. I think it even stranger that they provide a seperate app to allow a second machine to webserve rather then transcoding. You wouldn't need twinserver if the first box wasn't tring to do real time transcoding to H.264. The twinserver could be configured all about data storage and software compression (the CPU hog). My cheapest DVR doesn't have better local performance, it is much worse before tweaking. Basically it doesn't deinterlace at all, you have to use something else to deinterlace the video. (DSP Out) The better the screen the worse SD video will look on it, if you run the DSP out to a HD display it will look worse then it does on the PC in the first place. Those DSL outs are limited to about 800x600@60hz composite cabling just can't move much more then that. You might try setting your display resolution a little lower

I think thats an NVR or NVR software. Or maybe it's a hardware encoder they use to allow analog cameras on their network. If this is an $80 software package it's the tip of an IP camera iceberg. EDIT: Yeah, I'm pretty sure that isn't what they want.

If it's an isolated Base100 camera only network with static IPs at the cameras you can run it over one of the open pairs, just pull them from the jacket before putting the RJ-45 on. Home run to the router and label them. Make sure the pairs are actually available and parallel them back at the router. Especially if you are using PoE too. I would check the brown pair for voltage at the camera, if none you can send RS-485 data down it.

Thats quality. I prefer dual voltage myself. If you have a 12vdc cam in a heated houseing you should run power to the housing then a converter to step it down to 12vdc. Which it appears GE is providing on newer 12vdc models, few mfgs do that way cool.

How hard will it be for you to get wires from the PC (INSIDE!!!) to the camera? $500 is a tall order but possibly possible.

I think you will see an improvement from the lens but overall what you do see won't be worth the $ it took. Especially once you put up other cameras. If it were mine... (1st I'd run the cable out there but assuming not.) Here is some reasoning. It seems to me as though the headlights from the cars are on the same level as the lens on a camera in the current mounting. Thats not good for seeing much of anything of a car at night with it's headlights on. Moving the camera to the roof level will allow it to see over the headlight beams. There may be some camera that can deal with direct headlights but from 1000' I kinda doubt it, check extreme's site. Changing the angle between the grass and the camera ~may~ also change how the sun has been reflected back into the camera making WDR unneeded, might make it worse though too. I put IR flood in the pic but if you want it to see 1000' out you are going to extreme and you already expressed you opinion of their pricing (I TOTALLY AGREE, they are nutty $$$). Would there by chance be an overhead powerline near by? Where I live $6/mo will get you a light on their pole, if there is one remotely close to your drive that $6 would be the best $6 spent on the whole dang project. I would relocate your wildlife viewing location to someplace optimum for the camcorder (or cheap CCTV cameras in the future), maybe 150' feet out or beside or behind. Then you can might be able to use IR on the wildlife. Oh yeah and BAIT! The trouble with wildlife is they don't pose too well, put out some bait to get them into the frame you already have. It's much more difficult (and $$$) to capture wildlife from 1000' when some corn could get them into the 200' range where the camcorder you already have would probably be great.

Thats one of the reasons I am asking all these questions, like most hobbists you probably have alot more time then $. I just can't see spending the kind of money you are talking about on a camera that will in a less then ideal veiwing position and might be deemed pointless in the future (the lens anyway). For nature viewing your camcorder is working fine? It might be better to hold off, bury the cable and then use a less expensive camera in a more optimum position for auto traffic.

Lloyd, would you mind posting a pic of your home from the drive? I ask because I have installed a couple of systems very simular to this. Mine have been to control gate access over 1000' away where the customer didn't want to pay for bured cable but wanted to know who was at the gate (sometimes facial). Depending on the design of the home you can mount a housing inside the attic that gets the shot without making your home look like you are paranoid. A gable with vent makes for almost total invisability, protection and possibly a clear shot. You could also use construction paper to black out the remainder of the pane to help with glare.

I've used those with luck, never heard of iFCS though the ones I used were obviously OEM-able.

True they quote the mean from an unknown bell curve, which would be interesting to see. I'm still somewhat interested in manufacturing illuminators I think they could be significantly improved.

I realize that and the batteries will croak much sooner if deep cycled alot. The problem is the PC doesn't boot because it's last state was a shutdown command the UPS gave rather then an abrupt power loss like normal. There are also some external solutions though. You can use something like this http://www.remotepowerswitch.com/reboot-atx.html That to boot it and leave the smart UPS connected to shut it down and conserve it. Or you can get into datacenter style stuff nobody wants to pay for.

Nvidia has hardware MPEG2 decoder support (PureDVD, MX440+) that effects the stream between hard and software and makes a huge quality difference without the CPU load of something like ffdshow which uses software. You connecting RDP via VPN, IE or using an XP client? You are already at 75% CPU I would be more concerned with getting that down and your RDP connection will probably reflect in that alone. I would consider an NVidia display adapter too but then again I absolutely despise ATI.

You gotta get the camera outside, having it look through a window like that is less then ideal. Also dont' get a fixed 100mm lens either. Night will be tough unless you have a light out there, IR or not.

Crestron and AMX kinda suck! You are limited wi Before you train on Crestron too much check out some of the open source protocols like xAP and xPL. Nobody markets them because they are OS but they are hardware and OS independent which is highly cool.

What display adapter in the remote machine? Heck what are the rest of the specs. Wifi (consumer networking) generally sucks for video, it can work but not as well as hardwired. It should still work for RDP fine though.

Whats the deal with these new all in one DSL modems it seems everyone is getting? I hated PPOE before but now with these 2 wire single port routers it's pissing me off having to learn about some BS product I will never buy and SWB / AT&T doesn't consistently supply the same units. Has somebody here figured these things out well?

Dang took me 11 minutes to write that.

Yup it's a theory based on the cable ISP not caring about it's quality of service, so far for me cable has proven to be superior for the money in every install EXCEPT here locally to me (go figure). They (Allegiance Communications) use a BW monitor and are downright dastardly about it. They don't tell ya until the install is complete and tested then the tech points it out. For that, Allegiance Communcations recieves my chittiest ISP award '05! You can top that off with them billing you for the first month or two when you tell the installer thats not what you agreed to.

Try disconnecting the UPS from the DVR (and leaving it that way).