shockwave199

Thanks.... I get dealer price on that cam, but i guess i wont post here...i have called 2 or 3 times and always got someone on the phone...although they weren't much help...lol Also, you didnt say what cams you use...but 700 tvl is way over what can be displayed anyway, correct? 600 tvl or even 550 is sufficient for analog....? thx I get my cams from gadspot. I don't like to seem like I'm pushing the place too much, so I usually figure people will watch my signature link vids and find out if they want. I only mention their 700 tvl line because at the moment it's the best spec cams they have. Plenty to choose from there though. Good luck.

The amazon info says two different specs about the IR count. Is it 36 or 42 IR lamps? It may be fine, but that's a lot of money for a fairly run of the mill consumer camera and specs. Check out the cameras I use- the 700 tvl line is very reasonable. The other PIA thing about qsee is that you almost never can get hold of them, be it on the phone or webchat help. If the camera should be faulty, be prepared to wait upwards of a month for an RMA number for return. And that just to get the camera returned. The turn around on their product is much too long and support availability is lacking, ime. For that alone, and a seemingly over priced camera, I'd look for something else. Good luck.

Most times when I put forth the effort to try and help someone new, the 'someone new' disappears. Rather than waste my effort and breath yet again, have a look at this thread, some food for thought- viewtopic.php?f=54&t=28576

They may be using the wrong bulbs for the position as well. Standard thread-base PAR bulbs come in a wide variety of coverage patterns, from very wide floods, to very tight spots. True- all that could help but not enough. Problem is the motion light was there first- a two bulb fixture and the bulbs are aimed wide. And then the camera was installed poorly, imo, with no consideration of the problem to come. Just be aware of such things when motion lights are part of the equasion work the situation accordingly.

If you can view the footage, perhaps you should consider a cheap movie maker program and do a screen shot recording while you watch the dvr footage. That will give you a file that you can work with and save as any type you wish. In fact, try this for still images- while playing the footage do a print screen. Pause the dvr footage at good ID frames and push PrtSc button on the computer keypad. That saves an image to the clip board. Then open a picture program such as photoshop or the like, make a new picture, and paste and the screen shot will dump in making the photo. Then crop the photo to just the drv image with date/time stamp and try not to make the image too large or it will lose sharpness. A bit smaller and clearer is better. With these approaches, you don't really need to convert the file if it's a problem. Best of luck. Dan

Since I'm a nut with pics, here's some new ones I grabbed when I returned home tonight, about dusk. Nothing says it better than pics, imo. And my exposed cameras need a glass cleaning- been a while and it shows. My front door cam- my best cam and why I say TDN is a must My back door cam Second back door cam, I'm getting a varifocal cam soon That pic is ok, but who am I really for ID right? Tighter FOV needed. Here's really where a varifocal is needed and a good demonstration why, in these two pics. If I want to ID people at my cars, I need a tighter shot. I'll be getting the new cams soon, featuring a 2.8-12mm varifocal. Me at the car, but for ID not good Close to the camera, better It's a give and take but that's why I believe varifocals are a must. Hope some of this helps you a bit when considering your camera needs and placement. Good luck. Dan

1- Get as big an HD as you can afford, especially if you are going to record 27/7. I do not- I only record 12am to 5am Mon-Fri & weekends, as I work & monitor remotely overnight. I manually set other hours to record as needed. I do very little recording during the day when I'm home- only when I leave the house. I have motion and masking settings set very well to avoid eating up HD space over false triggers. I even manually turn off recording if it's raining, to avoid oodles of rain drop files. I use a 500gb drive and started recording in august using this profile. I still have 425gb free. Needless to say, I'll have a TON of recording time and 500gb is fine for me. But 24/7- get as big an HD as the dvr will support. 2- Front door, driveway, side door for starters. Note- you can hook up a mic on the dvr even without a camera. I do this to monitor inside the home all night during the wee hours. If I should miss something on the cameras, I hear everything inside from the mic. I LOVE having a mic in line. I like my camera views, but it's the AUDIO that really puts me in real time connection to the interior. I don't have interior cameras. No pets and I don't want to encroach too much on the family privacy indoors. If I had a fortune in jewlery/cash/equipment I might have indoor cams, but minus that I run without them. Besides, eight cameras are needed to cover the exterior properly, imo. If you're doing interior too, I'd look for a sixteen channel system. 3- Get cameras with varifocal lenses- you'll be glad you did. Smart IR is a plus. I favor IR cams regardless. WDR and TDN is so worth it. I like bullets and eyeballs. In my signature vids I mention the cameras I use. I highly recommend checking the website out for even better, very reasonably priced cams. I have ton of pics from them in the camera forums. 4 & 5- someone else to answer. The best thing I can suggest is getting 1/3" varifocal cams to REALLY get the best shots for ID'ing, and place those suckers very well. I have a number of wide shot FOV's and I like them, but you need close shots too for better ID capture. Do it all right once and you may save yourself double backing- of course advice I didn't follow! Truth be told, I'm a camera nut. I'm on my second round of switching out my cams and I plan on a full switch out this spring again. When I have the funds, I upgrade the cameras.

To me it's not the tvl at all. It's the difference between sony super had ccd/dsp and super had II ccd sony effio. As long as the 540 is a reasonably good hardy camera overall, it should be fine enough. An extra 200 balloons for 700 tvl is terrible, even if it IS an effio chip and even if it throws in other features such as OSD, varifocal, WDR, TDN, etc. Those are all good things to have mind you, but you don't need to drop upwards of 300 bucks for it. If you must, check out the 700tvl line at gadspot. Lots of features without spending a mortgage payment. But unless your 540 is utter crap, it should be fine provided you place them well. Good luck. Dan

edit- still half asleep. Considering the chips you're talking about, you'd probably be better off saving the money and placing/aiming what you do have super well. The cams you have can probably do the job great if applied really well in every spot. Good luck.

Motion lights can be good, but they can also give you this when they come on- Different camera with IR and no additional light- The first pic I'm blasted in the face with light and no amount of picture tweaking can get useful ID, and I'm wearing eye glasses in the shot. Not one frame of that footage was useful. The second pic at my home gives a totally useful profile shot for ID'ing, including the clothes and glasses. Dan

Process of elimination- camera, cable, and that particular bnc terminal on the card. At least one of them is faulty.

Best to use the camera with a FOV that puts the ID shot at no more than 8' or closer from that camera. That lens will offer a wide view but it won't provide useful ID much further than that- just pictures of people you can't make out too well as evidenced by soundy's day pics, and somewhat the night shots. Being a noob myself and having my cams up for about nine months now, as I reassess my views the one thing I 'overlooked' and didn't 'focus' on was the target ID distance for best ID'ing purposes- not just for the most coverage per camera. Four of my eight cameras are entirely too wide, with a fifth needing adjustment. I accomplished what I wanted initially, but now I think some of my cameras are a bit wasted and in a serious situation, I would have a challenge getting really good ID captures. Everything in the chain is important for sure but as I'm learning now, don't forget one big important thing- your target ID shot and what size lens will give you the best picture of it. Not one of my cameras is a varifocal. Lesson learned. All will be swapped over time for appropriate varifocals for the area. Good luck to you too!

Glad you got this setup and posted! I've been waiting! Setup looks nice. I'm particularly interested in the modulator- looks like a good one. I just can't bring myself to climb around and run more cables to three tv's...or even one! Tell me- what's your favorite cams, in most to least list and why? The patio and deck cams look great to me. Congrats! Dan

I have an older rat shack alarm system- still comes in handy. It calls my cell overnight if there's an alarm. If by chance I don't pick up, there's a succession of other numbers it will call. That, coupled with remote monitoring my camera system makes me like central station. And with an indoor mic to hear what's going on inside the house, not only will I hear an alarm remotely, but I'll see and hear audio in real time of the events unfolding inside the house. Far as cameras, get good ones but I have found good doesn't always mean hundereds of dollars per camera. Pictures are worth a thousand words. Here's some from my cameras, not one of them over 80 bucks and still going strong- Front door, TDN with WDR & IR Other bullet cams- You get the idea. All analog system and aside from the obvious wide shots, ID'ing is fine. I'm not saying don't get the best cams you can afford. But 2,400 bucks on cameras for an 8 channel system may not be needed. Take a look at my vids for my 8 channel setup. The system is clearer than the compressed vids, but you'll get the idea. The front door camera in the vid has been swapped out for the one I took the snap shots of above. Everyones eyes probably roll when I always jump into threads like these with my pics- lol! I'm an example of a modest budget doing the job, that's all. For perspective. Best of luck to you! Dan

I have a little giant and it is indeed a great ladder but it doesn't extend too high. The only thing I suggest is do NOT cheap out and get a light duty ladder for height. I did that once and I avoid that ladder at all costs. Nothing but a wobble fest half way up man. I have no problem at all with firm footing no matter how high. I've rigged up many a casino in vegas with fireworks on skinny ledges on the very top. But a wobbly ladder makes me wanna ****e my pants every time- cannot deal with that. I would only extend any ladder so far before using a bucket, but if it's extension ladders you need- get heavy duty for high extensions, imo. Bucks...but worth it.

Edit- I read the first post wrong- sorry. Comments removed.

I use an APC from staples- a decent one with surge protection but nothing elaberate. I have the dvr and monitor hooked up to it, as well as the cameras. I wouldn't get much time with an extended period of power loss, but our power outages are almost always the short interruptions- couple minutes or so. The UPS allows me to power down the dvr properly, which is my primary concern. I'm not looking to keep everything powered for days, just to keep the system up for the short losses and proper powering down. This has been argued and debated before but I would suggest not getting too hung up on it. If you want one, get one. For the small interruptions and power glitches they are useful, in my experience.

Definitive proof Santa Clause exists, caught on my front door camera. However, identification of who the man really is remains a mystery.

LOL! Fiona, your initial post is confusing, that's all. It had me asking odd questions until I read it again.

I get what you're talking about in general now, but what this detail has to do with anything on this subject still perplexes me! I'm quite sure the domes are tons more expensive than my bullets, but they may still be garbage. They are prone to fogging under the right conditions. My bullets and ball domes don't ever do that. Seems like a seal problem I suppose. And rain tends to hang onto the top half of the domes- droplets that skew the image. I usually wipe the ones I can reach. My bullets and ball domes don't do that- of course the image is skewed during rain but they drip off right away because the lenses are vertically flat- no upper dome for droplets to sit on. And the internal IR's absolutely help...forward out, not backwards into the lense. I will agree though- spiders love the damn IR in cameras. That really is a consideration and from my experience, the very biggest reason to consider external IR. Better yet, exterior lighting in general. It's freeeezing here lately and the absence of spiders is a welcome change. Anyway, this question was asked- Without suggesting companies, I can only suggest considering bullets or ball dome cameras if you need internal IR. They seem to handle internal IR better, ime. Good luck.

So your problem is your cameras are picking up IR from your neighbors cameras? What is that doing to your picture exactly? Are your cameras that close to theirs? I've never heard of this one before! If you want IR inside the camera, go with ball-dome or bullet cameras. Mine have worked out well for me. More and more I don't like typical dome cameras. I understand why they could be a preference in some locations, but mostly I think they suck. Minus IR, in low light situations they may be sensitive, but I haven't seen one sensitive enough to be useful under those conditions- certainly not the ones I monitor at work here. If they have IR inside the dome, it reflects back becomes a problem. And in my experience, weather compromises them frequently. Even light rain distorts the view. Occasional fog inside the dome distorts the view until that clears. All that makes me not prefer domes. Ball domes and bullets- I've had both types up at home through some horrid conditions, with the IR internal, with no trouble at all. But, YMMV.

Agreed. I don't believe remote viewing is the biggest difference between dvr's. It's the varying features and functions the dvr itself offers that is the best thing to pay close attention to. Not that the remote software shouldn't be considered, or what browsers and platforms are supported- pc/mac. But I think the ability of the dvr itself is all important when comparing. I'll only add that imo, the camera should be a TDN with IR cut for best results, and varifocal included is excellent too. And there are good ball-dome type cameras too, if bullets don't float your boat.

Alot of weatherpoof housings use that type of latch, it normally has a rubber seal and you have to push down hard to latch it. I have some Samsung housings (2 latches) similar to that, held up the entire summer with all the thunderstorms and hurricane even, nice housings for only $35 Huh- I'll be. Noted! Dan

That camera does not look to be very weather resistant. Looks like one latch opens it up and not very sealed overall. That's not one I'd choose for outdoor in the elements.

I think it's always best to consider and plan for what you really want to see. Do you want to just observe the 'desperate people who haven't found you yet' walking and hauling your property away with no real way of identifying them- just watch helplessly as it all goes? Maybe the cameras record it all one day while your away from home, only to watch them when you return and come to the realization that nothing in those recordings will help identify anyone or get your property back? Because that's all you're going to accomplish with the camera locations you're talking about. Nothing much good comes from wide shots and elevated shots, except a nice view. And that's fine, provided you include cameras that are placed to actually capture footage that will help positively identify vehicles and people. Throw in the struggles of doing that in darkness, and it gets even tougher. My opinion, this order- - Plan layout to best help monitor and indentify theft - Your budget - The system I'm just a diy guy who installed my own residential analog camera/dvr system. Maybe pro installers will disagree with my suggestions. From my install for illustration- High shots, like from a barn eve or attic window or up on poles Tighter shots, better for ID puropses- A combination of wide and tight shots is nice. I see you got cameras. Don't know what they are, but place them well. I'd guess that five won't be enough. Good luck.