Kawboy12R

How interesting are your neighbours? You have FatherFord beat? If so we need pictures.

???

Cat 5 is fine.

Why won't the wires work with the new system? Did you get something that uses RCA connectors instead of BNC? Maybe the new system uses RJ45 (computer network) connectors? Doubt it if you want bargain basement but you never know. Communication eez everything...

Well, when I mentioned network bandwidth I was thinking more along the lines of INTERNAL (LAN) network bandwidth, not internet bandwidth. Depending on the megapixels and quality settings, 16 network cams can bring a 10/100 switch to its knees.

If you have no glaring problems with what you have then don't bother changing until you go to network cameras.

How cheap and easy will it be to troubleshoot or replace a defective cam? That depends on location and the importance of uptime. You might want to balance cheap with reliable. My money is on Axis or Mobotix being a cheaper long term option over 5 or ten years (possibly sooner) if you are going to send someone to fix or replace it every time it stops working.

Two thumbs up...

Bring a known good cable and plug it into another monitor right next to the camera. If the pic is still bad it's the camera. If it's not bad, swap cables at the DVR with another camera that's working. If the bad image changes positions, then run another cable from the camera with image problems to the DVR. If the bad image doesn't change positions, it's a bad input on the DVR. If you've got a spare camera, you can also hook it up temporarily in place of the bad one to test the cable and DVR input. This all assumes that it's an analog camera. If it's a network camera the general principals still apply. Isolate the problem using known good components.

Axis site says they are discontinued. http://www.axis.com/products/cam_q8108r/ Must've caused too many nosebleeds...

Sounds like you would be better off asking in a home automation forum. Most folks here think more about triggering cameras with external events like open windows rather than having a unit showing which windows you forgot to close.

Ain't no such thing as too much ammo. Practice practice practice. Seriously though, contact Axis and tell them what you want. Google Q8108-R for a higher end solution and they'll hook you up. And nice touch vector.

You're a fool for even considering higher end cameras! MostESPECIALLY anything that might be made in North America. Waste of money! Low-end Chinese cams are the only thing worth considering. Buy them and put the savings into guns, armor, and canned goods for the revolution that'll be needed when the Chinese finish buying off America. Or just run a regular old 12v NVR (soft mounted against vibration failure) off the car's electrics (either with a true 12v power supply or a true sine inverter to run the 110v into the NVR), used keyed power to fire a relay so it only runs while the car is turned on, and mount a pair of little Axis P1214E cams somewhere inconspicuous.

I was going to recommend that but didn't want to shut down your idea. Besides, drunken high school students deserve SOME credit for doing some form of useful work, even if it IS as a back-end for a more useful front end.

The Swann and Lorex systems from Costco I was talking about earlier are IP systems with no apparent significant short term reliability issues. Two 8 channel NVRs will give 16 channels. If you want to use a computer as NVR, 16 ACTi cams will run on one computer using their free software just fine. Depending on budget, the sky's the limit on selection after that. Just beware that network bandwidth and software selection will be an issue, especially if you expect to run, say, 16 5mp cams with BlueIris off of a single 10/100 switch.

Well, ZoneMinder is the big daddie in open source cctv programs. Googling "open source cctv" will bring up more (like iSpy), some of which (like ViewMAX) are based on ZoneMinder. I can't say that I've heard of anybody using anything to rip the streams from a DVR and using DVR software to replace the "brain" (or lack thereof) in the original box though. Viewing the DVR remotely over a LAN shouldn't be a big problem, but remote motion detection, saving, managing, and reviewing? Interesting goal. It'd make a nice way to have a separate backup in case of DVR theft as well. Hopefully someone else on here has more experience using ZoneMinder and its brethren?

Just for viewing live or do you want to record and play back the recordings as well?

2 static LOCAL IP numbers (1 per dvr), 1 static external with two ports as mentioned before.

For outdoor use?? Might be an option inside using software that'll monitor what would essentially be a webcam. Not a bad option to have inside that'll blend in if you can just sit it on a shelf with a bunch of other stuff.

Sounds like you need to recalibrate your focus. Not sure why but they can get screwed up and out of timing somehow. Happened to one of my 3364s. PITA for a while but I fixed it somehow and only afterwards found out that they sometimes need the focus recalibrated.

I'm never TOTALLY sarcastic. It is entertainment with a hook and a hint. I don't have that DVR so I don't know for sure but the DVRs I own or have looked at don't have the option to output an alarm when the fan stops, but do for HDD full, HDD failure, or whatever. I figured it was worth a shot to check anyway. If the fans are annoyingly loud well before the alarm goes off then the alarm is pretty useless to you, right? Might as well save some money on the fans.

Haven't a clue which exact fan it uses but I would assume that no RPM wire will be interpreted as not spinning so the alarm will probably sound. If you regularly win the lottery then you might be lucky enough to find an option in the menus to ignore that error.

So, almost by definition, the only outdoor Optex PIR worth a damn is the HX-40DAM because it is their only outdoor PIR with microwave technology?

??? http://www.optexamerica.com/security-products/lx-402 Opinions?

The big excitement is possibly viewing the recordings. Other than that, for an android user like me with an unsupported phone, no huge attraction. Might work on my iPad I guess if it left the house.