rory

Ok then.

Its a GE (Kalatel) model, uses WaveReader which CAN be viewed on XP etc. I even have an alternative program to Wavereader for free download on my site. As mentioned maybe its in NTSC and you are in the UK so you need to switch it to PAL. Otherwise I dont recall them making a BW DVR, they had BW Multiplexers though. Wrong format, eg, PAL on an NTSC monitor etc will cause it to be in BW among other things. As for password, you say its 2nd hand so perhaps they changed it. Try 3477 though. Also you can use any 7200rpm IDE HDD for it, probably as much as 640GB max, but if its that old then only 1 without a power upgrade. Otherwise you would need to locate 2x5400rpms. AS mentioned also, email or call Norbain and see if they have a flash for it, if not, and you are adventurous maybe email or call GE or someone that still supports those units, and give them your version number and they might have a flash for it also. I just got a DVR from the US, wasnt working properly needed new firmware to fix an issue, US distributor would not send the correct flash so I contacted the real manufacturer and provided version etc and was able to flash it with that, but it was PAL so had to flash again to change that to NTSC.

I used 2 major american brands of "cheap" $25 Baluns and the quality was awful, never done that again. Otherwise, the price part does not add up since the baluns themselfs will bring the price higher than using coax.

It was leading to if they "might" be spending $10,000-$20,000 on cameras in a few years time which cameras might or might not even exist at that time, then they would hardly think twice about spending a measly little $500 to run wire. If one really wants to plan for a future that we dont know anything about, we might as well just stick the home underground or in a bubble.

Something like that I normally wouldnt charge more than $250. As for by the hour, max I ever charge is $75, dont think this industry is really worth more than that unless in includes being up on a 20 foot ladder or dangling from a roof, or drilling through concrete. But every job and city is different. Also depends on what parts are used, simple cheap fixed lens bullets or domes are simple to install and dont take a pro, varifocal vandal dome or WDR takes more work and experience and can charge more for that. Its also normal to charge per camera, like $50 per indoor dome or $150 per outdoor vandal dome, or even $450 per PTZ camera, and per channel for the DVR & PSU install like $100-250 for 4 channel or $250-400 for 16 channel .. etc. Depends on location and what your market is, and ofcourse on the client - eg if they seem like they are broke you might want to charge less just to get the job if you really need the money. Doesnt matter though, if he agreed to it prior to the job then he has to pay it.

Doesnt exist from GeoVision. One theoretical way would be to setup a flash streaming server on your DVR and convert their AVIs to MP4 or flash using FFMPEG or another. Or run the ActiveX on your DVR in a server program and snapshot each image then convert that to a video then to flash to stream. Lots of extra processing though, better just to snapshot them then stream them as jpgs (eg. server push). Its doable as Ive tested it but personally Id rather they just use a separate app not the web browser as then they have more power and more features. If you give them any features inside a browser you are opening them up anyway. Flash IS a security hazard these days BTW as its difficult to disable without 3rd party apps in some browsers and as long as it can DO SOMETHING it can do SOMETHING to your PC (no not the video itself but flash in general, same with ActiveX) - remember the days when FireFox was a safe browser? Now its not and now Chrome is but that will change too as people find holes. But if you are only allowing a single ActiveX and it is safe (created by you or someone you trust) then ActiveX is not a security hazard - just dont leave your security settings open and watch what sites you visit.

Can we see the negative of this one, or the original of the other one? Why do you think their negative would be much much different from doing it digitally? Just asking as I havent tried it but cant see it being that much of a difference, just less quality.

Most electricians charge around $25 per run here to pull wire, so could always just pull new wire if it came down to that, at say $1000 per IP camera compared to say $100 per CCTV camera ... $25 per run plus $200 for the cable is peanuts.

Which version of Geo is it? Should be able to kick that right up to the max and stream it at D1. Also, change the compression to Geo Mpeg4 if you havent already.

Did you try the resolution setting? Did you setup the Webcam resolution on the DVR so that it is D1 and not Cif.

No need to reinstall the OS. Uninstall Geo. Remove the Geo folder/s on the C: drive. Remove all geo*.ini files from the Windows folder. Remove the Geo Drivers if you havent already done so. Run CCLeanup, the "Cleaner" and the "Registry". Restart. Reinstall Geo Drivers and Software. If it is continually restarting I would not use any of the existing settings, start fresh. If the INI files are messed up it will crash like it is. Example if you have one version installed and install an older or newer version the INI file layouts may differ and cause the program to crash. Also check your disk space left for the recording.

rg59 siamese. you have short runs. Or RG6 if you can find it and afford it (not cattv cable) unless you are planning to upgrade to IP cameras in the next couple years, coax is all you need. Nobody can for see the future, things may change by then.

Corrupt skin files will cause it to keep restarting. Disconnect all cameras and see if it still restarts. Disable all cameras and see if it still restarts. Make sure the card is not loose. Reinstall the drivers. Anything in the Windows Event logs?

I'm guessing the original was nearly identical to that double negative. If that's the case, then the negative adds no forensic information. You might be able to pull something out using a photo editor, but just reversing video does not really help. Best, Christopher Yes if you make an image negative, making it negative again will take it back to the original. and so on and so forth Eg. Original - Negative - Negative

negative again.

I dont need tin cans, I have a real computer

Tell them get a netbook, its not a limited OS and it has a real keyboard Smart phones remind me of the $20 digital cameras with Mp3 players .. trying to do too much but doing it all wrong.

Hard Drives get damaged in shipping all the time also and dont always show up right away .. especially if they are not in retail packaging.

What type of UPS? Are you sure it has Automatic Voltage Regulation? Not all do. And maybe the UPS are bad, seen plenty like that down here that I rarely even use them now, I just use a voltage regulator, but even those can get hid so hard sometimes that they fry.

Need to provide more info, like motherboard and chipset, other PC specs. Also what OS?

All the H.264 DVRs Ive seen so far have alot of artifacts in the recorded video. Really disappointed with it so far, even at very high bitrates.

Should, but does not with most DVRs I have seen. For example with a DVR such as GeoVision which has both options, the Mpeg4 compression is better quality than the H.264.

5. Device Info 5.1 Overview This is at the bottom of the program and shows the Device name, IP, and a bunch of status LEDs. I am going to get rid of this Window all together. This is what it looks like by default: The 4 original images are: devinfo_normal_en.bmp, devinfo_over_en.bmp, devinfo_down_en.bmp, devinfo_disable_en.bmp. We will be deleting these files after we edit the skin below. Skin File = DevInfo_config.ini Here is the original file first: View as text file 5.2 Images In this case, it is inside another window which is set in the skin file called bottom_config.ini, so I can just change the images to a 1x1pixel blank image and resize it to 0 width and 0 height. In fact you could leave everything else the same and just change the Window size to 0, MainWindow_Size = 0,0, but I want to also get rid of the extra processing and the 4 large images. BackImage_Up = blank.bmp BackImage_Over = blank.bmp BackImage_Down = blank.bmp BackImage_Disable = blank.bmp New Image: Right click to download ... then copy this to your skin folder blank.bmp 5.3 Skin File If we are going to set _IsVisible = 0 then the other Button fields are not required. The color fields have to stay so I just set them all to 0. Here is the new skin file that gets rid of the Device Info Window: (download) [MainSettings] Window_Rect=0,0,0,0 MainWindow_Size = 0,0 IsUseMask = 0 MaskColor = 0,0,0 BackImage_Up = blank.bmp BackImage_Over = blank.bmp BackImage_Down = blank.bmp BackImage_Disable = blank.bmp Ctl_BackColor = 0,0,0 Ctl_TextColor = 0,0,0 [StaticText] DevTag_Isvisible = 0 DevIP_Isvisible = 0 [MainButtons] State_1_Count = 0 State_2_Count = 0 State_3_Count = 0 IdePoor_IsVisible= 0 IdeErr_IsVisible= 0 EncodeErr_IsVisible= 0 [Sliders] Brightness_Isvisible=0 Contrast_Isvisible=0 Saturation_Isvisible=0 Hue_Isvisible=0 BackImage_Normal=blank.bmp BackImage_Over=blank.bmp BackImage_Down=blank.bmp BackImage_Disable=blank.bmp It is now safe to delete the original image files for this skin: devinfo_normal_en.bmp, devinfo_over_en.bmp, devinfo_down_en.bmp, devinfo_disable_en.bmp So the bottom section of your PSS should look something like this: ____________________________________ 1. INTRODUCTION 2. GENERAL SETTINGS 3. SKIN FILES 4. EXIT WINDOW 5. DEVICE INFO 6. TITLE BAR 7. LOGIN WINDOW 8. PROGRESS WINDOW 9. BOTTOM SKIN 10. STATUS PROMPT 11. DOCUMENTS

Not really, in most cases that just means worst quality recordings, although longer recordings.

4. Exit Window Important: Stop reading now if you still use a password to log into the PSS program (default), otherwise you wont be able to exit PSS after this skin change. Read the General Settings section of this article on how to remove the password if you have not yet done so and still want to continue with this. 4.1 Overview Previously I explained how to set PSS so that it auto logs in, so lets get rid of that rather large annoying exit window with the user name and password - this is only useful if you DON'T have additional users and don't use a password. There will still be a popup asking you if you want to exit or cancel, but this will make it smaller and no user or password box is visible. Hey, smaller image, less memory. Note: In older versions there was no skinned exit window, just a popup. This article is geared towards versions 4.03 and 4.04. This is what the original Exit Window looks like And this is what our new Exit Window will look like. (yes a rip off from 4.01's popup) The original images for this skin are: ExitSoft_normal.bmp, ExitSoft_over.bmp, ExitSoft_down.bmp, ExitSoft_disable.bmp. We will be deleting 2 of these files after we edit the skin below, ExitSoft_down.bmp and ExitSoft_disable.bmp, and overwriting the other 2. Skin File = ExitSoft_config.ini Here is the original file first: View as text file 4.2 Buttons Lets look at a sample Button field: Cancel_Isvisible = 1 Cancel_Position = 202,200,264,222 Cancel_TipText = Cancel Cancel_Text = Cancel If we set _IsVisible = 0 then the other fields for that Button are not required. You can leave it incase you want to put it back sometime later, but in my case I want to strip it right down so I am trimming out everything I dont need. Note - make a back of your skin folder first. Also I dont need the text on the OK and Cancel area because I am going to use a custom image that has the buttons and their text already - you could leave the Tip Text if you want but I removed it. I am using just 2 images instead of 4, and they are both 91.5KB as opposed to the original files of 244KB. 4.3 Layout First we need to set the main window size to the same size of our new image: MainWindow_Size = 248,126 Here is the modified Cancel Button that I want to show, but I have changed the position of the field as my image is a different size from the original: Cancel_Isvisible = 1 Cancel_Position = 128,89,202,111 Cancel_TipText = Cancel_Text = If you are changing the image, then you need to know how to change the layout of the Button field: Position = x1,y1,x2,y2 Here are some Button fields I don't want to show: TiltleInfo_Isvisible=0 UserName_Isvisible = 0 Password_Isvisible = 0 4.4 Masking PSS will mask out (not show) areas of a certain specified color. So in my example I make the outer part of the top rounded corners Bright Pink, and then set the mask color to 255,0,255 which is the RGB value for Bright Pink - check your favorite paint program to get these values if you are unsure. Eg. Red = 255,0,0. So here is my edited Mask area: [MainSettings] MaskColor = 255,0,255 MainWindow_Size = 248,126 IsUseMask = 1 Ofcourse for better performance I would just simply disable masking, as it would be yet another graphics process PSS has to deal with, however I found that the field IsUseMask is not even used as setting it to 0, -1, or even removing it made no difference. Even removing the mask color value just defaults the mask color as Black (0,0,0), which can then mask out other areas of the image. But if you set the mask color to a color not used in your image then it appears to be disabled, though I don't know if PSS still processes it or not. Note that anywhere else that color is in the image those areas will be masked out. So basically if you want to dsable it, a better idea would be to make the outer top corners a small variation of black such as 1,0,0, then set the mask to bright pink, as its unlikely you will have that color anywhere else in your image - bright pink would look bad if not masked out. Otherwise just dont use images with rounded corners. 4.5 Images New Images: (same names but new files) Right click to download ... then copy these to your skin folder ExitSoft_normal.bmp ExitSoft_over.bmp 4.6 Skin File Here is the new skin file for the Exit Window: (download) [MainSettings] MaskColor = 255,0,255 MainWindow_Size = 248,126 IsUseMask = 1 BackImage_Up = ExitSoft_normal.bmp BackImage_Over = ExitSoft_over.bmp BackImage_Down = ExitSoft_normal.bmp BackImage_Disable = ExitSoft_normal.bmp Ctl_BackColor = 0,0,0 Ctl_TextColor = 0,0,0 [MainButtons] Ok_IsVisible =1 Ok_Position = 47,89,122,112 Ok_TipText = Ok_Text = Cancel_Isvisible = 1 Cancel_Position = 128,89,202,111 Cancel_TipText = Cancel_Text = [StaticText] TiltleInfo_Isvisible=0 UserName_Isvisible = 0 Password_Isvisible = 0 UnlockErr_IsVisible=0 TxtUserName_Position = 0,0,0,0 TxtPsw_Position = 0,0,0,0 It is now safe to delete the image files for this skin: ExitSoft_down.bmp and ExitSoft_disable.bmp. So your PSS should look like this when exiting: ____________________________________ 1. INTRODUCTION 2. GENERAL SETTINGS 3. SKIN FILES 4. EXIT WINDOW 5. DEVICE INFO 6. TITLE BAR 7. LOGIN WINDOW 8. PROGRESS WINDOW 9. BOTTOM SKIN 10. STATUS PROMPT 11. DOCUMENTS