nortsyl85

From my experience I would skip the IR if possible and just get good quality day/night camera. IR is OK if you just want to know if someone was there but tends to give ghostly or "silvery" image that is no good to ID anyone. If practical in your situation, add good IR motion detector flood to illuminate the camera view area. Make sure the flood is behind or out of direct view of the camera so cam is not blinded by it. I am using this combination for 3 outdoor cameras. Works great, gives color view when lights come on and lights add extra level of deterrence.

I did like you, slowly gathered the pieces of my system as I could find good deals on new/used equipment. Almost all the no-name Chinese bullet cams are fixed iris lenses, not auto-iris. These usually do not work too well outside I have found, they rely entirely on electronic shutter and AGC for exposure control and become saturated and washed out in bright sunlight applications. If they are overexposed there is no control to adjust to fix the problem. The no-name cams can work quite well in indoor applications but you always take your chances when you buy, some are good, some not. I have one in my garage that works great, another one has noticeable astigmatism in the verifocal lens. In any case, these days I would not buy anything less than 540 lines rated and anything smaller than 1/3" sensor. I would stick to true auto-iris lenses for outdoors if possible. This does not mean you are stuck with box cams, I bought some used American Dynamics outdoor rated domes with auto-iris verifocal lenses that work great. I also have a couple of Korean domes with auto-iris lenses and a Samsung IR cam that is auto-iris. A big advantage with auto-iris is there is an iris setup adjustment that allows you to set the proper exposure for your installation if the image is too dim or bright. Auto-iris comes in 2 variants, DC auto iris and video auto iris. The video driven iris is a bit more sophisticated but both work fine. ----Residential DIY User

Have been watching this site for a couple years, finally decided to join. I have found some good tips here from all around the world. I have gradually built up a system for my residence over past 18 months with 16 ch D1 DVR, currently using 10 cameras. Except for DVR I accumulated components and cameras mostly using auction sites when I could find good prices on quality items. Cameras are mostly professional grade name-brand 540 line, auto iris etc of various styles. Have learned a lot, am now very happy with the operation of the system and gives great peace of mind when I have to travel away from home. I am an electrical engineer but my professional work is not related to video security. Thanks again for a professional and useful forum.

My alarm system has a DPTD relay output that you can use to control other devices. I connected a twisted pair (one pair of wires inside a standard piece of telephone cable) between one of the relay normally-closed contacts and one of the normally-closed alarm inputs on the DVR. In my case, that is all there was to it other than programming the DVR to do what I wanted when the alarm contacts opened. On your alarm system you do not have a relay output. What I would do is use an opto-isolator and hook its input in parallel with the bell output of the alarm, the output of the opto would go to the DVR. That takes a bit of electronic knowledge, though. Another way is to get a low-current 12 volt reed relay and hook in parallel with the bell output, then use its contacts for the DVR. Make sure not to exceed the 120 MA limit of the bell output. The contact current rating of the reed relay is not important for this application. Don't try to hook the bell output directly to the DVR, you will likely burn something out. The connection needs to be isolated.

1. If possible, connect one of the camera's directly to a TV set or monitor, using the same coax cable and power supply you use when it is connected to the DVR. If you are happy with the picture when directly connected but not what is recorded by the DVR, then the problem is probably with the DVR compression quality. 2. I am not familiar with your DVR, but if it is one that has pass-through option make sure it is not set in the pass-through mode. In pass through mode the 75 ohm terminator resistors may be switched out. Then there will be reflections on the coax cables as well as video level too high and picture will be very bad. Note: I am just a residential user like you, not a CCTV professional.

DVR is Intellicam XLA, I had opportunity to preview recorded D1 video and was happy with it, and could get it discounted when they introduced the new G4 version. So far it has been very reliable. Currently using I TB of storage which seems to be plenty for my application. Indoor cameras are mix of Pelco, Samsung, Ganz, Panasonic and one no-name IR camera in the garage. Mostly box cams but one dome and one bullet. Outdoor cams are American Dynamics domes except for one Hitachi IR cam. All cams are auto-iris except the garage. All are varifocal lens except one in a small room that is fixed 2.6mm. All are rated 540 lines. All the cams were bought over a period of time whenever I could get low price, surplus new and some used. Light is provided for the outdoor domes by 4 IR motion detector floods. I am recording all 10 channels at D1 res and 7 FPS. All are using motion detect trigger. I built the power supply for the cams from a surplus 10A switching regulator. I have one of the contact inputs on the DVR wired to my house alarm system and programmed so it can send me an email if the alarm is tripped. So far the whole thing seems robust and reliable. I installed it so if I need to sell the house it can be uninstalled quickly leaving only a few blank switchplates inside the house and a few capped plastic electrical boxes outside.

From my experience with my residential system I agree with other posts that using camera motion detection to send alerts will result in many false alarms. Flashes of light through a window, momentary power brownout, passing clouds outside will trigger camera. If you use a DVR most have contact closure inputs that can be programmed. Connect a Passive Infrared Detector (PIR) to an input and program the DVR to send alert and record all cameras when motion is detected. PIR is much more reliable than using video motion for intrusion detection. You can still record on video motion, just don't use it to send alert. _________________________________ Residential DVR system user