martin68

I'm sure this issue has been discussed before, but i need help and advice. I recently moved business premises and fitted a brand new 4 camera 1080 SDI system. My old business premises also had two cameras running on an SDI system, and they were constantly going blank, and the only way i could get the pictures back was to unplug them from the back of the dvr and back in again, then it was hit and miss, and i put it down to being a shoddy installation, using sky shotgun cable for power and signal at the time. Now I have moved premises, i purchased a brand new SDI DVR and 4 SDI cameras, and also an expensive reel of cctv coax with power cable attached, I also bought the best bnc plugs i could find. the cameras are all different makes and the new DVR is also a different make to the old one. Yet after installing the new system in a very pro way, I still get cameras going off with a "video loss" message in the quad screen. its driving me in sane, if i unplug the cameras and back in, they come back on too just like with the old system. Is this a manufacture design flaw? can it be solved?

I have noticed from many pictures of HD-SDI cameras they they have a red power connector, plus a green and yellow bnc plug, does this mean they have standard analog video out (yellow) as well as digital HD (green) ? if so, would it then be possible to connect the HD green plug to a SDI DVR for recording, while viewing live camera pictures via the yellow plug in standard definition on an analog monitor? Also could satellite 75ohm shotgun cable be used to run both green and yellow signals to the dvr and monitor?

I have decided to buy a HD-SDI DVR system, but before i go buying the camera cables, I have a 100m reel of 50 ohm coak cable which i bought many years ago for amateur radio aerials, will this type of coax be suitable for cctv? it's foil screened and fits into crimped bnc plugs perfectly. my maximum length run is around 15m.

Now i'm really confused, I was under the impression that IP cameras are no where near as good as 720 or 1080 over coax. I see that IP DVR systems are a lot cheaper than SDI systems, but are they simple plug and play for the 4 cameras to record onto hdd on the PVR, or does it involve a lot of setting up with ip addresses etc, plus maintainance of the software? Reason i'm asking this is because I have tried wifi ip cameras via my router, and one day they work fine, then next day nothing.not to mention hogging my internet speeds which are only 2mbs to start with. I am also yet to find an IP camera PVR that supports audio, do they even exist?

thanks for all this info. I'm planning to buy new cameras too, so a hybrid recorder will not be necessary. for the highest HD resolution on my budget of £250, which system is better: HD CVI, HD SDI or HD TVI and what's the difference between them? this might narrow down my decision.

I have also seen some fdr's that have 4 wired cameras that use cat5 cable apposed to coax. are they any good and does the cat5 support audio?

si, is AHD the same as 960H? if so, I have tried 960H cameras, and the picture is no where near as good as 720p, it still looks un-detailed and is still only 625pal or 525ntsc which is SD.

My current system in 14 years old and has served me well. I have 2 cameras, and one mic run by a seperate cable to the audio input of the dvr. My plan is to upgrade to an HD system, where the cameras are proper HD (not like the many DVR's that claim they are HD, with an HDMI output, yet only support PAL 625 analog cameras, no matter how many lines these analog cameras claim they have, 600, 800, even 1000, they are still all only standard definition PAL 625 lines) I don't mind running a seperate mic cable to the dvr, as long as the new HD DVR or FDR has an analog audio input. but so far I can only find units without audio that support 1080 or 720 cameras.

I have a budget of only £250 and I need a 4 camera cctv system that uses full HD cameras, or 720p due to budget, but with a DVR or NVR that can also record sound either as 4 channels or just one. SWo far I have found many units (mainly on ebay) in my budget but none can record sound. I don't want a 960h system, as this is still only 480p in the old analog format. Any advice to what unit/system could suit my needs?