sethbru

Hi, I have a problem with the quality of the images of 4 of the 8 cameras in my home security system. The 4 bad cameras all have a haphazard pattern of horizontal or diagonal "trails" constantly streaking across the display. It appears to be some sort of signal interference. There is a pattern among the 4 bad cameras as they were the 1st set of 4 cameras I had installed. I later added a 2nd set of 4 cameras which work great. All of the 8 cameras are the same model since the 2nd installer replaced the 4 old cameras when he installed the 4 new cameras - only the old cables remained from the 1st group of 4, so I suspect the cables may be bad. The 4 cables producing the bad images have "RG59 18 1/2 Copper CCTV Combo" stamped on the side while the cables producing the good images have "RG59/2 Coaxial 75 Ohm" stamped on them. In each case, the cable from the camera has been split just before reaching my DVR so that 1 of the paired cable "threads" terminates at the common 12V power source patch panel while the other terminates at my DVR. My DVR is a GenIV G4-DCX8 and the installer described the cameras as Sony HAD CCD. The problem does not lie with the display or the DVR port, as I can swap the ports used by a good and bad camera, and the bad image moves to the new port. I am not aware of any electromagnetic interference at my home, nor is there much difference in the home environment when comparing the good and bad cameras (in 1 case, a good and bad camera are 2 feet from each other). So, the problem is likely with the 4 original cables. Do I need to get new cables installed? Any other advice? Thanks!

I just had the power subsystem replaced, and all 8 cameras look great now. You guys were right on. We deduced the 4 old cameras looked worse than the 4 new cameras as the power supply degraded due to inferior cabling on the old cameras. All is good now with the new power supply. Thanks!

Thanks for the replies. I intend to have the power supply and/or power patch panel replaced soon.

I am not an installer or electrician, so I may need to hire somebody to try what you suggested. Also, after further scrutiny, I can now see that the 4 new (good) cameras also exhibit a very low degree of the problem. So, I might have a bad power supply which affects the 4 old cables more than the 4 new cables (perhaps the different cabling used for the latter is more resistant to the problem). Given these symptoms, is the power supply the likely cause? Thanks!

No. The new (good) and old (bad) cameras alternate. So, every 2nd camera in the physical sequence exhibits the problem. The bad picture does not follow the camera when swapped. The problem seems to stay with the cable. All 8 cameras share the same power supply, but the 4 new (good) cameras were added to the shared power patch panel at a later time and they use slightly different cables as noted in my problem description. Thanks.