shockwave199

My CCD IR cams, no IR cut, by default have good color I think. If I want a beautiful color shot, I take a picture with a good digi cam. I did however find a slight adjustment to hue can help certain cameras. I've experimented with another setting too- saturation. That one can really make things too funky overall, even at night- making the picture kinda purple. But careful adjustment between hue/saturation can be useful. I have new cameras and even without IR cut, they're really fine. COMS cameras were just not good with color overall- at least the cheap ones I had. I got acceptable clothes color which is good actually, but landscape colors were all off. But I'm not completely bent on IR cut. I like my one camera that has it, but my other seven that don't looks fine to me as well. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Dan

Guess I'll toss my current likes in there too. This system and these cameras are working well for me and I would recommend them to anyone looking to get a decent system up and running. Check my signature link and my youtube channel for vids on the whole setup. Good luck to you. Dan

For me it's all about motion sensing and being choosy about the hours per day I actually record. But being residential, I have that luxury. I only record 12am- 5am each night. I'm home enough otherwise, and between 9pm-12am I'm monitoring closely, live. The witching hour is 12am-5am and I can even be more specific and say it's more like 1am-4am. That's the sweet spot to worry about most. But I'm not comfortable recording anything less than 12-5am. Since I remotely monitor all night long, I can disable a camera recording if it turns out large files are being dedicated to the web building quest of a freakin spider. Or if the damn thing just dangles about half the night. If rain pulls in or if it's just raining steady all night, I turn off recording all together, figuring even criminals avoid crime during heavy rain storms, but monitor that much more closely live. I'm not about to fillup my hard drive on rain drops, that's for sure. But for me- it's motion sensing. And I've really sculpted the detection zone per camera as specifically as I possibly can, which helps a lot. But I can't wait until it gets cold enough for the flying insects and spiders to just die, die, die! That accounts for 100% of my triggers thus far and truthfully, may it continue. I'd rather be annoyed than in a panic. I set my post trigger recording to the lowest setting- 30 seconds. This helps keep file sizes small too. If it's continued motion it'll keep recording anyway. But if it's a passing bug, better to quit after 30 seconds. I keep my pack set at 15 minutes, and my eight cameras at D1[x2], and HD1[x6] at 20fps. Triggered file sizes with those settings are typically between 2mb-4mb, bigger for moronic stubborn bugs. All that considered, my 500gb hard drive has plenty time/room for recording. But that's a residential luxury, with me being able to actually monitor live all night long. One thing I may do is not backup if needed, but run my video software to do a screen recording of the event. At high resolution settings in the software, it would surely be quicker to backup that way rather than rely on the dvr or that software re-rendering to avi, a horribly slow process it seems. Dan

Those were my initial picks too, and still are. Although the one wo/ir cut does have a magnificent blue sky! LOL! I figured the slightly yellow tint was actually the sun peaking through and time of day. This one isn't really much of a controlled test, but it is interesting. More! Dan

Actually more often than not- you are correct. True when sepaking about most any gear. Especially when you're in the company of people who use mostly high quality gear. That's where you're usually wrong. The camera may be just fine, but personally I don't have the money for a 'it's everything I ever wanted camera.' There's ALWAYS a better camera you'll want and it's usually just after you get done hanging the camera you figure will be 'all you ever wanted'. You'll see! Far as dvr's, unless this is a time sensitive MUST do now situation, I'm gonna suggest you wait for a little bit on the whole thing. Hang around and read. Compare products. Save a little money up. NOBODY wants just one camera- nobody. Not even you. You may think that, but it ain't true. Hang that first camera and you'll want three more. Hang them and you'll insist to the missus that you need EIGHT cameras to fully cover the property. And truth is- you really do. I always say in life- do not buy a two bedroom house- terrible investment. And now that I'm into this stuff, I say do not buy anything less than an eight channel dvr. You WILL fill those channels up. It's inevitable. So you ask- what should you look for in a dvr? EIGHT channels, for starters. Don't even whisper four. [i heard that] Then go for as many channels of D1 you can afford. I could afford only two channels of D1 at the time, out of eight. I'm surviving. Get one that'll do D1, HD1 [half D1], and CIF. D1 is wonderful. All three is flexibility. Frames per second- all the way up to 30 should be supported. Low/medium/high bit rates. VGA standard, or HDMI too if you want. Make sure the darn thing actually comes with a hard drive INSTALLED! A cheap price may be because it doesn't include the hard drive. 500gb at minimum. 1 or 2TB much better. All the usuals- recording schedule, motion sensing. You meantion 'go at least 14 days'. I'm guessing that's recording time. Good motion sensing options are a must to help that. Alarm- try and get one that supports triggering a remote alarm. They do support that, but not all of them- especially in the cheap market. Look at the remote client software and make sure you like it for the dvr you're choosing [youtube a good source to investigate]. Oh, you don't need remote capability? Quiet- you will. Look into it. It should do web activex, it's own remote software, and smart phones. Even cheap ones support that. Audio in/out. Confirm the thing is quiet. Mine doesn't make a sound. Some are as loud as a vacuum- I kid you not. USB- it should support at least archiving to it, and firmware updates from it. Mouse. That should do it for now. But hang. Don't jump on stuff just because. Read here, read PDF manuals, shop, listen, buy, be happy. Good luck to you. Dan

I deal with this on one cam too. Honestly, the best thing to do is mount the camera somewhere else. Or reposition it a bit. You have to get the lamp light out of view enough to eliminate the glare, or compromise and settle for a little bit. I've seen really great cameras handle direct light in the shot super great, but there's still direct light in the shot. And at what cost. Surely there's an alternate place to mount it- I hope. Or maybe get a camera that doesn't have such a wide angle- a tighter zoomed shot. This is what I deal with- a lamp post on the left and security lights on the right. This framing gets my cars just right and the lamp post just out of frame, but it's tough and a compromise. This camera has 10 high power IR's that stay off when the lamp post on the left is on. Good thing though- the short wall on the right is like putting your hand right in front of the camera and whites it out when IR's come on. IR's off- when the security lights dim, notice the lamp post flare on the left IR's off- when the security lights are on full, the lamp post glare is gone- I'll probably move this camera. After our hurricane blows through, I'll probably have a LOT of stuff to move. But bottom line- avoid light in direct view at all costs. It's always a compromise that way. Better to move the camera. Good luck. Dan

Newegg still has plenty of the old school Linksys WRT54GL routers in stock, I just ordered two yesterday. My old school wrt54gl sucked big time. No more linksys for me- especially that one. But, YMMV. Dan

I'd rather have the analog. The cars and the people are too small in your other shots. We get down to single digits here, but mostly in the teens [F]. I hope my cams will survive. Dan

I have only one suggestion- get crackin. I love this stuff! Dan

Yes, I do agree- the Empire looks sweet. But the gad's can be adjusted in the dvr per channel. I mean, you do see that in your dvr right? Per channel, your picture adjustments should at least be hue, brightness, contrast, and saturation. That can help any camera and it absolutely would help your gads improve and be closer in looks to the empire- if you were to keep a mix of cameras. And especially the brightness/contrast for the gads, from your pictures. But I get it- CNB or not. Good luck. Dan

This can be adjusted in the picture settings to help that. Noodle with brightness/contrast. Dan

Thanks all. Appreciate it. Btw- short of not being able to do what I want with triggering a siren remotely from my dvr, I've narrowed it down to this- Hopefully all will go well. Dan

I have a line going from my router straight to my dvr. Can I hook up a d-link 4 port hub to that line and then plug my dvr and a remote power switcher in that hub- having them both share that same feed hooked up to hub? Or must I connect the remote power switcher to the router on it's own separate port? Dan

As noted by the OP, each channel is at default settings correct? The 520tvl could be adjusted to be visually closer to the 700, but the 700 by default visually looks to be a better camera for sure. Dan

Hit your local home store- many of them support this function. Not only is some exterior light good for security and helpful for cameras at night, but it's also a lot better to have dim light constant on and then go bright, as opposed to dark to full light. Less hectic. Dan

Is it a real worry- that they get a false trigger? My driveway has one where it's on constant from dusk/dawn but it's at half bright until it's triggered and then goes full bright. My others on the sides of my house are off until triggered on. There's false triggers, but nothing to get in a twist about. I set mine to five minutes on instead of a short one minute. On buggy or leaf falling nights, at least it's not on/off a lot- when it's on it stays on for a while. Better solid on than on/off like crazy, which is why the half bright ones are great cause they're always on. And the added light does help. Check my night time vid in my signature. The cams are much cheaper than the ones being discussed here, but they do a good job in darkness. Good luck- there's SO much to choose from it kind of makes your head spin. The very minute you're done hanging your last camera and you love what you have, someone else shows an even better one for a great deal. To me, as long as you have a view as noise free as possible in low light/darkness- you have something useful. Seeing something going wrong in a noisy picture where you can't make out exactly what's going on- HELL. Avoid that. Dan

That's great- you got a good one. I haven't been so lucky with any of them. We'll see with this one. Dan

Yes- half D1. I only have D1 on the first two channels. I meant highest bitrate. Sorry. Dan

Very cool! Nice post. I have those GS658b's as well. Here they are in HD1 in best res in the dvr- Full dark except for inside lights through the window- 65 Watt overhead exterior light- Here they are in the same screen context as your picture, cams 3 & 4- Here's a GS4005CF Exview WDS, a 650tvl I really like that Empire you have there. Great stuff. Dan

Is there no easy solution to be able to turn on a siren remotely from the internet and then turn it off again? I remotely monitor my home overnight via an eight channel CCTV system and it's great. But I wish that if I spotted someone on my property at 3am, I could give a quick siren hit on & off to scare them off. I've seen some crumby home automation software and I've seen a power strip of sorts that you can control via remote commands, but it was pricey. And I don't want to call into a module to do it via a phone call. Anyone have any ideas? I can't believe there isn't some simple IP siren these days. Oh well. Any help would be great. Dan

Assuming I have everything hooked up, my alarm output options are off, NO, NC. If I just switch to the opposite of what is set for the siren, would that trigger it? Say it's all setup to NO. Would just switching to NC trigger it, and switching back to NO turn it off? Or perhaps choosing off would turn it off, and then back to NO to rest it. I don't have a simple trigger on/off in this dvr. I can't tell you how my head is hurting over this thing. I'm not sure whether to just get a 12VDC SPDT relay and hook it up as per it's directions to my dvr, or spend another 100 bucks or so on a separate web relay power strip, where you plug in appliances, such as maybe a siren if I can find one with a typical ac plug for power outlets, and trigger the outlets remotely. These web power strips look cool actually, but it's a LOT more money to invest if my dvr and a simple 12VDC SPDT relay can do the job. I so wish I knew this stuff. Any further insights are helpful. On page one of this thread I link to the manual and it's power specs for the alarm i/o and 12v slot for this. Anything further in extremely simple terms would be helpful. Thanks a ton. Another pdf for my dvr covering this- http://qsee.custhelp.com/ci/fattach/get/51/1307972717/redirect/1/filename/how%20to%20setup%20Alarm%20Recording%20-%20QS.pdf This is the siren I'm interested in- 6 to 12 volt DC combination speaker and siren driver Dual tone - warble or steady Enclosed wires, easily tampered 30 watt power rating Protective cabinet available (743BE) Built-in Tamper Plate protects wires from attack Could that be wired up to a typical wall wart power adapter in the event I get the web power strip? For the realy, this pdf- which would be the right scheme for my dvr? http://download.homesecuritystore.com/downloadmanual.aspx?FileName=ELK-912_Install.pdf Sorry for all the questions. Dan

I see this setting in my remote software- iframe. Per channel, you can choose yes or no? Anyone know what iframe is? Some kind of codec? Dan

Thanks, and no- not much noise at all. These cameras have all but eliminated picture noise at night. And yes- show your setup like Adam said! Btw- here's my last new camera on my front door- just installed yesterday. Another gadspot and a really nice upgrade from what I had there- Dan

Whatever you get- I strongly recommend getting an eight channel system at minimum. I thought four would be fine for me too and honestly, I could get by with four. But I am SO glad I got an eight channel because eight cameras really covers almost everything. You WILL want eight cameras, trust me. Ya can't stop at just four. Truth be told, it's hard to stop at just eight. Dan

It could be unique to belkins native software, but this belkin is anything but unique. Typical off the shelf plug & play. In fact it's a Play F7D4302. Along the way I would just hit the reboot button the front if there was a stall. Then I found the self heal down in the maintainence section. Fantastic for keeping things fresh and snappy. From the info- "Self-Healing" App Keeps Your Network Up and Running The Play also includes Belkin's "Self-Healing" Application, which analyzes your network and provides automatic detection and resolution of any problems. These routine maintenance scans help to ensure that you're always working on the clearest possible wireless channel. And if the network does require your attention, a notification will appear on-screen--no more guessing what the blinking lights under your desk mean. Interestingly enough, 80 reviews at amazon puts this router at a low 2 stars. So far so good for me though. Dan