MrSquid

Is it legal/ethical to capture cars & license plates of cars that pass by your house? It's a long story as to why I would want to but here goes. About 1 year ago I noticed that someone tried (but failed) to pry open my sliding door that leads out to my deck. Luckily I have always been a little security conscience and had a block of wood reinforcing it. Apparently they were too worried about making noise to break any glass and left (Lucky for me). Upon discovering this I promptly installed an alarm, put locks on the gates to my backyard and installed motion lights on all sides of my house. About 3 month ago I started setting up a GeoVision system. So far I have two cameras covering my front door and one side gate. In the near future I will be installing about 6 more cameras to cover more of my yard. It doesn't take long to realize the limitation of standard resolution cameras. My two cameras’ cover very specific locations and provide some level of facial recognition. However, if someone were to be just a little outside the sweet spot (or wearing a mask), the best I could hope for would be a general description of the person. I wish 2 or 3 megapixal cameras were within my budget but they are not. Even if they were, we still have the mask issue. So I am looking (perhaps incorrectly) at this surveillance system as a very limited tool. But nonetheless as an important part of a full security system. In order to improve it's usefulness, in the event of a crime on my property, I would like to capture the car before they get anywhere onto my property (or faces of people before they don their mask) . Hence the idea of hiding a camera/IR illuminator in my bush by the street to capture car/pre-mask details. I understand the issue of the cost to do so. Thoughts?

Your NAT's look good. You will need to modify your ACL to allow the same traffic to pass that you have the NAT's setup for. Also that Last permit statement on the ACL is being ignored because it is after the deny all statement. Did your telnet from the internet fail?

I need a few items clarified. Is your DVR 192.168.5.110 or 192.168.7.110, or maybe you have (2) DVR's? Is access list 102 applied to the interface both the "in bound" and "out bound" directions?

OK, then this is a network related problem. It is most likely an issue with port blocking or NAT. Even though you can connect and bring up the management screen, the video portion could be on another port. I don't have any experience with Digimerge, but I do work on router and PIX related issues daily. It is not uncommon for vendors to be wrong with the information they provide. If you can post your NAT statements and ACL from your router I will take a look to see if I see any problems and offer some suggestions on determining if any ports are being blocked. One thing to try is to telnet to each of the ports the vendor provided you with, 1st from the internal network, then from the public internet. It would look like this from a dos command line telnet xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 80 (80 being one of the ports the vendor asked you to open). If you get a black screen with a blinking cursor that is considered a successful connection. If it bounces you right out with an error that is a failed connection. If you have ports you can connect to internally but not from the internet you then know which port to check on the router. Another general tip is to scan the DigiMerge with a port scanner to see what ports it responds back on. Be sure to do this during a non critical monitoring time becasue there is a small chance it could cause the device to hang and require a reset. Then compare that list of ports to the list given to you by the vendor.

Can you view the live cameras from inside the network?

We need to narrow this down to a DVR or network problem. Are you able to connect to the DVR, login, and see the video from inside the network?

If we assume this is a network problem and suspect that another port needs to be opened... Issue the following command "sh log" after you get the error message about not being able to connect. That will show you what ports are being dropped (Assuming logging is enabled on the router). You will then need to adjust your ACL accordingly. It is a little strange that just a router would be used as a gateway to the internet. If you have a diagram or any further information it would help.

What sensitivity level are you using? I dropped mine to 7 from a default of 9 and it helped a lot. Something as small as a squirrel running across my front lawn will still trigger a recording.

I am guessing this is not against forum rules because this is not CCTV related. If I am wrong, my apologies. Check out: http://www.maxmax.com/aXRayIRCameras.htm for info on modified cameras. "We have specially modified Brand New Sony Camcorders that have full NiteShot capability with all shutter speed and aperture modes working. In an effort to stop people from using the Niteshot feature in daylight situations, Sony limits the minimum size of the aperture when in Niteshot mode on every currently produced Handicams camcorder to prevent voyeurs."

Go with a front projection system. You can go to 120" or 133" at 1080p for just over 8k. A projector called the Sony Ruby will get you there. Checkout the front projector forum at www.avsforum.com

Newb question here: Can an analog system handle newer 2 & 3 megapixel camera's? If not, that is the only real reason I can see for going to an IP based solution. Then again I am a newb so what do I know.

I disagree with the Class Action suit if there is one. Lifetime upgrades are not something any reasonable person should want. A company needs to pay its software developers to continue to improve their products, fix bugs, and add additional functionality. Asking them to do this for free, forever, is a great way of forcing them not to release updates or to only release updates on a very limited basis. In the end this will impact me as a customer. I will be forced to use a system that is less then it could be which, is not something I would want. Also from a legal standpoint, lifetime is likely to refer to the lifetime of the software/card. The newer GV1120,1240,1480's do not require a trade-in. It would be reasonable to argue the older GV250,600,650,800,etc... have reached their end-of-life. It sounds like Geovision should have changed the PN#'s for the newer cards to avoid the asshole lawyers (Who are the only real winners in a class action suit like this) and cheap customers who look for ways to make $10 on class action suit.

Measure that same supply while connected to the camera. Unregulated powersupply's will read high with no load on them. It's very likely it will drop down to the 12v range with a load.

Is the condensation inside or out? If it is inside, is there any room in the housing for one of those small silica packs? Some people I scuba dive with use them in the underwater camera housings and they help. Also you may want to try taking the camera apart on a low humidity day, letting it dry out, and then sealing all seams with some silicone upon reassembly. Of course if it condensing on the outside of the lens none of this will help.

I just finished setting up two Sony D/N Dome camera's and a b/w bullet connected to a 1240 GeoVision system. Right now I am using a 12VDC powersupply. I have 16/2 pulled along with rg-59 to each camera. Is there any advantage to using a 24VAC powersupply instead? Thanks, Anthony

Thanks everyone. My runs are all less then 100' so it looks like I will stick with the 12vdc that I have.

Is there any difference in picture quality? Would I need a 3rd wire to ground the housing with A/C?

I just had a problem with my Geo system recording all night long on two channels due to the grainy picture the low light caused with my Sony D/N dome camera. A single 13w florescent bulb on a timer brought the light level up enough to eliminate the grain and allow the motion detection to work properly. It also makes the night time picture much more usable should it record an event.

I know that camera resolution alone does not make a good camera, but all things being equal, will I get a better recorded image from a camera that is 540 or 580 lines over one that is 480? My recording resolution will be 640x480. Thanks,

I just picked up (2) used Sony CCD73V's (day/night) to cover my front yard with. If they don't meet my needs at least I will have a reference point to go from and I will probably be able to resell them for what I paid. As always thanks for the feedback.

This forum is great. Where else can you get an offer like that?

I see what you mean. I'd like to start with two cameras for the front of my house which is partially lit by a street light. Which camera would you recommend in the $200-300 price point? I'd prefer a dome over a box camera with a housing, but my main concern is getting the best picture quality so if I need to go with a box I would. A little over budget would also be ok. Thanks

I have a GV1280-8 card and my setup will be for residential monitoring of my property. My front yard is lit up pretty well from a street light. My back and side yards have motion lights. I am looking at the Ganz line (2000/3000) of dome cameras. They have a "regular" 480 line day/night color/bw I was looking at and they also have 'hi-res" bw/580 or color/540. I am not sure how much of an improvement there would be. Is there another line of cameras I should consider? I like to go color unless there is a good reason not to. I am currently playing with a cheap bullet camera that I acquired for free (Speco CVC-1700) and I am hoping for a good improvement in quality.

I am about to buy a GV-650-4 and I am seeing prices from $275 to over $360 for the same card. I have read on this forum that some cards are clones and I would like to avoid them if possible. Thanks, Anthony

Thanks for the feedback. I ended up buying a 1240-8 from Sal on this forum. It turns out his store is less then 5 miles from where I live. I really knew nothing about this stuff before I came to this forum, so I figured it was only fair to help support it and it's active members.