rory

He certainly is correct .. dont believe the manufacturer all the time . .. you will also find that even more so with the OEM gear (but not excluding well known brands) .. as well as tons of websites online that false advertise .. most common example is the false advertisement of SONY cameras .. when they are NOT Sony cameras, they simply have the Sony chip, and there is a Huge Difference as there are many versions of Sony chips .. the more expensive the chip, the better it is. When looking at cameras though, the chip is important, but there are other factors to include such as features added to the camera by the manufacturer themselves; eg. Mechanical IR Cut Filter. You dont need google for that though, you should be able to do some searching on this forum and find where we mention this over and over .. Although larger well known brands are not 100% exempt from this, they have gotten much better over the past few years. One very noticeable difference you will experience between an OEM and a more expensive name brand, is the information provided during the presale period, in other words the literature and specs are typically more available and in more detail, with large name brands such as GE, Bosch, Sanyo, etc.

No more no less, they are Embedded XP so they are still Windows based in this case.

Hi and welcome to another fellow Bahamian!!

Okay Im not expert on wireless like a couple others on here (wireless eye for one), but here is what I have learned from a couple wireless jobs Ive done. Should be a Transmitter and a Receiver. The camera is just a camera. The Transmitter and Receiver can be inside something, with the antenna outside. If they are inside a plastic waterproof box, they will still work with an internal antenna. Line of site means no obstructions, the more obstructions you add to the wireless path, the less distance is achieved. Certain Objects such as trees etc, or anything that contain water, can obstruct the line of site also. Metal will definitely block the line of site, including anything from Iron inside walls, to AC Duct, etc. If the wireless path is not high enough above vehicles, when a vehicle passes through it you will also loose video. So basically doesn't matter where the receiver and transmitter are, it depends on where the antennas are; unless it has an internal antenna. If it is a Wireless camera so to speak, with a TX built in etc, then typically it is DIY gear, and that is going to be tough anyway. Professional setups will use cameras, and then Wireless gear separately.

No problem, the Panasonic is still great for that. Obviously GE, Bosch, Ganz (and some others) are also very good. I dont think you will find any 3 cameras that are the best for that type of application, as that is one of the simplest ones to work on. Even a cheap OEM color bullet looks great indoors (once it isnt pointed at a window or door with a ton of back lighting!)

Sure, you would just see the video in B/W

Hi It sounds like a very basic DIY camera, nothing to write home about, and probably CMOS and very low quality with extremely horrible lighting handling. This is typical of cameras that come in those cheap wireless kits, and even more so if it actually has a wireless antenna and a transmitter built in; CCTV cameras will not come like that, just the cheap DIY gear. I wouldn't expect much from the infrared also, however if the front door area is small then it may give off some light. Typically the IR on these types of cameras often only perform to any useful degree, indoors and in small rooms. You could try to hard wire it, not sure if that would be worth it though. I would look at the price, where you are buying it from, then take a look at our advertisers and see what they have to offer; before spending money then wishing you didn't, even if it is only a small amount. Rory

Hi, first they are not analogue anymore, they are Digital [CCD] nowadays. However they convert back to analogue for the cable used, in this case composite video (coax, utp, etc). Best Camera is a loaded question, as it depends which application one is referring to. And Best can mean alot of different things to different people, or more importantly, the clients. In the Typical Day/Night application, and with Wide Dynamic capability, would be more in the area of the Panasonic Wide Dynamic Day/Night. However they have a couple variations of this, including their more expensive and much better 1/2" camera. For Infrared applications and an all in one solution, there is the Extreme CCTV EX82, or for further infrared and a longer zoom, the ZX-55. These are dual cameras, with a separate color and separate B/W camera built in, and long range Infrared LEDs. I would also add the GE KTC-2000DN in there as it is an Exview Day/Night camera and has been around a while now. Also has manual switch over and option for an external photocell. A great camera overall. Does not have the Wide Dynamic capabilities of the Panasonic but it does have the Exview chip. There are also License Plate Capture cameras, such as the REG-L from Extreme CCTV, Color Box cameras, such as the KTC-815C from GE, and a huge number of other color cameras from Ganz, Bosch, etc. So there are others and the Bosch Dinion XF is probably one of them, but Ive never used it nor seen any snapshots/video from one in the field so I cannot comment on that camera. Then there are PTZ cameras. They are also considered professional cameras. So the question is pretty loaded. Rory

No wave or wind power .. they just upgraded the main generator at the (government run) electric corporation.. lets hope our power doesn't go out 3+ times a day this summer like it normally does.. We have awful electric here .. brownouts, spikes, hums .. you name it .. I dont even know what they are most of the time .. sometimes I just sit here watching the lights come on orange and sit there for a while wondering when they will blow! He he .. ive used the same Triplite voltage Regulator for my PC (well from one PC to the next as technology changed) since 1996 .. i am amazed it has lasted this long .. never lost any hardware once it was on this .. cost me $150 back in 1996 and back then it was very rare here A local PC store here brings in APC voltage regulators and UPSs in bulk, so we get a good price on them, they are actually meant for the Latin American market, which we are somehow included in.

this is an old thread, but I thought it only fair to report back on those WizKid WZ30's. They turned out to be awful image quality and I will never use another WizKid camera. So before one sees this thread and goes off purchasing one and wasting their money, they may want to look at something else first. Rory

Did the video get any ID? A guy got his throat cut the other night at a night club here, well after a fight inside and it happened outside in the street, they cut his throat with a box cutter!!! No camera was out there though as it was on the main road .. and its a new club so havent added all the cameras yet

Yep Actually I just replaced a UPS (APC w/ Line Conditioner built in) for a Voltage Regulator (Line Conditioner) as the UPS kept shutting down the PC .. I still need to do some investigation before scrapping the UPS .. but seems due to extremely bad power at the location, the built in regulator must have been shutting it off too soon .. and not turning it back on (not enough power I imagine) for a while, even manual repower up on the UPS would not always work right away.. ended up damaging the hard drive in the end as it was doing this like 3 times a day in the end, well at least the hard drive is extremely noisy now (even after repartition/format) and I replaced it, going to try a zero fill and see if I can resell it No issues from the other UPS's in the field though. The voltage regulator is working well now though .. Now all I have to worry about is the GeoVision data and Windows File System Corruption .. until i put a new UPS in there or get the old one (3 months new) working properly again...

a UPS is just a battery backup, the voltage Regulator is actually what saves your hardware ..

Glad their okay .. Someone comes at me with a knife I would be kind of glad .. at least as opposed to a gun, or a machete .. the knife, I can disable that. So we gonna see some video now

There are a few distributors that sell them, but they are very expensive compared to the same thing you can build or buy cheaper. Only diff is it has embedded XP.

Has anyone else used this yet, if so, which Raid controller did they use with it, and how did they do it? Also, any ideas how much current it draws? 3 in 2 Model: http://www.american-media.com/product/backplane/sata300/sata300.html PDF: http://www.american-media.com/product/backplane/sata300/DS_2131SSBK.pdf Thanks Rory

Thanks, I'll take a look. Ill probably be using the PCI-e x16 for the video card, so would have to be x1 or PCI .. Ill see what they have .. Rory

Ive never setup Raid before .. so im just seeing what it entails and whether this is worth it .. for a basic setup .. so they can remove the drives if they need to .. doesnt have to be hot swapable .. they could shut down the PC in this case .. but hot swap would be nice .. Its an Asus Motherboard 945 and I believe they do have raid in the bios? thanks Rory

Yeah i saw that, and checked, they start around $350+ That was why I was wondering if Raid is needed.

The power upgrade kit, that depends where you live. You could check with a local GE Dealer. I would stick to maxtor drives in this case .. 5400rpm .. hard to locate though .. any 5400rpm drive should work. There are a couple threads on this already .. http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=3601 http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=7988 http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=3047

Yeah i was looking at that last night .. but its like $1500! Plus then you need the $1000 decoder .. or the even more expensive Bosch recorder ... and its still just 4 cif tops.

Its not a normal feature of Windows XP; unless you purposely set it up to reboot. Make sure you have no virus or malware, check the Task Scheduler, if you have a Voltage Regulator/UPS check that also, as low voltage here and there could cause it to power down and up again .. overheating can cause problems also (normally shutdown though). And check what the others above mentioned also.

I would imagine they all do .. the well known brands that is.

I agree with todoenred, you can record locally at each location, as well as record remotely using a Central Monitoring Software .. Geo has that option, also many others do now as well. With Geo now you can also use standard CCTV cameras with their new video server, which will connect to a remote DVR, meaning no DVR required at the location .. but still I prefer local recording over anything else .. you can never ultimately ONLY depend on the internet for security.

Besides the megapixel cameras, I havent seen one yet as good as direct into a CCTV monitor, due to compression over the internet. I guess if FPS isnt an issue then it would good.