kao

I have not yet set up a POS system with Geovision. I have a customer (bar owner) that would like his register hooked up to his new Geo system. The current register is a Royal Alpha 601sc. It does have a serial port, but I dont know if it will work for the Geo POS. Does anyone know if that register will work with the Geo POS? Can someone recommend a link or current model I can suggest to the customer if the above one doesnt work? One other note - the cash register will be a fair distance from the Geo system...so I am leaning toward the ethernet version of of the POS box. Any words of wisdom concerning the ethernet version?

I am having trouble importing the host file as well. The host list goes blank when I try to import it. Then when I switch back to the camera view, Multiview crashes and I have to use task manager to kill it. Note - Curiosly...Geo uses fairly weak encryption of the passwords in the host file. Using a hex calculator, some simple math, and a hex to ascii converter, I was able to decipher the passwords in my host file. This probably isnt a bit security risk for anyone, but I think its something Geo could easily make stronger in future versions.

I have a few clients that insist on adding their Geovision system to their domain even though I try to persuade them not to. In some instances we run tweakui (free from microsoft) to allow automatic login. In other instances, the client's IT dept. took it upon themselves to use a registry hack to allow automatic login.

I came across this local auction and thought it was sort of interesting. Figured I'd share it with you guys. http://www.k-bid.com/cgi-bin/mnlist.cgi?klosteria47/1 Could retrofit it with newer digital gear and you will have a super surveillance van!

I came across this dvr advertised online that is 960fps supporting 32 analog cameras. It is running on a P4 3.0Ghz with windows xp software. I think it may also require a dongle. Looking for any information on it if anyone recognizes it. The image is blurry but is the best I can do for now. *EDIT* I now see that JoinDVR posted the same picture with much better quality in this thread. But no one has ID'd it yet. [/img]

Our markup is probably a little high compared to most dealers, so our retail to the end user will probably be around $650.00 to $700.00. Unless of course our dealer pricing changes when(if?) the camera becomes available.

Why? I have been using a very cheap 2.5" lcd monitor for the past 3 years and have always achieved a very crisp image. The only challenge I have run into is trying to do it in bright sunlight. If it's that bad, then I go through the trouble of draping a towel over me and the monitor. I wouldn't hesitate to bring a 9"crt with me if I wasnt getting less than perfect results with the small lcd monitor. But thus far I havent had a reason to. I dont see how it is possible to get a crisp focus with a 2.5" LCD. I would like to see that image. TK hit it right on the head - you just adjust the lens until everything is as "sharp" as possible on your target area. I'm not saying I can do the tweaks such as correct white balance, gamma correction, bright/contrast, hue/saturation, and all that other jazz. I'm just saying the focus is quick and easy with a small lcd. I literally just did it today. I'll log in with multiview and take a couple of snapshots and post them here.

I notice you get a lot of sky area and fair amount of land (several kilometers) away from the camera. Why not point the camera down a bit (less or no sky) and zoom the lens a bit to bring in a tighter picture? I mean...you are not going to get any useful video of anything out beyond a few blocks. Not trying to be critical...If the camera is supposed to be getting a "postcard" type view, then I think you are on the right track. But if you are trying to capture activities happening in the lot and street below, then I'd adjust the camera to get just that. I often have to correct our installers when they set up a camera in a long hallway because they think the camera should capture everything up close and all the way at the other end, when its real purpose is to capture people within 5 meters of it. Same for outside - they often point the cameras to get a very "picturesque" scene showing buildings, skyline, background trees, etc...when in reality we only need the immediate area (10 to 15 meters of ground). Back on point - I agree...I would have expected an image on par with a 3.0mp point and shoot. Looking forward to Arecont's response.

I have asked them every month for the past 3 months. It's always "sometime next month". I actually have dealer pricing for their nvr software and ip camera...and quotes done...now I just have to wait until they are actually available for sale so I can make the sale. *sighs*

Yes.

Why? I have been using a very cheap 2.5" lcd monitor for the past 3 years and have always achieved a very crisp image. The only challenge I have run into is trying to do it in bright sunlight. If it's that bad, then I go through the trouble of draping a towel over me and the monitor. I wouldn't hesitate to bring a 9"crt with me if I wasnt getting less than perfect results with the small lcd monitor. But thus far I havent had a reason to.

A little off topic, but is that picture direct from the camera or has it been modified in some way? The reason I'm asking is because I expected a better quality image from a megapixel camera.

I've only used baluns in a few installations. They were very short runs and are working fine. However I am interested in using Cat5 for some moderate installations where I would normally use coax. I have been using the Sanyo PanFocus products and really like them. I know its not necessary, but I would like to enable the powered zoom from the dvr, however I do not want to run an extra pair of cables with each rg59 siamese run. I figure if baluns are all they are cracked up to be, I'll run cat 5 for power, video and data. I am looking for experienced recommendations for NVT, Nitek or other quality balun that would work for the application I just described. Distance isnt a big deal most of the time...less than 400ft runs - so Active isnt a big priority. If anyone would be so kind, I'd like part numbers for passive (and active if you have them handy) for baluns that are set up for power, video and data handling. I normally buy from Northern Video Systems, but if you are a dealer, feel free to shoot me a PM with competitive pricing. I would rather buy from someone that has actuall experience using these products than from a distributor that doesnt have any practical support.

Does anyone know how (or if even possible) to control the zoom on the Sanyo PanFocus line? I have the vcc-p7574 (indoor dome) and there is a small joystick on the camera board that lets me control the zoom. However I would like to run a second pair of wires to control the camera from a Geovision server. I see there is an rs-485 input on the camera, but it sounds like it may be for a separate accessory. If anyone has an idea about getting this to work from the Geovision software I would much appreciate it.

I was able to use wildblue (at my home) to view Geovision DVRs that were connectied to cable and DSL connections (client sites). The live video did not come through very well. With the high latency of satellite, I would recommend just viewing JPG images and refreshing often. I don't know if your DVR has a low-bandwidth connection option like Geovision does, but if so - try that.

Fujinon here as well. So far they have had a lens for any application I have worked on.

I see what Rory is saying. If I recall, Toms Hardware showed that the Extreme offers a fair amount of performance over the dual cores and even other quad cores...but also offers a pretty large pricetag. (In fact, the Extreme is what Geo is recommending for their NVR software) I'd go with the 2008 x2 on the dual core.

I found it on ebay. Was being offered with PC, 500GB HD, Windows XP, 32 cameras, 19" lcd, power dist. box and 1000' of cable for about 8K all new. Not looking to buy...just trying to figure out how they would make any money at that price.

That, plus latency sucks with satellite. I used WildBlue for about a year. Downloading pre-recorded video clips will be somewhat ok..but live video from my experience was not so good. The video would pause very often. My best results were using the JPG mode and only viewing one camera at a time.

I set up some KT&C WDR domes in a bar/pub. The bar has good lighting during the day because of large windows allowing a lot of sunshine in. After installing the domes, the color rarely ever kicked in. Even with the sunlight, the cameras stayed in B/W mode 90% of the time. If I pulled the dome cover off (which is clear and not smoked) the color would kick in more often...so it is probably on the border of sensitivity for color/B&W. I forced one of the cameras to stay in color mode to see if the customer likes that better. To be honest, I'm not happy with color or B&W mode. I have changed about every setting on the camera and on the DVR and the images just dont impress me. I think in the future I will automatically do Hi-res B&W cameras for any bars/pubs/nightclubs.

The question is in the subject. Sanyo is not on the list

Is anyone actually running the new Geovision NVR software? Testers or what not. Im wondering what kind of pc specs are going to be required. My supplier gave me what I consider to be pretty good pricing on the nvr software, but I have a feeling the pc is going to need to be higher end than what we have been building. I talked to a guy at Geo a while back and he was guessing a Intel Extreme CPU. Anyone get the low down on it?

/agree Learned the same thing here...try and guestimate the labor charge and quote the whole thing at one price. Some customers love to pick apart your itemized quote. Also - just to cover your ass, I recommend either adding a bit of fine print or changing the name of your quote to estimate. There will be times you spec a job and run into unforeseen problems. Example - walked thru a small university with the maintenance staff and discussed where cameras would be mounted. We poked our heads up through the ceiling tiles every so often just to make sure we had some clearance to run cabling. The maintenance guy assured us that everything was clear above the drop ceiling. Seemed like a pretty easy job being all on one floor and drop ceiling all around. Of course when we started pulling cable...we found the HVAC ducts in some spots were so tight we had to re-route the cabling far out of the way...we also found an area where there were cement "firewalls" where we had to get cable through. They were a *** to drill through and once we got through we had to get the cable across an inaccessible ceiling area to another "firewall". Good thing we had a piece of 10ft conduit with to "fish" from one wall to the other. So the easy job turned into about 8 hours more than it should have. Luckily the school was understanding about the extra labor as their maintenance guy admitted he forgot about those areas.

Make sure you are really recording in 640x480. You may have chosen 640x480 in the Video Source, but make sure to also go to the camera configuration screen, under the Rec Control section, click on the little triangle thing and choose your resolution there as well.

I really dont like the idea of dongles either. It is just another point of failure. PCs have enough of those already - HD, MB, Memory, PSU... Why add another? On the other hand, I don't see a good way around it. Software activation based on system hardware would probably work well, but setting that up and maintaining it for an international community may be more trouble than its worth...and how do you police it? Bus encryption, Keyfiles, Registration keys, Product Activations, all good systems, but with limitations. I can certainly understand Geovisions fear of their NVR software being copied, sold/given away, and used without them or their dealers getting payment. What do the other IP software vendors (like Milestone) do? And how effective is it?