kensplace

you can get second hand lenses real cheap on ebay for home use

What type of PTZ? Do you mean controlling a pan/tilt head and a zoom lens directly? If so, never heard of anything like that, you would normally need a telemetry reciever. One day, I will get around to building a telem board myself, maybe even sell it if people are interested. But thats way in the future

Would be nice to have that, but it would also mean less visits to the forum, which would drop the stats for the forum, which could possibly reduce its ad revenue.... Or so I would guess.

Not sure, dont know what a level 3 would entail..... I know for sure not all companies use certification for its intented purpose (making stuff better for the end user) but tend to use it just for making lots of money, as they charge a fortune for testing/training. Is panasonic charging for the test/training? If so, I would tend to have doubts...

Im glad guns are not available (easily) over in the UK. I probably would have shot myself years ago if they were....

Jamming is only likely to occur in high profile robberies/crimes. If someone wanted to rob the bank of England, they would go to the trouble of jamming wireless CCTV (if they used it, which I doubt they would). But for a small business, its highly unlikey, as it would not be profitable for the bad guys to do so.

How much does the software cost? The camera only cost me 20 pounds second hand......... Is the protocol top secret (i.e plettac is only interested in it's own pockets, not the industries growth or welfare) or is it open so someone can write there own software? Its not like its something that people will be clamouring over to buy, its a pretty small market for those cams..... PS - sorry to be negative, but plettac aint exaclty got a good rep in my eyes *yet* - the only plus point is the cam is nice (but at the original price of it, it darn well should be.....) Any info on the cam would be useful, cant understand why some manus hide info, and others dont.... The most popular products are the ones that have the most support..... Ps - hope the new plettac brings out stuff like the old one did, that old cam was very good for its time )[probably still gives modern cams a run for their money)....

Would love to try it out, but its been about 20 years since I last used unix, and things have moved on a lot - so a lot of learning for me to redo - hence I stuck with windoze...

Any chance you could post a picture of the problem? If its a dark corner in all four corners of the screen it sounds like you have the wrong lens on (cant remember which way it is, but you get that with wrong sized lenses, like a tunnel effect round the edges)

Electronic stuff should not burn you, until you find out the cause I would (myself) stop using them - dont want them overheating and catching fire or dying on you.

Guess in a few years (or decades at the rate cctv improves) both pal and ntsc will be obsolete in favour of High definition HD tech.

Never tried two geo cards in one system, would try it if I had two cards, but I only have the one. Personally I would prefer having two seperate pc's with 16 cams each, less work for each pc, and if one fails you still have the other one working. Important camera's can be swapped onto the working one if required. Whereas if all on the same machine, if you have a failure, your screwed completely. Plus with that many cams, you will be better of with two machines - more room for hard drives for plenty of storage, plus you will need more than one operator at times for 32 cams, so two machines is a bonus. I would ask the supplier, it may, or if its old stock it may not... BUT even if its not the absolutely latest version then you can ask geovision for a link to download the latest version free of charge (they will ask for proof that you have a genuine card)

There is also Pelco P, but thats not as open a standard as pelco D, so D tends to get used more often on third party controllers. in the uk at least there is BBV and BAXALL up-the-coax (compatible with dennard/dedicated micros as well as bbv/baxall), BBV RS422, DENNARD RS485, PELCO P & D, PHILIPS RS485 (BIPHASE up coax also), SENSORMATIC RS422, VCL TP, VICON VPS(RS422), mark mercer (not sure what protocol they use), molynx up the coax (seems only compatible with other molynx kit) and probably loads more.... All depends on what controller you have, what receiver you have, what cams you have etc.... Some manu's offer kits to convert one protocol to another (BBV has loads of options in this respect) so you can grow a mixed system.

I hate to think sometimes....

just search ebay on a regular basis for spares/repairs hard drives - you will see no manu is exempt from failures - I prefer seagate but theres is probably little difference these days, and as new tech is being introduced all the time, only time will tell what is reliable and what isnt.....

I think most of the time, if footage is available, that is usually all that is needed, but if it came down to a legal battle, then things could be argued... In a worst case scenario, which is unlikely, it could be argued that you faked the dns on your portable and went to a 'fake' time site, showing the time you wanted, plus the time / date overlay was pre-programmed with the time you wanted.... You could always have a reliable witness (police officer or similar professional would be great....) to swear you set up the camera correctly and the time/date is correct and that you had no access to the footage to tamper with it. Like I say though, usually you wont get a problem like that, but if you expect one, cover your back fully If possible, have stick a TV in the room that the person is not meant to be in, chances are they will watch it. If they are in the room watching the tv, and on camera it shows them AND the TV in the same shot, you can prove that the time/date is correct by what was shown on the tv. (make sure the witness can testify the tv was not connected to a video recorder or anything that could play pre-recorded stuff)

Never actually exported anything yet on my geo system, so not sure! If no one chimes in I will try later (probably tommorow) and get back with results. As far as watermarking goes, firstly the evidence could be faked and genuinely watermarked (if that makes sense) then substituted for the real footage, OR if the stakes are high enough, you need to remember that ANYTHING done by a computer or by a dvr, is done by software. Software can be disassembled, and reverse engineered - so if the stakes were high enough (say a large robbery or murder) and technical skills where available (or hired) then evidence could be altered before being produced. There are ways to get around it, some easy, some hard (very) but it boils down to trust at the end of the day, if the source of the evidence is trusted, then trust the evidence. If not - then a good lawyer (if such a thing exists) *should* be able to get around watermarking in most cases (PS IM NOT A LAWYER)

You would need to post a lot more info on your needs, plus a rough budget, plus your experience level, so people can guide you better.

Change clients....... Less hassle in the long run

Geo has a 5 min size limit on the record files, so they dont get too large. Watermarking is per file, and automatic (if turned on). As far as tampering goes, watermarking, in fact pretty much any security feature is fairly pointless if the holder/provider of the evidence wishes to tamper with the evidence - at least thats what I could argue in a court.

I would replace the vcr with either a dvr or go pc based. Tape based recording is so much hassle compared to the newer methods. I would keep the old timelapse though, hide the new machine away, but put the old timelapse on display somewhere (with some fake cables going into it) so if you are robbed, the thieves will take the timelapse vcr thinking the have the evidence......

make sure the dvr is very secure, or theives could break in and walk of with the dvr......

I use BBV up the coax (which afaik is compatible with dennard up the coax telem recievers as well as bbv ones), works well, not had any problems. I use a tx1000 matrix (8 cam) with keyboard/joystick, the tx1000 matrix which outputs the bbv up the coax prototcol can also be controlled via a pc, with free software from http://bbvcctv.com/ which is bbv's own website (lots of info and utils on it). As it can be controlled via a pc, it means its also possible to control it via geovision (which I did have working, but lost when I upgraded, forgot to back up the ini!) -but pc control would depend on you having the same controller. Combined with a telemetry receiver that understands bbv (as I dont have any working domes, just a pan tilt head and zoom lenses) it works great. Completely transparent, does not seem to interfere with the pic at all, and just keeps on working. As long as you have a proper BBV compatible controller then you should be fine.

Sorry about the bad news Rory, hope you enjoy your visit though. Its been snowing nearly all day up in the north east of england today, and pretty cold!

its not just cameras they lie about, its common for them to tell porkies about other products like dvrs, multiplexers etc also.