WilliamA

Thanks guys. Well I wanted to add the IP camera on as a seperate system, I could get the software to record to my PC, but mainly to have a high resolution camera I could possition to see what the CCTV was missing, etc... as of right now I wasn't too worried about recording, but could easily get the software to do so. That Veilux looks pretty darn good. I didn't realize at first it's not a Megapixel IP... of course the DVR helps too... I know the DVR is the weak link in my system... the cameras look not too bad, but the compression on the H.264 recording limits the quality quite a bit. I've been thinking about adding some CNB domes, and PTZ in the near future... the thing is I sort of want the views I have to remain unchanged too... maybe a couple of them I wouldn't mind having as PTZ and parking them where they are now... but for the most part I want to record how I'm set now, and add something else such as IP to augment in between... most likely manual/motion record only. I also pulled a bone head move in thinking my DVR could only control one PTZ camera because there was only one plug for wires... DUH! It's addressable... boy did I feel dumb... and now just admitted it to the world! Any good sources for the CNB? I think maybe that's where I head for the immediate future, getting a couple CCTV PTZ's to put in a couple key spots, park them where the views are now... Then if I need/want I can zoom in, or pan around to get a better view of things. 10x should be more than enough for most of them. And then maybe down the road a year or two add an IP or two, just to have some really good cameras.

I'm looking at adding an IP PTZ to my set-up. And looking for help on recomendations. I'm new to all of this and don't really know what's out there. What I'd like is As inexpensive as possibly, ideally $500 or less, but less expensive is always better Outdoor rated Wired is fine (will be a short easy run, don't currently have POE so abiilty to use seperate power wire) Minimum of TV/640x480 resolution, would like to go Megapixel if possible or even anything higher than TV/VGA resolution NO IR lights Low Lux sensor Good zoom (would like as much zoom as I can get, prefer more zoom than wide angle, something around a 3-4mm at the wide end would be fine... approx 40degree viewing or possibly a little less) iPhone compatible viewer, or compatibility with software that is. The camera will be an augment to 8camera CCTV/DVR system and will be mounted high (2nd floor eave, approx 17-20' up) and will be used to augment existing set-up for closer shots, and to fully monitor busy street (fill in holes in CCTV system, ability to zoom in for facial/detail shots, etc) I know mounting high isn't ideal, trying to make sure I'm over all obstructions and have the maximum view possible for the camera... may end up lower if it will work. some cameras I've seen stats on that I liked. http://foscam.us/products/foscam-fi8620w-wired-ip-camera.html I don't like the 640x480 resoultion, however my dad has 2 wireless Foscam fixed cameras and I have to say, for 640x480 and wireless I'm pretty impressed, they are pretty sharp, clear, etc. But the price point, etc is nice. And I've seen what thier cameras are capable of... It's not without downsides such as the 1/4" sensor, etc. But for the price looks pretty good. http://www.cctvsecuritypros.com/gv-ipcam1-3m-color-vandal-proof-dome-ip-camera.html This Geovision GV-IP Camera 1.3M looks pretty nice too... a bit high for my budget... but might be something I'd willing to splurge on if it warranted it... the Megapixel image is nice... a little wide on the zoom range since it's a 1/3" sensor... better low-light performance and some other stats, including the audio, etc. But I don't know anything about Geovision, the quality, etc... and it's way on the upper end of what I'd want to spend, even kind of out of budget... Again suggestions/recomendations... I'd like to stay around $500 or less if at all possible, looking for a best bang to buck ratio here. I'd consider going up over that some, but there's just no way I can justify going too much higher... $1,000 is way overkill, and even $800 is hard to swallow.

Thanks Shockwave. I bumped it down to 30s post record, and also droppped the sensitivty on all cams one notch to level 3. Wasn't too bad, but after reviewwing last nights footage most of the hits were bugs flying through the IR lights. Some of them were set to 3 last night and still were tripped, but not as much as the ones set to 4. Also some spider decided to actualy build a web right in front of one camera last night... a couple of times you can see him in the frame... his creation will go down this morning... it blew in the wind last night and shined off the IR lights. I see advantages to NON IR light cameras now, less chance of that sort of thing. I might be able to get away with the front cameras going to low lux non-IR as there is a pretty good bit of light out there... but the back and side will need to be IR probably. I get the idea of droping down one or even 2 record settings for resolution... not sure I like it or not. Granted some of the cameras are where they will never get great detail, but doesn't mean I don't want all the detail I can get. The DVR can only actually handle about 240frames total in CIF which means about 7.5 frames in D1. So I've got most set to 7frames, with the driveway and porch I just bumbed up to 9, which isn't much difference but I figured those are the 2 cameras I want the most detail... I might bump some of the overlook cameras down to HalfD1 or CIF, might have to let them record there for a bit just to see what I think of the lower quality and if it really will mater in the long run.

Hmm... so motion detect is problematic at best once the sun goes down. Being on a corner lot, the headlights cutting accross the lawn set it off... nothing is physically in the yard, but the massive change in the way the pixels are (from dark to bright rather quickly) Any suggestions? I've disabled motion on the 4 that have street views because there going to end up alarming all night. I also cut back the detection zone on the porch because of the same... just had a car drive by and set it off, and I couldn't see where it was picking it up from. Perhaps a lower sensitivity setting as well?

All DVRs that support motion detection will also have a settable pre -event & post-event time setting. BTW, yes mine does... no adjustment on the pre-record, other than enable/disable... post record there is some time adjustment... currently I've set it to 1min which might be too long, might drop it to 30s

Thanks again guys... Yeah that looks really nice... sounds like it's basically a dedicated computer with specialized software maybe... of course technically DVR's are computers... but it looked almost more like a real PC type computer running windows or similar.

That Vigil looks awesome. I bet it's expensive though huh? Couldn't find an online price for them when I googled it. Looks more down the line of what I'd like in a long term system or at least some of it... I like that it can integrate CCTV with IP. My current system is inteded to be upgraded as time/money allows... there are parts that probably won't ever need to be upgraded, and I will use the other peices in other places (such as taking the DVR and cameras to cover areas not as important, like a storage shed, inside the garage, etc.) But I will be eventually upgrading the DVR for the primary cameras, then slowly upgrade a couple of the cameras where I want higher resolution (doors, etc) and eventauly augmenting with a couple megapixel IP cameras... I'd love a couple Megapixel PTZ cams (one on each side basically able to see 360 around the house) but doubt I'll ever be able to justify the cost of those.

Yeah... That's something I like to know... I can't see certain areas from inside the house, or very well... one of which is the main street since I live on the corner... If I leave windows open I can see the cars coming in and out, but I hate people seeing in to my living room. I think I'm going to tweak or adjust cameras a bit more, to capture more of the cars coming in/out. Right now I can see the main road (partly) from the 2 cameras covering that side, with a small hole in the middle of them (will be adjusting today) and the front camera looks over the street I live on (it's mounted high so looks down on the street) and overlaps some of one of the side cameras (which will be turned to the right to make that overlap smaller, and eliminate the gap between the other side camera which is currently about 2 paces on the sidewalk) I still have 3 cameras yet to mount, one is for sure covering the backdoor/yard, the other the side yard (neighbor) and the last yet undetermined... I want to see what happens after a vehicle enters the culd-e-sac which might get covered by the side yard cam not yet installed, and probably just leave me a gap in front of my driveway. But the driveway itself is covered by a single camera.

Great points guys... I didn't even think about the record full time with motion alarm. I know the DVR logs the motion, and I'm pretty sure it will still alert, etc if motion is detected. Not sure it will create a seperate video file, or a super easy way to find it... but I know could at least check the logs and see if motion was detected. I actually left for work, and noticed at the normal setting of 4 (1-8, 8 being most sensitve, and 4 being factory default) it didn't apparently pick up me pulling out of the driveway and leaving, which was odd... especially considering it was getting a few false recordings earlier this morning. Sounds like I'll have to just play with it some, try it both ways, and also learn how the Alarm works when recording full time. Might just turn all the motion on for the time being with full time recording so I can see... I'll get a lot of alerts, but at least I can see what it does.

Forgive me if this has been asked, I did a search and didn't come up with anything. What do most people do for a home system for record settings. I keep going back and forth on wether to run a full time looped recording, or to run motion detection. I'm testing out running the driveway and front door cams on motion and the rest on loops. The other thing I like about motion is the potential for alerts, such as audible alarm by DVR when motion is detected, as well as potential for email alert. Of course there is a potential for a TON of false alarms, and a ton of emails if something isn't set correctly, etc. I'm leaning more twoards motion as I'd like to be able to come home, or once a week or so, review footage for anything off, or interesting. The flip side is, I don't want to set the motion to pick up EVERY car coming into our street (culd-e-sac) but I want to get that footage if something happened... i.e. UPS guy comes and throws package, breaking contents. I would want footage of him pulling in, and leaving, etc... to have the best possible chance of getting details, truck numbers, etc. Also just the other week I witnessed a neighbors car getting REPO'd, and we also have some people who come raid recycling cans on occasion... all things I would want to capture them coming in (vehicle ID) and leaving, as well as capturing the act. The other reason I lean to motion is the review of footage. We have a professional DVR/Camera system at work (leased system, not owned, probably a $3000+ system, Honeywell brand, I actually am not impressed with it for how much it cost, anyways I digress). We've had several events at work, such as someone shooting out a window. That meant I had to review over 12hours of footage to TRY and find the culprit (which BTW I didn't, not partially due to lack of detail, and no time frame to know when it happened... I think I know all the advantages/disadvantages of each, but maybe I missed some. Or didn't really think of something. Thanks for the help and advice! Motion Pros: Theoretically only records when there is something worth recording Can save time in locating footage since only events are recorded Saves Hard drive space and allows for more events to fit on the hard drive Likely to notice random obstructions of camera (flags, blowing spider webs, etc) due to false alarms created by events. Motion Cons: Can be difficult to detect proper motion, may either be so sensitive it has false alarms, or not sensitive enough to detect actual events Potential to miss details because of possible lags or not detecting motion at the first hint of motion (not capture the full event) False Alarm potential from false motion More vigilance required in camera maintenance, making sure spiderwebs aren't near cameras, or things that can blow into view, or wave in view (flags, etc) Loop Pros: Never miss a thing, everything is recorded no false alarms capture the most insignifigant amount of movement Camera maintenance still required, but don't need to be as proactive, blowing spider webs, flags, etc will obstruct view, but not cause alarm recordings. Loop Cons: Constant recording takes maximum hard drive space, and allows for least amount of time frame to be saved (Fewer days/events) when something happens, requires more time to find event and pertinent footage since have to look through 8-24hours of footage at a time, even at 16x fast forward can take a while less prone to check if anything went on while away from home due to large amount of footage to review, likely will only review in the event of noticable event (break in, etc) Might not notice items like spiderwebs blowing into view, since there is no false alarm event for them.

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