Kawboy12R

I picked up a bnc to vga adapter so I can bring the dvr monitor to the camera to help focusing. I used to have a handheld TV with composite video in for that but lost it somewhere. Beats a lot of walking to the dvr by a long shot and is even better than focusing with two people. Remember to either focus at night or cover the lens with welder's glass, a few folds of Mylar space blanket or whateverto open the iris. That'll narrow the depth of field so you can focus where you want at night. Daytime DOF and focus will be wider and less fussy.

I agree. It's better than my first opinion of the camera, but then part of the problem is the cheapo Lorex dvr that doesn't preserve the live quality of the camera. The graininess of the original live image is preserved in the captured image though. Just about every other cam I've had in that location would've had an almost completely washed out face. The best was my KT&C B&W ExView bullet, but it isn't waterproof unless it's in a large housing that I don't want to mount there. It beats a "stock" cheapo Lorex, cheapo Aposonic, and a "higher end" 700tvl Aposonic that very closely resembles the larger 700tvl bullets from Empire.

Also, I was wondering if the Videosecu cameras you liked better than the 24VF CNB were the $99 VD3HBE (or VD3HWE) domes? They're the only 700tvl cameras on that site that were even close to half of a CNB. I got my VCM-24VFs for $135 apiece. I wasn't initially terribly impressed with low-light quality but the following pic isn't TOO bad of a gentleman caller I had checking out my lawnmower at 5am the other day. It was left outside almost touching the garage door which has the dome mounted right above the top left corner when looking at the garage. If the camera had red lights he might've looked up but he was always looking down.

Server-side motion detection is usually the big CPU hog. If that's not it I'm not sure what else to try besides other software. http://blueirissoftware.com/7.html http://download.cnet.com/NVR/3000-2348_4-75578497.html http://www.apexcctv.com/c-300-milestone-nvr-software.aspx?gclid=CPWWrumJhLMCFe5FMgod3ioAzQ ??? Worth a shot. All have free trials available. Blue Iris and Milestone supports Vivoteks. Not sure on NVR+.

Haha, I thought they looked pretty good. That explains it.

I can't help on a pigtail. Looks like a bare-wire audio hookup to me, like the pinch-to-connect hookups for home theater speakers. I'd buy the cables I wanted with RCA connectors on one end and cut whatever's on the DVR end off and insert the wires into the pinch connectors on the DVR. That'd be a bit Mickey Mouse with 4 grounds going into one pinch connector though. An Aver dealer might have something fancier with 5 bare wires and 4 female connectors to use for audio. What cameras were used in the pics you posted? Looks like nice quality with good colour in the second two but then you've got lots of light. Much better recorded video quality than my cheapo DVR does. I've been wavering on getting an Aver or not, with some positive reviews and others not quite so impressive on here.

Awesome! Turned out much better (so far) than I was expecting. I wonder if he has started lining his windows and hats with tinfoil yet? Back on to cameras though. Do you have any comparison pics or video? Preferably at night with someone walking up to the camera?

IP cameras use RJ45 cables (same as ethernet cables for your computer) instead of twinned coaxial cables (power and BNC) like analog cameras. Most IP cameras do POE (power over ethernet), so you don't need a separate power cable, just the one ethernet cable as long as you don't need a heater on your camera (can't push that much power over a cat 5 ethernet cable). Not a big deal to run another cable for power though. You could get cameras that do hidef over coax but your video recorder doesn't support those. Not much sense buying a camera AND a new DVR just to reuse existing cables.

This is a bit late (doing database searching on ACTi cameras) but I was wondering if those with flaky power issues were using home crimped cables? Poorly crimped RJ45 ends can cause intermittency issues far enough apart that you think that the cables are good. BTDT when I first started crimping my own. Some'll work quite well for a while but gradually get worse as the poor connection heats up, fails, cools, starts working, heats up, fails, etc.

How did it go Maximus?

I won't argue that it's the best available version (I only have the one camera), but I've never seen a camera better than my KT&C Exview B&W bullet cam for low low low light operation. This thread has a couple of pics comparing my CNB VCM-24VF (well-regarded low-light colour cam) with Mona Lisa chipset to my KT&C. Read the post because the pics don't do the detail from the KT&C justice because of my crappy DVR. Live view is VERY impressive for light sensitivity. I wish someone would make a B&W megapixel IP cam with the same sensitivity. Unfortunately B&W isn't as sexy or saleable as colour even though most colour cams switch to B&W at night anyway.

I'd also zoom in a bit closer and to the left of those dumpsters before you try to refocus. With a dome camera, I'm assuming that you haven't swapped lenses to a non-IR if it's an IR dome? I'm not sure which model of dome it is from Googling it. If you're at max zoom on that camera, consider at least a 12mm and maybe a 16mm lens on something else. You'll lose more of what's going on around the dumpsters but you'll be better able to identify who is throwing their trash in them. I assume that's the problem? Shame you apparently HAVE to use the existing cable when you have a hybrid dvr. You'd get much more detail with an IP camera and wouldn't have to lose as much image width zooming in to get enough detail for a positive ID.

But just think of the possibilities- you could turn up the kilojoules on cars that're identified as single passenger until they change lanes...

Did you turn off motion detection in iSpy? That should drop your CPU usage down. The camera should tell iSpy that there's motion. You'll have to play around with settings and threshold to verify what works the best for each camera position. If you're just playing with it, turn off all motion detection in iSpy momentarily and see what happens to stability and CPU usage when just viewing, not recording. Then I'd try recording everything to load the system that way. Then make sure the in-cam motion detection is working properly with iSpy and tweak each one to record when you need it to record. Nothing worse than missing something because you wanted to miss a few false-positives from spiders or whatever. I have neither iSpy nor your cameras so I can't give specifics, just generalities.

Regarding CPU load- are you having the computer do the motion detection or have you set it in the cameras? That'll take a lot of CPU load away if you haven't done that yet.

Google WDR or ExDR for cams with wide or extended dynamic range. They handle bright spots but still give detail in the darker areas. Ones with WDR that really work well are fairly expensive though. $500+ most likely. Cheaper is to black out the bright areas such as the light right in front of the camera and/or the door in your picture. Some cameras and dvrs allow this for either privacy or blocking out lights. Drop your camera height too. Hard to get a good face pic looking down at it. With a ballcap on? Forget it. Maybe even add another camera lower and point it where there aren't as many bright spots. That gives you two chances for a better shot. IP cams give better clearer detail as well. I've seen some impressive videos of Acti and Axis WDR/ExDR cams with bright backlighting.

Hire? I bought a new one for under $40. Not a deluxe model but it works fine. Haven't blown myself up yet. Just have to remember to wear earplugs indoors. They are quite impressively loud inside a closet.

Stainless and rubber wire hangers. You find them at hardware stores and truck parts places. Hang them with a Ramset gun. (.22 cartridges used to blast concrete nails)

My take on it is that you're right, sort of, as long as you're talking daytime coverage. I've been doing the same research you've been doing. NVRs run on bandwidth more than the number of cameras as well, so a 5mp IP cam will result in fewer possible cameras on the DVR and give you worse coverage at night than 2 or 3 lower resolution IP cameras. What I see as the sweet spot for me as a homeowner for IP cams- a few 1.3 or 2.0mp cams with wide angle lenses by your entrances to tell you what is going on (plus they'll give facial recognition for people coming and going because they're close to the doors), plus some zoom cams (minimum of 10-12mm or better depending on distance) for choke points and extreme closeups of my vehicles. You don't need ID on every camera- just an overview of what happened and ONE shot from a camera with the job of taking closeups where someone has to travel. It also looks like there's no substitution for lights, either white or IR. I've been spending too much unnecessary time reviewing bugs and fog in front of my cameras with built-in IR, so I'm becoming a fan of more and brighter motion lights and maybe external IR. The tricky parts for night ID are finding cameras that won't white-out plates and over-expose faces in areas with low light. Most reviews either skip this aspect or show it in a city with tons of omnidirectional ambient light. WDR looks like a big plus and maybe smart IR. I don't have any experience with smart IR though.

Wishful thinking on my part.

Empire is sold out of the 2100N mini-bullet. Hopefully it's because the 3200S is imminent and replacing it.

Thanks for the pics salesguy. Any chance of getting some night pics/videos (or opinions if you don't want to post your plate online) of license plates and a person walking up towards the camera to judge face clarity with a moving subject?

A heater does more than just help a camera survive the cold. Who wants to climb up a ladder with a hairdryer to thaw snow, ice, frost, etc during the winter? No heater will equal no usable video for significant portions of the winter if the camera is exposed to the elements.

Fewer people are enjoying the perks of door to door sales, true, but PlentyOfFish has seriously taken up that slack.

I think I'd skip straight to IP cams with lots of bright motion activated lights so that we, er I mean law enforcement gets the best possible pictures. Seriously though, if you have kids or don't SERIOUSLY love dealing with hard cases, I'd bail before you're seriously emotionally and financially invested in the place. Ask yourself why he hates Child Protective Services. If your kids are older, will you ever want your grandkids to come visit and go outside to play unsupervised?