Mr. Anonymous

Worked on the system some more today, I cut the end off an extension cord and hardwired it to the junction box by the window: I'm working with the cables and adapters I have on hand, to try an avoid interference I used a double male end (gold plated) composite adapter instead of a short patch cable. I realized I gave away my S-video VCR so I'm stuck with a Sony SLV-N51 which only has composite so I used an S-video to composite adapter (gold plated) and a gold plated S-video cable. In the background you can see a long stretch of mono composite video cable, it's not gold plated but will serve as a pull out connection to frame up the camera if needed with an external TV/display: Like I said the VCR is temporary, it has gold plated composite inputs but the gold plated is only the front L2 inputs. It's a decent VCR; 19-micron heads. I like the fact you can rewind a T-120 tape in just 60 seconds with the Flash Rewind feature, good for re-recording/dumping a tape. Thing is that's a 6ft S-video cable, I don't need all that so it's curled up to the left of the VCR...but up against a wall voltage power line I hope it does not pickup interference:

What is VCR ? lol I know right. It's old school but it will get the trick done for now at least I'll use a decent VCR and a new tape hahaha. Where can I buy a barebone DVR with just a few channels or even a single channel? Barebone as in install your own hard drive maybe power supply etc? I found an old bracket in one of my parts bins, used for I don't even know what but I don't need the middle extensions: Only the middle and top holes were tapped on the camera mounting block so I drilled out the bottom and tapped it 1/4"-20: Like I said not sure what the bracket was used for but I drilled 2 of the end holes out: Solid anchoring system: Mounted it right where I was talking about, I have an old creepy basement. If you look closely you can see I knocked out the inner pane in front of the camera to reduce focus problems since they are both wavy led glass, I'm also going to put a piece of plywood across the bottom of the floor beams to hold the VCR up the ceiling temporarily until I run cables two floors up which by then I may have a DVR upstairs: Just for framing purposes I used a 13" tube TV with an S-video to composite adapter...looks good I was worried it might not have a wide enough angle lens, it even covers my ATV tarped behind my truck. I can actually screw on other lenses if need be I'm going to look for a cheap wide angle lens: I even have clearance between the other side of the cam and windowsill, I noticed the only vent on this thing is on the top. My basement gets dusty I hope it wont get inside I see a foam pad under the vent on top: Downside is it is easily spotable from the outside, I'm going to make a black square out of construction paper or something and cut a hole in it the diameter of the lens. Someone could easily put something in front of the window if they knew it was there ahead of time:

Actually my VCR supports S-video input so I may only need the two cables unless when recording to tape it's easier to use a non-separated signal?

Live viewing for now, but that's an $80+ cable setup I don't have funding for at the moment. I'm thinking about putting a 4-head VCR next to the camera on LP for the time being, wouldn't it be easier to just do an S-video Y-split upstairs? (viewing/DVR)

If I did the coax like that it would be out of the BNC with the resulting RCA end on the monitor side. If not Id stick with the S-video and Cat extension, for $60 I could have two Balun's but my length is under 65ft so if I can make it with a good 50ft S-cable I may not even need the Cat system right?

Thanks! I hadn't received much help over here so I've been keeping up on it with an electronics forum. Here is a quote I got over there do you think your method will work better though? "RG-6 can be had for cheap, buy it by the foot (whatever lengths you need) and then buy the appropriate ends. I don't recall if there are BNC connectors designed for RG-6, I always only see the ones designed for RG-58. If not, an F connector on one end with a female F to BNC adapter. On the other end an RCA connector. They make those as compression connectors for RG-6 If you don't have the compression tool, a local cable company employee would likely do it for you for cheap or a small fee. (under the table of course)."

So I wanted to add two cams with a "3rd person view" to my property, my two neighbors one on either side agreed to allow me to install a SMALL wireless camera inside their porch windows facing the corners of my home (covers the area of 2 cams if they were mounted on my house, from the 3rd person view). Lately I've been toying with a crappy 1/4"cmos black and white 380TVL Swann Secura Cam (SW214-SCC) and an old wireless transmitter set, and it's sufficient from the closer neighbors porch but eh: I do not want to spent much at all, but I would like a matching pair (if I had another b&w I would roll with them). So with that being said I could get the same thing only the new version still in 380TVL but color, for $20 a pop: Or bump it up the best I could find for $40 each was the 1/3" CCD color 600TVL mini, resolution 811x508 (ntsc) which is better then the 380TVL 510x492...but HOW MUCH better would this cam be over the above??? I like this cam for several reasons; the lens can be swapped out for what looks like 25mm, 8mm, 6mm, & 2.1mm (other listings of this cam with one of those lens already on it). Also there is no mic as for I don't need one anyway in the neighbors house...no Ir lights either which are worthless and take up case/window space + electricity, the money must be going into the video quality. They are composite output which leads me to the next debate; the wireless end. They have these 2.4Ghz 100mW transmitter and receiver sets on eBay for $50 inc shipping, claims good for 50~100meters. That's $90 for a tiny wireless cam with a range of up to 300ft, can anyone do better?