bjoynes

This is a overview of what I have discovered reading through various websites about CCTV, and what I decided would fit my needs. It is not perfect and would make a good starting point. Sometimes I have been surprised by how cheap a product is, and wondered why others are so expensive, while the cheaper product seems to have more features, better quality etc. I think the hardest part of any CCTV system to decide upon is the DVR, and I’m still not sure if I have it right, but had to jump in somewhere. You will find many opinions about the cameras, but the DVR is still a mine field of jargon, specs and hidden pitfalls. You will find great specs on a product at a great price but the software is poor, or a cheap product, good specs but you are left wondering what the catch is. I decided to go with a standalone system, having used a PC.Based system previously. On the forum http://www.cctvforum.com there seems to be a consensus that the CNB product line is a solid line with good prices. I have purchased the following products. 2x CNB, WCL-20S, Monalisa Weatherproof IR - 600TVL 6MM Fixed Lens, 34 LEDs, UPTO 90FT, DC12V 2x CNB, WBL-20S, Monalisa Weatherproof IR - 600TVL 3.8MM Fixed Lens, 12 LEDs, UPTO 45FT, DC12V 1x CNB, HDE2412, 8 Channel DVR 1x CNB VBM-24VF VANDAL RESISTANT DOME CAMERA, 600 TVL, 2.8-10.5mm VARIFOCAL LENS, 0.01 LUX 1x CNB VCM-24VF VANDAL RESISTANT DOME CAMERA, 600 TVL, 2.8-10.5mm VARIFOCAL LENS, 0.03 LUX Notice that the first two products are similar except for the Fixed lens of 6MM & 3.8MM. It is also possible to get this camera WCM-20VF with a variable focal length of 3.8-9.5MM. I have not found any online companies that carry this product. I decided to stay with the CNB DVR more for the recommendation of the software, and you have to start somewhere. The DVR market is huge and full of complications with recording resolutions, FPS on channels, codex’s and many other pitfalls. When you look at the camera specs for all these cameras you will find that they are 600TVL, 600 TV lines, but that I believe is from the sensor, not what the DVR will capture. Some DVR’s will capture D1 quality but at a certain frame rate. The DVR I bought is an eight channel at 120 FPS. This means that if I have all eight channels recording I will only get 15FPS recording at CIF. This is still good enough for most play back. Look at the following recording rates for different resolutions. D1 : 720x480 MAX.30 Half D1 : 720x240 MAX.60 CIF : 360x240 MAX.120 So if I set all my channels to record at D1 quality, I will only get 3.75FPS on each channel recorded. Do not get confused by the Display resolution that is coming off the VGA port. Some DVR products have HDMI outputs, as well as other connections. I don’t see how the HDMI output is helpful except to connect to an HDMI TV. Going back to the cameras, I chose the Monalisa cameras for what seems to be better IR (Infra Red) monitoring. They do not wash out the detail in the image as a person approaches the camera like a lot of other cameras. The low light ability of this camera may have something to do with some of the DSP (Digital Signal Processing) to remove noise from the picture. You need to refer to some of the professionals on this board for a more in-depth and accurate explanation of what is exactly going on. From reading some of the posts on CCTV forum, the you will find a lot of detail on the dome cameras I purchased, the VCM/VBM-24vf. These are both variable focus manually and do need some setting up to make them capture the best picture. Another issue you will see pop up especially when setting up the dome cameras is the use of a monitoring display. This allows you to monitor the picture coming off the camera so adjustments can be made quickly, without having to go back to the DVR to see if you are close or not. At this moment I do not know what power equipment I will need, plugs, wire or other bits and pieces, but when my order arrives I will post and let you know what I missed, how the installation went, and what extra I need. At present the equipment has cost me $1,113.75, and I have 6 cameras, and one DVR. The dome cameras I plan to mount flush to a brick wall about four feet above a door, and just below an eve, pointing south. I will drill a hole through the brick and route my wires into the void behind an upstairs wall, across to my DVR. This will give me a good line of sight up the driveway, and cover the side door of my home. The other dome maybe used to cover a side door to the house on the back, which has a deck around it, and is in easy reach as you come up the deck stairs towards the back door. Once again flush mounted with the wires passing through the wall. I know this has been a rambling explanation, and I’m sure will generate more questions than answers. Also maybe some of the professional installers here will chip in the good and the bad about this installation and maybe some of the new home DIY people will get an idea of what it takes to select, purchase and install a system. I do have a background in electronics, which will help somewhat in installation, but I still have some reservation on the DVR choice. Well if I think of anything else I will added, and update as the products arrive and I make the install. Thanks Bryn

Thanks for the reply, very helpful information. Bryn

Thanks for the post about the DS211J. Do you know the the licensing requirements for the sysnology product. Also the Network usage seems high, what frame rate, and codec etc. are you using. The Panasonic NP-502 camera seems to be a good quality product, how wlll does it do in the dark? Thanks Bryn

Let me give you a quick update, especially about the DVR. It has been running 24/7 for the last year in a hot bonus room, with a little air conditioning. In the heat of the summer the HD alarm went off for over temp, but the system has kept on going. I have it setup to remote view, and plan on adding some more cameras. I'm also looking at working towards an IP setup using synology NAS systems. I choose sysnology because I already use their products as servers. The system is not perfect, but I have only had to power one camera in a whole year, and the ssyem is not on a UPS. Basically a forget a play system for me. Thanks to all who have helped, hopefully this will help someone else. Bryn

Hopefully this will be of use to others. The reason I could get playback and not Live was the port forwarding. The port 11999 was for web port, which seems to allow you to log into the system, but the playback and live view as well as setup are on other ports which also need to be port forwarded. On the DVR I'm using you have a Web Port Live Port same as Network Port and Port Number on the Remote Web monitor access page Playback Port Setup Port These values are setup under Network-> Addresses-> Port I had all the ports port forwarded except the Live port number. I had expected that the web monitoring would be via the 11999 port, not expecting the 10101 port needed to be prot forwarded. The reason I did not use the port80 for web access was a webserver on that port already. Hope this makes sense. Bryn

I'm using a CNB, HDE2412, 8 Channel DVR and can view the live and playback fine over the lan using the ActiveX player with IE8, and also can view the DVR with HDx viewer. My problem is viewing remotely. When I enter the static IP address for the WAN from my computer on the LAN I can access the playback, but not the live view. Any ideas? Thanks Bryn

Port 11999 So address would be XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:11999 This gets me to the Remote Monitoring Login page, then enter ID, Password, and Port number, and either select Live or Playback. This is where the live fails with a Connection Timed out, but the playback works fine. Bryn

Does anyone have suggestions for the best place to buy RG59 with power, need about 500ft, 95% copper braid, and not CCA. And does buying 95% copper compared to CCA make any difference. Thanks Bryn

The DVR was already set to DHCP, plugged in the Ethernet cable and it automatically obtained an IP address from the router. DNS as well as gateway was fed directly and accurately to the DVR from the router. The web access requires a DirectX plugin which some have complained about, especially if you do not use IE, or a different operating system. I do find the webbased access better than the supplied software interface. Maybe someone has a suggestion for better software that might work with the CNB DVR. I have a Gigabyte Lan so I did not notice any problems with streaming data across the network. I will say that when you add cameras to the system and use motion sensing for event recording, make sure you record the correct camera. It is possible to sense motion on camera 3 and have camera 1 record when you want camera 3 to record what caused the motion. Under the scheduler I have setup time record as well as event. It is possible to select just event recording which will save some space. Two problems I have run into is the NTP(Network Time Protocol) setup and email notification. Both I will try and resolve later. Still learning a lot about the DVR, but Rory was correct about the remote software, it needs improvement. One thing I dislike about the remote software is the log in. You have to supply a ID/Password which is saved on your remote computer. This is bad form, especially if you are remoting in as admin. The system should ask for an ID/Password each time, or at least the password. Bryn

Update. CNB DVR. I decided to get a DVR without a HD, installed a used 500G HD WD5000AAKS, everything worked fine. The DVR has three screws along the back and one screw either side on the back, with three screws a piece up front along the side. A lot of screws... The DVR has the ability to add a DVR recorder for backup or purchase it with one, I decided I did not need the DVD recorder so ordered with out. This leaves a lot of space inside the DVR with 4 SATA connections and 4 Power plugs. The DVR came with only one SATA cable, but did have the four power plugs. I have a couple of 500GB and 1TB HD's hanging around so might try adding some in the near future. The system found the HD, and formated in seconds. I not too sure if this is a format as you use the HD or just a file allocation change. I do not belive it was a true HD format. The main chip on the board was a PowerPC chip, just for interest. System was quickly setup to record 8FPS at D1 level on two cameras. The menu has a function to calculate the amount of time which was about 15days. Next on my list is to remote into the system on my LAN. Bryn

mkstretch, Tell us about your system, what did you get and how it has worked out so far. Bryn

Well good morning, My package of CNB products have arrived and I now have the task of hooking things up. I do have the DVR up and running without a HD at present, and everything so far works well. I have also hooked up most of the cameras. Will need to help to set them up, as the color seems to be off on one of the cameras, a red shirt looks pink, and dark blue pants seems to look gray. When I get a chance I will post a long winded explanation. A couple of questions though. What is the best coax or coax/power cable to buy? What crimping tool to buy, as I will need to crimp BNC connectors? DVR is working well and is intuitive to operate with a remote, or from the front panel. As I do not have a HD installed yet, recording, motion sensing, recording resolution etc. has not been setup. It is not a bad idea to take it slowly, get comfortable with the product and then move on. I will say that the DVR worked straight out of the book with a 20 second boot up time, and as quick a shut down time. No on/off switch, so plug in and up comes the system. Shutdown via the menu and a pop up box will tell you when it is safe to pull the plug. If you have cameras plugged in to the DVR and powered on, then when the DVR is switched on you will see the pictures immediately as the DVR boots up. When I switched the DVR on for the first time it sent me directly to the initial setup screen. I suggest you either change the password for admin and usr before you exit and switch the DVR off, otherwise you might find that you cannot get back into the system as it will ask for a password on the next power up. Fortunately I had the quick start up guide and it gave the default code of 1111. I did find the DVR setup simple and easy to complete, especially compared to a PC Based Linux system and free software called ZoneMinder. I do link ZoneMinder but you do have to be comfortable with the Linux operating system, and be prepared to spend a few hours fiddling around. Bryn

Pawzoff, I'm not an installer, and not sure what you can buy through the UK and Europe, but I have bought on the recomendation of this forum some of the following. 1x CNB VBM-24VF VANDAL RESISTANT DOME CAMERA, 600 TVL, 2.8-10.5mm VARIFOCAL LENS, 0.01 LUX 1x CNB VCM-24VF VANDAL RESISTANT DOME CAMERA, 600 TVL, 2.8-10.5mm VARIFOCAL LENS, 0.03 LUX Price is about $150.00US You will also find some advice on how to paint them black as they come in white. Knowing a little about British terrace (Row Houses) houses, how are you planning to bring the cable into the house, I assume a drilled hole through the masonry wall? Bryn

Thanks Soundy. I thought a rough go to guide might be a good start for some people. I find it is easier to follow in someone else footsteps until I feel comfortable to make my own decisions, why reinvent the wheel? I will keep up with this thread so we have a start to finish experience. At some point I would like to start a DVR selection thread. DVR selection seemed to be the most difficult, too many cheap DVR's to entice you down the wrong road where stand alone DVR's are concerned. Thanks Bryn

Thanks for the quick reply. Bryn

Soundy, What is the difference in mounting between the VCM-24vf and the VBM-24vf. From the pictures I notice one seems to have a base ring. Also any recommendation for a Vandal Proof Dome for outside, facing south, attached to a wall, placed about 12-15 feet up. Thanks Bryn

rory, Thanks for the reply. I'm looking at CNB HDE2412 http://www.cnbtec.com/en/html/product/product.php?inc=spe&seqx_prod=1177#p_v1 8Ch, with 120FPS Max, so record at D1/15FPS on the two CNB VCM-24vf, and the rest at a lower FPS, maybe 5FPS I think will work. As I do not need constant record, most if not all cameras will work on motion detection. Any ideas. Thanks Bryn

I'm going to add on to this thread instead of starting another one. Read a lot about the CNB VCM-24vf, which I have found for about $158. Two of these around my property will work well with other cameras installed, but I'm moving from a PC-DVR to a stand alone DVR system. Does anyone have suggestions on the best DVR to use with these CNB cameras to get the best from there resolution? I'm looking for a 8Ch with Lan connection, so I can connect to it from my computer on my LAN, I do not need WAN connectivity as I can provide that through my router. Thanks Bryn