JohnSmtihh2

If i split signal coming from camera with bnc splitter and connect one to DVR and other to another monitor will this make video quality go down? if so what equipment i need can do to make sure it stays ok after splitting.

Yes i recently noticed they using CMOS sensors in digital photo cameras as well.

I found good deal on 2MP (1920x1080p) as well as 1.3 MP (1280x720p) IP cameras, however they both use CMOS sensors, as matter of fact company only offer CCD for low resolution cameras and anything higher uses CMOS. Based on numerous dated articles online CCD has better colors etc, however i wonder if this still true for current CMOS by Sony? http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/technology/technology/theme/cmos_01.html

Hi i just got into CCTV recently, i bought analogue 800TVL cameras and D1 DVR however not happy with resolution and video quality being kind of low end. Here's the questions i have so far. 1. I got DVR that records D1 using H264 compression, i set video compression settings to maximum that it allowed, however Image detail is significantly lower when i playback recording versus live view. I also notice lags when i play back more than 2 cameras at the same time and say jump to 5 minutes ahead it takes few seconds for DVR to load every camera footage and if i speed up to 4x 8x 16x it works very slow. I guess compression limitation and playback lag is because DVR has slow CPU and low Memory however i am sure hard drive has to do with that too as it has to seek 4 different spots on hard drive for 4 camera footage. I was thinking about installing 256 GB solid state hard drive. You think it will improve the performance speed of DVR? 3. My current camera resolution is 1020x508 and recording is done to 720x480 (D1), question if i buy camera that is 1296x1041 even though it records to D1 it still uses all pixels of camera to record just scaling it to 720x480 afterwards so i probably will have better face recognition?

I dont want to deal with analog cameras anymore unless i have to, as they limited a lot in resolution analog will never go pas ~1 megapixel. At same time 2-3MP IP cameras now are very inexpensive plus on Sony website they already have 5 and 12 MP CMOS sensors, i believe analog is thing of the past or of tight budget. And for IP i belive its possible to use Laptop / PC with certain software instead of NVR then you can pack any hardware you want into your computer. NVR's are very similar to DVR's in sense that they have limited hardware specs just enough to make recording at 1080p/720p resolution, but not a bit more.

Thanks for replay PsychoMantis. I agree that camera's megapixel count is sensor spec, not actual pixels you will get. Say for camera "1.3 Megapixel camera" resolution is 1280x960 and if we multiply it we get ~1.22Megapxel. However i dont think they give false pixel count for NTSC resolution spec, i will try to connect camera to my PC and see if i get same amount of pixels in PC capture software. I thought this over and here's my presentation click image to zoom, Are following statements correct? Note 1: Blue camera is square therefore image looks stretched on resolution 920x480. I dont see much difference in facial recognition by just having 20% more horizontal pixels even if you later convert video stretching vertical pixels to get correct aspect ratio, quality would be almost same as to D1. Plus you have to convert video say if you give it to someone. Note 2: Red camera is rectangular so it looks good at 920x480 resolution and ugly at 720x480 plus we lose 20% of horizontal resolution, to keep little more detail and avoid need to resize video later its best to stay at 920x480. Note 3: Green image is pixelated because we adjusted lens angle to match camera with more pixels, but we have significantly less pixels to cover this area. Conclusion high resolution analogue cameras are better in rectangular aspect ratio to take advantage of higher resolution (920x480) resolution and its good to have DVR that supports 920x480 as typically on such DVR you can chose to record 920x480 or 720x480. Now i see what my problem is, i have varifocal 2.8-12mm camera with resolution 1020x508 at maximum angle (2.8mm) and is in Note 3 i have not enough pixels for this large area and that's why facial details are low.

Thanks for helping me. Yep i got DVR by itself and then got few mini cameras, as bunch of junkies/dealers around me, i think they sell drugs few houses from me, across the street, did not want them to think i am filming them... One thing i dont like about dome and large bullet cameras with IR is that IR leads glows violet in the darkness and attracts too much attention. I dont want to buy IR camera unless i know i can put some physical filter over IR and remove glowing. I'd rather have independent IR source somewhere separate from the camera and have bullet cameras (without IR) as they are much smaller hence difficult to spot. Like this bullet camera However i guess its not going to work as this small bullet cameras same junk as spy cameras, they dont even list TVL where they sell them e.g. at VideSecu store

I just bought DVR and had few mini "spy" cameras, they work okay however they all colored and at night its totally dark. Another issue is even though resolution was good, image was all washed off. (e.g. like cheap dash cam or digital photo camera with 10 megapixels resolution and but image quality of webcam). So what i need four D1 cameras: - Fixed not PTZ camera, any size - bright at night with minimal lighting (so you can recognize face) - clearest (not washed off) image at D1 resolution - ideally colored at day and auto B/W at night I am looking for camera which performance you personally seen, not just based on all this fake specs they put in online stores.

shockwave199 I have Q-See QT5680-1, 8 channels recording at D1 resolution at 30 FPS per channel. SectorSecurity yep i am pretty new to CCTV, my cameras around the D1 resolution (720x480pixels) now, not sure if connecting higher resolution will work and just record in lower resolution? I dont think i can use ip camera with this DVR it does not have CAT-5 connections for cameras

I live in building with 2 broken gates and door, everyone (mostly homeless and junkies) come in and sleep here. Building management virtually does not exist. Me and my neighbor decided to put few cameras for our parking spots under the house, lights are broken and beyond repair (professional electrician needed) in one of the spots so its very dim at nights besides timer that starts lights in the evening is occasionally getting broken so i need some camera that can handle dark enviroment. I cannot have DVR box in my apartment, perhaps i can put DVR in my neighbor apartment or hide it somewhere in the building, yet i need to have full access to footage 24/7. Perhaps 6-8 channels DVR that allows full remote access tough browser or software is ideal solution for me with. Can you recommend one in particular, i don't want to pay more than $100 for DVR. Also cameras that can handle low light environment but wont cost a lot. I got a few links from amazon if i allowed to post here can you tell me if any one of this products are what i need? http://www.amazon.com/Professional-capability-Sensitivity-Adjustment-HDD/dp/B007713AQG/ref=sr_1_134?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352931427&sr=1-134 http://www.amazon.com/Zmodo-Channel-Security-Surveillance-H-264/dp/B0095EM98I/ref=sr_1_135?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352931427&sr=1-135 http://www.amazon.com/Speco-Channel-Digital-Video-Recorder/dp/B002K3UJHE/ref=sr_1_161?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352931454&sr=1-161 http://www.amazon.com/Surveillance-Standalone-Security-Internet-Blackberry/dp/B008TUUHC4/ref=sr_1_168?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352931454&sr=1-168 http://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Price-Channel-Compression-Network/dp/B009NPYNAG/ref=sr_1_77?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352931301&sr=1-77 http://www.amazon.com/Visionari-Security-Surveillance-DVR-Smartphone/dp/B0065KO4QU/ref=sr_1_126?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352931427&sr=1-126 http://www.amazon.com/Visionari-RTDB-Surveillance-DVR-Smartphone/dp/B007MB189M/ref=sr_1_127?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352931427&sr=1-127 http://www.amazon.com/H-264-Digital-Recorder-Support-Network/dp/B008KTM7M2/ref=sr_1_129?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352931427&sr=1-129 http://www.amazon.com/CR08L-Channel-MJPEG-motion-detection/dp/B005DLUS62/ref=sr_1_90?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352931301&sr=1-90 http://www.amazon.com/Standalone-Security-Surveillance-Record-System/dp/B00856HCA2/ref=sr_1_102?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352931400&sr=1-102 http://www.amazon.com/Surveillance-Recorder-Security-Internet-Blackberry/dp/B008TS9SH6/ref=sr_1_106?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352931400&sr=1-106 http://www.amazon.com/Security-Real-time-Lightning-Arrester-Protector/dp/B008KCDWUK/ref=sr_1_113?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352931400&sr=1-113 http://www.amazon.com/Embedded-8-Channel-Network-Recorder-Controller/dp/B008XEKH8K/ref=sr_1_117?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352931400&sr=1-117

I am in Hollywoodso its ok here bums/addicts are nice they dont want to get arrested. I kind of dont want to order from china directly because shipping takes forever. Also floodlight takes a lot of power i rather do IR? I guess i dont have to put camera inside parking garage lets say i put it high where no one can reach it around the building. Lets say IR red light does not matter i am not hiding camera i actually want them to see it so they get alerted that someone wathing. I might even put few dummy cameras in parking garages and "video surveillance" signs everywhere for extra effect. Now in that case what camera should i get say up to $40-60 per camera, I dont mind IR/ BW / colored just need model number or specs to look for except LUX. I need 4-8 of them.

Thanks for advice, however i dont see why i should be afraid of people who live there or walk in knowing its me who put cameras? When i see some bums/junkies i tell them to get out in person. Another thing of course is that we have 2 buildings in complex and old manager put trash people (blacks and whites hispaics) in another building, and 2 apartments dealing drugs, however i did not mean to secure another size of the complex just our building. I dont need high tec security equipment just dont want to hang out outside patrolling damn building 24/7 i am not a manager after all.\ P.S. Min.Iiumination: 0.1 LUX Color; sense up 0.0003Lux is the thing you were talking about?