the toss

cheap camera using cheap electronics with poor oscillator stability.

I have made numerous posts in the past addressing the deficiencies of RG6 for cctv use. To keep it brief RG6 is designed for RF noise rejection (above 50Mhz) NOT cctv baseband around 5.5Mhz. Now various people have mentioned an RG6 designed for cctv but I am yet to see it. Regardless , the specs are out there so do your homework and live with the results.

Hi, I checked the cable now and saw the yellow male connector (from the CCTV Box) is connected to a female cable with a name "video" (from the CCTV Camera). Basically, it's a yellow cable inserted to a video input. The red one remains disconnected. Obviously your brother connects it when the evidence is required.

There are two standard wavelengths for CCTV IR leds - the 980nm one is invisible. Testing - in a darkened room hold your hand about 6" in front of the camera. It should appear totally white (overexposed) Then again in a darkened room it should become obvious if the IR is working.

Trouble is the old "all your eggs in one basket" scenario

Pull them down & test individually on a suitable power supply - it's not rocket surgery

Eco = economical = low cost = cheap = waste your money

It's a noise problem on the cable. You are getting a parasitic harmonic of 50 or 60 Hz (depending on your supply)

For not much more than the second quad you could get an 8 ch DVR to do the same job with the advantage of all cameras being displayed at once & recorded footage. If the recording feature is not needed then just get an el-cheapo DVR since the "live view" quality is determined by the camera quality NOT the DVR quality

I also like to stick to about 10 fps

How do you know the IR is not working. The picture you are getting is EXACTLY what you could expect if using cheap IR cameras. Under IR conditions there is NO colour information - it is B/W.

If you use that will it still be a wireless camera?

Are you using a NDF to force the iris open when you attempt to backfocus ?

Thanks for the input. Also, i'm pretty certain he's not doing it for free. When we talked initially, he said he would give me a good deal, but when he gave me the quote he said he wasn't charging me labor voluntarily (i never forced him). i have no issues paying him..or anyone to come install it since i'd like it professionally done. He could have just charged me labor instead of trying to bundle it in. My primary concern was the equipment he listed and if it was worth it for the cost because he gets it from his reseller for the "best" price. What he probably meant was that labour hadn't been included in the quote

I doubt that he is installing for free , it's not a 30 minute job. He seems to be making his money on the cables and the DVR - both overpriced. You will likely find that ALL the components could be purchased for what he is charging for the DVR. The last time I had cause to work with one of these pre-made cables I found that not only didn't it have no woven shielding , it had NO shielding AT ALL. Just a pair of very thin insulated wires in an outer sheath.

Those pre-made cables are really nothing much more than shielded audio cable. You probably could use thstandard crimper. When it comes to inserting the pin you would have to push it in with a small screwdriver until it seats because you won't be able to push it in like normal against the flimsy wire. Leave enough shield to be able to double it back on itself to take up some of the space under the crimp collar. When done I would fill the space left between the coax & the BNC neck (because of the small diameter cable) with a bit of hot glue to give some strain relief. The other way is to obtain some panel mount BNC solder connectors. Simply solder the cable on,make up a cardboard tube to go on the back of the BNC where the solder connections are and fill with hot glue for strain relief. OR get your BNC/pair adaptor you've mentioned. It will work but again, strain relief is the problem.

Your picture is likely to be unuseable. You have a fairly severe impedance mismatch (the cheapo coax supposidly 75^ & the cat 5/6 at 100^ ) If you can get it to work ok with the existing cable then do so OR as Numbnuts has said , pull in a new cable (best option) @ NUMBNUTS - good post on those voltage converters, I'll have th check em out. Any further info?. I've been making my own but they look obviuosly "homemade" & are about 3 times the size of the ones you've shown.

All the DVRs I've ever worked with have the firmware resident on the motherboard NOT the HDD. When the drive is replaced the system formats it during initialisation & off you go.

I don't know how many times I have read this statement here. I would have thought that anyone who installs a cctv system would have already made other inprovements to their home security. ie a quality security system. Once this is installed a burglar should not have the time to search your house to locate the DVR

The joystick for OSD adjustment is on the camera pigtail not the connecting coax. If Swann has it on the connecting coax ( and I've never see it like that) then it is just one more reason to stay away from Swann gear

I suspect a case of paranoia

I hadn't noticed , must pay more attention

If this is an analogue system ( and it sounds like it is ) then you have been conned with the DVR & your wasting your time time trying to find 1200 tvl cameras. If you do happen to find some then it will be another con like the one you've fallen for with the DVR. Analogue systems by design are limited to 580 tvl for NTSC and 640 tvl for PAL. Anything claimed above this is simply misrepresentation.

No. If the camera is cabled then it is running at composite video baseband (around 5.5Mhz). Given its age it would be cheaper to upgrade. If you are sure it is the monitor at fault than you could go and buy a miniture TV ( I use one with a 6" screen as a test monitor) & simply plug the camera into the "Video In"

You seem to be pretty much on track with your approach. Look for copper (not aluminium or copper clad steel) coax with a shield coverage of at least 95%. Be aware that it comes with different diam centre conductor ( 0.7mm and 0.9mm ) so if you use three piece BNC crimps and they are the wrong ones then you'll find that either the centre conductor won't fit in the pin OR the pin will not crimp enough to hold the centre conductor. It seems that even the suppliers are largly unaware of the different centre conductor sizes