Nimrod

“The cameras I have, has a led dial for brightness. If I turn down them will it help.” The more research i do on this camera the more impressed i am with it. http://www.specotech.com/cart/products/downloads/appcharts/HT-7815DNVman.pdf This camera does have a LED light level control. As well as the following features i missed the first time. True day night with adjustable mechanical ir cutout filter. 24vac or 12vdc operation UTP function built-in for use with twisted pair wiring in addition to standard coax I would say you should adjust your camera as follows. First turn ELC off for your DC iris to work. Second adjust your LED level control to get a picture as far out as you want it. Third use the DC lens level to adjust your picture for close objects. Then go back to second and third to make compromising settings for both conditions. Let us know if this works.

“The cameras I have, has a led dial for brightness. If I turn down them will it help.” Yes it will help assuming you have enough light to see as far as you want, otherwise turn it all the way down and use an external light source away from the camera for long distance. Also do not forget white light is the best, you will not get the bright white ghost image.

This thread bothered me a lot, 480 max tvl for recording on a stand alone dvr is not that good, compared to todays cameras. And what about the DVR cards that go in a PC, are they 480 tvl also? And has anyone put 2 cameras on a dvr and pointed them at the same thing, one 480 line camera and the other around 650 lines to see if there is any difference in playback. And to be fair you would have to bump up the image quality also to be sure. EDIT: Here is a white paper by Pixim that is saying 540 tvl is the limit. Any comments on this doc? http://www.pixim.com/assets/files/product_and_tech/540HTVL_Max_WP_Final.pdf

“Internal or External IR will always do that” Rory, do you have any idea why the DC iris does not compensate for the bright ir leds.

shazam109, You are getting some of the worst advice for a CCTV install in an apartment building i have ever seen. This is coming from someone who had a 2 story building with a basement like you have. I did my own system and it had very good coverage, not like the lackluster knee jerk IP camera system you are being advised on. To do this job right you need a mix of about 80% analog cameras and 20% IP. For a frame of reference i used Ganz cameras ZC-D1049EHA for indoors and nothing worth mentioning for outdoors. http://www.reytecimaging.com/ProductImages/Hiresdomes/smzcdome.pdf The short specs of this camera are. BW only .3 Lux 570 lines 4 to 9mm zoom I used these in the hallways that were 4 to 5 feet wide, painted white, and had double 4ft 40 watt bulbs every 8 to 10 feet. Amazingly the .3Lux cameras did not have enough sensitivity for a good image unless i was directly under the 4ft lights. And just like you i had a basement that was dark compared to the hallways. I had to have 4 ft light fixtures very close to the washers and dryers to get a good picture. Trying to get a good shot of the storage units down there was almost imposable and in fact i could not do it with these cameras. The reason i told you that story is to show you that IP cameras are just plain wrong for this application for 2 reasons. First, hallways are only 4 or 5 feet wide, using a high resolution camera in a small field of view like this is silly. Second ,IP cameras have very poor light sensitivity, they would be a poor choice for the hallway and even worse for a dim basement. To get a IP camera with any kind of sensitivity you have to spend around $800. If you try to improve the lighting to use lower cost IP cameras with poor sensitivity you will pay for it on your electric bill. Mine was the cost of a small mortgage as it was, as i am sure yours is. As for the outdoors. Like you i had problems with the dumpster area, some tenants were to lazy to go all the way to the dumpster, the neighbors liked to use it, and some people just drove by and took bags of garbage out of there car. This may be a good area for a megapixel IP camera or 2 as you are trying to capture many different things from several directions. At the time i did my system megapixel IP cameras were just about unheard of. Since i do not know what your dumpster layout is, to give you some ideas i will describe my system. To take care of the tenants i had good camera coverage inside at every door so i knew who was going to dumpster. Outside i had one camera on street level overall view of apt door and dumpster for seeing who did not put garbage in dumpster. On top of the 2 story building i had a slightly wider angle camera pointed down on dumpster were i could see an area of several houses wide. I was not trying for identification of these people, i just wanted to know what house they came out of. When they dumped there garbage in my dumpster i would go out and take there garbage and put it back in front of there house. The only problem i did not solve was the drive up dumpers, i would have needed to install a camera just for license plates and it was rarely the same people twice anyway. If you want to identify people who came out of other buildings with analog cameras you can not have a field of view wider than about 5 feet or so. This could take several analog cameras to cover the dumpster were one or 2 megapixel would work nicely. Also during the day there is plenty of light for IP cameras and most people do not fool with garbage at night. If you post a picture or 2 of your dumpster area and give some dimensions maybe i could be more specific. OK back to the inside were the so called professionals recommended the IP camera system with dueling cross beams for covering your 70 foot hallway. I can not tell you how ill this makes me. Use the right camera for the right job, and this job requires analog cameras. With your dual crossbeam system you will have a very poor view of what is going on in the hallway other than someone appears to be there depending on were in the hallway they are. My hallways were 100 feet long and that was 5 apartments in a row each end of the hallway had a outside door and a apt door so 2 cameras took care of outside doors and 2 apartments. I tried shooting down the halls with various lens settings but figured out real quick that long narrow halls do not lend then selves to good video coverage. Cameras look out in a V pattern and do not lend them self to this situation very well. You must use expensive megapixel cameras looking at each other to get any kind of view, and a soso one at that. Well since analog cameras are 1/3 or less the cost of megapixel you can put in more of them and get great coverage instead of soso. My solution was put in 3 more analog cameras in hallway covering the other 3 apartments and bits of hallway near them. I now knew exactly who was were and when, with good facial recognition at every apartment. In the basement i put one camera to cover the washers and another one for dryers mounted for a overall view of each area. I had another camera focused on the stairs for good facial recognition so i already knew who they were. Then for the final touch, i put cameras directly above the washers and dryers to watch the coin slots and controls, to see who was beating up the machines. And once again, for these views separate light sensitive cameras are needed, not just one big stupid unable to see anything meagabuck camera. These are very good analog cameras that are recommended here allot. They are less money than the Ganz i bought and are at least twice as good. These cameras will work in your basement. CNB DBM-24VF 1/3" 600TVL Indoor true day/night DC Iris M13 2.8-10.5mm .005 lux CNB VCM-24VF 1/3" 600TVL Outdoor Vandal true day/night DC Iris M13 2.8-10.5mm .005 When you run conduit down the hallway put a put a big like 6x6 junction box about 10ft from each doorway on both sides to make it easy to come out of it to a camera. And use conduit at least twice as big as you think you need, for future expansion and ease of pull. Use a 6x6 so you can run RG59U if you want and not kink it. Also if you have a mailbox area put a camera above them looking down to see what there hands are doing. And if you have a entrance way with a security door put a camera in there to. You will be amazed at the piece of mind a good camera system gives you, and you will never say i wish i had less cameras.

“when someone stands in front of camera at night I cant see them they are completely white” When i read this i though just another cheap junk camera. But i was a little curious and decided to look it up. It turns out these are fairly good cameras. http://www.specotech.com/softwarereference/HT7815DNV_AEspecs.pdf http://www.specotech.com/softwarereference/HT7915DNV_AEspecs.pdf The difference between them is the amount of zoom, 4 to 9mm, and 5 to 50mm. 525 lines or better external control of zoom DC iris auto gain BLC color 0.03 lux, F1.2, 40 IRE, AGC on, 75% reflectance The big problem with these cameras is they have built in IR lighting. There are only a few latest generation cameras that have IR intensity control to counteract the white brightness for close objects you are seeing. I do not see anything in the specs to turn the leds off, but if you disassemble the camera you may be able to unplug them. As these cameras are in the $400 to 500 dollar range I would think the mfgr would answer a email or 2 about them asking how to disable the ir leds. Also, make sure you have the DC iris set to auto, and try different combinations of auto white balance and automatic gain. But in the end the best solution is to disable the ir leds and use even external lighting, several feet away from your camera.

Well i will state the obvious here. Multiple 12 vdc cameras on a single 12vdc supply. Sure sounds like a ground loop issue. Try using a separate 12 volt supply to each camera. Or disconnect one camera at a time and see if the interference goes away.

“also i noticed the audio pulsates exactly with the Modem connectivity lights in the same exact rhythm.” See if you can get the modem replaced.

“I have heard you can provide power to your cameras over ethernet as well as video, if I only use 2 wires for video and split the remaining six into 3 and 3, can someone explain how this is done?” I sure you figured out that that google link was worthless, but here is some information you can actually use. This is from Soundy one of our most knowledgeable members. Typically, I'll use the blue pair for video (blue for signal +, white/blue for signal -), the green pair tied together for power ground/neutral, orange pair tied together for power positive/line, and leave the brown pair as a spare or for RS-485 control. There's no particular reason for these color choices, they just made sense to me at the time, so it's what we use. If you do not want to leave a pair of wires for RS485 then you can add those wires to the power wires to triple up the connection.

"Nimrod, Sent you a message with the links to the system i am writing about." Nothing showed up, on this post click on the PM button and resend.

“Have decided to go with an 8 channel system from China in the short term” I would like to see the specs of that system.

“if the building is supplied with 3-phase electricity will the DVR have problems from this as to standard 240volts supply?” Well first, 3 phase can come in many voltages like 220 or 440 volts and up. But when single phase 220 volts is needed the electrician will tap 2 of the 3 phase power lines for 220 volts single phase, assuming the 3 phase is 220 volts. If the 3 phase is 440 volts or higher the electrician will have to install a step down transformer to 220 volts.

The plustek people are obviously idiots and have no experience in the video surveillance market. It has been proven time and time again that video surveillance does not prevent crime or theft, it just helps identify it, and it certainly does not make coffee shops run more efficiently. I think idiot does not quit cover plustek, MORONS is a little closer. This dweeb goes on to say IP and analog in the same system is a problem. Well maybe for them it is with there lousy equipment. It does not seem the rest of the dealers on this board have a problem with it. And for the record MINUStek, a good dealer will use the proper camera for the proper job, there are reasons analog cameras are still very popular, they can still do things better than IP cameras can like low light sensitivity or just being cost effective, you know, NOT LOOSING THE JOB because you quoted 5 IP cameras were good analog cameras would work just fine. “it doesn’t require a complicated installation process. All you have to do is just plug in the Internet line and it will automatically find the IP camera, which allows it to conduct basic monitoring”. Your ignorance and stupidity is without bounds. You never use the same network for your IP cameras that the people use, ESPECIALLY in a coffee shop, were the network usually has free Internet for there customers. You don’t know squat. Would somebody please ban this bozo. P.S. You really pissed me off.

Anthony A, you have 2 separate problems, your tv’s need analog input and your ipad needs a digital signal. So somehow you have to come up with both signals. I would think the least expensive and most straightforward system would be using a good analog camera that goes to a “4 port composite video splitter” easily found for $20 to $30, connected to your RCA video inputs on your TV’s. For you digital IP solution you need a cheap Ebay “IP video server”. The reason you need a cheap server is any ipad or phone you want to send the video to will be low resolution. The worst ip server you buy will be twice as good as you need. To connect the video to the IP video server you will have to tee off one of the video outs on the composite video splitter, or buy a splitter with more outputs, usually only a few dollars more.

Has anyone seen these Linux DOM DVR cards sold anyware. http://www.softwell.com.tw/html/english/product.php?pid=1

“Intend to buy a camera every couple of weeks as funds become available. Garage outside camera and also one inside the garage to start with - then build the system up as time and money permits. Do not want cheap and nasty. Expect each outdoor camera to cost maybe 4-500, and indoors around 2-300, but of course i will need to plan in advance and start with the correct operating system. Is this a bit better info?“ Much better info, you may be right about needing IP megapixel cameras for some of the views, i suspect 4 to $500 may be a little light for them but i am not the IP megapixel expert. Lets see what the experts say. Otherwise think about getting good quality analog cameras and putting them at choke points were you know they will have to come in, like gates or doors. Then you would not need the expensive megapixel cameras to cover such a wide areas. Possibly post pictures of your house and what you are trying to cover for the best feedback.

“No rust in this Mustang. Imported it from the dry state of Arizona, then took it back to bare metal for a full respray.” Anyone who can import a car from Australia has to much money. This guy needs to buy several $1500.00 dollar Mobotix cameras.

To get any answers you have to give better information. For each camera You need to know what kind of detail you are looking for in the picture, like facial recognition or just a overall view. How much area you want to cover. And how much light is available in the day and night. Also if you have a maximum price that would quickly narrow your options down to a realistic system.

Search for this on Ebay “camera SCCB module” and you must select “Include description” these cameras are suprisingly inexpensive.

“Unfortunately netvision guy seems to have gone a bit quiet, he's not answering my PMs “ China’s day is our night (at least mine, USA), so give him a day to respond. BTW, hikvision software should work also, they use same cards as netvision. You might get lucky here with this card.

"next it was someone who speared poop on their door. I plan on catching the poopatrator " Good one!

Take a look at this picture, it is a card for netvision. Your card is just laid out a little differently. I am sure the netvision guy in this thread will be happy to send you a demo netvision program to test it out. http://www.made-in-china.com/showroom/netdvr/product-detailceIQNgnuabRl/China-Hardware-Compression-Card.html hardware compression card for netvision.

Here is a download from mfg for dvr7000, looks old though. http://www.higheasy.com/en/pages/center_show.asp?id=39 I can not find your card here either but this does look like the right place. You definitely have a specialty card, probably hardware mpeg4. I doubt any software but the original mfg will work on it. Also it was made for xp or older operating systems.

“If that can't be done, you may be able to shield the wire more by putting in through conduit in that area.” Just to be clear, Soundy meant metal conduit, This would act as a shield to electrical interference.

“have 3 different models of BT878 cards that I use often under XP (with one chip, four chips, and eight chips). I know how to use BTWinCap with no problems under XP, I just was unable to get them to work under Win7 32bit the one time I tried, so I assumed that the drivers were so old, that it would not be possible to make them work under Win7. I guess I will have to give it another try...!” Do not forget the drivers are only part of the equation. The DVR software must run under win 7 also. But there is nothing wrong with win xp. If i could find a cheap reliable dvr program that ran under xp i would be happy.