rory

not entirely, as if that were true then we wouldnt be needed, the clients could just buy the same products from retailers and install it themselves.

some computers come with a TV and/or RCA input but not most. The ones that do are normally something like a Sony Media Center PC, or add the TV capture card separately. But to answer the other question yes as in that case it is a Capture card, you could use generic CCTV software to record it, wont be great though. Could try Luxriot which is more professional and works with many generic capture card drivers, I think they let you use 1 channel for free with some limitations. I know nothing about that Sony Vegas software, perhaps its just for recording/editing movies, not 24/7 capture.

Well that depends, did he quote you IP cameras or non IP cameras? Or is he just quoting you the system for existing cameras? Does he know you want to use for IP Cameras only? The card would be there if you wanted to make it a hybrid system as mentioned before, incase you also add non IP cameras. Also some cards are hardware compression but most are not, they will normally say if they are. IP cameras normally do the compression in the camera, software is typically just for managing/recording them.

well that depends ... i have a $33 Color IR Bullet here with a better picture than a Vitek $200 Color IR bullet but yes that is rare though ..

me? I have and twice bitten was enough. Unless it really calls for it like many runs from one building to the next at a long distance, otherwise Ill stick to a method I know will work. In the US and Canada its easy to try different things if one doesnt work, but not down here, ends up costing alot more and taking much longer. $20 a balun + Duty and shipping = $40-50 a balun landed here, thats $350+- just for 8 baluns, plus the cat5 cable probably around $150+- for 1000', while I can get a 1000' role of siamese for around $350 here, $1.50 a BNC connector ... so Coax is cheaper, here at least. Im not saying I NEVER will use baluns and cat5, just saying how it is right now.

I agree, may as well just sell them a $30 color IR bullet and be done with it, looks the same as a 600TVL TDN camera right?

http://www.geovision.com.tw/english/Prod_GVIPCAMH264Bullet.asp http://www.geovision.com.tw/english/Prod_GVIPCAMDome.asp http://www.geovision.com.tw/english/Prod_GVIPCAMDomeDN.asp

sure, but thats no different from other NVR software, and geo is generally cheaper

http://www.geovision.com.tw/english/product/SupportIPCAM.htm http://www.geovision.com.tw/english/3_1_IPCam.asp

i had bad results from a couple different well known big US branded baluns at only 150' (one was push in, one was screw in) or so therefor I stay away from it. Others claim they get great video, though I havent seen the results myself. I would probably spend the money and use NVT active UTP if I needed to use it for a job, so far there has been no need. Time as I add in the cost of the baluns landed here and the cat5 cable its no cheaper than coax, at least here, and personally I had bad results with any kind of power over cat5 for longer than 50' distances, especially high powered IR cameras. I mean on a couple old used cameras here at my appt I use cat 5 spliced into the bullet camera housing as previous owner of cameras cut the cables back so much and I needed some thin cable, its just a couple feet of cat5 without baluns and it works fine then spliced into RG59 coax, but Id never do that for a client, they can buy a new camera.

Yeah... it was pretty bad. I don't think it had ever been cleaned. I dont get some clients .. they are like the camera is blurry and out of focus .. or has all kind of spots over it at night ... like yeah its been raining for 2 months straight what do they expect

Lots of Cards on market now can be use as Hybrid solution Thats true in regards to some systems (many now yes), but IP cameras themselves dont need a capture card, was my point there. Though I guess he could have sold him a system with a card also just incase he was going to add regular cameras at some point.

^ thats gotta be on of the dirtiest cameras ive seen yet

Windows doesnt typically have a size limit on folders, is this something VI limits? Or do you mean the page file? Or do you mean it gets so big the drive itself gets full? Also I wonder why it would be using the temp folder just to search and playback, I could see if it was converting to AVI, but to playback should just be straight forward processor and memory. Anyway you can change the location of the temp folder/s, perhaps put it on the video data drive?

If he quoted you on a capture card then its not for IP cameras. If its CCTV cameras then it needs some kind of DVR, capture card in PC or stand alone. IP cameras can use software and record them over the network. If its cost sensitive then CCTV cameras and a cheap DVR is the cheapest solution.

i believe the dahua plays back in 16 way on the 16 channel .. but dont quote me on that I only used it a couple times and to tell you the truth I dont recall

im using D1 7fps on all cameras at my place and its fine. Although one is low res I could probably lower that to CIF, as really its a waste on a low res camera anyway. IMO unless its a low res camera it should be D1 at least, lower frames or not.

Quick question, do you know if the more expensive Dahua DVRs have timeline playback? The basic slim line units dont .. but wonder if thats a feature the others have? Thanks.

thanks going to check it out

to configure the DVR right click on the device name, in the file I sent its named DVR, a popup menu will show Device Config, select that and then the config form will load - slow on my end trying to connect but locally by you should be fine. the file i sent saves the live layout so as long as you dont close a window and leave it that way when you open it again it will be the same with all 4 cameras in 4 way view. Playback doesnt seem to save any layout. I always play in full view as then dont have to close channels to click and play another event. Also this newer version has download to AVI so no need for the player. You can also click the little "hand" icon on the window and it saves a snapshot, in live or playback. No its not the best software around, well thats why Im integrating the Dahua and other DVR's SDK into my custom live viewer. I found the IE activeX to really throw my CPU into overload. Tend to get more options with a client also as its not dependent on the browser it is inside, eg. Full screen and resizing windows (the latter though not with this software) Regarding the cameras, in the following image you can see you get what you pay for

I would just get the DVR and buy the cameras separate, go for at the very least 1/3" with some kind of Sony chip.

send me your ip, user and pass for the DVR and i will upload a stripped down package of the latest version configured for auto login and easy exit. In a zip file its only 6.65mb or 37mb unzipped. All other features (eg. emap, alarms, audio etc) disabled except playback and edit device/user. or i can send you this and you just change the ip, user and pass in the device config. its stand alone no install needed.

The PSS is simple really, add device, IP, User and Pass, then select the first box, and then double click each camera in the list until all show up in the 4 way view. It should save that by default. Also you can make it no password so when you exit just click ok. also you can make it auto login as well so no need to enter user and pass to use the software.

i briefly skimmed through the user manual. it looks like it has similar features to the Dahua model, even the initial menu UI looks almost the same but the sub menu features are a little different. Actually seems like it has a couple more features such as individual encoding settings per channel for the network, which the basic Dahua does not have. Also has time line search which also the Dahua basic DVR does not have. However it doesnt seem to have any Remote Client software, only the browser activeX. Also it is called an EDVR which having used another with that name before I think it might be made by these guys: http://www.mlttech.com . Actually Sean from Nelly's on this forum had that and I tested it remotely just the browser based, and at the time also noticed the similarities between that and the Dahua. Looks like alot of these chinese companies are coming out with similar products now, or at least the GUI part of it, also all the sub stream stuff. All in all looks like it might be okay. Q-see is surely getting away from the bad rep they have by using some of these better cheap DVRs - i Know better and cheap normally dont go together, but I guess the Chinese are just getting better at producing better quality and more features for less money now. Ill check it out further. And oh yeah, doesnt seem to have Mac software, but it does have mobile apps.

no looks like some other brand.