kensplace

Just hope the dvr is not stolen! Working DVR from a car boot sale, with passwords not reset to defaults, if the sellerr owned it he or she would have defaulted it, but they didnt which should ring alarm bells..... Last thing you want is to get the police round to view footage from the dvr, and for them to check the serial numbers and say, hey this is stolen.... (unlikely but a possability)

Sounds like somethings fried inside the tv! I would get a local repair shop to have a look at it, these days most TV's dont have simple on off switches that just turn the tv off, as the have standby so only partially turn of the tv (but leave lots on so the remote or buttons work to wake it up, and it wont take as long to display a picture, as some leave the tube warmed up) You can probably spot the fried components if you look inside, but be careful if you do, easy to kill yourself inside a tv..... Even if you spot what is fried, you would need to safely discharge certain areas, and also replace certain components with *exact* duplicates (for example some resistors can just be substituted with just anotheer resistor of the same value, they need to be rated the same for temp and fire resistance etc.) I would unplug it, and leave it unplugged till its been properly fixed, as it could easily catch fire if left unattended, even if the off appeared to be working.

The dvr will probably allow you to show the time on the display, and also to pause then step through the video one frame at a time. Display the clock, then pause, then step through till it gets to the start of a new second. Now step through one frame at a time till it gets to the next second, and the number of steps you took is the number of frames per second.

Try focusing the camera when its dark, under the IR conditions. Also do a search on backfocus as a correctly backfocused lens may help to alleviate the problem you are experiencing.

Every? They tested *every* card, and every setting on every card, on every possible configuration? Wow, they must have been busy..... More likely they are generalising though... Same thing happens on anything though, from aircraft crashing due to a infrequent problem, expensive standalones crashing occasionally, very few software packages or hardware devices are 100 percent perfect. Most of the problems on a pc dvr (assuming a good dvr card/software combo) are down to user/installer error. Thats why the manufacturers publish system requirements, its not the manufacturers fault if you buy their card and try to run it on a incompatible system! The same thing goes with other cards, a graphics card from years ago will not work with a new motherboard, nor will a old keyboard work on a new PC. Its called progress, and can be a pain in the bum at times For example, original IBM PC keyboards had a larger din plug, which was replaced later with the smaller din plug, which is now being replaced with USB and wireless. Also, internal cards used to be ISA, since then we have had many new buses, AGP, PCI, PCI-E, etc - all incompable. Lets not forget operating systems, many different incompatible versions. But - the manufacturer tells you what hardware you need, and what software... So getting a card to be compatible with your hardware is not a problem if you can read the manufacturers guidelines! Not looked into prices in depth on those, so no idea. But one things for certain, a 'GOOD' standalone is not always cheap.... Plus hardware compression cards will be in a pc, which offers more flexibility, so even if more expensive, you get more room for expansion at the end of the day. Easy PC, try geovision and a properly configured/specified PC. More than likely many other manu's cards would also easy pass this test. As for software upgrades, those should be tested before being installed anyway.... And the same thing can be said about standalones, many can have firmware updates, what if one of those had a bug? Some higher end standalone DVR also have control software on the PC, instead of viewing by a browser, you use proper software. That can be buggy, just like a normal dvr cards software, and has the same risk of operating system bugs. Thats why whatever you use, you keep a stable version, clean, and safe - and dont go installing updates till you know they are ok - and that they are needed! If a problem is found, you roll back to the previous state.

I was reading the archives for the public planning applications used before they put up a load of (expensive) cameras in my area. About the only technical part of the application was a statement that the camera housings had to be painted black!

Hi Martyn, welcome to the forum Visimetrics is also from Scotland, seems its a popular place for the security industry. Plus the old sinclair computers were made there, which got loads of people into the computer industry

Easy way to find out if its the DVR, is to view the cams direct on a tv or monitor, or in many cases just the live view on the DVR should be ok. If the cams look fine 'live' but no good when recorded then its the dvr limiting things.

No idea about canadian courts, but UK courts regard a digital copy as identical to the master, as long as chain of evidence is present and correct and its the same format as the original recording. Exporting the original recording on the hard drive to a different codec for cd use is probably a different kettle of fish, with its own possible legal issues. But as long as you export a like for like copy, in accordance with whatever chain of evidence rules are required, then in the UK at least, it should be fine. But as always, in the UK its down to the court on the day what they accept, if you get some grumpy old judge who is clueless, then you could be in trouble no matter what!

Depends on the implementation of the codec, the manufacturer has to specify lots of codec related compression options, if they get it wrong, quality suffers. They may set the compression to high for example. So really, its impossible to say which is best on a particular DVR without full specs, and a demo is best.

Example of a b&w decent res camera (vantage dsp mono), Fitted with a manual iris 25mm lens,test shot through a upstairs window viewing across a road, so a fair distance away. Plate is readable, but if was parked at the rear of the shot, it would no longer be readable, unless I used a bigger zoom, or higher quality cam. (dvr used visimetrics fastar) plate partially blocked for privacy reasons.

cheers for the clarification, I guess I was mislead by the 'install IP cameras' on the menu, and the box asking how many ip cameras you want to install. Misleading of geo that

Lots of them for sale on google when I googled 'ntsc to pal converter'.. Maybe the installers of the cams would be willing to swap them for pal cams (they should have checked what format was needed to start with!) or if they are technical they may be willing to see if they can convert the cams to pal (quite often its a very easy conversion, depends on the camera, not all can be done this way, but I have seen loads of cams that have clearly marked jumpers/links on the internal circuit boards for swapping between pal/ntsc. Little bit of soldering and the jobs done . This would invalidate the manu's warranty though..) Quality would probably suffer if you used a converter, as the frame rates are different, the resolutions are different, etc and the converter has to make up the missing frames somehow (inserting fake ones) and resample the image to the right resolution. Personally altering or replacing the cams would be what I would do, if funds allowed it.

Version 8.11 of geovision supports IP cameras. How well I have no idea, as I dont have any IP cams to test it with.. But it does allow you to add IP cameras, you need to enter the server ip, and other details.

But you know the cctv industry, specs are a illusion to many suppliers, they either make them up, alter them, or ignore them. No idea about the official rules for mosquito in usa, just going by the document on their own site, which states not for export/sale to usa.. Maybe those distributers are selling them 'illegally' or maybe they made a specific deal with the manu, who knows.. But if they are selling them illegally, then liability issues are compounded, someone could sue for the use of a device that is not meant to be even sold in the USA....

According to the tech specs http://www.mosquito.ie/downloads/Technical_information_Mosquito.pdf they are not allowed to be resold or distrubuted to the USA or Canada. Personally, I would be worried about liability issues, although the police and councils in the UK have used them, and recommended them (but the UK police and councils are not known for being that technical, or even clear thinking!) there could be problems in the future (maybe someone suing for hearing loss/damage due to long term exposure, or assault due to exposure etc as the device is non-discriminatory and targets anyone with decent hearing.)

What type of geovision card is a ' vki-600'? Not heard of that one before.

On my pc, its found in the program files menu, then the geovision menu, then its called ' Geovision repair database utility". Or look in your actual geovision folder on your hard drive, for a file like ezrepairlog500.exe (or very similar) and try running that. Failing that, it should be on the installation cd.

Just make sure no one nearby has any pet dogs..... Or you will end up torturing them!

avtech dvrs are budget end, so you would need to ensure they are sufficient quality for your needs. Then again, same can be said for expensive ones, a demo is a good idea if you can try one to see the quality.

Rebuild/repair the database is one way of doing it. There is a utility/option to do this, think its on the main geovision menu, cant recall offhand. Basically a full repair will delete the logs and rebuild them with what is actually present (which kind of makes a mockery of accountability, but then again they do insist on using access, which is slow and not that reliable....)

Plenty of bargains on ebay if you wait and look long enough Ideal for personal use, as has been said already, you often dont get a warranty (mind you, I did pick up a good casino quality dvr for 30 quid, and the warranty was transferrable to me! So full support given also! But thats pretty rare. Plus it was brand new,well a few days of use, manufacters factory use for testing by the looks of the footage.) Many sellers upgrade to better equipment, and often stock is from repossessions/bankrupt companies etc, so there are good bargains out there. Whilst anyone worth their salt one use a ebay one without warranty for a end user, I do know of at least one person who *must* be doing that, as they are buying waaaaay to many cameras/ir lamps/controllers/etc for any form of personal use (even if they owned several mansions!) Its probably not a wise move though to resell them to a customer, not only is their the end warranty (or lack of) to consider, there are electrical safety aspects (botched repairs, fuses replaced by wires etc - had one 12v camera with loose mains wires inside it, marked as a mains camera!) and even security aspects (how does anyone know for sure the firmware on the dvr was not reprogrammed to allow a remote back door by the seller? Unlikely but possible...). But for personal use, there is nothing cheaper (other than maybe a free demo unit!) Check the sellers feedback carefully, some sellers would think nothing of selling a unit with known intermittant problems, with no disclosure. A good seller, will have good feedback. If its a new seller, then it really is a gamble! I often email other buyers who have bought untested items from a seller, and ask them if the items worked. If they all say no, then its a fair bet the others he is selling wont work. For safetys sake, always check the electrical safety of anything you get on ebay,. check fuses are correct, plugs are wired safely etc at the least. If you are going to use it for anything other than personal use then you would definetely need to have it properly safety tested (insulation resistance (PAT tested in the UK), and if you have the equipment, then its worth doing it for home use too.

Maybe if you post a link to some detailed pics of your camera, then someone may recognise it.

Im not to sure about possible earthing problems if the christmas tree power supply is a SELV (safety extra low voltage) power supply. Not played with them, but from what I understand, you are not meant to earth the output in any way, which camera systems often are. May be worth looking into, it could be Im barking up the wrong tree, not sure on this one, but I would check to be safe. (ie, I would not connect one myself till I checked out officially what the earthing problems would be, IF ANY at all, it may well be fine.)

Not familiar with the DVR, so no idea if its a dvr specific problem (maybe the drives need to be factory installed with some firmware/software for the dvr? If that is the case, if you have the original drive, and its still readable maybe try copying the data of it onto a new one.) Or the drives may need to be formated specifically for the dvr, fat 32, or something else - again you could check the original if its working. Other than that, if you are supposed to be able to put in any drive, and it should just 'work' then a couple of things to check. Master / slave jumpers, try the different positions for them, or better yet, compare what the original drive was set to. The cable - it could be a faulty cable (out of interest,could the error say DMA instead of DMR? Not sure what DMR is, but heard of DMA errors a lot on drives....) - try a replacement cable, say a pc ide cable if possible.