shockwave199

Sometimes it's best to just keep it simple. Forum advice tends to complicate matters sometimes. Get varifocal cameras, such a 3.5-8mm or 4-9mm. Hang 'em high [18-20'] out of reach and zoom the FOV a bit if needed, or keep it rather wide. Get IR included, make sure the cameras are TDN, and don't stress too much because you're providing exterior light as well. Don't rely too much on deterrence. Sometimes they will, sometimes they won't. When it's all installed they'll be out of reach nicely, and you'll have the views you want- just an overview of those areas to keep an eye on. Simple. Not every camera position can provide the face shot. Some are just wide overviews. If you can support your system with other positions for tighter face ID shots, all the better too. Good luck.

Automate what exactly? I just figure it's the price of doing business with IR. All my cameras have it and they all do the same thing. Not really so much of a bother, as heavy fog that causes it happens more infrequently than frequently. Cameras without IR, such as what I monitor at work- it just looks like fog usually does when visibility gets low. That's good, but they have other problems that my bullets and eyeballs don't, so I still favor IR cameras. And motion lights too of course.

The CNB and the Huviron look very good. But at a 200 dollar budget, be careful what you wish for. You could try the gadspot GS810EF, which matches what you need.

Most places, that camera would run you double I doubt anyone has pics from it. I have ton 'o pics from other cams from them, but not that one.

Aside from all that.... Well, you should consider a varifocal camera because you will need a tighter FOV to get plates at 50 or so feet out. And that's daytime. At night, you'll need a true plate capture camera. But assuming you just want to have a chance at seeing enough detail to make out plates, say out in front of your home during the days activity, check out a GS830SM at Gadspot's dot com site. That'll do you nicely, I would think. Good luck. Dan

First off, your screen name. May I assume that you play bass and use an 1176? LOL! If you like the 1176, try on a 6176 for size. Incredible strip that gives a TON of mileage! I use it on vocals all the time. But anyway... http://q-see.com/products/security-product.php?ProductId=297 I have that one and I like it a bunch. D1 30fps on the first two channels, hd1 on the rest at varying fps. Works for me. YMMV. I think Nelly's would be a great place because of the support before, during, and after the purchase. Qsee will support you, but it's hit and miss as far as how much, and how fast. But I sure do like the 408 if 8 channels floats your boat.

Amen to that. That's a big one for me and it's why of all the views, be it the local monitor, web access, or MCS, I prefer MCS the best. It has the most flexibility for window positioning. I like full screen and I hate emtpy windows- hate them. I would think the window setup that the dvr outputs is tough to know before hand, unless they give you that info in the manual. We have an openeye dvr 16 channel at work that has 7 channels full at the moment, and it only offers one configuration that works for that with no empty windows- probably one preset that will do a weird config for you. But it sucks and personally I would switch cables around until I got what I wanted to see correctly. What will your situation be? Will the 46" be your main viewing screen all the time? I ask because my local screen is a 15" LCD, mostly for menu setup. I almost never monitor cameras on that screen. I'm always remote viewing, even when I'm in the house. I'm on the laptop remotely via LAN, or another outside pc remotely via WAN. Personally, for residential I'd get a tv for televison viewing, and a 19-23" monitor for the dvr. Unless it was a situation where you need a large screen in a big main room, I'd go with a smaller screen for much crisper veiwing. And I'd do it via the software, where the window setup may be more flexible. IMO.

Maybe you should show us some snapshots directly from some dvr footage Mavrik. Two different things- the quality of the picture a camera will give you as opposed to the quality of what you're viewing with, and what that may be doing to an otherwise fine picture. I can post a bunch of shots for you as well, but maybe that's not the issue.

What's your edge? Supply never struck me as a good business. There are enough rebranders out there to satisfy the market. Someone else will always have a lower bottom line than you. Makes it tough to compete. There could be something in installing, but I'm sure you'd get an earful about how tough that game is too. But I'd guess that it's easy enough for the average joe to buy the gear. Not so installing it all. Could be something there if you have it in you. Good luck.

Than criminals must be hitting every house with an ADT sign in the front flower bed. Out here, it's every other house. Criminals who are looking for the real loot, the real money, aren't wasting their time on houses in middle class neighborhoods with signs and baby cams proped up by the front door. Those cues tell them nothing about the fortunes inside, nor do they waste their time. Our neighborhood is left to kids and drug users who have to simply smash and grab, with little contemplation about it. Cameras that watch over the REAL scores are in upper middle class and rich neighborhoods. That's the systems worth beating. All I know is I'd rather do common sense things, including signs, to deter the problem rather than hope my cameras provide a 'gotcha' after the fact. Good security is most times applied in stages- layers. No one thing does it all.

Rory, what the HELL goes on there! Is it really crime central there, where you deal with it on a constant basis? If it's that active, I'd be...well, exhausted and probably bail out to a different area rather than continue to sweep the tide. I just don't agree with that at all. I put stickers on every lower floor window, well before I put cameras in place. Those stickers could have detered crime that I'll never know about. I think it's unrealistic to keep exterior cameras private, just as I think seasoned criminals make it part of the routine to know if the home has them, signs or not- and wear hoodies and masks anyway. You're never going to really deter a determined criminal with a sign or cameras. A pointed gun, yes, most times. But not signs and cameras- or alarms for that matter. They WILL get what they want and are willing to risk it all to do so. But the most important thing to do to help yourself is to not be a good target in the first place, and that comes down to deterence. Exterior lights help big time, and I believe signs do too. It may not deter the criminal who WILL have their way. But it will for most. The key is to make the criminal decide your home is not a good risk, and go elsewhere. We had a home robbery spree recently in the general vacinity and it was determined that every house hit had one thing in common- no dogs. Houses next door to the houses hit all had dogs. Lights, cameras, alarms, signs- it can mosly come down to a damn dog in the end. All that said and I have not put up signs for cameras yet. Good ones cost bucks. Cheap ones are crap and don't last a year, and look less serious to me as well. I want good ones that last and look good too. Coming soon.

People are bidding on them like crazy already. Not sure which dome they use here at work. I'll have to take a look. And yeah, 420tvl seems suck for the price.

Not that I know of- at least that's not the seller. I don't know anything much about ptz's. While this one interests me, a 1/4" 420 tvl seems like big step back, although I'd mostly be monitoring this camera during the overnight. Perhaps the picture would be acceptable. I don't mean to bust into this thread- it's the OPs' question that matters. Maybe this looks like something interesting to him, I don't know. All I know is my eyeball and bullet cameras do fantastic in all weather. Domes seem to suffer from all kinds of quirks- the ones I monitor at work being no exception. I just don't like domes. Hence, this looks like what I wondered could be done- domeless.

I was cruising around ebay last night and came across this design, which I think is pretty cool. It's a ptz but not a dome. Frankly, I don't like domes at all. Too high maintanence. This has ok specs, I suppose- from what I can unravel! BIN @ 360.00 balloons. China. It's the buying from China thing that I don't usually do with ebay. And yeah, yeah, ebay crap this, ebay crap that. But this one interestes me and I can't help it! LOL! Talk me outa it, please! Features? -27x optical zoom camera, color to B/W , with IR-CUT switch, realize IR lamp control and zoom camera IR CUT switch synchronization, reach to perfect IR night effect. -Double Case protect Camera device, continuing work in temperature lower than 50 degree C. -Use high quality components, high minute subset into TV, long life Conductive slip ring, High-quality Belts, Stable operation, high reliability. -Adopted domestic the most advanced "zoom and optics sync" way control IR lamp, in effect solve "electric torch" domino effect, original creation intelligent control IR lamp on and off, utilize IR light source in reason; Design special camera, IR lamp sub-depot separate system, no sphere case glisten, fogging malady. -Constant voltage constant current circuit design, ensure IR lamp work in long life. -Low Power Consumption. -Optional temperature control system, suitable for working in high or low temperature environment. High-technica, beautiful and firm Structure. -Triple lightning protection technology, effectively raising the speed dome mine and anti-jamming capability. Specifications: Image sensor: 1/4 inch sharp CCD Signal model: PAL/NTSC Horizontal resolution: Color: 420TVL B/W:600 TVL Effective pixel: 582(Horizontal)x 512(Vertical) Minimum illumination: 0LUX(with IR), Color to B/W, IR SENSOR S/N ratio: >=50dB(Enhanced) Backlight compensation: On/Off White balance: Auto Electronic shutter: 1/50 to 1/12000 seconds Focus length: 3.2 to 86.4mm Optical focus: 27x Focus: Auto/manual, take high-performance DSP to realize complete digit and ultra-high speed focus function Presets: 256 Patrol track: 4groups, each can record 100 actions Cruise track: Total 30 presets can join cruise, can setting the presets' residence time Other scans: Support Horizontal scan, deuce area scan, scan random Rotation range: Horizontal and Vertical Min 0.01 degree,Max 200 degree/S Communications: RS-485, PELCO D, PELCO P OSD: Yes Temperature control: Built-in Intelligent IR lamps: 50m, auto-switch the IR distance according to the focus of camera or force to turn on/off the IR lamps through software Power supply: DC12V/3A Material: Aluminum shell, waterproof IP66 Work environment: -20 degree C to +50 degree C(select temperature control accessories), <95%RH

I get that with a couple cameras sometimes, but not like that- not that bad. It's small spots of odd color being picked up, usually from something multicolor itself. As if it's too color complicated to sort it out just right. The only common denomiator is the cameras are not TDN cameras, having no ICR filters. Are yours TDN cameras?

Wasn't this thread really about motion sensing!

All happened within a minute- I saw it was back so I edited out my post cause I thought it was ME who was losing it! Anyway....

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I read a lot of stuff here. I've only ever seen moderation a few times with a trimmed thread or locked threads. I must have missed what you're talking about. Perhaps post a thread in the bench test forum to get a link to other cctv forums. You're request won't be seen by many in this thread. Good luck.

You know I looked around a great deal for forums on cctv, originally last year. There was really only this one and another, mostly dead forum. I'm a member of many forums, as well as an administer of my own. My opinion, this is a really good forum. It has different levels of skilled people and a number of diverse opinions, from diy'rs like me weighing in what I can from my own experiences, right or wrong, and pro installers to help set the record straight when needed. And mostly, the crap storms are minimal- but even THAT kind of thread can yield great info- much like this thread. You can try, but I doubt you'll find a more active forum than this one on the subject of cctv, for better or for worse. And this one appears to be getting more popular all the time. Grab some popcorn. You'll be sandbagging even if you never post another thought. We know it...

Could be something screwy with the dvr's motion detection. You should not, no matter what, have to keep the sensitivty at absolute minimum. As a last resort, I would try two more things. Mask the road in all places in your FOV. It's nice to have an eye on the road, I know. But that'll keep motion tripping for a host of reasons beyond just passing cars all day and night. Also if you haven't, sit and watch what's going on in each camera for a while. At the dvr's monitor, watch what's happening on screen each time there is detection. If a reason for most detections doesn't become clear, there's something more wrong going on. I know that email alerts is important to some people, but with outdoor cameras it's not really a good idea, imo. I have my sensitivity settings really fine tuned for each of my eight cameras, as well as really detailed blocking- and my blocking is WAY more tricky than the pics you posted. I still get a decent amount of motion triggers even on still nights. It's the outdoors. I wouldn't want all that email, that's for sure. Good luck.

1/3" @ 2.8mm is good and wide. Should be fine. The thing is though, learning by installing crap for customers? Ouy- anyone can hang a shingle on the front lawn I guess.

Is a cameras menu display able to be tweaked while viewing it's channel in the drv- with the dvr's mouse to adjust the settings? Or must a separate screen hooked up right to the camera always be used?

Thanks all. I'd do it as I've done it thus far- laptop at the cameras viewing remotely to setup.

Guess I'm a bit exhausted. I figure the settings must be tweaked on the camera while viewing with whatever.