AlienDroid

I’ve had the same CCTV system for around 4 an half years now, (yeah it’s old) but it now has some serious issues. I did have a problem from new where it has always had a problem on one or two channels when fast forwarding or reverse! Not sure if this is the same issue getting worse or unrelated. Looks like an old VHS system with banding across the screen! If something would move in front of cam then image would become clear! What’s happening recently; It’s crashing intermittently. Some alarms when I play them back it’s just a black screen with no recording, no time display etc! Not all channels. When play back either from alarm or just pick any point in time the playback will sometimes just stop or I’ll see one sometimes 2 cams blacked out, no timestamp, nothing. Then it can just start working normally and record hours and hours with no issues! When a channel has not got playback, it slows down to a crawl when trying to rewind or FF! It jerks almost frame by frame maybe 1 or 2 a second even if I’m rewinding at x16. When I'm viewing 4 channels all at once etc. Never had problems doing that before. What I’ve tried. Reloading the settings I had backed up. Didn’t work, no difference. What I’ve not done. Reformatted the hard drive. Removed the hard drive and checked the disk for problems. Never opened the back and checked connections inside, it’s still got its original seal. I don’t have time to play with this much at the moment, so any info and suggestions welcome. Make: Maxx Digital Raven HD1000 H.264 8 channel currently using 4.

Sorry this is a bit off subject for the forum maybe but I can't think where else to post this even with all the forums I subscribe to. I've just caught on my CCTV one of the Google Maps cars at the rear of my property which is a private road (not public road) I'm sure this is trespass but would like to hear from anyone that has had this happen to them and from anyone else what I can do about it. Since google started mapping the private roads in my area crime has increased as now all the annoying twats who are up to no good can find these hidden away places so much easier. Now they might even have close up images of my garage and all my neighbours and into some back gardens so making it very easy for theifs to look around without having to leave the comfort of their sofas. I can hear them now saying (that garage looks easy) The local council said they can do nothing as google don't need to let them know they are driving around the area! What can I do? The images are not up as yet! Are they breaking the law? I know Google have lost a case in the US on trespass of private property taking images in this way, so would like to know if this has happened also in the UK? I think government or maybe councils need to take responsibility for this rather than it being left up to each and every individual having to chase down google when they break the law and breach our privacy and trespass. Many thanx for any info and feedback.

Hi all that are interested in Google trespassing and an updates on events. To just cover my point about Google support forum, my post there back in Sep 2014 in the end never got a reply even though I told them about my post to their forum in my complaint and they have now locked the post due to inactivity. " title="Applause" /> well done Google. And no, I didn't bump the post, you shouldn't have to on a support forum. Google also never replied to the google mail address which was used for the support site forum. (nothing in spam folder either!) They did eventually do a couple of things but they do not let you know when they have made these changes. I did get one saying they received my complaint, but the 2nd email stated changes would take place with 24 hours, things were still the same long after this. The 3rd email was for my 2nd complaint, but no update after following changes as above. After my first complaint via the maps.google page after a very long wait, almost 2 months change the map to show the private track as public road, i.e. changes to Blue line when hovering with street view! Exactly what I had asked them not to do in my complaint!!! About 2 weeks after that they appeared to have added images, but they all showed up as black. This added to the stress as I thought they had added the images when checking. During this time I spotted several cars drive in and straight out which possibly is because it looked like a public road at a glance with that blue line on street view! I can't see any technical reason for this being done this way. In the last few days it seems Google have now removed the blue overlay line in street view, so I'm right back to square 1 as the grey/white line is still there which I originally asked to be removed back in Oct 2014. So after several months have past the map now is back to the way it looked at the time of my complaint! On the positive side at least the blue line is gone and no images, which shows someone is acting on requests to remove data relating to private property. Just would be so easy for them to have a multiple choice answer to send an update. But even support systems I was installing 20 years ago showed the users a status of their request and updates along the way when a job was in progress and closed. Jobs could be opened again if a user wasn't happy, unlike Googles forum! I'm not sure if I'll bother with complaining a 4th time to get the track overlay removed, maybe they left out the delete track option in their software lol Google actually don't have a system for preventing images being shown, but only to have them removed after they have been uploaded. That might seem a simple point but it is a very separate issue because you can't possibly accurately indicate an image that's not their yet, which was prior to any blue overlay! Hope this in some way helps anyone trying to prevent images being uploaded or have images removed from Google streetmap. Just keep complaining. Google have just agreed to change it's privacy policy by the ICO, this has little or nothing to do with my case but it shows change can happen.

Careful, you might end up getting invoiced by Google if you keep getting all that free advertising by appearing in their images, any-thing's possible! So anyway, 30 days have come and gone and I've not heard anything back from Google, my 2nd complaint to them is fast approaching 30 days also. Good news so far is that the images have not been uploaded. The private track is still incorrectly shown as a public road, so compared to a previous post they seem to be slow to deal with my complaint. Watch this space, but don't hold your breath..

Hi scoobycamdoo Made me laugh LOL It reminds of a police documentary I watched a long while ago. The CCTV guy was giving directions to the police officer on the ground. He spotted someone and the officer was following the guy acting suspiciously! It then turns out the police officer was following himself! Doh.....

Hi dan732 Well I don't have megabucks to spend going after Google, but I have given them a number of way to deal with this and so far they've haven't bothered. If my current way of trying to get them to deal with this fails then I'll have to follow your course of action. I've already reported the track as you suggested using google maps. Yes it's been mapped with a white overlay for some time. I went through the web-form and told them it is private and I wanted it removed from the map. I also told them they have trespassed and told them not to upload the images. I provided them with the licence plate of the car, time of trespass so they can verify this to make it easier. Yeah I agree it would make sense if the overlay showing the track is deleted then logically the images should have nowhere to link! But I have found one other private track in my road that doesn't seem to have the overlay on streetview, but it does from map view! so from the street it doesn't look mapped but you can view it. That's why I thought the track wasn't mapped, also like mine you don't see an overlay on street view. Has Google made changes to how that use to work? So now I check only with map view and see if the thin blue line appears! Mine is still only showing the white overlay, hopefully Google will act on my request within the 30 days of being contacted. The problem with this web-form is you only get an on screen message but you don't get an email confirming your report. So without an email, reference etc you have no way to prove you ever made a report if that auto responder is not followed up by Google! The problem is that image of the entrance to my track off google maps will not be in violation of their policy as they state! That old image is taken from the public road, it's not any of the new images they would have taken when they went down their. So lets hope they read what I sent them which explains That brings me all the way back to the fact that Google DO NOT have an option to prevent images from going live! They only offer removal once live. This is an important point and one they've overlooked either deliberately or other! Time is almost up on my first contacting them, 30 days is a long time not to get a response, at that point if they've not been in touch then Google will be contacted by an organisation I've been in touch with regarding the trespass and imaging etc... Thanx for the tips on Garmin etc. I think Google should be responsible for making sure any copies of its maps are also updated that are in use by 3rd parties but that's never going to happen lol Yeah I don't really want to stick a sign up, but I take your point. Mind you, like I said in a previous post, Google ignored 4 of them on one private track near me so will I be wasting my time! Cheers...

Hi dan732 Yeah 100% the track is private. Even the police didn't want to go down their until I gave them permission. I don't want to post an image of it but it's nothing special, just a shared track for several properties. Imagine houses with one narrow gap between them wide enough for 1 car to pass at a time and that's the track, some serve 2 properties and others several like in my case. Garage and garden access only, dead end, no door numbers, no property access apart from private garages at the rear! None of these type of small tracks are on any town maps, they don't go anywhere and most are dead ends like the one I share. But 3 years ago I noticed Google had added the overlay as they do for roads, but didn't think they would ever trespass, of course I know better now as they're doing this on a huge scale after checking locally. I might put a sign up but Google like I said in a post above ignore them anyway. I don't mind kids on bikes or the odd older one having a smoke as long as they don't get up to doing any damage, but taking images of all the garages and back gardens close up is not on. If you had time to read all my posts above I think I said I tried to contact Google by phone, hung up on 4 times, I've used the support forum and also the web form via google maps. No reply so far and nothing has changed on the map yet. It should be pointed out Google do not offer an option to prevent images going live, but only to remove them afterwards! Depending on how long it takes them to remove, the images could be live for some time! How did you go about contacting Google if I may ask? I've tried 3 routes now but willing to try a forth. I've also seen several cars down my track over the past few years that just drove in and straight back out, so maybe these were people following the google map as it could be mistaken on the map at a glance as the next left turn etc. Of course it's hard to believe someone would mistake it as a road but there are some 2 brain cell morons driving around hear also it seems

Good point (Antitrust) on the open access points! Of course I'm sure Google have collected all the SSID info for each and every one of us they can, open or not! Of course they will say it's public info if you choose to broadcast your SSID! I wouldn't agree with that. it's one thing making an SSID searchable a few doors down from your home, it's another thing entirely Google snooping and gathering everyone's Router info without permission! A small update on Google trespassing at the rear of my home. Google still have not replied to me via their support forum or by the map complaint form. I've heard back from someone today from an organisation which said they will take the matter up with Google if they have not replied to my complaint within 30 days. I'm not going to list much on this just yet but they seem interested in the level of inappropriate intrusion. I've also spent some time detailing some of the local trespassing by Google going back to at least 2008. This includes shots of people gardening in their back garden, and inside the grounds of a care home snapping residents at rest! Basically Google is going everywhere it can, be that a private track, private farms, industrial parks. I'm not talking just about the car parks in some of these places, they often drive anywhere they can. Some of these places may not be private, but who needs to see the back windows of a care home and what security they have and residents sitting out in the sun. I've never looked this up, but does anyone know how Google update their images? Does Google blur or blackout the original image and what do they do with the backups? Are they just tagging the live images but they still keep all the originals including all images of faces and car plates? Oh. one thing I forgot. I found a private track near me with 4 signs up, one at each end and 2 in the middle. all say Private Property, no trespassing! So the Google driver is either blind or being told to ignore them!!

Policy making staff, funny! Anyway the driver doesn't look that young regardless. But in any case are you saying the whole world has to put up private property signs just because a company like Google doesn't respect peoples privacy or the trespass laws! Something I didn't mention above is that the Google car with non policy making staff reversed all the way down the track, he didn't drive in!!! So he would not have seen that apparent all important private property sign after all that Google would maybe adhere to! Phoned the Google office in London 4 times, got hung up on 4 times. Posted to one of the Google support forums also, but after reading some of the many posts on this problem from others having Google trespass I can't see that helping much. There doesn't seem to a proper support ticket system to log problems like this so it's very easy for Google to ignore this issue and let them get lost and forgotten in a winding thread!

http://www.wired.com/2012/06/opinion-google-is-evil/ That story sums up Google pretty well " title="Applause" /> I doubt if the US government will slap them too hard as they help them hoover up a lot of personal data! On a side note. See that car, what colour would you say it is? Google have the exact same one that trespassed down my shared track registered as (blue) Now if I incorrectly listed my car the wrong colour I'm sure there would be a big fat fine dropping through my letter box pretty quick. Don't get me wrong, I'm not picking on google, if you look you will find plenty of stories on others like LG etc who collected info from some of their smart TV about customers choices, viewing habits and probably a lot more, in fact if memory serves me correctly they also had access to personal files, not just the installed files!!! This happened even though the option was turned off so not a mistake. Hopefully I'll be able to get Google on the phone today (pigs will fly maybe) and they'll see the error of their ways (cough)...

With all due respect you guys need to read what I wrote again in my follow up 2nd post. I called it a private road in my first post but that was a poor choice of words to describe it. No one ever mistakes this for a road because it doesn't look like one! It's a narrow track that runs between properties, these are very common in my area and could never in a million years be mistaken for a public road of any kind. Further to that all that is down there is garages and garden fences so all these images will show is that and maybe into the back bedrooms and gardens of mine and my neighbours properties. So by it's very look it is not a road, only garages and a dead end, no road name, no door numbers no properties. Only a moron close to a vegetative state would mistake this for a public road! I can see from one other road near me the google maps car has stopped, backed into another private track, this one is not quite as wide as mine and is more overgrown so he didn't drive in more than a few metres but more details on show than would have been if taken from the public road. If I start finding more examples it will prove the driver is stopping and entering these private tracks.

Thanx for the reply Don Well I'm not sure how I would class google right now, invasion of privacy is high up on my list so they don't score that well IMO. Being forced by government to had over details is one thing, going out and trespassing and taking shots over garden fences at the rear of properties I think is pretty bad behaviour. I've already looked at the removal page but the images are not yet up on google maps, so there seems to be no obvious way to prevent that from happening apart from trying to speak to them directly perhaps!! The last option on the 2nd link might be a start. the 1st link you listed is dead BTW. From a news story I found it looks likes google are willing to risk court as they lost and had to pay $25k for taking shots on private property. Hopefully I'll be able to speak to someone at google and they will be willing to delete and images they have and confirm that in writing or I will have to consider taking it further. Don't want to waste my time doing this but if government or local councils don't care about trespass and personal privacy then it doesn't leave many other options I guess.

Thanx for the reply ssnapier Well that's the problem, going after google is beyond my budget. There are no signs making clear private road etc. But when call it private road, it's a narrow track between 2 houses with access only to garages and a dead end, it's very secluded so really what it is and looks like is a shared drive to several properties, I shouldn't be describing as a road. All I can say is that it's very clearly not public access so why the heck they're imaging garages and back gardens is beyond me.

Hi I need advice on a flat thin cable to pass between window frame as I want to avoid drilling as this is front of my property! I've done a search here and on the Net but not found exactly what I need. So, what I want is a very paper thin type cable that has BNC connectors both ends and power so I can simply attach to my standard cctv cable etc! Looking at my window frame, I think 1.5mm is the max cable thickness that will let me shut it properly! And that flat cable must be able to bend without breaking. Am I wasting my time trying to do this? Will it mess up video quality even if a very short cable add-on? Some thin cables pics embedded to give an idea what I'm thinking about regarding thickness! Thanx in advance for any suggestions.

Thanx ssnapier Actually I'm using 3 runs of 40 meters for my 3 cams at the moment but I could get this down to 30 metres for this cam! Not that I have a castle size home or anything, it's just by the time I've gone around all the corners to avoid showing any cable it's about doubled the length. Not had any problems with video on this cam at all even tho it's just sitting outside getting blasted by rain and high winds. Cable length doesn't seem to be a problem either. Thanx for the tips on sealing, was wondering how best to approach this so will take note. Do you know if there is an off the shelf cable or will I have to fashion one out of various bits and bobs to connect to my standard cable? I don't mind making a cable, I just don't know where to start! I've seen flat cat5/6 so maybe this is an option, but not sure how well it will cope with outside life?

Hi all I'm new to CCTV and DVR's and will be bothering a some of you with a few questions once I've had a search around the forum

Thanx for the reply ssnapier. Catch 22, if I change the hard drive and that is the problem great I've fixed it, but the supplier will not uphold the guarantee. If by changing the hard drive the problem persists they still wont uphold the guarantee! Think I'll just give it a go. Annoying as I they assured me before purchase that they only use top quality drives etc. We shall see. I've been testing the cam I removed from my garage at front of my place, no corruption in current position when I FF all 3 cams at same time, but the other 2 still have the problem. Like you said, drive or the DVR hardware. It's only a few months old and was the best spec of that model. Spec says it can handle a 700tvl but it doesn't seem happy with 480 and 600tvl cams as it is. Just a note on the corruption. It can happen only on x2 speed, seems same all way up to x16 speed. The cam 3 I'm reusing that was a problem on my garage is showing no corruption so far with FF at x2 or x16 speed! Are there any DVR's that allow you to play back vids backed up on an external drive? Mine doesn't, this might have been a good way to compare drives.

Hi I've had my first CCTV DVR running for about a month or so now. Model; Raven HD 1000 H.264 960H From first use I have video corruption when playing back recordings. This happens with mostly bright daylight recording and never night time recording and only in Fast Forward or Fast Reverse never at normal play speed! Because of this I'm 99.9% sure this is not a hard drive problem but I would appreciate any replies into what it might be and any tests I can carry out apart from what I've already done? I've also swapped cams, cables and tested a new cam and cable plus new power supply with the same results. My guess it's the video chip or perhaps a firmware problem. I've asked the supplies to send me the current or an updated version so I can flash the DVR in hope this resolves the problem. If not I'll be sending it back as it's almost impossible to do a visual search. Thanx for any replies.

Thanx for the reply. I don't think it would make any difference if my cams were IR or not, but I would agree low light can mean less data! Mine are IR but the corruption can stop with low light but before the IR's are activated! There is also no problem at night when the IR's are on. It's an 8 channel DVR but I've tested it with only 1 cam connected, same result! I've purchased a 3rd cam and installed the new cam and tested it with old cable, new cable, news PSU, same corruption problem! This problem is very location specific, because when I test the cam I was having problems with in a new location all seems fine. So the position of the cam is part of the problem. Shaded area, dark spot close to cams, light area further away. Just tested at front of house and no apparent problem! I since found something that points to a data throughput problem. The default setting for the DVR is D1 – 25fps – Bit rate 2048 When I changed this to HD1 the corruption stops! The quality is reduced so I don't want to use that setting. What also backs up the date throughput idea is I get more corruption with the 600tvl cam than my 420tvl. That's why I purchased another 600tvl to test if it was a cam problem as corruption seemed to follow the cam! Of course the same problem with a new cam and by reducing the default back to DH1 on the DVR disproves that I think! The above is for non Network setup, it's straight from DVR into TV via HDMI. To add to my problems, the seller and the manufacture are not being helpful. The manufacture still hasn't even told my supplier I purchase from what Firmware it should have! The supplier has agreed a repair, then an exchange but will not let me keep the hard drive, and if I don't send it back, i.e. if I remove the hard drive they told me then I have no guarantee. That's a complete joke and a way for them to get out of dealing with it. I use to build Servers or even strip and put my bike engines back together, or build the odd website so changing a HD is sort of like blinking for me lol but they don't give a toss really, they never call me back, I always have to keep emailing and calling to get anything out of them. I rushed into buying a little and assumed the company who makes these was a reliable company from the US but these guys in the UK seem to be using the same name. My stupidity falling for that My feeling is this either company will never sort out the many bugs or the more serious problems, they probably can't find the problem due to lack of testing so assume I'm just an annoying customer perhaps!

I've searched but not found anything on this problem but it must have been covered before on this site. When in low light and darkness once my cams infra-red LED's come on the background of the numberplate or licence-plate reflects back and I can no longer read the plates! Can't see a single letter! I've read about specific cameras for reading plates, so do I need to buy a cam suited for that job or can I add a filter to reduce reflection using a standard cam?

Hi shockwave199 Thanx I'll check that cam out and have something to compare on the spec when searching for another cam. Cheers everyone for the info and replies " title="Applause" />

Hi tomcctv I think I'll take your advice on installing a black & white cam for plates only and one with an on screen menu this time so can tweak the settings. So the UK reflective plates don't seem to work great with IR's. Maybe that's why most speed cams have to use flash to light the whole street up like the sun just came up then lol If as you suggest I can save laying a new cable that would be great! I dug a small trench about 60ft and put 2 cables inside for the current cams and pipe for protection, so laying a 3rd cable would be a lot of extra work as I almost used all of the 40m run after spending time hiding it and not taking the direct route. I have no idea how I can run 4 cams off one cable so if you can save me some searching on how to do that I would appreciate it? I'm not sure about the funding for cctv, I know we pay the government in taxes to watch us but not sure about the other way round?

Hi tomcctv I did mean to ask a question you've just reminded me of.. Is there a difference to the reflective background on plates when comparing UK, US and CA etc etc? So is there a special IR lights specific for recording plates? Or does this just come down to getting the right cam for the job? I did make my own IR filters up but it didn't work too well. Although they did help a bit with reading plates they also caused the IR LED's to reflect light back into the lens! What I originally wanted was no visible light from the LED, I didn't realise that most cams were using 950nm, so was thinking about a small project and see what difference swapping out the 950's for 850nm LED's would make! Probably not worth the bother but have you or anyone on the forum tried anything like this? In answer to your question about covering the LED's. I need the cams also to watch out for fly tippers about 90ft either side of my garage, night time at the moment that gives me about 25ft So if I cover the LED's that gives me a problem, but yes it will work better if cars are very close as long as they keep there lights on!! So I'm thinking now should I install a specific night numberplate cam that will just do that job and not be much good at night to see anything else? PS. Had a recording yesterday of a car that when it had it brake lights on the IR's turned off and I could see the plate. When brake light went off the IR's came back on and couldn't see the plate at all!

Hi shockwave199 That's an impressive set of pics. I'm trying to keep the cams low profile as they're not very high so having a PTZ will only make it an easy target most likely. The cars come by pretty close and speed may be a problem anyway. Could send me the cam speck or make you're using? PM me if you don't want to put that up on a post! I think you're right, I just don't have the best cam for the job. I'll be checking today if I can make any adjustment a previous poster suggested but I don't think my cams have a built in menu etc. Note. I did see a clip online a while of a cam that can be made to capture plates by adjusting its settings! My DVR is only 960H so maybe not sharp enough, plus with PAL 25fps and not 30fps under NTSC! If you could also send me details of the cam you got that amazing shot of 100ft away with adjustable IR I would appreciate it? I'm pretty sure I can filter the IR light down with sticking on my home made filters but think I need a better cam, when I stuck on some filter before I got IR reflection back into the lens which gave crap results.

Hi survtech I took that snapshot to just show how bad the problem is when IR is on even at that silly angle! I can read the plates around 15 to 20ft away in good light conditions but not when the IR comes on! I have 2 cams on my garage but neither have on-board menus as far as I know, one is cheap as chips, the one that took above image is a 600TVL which is the better one. I do have cam settings menu for each channel on the DVR but I'll check tomorrow if it has AGC, I don't think so I did try playing with the settings a while back but didn't help.