megavolt512

Hey guys thanks for all the great information! This is one of those threads I'll have to re-read many times. I've already improved the LP readability considerably by changing the zoom and adjusting the level down. On a similar note, I was looking up close at one of the many toll booths they are building here in Texas. They pretty much have it set up to photograph every single plate. They appear to be using strictly still digital images with a flash (even in the day time). It looks like fireworks with many vehicles blasting through the toll-tag lanes (where you don't have to stop). Haven't seen much mention here of digital still for LPR.

I was looking at the Samsung SHC-740 WDR as a possible replacement. What do folks thing of this camera, possibly set it up on a lower-end Geovision card. Focus it tightly on the driveway as sort of a dedicated cam?

Model is a Nuvico HW3895IR36 Specs: CCD Total Pixel: 811(H) x 508(V) 1/3" SONY SuperHAD CCD 480 TV Lines 3.8~9.5mm Vari-focal, DC Auto Iris Lens Mechanical IR Cut Filter I know I shouldn't expect too much from a low end system. But other details with less contrast than a plate seem to show up. Any cameras in the <600.00 range that would do sustantiall better than this?

See attached picture. This is broad daylight. Camera is a 480TVL Nuvico, going through a Nuvico NJVJ DVR. While the images are fairly sharp, it's almost like there is this invisible shield over all license plates! As if they were blank. Is this a common problem? Do I need to spend the $$ on a special license plate camera even in broad daylight as is this?

This was sure a learning process for me. I've never submitted video to law enforcement before. From all the Crime shows on TV it's easy to get the impression they can do anything with video files. And, I'm sure if you had footage of someone breaking into the White House they would indeed extract-convert-enhance, etc. everything they could. But for most cases, you'd better make it easy on them. "I can just plug this into a DVD... right?" was the response I got from the cop I handed the disk to.

Maybe I'm just naive on this. But it seems being able to export the video would be a minimum requirement for a "security" DVR. I can transfer video off my cell phone easier than this. I can believe it's considered acceptible to make a security DVR without a means to share/export video. I'll look into the Plexor unit mentioned.

Just had another "incident" last night. I have footage good enough for identification. I can save a snapshop (jpeg still image), but I can NOT use Camstudio. I tried it and the video portion is blank! Camstudio documentation says to turn off hardware acceleration. Unfortunately, neither the Nuvico DVR Player, nor the mini-player will run with hardware acceration off. This is really bad. I hope others deciding on a system to buy heed this warning: investigate the export/output functions of the dvr. Cops don't have time for you to lug in your DVR and monitor. They want a DVD or Video CD. I can't believe security DVR's are made without an export function to standard formats (mjpeg, avi, etc.). I'm screwed. Wish I'd gotten a Geovision card instead.

If there's one thing I learned in all this: avoid dome cameras unless you need vandal resistance (ie: someone swinging a bat at the camera). I should have spent the bucks on a good box camera (and possibly separate IR illuminator).

With some more experimentation, I found out the real culprit: the polycarbonate dome! I had the clear dome removed from the camera during my experiments. I didn't think a clear-dome would affect image quality...but not so. The 11 vs. 12 volts was not the issue after all. With the dome installed on the camera, apparently it blocks quite a bit of IR transmission. Not good. I'm convinced a good IR illuminator needs a glass (or none) lens.

Newly installed Nuvico NVJV-4000n - with mjpeg compression (according to the Nuvico docs). System has worked! I have footage of the "problem" we were plagued with. Now I need to give the police a CD with the video on it. What to do now? When I use the download feature on the Nuvico software I get a file with a .CMS suffix. Their literature says the NVJV series uses MJPEG compression. I've tried a couple of shareware utilites to try and read (and convert) this CMS file... but none recognize it as MJPEG. Any ideas? If I can't send this to the police, it's virtually worthless.

Alright - I've solved some of the problems. Thanks to the responses here - most of you were right. What a difference a volt makes. Below is the same picture now with 12v applied to the camera instead of 11. I still wouldn't call this high-quality - but it's a big improvement. Through experimentation, I found the biggest factor affecting night image quality was IR illumination. This unit has relatively poor IR coverage - in spite of nearly an amp of LED's. I used a bullet camera to supplement the IR illumination and the quality improved rather dramatically. I think I'll add an IR illuminator or motion-activated lights as suggested. This is not the image quality I was wanting. If I don't have a picture sharp enough to identify someone, it doesn't seem that useful.

I guess I'm just disappointed as I bought this system as an "upgrade" to a cheapo D-link DCS-900 network camera. These cheapys are 100 bucks - complete IP web server with built in dynamic DNS support, etc. Honestly, the night-time performance of the D-link was better than this!! And it has no IR LEDS at all! I could at least see the back of the shop slightly. This Nuvico has 36 LED's that are supposed to shine up to 100ft. But I can hardly see the grainy shop-floor 10 ft in front of it. That desk barely visible in the night-shot is only 18ft from the lens. This just doesn't seem right. Certainly a high-res dome with IR cut filter, 550tvl, 36 LEDs, etc. should do better than this???

I'm having really poor performance from a Nuvico dome camera (CD-SD3895N/P-AI-L) This model is 550TVL and IR's that should cast many feet. Mechanical IR cut, etc. I thought I was buying quality. The IR's are ON in the dark-shot. This room is a 25x50ft shop with the camera in a corner, focal length open all the way (3.6mm). I'm using it with a Nuvico NVJV series DVR. The other cameras (outdoor bullets) look better. But this seems like lousy dark-room CCTV? I had a cheap D-Link CMOS camera that did better than this. Any ideas? What do I need to spend for a quality IR image in a room this size? I'm a newbie to CCTV so I'm not sure what level of video quality to expect in a dark room. Am I asking too much out of a $300 dome? I appreciate the help. [/img]