cctv_down_under

Go Greece!!!!!!!!! I must admit they were a little lucky with the result but good on them for an organised defence.. I guess that is what happens when you get a German coach.. well done!! On the DVR matter... Geo will do everything you just mentioned but will not automatically adjust picture size on a schedule but a simple batch file could achieve this. IPS is an image rating not a frame rating as two Images make one frame. so be carefull, as some manufactorers actually use Images per second instead of Frames to get a faster rating but sometimes they just use that wording and it is accurate. Other than that I see no problems with using a Geo system

I agree with Thomas... you lack the cache with the Celeron

Main Board : ASUSP4C800Deluxe Ram: Corsair Twin X PC3300 or Kingston HDD: Seagate or Maxtor SATA CDRW: Sony Monitor: 172X (fast refresh LCD) Case: Antec with large fans at front and back Powersupply: Antec Truwave (not the cheap version) Video Card: Radeon 9800XT PRO CPU: P4 Floppy: Sony Extras... Fan regulator resistor for lowering speeds and noise in winter. Expander Brackets for additional HDD's Zalman, Variable fan speed controller (controls varying speeds for many fans) Glue on Heatsinks for DSP cards Zalman P4 cooler with radial heatsink Interactive UPS Rubber Shock Mounts for HDD mounts Removable Drive bay coolers (DO NOT BUY CHEAP ONES). DVI converter That should get you out of trouble, this is what I use, but not always in the Antec Case sometimes I use a rackmount as it is optionable and depending on model I may up the ram to a faster spped and shoot for 1GB.

You should always make a partition for the oS or you will run into problems, for 2k you can get away with 5Gb but 7 or ten would be better as this leaves room for updates. If you load burning software be sure to leave the auto start Cd function on as some writing programs that use packet writing have failures if this is not done.. Personnaly I would go for XP Pro or Home if you can not afford Pro and I would leave a definate 10Gb for XP. you shouldn't need to autofragment and you could just use the windows scheduler to do that but seeing as you will be writing mostly it should not be much of an issue as long as you are using a software integrated UPS device to avoid AVI corruption, mind you why not let something else out of the bag, I mean I have already mentioned two of the cool features Geo are coming out with on the latest version of the software, so here is one more, they have made it so that on start up it will search and repair any corrupted AVI files, so that is a nice touch. Unless you have an old BIOS from an old motherboard then most Motherboards will now easily see 200Gb, I do not know the full story but without loading a small app that is on the website of most drive manufactorers it can be hard for the machine to install on a full 200+ drive as it can not do this as the boot drive without this small file in the master boot record (I am probably wrong about this and I am sure Thomas will know as he knows a lot more about PC's than I do, that is why I employ tech's), failing that it is rather simple to do a BIOS update for your Motherboard and most of them come with bootable floppys for this purpose, some mainboards can even do it from inside windows, hell my mainboard can play MP3's from the BIOS and even speaks to me if something fails... Once again you get what you pay for and the same goes for the Drives, I have never been a fan of Western Digital or IBM drives but I hear IBM is ok now, the drives on the market now (excluding SCSI are all fairly fallable so the best bet is to get one with a long warranty, Seagate were aware of the lack of consumer confidence when IBM had isses so when they released the 8mb buffer drives they cleverly added a 3 Yr warranty so that is what hooked me on them, mind you Maxtor are as good.... Please tell me you do not put the drives one on top of the other as this causes major headaches with heat dissapation

The best one I have seen to date is the one made by Ganz, Ganz has a service monitor input for most of its cameras so that you can leave them wired to the cieling or wall and still connect the service monitor, this service monitor has B/W or Colour options and a brightness and contrast option, it can run off standard AA batteries and comes with a nifty belt pouch, but the best feature of all is the 75Ohm loop through, this allows you to connect to camera for testing by using a small fly lead in the service monitor plug on the camera and then you alos connect your original cable so that you are still inline with the device you are connected to, so you can see on the monitor and on the end unit and you can test the line by adding the 75Ohm or turning it off. The LCD is pretty small but gives a nice resolution, I would have to say this is my second most important thing I have ever used, the first being the book (should say bible) by Vlado Damjonovski.

Yeh that was what I was talking about, he seems to not realise that you dont have to write over your data.. there is a lot he does not know about DVR he didnt even mention any features.. just limitations and was incorrect wioth most of what he said!

Cool I will try them out.. do they have rackmounted options?

Why do they only work on 2k?

i havent had time to test it yet, they also havce itegration with alarm sensors and for some reason it requires two cameras, the sensitivty can be changed to suit... I will get around to testing it soon I hope.

I also use the Avtech ones, they are pretty cheap and work ok, nothing flash but thats all you need for a standalone... anyone tried their cameras?

I havent used belkins KVM switches I have tried Laser without a lot of success but they are so cheap that you can afford to replace them

Well my techs do Im too lazy to build a machine

I use the same one

Looks legit, what makes you think its pirated

Geo is also about to release motion detected PTZ movement via pixel movement

Ganz sell an excellent one.. but it is abiot on the expensive side of things.. but it has a loop through so that you can turn on the 75Ohm or not, and this means you can focus and still have signal at the other end, in honesty you still often need to tweak it after using a monitor, one hint though when using cams, make sure to focus by placing your housing beside it and focussing it through the Glass, Ganz is good because most of thier cameras can be left wireed and then focussed through the secondary output they provide for the spot monitor which means you dont have to move the camera and if using the service monitor you can see it and your guy at the other ewnd can see it and you dont have to move it. Another tip is to buy a 12V monitor that is small then you can cheat by using your 12V drill battery to pwer the monitor, meaning you never need batteries, this works well up a ladder and is easy to adapt with just somne electrical lugs.. Service monitors should allow for both B/W and Colour and should always have a brightness adjustment on the monitor, otherwise you will read the wrong lighting, Using a digital cam to measure light levels also helps and pre foccusing the camera on the ground means you have less running to do!!

He is very biased toward Analogue though, has some very incorrect info on DVR's as well, but everyone has their own opinion

Standalones are cheaper here as they are not as popular, Gee the PC's are winning... now where is AV !!!

Oh yeh nearly forgot.. never mount HDD's on top of themselves for any reasons, get agood case like the thermaltake, they have cool one with a lit skull on it My tech has it at home. Antec cases are inexpensive and come with excellent Truewave (in the higher end) power supplies, they use a good 120mm fan that blows directly onto the HDD's and another 120MM at the back of it, removable drive bays are another idea as they can come with fans, but the fans that are small in them usually burn out, but some of them (well the ones I use) have a led display that tells you (with reasonable accuracy) the heat of the HDD. You can get PCI exchaust devices and a front Drive bay blower that can help but in most cases the Antec will suffice and has many bays and loads of space.. many cases actually have the provisions for additional brackets to mount the HDD's in. So many times end users add drives and do this and cause problems, Sata cables are good too as they do not block the airflow, in order to move more air you make more noise so you can get either a fan controller tyhat sits in a drive bay or you can just use a resister to allow you to drop the speed and the noise if needed in winter!

A few points.. Once again opening my big m,outh, but Geo is about to release a virtual keyboard, they have replaced the desktop to prevent tampering and disabled CTRL ALT DELETE, there is no way to fully protct a DVR without overheating without using a cage, but some tips are: 1/ Always use a camera on the DVR itslelf, this way even if they go near it they are seen, what good is this you say... well you can use the control room softwrae on geo to send the video to another location or storage device, a smart move is to use a tamper switch that is linked to a relay on the case or Video Masking so that as soon as they come near the box it fires the visdeo away to the control room machine. 2/ Cordless keyboard and mouse are handy as they can be locked away and most staff wont carry in a keyboard 3/ Rackmounts can be bolted down to the wall or brackets. 4/ Here I go again... Geo is also about to release Touch screen and remote control devices, so without them there is no way to do anything, simply, hot glue gun the mouse and keyboard or disable them and they can not touch it. 5/ Anyone can kill the power but using a hard wired UPS usually beats this problem, altough you can remove the plug. 6/ A lame but usefull tip is to use and old VCR and run cables to make it look like it is going to there instead of the DVR then they tend to steal it, especially if your second monitor sits above it, this has worked many times for me!

Has anyone tried the new KSR-516 DVR, I am interested in buying one for testing, it is fairly inexpensive has 100FPS and a good resolution but has CDRW and USB interface for back up otpions... I would be interested in anyones feedback! Thanks In Advance GC

I got some Kodicom boards for testing last month or so but they only ran on windows 2000 ????????

I have only seen 2 good wireless options and both were expensive the first is from Extreme and is quite good indeed the second is made here in Australia and I have sen it work up to 4 KM (no bull) they used it at the Sydney Olympics.

Chinese Lenses they sell too, from emory they look just like Computar too the T! I would stear away from them, they send me emails almost every day

Rory, I know you and I have had our differences of opinion, but I can not strongly enough suggest to you to use UPS, believe it or not one of the resons I decided not to stock Kalatel was because of its powersupply, it is a little one without any fusing, if it gets undervoltage it will ventually burn out and dump mains power onto the mainboard of the kalatel and the lack of capacitors around the beginning of this BUS scared me off it... I sell a UPS (almost at cost) with every DVR I sell, in honesty most of them protect you from bugger all but they do take the load off the power supply by keeping it at the same temperature always, if the supply goes, then you can kiss your Kalatel goodbye and in your area I would imagine that undervoltage would be a huge issue and filter will not help you with that, next time your lights go dim, put your hand on the powersupply and feel how hot it gets!! I ONLY use ANTEC HIGH END powersupplies and I throw away the ones that come with some of the cases we use.. Mind you most of the ones we use are now Antec, a good sign to see is dual fan and both large fans not 30mm like the Kalatel.