kao

12v DC is polarity sensative. Make sure you have all the right connections. Usually solid black wires are the negative (for DC) as well as the outside ring if you are using a barrel connector. Positive leads are usually a black with a white stripe (sometimes they are solid red or solid white) and are the inside pin on a barrel connector.

Welcome to the boards John. I am actually on the same learning curve you are...I work for a networking/computer shop, but we have moved into cctv in the last ~5 years or so. I'm pretty much the "specialist" in our shop...but just a novice in the industry. This board has some very experienced members and there are tons of knowledge on these forums and even more waiting to be tapped.

What version is the Geo software?

This camera is also a KT&C. But it is a Vandal Dome model hanging off the Aluminum wall mount. Since it is a dome, I doubt any cables are damaged. Plus it worked fine indoors in the light. KT&C said to check the small cover they put on the IR sensor. I'll be going back to the sight in the next couple of weeks. Will post more then.

I am hoping to be there. Not looking for anything specific, just want to see the various products and demos.

After you activate the cameras and set your "limit port", you may need to restart the software.

Browser based active x. I found the problem had to do with user permissions. I had the IT person log in as admin, then I installed the geo codecs without a problem. Logged into the remote systems just fine. Had the user log in under their account and they were able to view all the remote stations.

I think it may be that the mechanical day/night filter may not have been functioning properly due to the temperature. When we installed it, it was negative 6 degrees F. I'll be going back to look at the camera soon and I'll check the recordings to see if it started working properly when it warmed up.

Not sure exactly what you mean but I assume that media player is not playing back the AVI files GeoVision creates. I believe you just need the codec installed on the computer doing the playback. Later versions of GeoVision software allow you to create an .EXE file of the video...basically just packaging the codec and installing it when you play the .EXE file. Otherwise you can download and install the codec manually. Ezcctv.com lets you download it here if you register with their site.[/url] Or if you google search 'geovision codec' you can find a number of sites that offer the download.

Can someone shoot me a price (retail or dealer) via PM for a march networks 4310? I'm just trying to get an idea of how much these units go for. Thanks!

1. I see a lot of stand-alones with removable hard drives. What is the main reason for this? Backup? or Playback? It seems like a nice idea to be able to pull out the drive and go play it back somewhere. But thinking thru it, it also seems like a bit of a hassle to have to plug it into another pc or ide-to-usb converter. And even then, does windows play back the recordings or do you need some kind of application software? 2. Mobile DVRs. Looking for recommendations for a solid 4ch mobile dvr for school bus and police car use. I see there are a lot of mobile dvrs on the market, but none of them that I have seen offer a good and easy retrieval method. Any suggestions?

Bump - anyone have a mobile dvr they would recommend? or one to avoid?

I've had to splice coax cables more times than I care to remember due to people wanting their DVRs moved. The BNC connectors work fine. I've done this with short(<100ft) and long(>300ft) runs with no obvious loss of picture quality.

Welcome to the boards.

Sometimes the math and the real world don't agree. Just for fun, I took a spool of 1000ft siamese cable (coax + 2 cond 18ga wire), terminated the ends and hooked up a camera and power supply. The picture was clear as day. According to the altronix calculator, I should have been dropping 3.81 volts. Camera = 24v .3 amps Lens takes up minimal power - like .023 amps at 4v Power supply (simple wall transformer) = 24v .800 amps I tested the voltage at the end of the spool and it was ~25 volts. The actuall output of the 24v transformer was 27 volts. All of them seem to kick out between 26.5 and 27 volts. So I'd recommend two simple solutions: 1. Take 400ft of cable and connect your heater/blower box, camera, lens, dvr - all in the shop and see if it works. Remember to put the heater box in a cooler or freezer to make sure it kicks on. Keep in mind the heater and blower should never be on at the same time as one is for cold weather and the other for hot. If you get a crisp clear image, youre in business. 2. Run additional wire with the coax pull - either another pair of 16ga or use cat5 and some baluns. I've run 400'+ runs with just coax and 18ga wire and the video is crisp.

I know a guy that worked for the phone company and he actually trained a cat to pull fishing line from one guy to another.

Yes Rory...I know Geo is technically a "software" company. But let's face it, Geovisions software is so married to the cards they use, that we practically think of the card as Geo's. When I was refering them to getting into the IP market, I did not mean to insinuate they are actually manufacturing the hardware And BTW, I am reasonably sure that the encoder box does indeed go at the camera end of things, and that the Geo DVR will decode the video/audio. So you have: Camera -->encoder box-->network/internet-->Geo DVR. That is a very simplified way of explaining it, but check out the following Power Point presentations I found. They are both in english, even though they are on a foriegn site. In the upper right hand corner, click on download (pobierz). If you dont have power point installed, a free viewer is provided next to the download. http://www.polvision.com.pl/files.asp?lang=en&id=93&find= http://www.polvision.com.pl/files.asp?lang=pl&id=102 I also attached a couple of pictures from the slideshow. I am looking forward to seeing how the attached storage works. If it works well, I can see some broad applications.

Yeah...I understand your pain. I am getting more customers asking for IP as well. I really try to educate them on the pros and cons for both systems so they can make an informed decision. Most of the time this works fairly well. However there are some people that go against my recommendations and go with an IP solution when an analog one would be best - just because its the latest buzzword. In the end you have to give the customer what they want. When a customer tells me they want an IP solution...and I feel that an analog would be a better fit. I ask them specific questions about what they want and expect from an IP system. 9 times out of 10 I can show them how the analog will meet or beat thier needs. If they want something very specific - like logging directly into the camera...or placing single cameras over large geographic areas, then an IP solution is the obvious answer. If Geo offers this mpeg4 box, then I can give the customer the IP capabilities they specifically ask for. The one advantage I think IP will always have over any analog system (and someone correct me if I am wrong plz) is that you can get such high resolution pictures for certain situations. Some of the cameras I've looked at are up to 11 megapixel. The pictures they produce are incredible - the detail is unmatched.

It looks to me like you would plug the analog camera into the mpeg encoder, the encoder would feed out an mpeg4 stream to the LAN/Internet and the Geovision server would recognize the mpeg4 stream. Its possible they could be using a decoder at the geovision end to convert the stream back to analog, but I suspect they will just read the stream with their software. In my opinion, this is the smartest way for Geo to get in the IP game. Create their own box/encoder (or sub it out as it looks thanks to Rory's post) and engineer the software to work with it. I like this way of doing it as opposed to trying to find compatible IP cameras. It would be different if there were some kind of standard or even a few different standards for IP software developers to deal with, but it seems just about every company that produces an IP camera does something a little different with the stream. I don't know how companies like Milestone keep up with all different IP cameras. With analog it's easy...its just plug and play - you dont worry about software compatiblity or whether or not you should do a flash update, etc... So if I am right about how Geo is doing it, it still allows the installer to choose any analog camera to best fit the job, plug it into an mpeg encoder and stream it to their server - anywhere in the world. Rory - you got an inside guy at Geovision or something? I have looked into Acti and IndigoVision for their encoder/decoders. A pair of Actis is running somewhere around $1.000.00 us. I hope the Geo encoder is less than $500.00 and offers a high quality solution like that of Indigovision.

I've been asking GV this same question for some time now ... and they keep telling me it's coming... V7 came.... then V8 .... and there's been no IP support yet! Don't know if the belongs here or in the Geovision post....I'll let the mods sort it out The link below is to a product announcement showing the Geovision video server. I believe they are demoing it on their current tour. They will be in Chicago this Thursday, but unfortunately, I won't be able to make it. Has or Is anyone going to see this product? Feedback would be great! http://www.taipeitradeshows.com.tw/NewProduct/Product.aspx?ID=1632&Lang=E

Thanks for the post. Are you just testing the cameras or do you have a specific application? It would be interesting to see some samples of them in use after final installation. How many cameras are you using? Do they have their own network or are they on an existing network?

Scan Converter - NTSC to VGA http://www.converters.tv/products/converters/video_to_vga_converters/8.html I think StarTech sells one for about 50.00. It is advertised as a converter for game systems. ie you want to hook up your x-box directly to an LCD monitor via the VGA cable.

That sounds pretty awesome. I hope you can post more info on it soon. I came across this weird 2 megapixel panoramic camera just the other day: http://www.maxxvision.com/play/rpu1w_256k.html Its about 10 min clip.

I've encountered this problem at a few installations and am looking for some advice. Here is a typical setup: GV-650 card in a Pentium 4 3.0Ghz system. Cable runs are RG-59 Siamese cable with crimp on bnc connectors. Power to the cameras is supplied by an Altronix (or similar) distribution box - 24v AC. All cameras are dual power (12vDC/24vAC) The problem I am having are with the outdoor cameras. The video is flashing from dark to light (like if someone were moving the brightness slider back and forth on it). It does this rather quickly - I'd guess 1 to 2 times per second for it to cycle from light to dark. The strange thing is - it doesnt do it all the time. Sometimes after just sitting for a bit..or sometimes after a reboot - the cameras seem fine..or the flashing is not very noticable. If I bring the cameras inside and connect them to a short (10ft) cable and run power from the distro box, everything on the cameras seems fine when run on a shorter cable. I am at a loss as to why this happens. I thought these might be reasons causing the problem: Too long a run. - Nope..same problem on runs under 50 feet. Something interfering with the video signal or power like being draped over a florescent light in the ceiling. Nope - some cables were pulled together with inside cameras so the cables share the same route and the indoor cameras dont exhibit this problem at all. Not enough power. Nope - I always test voltage at the camera. Improper grounding - I'm not sure how to test this. It seems that the only ground that the cameras have is the copper braiding on the coax cable, which connects to the geovision card, which connects to the pc, which grounds in the UPS outlet, which grounds in the wall outlet. The power cables from the camera connect to the distro box, which is plugged into the same UPS as the PC. Any ideas on what would cause this?

This scenario keeps popping up and I'm hoping some of you guys that have run into this problem have a good solution The client has a few storage buildings. They are 80'x30' with roll-up garage doors. He rents the units out for people to store things like ATVs and fishing/hunting gear. These units are in a semi-rural location. Someone tried to break in to some fo the units - destroying some locks and doors and almost getting away with an ATV. At first we set up an IP solution for him...we would put up several IP cameras and route them through a DSL line back to a recording PC back at his house. This would have worked fine, but after calling the few ISPs in the area, he told us Internet access was not an option and that recording would have to be done locally. He can store recording equipment in a small secure area in the rafters of the buildings. My first thought was to set up small geovision systems. However the problem would be retrieval as he doesnt want to keep a monitor in the secure area and esp doesnt want to have to crawl up there and spend any amount of time there to review video after an incident. Is there any viable/affordable solution for someone like this? Ideally he would like the video recorded to a removable hard drive so he can just climb up, grab the drive, swap in a new one, and be on his way. He can then review the content ont he hard drive at home. If not a removable hard drive, then maybe pull the whole unit and replace it after review the video. My final idea (that I'm still mulling over) is setting up a small Geovision unit and attaching a USB hard drive as the only storage drive. With an extended cable, we could build a small box on the exterior of the building that he could unlock and swap out like a video tape when he wants to get some video off of it. Any ideas on this?