niceguymr

I would imagine that this is dependent on which particular model of DVR. Right now I'm considering between a QSee QT426 and an Dahua Pro 16, but my question is... Can you have live video that is being recorded store onto a cloud or other offsite storage accessible via the internet? To me the reason one might want to do this seems obvious, but in case I need to explain - Let's say a burglar/intruder discovers your CCTV equipment and is able to disable or worse, steal it. Then you would be left with no evidence. It would seem ideal if the video that was being captured were actually being stored offsite. So if this is really dependent on the hardware (DVR), can anyone tell me what sub $1k 16ch DVRs have this capability? In particular, I'm curious about the more commonly known/discussed brands including QSee and Dahua.

Say you have 2 IR cameras mounted on opposite corners of the room, about 30 feet apart, but each camera is in the other one's field of view. Will the IR lights completely wash out the image for the other camera, or should this work without a problem?

lol Ok, but does that mean that one camera should not be able to directly 'see' the other, or that the cameras should not even be able to see the light generated by the other camera's IR lights?

I see a large line of VONNIC camera products on newegg (and a few other online dealers) and they seem to have some nice specs for the money. What I particularly like is the IP66 rating of their dome/turret cameras. Anyone have any experience with this particular brand?

Perhaps the 300' is in reference to the signal range from the camera to the video monitor

Thanks Secerator! I'm curious to know how the image quality is holding up since the pictures you posted in this thread in late January? Would you say that everything is functioning as well as when first installed? Also, I'm curious if you happen to have any night time images of the same scenes. I'm curious to see these camera's nighttime performance.

Tom, Thank you for your input in this thread. This system (the QT426 +8 QM6006B bundle fron Costco for $499) is the exact system I'm looking at too. In fact, I already ordered mine and it is arriving this week. That being said, I'm having some doubts as to whether or not I'm going to keep it. Can you please provide a link (source) that directly points to the information you have quoted referring SPECIFICALLY to the QT-426? I trust you're only trying to help, but I would like to be absolutely certain with the facts. Also Tom, I cannot find any Customer Reviews on either the Costco website or Amazon that specifically reference incompatibility with IE9 and THIS UNIT (The Qt426). Please point me to any of that if you can. Shockwave, Also thank you for your fair and balanced input. I appreciate all the feedback you've provided as well.

Hi everyone. I'm so glad I have found this forum. I just ordered a Q-See system from Costco. Yep, I already understand that this is low grade stuff, but I'm ok with that. It was $499 for a 16ch with 8 Cameras. The cameras it comes with are the QM6006B which I have read here come with what is considered to be cheap (poor quality) cables. Then I read people recommending to just use Cat 5 cables and Baluns. So I had no idea what a balun was until I started searching and reading some more and now I think I understand, but I have several questions: First - Is there any performance disadvantage of using Cat 5 (or 6) cables with a Balun instead of using the coax/power cable that's included with my system? My longest cable run with be maybe only 50 feet and the shortest will be 20 feet. Next - I see that Amazon has pairs of Baluns (I assume they always need to be bought in pairs for my application, right?) for $12.99 (http://www.amazon.com/LTS-LTA1010-Passive-Video-Connectors/dp/B001HBP9ZC/ref=pd_cp_p_0) and Monoprice has something similar for $8.75 (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=110&cp_id=11011&cs_id=1101101&p_id=6878&seq=1&format=2). Are THESE what I should be looking for? Are there any better deals on this type of stuff? Next - Will a Cat 5 Balun work with Cat 6 cable? The reason I ask is I already have several hundred feet of Cat 6 and I would prefer to use it if I can instead of orderiing a roll of Cat 5. Last - What esle if anything do I need to know about using Cat 5/6 cable with baluns instead of the supplied coax/power cables? Is this simply a no brainer and as simple as it seems?

Hi, and thanks for this post. I just ordered the Costco system with the QT426 and the same cameras as yours. I've been reading more about this 'ground loop' issue and want to know more before I get the who install underway. Did you use the supplied 'siamese' power/coax wire that came with your system, or did you use Cat5 with baluns? With regards to the ground looping issue... I was going to installed a dedicated power supply box, but I've read that using the supplied transformers eliminates the ground looping problem. Apparently, that was not the case in your setup. So by simply getting a 3 prong to 2 prong adapter for the power cord of the power supply, that eliminated the ground loop problem? I'm a bit confused, but I'll take any input I can get on this. Thanks!

How do I know for sure if the Q-See cameras in my set fall into this category (not that I have any doubts that they are cheap cameras). How do you know with any camera if they are going to have this problem? Can you give me an example of the least expensive camera that would have similar specs and not share this ground looping problem? I'm curious what's the threshold I need to cross (spendwise) to get into cameras that don't have a grounding loop problem. And Thank You for a wonderful and thorough explanation. I'm learning a lot here.

Only probably downside, if you're using a central power supply for all the cameras, is ground loops. This is an expected side-effect of using baluns with cheap cameras that use a common video and power ground. Let's suppose I'm using a central power supply (because I ordered one already ) What is the solution to ground loops? Actually, what exactly is a ground loop? Baluns will work with just about any pair of wire: Cat5, Cat6, Cat3, phone wire, station wire, speaker wire... extension-cord wire, in a pinch... twisted-pair wire adds an extra degree of interference rejection, but that shouldn't be a problem with the short runs you're dealing with. Cat5 and Cat6 DO require different RJ45 connectors, as Cat6 is a heavier-gauge wire than Cat5. Make sure you get the right ones. Nothing else, really... if the cameras include individual wall-wart power adapters, I'd stick to those, to avoid the ground-loop problem. OK, So I suppose I should have waited to post questions till I actually received my order. It should arrive this week and I'll know about the adapters, but.. Even if they do have individual adapters, I really don't think I want to have 8 AC outlets tied up by a bunch of cameras. Am I misunderstanding something here? Or do I just get one of those extension cords with a multi outlet strip on the end and connect all the camera adapters to one of those? Sorry for not underderstanding and thank you for your response.