ssnapier

Yeah the video card makes a HUGE difference on playback... I am actually swapping out a client's GPU next week because of a similar issue (using Mobotix Control Center). Everything is good until they have to playback full size/ full frame video and then it goes berzerk.

That is a very long list... how much are you willing to spend and where do you intend to record this footage?

I am sitting in my car zipping down the road right now so I am staring at my side mirror as I type this and that would be VERY tricky! It would certainly have to be a pinhole lens, but you would also have to take power mirrrors into consideration. How do you account for the movement of the mirror in any sort of normal fashion and still provide a reasonable view? If you used those blind spot mirrors (I call them Korean mirrors because everyone over there had them when I lived there) then you have a much easier option for mounting and unobstructed view. Here is a picture of the mirror I am talking about:

I was unable to save the video from this because it was on an Army base, but we pulled up a camera just to show a few guys how to pull video. It captured a hawk that basically came right at the camera with claws out and FOUGHT with it for a good 30 seconds before he gave up and flew off. About 20 minutes later he came back for one more go at it. EDIT: I forgot one detail... on his second attempt he sort of did a drive-by a whacked the camera housing so hard that he moved it a few inches. We went out there and re-aimed it after we finished showing the cops how to pull video.

Holy crap was that funny...

I second the GoPro Hero2... the only issue is that the lens on the is VERY wide!

Do you have the specs (or are they online perhaps?) for the camera or the monitor? I highly doubt they would go to the trouble of a custom cable for that, perhaps you need an active splitter that amplifies the signal??

Well if they will allow you to buy non-American stuff, there are some pretty good options coming out of China and South Korea for this application. Oh and all of those bells and whistles will probably save them money in the long run. I know that most Governments are self-insured, but the data provided by the "deluxe" DVR/ NVR's could very easily help them win a lawsuit or even prevent a lawsuit from happening in the first place.

It is a little more complicated than that. Most of the time they are looking for other data too. Most of the ones we have looked at bidding on required inertia sensors, braking data, panic buttons, and several other bells and whistles. Most basic mobile DVR's will not be able to accomodate that stuff. One of my colleagues has been researching this for a few days now, but I don't have his data with me. I will PM you when I get in touch with him. I would appreciate you sharing your info as well. What part of the country are you in?

A lot of those Bing Bird's Eye Maps are more up to date too, very nice feature!

At VGA and 12fps (with 50% activity level) you would need roughly 4.2 TB per month, so for 6 months of basic storage you would need 25.2TB of storage.... let's just call it 26 for easy numbers. There is no way on earth I would store that much data without some form of RAID, and I am a little leary of the 3TB drives on the market right now so let's work this out with 2TB drives. I will give you surveillance grade drives for this example, but the drive quality you choose is up to you. In simple numbers, that is somewhere between $175 and $250 per drive and you are looking at needing at least 14 drives (depending on what RAID level you choose). That does not even include a chassis to house and run all of those drives. A QNAP TS-1679 sixteen bay chassis can be had for somewhere between $4500 and $5300. With the drives added to that, you are looking at between $6950 and $8800 to accomplish your goal, and that still does not include the DVR upgrade itself!

I know that Mobotix Control Center claims the ability to use any standard USB joystick or gamepad but I have never tested it.

Well considering that my company has a truck with 11 cameras and as satellite uplink on it, I may be a little over your budget but I am a HUGE fan of the Seneca Xvault mobile NVR. That thing is a flipping beast! You can run up to 8 cameras on it with full vibration protection and with solid state drives it is ready for anything you can throw at it! I too am looking for a small black box solution for my daughter's car. I have seen a few in the 250 to 400 range, but I want one that shows both the interior and exterior of the car. I have found most of the cool one by searching for "taxi cameras". Hope that helps.

The same goes for audio, just last week I had a client call me for a trouble call and while fixing his issue I discovered that he had enabled audio recording on ALL of his cameras, even though I specifically refused to do it and explained the legal issues involved to him when the cameras went in. I went back and disabled them all, because that is what the contract says and I will be damned if I let him screw me. I then added a second admin account and changed my passwords so that if he decides to change them back again I will have a log entry to prove that it wasn't me or any of my people.

Usually the biggest factor in the price of pre-made cables is the quality of the connector, the quality of the center pin connection, and the quality of the shielding in the cable (you tend to learn the hard way if you cheap out, but occasionally you will get lucky). Connector quality generally equates to termination ease and speed. If you are buying pre-fab, not really a big deal, but if you are doing these yourself that matters a lot and it is exponential based on how many you have to do. This is generally a "get what you pay for" kind of thing. The other big cost factor is the company performing loss testing on their pre-made stuff. The lower end companies usually just crank out cables and do a simple continuity test to call it good whereas a higher end company will actually do loss testing to make sure their product lives up the quoted spec. This is true across the board, but in coax stuff it is pretty important to make sure the efficiency of the connection is optimal. Just for future reference, fiber optics are the same way and the loss considerations there are even more important.

Actually, this is not a "home" question at all but anyway let me explain. I have 8 streetlight poles with a wireless bridge and 3 cameras on each pole. These are two Mobotix cameras and a Panasonic PTZ (all IP). I know I can send an RS-232 signal from the Mobotix cameras to whatever I want, but it is just something I have not personally done before. My problem is that the lights and cameras are all on a common power source and I need to make sure the cameras and wireless gear stay on evn if the lights are turned off. Is there a cheap and simple method (relay?) that will allow me to shut off only the lights and leave the cameras on? This is something I really should know how to do, but thanks to a few weird quirks I simply have never been exposed to it... your help would be greatly appreciated.

Any input?

My brother has suggested this little box: http://www.bb-elec.com/bb-elec/literature/documentation/datasheets/232drio_0812ds.pdf

Ok, according to the Mobotix M-12 manual I have a 5VDC Line available on this DB-15. Here is the pinout:

After a lot of discussion I have finally gotten him to understand this a little better. He no longer wants to "in the water" view, but he wants me to expand my view of the surrounding area, which means one or two more cameras... baby steps are better than none!

If I shine an IR light at a swimming pool will it reflect off the water or give me visibility below the surface?

You can clearly see him pull his sleeve down before he grabs the handle. Wow... next time send a few paint balls in his direction!

That is awesome stuff, make sure you tell your neighbor that you saved them a big headache, then he owes you one when you need a couch moved!

The pool does not have lights (which is kind of crazy) or that is the route I would have taken.

You may want to look at a company called FutureSentry, their device might work very well for this.