AlienDroid

Thanx for reply MindTwist The attached pic is just on the time the infra red comes on, last month anyway. If it didn't come on it would be possible to make out the plate (just about) but gives you an idea how bad the problem is if it can cause a problem before it even gets dark! I really only have the width of the garage to install anything so not really an option for me to install another IR light. maybe I could try and install an IR pointing straight down?

Thanx for the reply survtech. I'm very restricted on where I can install the cams so changing their position is impossible if I'm to maintain best coverage. The 2 in question just can't go anywhere else due to the design structure. I'm using dome cams BTW, so built in LED's. Strange thing is they're installed at about 7ft and on garage so cars pass at an angle so I didn't expect to get so much light reflecting back into the cams with this height and angle of approach! I'm using 2 different cams from different makers but get almost the same result from both. The funny thing is even in total darkness headlights can sometimes turn the infra-red off and I can just about make out the numberplate! But I can't reply on that! Even when the car comes closer and the angle increases it still reflects back. Only when at an impossible angle right next to cam the plate starts to show but then not possible to read the plate. Would it work if I filter one of the cams LED's so it can only pick up plates but then no good for anything else?

I'm very new to CCTV so I'll happily stand corrected on any points I make. But do you mean IP Camera as in IP protection rating i.e. IP66 or IP as in Internet Protocol? I've installed a couple of IP66 rated wired cams for my garage, but if you really don't want to drill holes then there must be a way to install some wireless IP66 rated cams to run with a DVR. Lots of IP wireless cams online but as far as I know these will require a wifi router, but I have also seen something when I was looking to buy a DVR, so you can add a wireless transmitter to a standard cctv cam and receiver at the DVR end, but I think this setup would be less secure and perhaps possible to hack into that signal possibly.

Thanx shockwave199 Yeah I have come to that way of thinking and just letting the DVR work for me. I was expecting a bit too much from it, another set of eyes and the odd beep to let me know when someone is around. I do actually have it running/recording 24/7 so if something happens I will hopefully have a reasonable record of it. Of course it would be good to catch someone and deal with them in the act so to speak, because if at night and in the rain the quality of image is not great with the cams I'm using. I was going to setup email notification but there is no point with all the false alarms, but I might do that later if I install an internal cam Last night I only had 2 false alarms. One was a spider the other a moth, but the night before with more wind speed I had around 30. This morning when the sun came in and out and the light levels changed even with complete cloud cover it set the alarm off several times. At least rain doesn't seem to be setting them off. Playback issues; No it's a direct HDMI connect to my TV. I haven't Networked it yet so this isn't a remote problem. Not sure why that would be an issue! The problem is also intermittent and not always the exact same if I play back the same recording in the exact same place. I've also just noticed the time seems stuck or flits back and forwards, then when I stop or play it skips forward. Just what you don't want when looking through recording logs!

I now have my new DVR in place and all seemed ok until...... The sun came out! Was very surprised to just how often I get false positives on movement on the cams! What I've done so far to remedy this; I've turned down the movement sensitivity to 1. The scale is 1 to 8. I have also tried turning down the brightness and contrast. The above hasn't really worked, on a windy day with the sun casting strong shadows I'm getting loads of false alarms I guess I'm a bit naive as I didn't expect this to happen. I also can't really block out the areas in question in the setup as they are where I need to record! Do all CCTV DVR's have this problem? I assumed I would be able to at least turn down the sensitivity so that it wouldn't be an issue! This annoying problem is creating way too many log entries so checking through them all is a huge pain. I also wanted to leave the audible buzzer on but I'm going to have to turn this off possibly as it's going off all the time on a sunny day with broken cloud. I found a possible solution from an old post here; viewtopic.php?f=15&t=25344 Not something I really want to do for a couple of reasons, as I've already overspent, and the cables are in the ground and I almost used all the 40m of cable per cam (loads of digging) In addition I seem to have some sort of video corruption when I Fast Forward or Rewind. This doesn't happen all the time. It also varies between an inch and most of the screen. This can change when I start and stop the same section of playback! This never happens on normal play speed, but can at times make it impossible to manually look through recordings at speed! x2 x4 and up to x16. This is compounded with the false alarms as I have many logs to check. Any advice welcome. Cheers.

So I was looking in the right direction then. PIR's. Well I guess I'll have to go that way but being already over budget I was hoping for something else to reduce the problem. It seems to me the low end maybe all the CCTV DVR tech just isn't up to the job as well as it should be as a standalone device anyway, the need to put up PIR's is a part solution but not a perfect one for sure. I know it would be possible to come up with a DVR that could ignore all the day to night things that cause false positives like spiders, moths, bit of paper blowing by etc but the cost to produce them would be a lot more than the basic box I have. I guess I was hoping for a bit more from the tech, or at least to be able to set alarms on and off at different times on different cams, change the light and contrast from day to night, That would help a little. In my view I think I should be able to program a device to tell it that something is a shadow! And to track it through the days and the changing position of the sun, but that level of control needs something with a bit more power and sophistication inside. Can anyone explain how video corruption on FF or Rewind at speed is happening?

Hi I'm looking to buy and setup my first DVR and CCTV system at home and could really do with some advice. I know almost nothing about this tech, so sorry if some my questions make your eyes roll I've been looking at 8 channel DVR's but just 4 cams for now so I can add more cams later if I need to. I might want 1 cam with sound possibly. My budget is slim, maybe £140 to £170 + the cost of a 1TB drive. I want to connect to my TV and also my Router as I want to have remote access from my PC over wi-fi if possible, and my Android fone for when I'm away from home. I would also like a trigger to turn PIP on TV and PC monitor when in use if possible, and to turn on TV with a trigger, again if possible! 2 of the cams will be about 80ft from TV where I was planning to stick the DVR box. But my router is about another 25ft further away and upstairs. My TV is a bit on the basic side, has 2 HDMI's, one in use. 1 USB, 1 scart. It doesn't have VGA in. I assume the DVR I want is going to be a standalone type that doesn't need a PC to control it in any way apart from first setup! Is that correct? How should I connect DVR to my TV? The cheaper DVR's I've seen so far don't have HDMI, they have VGA and BNC out. So can I connect the DVR to my TV via BNC into the scart, HDMI or coaxial antenna in as a last resort? Go easy on me as first time looking at this stuff Any advice appreciated..

Thanx everyone for the replies. I've got my DVR up and running now. I ended up upping my budget and getting one with HDMI because as I stated my TV doesn't have VGA etc. It made things a bit simpler and less time consuming in the end. I'm having some technical issues so I'll start a new thread on that. Cheers for the advice given.

LOL Info overload is right, but very appreciated guys. I now have a slightly better understanding of how all the connections work so to speak! My TV is making this much harder than it needs to be, but I'm not going to change it as funds are low at the moment. It's just not got much to work with compared to most TV's... see below. I've 90% decided now to go for a DVR with HDMI output, it will almost double the price of the DVR on its own not including other bits I need but I might offset some of the extra cost by getting 3 cams not 4 as planned and only one will have the higher TVL's etc. These are things I can always upgrade later when funds permit. I'm currently looking at a few DVR's on auction sites right now. That of course can be a minefield of mistakes like the reply I got this minute from a seller after a 2nd time asking him about a DVR spec it now turns out it isn't HDMI as listed. Lucky I checked as the spec and the listing didn't match the photo! Doh...! Currently I'm looking at this unit, but it's between 2 and 3 times cost the cost of some of the non HDMI DVR's I was previously looking at. As you can see it has the all important HDMI so will make my connection a lot easier for a CCTV noob! But this will cost me about £140 and I could get a non HDMI for £60 I don't want to link to them directly, that might break forum rules, but let me know what you think of the spec? Inputs: 8 Channel Video Inputs Playback: 4/8 Channel Simultaneous Playback System: Embedded Linux Format: H.264 Compression Resolution: D1 or 960H (Widescreen) Memory: 1 x S/ATA (Up to 2TB) Alarms: Motion Detection, HDD Fault Audio: RCA - 2 Channel Input, 1 Channel Output Network: LAN - RJ45 Remote Access: Smartphones, PC/Mac, Tablets, etc. Output: HDMI, BNC or VGA Backup: 2 x USB 2.0, Network Display: Pentaplex Operation Plug & Play! can record in full D1 or 960H (for widescreen) quality on all channels and output to multiple screens and devices simultaneously via HDMI, VGA, BNC or network to PC It also comes with 12 months warranty. Problem is I can't find any reviews so this will be a stab in the dark perhaps! I would have liked something with more audio inputs, seems a bit lacking compared to some DVR's and it's not full HD so not sure this will pick up enough detail like car licence plates at distance at night etc with a good cam of course! I still need to cost wiring, cams, power supplies, hard drive etc so looks like I'm going well over budget!

Thanx I understand how to connect that cable now. (I think) Will the video quality be the same taking from that BNC port to the HDMI in on the TV compared to a DVR with HDMI out? Is there sound on the BNC video out? If not that will still leave me short on sound with my annoying TV! I could perhaps put up with no sound on the TV playback as long as I can network the DVR and access it via my PC!

Thanx for the link The problem is my TV I guess. As I said in previous posts my TV doesn't have RCA so that isn't an option unfortunately. Think I'm expecting too much for my low budget so now considering upping my budget and look for a unit with HDMI output. If I have one cam with sound will that come through the HDMI connection or will I still need RCA for that? Sorry about the very basic question, I've just never even looked at this type of connection before.

Thanx for the reply SectorSecurity. As I noted in my first post, my TV is a bit on the basic side, has 2 HDMI's, one in use. 1 USB, 1 scart. It doesn't have VGA in or RCA, which is disappointing as it limits connectivity! So both your suggestions don't look like an option for me? Regarding VGA to HDMI. Going on what you say I can convert but then I don't have the option of sound I assume which is something I would like to have on one of the cams? Re. HDMI upgrade! I guess that's why Numb-nuts didn't reply back on that question. My knowledge on these boxes is crap. I was hoping something like a simple PCI type card upgrade with a HDMI slot stuck on the back but that was wishful thinking on my part. So am I flogging a dead horse with the budget I have and the fact my Samsung TV has less connections on the back of it than most people would expect?

Thanx WaderaveI've kicked off a thread so you can maybe suggest on there what are the quality brands? I'm a CCTV virgin so not a clue http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=36441&p=224156#p224156

Thanx Numb-nuts, appreciate the reply. How easy is it to upgrade from VGA to HDMI? And cost? I have a PC and Server background so don't mind opening the box up and installing an upgrade or 2! The box that I'm looking at also has BNC video out but not Scart. Photo below of back of unit I'm looking at. This one doesn't come with anything, so would need to get hard drive, cams and cables etc. I don't see realtime D1 in the spec. It does say; Recording Resolution D1/Half_­D1/CIF PAL: 8CIF@25fps, or 1D1@25FPS+7CIF@25FPS I have not much of an idea what that means. You're probably going to say that's not good enough? Cams I've been looking at. 600TVL, 48 LED's. Might get 2 like the above and 2 cheaper ones to keep the cost down, can always upgrade later but money is tight now. That's interesting to know the vid output can be so good your customers then go buy a better TV " title="Applause" /> I have a new-sh Samsung, it's not the best by a long way but the image is as good as some sets that cost more than twice as much, so it should be good for the job.

Thanx Owain I guess function over resolution is ok for me as long as I can get the raw video off the hard drive if I need to. I guess expecting the TV to turn on was asking a bit too much, I've seen it talked about on one thread but as long as I can get PIP to pop up when watching TV and on PC would do for now. Everything I'm looking at seems to have 2 USB ports and comes with a mouse. Some have PC and Mac software so not sure what's that's for! I would think for the network client to access DVR via router and by remote using phone.