knightvision

Kalatels? Yeah, there's been one or two people here who use them. Some people (*cough*rory*cough*) swear by them. They are very good units. I personally find them a little over priced, but excellent quality nonetheless.

You get what you pay for... All I can say.

Rory, This is where pps, f(rames) per second, and f(ields) per second get a little confusing, as people tend to use the 3 interchangeably. When using an interlaced system, the camera is actually taking 2 "pictures" or "fields" a split second apart, and then the DVR weaves these together to create one "FRAME." 30 FRAMES per second is true real time, but the human eye loses the ability to distinguish between lapse and real-time at about 12-13 FRAMES per second. To calculate your pics or fields per second, simply multiply by two.

Sadly enough, the ones I hear about the most are Everfocus and HiSharp (which we are no longer carrying).

You're right Thomas, with our knowledge, being in the business, coverts and dummy's can be painfully easy to spot. A lot of the time, you just have to look for the little flashing light, as an example. We know what to look for. The thing you really have to keep in mind, is that the bad dudes we're trying to catch on camera generally aren't in the business, and don't have the savvy to catch these things at a glance. Especially with a covert, where you're looking potentially for a little change in glass color smaller than a dime (see Silent Witnesses Height Strip Cameras), it's generally not something that they watch for. I guess it comes down to thank god they don't know as much as we do.

While I don't have a link, I will tell you I have yet to see one that works properly. The problem with a mechanical filter sliding in front of the CCD on a Day/Night, is that it actually changes the focal distance on the camera, thus distorting your image. As of yet, I haven't seen a lense that will automatically compensate for this, but have heard rumours that they are not too far off.

Yipster, when trying to determine what frame speed to go with, it is really important to consider what you are trying to capture with your DVR. If you are trying to watch a tractor trailer move across a parking lot, or even just monitor traffic through a store, 60FPS over 8 cameras will be sufficient. Even if you were monitoring a register, it should do the trick nicely. Keep in mind, that 7FPS means someone would have to potentially open the register, put their hand in, take what they want, and get it into their pocket without the camera seeing it, in less than 1/7th of a second. That's pretty damn fast. If you need to watch for things like slight of hand (i.e. casino), then yes, you will need a higher frame rate. Most applications can get away with 7FPS.

I was just approached by this company. Does anybody here have any feedback on their boards/software?

Wow you're generous Tom... I wouldn't have limited inept gov't officials to just one state, or even just one country...

Well, I was more talking about post-wind, while waiting for power to get restored. The hurricane itself is minor, compared with the wait for Essential Utilities to get restored (i.e. waiting 5-7 days for electricity and hot or even treated water)

DVR, When electricity and Natural Gas get shut off, Propane is your new best friend when it comes to cooking your food and boiling water. I love camping and cooking over an open fire, but a barbeque is just so much easier.

That's quite interesting DVR... How would the PTZ react if the Panoramic Dome presents multiple motion areas? How would it determine priority?

I hate when companies do a plug like that... Do they really think we're that dumb?

Having weathered out a Category 2 Hurricane almost a year ago to the day, I would highly recommend against standing near a window Rory. Unwindowed room, in the center of the building. Don't go for the basement. Make sure you are in high ground, and buy as much propane as you can get your hands on beforehand. Hurricane Juan decimated my city... It was only a Cat 2... Don't be dumb and hang around a window during a Cat 4 or 5... We're talking large VEHICLES flying around at over 100mph. Brand new, well constructed buildings flying away. Hunker down, and good luck to you.

Firstly... Secondly... Lastly... That would be three reasons. Good thing we come to you for help with CCTV, not arithmetic Guess that's what you get for working on a Sunday

1st off => Hope you get through it ok... I know it was pretty intense when Hurricane Juan ripped through here last year. 2nd off => When you do get through it ok... I wanna see some FOOTAGE!!! We got some wicked clips from some of our cameras, until the power went out that is

DVR - Something I have come across lately to watch out for. Some card and software with LIVE display capabilities uses a DirectX overlay which does NOT display correctly using the graphics card's S-Video or Composite out. Double check with the manufacturer!!!

If all you are trying to do is view the cameras, and not neccessarily use the TV as your primary monitor for the DVR, you would be far better to find a system that has camera loop outs, or even splitting and amping the signal before it reaches the DVR. MUCH better quality this way. If you are gonna stick with the graphics card method, something to watch out for. Some DVR software uses a DirectX overlay method to display the images. This quite often will NOT work with an S-Video or Composite output on the graphics card. Don't know why, that's just what I've found.

Don't know anything about the manufacturer itself, but the english section of the website hasn't been updated at all in over a year... Even the news is ancient... You sure they're still around?

Interesting DVR... Do you have any feedback on them? What are their strengths/weaknesses?

I'd love to hear people's experiences with these... Are there any specific problems to look out for?

Sorry, my bad... Here's the link http://www.digital-watchdog.com/

The Covi camera is something we have looked into after seeing them in Vegas. It's a high res progressive scan camera that works ideally with a 180 degree lens. From there, you can "pick" hotspots that will zoom in, and act as another camera in your system. They do offer an SDK to integrate the system with current products on the market, with a little work. In theory, it sounds great... Initial feedback I've been getting is that its still in a development stage. Haven't actually gotten my hands on one yet. Waiting too though. Price seems VERY raesonable too.

Yeah, about that... Don't believe the spec sheet! There have been a couple misrepresentations we have approached them about. 1st - the jpg avi issue... 2nd - the spec sheet used to list the units as 60 fps... We asked them directly about it, and they said yes, 60 frames per second. Turns out it's "fields" per second... So only 30 ips. 3rd - There have been a couple shipments where the Network Search has been really buggy... As far as the OS, it's a Customized, OEM that we've had a team of 12+ developers on since about a month after XP came out... Takes a lot of resources to get to this stage. A lot of money has been invested, and it truly does work quite well - to the point where Comart has approached us to offer our software to their customers. We also have the highest customer rating of any 3rd Party Software company on their site. There is a reason for that. There are a lot of garbage PC dealers out there. I won't argue that... It's funny that AV mentioned i3, cuz they're probably our biggest competition up here. We have invested close to $1 million to build our system from the ground up. We ONLY use high end parts as a rule. I'd bet, that a lot of people on this board could look at our system, play around with it, and not even know it was PC Based unless they opened it up.

Don't get me wrong... The HiSharp is a very reliable unit. It is a great low end system, but it does suffer from the same hardware issues that affect any DVR, SA or PC. i.e. Hard Drives *WILL* fail after time. From a software point of view it is quite reliable. Our OS is based on Windows XP. No, the whole OS is not 64k. The shell is 64k. The OS has been customized and stripped right down to eliminate any non-mission critical processes. The BASE WinXP OS is in fact quite reliable. The problem with Windows occurred when MS tried to make it do everything and anything. By stripping it down, these issues have been removed. By customizing the OS, we have been able to pick and choose which processes we want to run. We have chosen those which are mission critical and reliable, and gotten rid of the rest. THAT is how you make windows reliable.