tutech

I had a chance to check the voltage on the power wires getting out to the camera and they read 26 volts AC, so a little out of spec when the camera calls for either 12vDC, 24vDC or 24vAC but nothing that should cause a serious problem. I did verify that the IR LEDs do illuminate by looking through my cell phone camera. I still need to try adjusting the resolution of the channel on the DVR, but I'd like to side with mitchrocks in thinking that max res. and max fps is likely what's needed to capture the plates. For the record, this channel has (and none of my channels ever have) been set to motion recording, they are on capture all the time. I also don't feel that the camera is too far away according to the Bosch specifications of between 15 and 25 feet - the plates travel in view of the camera directly within that range and are not captured sufficiently. I'll report back when I've tried adjusting the resolution of the channel to CFS instead of D1. I will also try the suggestion of taking a plate off a car and walking it around in front of the camera at different distances and heights to see how it fares. Thank you to everyone for their attention and suggestions.

9 days and 110 views of this thread and nobody has anything constructive to suggest? I'm disappointed, I thought this was the place to go to speak directly to the experts.

Do you use that capability? What protocol do they use to record to the storage?

I've got a FreeNAS box setup with 6TB of storage in a ZFS RAID5 configuration that I'd like to use as IP camera storage. What outdoor day/night cameras would be able to make use of that? I am only assuming that the only way to do that is to use iSCSI, which FreeNAS supports. However my limited amount of research may have left me incorrectly thinking that iSCSI is the only protocol I should be looking for support for. FreeNAS also supports SMB/CIFS, FTP, NFS, SSH, rsync, AFP and uPnP. I can easily VLAN the cameras and the NAS to separate the traffic from the rest of my LAN, and I plan to. Any suggestions on what protocols I should be looking for support for in an IP cam? I'm hoping for either D1 or 720p resolution.

check this out: http://bit.ly/NPAZ5W I'm not trying to be mean, but there are thousands of different ways to arrange and present a proposal and only you know what your research has told you will be needed for the job along with pricing, timing, etc. Do you need to present this in front of the board? If so I would recommend getting a PowerPoint template of some kind. If it just needs to be submitted for review then try getting a Word document template of some kind.

I need some advice to either fine-tune the setup that I've got to actually serve my purpose or a recommendation on what to purchase to serve my purpose of being able to record and then read license plate numbers of the vehicles entering my campus. What I have right now is a Bosch REG-X Close Plate Range Camera (http://products.boschsecurity.us/en/TAMS/products/bxp/SKU17317619312955182603-CATMd022b8847d22b4aca87441305c8fb37c) recording to a Digital Watchdog Max HD 16 channel 1 TB DVR (http://www.techcctv.com/sixteench191.html). The camera is 500 TVL B/W with a capture range of 15 to 25 feet with an optimal range of 20 feet. The DVR is H.264 D1 resolution that I have set for this camera's channel to record in 704x480 resolution (the maximum) at 30fps (the maximum) with the highest video quality setting (the maximum). The camera is mounted on a pole approximately 48 inches off the ground and about 30 inches above the average license plate height. The license plates are a moving target (some faster than others due to the speed bump and impending stop sign ahead) but do certainly pass through the optimal camera view range. When viewing the live camera feed I can usually but not always read an entire license plate number, but when viewing recorded footage I can really only make out maybe 1 out of 5 or 1 out of 10. I've also got a real complaint about the camera's night viewing ability, as it has infrared LEDs built-in around the lens that I confirmed with my cellphone camera are functional but they do not help out nighttime viewing whatsoever - night view on that channel is completely black even when a car goes by. Sadly, on several occasions I have needed to get a license plate number to the police and this setup has failed to produce that all but one time. Most occasions were during daylight and one or two were at night. I'm wondering if there is any adjustment or tuning that I can try to do to my current setup to get this working well for capturing license plates... and if not then what recommendation do all you experts have on replacement equipment that could capture readable plates? I've looked at the manual for this Bosch camera and it doesn't seem to have any way to make picture, focus or any adjustments whatsoever. The manual is here: http://products.boschsecurity.us/en/TAMS/products/bxp/SKU17317619312955182603-CATMd022b8847d22b4aca87441305c8fb37c I've looked at the manual for the Digital Watchdog DVR and it provides for some adjustable settings and I think I've tuned them all as well as I could by setting the record resolution to the highest (704x480), the frame rate to the highest (30), and the video quality setting to the highest. It almost seems as if the camera may be capable (by watching the live view) but the DVR is degrading the video when it gets recorded by compression so that I can't read the numbers on playback but I'm not positive about that. If I can't adjust what I have, would I need a new camera with adjustable settings and a different field of view, a new DVR with a higher FPS or recording resolution, or both? Satellite view of the layout: cars drive along the direction of the white arrow and slow down to roll over the speed bump that I've outlined with a red rectangle before coming to a stop sign just 1 car length beyond the speed bump. The camera I've highlighted with a red circle and laid out its approximate field of view in the lightened section of the driveway. The camera from the back: The camera from the front: Here's car #1 that I'm trying to get a license plate number off of (the clouds had just shifted to cover the sun but this is daytime): Here's car #2 that I'm trying to get a license plate number off of (the clouds had just shifted to cover the sun but this is daytime): Here's a van/RV that is a good example of the "best" that I can hope for out of my setup, this is daytime and the sun is shining brightly without cloud cover: Thank you all for taking the time to lend me your expertise! It is very much appreciated!