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Hi All, I haven't made the jump yet as other priorities have arisen. I'm seeing DVR's like the Hikvision DS-7204HUI-K1 in my quotes. I'm coming from old Avermedia NV-5000 card and software which I thought was awesome but these small Hikvision 'VCR looking' thingy's look like junk. They are likely half empty metal boxes. Is the software in these tiny things intuitive, up to date and well laid out? The PCB in these boxea is the size of my TV remote control, so I have my doubts on the quality. Hikvision has never seemed attractive to me perhaps due to all that china surveillance bugs that were found in them a while back. Thanks in advance,

It seems DW offers their 'enterprise' software to everyone that uses their product. Does anyone here use it or have an opinion on their offerings? Avigilon is another company I'm comparing.

I would be totally happy with five megapixel cameras. I want to use my PC As the DVR. My understanding is that I need some kind of converter/encoder and this was expensive. The other option i was given is hikevision or something like that.

I just need cameras and a new system and thought that IP would be a nice upgrade. It's $700 CAD in labour to run the cat5e cable so if I could stay with coax that would save me a bundle. It seems I will need to call Digital Watchdog and ask for a specific converter recommendation.

HD908. Good to know. I am liking their software. I assume you can use any cameras with it as long as you pay the per licence fee. My installer is quoting 2MP and the price is coming in quite high. I think this 2MP is pretty crappy considering there is much higher MP available today. Is 8MP too high for a small, one man retail electronics shop? I guess it likely comes down to my budget....

Thanks for the tip!

I appreciate the feedback. Since you have not provided any requested links to cheaper encoders which that you mention or any alternatives to a quality, fully functional VMS, I'm going to assume the $400 CAD with IP cameras option is my least stressful path at this point and really not that much money at all considering those encoders will also cost money. IP seems to be the way of the future.

I currently have the PC based Aver NV5000 with up to 8 BNC cameras hooked up using relatively new siamese Coaxial cable. My cameras have been stolen so I would like to upgrade my system to use HD 1080 type cameras. Can I still use this coax wiring setup that has been run within the walls to achieve 1080 HD or should I run different cable or maybe even go wireless? I assume I'll need to replace the NV5000 and obviously get new cams. I really liked the ease of interface and feature of the NV5000. Any recommendations on a HD1080 PC based system replacement would be appreciated. Maybe I should depart from PC based after 18 years?

Send me a link to a converter that that would support 8 cameras for cheap. ( I'm currently starting with 4 cameras) It seems kinda silly to buy analog cameras when I'm starting fresh with no cameras right now. You keep saying paying a license fee is a thing of the past, What is my alternative?

The 8 channel converters I saw online were all pretty pricey. The cheaper ones only supported 1 or 2 channels. This Digital Watchdog system comes with management software (VMS), but you pay a one time licence fee of $100 per camera installed, so it seems that my VMS would cost me $400 CAD, Are there free VMS that would compete with Digital Watchdog? What do you mean by standalone storage, is that some kind of NAS box? I have no problem paying for Digital Watchdog if it offers improved, cool, easy to use features. They call themselves the industry leader, is this not the case?

We looked up those converter/encoder thingies and they cost almost $1000 so my installer is wanting to run cat5E and put in up to 5MP IP cameras. "there vms software is not 8mp or is there dvrs or nvrs so it might be best looking at 5mp " What is vms? I don't understand this sentence. We build computers and have them everywhere so I figured I could build a far more powerful PC for peanuts. The installer told me I would just need some labour, cams and licences for watchdog, tied into a network switch. Why would I want a standalone instead?

The NV5000 DVR PC was built by me. Will the 8MB HD cameras on coax look as good as the 8MP IP cameras using cat5e? I contacted a local security camera guy and he said I would need to attach a some expensive encoder/converter devices on the end of the cable if I stayed the coax route. He was originally thinking of running new cat5 but said he has to come take a look and check the length of the existing coax to see which method is better. At what point is coax too long of a run? They use the PC based watchdog system. Is this good?

I have a camera setup indoors pointing outdoors through a window. The picture is great during the day. Although, at night, I get the reflection on the window of the inside of the store showing up on the camera image. The only way I have found to get rid of it is to turn off all the indoor lights. I didnt want to do this as i cant see much in the dark with all the other cams this way. Is there a method to prevent the cam from picking up the reflection off the window at night? ...and yes, that is a woman going through our left over garbage (papers) on the ground!

Just wondering if the switching to a lower resolution will give me more recording days. I am currently getting about 18 days with 4 channels recording at 720x480 set to 30FPS. I have about 900GB total HDD space. Video is currently set to advanced MPEG4. I also have the option to use H264, but dont know if i should switch to it.

I'm not sure what you mean by that last post. I find that i get more storage although the quality seems a bit more blurry to me.

Hello everybody.... Has anyone had experience recording CRT computer monitors? It's for a retail environment. We are having the strangest glitches occur lately and I would like to videotape what is going on the screen when things occur. Is refresh an issue? Thanks again.

I was thinking of just pointing a camera at a computer monitor from the ceiling. Not sure if this would work as I havent had a chance to try it.

The DVR I'm using is the NV5000 by Avermedia. I've switched to h.264 and will post the differences when i get a change to check them out.

Are you sure premade is non repairable? I have a few months experience in this stuff and I dont see why you cant just snip and add a new connector etc. RG59 should be RG59 no matter where you cut it. Are you also sure that they are cheaper premade? I would doubt that very much as they usually have 2 connectors on them, increasing the price. Bulk stuff has always been cheaper from what I see, although I could be wrong.

I have seen boxes with individual fuses and ones that have "Auto shutdown Fuseless cirquit" feature. Which is more desirable and why? Thanks!

I dont really want to go around looking for fuses at any point if one should go down. How would i know if is a "ptc box" do they have to say ptc? Would this link be considered ptc, it is a Q-see model. Thanks. QP2409 http://www.q-see.com/newwebsite-design%201/accessories/power.htm Thanks!

I was looking at this: http://synetlink.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=24_64&products_id=182 but it looks as though if one circuit got tripped ...all of them would shut off aswell. Is that correct? It does not have fuses like you mkention, perhaps I should get one with them.

I have read here that I should not use aluminum braid. Is there a visible difference in the quality of the picture? I have one camera setup with aluminum braid as it was all I had around and it works OK, i guess. I cant really compare as I have never used copper. I recently ordered 500FT of copper braid and the vendor sent me the wrong stuff (aluminum) and he told me to try it as it would be fine for short runs and he would discount it. I told him that I dont want the cable. Thoughts please. Thanks HApPy New Year All!

Havent found the use for siamese wire yet. We just install power receptacles wherever we need one. This takes us about 15-20 minutes as there are lots of electrical wires running all over, above the drop ceiling. We dont have a centralized location of power that is run to all the cams. Is there a benefit to those power boxes? I never really found the need for those things yet.

Does this look pretty good? Seems like a good price. http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=020&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=300063474522&rd=1&rd=1