kensplace

Does your dvr card have a audio input? If it does then it should be straightforward, plug it in, and enable the audio in the software. If your card does not have audio input, then its probably relying on the audio input from your sound card, so you would need to plug in the audio from the cam, into your sound cards audio input.

Just installed the main system today, not had a chance to play around yet, but did quickly turn on the face recognition bit on a couple of cams, so I could come back a couple of hours later to see if it recognised anything. One cam recognised no faces at all, despite one being clearly visible at many angles for a long time, and nice and big. The other cam, recognised a shelf multiple times, and also a vase on a shelf multiple times, but missed people going by completely. Hmmm, not sure that feature is anything more than a marketing scam, but to be fair, I have not had a full chance to see if there are any tweaks that could make it perform better.

Are you sure its not someone closing the software down on purpose, say a employee or something? Software should not usually close without some sort of message, or indication that its crashed. Guess it can happen, but if your not seeing it happen with your own eyes, ie - you come back to the pc and its closed, then first I would make sure its not someone else playing silly buggers.

My first digital camera, a ricoh rdc-2 was low res, but could take great photos in not so bright conditions, I upgraded to a 2.3 megapixel state of the art at the time rdc5000 and it was useless in anything less than perfect lighting. Higher resolution does not always mean a larger ccd, they can just as easily, and usually do just put more pixels on the same size ccd - leading to much reduced night vision capabilities. If the high res cams were any good at night vision, the manufacturers would have proof of this, but seeing as non of them that I know of seem to show any, I find that odd.

got any links on the dom sytem you use? Not one I have heard of, my linux days were before linux existed (80's, unix/xenix)

Thats a good philosophy, but be careful, I had a one like that before and got badly burned - choose friends carefully - not all people are what they seem, some people are inhuman.

How important is disabling access to windows? If someone has access to the hardware, they can easily do whatever they want, no matter what you have done software wise. All disabling windows access will do is stop people who are clueless from accessing files etc, but those people being clueless would not be able to do it even if windows access was allowed. No software can stop someone from doing something as simple as booting from a boot disk, even bios passwords are a waste of time. Either you trust the people with access to the machine, or you dont, in which case, they should not have access. If disabling windows is required, geo has a lockdown utility, not tried it yet, so cant say if its any good or not. You can also change the icon on the start menu to something sinister like "panic button" or something, so no one messes with it, and change the hotkeys to non standard ones. That sort of thing cant be done via windows per se, you would need to edit the explorer resources with a resource editor, but it can be done. Remove all non required dlls, and programs (although xp is a pain in the but as it complains when many system dlls are removed). Get a custom keyboard made with only a few required keys on if absolutely required, but again, fairly pointless as if someone has access to the machine they can just plug in a standard keyboard. Personally I would just put a camera watching the server/dvr and keep it a hidden camera so I could see if anyone was messing with the pc. Trying to lock down windows is hard, and pointless at the end of the day, unless Im missing something? As for not crashing, other than removing all non needed services and programs, its in the hands of others, microsoft, etc etc. Patching is the same problem for both windows and linux. Automatic, or manual, you have the worry, will the patch break what is there already? Will the patch introduce a bigger problem? Its a personal preference, either update on auto, or do it after testing on a test machine. Auto is nice and easy, the test machine method is a pain in the butt, but a lot safer in the long run. End of the day, if your worried about people doing stuff to the pc, lock the pc away safely so NO ONE can touch it without the key.

Tell him/her that it was probably a inside job. Banks should be able to afford to set the system up properly, so the video network is seperate from the normal network, and any external connections to the outside world into the video network are bullet proof, so all that would get hit would be the hardware talking to the outside, the remaining part of the network should carry on recording as normal. Course, IP probably makes it easier for a insider with technical knowledge, and access to the hardware (say a technically orientated burgler who gets a job as a cleaner) to disable a system on-demand when required (ie when they are not present, a delayed attack) As for bugs in the banks system, there probably are lots, as quite a lot of specialist software written by some very large firms is written by people with little knowledge of the area, who are better at 'talk' than actual coding.

A seperate ptz system will probably give you a lot more upgradability, the ability to upgrade the camera, change lenses, add different transmission options, extra lighting etc. Whereas a dome camera will usually be stuck with the lens it came with, the camera it came with and the protocols it came with, and no real options for adding anything to it. The outdoor housings are more robust and it should be cheaper to replace a broken glass/plexi panel on a outdoor housing that it would be to replace a scratched dome cover. Domes will be more discreet, and if up high or using smoked covers no one knows where the camera is looking, compared to a seperate which is big, obvious and obvious where its looking. Many domes use belts, or flimsy gear mechs, so despite costing an arm and a leg will probably drop to bits faster than expected (probably explains why so many turn up on ebay...) whereas a decent pan tilt head is built to carry a lot of weight and uses really heavy duty gearing that lasts years and years.

If you use a anti-virus package, I would look at using something other than norton, its very resource hungry.

What exactly is stamped on the camera? If it just says weatherproof then thats pretty meaningless, it more than likely means its ok to use if protected from direct rain/snow etc (ie outdoors but under a eave or cover or something). If its properly made, and tested, it should be IP rated, does it have a IP rating, this would tell you how much water tight it really is. Personally I would send it back, and get a box camera with a outdoor housing, they may be bigger, but will offer more upgradability for the future, and be better constructed.

Do they just lock the psp funds for investigation, or are they doing it on all transactions? Paypal is a law unto itself, bet they dont have anything on their site stating psp3 transactions will be locked, I would pester them and ask what they are playing at. Then expect a stupid canned reply from them, which probably has nothing to do with your question. Cant believe paypal would lock all transactions for a certain item, they are getting worse....

Write protecting you c drive is not going to give you protection against viruses, and removing antivirus software etc due to thinking it does is going to leave you wide open. If no writes are allowed on c, then software that needs to write (and there will be lots of it) will need to write to d. Viruses are software, they can just as easily find that d: drive, especially as the registry, ini's and paths will all be pointing at it. Even password info for geo is stored in the registry, so if windows is on the c: drive and you lock it, you could be in trouble when you want to change some settings on geo. Especially if you miss any entries in the registry, some are not marked as anything to do with geovision, so you wont find them... Windows needs to write to the registry, how will it operate normally if it cant write to the windows files? How are you going to do updates to windows? How on earth will you cope when a security flaw is found in geo that requires you to download a critical/urgent fix from geo? The fix could easily point everything back to your c: drive, resulting in having to do all the work all over again. What about upgrades, same problem, all that work all over again. Write protecting the windows drive, and removing all your other security products sounds like a recipe for disaster....

Looked up elbex recently, as I saw someone selling a couple of domes on ebay, may even have been those same model numbers! Any way, just did a quick look on elbex.com and those models are apparently fixed, not pan tilt cams. The auction I looked at claimed the cams being sold were pan tilt, but when I looked them up, they were not....

live video seems fine on my 1480, although it slows down the live frame rate when recording, but thats fair enough considering its at full pal resolution, with about 10 cameras plugged in, on a underspecced machine.. Still playing with different recording options, to try to get best recorded results.

Domes like that are not going to be easy if you are new to cctv, they are not just like a normal camera where you power it up and it works... If you get a 2060 or similar on ebay, watch out for the following points. Make sure its a outdoor model, not the indoor one. Make sure its a day/night model if night time viewing is needed, some are day only I think. Make sure it comes with the correct dennard power supply box and cables. Make sure it comes with, or you are able to obtain the correct mounting brackets etc, they are specific to the domes, and not easy to get hold of cheaply. Make sure it comes with any required cables, sometimes domes/controllers etc use expensive connectors that are not available at local diy stores, and cost money from specialist suppliers. This may not be a problem, not sure what connectors that dome uses, worth checking with the seller though. Make the seller offers a warranty, and its the dome is not badly scratched, many sellers sell domes with damaged dome covers and say "easy to replace" or similar. Easy to replace they may be, IF you can get hold of one without spending a small fortune that is. As for using it with a geo card, firstly to have any chance at all, you would need to make sure you get a model that has rs485 control (some of them ONLY accept up-the-coax control, which is no good for geo without spending even more on converters) Next you would then have to have a rs232 to rs485 converter, plenty on ebay, and I think you can even get a one from geo. (alternatively, if using a dedicated dome controller say one of the tx range of keyboards/matrixes then those should be able to be controlled via a normal serial port, and will allow even the up-the-coax domes to be moved around. I dont have a dome, but do controll a telemetry board to a pan/tilt/zoom via this method, and through that to geo.) Finally, you would need then to make sure you can connect it all up, domes are not for the inexperienced, unless you are prepared to do a lot of learning/research. Next assuming its connected properly, power, comms etc you would need to get geo talking to the dome. This means the protocol the dome uses must be one geo can support. Not sure what protocol those domes use of the top of my head, but I would look into that before going any futher, or it just wont work if geo cant talk in the same language as the dome talks. You could if you are cabable, alter geo to support a different protocol to some extent, I did that for my ptz, but its not a task I would recommend unless you know what you are doing in that area. Then the dome needs installing, all connecters weather sealed etc, earthing where needed, and suitable safety precautions taken where the mains is on the psu. You may also need additional lighting, if its going to be looking around on dark nights. Personally, I would get a couple of fixed cameras, a lot easier to install, a lot less likely that you will run into (possible massive) additional costs to get something working, and quite a lot cheaper. But if you want to go the dome route, at least you have a few points to look into before jumping in. Good luck!

Thought it was bad enough when I read that council tax inspectors now have the right to wander into anyones home and take photos of bedrooms etc, without a search warrant http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/15/nct15.xml but when I read that the UK will now be using the images from high resolution camera's in SPACE to spy on peoples homes to increase taxes I could hardly believe how far the uk is taking things. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article335970.ece What next I wonder?

Thats not humour, its sensible advice. IF that really is your video, and if that really is a genuine postal worker (it loks to me like a normal bloke faking it though) then the last thing you should do is post it on youtube. Privacy issues? Legal issues? Seriously you are (if its genuine, which I dont think it is) opening yourself up to all sorts of possible legal issues. My point being, if its real, you are shoult disconnect and get medical help until stable enough not to do something silly.

No I would disconnect the internet and get medical help before using it again.

Not sure what you mean...

Dont just look at avtech, look at many different brands.

You could look into electric condenser microphones, they are tiny but have great range. There will be ones out there that do that range easy, but they tend not to be directional.

What exactly happens? What is on the screen, how long was it like that, any beeps etc? Did it look like it was starting to load windows, or does it fail on the power up self test? I would try it in another slot, make sure its firmly in. Check the manual, make sure it does not state that you have to install drivers before you install the card or anything else that could be a problem. Its also possible that you may have a conflict with another card (probably the tv card) so if you cant get anywhere with other slots, try removing the tv card as a test.

Decided to get a UPS, I used to have a little belkin unit, that worked great, but dropped it a few inches a couple of years ago. Wouldnt think a drop of a few inches would do much harm, but it cracked a couple of large power transistors or whatever they are in half and it went bang. So, I went of to ebay, and purchased a second hand apc unit from a seller that I have dealt with many times before in the past. Guess what, it didnt work... Well it did work, just didnt work at all in backup mode, ie removal of mains power failed to kick the batteries in. It self tested fine, just cut off when mains was lost. I emailed the seller, and they refunded me in full, *and* told me where to buy replacement batteries from. So I took a chance and bought a replacement battery (for less than the cost of the refunded money). Whilst waiting for the battery to arrive I opened up the unit and pushed all the connectors firmly into place in case any were loose. New battery brought the system to life, but runtime does not seem right yet, still trying to get the thing calibrated properly, waiting for it to charge fully so I can do another calibration. Made up my own lead (well, soldered the pc end, and just stuck the cat 5 cable direct into the serial port on the apc) for the smart-comms, which works, but is slow. I thought apc was a good make, until I tried one, for a so called "smart" ups its as dumb as a plank of wood. Slow comms, inability to tell a good battery from a bad battery, cutting off completely when mains lost, despite self test stating all is fine. Not to mention the fact that they use a non standard serial cable, and if you try a standard one it CUTS power to the outlets. Anyways, Im rambling, my question is - are there any pitfalls to watch out for, other than sinewave/square wave when using a ups for cctv? The only one I can think of, which would apply to UPS in general is if someone unplugs the mains supply lead to the UPS, then the UPS would be supplying mains still, but none of the supplied equipment would have a mains earth. Not sure how to handle that one, or even if its a problem... Im trying to think of things that could cause problems, but cant think of any yet, just wondering if anyone out there that uses UPS's for cctv on a regular basis has already came across problems and could point them out before I experience them the hard way

Most decent colour cameras have very poor infrared ability, b&w can also have poor infra red ability but usually b&w is ok, it depends on the ccd and what filters are used in the camera. Check the camera specs for the camera, it should tell you what wavelenghts the cam can see. If its up in the 900nm range it can see the invisible IR used by covert ir illuminators, if its around 730ish its the ir lights that glow red that it will be able to see. If its higher than 1000 then its a very expensive ir optimised camera