yakky

You can do the same with regular quality wired cameras. You can run the video signal and power of the CAT5, and just hang it out a window sill. I've done this before, I mounted the cameras on small 2x4x4 blocks of wood and just used some goop or RTV to hold them to the window sill. The only gotcha is waterproofing the connections, but you can make a makeshift junction box.

DD-WRT has lots of benefits, but unless you need one, there is no real reason. Unless you have a really bad firmware, it won't be anymore reliable or anything.

Wireless cameras still need power as you have seen. Running CAT5 isn't as big of a deal as it seems.

I don't believe their sdk has support for iphone, it seems to be linux and windows for now. There is already an iphone app called idmss.

Smart thinking running the wires. You can actually run video on either cable, power on the Cat6. I'd recommend piecing your system together vs buying a kit, the kits usually have very crappy cameras. Dahua makes great DVRs and very nice cameras. CNB also makes some very nice cameras.

Yep, a simple RF modulator will work. You can find very cheap ones that work on channel 3-4, in fact you might already have one if you have an older video game system. If you already have a tv signal running on that coax, it gets a bit more complicated. You'll have to find some open channels and use a more expensive modulator.

You might want to tell us your current camera/dvr setup.

The switching issue is overblown. If there is enough light, it will be in color. The 24VF series is as intelligent as any camera in its price range if not more. If you shop around they can be had for $110-125, I personally like CNBdealer, they are great to work with and they will hook you up if you are buying several.

Yeah, the little Qvis' with DSPs are probably the absolute best bang for the buck right now. About 10% more than a similar no-name, take your chances type dome.

I've played with a few that didn't have the option, lower end boards, but they do exist. WOL usually only works when the unit is in standby mode.

It will probably be too reliable, it'll last for a lot longer than you will want to use it for, unless you have a fixed budget and don't mind a poor interface and cameras. For recommended brands, a lot of us here are fans of Dahua.

If your time is worth nothing and you are looking for a project, why not. Otherwise you can pick up small cameras like CNB MN1750s for about $15 each and they have much better IQ than older cell phones and are ready to go.

It all starts with "just one" camera....lol....

OP, your tone here is amazing. You are talking to us like we are responsible for helping you, like we sold you the equipment and HAVE to tell you. I seriously haven't heard this pushy of a tone on any sort of forum since back when AOL joined the newsgroup world.

You don't need an additional router, you just need to run the second DVR on different port numbers.

Perfect time to upgrade. Check out the Qvis Eye-34N, amazing camera for the price.

what a tease!!!

16 is going to be the best way to go, plus you'll always think of more camera angles you want. Let us know what you end up doing for cameras. I have some of the smallish CNB MN1750s, but they aren't that small and low light performance just isn't there. They can be adjusted for focus though.

Your request was: "please, please DO NOT recommend a new DVR solution unless you have EXTREMELY good reason; we cannot afford $2000+ or anything even close to that for a new DVR" So I recommended a $150 DVR that would make your life easier. Not a $2000 one. Sorry your goober little convenience store isn't doing so well, sorry you can't realize you need to spend a few bucks to make your life easier. And kindly pound sand. You look for advice, you get solid advice and you chastise it. Shame on you. Goober.

Dahua all the way. PSS is pretty robust (and runs on any OS that will run Wine), the iOS clients are ok, Rory Knowles has some really nice utilities that are IMO better than PSS, and lastly, if that's not enough, they provide and SDK if you want to roll your own tool.

Might want to tinker with HLC or BLC.

Dedicated hardware will be more reliable, require less care and feeding (OS updates, maint and other issues), and use less power.

Most DVRs have analog outputs (BNC). You can get a BNC to RCA converter and hook it up to your amp that way. Then you can use the remote from the DVR to switch views/channels or view recorded events.

You can pick up an 8 channel dahua dvr for $150 or spend days monkeying around with old junk. The real issue is probably the config on the router.

That's not a brightness or contrast issue, you need to enable WDR (wide dynamic range). It helps in very contrasty scenes like you posted.