shockwave199

I like the black one- blue second. Would this work with my q-see 408? I would love to try this. Dan

Thanks. This vid's quality is bugging me- I may redo it. I've since realized that the reason why the time clock is so steady is because I didn't have it in LAN setting. Yes, the clock is steady but the stream rate is lower. It's not terrible, equal to about 15 fps, but I'm used to LAN being nearly real-time movement. The streaming lag only comes into play when I view remotely at work- their hodge-podge of a server and probaby slower internet as well makes it tough, but it is way better at LAN setting and lagging a little bit as opposed to a steady clock and reduced streaming rate. I'm still messing with it though- trying to find the right balance. That balance being not just the picture, but how useful the motion is if a problem really arises. I don't want someone crashing through the front door only to have me miss it visually because my streaming rate is so low in remote viewing. That reality has me rethinking placement a bit in some spots. As far as my new cameras, I got all gadspots. I picked up one a few weeks ago and I'm really pleased with it, so I decided to get all eight channels worth of their cams. I got a couple different ones for certain areas. Look in the security camera forum here for my gadspot thread with pics. I might have bought better q-see cams but I'm not paying 100 bucks for a 520 tvl cam. Gadspots prices are much better considering this is all budget gear anyway and in my experience thus far, their cameras smoke q-see's anyway. You can be sure I'll be doing a demo of all the gadspots once their up for all to see and judge for themselves. Btw- the cams you see in this vid are q-see 400tvl cmos cams. Fine during the day, but my biggest needs are at night and better cams are needed. In a couple years I'll probably get better ones yet again- such as TDN's. Dan

Hi- having just about completed my home install and just above a clueless newbie, I would suggest a stand alone dvr and and eight camera system. I originally planned on four cameras, but VERY happy I went with eight. You'd be surprised how easily you can put eight cameras to work, even just residential. And frankly, it gets a bit addictive too. What I have learned is that it's best to put together the pieces of the system separatley. I can only speak from experience with a Q-see dvr, but my eight channel has been absolutely flawless since the moment I turned it on, and it has weathered power outages and all. Love this thing. I remotely view via the internet and it's great. I like the dedicated dvr as opposed to a pc card. I like gear that's designed to do the job specifically, as opposed to involving a computer. But that's me. I've also come across cameras from gadspot [dot com] and I am very pleased with the quality for the price point. I have one and I'm in the process of replacing all my q-see cameras with them, in different varieties according to where they're placed. My gadspot camera has endured heavy rain, lightening storms, and power outages and keeps on giving me a fine picture day and night. So a ballpark breakdown of a DIY system installed by yourself could look like this- DVR with 500 TB HD installed- 250.00 [look on amazon for the Q-See QS408-5, the user pictures are mine and I have a video review as well in the review section] You can put a 1 TB HD in there as well, and even hook up a usb external HD for archiving- any size you choose. I'm assuming you have a computer screen to hook up to. Eight cameras of at least decent quality for viewing day/night 60- 100 bucks. Let's say 75 bucks a camera. I can already hear the pro installers laughing at this one, but you can be very happy with gadspots in this price range, imo. Check my thread for gadspots in the security camera forum here for pics. Cables are tough. You're mostly gonna use 60- 100' lines and there are varying qualities out there in the premade variety. Let's say, shopping around, you come up with shielded 100' lines for 25 bucks a pop. Cheaper lines are less, heavier lines where you install the BNC & power connections yourself is more. UPS- you seriously need a ups with surge protection to plug the whole system into. I went to staples and picked one up for 50 bucks on sale. So in all ballpark- 1,100 bucks. If you need some odds and ends, make it 1,200 or so. If your budget can handle a bit more- put the money into better cameras where needed for near dark conditions. But that budget can give you a nicely viewable system and depending on how you install the cameras, it'll give you useful evidence captures. You have to break your ass installing the whole thing but in the end, this is a realistic budget for a DIY install with budget gear that gives good results. Of course with anything, your mileage may vary. Good luck! Dan

Rory, that first pic on Cam 7 is delicious. " title="Applause" />

My opinion- spend the money on regular exterior lighting back there. Light alone is the best first line deterent. It will also help take the load off of cheaper IR cams in total darkness, which they're not all too good at. Win- win. You get light as a deterent and you clean your cameras night picture quality up nicely. Dan

Yes, that's the nice way of saying cheap runs deep. I get it. Dan

Ah yes- thanks for that clarification Rory. I wish I could do that. I just assumed it came down to my cheap cams having only 400tvl, but maybe it's more so they're actually focused for a set distance and I'm not at it with my placement? Dan

Ha! Done that one! Thus far I have cheap cams that auto focus so the only thing I need to do is adjust the angle/viewing area. I learned very quickly to bring my cell phone up with me so I can call the honey while she sits and views the placement remotely on the laptop- all from the comfort of our couch. Put her on speaker phone and whala- LOTS of up and down the ladder saved. Especially since I got better at communicating what I want to see, and her communicating what she's seeing. I rarley have to go back up to adjust after our dance. Dan

Wow, just when I get to thinking my meager camera upgrade is great, I see this and reality sinks in- I'm wading around in the shallow end of the pool! LOL! I could go nuts and spend tons 'o money on this stuff- I'd love to. But I have to stay on the shallow end for a while. When my cheap stuff dumps out, THEN one by one I'll probably upgrade to the good cameras. The thing for me is, I spent so much time and consideration running all my wires and placement, and noodling to get remote viewing set up- why would I want to look at anything else but great now? Good lord- another 'thing' I'm into now to run me dry! How much IS this camera anyway? Ballpark? I may have to order their catalog. It's just...another catalog though!

Ok, so I received this camera today. And as I figured, I'm very pleased. That doesn't surprise me considering what I'm upgrading from- a 400TLV cmos camera. I'm very impressed with this gadspot, I must say. It's double the size and a weighty, quality build. I feel confident this camera will hold up to the weather, considering the quality of the shell. For me, this is a great upgrade for my applications. To others who are used to high end cameras, it still may be a chuckle I'm sure. What impresses me most about this gadspot is the night IR. I was hoping 36 LEDS would be a serious upgrade for a spot almost entirely in the dark. It really is. The pictures isn't the actual spot I'll be installing the camera, but it's mostly dark even in that shot. With the gadspot, the field of view is wider, color is truer, and focus is better. An overall increase in picture quality, for sure. But I think the pictures tell the story- that being a budget DIY'er getting a system in place as best as I can. Gadspot [520TVL CCD 36 LEDS] daytime- very cloudy after a storm- Q-see [400TVL Cmos 24 LEDS] in the same window on the opposite side- Q-see cam in night shot- Gadpsot in night shot- Now, I have other q-see cams in spots doing much better at night, but they are helped greatly by added exterior lighting. This picture of the q-see cam in darkness is particularly bad, but it represents the severe limitations of that camera in total darkness. And that's what brought me to gadpsot. Long/short, [if that's possible now!]- my boat is floated. Dan

I did notice the higher end cams have much fewer IR's but state a much further throw. Interesting. I'm in the last stages of a DIY install around my home and bought a q-see dvr/8 cam package. I did a little review of some of the features here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukpvn1BijzU&feature=related All things considered, I'm juggling entry level gear here but I do think the dvr is fantastic. I never heard of gadspot cameras but I saw an install youtube vid and checked out their site. This particular camera offered more for less bucks than all the other offerings in it's class, so we'll see. I have learned a great deal reading up here though. With whatever I do, I usually go full throttle high end stuff but I had to be realistic with my situation. I sit at a desk all night and watch my employers cams and now my home cams too. My home install is enough to give me a great look-see at what's going on, should I need to make calls- all for under 500 balloons. Far from top shelf, but 100% better than seeing nothing! I also understand the foliage color with these cheaper cams can be inaccurate, but for some reason it's right on the money for clothes colors during the day. B&W at night, obviously. I'll put up a post when I get the camera installed. It's probably of no interest to many here, but who knows. I probably should have posted this in residential in the first place- but those forums are slow movers man! Thanks for the novice indulge Rory. Dan

Well, since no one knows, or cares, I'll let YOU all know. I picked up a GS330B- a 520TVL today with 36 IR's in it. I have this one spot on my property that's mostly dark until a motion light comes on, so those 36 IR's should come in handy- as well as the mounting bracket for my install. I'll be interested to see how this camera works out. At this level of camera, which of course isn't very high, you can actually pay a good deal more for a good deal less in these cameras. Serious shopping confirms this. For what it is, if the camera does the job well, it could prove to be the best in it's class at a really good price. We'll see and I'll be as objective as I can when it's installed. Dan

I'm assuming most of your false triggers are at night? I'm sure the picture quality is more noisy at night, correct? My CMOS 400TVL cams are acceptable during the day but noisy at night. It is possible to dial out a lot of night view noise, in my experience. That is, if your dvr has the settings to do so. Those settings could be in your display page, in the dvr. My q-see dvr has four settings for picture quality- chromacity, luminosity, contrast, and saturation. The ones you want to adjust are luminosity and contrast. The default settings usually make a pretty bright picture and can yield a very noisy picture at night. So at nightfall, adjust luminosity and contrast to help reduce picture noise. You can't dial all of it out, but you can clean up the quality quite a bit. Then in daylight, make sure you haven't affected that picture quality too much. It's a balance between the two views. This is assuming you have a noisy picture at night which may be causing false triggers, and you have the settings I mention to help correct it. Having another light souce somewhat away from the camera can also help to redirect bugs to it, instead of your IR camera. Good luck. Dan

Hi, first post here. I was compelled to chime in from a typical diy'er on a budget perspective because I think that's the nature of the OP. When I assessed my needs it was simply to have all night access to view my home remotely, while I did the same for my employment on a seriously expensive open eye sytem. I'm monitoring one, why not two? With my honey alone overnight at home, I felt it was about time I did this. So I looked into and shopped for a few weeks and realized that not only couldn't I afford even a midrange system, I didn't really want one. An entry level package was right for me. I settled on a q-see QS408-811-5 package. Keep in mind I'm used to monitoring an open eye system and really good cameras. What have I learned between the two? Frankly, it's mostly about the cameras. This q-see dvr is as capable as the MUCH more expensive open eye dvr. About the only thing that separates the two is the difference between archiving to a USB stick in the q-see, or to a writeable disc drive in the open eye dvr. The q-see dvr is an eight channel networking unit that has all the features and control you could want- even for PTZ. I mean seriously, look at the capability- it's great. Where the system becomes entry level is the cables and the cameras. A CMOS 400 TVL on 60-100' budget cable is, well, a compromise for sure. And yet, I get accurate color representation for clothes and face ID during the day- quite accetable. And IR at night with some added lights outside gives me acceptable quality- certainly what I was looking for in the first place- a way to keep an eye on my house remotely overnight. I wouldn't dare set email notification and I certainly haven't recorded yet. The bugs from the lights alone would keep the thing recording all night. I'm simply ready to manually record if needed and save a ton of HD space and horse power. But for about 450 balloons total, I'm seeing my property now, where I was blind previously. My veiw is B&W at night and a bit grainy, but I was blind- now I see. So if I may, I would suggest either piecing together a budget system or looking into a package. I only know q-see equipment and I must say, for the short bucks it's impressive- albeit down here at entry level systems. The dvr's, at least my experience with this one, are very capable. Put the bucks into cables and perhaps 520TVL or CCD cameras, or as much as you can afford, and you'll get what you need. Cables and cameras- that's really where it's at. IME, the budget dvr's are ready for prime time. Feed them well and you'll nail it. Good luck. Dan