Soundy

The pinouts for a "standard" auto-iris drive are shown here: http://www.cctvforum.com/post-60888.html That may help you in checking voltages and determining the pinouts on this camera. What is the exact model number of this camera?

The only limitation I see to a standalone system here is your retention requirement: up-to-32 cameras, 4CIF @ 15fps, for 90+ days, is going to be a TON of space required. As an example, I have one site with 23 analog and 5 1.3MP IP cameras, averaging about 4fps per camera (a few at 3, a few at 5), with all but three or four of the analogs recording at 4CIF/D1. Even with motion record on all cameras, they're JUST BARELY getting 90 days retention... with 9.5TB(!!!) of storage in the form of three 1TB drives in the DVR, and an 8x1TB RAID5 NAS array. To go to 15fps on all cameras, you're quite possibly looking at needing a 16-drive RAID array loaded up with 1.0-1.5TB drives... and you'd need a standalone that supports external storage (be it NAS, USB or firewire). All that said, you might find a PC-based system running Video Insight worth looking at - it fits all your criteria except for complete DVR management through the web interface, but you can add an open-source VNC server to the machine, and access it either through the web interface some have, or by slipping a VNC client on your remote machine - most have Windows, OSX and Linux clients available.

I've used VideoInsight's web client successfully on Firefox as well as a number of mobile browsers on PalmOS, Windows Mobile, and MotoQ. Should work fine on Safari as well, I would think. They have a demo of their web interface on their website at http://www.demovi.com/

^That is correct. The main thing to prevent blur is a faster shutter speed on the camera - it has nothing to do with the recording device. Unfortunately, 'ye canna change the laws o' physics', and a faster shutter means less light reaching sensor, and thus a darker image. Thus, it's important to either have "faster" lens (one with a larger aperture), and/or good lighting on the situation - that's why red-light cameras have flashes with them

You know, if you'd just stated right off the top that you wanted a camera for a baby monitor, you might have got some more useful responses, and possibly even some better suggestions. When you link two no-name cameras and ask which is better, though, there's really not much we can do for you, because we have know way of knowing, better for WHAT? As it is, you're looking at upwards of $250 (with shipping) for either of those... that seems a little spendy for a baby monitor. What's wrong with simple purpose-built designs like these? http://www.hdtv.ca/reviews/accessories/summer_infant_monitor.php http://www.thenewparentsguide.com/baby-monitors-1.htm http://www.pricecanada.com/detail.php?product_id=523541 http://shop.ebay.com/items/__baby-monitor-camera_W0QQQ5ftrkparmsZ66Q253A2Q257C65Q253A15Q257C39Q253A1QQ_scZ1QQ_sopZ15QQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em14?_stpos=&_fcid=2&gbr=1

Ah yes, but you're not using the Vigil software with other people's capture cards, are you? That's the problem - the OP has existing computers with capture cards, they just want improved software.

Well, I'm not familiar with your "analog matrix" device, but a few thoughts come to mind... I guess the most important question is, do ALL the camera lines run directly tp the same place, ie. at this matrix device? If so, then the solution becomes relatively easy: drop in DVRs as necessary and just connect the cameras to them in whatever arrangement suits your needs. Now, I'll start right off suggesting you take a look at Camacc's Vigil DVRs, because all your needs could be nicely handled with as few as two of them. At the upper end of their scale, they have a 32-channel, 960fps (30fps *per channel* system if your needs are really that extreme... right down to 60fps, 16-channel systems. Assuming, again, that all the cameras have a direct run back to the same point, it would be as simple as just disconnecting from the matrix, and connecting to the DVRs. For PTZ control, as long as the cameras support Pelco D or P protocols, or if they're a model that Vigil has support for, they can all be controlled through software. If they have RS-232/422/485 support, they can be easily connected to a serial port on the DVR (whether onboard, or using USB-to-serial adapters); as well, some Vigil models have multi-output RS-485 ports combined with the capture cards. Several cameras can easily be daisy-chained off a single port so you don't actually have to have 60 ports available. As far as having everything in one place, Vigil's remote client does a stellar job of letting you view and control multiple servers from a single interface, and has PTZ control through that interface as well. Say, for example, you have a seven-floor store with 10 cameras on each floor, and each floors cameras simply terminate at a room on that floor... you could drop a 16-channel DVR on each floor, then network them all together, and access them all through a single client interface anywhere else on the network. Vigil also allows you to run a central database for multiple servers, and a NAS storage array could be added to the network to provide shared storage space for all of them. Oh, and don't rule out IP: internet access is not required at all for any IP camera system. The DVRs/NVRs and cameras can live on their own completely isolated network. Devices like the Highwire can even be used to run 10/100 networking over existing coax cables (they can be a little spendy, but for situations like this, it's a lot cheaper than pulling new Cat-5e.) And once again, Vigil DVRs integrate analog and IP cameras seamlessly in one interface. Those are just some initial thoughts based on somewhat limited information... more details on how things are actually laid out and wired there would be helpful.

Unless the light has some special device to create huge amounts of EMI, no, there should be no issue with interference.

Putting the camera right beside the light shouldn't pose any problems. The only one I could really foresee if if the light is in or near the camera's direct field of view, which could cause flare and washout, but if they're both pointing at the same area away from the building there should be no issue. If you're using a motion-activated floodlight to illuminate the scene you're recording, though, you probably don't need to bother with IR cameras.

See if the cameras have a connector labeled "serial", "RS-232", "RS-485", or maybe RX+ and RX-. If so, you can control them via the serial port(s) on your DVR, no special card necessary. The cameras will very likely support Pelco P and/or Pelco D protocols, in addition to what other manufacturer-specific protocols they may have.

You typically need a PTZ (pan tilt zoom) type camera if you want to remotely alter the zoom and focus of the lens. Auto-iris means the camera can automatically adjust the iris opening of the lens depending on the brightness of what it's viewing, but that's all. I've used a couple cheapie cameras that have a built-in lens with remote-controllable zoom and focus controls, but they just use relay inputs to control them, rather than any standard PTZ control protocols.

Niguel, I don't think that manual Scorpion is providing is the proper one for your DVR. I googled "nubix 16 ch mpeg4 dvr" and came up with several pictures, many of which look very different from the unit in Scorpion's link. This site lists FOUR different 16-channel MPEG4 DVRs under the Nubix name: http://www.stardvr.com/NUBIXSERIES.html. I found another hit here that actually lists it under the Eclipse name, and it also looks very different from the one in Scorpion's link: http://www.cctvoutlet.com/SPEC%20SHEETS/nubix16_07.pdf We really need more details on the exact DVR you have - a "part number", or model sub-identifier perhaps (that first link shows a 16, 16LT, 16LD and 16DX variations)... even a photo of your DVR. Or look at the photos in the first link and see if it looks like any of those.

I was looking at that, plus the OP's link to the panel documentation, when I made my original post in this thread. Based on those two documents, pins 13 and 25 of the DB25 connect to an input zone on the panel - if one was to use zone 7, that would be terminals 8 and 10. Which is exactly what I said before, and what you've said as well. If that doesn't work, then that is probably the wrong manual. The OP refers to "R1, R1, R2, R2, etc." outputs on the back panel, which don't appear in that manual.

In a room that small, I doubt you'd notice a significant difference between the 24 or 36.

Do you really need to see things in the dark in this small room? If not, don't bother with the IRs. You'd probably get better results anyway with a normal camera by adding a motion detector switch to the room lighting. Your other question then becomes whether the dome or lipstick style suits your aesthetic needs better.

I use an Adaptec GameBridgeTV USB adapter to capture video and audio into my laptop... cost me about $30. Works great. But Rory has the best idea - a basic DVR card, and most included software will include its own webserver support, so you just stream the video straight from the local computer. Put together a cheap $300 PC to put it in and upgrade the guy to all-digital recording already.

Just FYI, your DVR's memory (ie. RAM) has no bearing on it. Rather than constant recording, consider motion-triggered recording. Most systems will pre-buffer and post-record so you don't miss the few seconds surrounding the event. Most allow you to set the sensitivity of the motion detection so you don't miss smaller events. The ability to NOT record when there's nothing happening will usually save you TONS of space. Consider too, that 30fps is almost NEVER necessary. Most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference at even 15fps, and 7.5-10fps will still give you reasonably smooth motion. At 7.5fps, you've just reduced your storage needs to 25% of that for 30fps (or quadrupled your retention time, depending on how you look at it).

Well, that depends on your ISP... with mine (Shaw Cable), if I change the MAC address of my router or a directly-attached computer, I then have to cycle the power on my cable modem for it to pick up the new MAC and allow it access. That can take two or three minutes in itself - not a big deal for a one-time thing, but if you're having to do it every few minutes of war-dialing, it could really slow you down. Our local telco's DSL service is even tougher - a new MAC address on the system has to be registered with their back-end. You plug in a new router or computer to your DSL modem, it gets a 10.* address on their internal network; you then log in to the customer-service page that's accessible from there and register the MAC under your account. Most are limited to something like 5 MACs as well, so after a little while you have to start deleting the old ones if you want to add new ones. Changing the MAC is a handy idea for getting around IP bans on gaming servers and stuff, but I suspect with most broadband providers, not all that efficient for brute-force hacking. It would have to be someone you REALLY REALLY want to hack...

I really don't deal with standalone systems, so I can't help you there... the only time we've used them is for extreme-low-budget, just-gotta-have-something-in-there situations so they've tended to be really low-end junk. Aside from the Digital Watchdog, I wouldn't recommend any of them to my worst enemy We mostly deal with Vigil PC-based DVRs from Camacc/3xlogic, and yes, they do reverse playback very well You can also do masked motion searches on the already-recorded video, so you can go with a more sensitive trigger and refine the search later when you need to find something. 30 days' recording is a snap - the benefit with a PC-based system is that it's really easy to add storage later, even just in the form of an external USB, firewire, or NAS drive. They have systems that will do anything from 60fps total across 16 cameras, to 30fps *each* on 32 cameras (960fps total). Those would fall into your "top-end" category though; their machines *start* at somewhere around $3k (I don't do the purchasing, so I can't tell you exactly).

The only real drawback to motion detection is if the movement is too subtle to trigger recording when it needs to, and you end up missing things. You can work around that by increasing the sensitivity, but then you get all sorts of things setting off recordings, which makes it harder to search for incidents. Depending on the circumstances, it can take a fair bit of fine-tuning. Sometimes it's a big deal, sometimes not. As for 30fps, don't even bother. Most cases, you'd be hard pressed to even tell the difference from 15fps, and even 7.5-10fps will give you pretty smooth motion. Remember that you're not making a movie here; you're recording video that may need to be viewed at some later time to see what happened... for most incidents, realtime video is extreme overkill. We do systems for two major oil companies in Canada, and for both of them, the corporate spec is a whopping 1fps.

I'm guessing this is some sort of cheap board or dome camera? It's near impossible for anyone to say for certain from the limited info you give (ie. the photo) but I'd say 95% chances are, the yellow is video, red is +12VDC, and the bare wire (spiral-wrapped shield around both?) is a common ground. It MIGHT help to know the make and model of the camera... would likely help even more to know what it's supposed to terminate to (one RCA, one barrel connector?), or to have a picture of where the wire connects to the camera board...

"REAL time" recording is pretty overrated for surveillance use - that's 30fps, where most of our sites (including fuel services) find 1fps is quite sufficient (in fact, 1fps is corporate standard for the two oil companies we support, although I usually step it up to 3-4 for paypoint and ID shots). You'll find 15fps is barely distinguishable from "live" for just about anything but auto racing, and even 7.5-10fps will look plenty smooth most times. Remember that PTZ, if you're running it on an auto-tour, will eat up a LOT of space, not just because it's recording constantly, but because the scene is always changing, it won't be nearly as compressible as a static image.

Ah, the problem is, almost all "good" software is tied to its own hardware. Video Insight and Vigil, for example, use essentially the same cards, but each has their firmware tweaked, and the software is written to check for that and only operate with the branded cards. (That said, I have got the Vigil server software to work with a Video Insight card before, although it's not supposed to).

How do you define "modular solution"? It doesn't get much more modular than a ready-to-go PC-based DVR/NVR, unless you want to build your own PC. The server license includes no limitations on clients (at least not that I'm aware of). I have no solid idea on VI cost or licensing, although I know there's not a separate per-client cost - you pay for the card and software, or a turnkey PC, and that's it for however many analog cameras the server is designed for (usually 16). IP cameras are handled by different software that can run on the same server, and those are licensed on a per-camera basis.