rebelyell

Do you have the system yet? Have you thought about using an NVR rather than a DVR and running Ethernet instead? There are lots of ways to protect Ethernet and/or run external safe Ethernet cable (UV, tinned, etc). Might save you some grief in the long run. Just a thought.

Good to see you have it fixed. 1920x780 will look like rubbish because the aspect ratio is not 16:9 (your default TV aspect ratio), hence the TV is having to scale more pixels in one direction than the other resulting in odd shaped pixels and a "pulled" looking image. Swann have no idea about aspect ratio so it doesn't surprise me. Their phone apps don't understand the difference between iphone 4, 5, and 5s either meaning they just use the available space to display distorted images rather than scale to the aspect ratio of the image. Cheers RY

It's possible I guess that you have a dud machine and there is a bad batch you are being allocated from, but regardless of whether you have cameras connected or not you should certainly see a menu on the screen when you press the "Menu" key on the front panel or attempt to change any settings (which should throw up the login page). The option of using the composite cable is another way to check what's going on. This isn't dependent on your TVs scan rate (ie: any 50/60Hz issues) and will make the DVR look like a video camera. At least that should prove if the issue is the TV or the DVR.

I'm afraid SectorSecurity is 100% right here. You can't just use an IP address from the DHCP pool and just hope it doesn't get re-used. This will not work. Depending on the size of the DHCP pool, you will certainly get a future clash where a new device coming onto the LAN will pickup the IP address assigned to the DVR. There are two ways to do this: 1. The quickest way to do this is to go onto your router (or have a knowledgeable friend do it) and find the settings for the DHCP. On most home systems the router will be something like 192.168.0.1 and the DHCP pool will be 192.168.0.100-192.168.0.199. In this example you could configure the DVR to be any address OTHER than 192.168.0.100-192.168.0.199 or the router (192.168.0.1). Make sure you use the correct netmask (probably 255.255.255.0) and the router as the gateway & DNS. 2. The better way, which requires a little more work and will almost certainly require the assistance of a friend if you've not done it before, is to make the device have a static lease. Using this method you pick the device's hardware address (actually it's Ethernet address XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX) and you assign it an IP address on the local network. On the DVR you leave it set to DHCP, but the router will always provide the device the same IP address however it's treated like a DHCP client, meaning you don't need to put any special values other than DHCP on the DVR. This is how I set up all my networks for TVs, DVRs, AVs, etc. These devices all like being DHCP as they are usually very fiddly to set, and the router keeps a list of what every device on your network is Cheers RY

I've had various Swann products over the years and although I've not seen the exact problem you are describing, can you confirm if the message is coming from the DVR or the TV? Is it possible you have an NTSC TV and a PAL Swann unit? Alternatively if the TV is older, it's possible that you have a 50hz/60hz conversion issue. My suggestion would be to put the TV aside for now and check if you plug the DVR into a monitor and see if you get an image. Also note that, depending on the unit, you should also be able to use a composite cable which functions like a camera rather than an HDMI or VGA. On the remote control you can cycle through the display options. I've not got a remote in front of me, but there's a button which selects the output from the DVR. Maybe the same problem as this one? http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=28339

What sort of money are you talking? For a recent project I installed 4x2 55" screens as a control centre wall controlled by a CMS solution (Jupiter in this case). You can then configure any input to point to any portion of the screen resize as appropriate so you can see cams that are active, where movement exists, etc. Video Wall Processors (VWP) give you the ability to separate your native signal into logical channels that can be displayed in any size on the monitor wall. The effect is superb however it comes at a cost. You will certainly want to consult a local expert if you go down this path as a 4x1 video wall would start around $100K and go up from there quickly. Alternatively you can look to integrate into your own PC software solution with a high powered PC with 4 video card outputs and get appropriate software to manage the input channels from the DVRs/NVRs using HDMI video processing. Cheaper than a production VWP, but more mucking around to get it right. The cheapest is to just map them 1:1 to each of the computer:monitors you are considering with potentially KVMs to allow centralisation of administration.

4-pin waterproof connector - but in your case it looks like it failed the waterproof connection part... http://cables.drwelectronics.com/cbl06.html

Have you thought about simply using "in car" continuous recording cameras? Probably a heap cheaper to implement and records in HD, viz: http://www.spytechs.com/Car-Cameras/ Some even come with GPS to attach the location to the point of the film. Putting a camera on the roof means you'll need to provide power, mount points, weather protection, etc. The downside is that you'd need to copy the data off the SD card/memory card in the camera at the end of each day. Anyway, just a thought.

It will depend on what brand your DVR is. Have a look at this link first: http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=33744 There are lots of apps but not all will work with your device. To start with type "dvr remote" into your iPhone on the App page and see what comes back. Make sure that when you test these apps out that you use the mobile port and not the windows/app port. You'll find there are two ports - one of which is usually web/windows based and the other which is for remote access. Also make sure that you have either UPNP available (to make the port visible on the outside of your firewall/home) or that you open the required port on your router manually (see "portforward" if you struggle).

I do marine cable as well (in Australia) and once cable has been allowed to weather, it will continue to oxidise regardless of what you do. The siamese cable is already very thin. It will probably last a little while before it goes to the dogs, but I'd also be considering running something else next time - probably something that has been designed as outdoor cable, or run in a conduit.

Downconverting from HDMI to coax will drop the resolution. Splitting (of an analog signal) will also drop the resolution. If possible, keep the signal as digital (HDMI) rather than dropping to analog (ie: coax). If you can go HDMI into your monitors, then you have some options: You can use HDMI splitters, which replicate the signal from one input to multiple outputs. You can also use HDMI over Cat5/Cat6 extenders, which allow you to run HDMI over long distances. The problem with the HDMI extenders is they are not cheap (maybe around US$120 a set). Depending on the location of your monitors relative to you DVR/NVR, you might consider running the long haul HDMI cable over an HDMI extender, and then using a powered HDMI splitter to run to your monitors. Without knowing the exact distances between each of your devices, it's hard to give a final answer. HMDI can run about 15m before Arnold Schwarzenegger starts looking like Angela Lansbury.

Forgive me if I have the wrong end of the stick, but are you asking what iPhone application you should be using to view your cameras over the Internet? You shouldn't be selecting a "type" of DVR or camera - the software on the DVR will format for you based on the application you are using. You just need to ensure you have an app which is compatible with the DVR you have purchased.

You are better not to use an RJ45 joiner as they are very susceptible to weather and will corrode, degrading the connection. As mentioned by tomcctv you are much better using one of these (cat 5e junction box): You are really trying to reduce the number of breaks in the cable you have from source to destination however when using good cable and for shorter runs, it's unlikely to make much difference for basic applications. If you do use an RJ45 joiner, make sure you weather seal it.

Many providers claim that any desktop drive will work. YMMV. You are best off getting the proper style of drive to support this application and this would certainly be: For Western Digital, AV-GP (500G, 1Tb, 2Tb, 3Tb): http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=150 For Seagate, go the SV35 (1Tb, 2Tb, 3Tb): http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/consumer-electronics/sv35/ I personally prefer the WD drives. Cheers RY