rory

Then I guess that means everyone (but that one) Ive used in the past 10 years has been regulated. Its good to know I dont have to chuck the rare 16VDC one I do find though Still regulated or not one should plug that into a Voltage Regulator to protect it and the device

Maybe with some but all I use are still just 12VDC with no load. Come to think of it though now that you guys mention it, I do recall one a few months back with 16VDC, threw it away and used one of the others I had. Thats the only one I ever saw with that voltage ever since Ive been doing this. I always meter a 12VDC plug before connecting it to check wire polarity. Its good information to know for the future though, but Id just chuck it if it is not 12VDC and use another.

Can you post an image of it? Have you tried moving the cameras or coax away from the high voltage? The baluns and UTP will pick up interference as well, is any of the cable within 1-2 feet of high voltage? If its a ground issue then you could use baluns or UTP devices with ground loop isolation. (eg. NVT)

Yes I agree, even Geo has the old requirements on their site (last I checked), and it doesnt stop there, look at MS Windows and Vista and 7 .. to really run those OS well or close to how well XP runs one basically needs a super computer also. Come on NEW Developers, I even develop and test my non Billion dollar software on a basic PC for ultimate GUI speed, especially as there are so many slow netbooks out there - developers of today seem to have alot to learn about their customers. TDN IR Bullets are generally not as good as they used to be, cant even remove the IR Ring to disable the IR - although Domes have gotten better, though DSS and digital day night are destroying the industry along with millions of retailers and distributors that dont know the first thing about the product they sell. The last couple years I have witnessed so much technology go backwards instead of forwards it is not funny now. I feel sad actually Well alls well that ends well. You got the faster CPU and it works now. But I agree a sticky may be a good idea, here as well as in the Geo sub forum. I will look into it, will check with the admin. The nice thing about this forum is this also. When we find issues however small they are we should post them. For example I bought a WD AV Drive for a Geo DVR and I had skipping on the recordings. After weeks of tests in the end It was the drive, a green drive, even though standard tests with the OS came back okay, switching to a USB 5400rpm drive even made a difference, and eventually a WD Blue drive fixed it - so WD AV drives dont work well with Geo, maybe other drives also. Rory

All the 12VDC AC adapters I have used are metered at 12VDC output. I have 6 different shaped ones sitting on the table now and all are 12VDC max output. They range from 500ma to 2amp. Ive never used a 12VDC adapter at 16/17VDC. I have a 2amp 12VDC one spliced powering all 4 of my cameras as we speak. Are we talking about the same thing?

BTW whats a 16-17VDC wall-wart? Do you mean an AC Adapter? If so what type gives 16-17VDC?

Here in Canada, at least, a "voltage regulator" in CCTV means the thing that gives you a clean 12VDC instead of 16-17VDC out of a wall-wart.... Yep, I guess 2 different things though somewhat similar. But the one I meant is the high voltage version with protection, something the wall-wart (and everything else) plugs into, without this the wall-wart wont last here, and in many cases why it fails in other places also but on a lesser scale. In other words this Voltage Regulator protects your equipment, and also regulates the voltage. As mentioned many UPS have the AVR built in as well, but the VR is the most important part as without that, wont have anything left to backup. Basically its a line conditioner, but APC calls it voltage regulation and thats one of the most popular. IMO without a voltage regulator, such as this, I dont think anyone should complain when a hard drive fails. Ive yet to see one fail when its on one of these, after 15 years of using Tripplites and APCs. Although Ive seen hard drives and other parts fry all the time without them, even with UPS they fail all the time, unless it has AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulation) built in, which some do not. Ofcourse if a location is completely Solar or has an entire building line conditioning system then there is no need for these. If they never have brownouts or voltage spikes then also there is no need for this, ofcourse anytime the power goes off and comes back on though there is the chance of a brownout or too much voltage depending on how good their electricity source is there, here it sucks. We've talked about these Voltage Regulators for years on this forum though which is why I felt I should clarify the difference from the one you mentioned, thats all. ps. my lights been dipping all night tonight, the APC Voltage Regulator protected me each time, there is a clicking noise it makes when it detects too high or too low voltage and it adjusts, if it is too much either way such as in a full blown brownout or over voltage then it cuts the power.

Really cannot depend on manufacturer specs these days ... in anything! Even geo lists I think P4s but try running their new software on that, software that is developed on some super computer, and see how much it drags and hangs. In fact my main PC is a used P4 3.ghz .. runs great I can watch movies and all .. I even develop on it. But some new software just wont run, and if thats the case I dont want to use it anyway. Yep, I recently had a drive crash on an old PC DVR that a client had, the PC DVR people didnt have the old version of the software so had to use a new version, needless to say the old hardware (P4 2.4) had issues performing with that where the CPU hovered around 80-100% with 12 cameras connected at D1 or even Half D1, ended up having to set them all to CIF and the client will have no choice but to either buy a new PC or get a whole new DVR. The E5300's etc tend to run fast enough, havent noticed a huge difference between them and the more expensive Core 2 Duos, at least they certainly dont go anywhere near 100% CPU usage. If one is on a budget the Core 2's are too much $, otherwise if they can afford it then go Core 2 at least, if not Quad Core. Ofcourse I strip down all my XP DVRs so they will be much faster than any other.

Sure, I have used those same models, but they are rubbish compared to the APC units. APC loves selling their VRs to their latin america clients like us (yes to the US, Caribbean is latin america) as we get to really test their products in the real world in ways they might never be able to.

No, im not talking about a UPS, Im talking about something that protects. Current gets too high, it stops it, current gets to low, it stops it, in other words the outputs are disconnected. A really huge spike of high voltage will fry this, but the devices connected to it are fine, as happened to one the other day. Some, not all, UPS have Automatic Voltage Regulation built in, but I prefer to keep it separate even then. "Voltage Regulators" are also half the cost of a UPS and in most cases a UPS is never needed or is useless due to the short backup times most consumers can afford. Additionally I have found a UPS not to provide power sometimes when the electricity comes back on, although rare its a problem when the customer wants their system running 24/7 and nobody knows until days later. Also basic surge protection is useless in most cases. Dont get me wrong there are cases where a UPS is invaluable, such as when developing software or using other certain apps that when the system crashes the file being used is corrupted beyond repair, or ofcourse just never saved. This is a voltage regulator: These suckers protect against some really tough brownouts and spikes, proven almost every day here http://www.apc.com/products/category.cfm?id=12&subid=57 Tripplight calls them line conditioners, I had one of theirs for over 10 years. http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/product-series.cfm?txtSeriesID=838 We use "Voltage Regulators" religiously down here, not having a "Voltage Regulator" is like not having a roof on a car. I guess I should have been more specific, as in "Traditionally" I meant in the PC and CCTV industry, and more specifically on this forum, thats what we know a Voltage Regulator as, but yes as with many things there are more than one type. But basically I only posted to let people know that this was different from the other Voltage Regulators we use every day.

maybe the DVR isnt taking the username/password properly. maybe set the username to the format of user@yourhost.com if not already.

email on/off - ON SSL on/off - OFF SMTP port - 00587 SMTP - smtp.comcast.net Send email - your comcast's user/email sender pw - your comcast's password recv email - email you want to send the images to

POP is incoming mail, that isnt used on the DVR. Where do you see POP? See my post above, set that info in the DVR and it should send email. Check with your ISP for the user and pass if you dont know it.

see the last part of this: http://customer.comcast.com/Pages/FaqDisplay.aspx?Guid=b454828c-37a6-459a-9191-2a1b0f2bb20e it says the SMTP is smtp.comcast.net it also says it requires a user and pass, and the port is 587 but its not SSL so leave that disabled.

You dont need an email address with them, just need to get their SMTP server, thats what you would be using for sending the email out as you are connected to their server. edit: what soundy said also.

Yes use your ISP's SMTP server with no SSL, and port 25 as mentioned is the default port.

i wonder if they are hiring, must be killer pay there

Whats not on 25? The SMTP port?

Your ISP's SMTP server should be something like SMTP.myisp.com ask them for this info if you arent sure. set the SMTP port to the default which is 25, unless the ISP tells you otherwise. There is no need to use gmail's SMTP, a gmail email address will still receive emails from other SMTP servers.

Yes port 25 is the default SMTP port. Ofcourse the ISP can be blocking that also, so in that case you would need to set to 25 but instead use your ISP's SMTP server.

Make sure your ISP is not blocking those ports. Can you test it with an email program on a computer on the same network? Eg, using Outlook Express on XP for example can setup a test account with that for outgoing email. If that works then seems there is an issue with the DVR's email program maybe the SSL part of it. Perhaps then instead use your ISP's SMTP Server instead without SSL. I would use the ISP's SMTP server anyway before using Gmail's.

does it have an option for SMTP server?

not to sure, i've only seen up to 500gig. however the big limitation is often the DVR. my DVR only handles up to 400gig anyway. if you really need 1T or more then its time to upgrade the DVR. biggest ive found here now is 160GB. seems they stopped importing anything larger. but I agree if you want more space and it is an IDE DVR might be best to sell that one off cheap to someone else and use that money towards a new DVR with SATA. And as mentioned the DVRs might only support up to 500GB, or 1 drive.

Not to be confused with a Voltage Regulator used for power protection. Traditionally "Voltage Regulators" are boxes that plug into the wall before an electronic device and provide automatic voltage regulation, such as those from Tripplite and APC.

I dont think anyone is going to be building a new system with a P4 now anyway. Also the newer Pentium Dual cores (eg. E5300, etc) should be fine as well, Ive used them for recent 16 channel Geovision systems without issue. I would take a look at what else is installed on the OS, if you have anti virus software that could certainly slow it down alot.