Squintz

Okay, thanks for the tip. Are there any name brand units that you think would work in this situation? The cam will be only 25-30' from the targeted cars.

I am looking in the arm electronics dealers catalog and I found a camera whos specs seem better to me but I am not sure. C540BCVFIR - Color Varifocal IR Bullet Camera Type: Day/Night Power: 12vDC LENS: 4-9mm Auto Iris Lens Image Pickup Device: 1/3" Color CCD Resolution 540 TV Lines Scanning System: 2:1 Interlace Gamma: 0.45 IR Range: 50ft Does higher resolution mean a sharper image? Attached are images from my existing Hawk-145IRCB/8. Notice that you can not even make out a persons face during the day and at night the license plate on my car is totally washed out. Faces at night are also washed out. I was thinking about sending this cam back and getting something better but I am not sure if higher resolution means that I will be able to make out faces.

Just installed my first camera in my home and as an electronic tech and electrician I am feeling pretty low about the quality of the connections I did. I installed a HAWK-145IRCB/8 - IR Color bullet camera. It came with a 12vDC pigtail connector and for testing purposes I purchased a variable voltage DC wall-transformer with the changable DC adapters for various sizes. I found that there was not really a size that fit perfectly. I know you can purchase additional sizes but why bother when it was only a temporary solution. Anywho... Back to the hall of shame speach. I used crimped style BNC connectors on RG59 cable for the video feed. Then I simply used the pigtail and a piece of 18awg wire twisted and electrical taped for the power connection. So the connections are ugly and not water tight. I am getting 12v power from my Elk M1 Gold alarm panel which supplies 12vDC for a variety of reasons. The setup is working but I can not leave it like that. What products are available for sealing up the BNC connector and what is available for a better power connection. I don't want to use a housing for the camera since it would be bulky and ugly. What are you guys doing?

Welcome to the forums. Seems like there are a lot of manufactures on these forums. Thats a good thing.

Welcome to the forums. Lots of good info here.

I just setup my first CCTV system. I wrote an elaborate post about it but since I am new it was not acceptable and got lost. So here is the shorter version and my questions. EverFocus EDSR1600/500 -Duplex DVR HAWK-145IRCB/8 - IR Color bullet camera You can view the cam at squintz DOT no-ip DOT com port 88. Sorry but I am new so URLs are not allowed. use guest for username and password Questions: 1) Why does the color on this camera look great but the night vision is very poor outdoors. Indoors the nightvision was acceptable. I am thinking I need an IR array to help improve the image. But I don't want to wash out the image with too much IR light. So how much is enough? I have an 8mm lens with just enough angle to view two cars at close range. 2) I want to see the details of a persons face if they are walking near my cars. Is there a camera in the $300 range or less that small like the bullet cams that will give me that type of quality at night? 3) How did I do on chosing my DVR? I was told it was a great deal for $950 and it had all the features I wanted. I would have prefered Triplex but duplex is good enough. I am not crazy about the java interface but it works.

I know this is nobodies fault but my own but I need to vent. I just spent 10 minutes posting a question about my new setup which included links to the product manuals that I am using and the specs. Turns out that because I don't have 10 post that I can not make a post like that. But what really ticks me off is that I was not able to edit what I attempted to post to make it suitable for the forums. I lost everything. I will end up trying again but my post will not be very complete.

Hi everyone, I'm new here. I just posted in the intro forums. Check my sig for a link. Anywho, I am into home automation and I lack in the security department a little. I want a dedicated DVR with 8 inputs. The more fps the better but this is only for monitoring my home so it does not have to be anything crazy. A triplex system sounds ideal for me. The one thing that I really want is to be able to view each camera individually using a unique IP address. Is that asking too much. I can change my mind if it is. I just don't want to be tied into using a prefab web site for viewing my cams. As long as I can view them from windows media player or quicktime then I should be fine. 24 hrs of recording time is about all I will need. Again the more the better but I can always archive the files to my dataserver. Finally, if the DVR provided some type of RS232 control that would be a huge plus. I am into home automation so I tend to be a control freak.

Hi, I found this forum by typing DVR Forums into google. I am on the hunt for a cheap yet useful DVR for my home. I already own plenty of cameras and have not had much luck with the DVR Cards. So I am looking at a Stand Alone(Dedicated) DVR. I will start another post about this topic. I just wanted to share with the webmasters how I came to get to this site. I am a young (20's) programmer with about 4 years of intense Home Automation experience. I use a combination of Hardware and Software to automated my home. Hardware such as the Elk M1G alarm system which has RS232 capability for control and monitoring. The elk also has the ability to control my lights. I also use a software application called CQC(CharmedQuark Controller). CQC is basically a nice way to interface multiple technologies for automation. It allows you to build touch screen interfaces as well as manage your Audio and Video file and equipment, callerID, and a bunch of other TCP/IP and RS232 controllable hardware devices. The one thing that is missing from my HomeAutomation system tho is a nice DVR - Video Security system. Hopefully some of you can help me with that.