GrouchoBoucho

i use t-25 round staples on cat5e all the time, there's *no* problem as long as you're careful. the staples are plenty wider than the wire itself - t25 staples are 7.5mm wide; cable outside diameter is typically 5.5mm (they actually fit rg6 snugly). just set the depth guide to the middle stop so it nicely fits over the wire and keeps it aligned. i don't know what "outdoor rated" cat5 is... there's "direct burial" but that's extreme overkill for going under your eaves. any regular stuff should be fine. for what you're doing. all the other stuff for conduit, junction boxes, etc. you should be able to find at home depot, lowes, etc.

my 'favorite' is whatever is best suited for the situation, balancing motion, bandwidth, and retention *requirements*. not what is "prettiest".

if i need to narrow down a long time frame, i usually use my dvr's 'smart search' feature to select motion areas in the recorded video, so i can narrow it down to movement in a specific area of interest.

he said right off the top he didn't want a package system, so the very first thing you did was suggest a package system...

if all you want to do is view the cameras, you need barely any hardware. samsung probably has a basic vms program that will do it... or just view them via web browser. unfortunately, as i say, it doesn't appear the vs80 is designed to view the cameras directly.

you'd have to check the supported cameras list for your synology to know if the camera will work with it. however, from looking through the documentation, it appears the vs80 is not designed to view cameras directly; it looks like it's intended only as a remote-access device for another diskstation recorder. so in order to view the cameras with it, you'll need a diskstation to record them first. the snp-3120 *is* on the diskstation supported list, and it should support the ptz controls as well. and btw, calling samsung probably wouldn't help - i doubt they could tell you a thing about the synology integration.

it may not be in the most obvious place, but *every* pc i've worked on in at least the last 10 years has had this feature. most new ones with onboard network adapters also have a "wake on lan" function where you can send it a "turn on" command via the network.

every pc out there should have an option in the bios on what to do when ac power is restored after a power loss: stay off, resume previous state, or turn on. that slick enough? here are a couple examples:

skip the dvr, use an ip camera with built-in recording.

my preferred way to do this is using a router that supports user-defined ddns services, such as one running dd-wrt firmware (a few others do let you define your own ddns services as well). this way it doesn't rely on the dvr or a computer on the network being up or running properly in order for the ddns entry to be updated. if that's not an option, you can run dynsite (http://noeld.com/services.htm) on any windows machine on your network. it really doesn't matter whether the ddns updater runs on the dvr, a pc, or the router - it's updating the ddns server with the current "public" ip of your connection, an ip that all devices on the lan share.

this. in addition, because you might have a better nvr one day?

turn it off in the settings.

you realize the only thing you'll be able to zoom in on is the exact center of the frame, right?

read back a few posts:

1. you can use any number of ip-over-coax adapters... be prepared to pay from $100-$400 per run for this capability. some models will also run poe power over the coax, but since you already have power to the camera locations, this shouldn't be a requirement. 2. contrary to owain's answer, cat5/6 cable length is not normally a consideration for poe. ethernet spec limits you to about 100m before you get potential signal issues; poe spec is broad enough that you'd have to go far beyond 100m before you saw significant voltage loss. in either case, if you're using ip-over-coax adapters, these generally claim ethernet connections of anywhere from 500' to 1000' or more... and again, if you have power to the analog cameras already, then you don't need to worry about poe. 3. yes. you can use dhcp, but i recommend either manual ip assignment, or allowing the cameras to pull addresses from the dhcp server, and then locking them in as 'static' in the camera settings. otherwise you run the risk of camera ips changing over time, which would result in cameras dropping off the system, or changing their order in the vms. 4. the video signal is digitized inside the camera and simply transmitted as network data. no extra hardware is required. what you *will* need is to replace the dvr with an nvr (network video recorder). now, here's something to consider: switching to all-ip *just* to view it over the net is stupid. first of all, any decent analog dvr is viewable over the 'net already. second, configuring the network and cameras to allow him to view each individual camera remotely from off-site would be a major headache. setting up remote access just to the dvr(s) is much simpler, and much easier for him to manage on the remote end. third, the main reason for going to ip is to get past the resolution limitations of analog video. if you want to take advantage of better resolution, then great, go for it... if all the boss is worried about is better pictures and internet viewing, then keep the existing infrastructure, upgrade the cameras to better analog cameras, and upgrade the dvr(s) to better dvr(s)... or better yet, upgrade to hybrid dvr(s) and you'll have the option to upgrade cameras to ip gradually, instead of having to do them all at once.

FM Systems does. http://www.fmsystems-inc.com/cw/Details.cfm?ProdID=257&category=16 yeah, and i could buy a car for what it costs. i wouldn't think so - i would just expect the signal is too degraded to be decoded properly by the dvr. yup - despite all the marketing claims of this being an easy drop-in retrofit for analog systems, the fact is, the cable *and connectors* do need to be good quality, and in good condition. as you've found, even slight problems that wouldn't show up at all on analog, can disrupt the hd signal. on the other hand, i bet ip-over-coax adapters would have worked fine on that cable - i've used them on some pretty iffy wire with no problems.

that's actually a coke ad that some touchy-feely outfit has apparently stolen (and pitch-shifted to avoid the automatic copyright bots). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px2fjhliA8s

either use "smart tvs" and view the cams and nas in its browser, or get something like this: install your viewer app on it (i use this one: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rcreations.ipcamviewerBasic) and away you go.

http://www.android-x86.org/

doesn't the camera itself support poe?

That may vary widely depending on DVR. Always best to use relays with decent isolation. i was looking at the specs for his specific dvr.

i'll leave that to tom as i don't currently have idmss installed on my phone... the dvr doesn't supply power - you have to provide your own power to the lights. all the dvr does is act as a switch. this is your basic 12v light fixture: +------+ +-------+ | +------------------------------+ | | BATT | | LIGHT | | +------------------------------+ | +------+ +-------+ now if you add a switch, you'd wire it in where the X is: +------+ +-------+ | +---------X--------------------+ | | BATT | | LIGHT | | +------------------------------+ | +------+ +-------+ except in this case, instead of two terminals on a switch, we're using the "c" and "no" terminals on the dvr. that's all those do - they're a normally-open switch under relay control. so when you trigger that alarm output, whether on-screen or through programming or through remote software, you set the dvr to close those contacts, and bingo, your light goes on.

Hi Tom, thanks for the reply. As I can be a bit thick, according to the wife and personal experience, I need a bit more info. To wit, which remote software are you referring to? The DVR or the gDMSS? After checking out the links that Owain gave me, I'm getting a bit more confused. I'm rather tired of letting the blue smoke out of my electronics! It can get expensive to experiment with this stuff! I've searched the web for wiring diagrams but that's just a wild goose chase since no-one has the exact same scheme... This does appear to be within reach though. it's really not that complicated. the back of your dvr should look similar to this, with plug-in screw terminal blocks: the top row include your alarm outputs - three pairs of 'no' (normally open) and 'c'ommon relay outputs. at the most simple, you can just run the power for a light fixture through one of them, the way you would normally wire in a switch (they'll support up to 2a at 30v). if you need to control more current, use the output to trigger a standard 12v relay. once that's wired, you can use the 'slide switches' tom mentions in your dmss software to toggle those outputs on and off.

a panasonic expert is not necessary. these are all analog cameras and should work fine with any ip encoders, or as the toss suggests, just replace the mux and vcr with a new dvr (hybrid or otherwise). the only compatibility concern will be pal or ntsc.