bigglebowski

Check around there are plenty HDMI over cat5 devices that use one cable. There are also HDMI to QAM (encoders/modulators) but they are extremely expensive +$1000. However once you did convert it to QAM you could send to many TVs.

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Thanks for the reply EarlT. Now, the real stupid question...will all analog cameras take siamese wiring, and,..where does the siamese wire get it's power from? Yes, analog cameras use coax for the video, but can also use cat5 type wiring with "baluns". Power comes from anything from an AC adapter (with the appropriate voltage 24vac or 12vdc). When you have multiple cameras you can often use a multi channel power supply. Again either DC or AC.

Are you saying cold weather will make a cable "fail" rather than just become interfered? I connected a red to the black on one end with the black going to my TV on the other end and the camera on the red to make an 80-100ft loop and I had zero quality loss. Cold or even extreme hot will not be a problem for just about any cable, the camera would fail long before your cable will. Some cables are just not made to be out in the elements year round. I have no idea if that one is or not and it will probably do just fine. It could take years to break it down anyway if it is not outdoor rated. Clearly that looks to be a high quality video cable so it would be perfectly fine for cctv use. Just about any analog video application would be fine for that cable.

I believe it is a 24V AC, because 2 cameras were on it at one point. So can i just hook up both + to the same side, and the same with the negatives on the other side?? The number of cameras that are on a single power source has nothing to do with AC/DC. It would only be a matter of how much watts/amps the power supply can deliver. For instance 2 on this supply may be fine but three could be too much. This also would have to do with the thickness of the wire and the total length of the power cables. But yes, there is no polarity with AC, there is no positive/negative on a transformer.

I am sure it is not outdoor rated but hey, you have 3 spares to replace it with.

That looks like a 24 volt AC transformer to me. Which makes sense that the terminals are not labeled as they don't need to be. There is no polarity with an AC transformer.

Wasn't sure where to put this, but thought that people should see it. Warning it is graphic if you play the video at the bottom of the story. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/beating-caught-homeowner-nanny-cam-article-1.1381703

I cant remember who I got them from a few at a time, it was either Graybar or whoever HD supply was before Home Depot bought them out. Contact some CATV type suppliers as this is more common in their world.

This is what I have used in the past, I know one cable has been up +12 years hanging with these: http://www.tnb.com/pubint/docs/diamond_sachs_us.pdf There are other products on that PDF, but the first page shows what you need. The "hook" that is your "anchor" is a couple pages later. As far as best, whatever can hold the anchor and be high enough to keep the cable from sagging too much. You will be a better judge of that, just make sure that the messenger is doing all the heavy lifting work, do not let the coax get stretched.

The coax you will be using will most likely be the same impedance of 75 ohms, so it should not be that important. You can freely interchange BNC, F, RCA etc.. as needed. Of course you do want to minimize using splices and adapters if you have the choice. If you were to use a cable of another impedance then you would need to use impedance matching transformers to convert it back to the same impedance, but this would not be typical. At short distance like using TV coax in the place of a video grade coax (copper clad center conductor and sheilding) should be OK.

But I need 100ft and I already have two 50ft cables. Besides, they sell them pre-made 200ft, 500ft and more so. So how is a 100ft cable made from two 50ft cables a "problem"? Hook it up and find out. The longer these cheap cables are the more potential for problems, splices can be problematic too. They work fine at short distances like from a DVR to a monitor but at long distances in particular environments they are garbage.

You really do have to apply either silicone or tape well as both of them will easily fail on you when exposed to the elements for some time if not properly applied. With tape often the water gets inside and then is actually trapped in there so in some instances like a splice you would have been better off without tape. With silicone as it gets hot and cold it expands and contracts often not maintaining a weather proof seal that you had when you applied it.

There is not a simple solution to say here are the parts you need and here is how to do it. First off there is Directv and Dish, and within either brand there can be various versions of what type of hardware the customer has. The key here is can you splice in a modulated channel without compromising the satellite side of things, but may need to heavily modify the setup to do so. You may notice that everything works on a sunny day when the signal from the dish is strongest but on a rainy day the signal is so weak they have loss of satellite errors even though the quantity of rain would normally not interrupt service. Without having experience in CATV and satellite systems and having the meters to test these systems its going to be hard to tell you exactly what to do. For example we dont even know which system this actually is. The meters are not a must but it can help you balance the signals and tell if you have dropped the signal beyond the threshold of acceptable signal level. This can be done but the problem is that it will not be supported by the satellite techs that may come if the customer has issues. Now that is not a problem if you become the service tech but without a good RF background this is easier said than done. With the amount of trail and error you may end up having to do you might find it easier to just start fishing a new cable and be done with it. Like I said before no scenario is going allow them to use the satellite receiver to view your modulator, so it may as well be on its own line. If they have Directv most liikely there is a SWM16 in the attic: This should feed into what may look like conventional TV splitters, this is where you would inject the modulator. You would basically put x2 2way splitters onto a line which without a meter I can tell you will knock the signal down by 7db. Depending on the given system you may have enough margin for that not to matter, if it is too much then an amp would be needed and this is where it could get too messy without the RF experience. This might be best to quit while you are ahead but you know this customer better than I. The last thing you might want to hear is "ever since you did that work in the attic...."

What are the radios hanging on? Looks like towel bars or some kind of handicapped railing. Good job.

Do you have a specific scenario in mind and a general idea of how the cabling is distributed through their house/bldg? Interfacing with Directv and their SWM wiring would be easiest as most any TV channel can be inserted onto the wiring. You can do it with cable TV too but that depends on if they have a hole already in the lineup or you can use a channel elimination filter to strip out a channel to insert your own. The filter has to match the total bandwidth of the system and the higher the frequency the higher the cost. It would be best to coordinate with them because they should be familiar with doing this kind of setup at a commercial location. Balancing your modulator to the adjacent channels is critical, if you dont have a meter here is where coordinating with the cable co would be handy. If the TV service involves a set top box then interfacing with that will not be an option but that should mean the customer has the Tuner port open and available even if they are using off air. They would switch from TV on HDMI to Tuner on the channel your modulator is.

Are you doing POE, the Zyxel ES2108 doesnt seem to have POE.

Couple of things to consider here. ACTI has completely revamped their product line and these are an end of life model. It may have changed but I do remember B&H was on a list of resellers who were NOT authorized resellers so your warranty through ACTI may be voided by buying there. This may no longer be accurate but take into consideration. The POE switch is only 4 of 8 ports POE. This is not uncommon as most POE switches are this way, just be aware if you plan to add another POE device to it. If you have a spare PC around or can build one the NVR 3.0 software ACTI provides for free (for less than 16 cams) can run 4 cams on a pretty low end PC.

VGA to "Composite" (yellow RCA connector on TVs). You will also need a 1x4 splitter to distribute for 4 TVs, this will have a bit of an amp in it to keep the signal strong enough to be split. This should be $100-150 total including some RCA to F adapters if needed.

Cheaper route would be to use a VGA to Composite adapter. From there you have 2 options: Get a 1:4 splitter for composite video and send it all out that way. Or you could get an RF modulator which will convert it to a TV channel. From there you can use a 4 way TV splitter to feed all TVs. You could even mix an match with a combination of the last 2 scenarios.

Whats bizarre here is that it seems like this question is being posed from the wrong side of the fence. Ronp has it right though, informing her will be worth more than any evidence you can bring forth. It might even be enough to get her to move on with her life. You could probably get away with a dummy cam at that point.

I assume the cable is already in the wall and not being used for something else already. If you can pull cat5 you will have more options to choose from. HDMI or VGA over cat5 is much more common and probably but I have seen HDMI over coax solutions but they are not cheap. You will also need some kind of 1:4 splitter which will be much more common. I would not do VGA as it seems like they are completely phasing those connections out on newer flat screen consumer based TVs.

Port forwarding is really not that hard I am sure you can find a walk through for the router you have on how to do it. This would be especially important when you get more than one camera. Otherwise most IP cams are pretty much what you say, of course you are going to want to go to the setup page and at least edit your own password when connected to the Internet.

They both need to be powered/amplified.

I do work for a cable TV provider that does systems for hotels and they have been using this exact model of web power switch. They have been using them for at least a few years now and seem to be happy with them. There are usually 3 per site and they are used for the satellite receivers, when they notice that one of the receivers is acting up they reboot it remotely.