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3. Skin Files 3.1 Introduction to Skins The PSS skin files are all located in the subfolder skin/default/ PLEASE BACK UP THIS FOLDER BEFORE MAKING ANY CHANGES! For the most part the skin files are pretty self explanatory. The word "Button" used in this article pertain to the buttons such as Minimize, Close, Multiviews, Playback, etc. The word "Window" is the main section for each skin which contains all the "Buttons". As an example, the Title Bar Window, thats the area at the very top which shows the PSS name and version on the left and the minimize and close buttons on the right. In that case the skin settings are in a file called TitleBar_config.ini, while the related images are in the format of Title_###.bmp Most of the .ini files are laid out as such: This contains the settings for the skin's main Window, such as the image file name, size and position. [MainSettings] This section contains the layout and styles of the Buttons associated with this Window [MainButtons] This section contains any general text associated with the skin [StaticText] There are other sections as well and they vary but the sections will always be in the format of [sECTION] 3.2 Hiding Buttons To get started, to simply remove a Button the easiest way is to edit the part where it ends in _Isvisible = 1. Changing the value to 0 will hide that button. For example in the TitleBar_config.ini file we would hide the drop down menu in the title bar by using: Menu_IsVisible =0 3.3 Hiding Windows To hide the entire section is a little different. Typically if you just delete one or all of the Window's main images the PSS program will show an error message when it starts, as the .ini file is still telling it to use those images. Same happens if you just leave the image file names empty or even delete the skin's .ini file. You could just change the Main Window size to 0,0 but then it normally will show up a blank grey area instead. The easiest way (and safest) I have found is to just create a 1x1 Black BMP file, call it blank.bmp, then change all 4 file names in the [Main Section] to that. Example: [MainSettings] MainWindow_Size = 165,135 MinWindow_Size = 165,25 IsUseMask = 1 MaskColor = 255,0,255 BackImage_Up = blank.bmp I also chose this method as now I can delete those large BMP files which I dont use and cut down on the overall size of the program folder as well as loading time and GUI speed - each image is loaded into memory when the program starts up. 3.4 Shrink Images I change all the images that are not "on mouse over" to Greyscale. This not only reduces the overall size of the skin folder but also makes the GUI appear a little faster - every bit counts in the long run. On some images it can only be a difference of 30kb but on larger images such as the PTZ it can be much more especially over 3 files (normal, down, and disabled). Note these files must remain as Bitmap (BMP) files. As mentioned I do not typically alter the "on mouse over" images. PTZ Original Image: 146kb, PTZ Greyscaled Image: 50.2kb (PTZ8_normal_en.bmp) Note: If you are removing images as in this article and you installed the PSS software on your computer (not just copied to a temp folder to work on), do not run the PSS program from the regular shortcut which was provided by the installation. I suggest you right click on PSSProject.exe send to desktop as shortcut and remove the Installed shortcut from the desktop and start menu, or copy the entire PSS folder to a temp location such as the root path, desktop, or documents folder, and create a shortcut to that PSSProject.exe on your desktop. If you DO run it from the installed shortcuts, msiexec will kick in and reinstall the missing image files. ____________________________________ 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

Never used it so cant say from a hands on experience, but going by specs its not much of a jump up from what you have now: 1/4" 4mm = narrow view F:1.6 = not low light Basic IR distance 640x480 pixels only What it has going for it over most cheap Color IR cameras: True Day Night - has IR cut filter removable during the day IR Corrected lens so little to no focus shift expected (fixed lens anyway) Network server built in. I would expect grainy images at night, though perhaps clearer images in the day.

you mentioned grainy, it could also be that you need to add more light, this will be even more so with Megapixel Cameras.

No insert on the domes Ive used, they come with a smoked dome cover by default. I imagine the insert is only for the clear cover.

Quick question, have you tried putting dark tint on it?

If you use the Spot monitor setup, then direct draw overlay will be disabled in live view on the PC, meaning you can notice blocked video especially in single view, which could be interpreted as bad quality. Composite would normally be better quality though as these are analog cameras. Also the Monitor used makes a big difference.

Again .. how is this news? I can name a dozen or so asian companies that OEM to other companies. here is a big one: http://www.dahuasecurity.com/ OEMs for many companies eg Intellicam, Q-See, etc Another: http://www.indigo-security.com/ OEMs for CNB, and many other companies. Nothing to hide here ... I think everyone knows this stuff already. At least many on this forum do. If not, Alibaba helps Bottom line is this .. if for example you live in the USA, you cant just buy direct from them .. even if you could it means buying from Asia .. its like any other industry and the reason why people buy retail. Eg. Why goto a food store when you can go right to the wholesaler? But more specific, why buy from Asia and have to deal with delays in shipping and extra expenses not to mention warranty/return issues ... when I can get it right in the US? Our clients dont care about the name ... just the end result. Look, I buy a dahua DVR from a US distributor with their name on it. I get it cheaper than if I bought it myself from Dahua, why?? Because that guy in Miami ordered 10,000 of them .. I cant get close to that. Now, if I need support .. I have a choice .. i goto Dahua for support but thats because I know who makes it and thats the latest files etc .. most others just dont care as long as it works.

Bottom line .. if you have light right near the camera .. make sure it is bright .. otherwise make sure the light is nowhere near the camera so the camera switches to BW mode ... if cant do any of that then need to spend time at night changing the DNR, Gamma, and Perhaps the SLBC settings until its a happy medium with the daytime video. OR flood the area with Infrared. Overall Impression of the VBM/VCM-24VF? Still a great camera "for the price"! Wishes? Wish it would switch over to BW easier, wish it had the RS485 Pelco connection. Wish it was a Bullet camera with external focus, wish it was Megapixel for the price. Just a note though, at 2.8mm (or more like 3mm as it never goes all the way), at least one edge tends to be slightly blurred on every camera I tested .. understandable though at that stretch and much less blurred than a fixed lens camera with a similar fov. Generally only noticeable under low light though. Id love to test the 34VF here now

ok so the halogens go off on a timer and only dusk to dawns left: BTW the street have newer, what seems like brighter dusk to dawns. click image for better quality. Still captured over the internet from cheap DVR. [image removed] as seen in the above one image is in BW, no light fixture in that area, and that one is the best quality. The other 3 are in color from the dusk to dawns. I believe the one above the cam6 must have a bad bulb - i cant get out to the location at night to check. In any event, I now have a much better Idea what Im dealing with.

I wont bother with daytime as everything works in the daytime .. it has real colors, no IRIS adjustments needed even in this tropical sun, works great in the daytime. SO onto the night time .... VCM-24VF with lots of light at night: this includes 3 bright Halogen lights and a couple dusk to dawns. cam5 & 6 are not 2.8mm BTW, zoomed them in a little during focusing (in low light-evening). Other 2 are set to widest though.[image removed]

Dont know, been years since I messed with that one .. but does it come up as recognized? Can you try and just install it as a regular com port? Then set that com port number in the Geo software?

I was trying to figure out what the original post was about .. I guess they are talking about Brands like many of the small ones in the US that say they are manufacturers and yet just rebadge their cameras (in most cases)? If so, nothing new, weve talked about it before on the forum.

I didnt get the message But I gut cameras alot, I mean down to taking the lens apart the boards everything .. and ive yet to find one that is identical. What you do find though is many use the same lenses. But even so I would find some with totally different lens design from others, such as the CNB bullet, where the IR Cut is over the chip instead of in the lens. This summer alone I must have taken apart a dozen or so cameras, mostly to get to the IR Cut or AI on the lens .. but for other reasons also.

its an M13 lens so you would need to find one of those .. but 50 would probably be too long as the varifocal one alone almost touches the cover. Maybe a 25 instead?

for the price they are easy to adjust and install. Normally in that price range and even a few dollars more the cameras are a nightmare to install and adjust. Quality wise its okay, the DVR you use makes all the difference. My biggest issue with them now is they dont switch over to BW fast enough, in other words they are stuck there in color trying to compensate and its pixelized, the switch over low-high setting doesnt seem to work at all. On a composite monitor the video is really crisp, but no its not megapixel nor is the price. Im also noticing one which has a blend of BW and color in the same image. They also work very well with Infrared. Im thinking about looking at the 34VF though as I cant take the going back to the job on a ladder to adjust settings. The DFL-20s is the easiest dome to install Ive ever seen though, hands down, and for the price is really good quality - no its not a panasonic or a megapixel but it certainly does the job and good. I think that is their real winner, in fact If it were weatherproof I would use it outside more instead of the 24VFs.

if you want to see a demo video of the CNB DBB-34VF as I changed from WDR to no BLC to BLC .. in a real application .. PM me and I will send you the login (for [most] forum members only). Opens in new window. http://www.bahamassecurity.com/private/wdrtest Its a 50MB MP4 video and requires login (due to faces etc), streams from my site using the JWplayer. Original video was approx 2x150MB 704x480 AVIs of video recorded as I was testing. Video has been compressed, resized down to 544x368, joined, clippped, compressed again. Buffers so shouldnt have any play issues, and can full screen it.

If you see $50 then thats wholesale .. dealer pricing .. even $70 would be dealer pricing .. so that would vary if you are seeing it at so called retailers.

All I can say is .. WOW! Now THATS alot of cameras .. like hoarders CCTV style But if it makes you happy, its definitely not a bad thing to like doing .. Im sure even some of us could learn something from your install

What "names" are you talking about? Not all cameras use the same design or are manufactured by the same company, most are not "Identical". Are you just talking about components used? Name names, please, otherwise I have no idea what you are talking about.

I think if I had a wider angle it might have worked better .. but no time this job to try that out.

Ok so I got the chance to install a DBB-34VF, thats the Double scan WDR Blue-i camera from CNB, basically their indoor WDR Dome. I must say I didnt get a chance to really put it through a test like I normally do, this was just onsite testing in a very busy store. http://www.cnbusa.com/en/html/product/product.php?seqx_prod=1121 In the end, we decided to leave it set to BLC high as WDR on either low, middle, or high, did not produce the results we wanted - to see the faces. Note: images over the web on low quality. Overall Im not impressed with their WDR, seen better from the GE Ultraview camera some 5 years ago. But the BLC is impressive. WDR on High - they must not have yet tested their technology on persons with darker skin tones. BLC on High - now can see faces inside and outside the door, do not care about the road as there is a camera out there anyway. BUT actually we CAN still see the road with BLC .. at least once something is out there And incase you are wondering, here it is with WDR and BLC off. ps. i didnt start a new thread as I may need to remove these images in the future.

Some VCM-24VFS I just installed. Still got some minor nighttime focusing/adjustments to do. Was going to use CNB wall mount brackets but did not in the end as they could be pulled down easier in this high crime area. Nice area:

I was confused LOL Okay so you sent an email to CNBTEC.com and they (proabably a sean in the CNB Europe devision) sent your request to a retailer in the US. His name may also be Sean. You probably just saw his email in the reply as he may have been copying the email to the CNB guys.

2. General Settings 2.1 Auto Login Ok so lets get rid of that pesky login. Login information is located in PSS_Config.ini Its pretty straight forward, there will be an encoded password string. From the beginning of the file scroll down until you find the SUser_ID and SUser_PSW fields. If you want to not have to use a password just delete the encoded string so it looks like follows. SUser_ID=admin SUser_PSW= Now scroll down until you see the login section which will begin with this: [Login_Info] Edit the following fields to this: Check=1 UserName=admin Password= PSSAutoLogin=1 Basically the password field has to be the same as in our SUser_PSW field, in this case we blanked it out. The rest of this is telling the program to save the password and auto login. Save the file and exit. So now you will be able to just open the program and not be required to login. Also in this case there is no password so you just click OK to exit when it prompts you. NOTE: There is another field in the UserLogin.in file which must be enabled (default) for this to work: AutoReLogin=1 2.2 Change The PSS Title You cant get rid of the title PSS in the top left using the config files, but you can remove or edit the text after it which is the version number (you can remove the entire title or edit the text using the skins as will show you later). Open up PSS_Config.ini again. At the very top edit the Version field like so (or remove the part after = to make it blank): [Version_Info] Version=v4.04 LITE SKIN Example: There is another field in PSS_Config.ini which changes the Taskbar title for PSS. PSS_ShortName = PSS 2.3 Save Last Screen Monitor Okay this can be done in the config section of PSS but I thought I would show you this anyway. What it does for those that dont know is during exit of the program PSS will save the layout and connection information so when you open it next time it will auto login to any devices previously connected and start streaming the live video just as when you exited and in the same multiview. In UserLogin.ini find the following field and enable it like so: (or disable it for trouble shooting failed startups) SaveLastMonitorState=1 Also you could delete/edit/rename the LastMonitor.xml file if you are having problems with the program opening and if it is related to the last monitor connection that may fix the problem. 2.4 Multi Channel Playback This is available from versions 4.03 and 4.04. By enabling this setting a check box will appear in the Multi channel playback area of PSS, which allows one click to add all the DVR cameras instead of individually adding them. Open up PSS_Config.ini and look for the following and edit it as shown: PSS_PlayBackAllChannel =1 When you playback you should now see 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

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