DogCatcher

Hi All, Newbie to home security systems, so I hope my questions over the coming period are not too dumb. I always do a search before posting, and came up blank with this one... Where to run the wires from the outside cameras? The cable that came with the system appears to be CAT 5 or similar, terminated with what looks like an RJ11 connector, slightly smaller than the RJ45. It carries power, video and sound. We have a good sized crawl-space under the house and I can't really get inside the ceiling space as it is around 24" max. I am wondering whether to drill holes through the 6" thick timber wall at the camera and feed the wire through and run it down the inside wall and through the floor to the crawl space. OR, to run it straight down the outside wall and through into the crawl-space which would be the easiest. I realize the wires could be cut, but my thinking on that is the wires could be cut right up at the camera anyway. Also someone cutting would probably get spotted on another camera making their way in to cut wires. So, would anyone like to weigh in on how this should best be done? The camera mounts do not have the ability to feed through and into the mounting surface. They are just basic simple mounts. Kinda like these... http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31uOF4ojLRL._SL500_AA300_.jpg Thanks

Hi All, When I and another newbie announced our choice in cameras the heralded response was, "that is a crap camera." OK, I accept that they may not be the finest in quality with twisted pair connectors. So, is there a range of cameras that use the RJ-whatever 6-wire twisted pair connectors that are actually at the top of the quality heap? I am not suggesting that they could rival BNC connected. The four Samsung cameras I have all vary in quality between each other. I'd like to replace the front door one with something a little better if that is possible. 1: Speaker : Black 2: Video out : White 3: Ground : Copper 4: Speaker+ : Yellow 5: Alarm/Audio : Red 6: Power : Green

>> any regular user fiddling with the DVR would think that there's simply no camera on that channel. Ahhh, OK, thanks, that makes sense, I always think the best of people so that did not occur to me. Over my working life I have owned many businesses and have employed hundreds (maybe thousands) of people and I have always had a hand in the selection process. I cannot imagine needing to covertly watch any of them, but I can understand where some business might need to do it. We had a delivery some years back that was addressed from a Jewelery Store and it had a fist-hole punched through the top of the carton. On further entry, the hand and arm had done a good job of sweeping around in there, but only found the dead hard drive the store was sending to us for data recovery. Naturally they left it in there. I guess that would have been a case where the shipping company went back to covert cameras.

Hi, I am really impressed with my Samsung system, well, other that the poor QC of the cameras. For $220 including four cameras 400ft (4 x 100ft) of cable, a 250G DVR and impressive software I am well happy with the plug and play purchase. Now that I have it all accessible and controllable via the Internet, I have been stepping through the myriad of options. I see a set up for the cameras as "Covert." What does that mean? The cameras have no red LEDs to indicate they are recording and the camera bolted to a wall could hardly be called a "covert installation." Could someone please explain what "covert" applies to in this situation? Thanks

Hi All, On a whim I recently purchased a Samsung 4 x camera and DVD system and began setting it up, but more on that in another forum topic. We live out in the boonies and house break-ins seem to be on the rise. We are retired and have a great early warning system, the dog! A Pitbull/Lab mix with an attitude and a chip on his shoulder. Harry

But that's my point entirely, you can approach the situation a little more tactfully and in a more generous spirit. There is no need to belittle the person and their recent purchase. If I were commenting I would say something along the lines of... Unfortunately the camera you have purchased is limited in quality and features. You have been misinformed by the sales person and what you are wanting to do is just not possible with that equipment. In my professional opinion as an installer with some 20 years experience, the bare minimum you would need to achieve the results you seek would be the CamWhiz 20ZXC-50 Sure "junk" encapsulates that statement, but my dear old Mother used to say, "if you can't say something nice, then don't say anything." Sprouting "junk" to neophytes in this arena is just a bully tactic and it irritates me as these type of forums are supposed to help people and not just show puerile and faux superior some inhabitants of the forum are.

That is the question. Our locked front gate is about a 1000-ft from the house and we can see it clearly. Is a sign on the front gate a good idea or a bad idea? I am thinking of something like, "4 Cameras to Internet" "No recorder to steal" "Must like Prison food" OK, maybe being a little flippant there, but are signs really a deterrent or not to a professional career Burglar? My neighbor who has had cameras for 8+ years has a couple of signs to the effect, "For your safety and security we use video surveillance" Not sure what that means, but that's what the camera installers added to the gates.

Woo Hooo, we have Internet. The Netgear modem and it all sings together. Thanks for the help.

Hi All, I recently bought this package system and am having trouble getting it to work via the Internet as they claim. I can load the internet app from the Samsung server site into IE8, but cannot connect to the 1041-box. I have a Seimens/Sagemcom SE567 ADSL modem and a couple of home computers wire-connected and it all works fine. I have followed the poor-instructions through several times and still cannot get it to hook up. I can see the 1041 in the "Devices" list of the modem, I have set a clear IP address, the correct Gateway and Subnet Mask, ports etc and still nothing. Anyone have experience with this Samsung box? Thanks

Woo Hooo, we have Internet. Got a new Netgear modem and it all sings together. Thanks for the help.

Just got back from buying a new Netgear Modem Router (DGND3300). Not quite the specs of that one you just listed, but I am hoping I can get this to work with my ADSL and the Samsung DVR. Stay tuned. Lemme see, 5-bucks a month saved on the ISP modem it will only take 25 months to pay break even.

You installer guys should not be so knee-jerk sensitive to DIY people. Not everyone can afford nor want a $2000+ security camera setup. To belittle what we have just spent hard earned bucks on is churlish. OK, so it is not the Rolls Royce of systems but many many business have a lot worse and they can still catch crooks from those videos. I don't have a million dollars invested here to protect, I just want to discourage any thief from breaking in and causing damage. My Insurance Deductible is $1000 by choice and that means I get to repair any damages and losses before that breaks even. I seriously doubt that a "perfect" and "modern" set up will be any more of a deterrent than my Samsung system and even with perfect quality video as another poster pointed out, the vandals came back with faces covered. I have seen this knee-jerk before on a Plumbing forum where the first response from any and all professionals is slightly hostile. I have run my own businesses for 35 years and competition is a GOOD thing. The DIYers probably screw up more than they get right an I would not be surprised if some of your work is from fixing DIY gone bad. So, please lighten up with the "old" the "outdated" the "crap" It is what I wanted to spend and I have little intentions of spending much more. I may trial a better camera if I can ever get that original question answered with a brand name. I appreciate the assistance you guys have provided so far, but lighten up with bad-mouthing as I am sure not everything you own is top of the line. Your security systems may be but I bet there are no Lambo or Ferrari in your garages.

Ahh, the old "assumption" technique. You City dwellers are lucky in having a choice of Cable and ADSL, wifi but not so in the boonies. Satellite Internet (Hughes, DirectTV etc) and Cell-phone Internet (Verizon etc) is very common out here and there ain't no wires to cut. However, we actually do have ADSL via the phone lines, but by no means the norm out here.

We will have to agree to disagree on the effective transmission of DC v AC.

I am a newbie to the security camera arena, but not to electronics. For 100-ft, I would suggest you look at a better camera that has a separate 24VAC power supply. The AC travels distances with very little loss compared to DC which loses lots fast. One of the factors that got Edison to light New York City instead of Tesler. Check the "Nelly's Surplus" link to the left of this conversation for a starter idea.

That was my thinking but I am new to this so thought I would pose the question. Thanks. Given that he is taking his time if he is casing the place, it may be the neighbor's signs that put him off as I have not seem him drive down to that dead-end, end of the road. He may have already been down there once before and knows not to bother. There are only three properties on the road. Sign it is then. Thanks to all.

I can log in to the modem and access a lot of stuff, but this new modem (which looks the same as the old one) has some of the more technical stuff hidden in the set up. I can set MAC addresses etc I don't ever recall seeing the DMZ in the old one, but it was probably visible somewhere in there. But it sure ain't in the new one. I suspect they may have removed some configurations to cut down on people poking around in there then calling tech support to fix it. About six months back I tried using a D-Link DSL but I could not get it to hook up correctly. The ISP tech support refused assistance for the D-Link, kinda understandably, but irritating as I suspect there is an access code or protocol setting they would not give me. While they say I can use my own modem, they like to get the 5-bucks a month I pay for using theirs.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the time you guys take to answer in detail. Much appreciated.

Hi All, Am I correct in assuming that the FPS is basically a data storage issue? In that, the more FPS the smoother the motion but no difference in picture quality. But, the higher FPS eats up more hard drive. I have the system set up for motion activation and I gotta say, even though the pic quality is less than I expected the Motion control set up and operation is awesome. I have an option for "Quality" and I set it first to "High" then "Highest" and I can't tell any visual difference. I also tried it at various FPS and there seems to be little, if any difference.

I guess out here in the boonies, we get the entire range. Over the past three weeks I have seen a particular pickup cruising by very slowly. The dog alerts to someone approaching about a 1/4 mile away so I always go out and check. I have seen this truck four times now. He always idles the full distance form the main road to my place and back. There's very few legitimate reasons for cruising by this isolated section of dirt road, so "casing" is at the top of my suspicions list at the moment.

Thanks, but the video simply indicates what I am asking. Changing FPS does not do anything for the quality. Therefore a slower FPS will use less disk space but not degrade the quality other than smoothing motion. Having been a computer programmer for 30+ years I understand the difference in quality due to compression algorithms. I was asking the question as experimenting here I could not discern any difference in picture quality at various Frame rates. Given that it was a very limited test, I was looking for confirmation (or not) that there was no real advantage in using a high Frame rate other than for smoother motion. I had read in a review of this unit that picture quality deteriorated above 7-FPS but I could not see it in my test. Nor can I understand how Frame rate would affect detail, well not until it rose to an extreme rate that the electronics could not cope with.

Thanks Sean.

I have a Samsung SHR-1041K system It has 4 x RJ11 camera inputs. Alongside those it has 4 x "Video Inputs" BNC connectors. Will this Ultrak camera plug right into a BNC video input and work? Thanks

Thanks, but after some digging in the modem/router firmware, it appears to not be possible to configure this modem. It is a modified Seimens supplied by the ADSL company and the limit of configuration is severely limited. The ADSL company recently replaced the modem and this version is VERY limited in what can be set and what configuration options can be even seen. Bummer.

Thanks