yakky

People have gotten the raspberry pi to run windows, but its a tiny arm processor that will not have the power to run any app that does video analysis. There are plenty of other solutions in a small form factor with some crunching power. 20 minutes at Newegg will give you plenty of ideas.

You can just buy baluns and power adapters and do this with any system.

Detect the DVR? What do you mean? You should have assigned a static IP to the DVR and then set the ports in the firewall section.

For Dahua based units you can push the rtsp stream to a server then use VLC to stream it out. There is a great writeup on how to do it by Rory but its a site the admin here won't allow links to. The issue is web browsers don't know how to play rtsp. So you need a 3rd party plugin and configuration.

5 years, no issues. 10... I dunno. The big thing is sunlight, that will destroy the cable faster than the temp swings and rain.

And since they come with their own power connector, there is no real reason to use that sort of splitter unless you got pre-terminated cables.

I agree, hex edit the rom, and pray there isn't a checksum or put a $20 router in front of it.

The wiring part isn't that bad, its just time consuming. You will want to research running coax vs twisted pair (CAT5/6). Each has its own advantages. As far as equipment goes there are several tiers, so we need to know your budget. If all you intend to use the system for is this particular person, you could probably get away with a pretty cheap system, however you might be wishing you had more if anything else happens.

I never thought of that. " title="Applause" /> I will say this, along the same topic, I don't understand how CCTV camera's produce such radically different image quality versus a consumer grade camcorder. Watching CCTV footage from an analog system, then compared to some old home movies from a SD camcorder... wow.. the camcorder is so much better. Two big factors.... Lens quality and image tuning. The camcorder is going to have a much better lens than most cheaper CCTV cams. Second, the image on CCTV systems is usually tuned for wide dynamic range and isn't optimized for pleasing colors. That said, I'll put my QVIS Eye 34's against any old SD camcorder. I have older youtubes shot with a quality Canon camcorder and to me the D1 output from my modern cameras is better as far as general IQ goes.

Effective pixels is marketing speak. If its over 500 lines and you are recording in D1, you are probably not going to get anything better using that spec. In fact shopping cameras using line specs is a TERRIBLE idea. I'd rather take a 380 line TDN+WDR camera over the latest cheapo 700 line camera. Regarding CCD size, you can vary the amount of pixels in the same image sensor size, there is no rule saying you have to have a 1/3" sensor to get over 700 lines. The sensor can use smaller or larger pixels. Cellphones have very small sensors and are over 5mp. For more info on that, google "The Megapixel myth" it realates to photography in general but it will clarify the issue for you.

I'm partial to Dahua brand because they have clients for Mac and Linux and their iOS apps are pretty decent. Dahua's will push footage to a remote FTP server if you like. If it was my money I'd skip the boxed system and build my own.

Can't comment on much, I just know that Samsung isn't that well recieved around here. That said, do go with the 24VF series cameras vs the 20S, the low light performance difference is HUGE for just slightly more $.

Do you have any sample images/videos you can share? Also have you tweaked your CNB? I actually find the 24VF series to smear and have no noise, but at the expense of detail. I'd love to see them compared in real life.

Grab a Panasonic "petcam" Good image quality and you can either grab a jpeg using an URL or have it ftp files to a server of your choice. $75 and nothing else to worry about. Also if you have any older Canon point and shoot camera, CHDK (a firmware overlay) will do what you want.

My choice would be a Dahua based 8 channel D1 DVR, about $150 without a drive. If you don't mind IR lighting, go with the Qvis Eye-34's at $70 each. If you'd rather go with a TDN non IR camera, hard to beat the CNB VBM-24VF for $120 each. You'll have to spend a whole lot more (3X+) to get something substantially better. Either camera does very well at night as well as day.

Certainly doable with USD. I guess it depends on where you are shopping. Add all of your PST, DST, LMNOP and whatever other taxes you commies have and probably no. I lived in Ottawa, FWIW, so take it as humor, though it probably hurts, I still have family up there, the prices are crazy given the current exchange rate.

You can get Qvis-Eye34's for $70 each. They have a nice DSP, WDR, and an OSD. IP66 rated as well. As far as I'm concerned, there is no better bargain if you are ok with IR.

Not sure if this will work for your firmware but for my nightowl I was able to use the unix "strings" command and grep for root, got a few hits that looked like password entries. The first I was able to crack in a few minutes, but it didn't work. The second I ran for a few weeks and never got a hit. Then I got fed up with the Nightowl and sent it back.

How are you sure there are cameras? Feelings don't count, hard evidence. It sounds like paranoia to me, and a doctor can only help with that.

The day colors are surprisingly good, but the nighttime shots are terrible, those LEDs are so concentrated at the center. How long has the system been up and running?

Raw specs are often fudged. I'm not a brand shopper but I do trust certain brands to deliver a good user experience. Perfect example is how many of the DVRs claim to record in D1, but they upsample the image to D1 size. It takes more space, but offers no more resolution than CIF. Quality I'm ranting about? Dude.... you have me laughing. Buy the cheapest thing you can find. Go for it. You are so smart, everyone is trying to rip you off with their higher priced items. See you at Walmart!

Shouldn't matter what brand as long as it supports ftp. Shawn has a nice pdf on how to setup NAS on his site using a PC (for testing), once you get that working you can try a NAS.

Make sure you find a drive that is meant for AV recording, WD has the AV-GP series, they go on sale for about $70 for a 2TB drive.

You say you tried several domes... which ones? I've used a CNB WBL-20S and a Qvis Eye34 and don't have those sort of issues.

The Dahuas do require activex if you don't have the client, they make a client for OSX and Linux that work well. Honestly the Swann or Lorex will be ok as long as they really record in D1, but the Dahuas have a bunch of neat features built in and don't seem like a kids toy. Cameras is where you really want to spend your money. Forget the Swann or Lorex ones.