kao

http://www.nationaltrainingcenter.net/live/3527.xml I am curious if anyone has used them and what opinions you might have about them. Worth the money? I have a lot of "Hands on" experience and have learned a lot from this site, but I sometimes feel like I am missing out on some basic principles. Maybe that is just plain old paranoia

The IP side I am comfortable with. I have a 2 year degree in networking and that is the main focus of our business (network sales, design and support), while cctv is something we have been doing for only the past 5 years. I'll look more into the camera/photography aspect as you pointed out.

We pretty much use dual voltage cameras and 24v power panels all the time now, however we have installed a fair number of 12v installs. For those installations the clients had independant electricians or on-site staff pull the cabling...which meant a lot of the cables crossed lights and ran parallel to line voltage. We had speced the job for 24v but many of the pictures were distorted due to the poor cabling job. Before telling them to have some of the cables re-done, we plugged in 12v cameras and installed a 12v panel. For whatever reason, the 12v cams/panels came thru nice and clear. All those installations are up and running to this day and looking good.

It's kinda funny how this thread dropped and was started up almost 1 year later (minus 20 days). In that time the Geovision analog to IP to DVR converter has been released and seems to be selling well. Now Geo is about to offer a complete software IP NVR solution. The winds of change are blowing.

Like others have said...the 8800 video card is way overkill. Go with an ATI or onboard depending on your live output. On the RAM - I'd suggest sticking with XP OS and using 3 GB of RAM: 2x1GB and 2x512MB. That way you get to take advantage of the dual channel on both bank pairs. I personally prefer Geo over Avermedia. But either one is good.

One of my suppliers said they are testing a version now that supports a fair number of IP cameras. I'm not convinced he was given accurate info, but that is what he said. When I spoke with Geo at ISC West, they told me the same thing about quarter two. They also said it would just be Axis cameras and possibly another large name or two in the IP camera industry. I hope we dont have to wait much longer.

KT&C sells some decent lenses but I'd recommend going with the Fujinons and pay a bit more. In the end you dont want to look at your image and be disappointed and say "I wish I had gone with the Fuji." If you buy the Fuji and the picture sucks, you can be reasonably sure its not the lens...but rather the camera/lighting/angle etc... It's cheap peace of mind.

I'm pretty new at installing any kind of strikes. What I have done is take a few pictures of the door frame and door and emailed them to our supplier and they have sent me the correct equipment - strike, power supply, cabinet, etc... So far its worked out pretty well that way. In the future tho, I may sub a locksmith to do the physical door install while I do the wiring and such. At this point its not a big enough part of our business that I feel like investing in new tools or training for our guys.

I have the ultimate solution for casinos concerning cameras and capturing faces: Put a mobile, wireless, covert camera on every dealer, cage person, and ****tail waitress. The camera can be in a pair of glasses, hat or headband...or possibly built into their attire at collar or shoulder level. Now any GOOD software should have a wealth of video data to call upon when making a recognition database. Now there would have to be a way of disabling the camera when the employee went to the restroom!

I'd recommend 512k up as a minimum.

I see the pictures...not sure what to tell ya as I havent run into that problem. The first thing I'd recommend is to unplug all the cameras at the DVR (power too) and start by plugging in one camera at a time...until you see the problems occur. You may be able to pin the problem on a single rogue camera...or it may be a combination of things. You have to start a troubleshooting process with whats available to you. Multimeter? spare known good cameras? power supplies?

Awesome! thanks for the pics. I love seeing pics and videos from "in the field" and not some manufacturers website where everything looks pristine.

No...I agreed with what you posted. The poster had asked about live viewing too...so I was just expanding on that. In my last sentence I made the point that neither the multiview nor center software offered good playback options. Didnt mean for it to sound critical of your post...I was just adding to it.

You should post pics for all of us to see! There is a section for posting videos and pictures...or do it here. Also tell us what cams/lenses/software/etc... The more info the better.

Also keep in mind you can create "virtual servers" with MultiView - meaning you can pick and choose different cameras from the five servers and combine them into a single "virtual server". Both MultiView and Center V2 are nice for viewing live cameras from different servers, but neither of them give you much flexibility for playback.

I probably should have tried that. The file they sent me is called passdll.zip

Thanks for sharing! Also - How high was the AC and what was the source...wire, conduit, junction box? Before I re-read the title I thought you meant Air Conditioning. heh

What DVR are you using?

I ran into the same problem recently. No matter what I did I couldnt get the 8.11 version to install. I remembered this post and logged on as administrator, but it still wouldnt work. In fact, when I tried re-installing version 7.0.5 that was running fine on it, it wouldnt work either. I had to uninstall the software, delete the gv-650 directory and remove all geo*.* and gv*.* files from the system. With the system "cleaned" I tried the 8.11 again. No dice. After cleaning the system one more time I was able to install the original 7.0.5 disc. I emailed geo tech support and they said they are aware of the problem and that it will be fixed in next version. They also gave me a patch file to fix it. I'll have to try it next week. For now they can keep running on 7.0.5

Actually on an older card this worked for us by accident. We had purchased a gv-600 8 port card for a demo machine in our office. At some point we wanted to use newer software, but were told we needed a newer chip. So our vendor sent us one, but it was for a 16 camera card "16 port S1". We put it in anyway to see what would happen. Low and behold - we had 16 working ports on our system. Soon after we got the USB dongle and upgraded to 7.x. I doubt this will work on the newer cards, but for older ones it seems to.

I've had pretty good luck with the KT&C vandal domes outside. Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota so they take rough winters. I havent had very satisfactory results from their WDR line tho. I'd stick with straight color or the D/N. Could be just me tho...have to experiment a bit with the WDR.

I was absolutely amazed that some Vitek color dome cameras we installed a couple of years ago in a school, died after 18 months or so. Out of about 13 installed, 4 went bad about the same time.

Good info. Have any before and after pics to share...either here or PM?

Do you think this could be true for other cameras as well? I am thinking of going with only isoloated channel power supplies in the future.

Keep in mind most states and cities have stringent laws when putting any kind of electronics on or near a fueling site. I'd recommend checking with an experienced local electrician just to cover your ass.