phred

A 5-50mm varifocal lens will get you number plates at that distance and allow plenty of room for maneuver. The problem comes when the light goes low and car headlights come on. Most cameras will tend to close down and everything but the headlights will then appear black. Better quality cameras with Wide Dynamic Range will give better results but best results are obtained with specialist LPR cameras built for the job. I suggest you google 'License Plate Recognition Camera' to get a better understanding of what is involved. Rory is better equiped than I to answer your Geo question.

LuxRiot is a Digital Video Recording software package for Windows based PCs. How good the DVR is depends on how good the PC is.

Sparks Wavelet is a type of jpeg compression - basically a series of still images. Offers very good quality but takes a huge amount of hard drive space. Mpeg2 – same compression as used on DVDs, gives high quality but uses loads of hard drive space. Mpeg4 can give high quality with lower disk space usage than mpeg2. H.264 Currently the most advanced video compression standard aimed at giving high quality with even less hard disk space requirements than mpeg4. H.264 is begining to replace mpeg2 as the standard for HDTV, the quality can be very good when done well. These are all standards, or types, of compression. How each DVR accomplishes the compression type is a completely different matter. Some do it well and some do it badly. Best advice I can give is try to see some sample recordings and check the file size against the quality. It is easy to create good quality recordings with a very large file size – much more difficult to create the same quality with a small file size, whatever compression is used. May be out of your budget but for what it is worth, one of the best implementations of H.264 I have seen is from the Vguard range. You can record DVD like quality for a couple of weeks on one of these with a 500Gb drive - thats for 4 channels at 704X576 and 25fps per channel. The capture cards and pre built DVRs using the same cards are currently a very good price in the UK but may be a bit OTT for your requirements.

Wow, that's scary I'm left wondering where we will be in 5 or 10 years.

yes, price is good won't get it cheaper on e-bay

For analogue cctv, the bottom end of the market tends to be CMOS with almost everything else above being CCD. This has led to the mistaken belief that cmos is an inferior technology. The two technologies are just different and there are advantages and disadvantages in both. Some of the highest quality imagers in the world are cmos. Cmos is widely used now for IP cameras - the highly respected Arecont megapixel cameras, for example, are cmos.

Don't think you have fully understood what cachecreek is saying. DVRs write files using a proprietary (locked) codec and often use encryption. This is done to ensure that files cannot be tampered with or edited – otherwise they may not be admissible as evidence. To read the files on a PC you need to install software that allows the files to be decoded. Whether you burn the files on a cd or copy to a USB drive makes no difference, you still need software to read the files. USB is more convenient in many ways but CD and DVD still have their place, especially if you need to hand recordings to police. I have not come across a Police officer who routinely carries a USB pen drive, so you would have to hand yours over – and don't expect to get it back any time soon. Look for a recorder that allows you to backup original recordings to removable media and also offers a file reader application that can be installed on a PC to view the files. You can get fairly smooth playback at around 15 frames per second but if you want DVD like quality then 25 frames per second is the standard for UK PAL.

Tonie, You will find Chateau Technical's site here http://www.vguard.net/E_download_vgcard.htm They produce the cards and software. You won't be able to download anything right now but watch over the next few weeks for the release of version 5 of their software with improvements and added features. They do not just buy in cards with an SDK and write a GUI. Their expertise is in DSP engineering and compression technology, particularly H.264, so any improvements should be worthwhile.

Some good info here http://www.doktorjon.co.uk/

If you are in the UK then consider the Vguard-VG8C-XP-TV-PCI-Card. You will need two for 16 channel. Otherwise I would suggest Geo. Either way you will get something that works with good software and gives results better than many professional standalone DVRs. If these are out of your price range then take a look at Zoneminder They have some cards on their site but don't expect too much in terms of performance. If all you need is a few frames per second per channel they will do the job. There are other cards that may work but finding a good one amongst those that come from the far East is a bit of a lottery. Regards

What you are 'missing' dear fellow, is good fortune and judgment. Whoever sold you the card should be taken out at dawn, roundly whipped and shot. Please read this thread http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=4228

Agree with rikky – the one area they still need to sort out is the compression technology. If you want top quality images and do not need high frame rate then it may be worth looking at using a digital camera. Many models from Nikon, Canon and Olympus can be connected to a PC and controlled by software. Images are downloaded directly to the PC and can then be uploaded to a website. Some of these cameras can do 8FPS at full res. see control software here http://www.breezesys.com/

I am a big fan of Samsung cameras. They don't get it right with every model – few do – but the SDC415 is quite incredible for the very modest price.

Cameras with built in IR leds - where's my big construction hammer?. Totally useless, stupid nonsense. Phew! feel better now

You will only get a condensation problem if you allow outside air into the fridge. Stick in a sachet of silica gel then seal the door up. Or put the DVR in a polythene bag and seal any gaps round cables - it should survive OK without oxygen

Unfortunately, I have made it sound that way. oops! Didn't mean to suggest Knoppix was a toy, more that it is makes a PC 'unbreakable'. Has huge advantages for the likes of schools who currently spend a fortune on multi licenses for anti malware. Unfortunately, too few know anything about Knoppix.

It's a book explaining the importance of the apostrophe. The title is a joke about a Panda Google it

Oh no! Not another bt878 chip. I think Geo are the only company that ever got anything decent out of those pesky things. Via chipsets are usually a problem. May work with Zoneminder but don't expect more than a few frames per second per channel.

Do him a favor and buy him a copy of ' Eats, Shoots and Leaves ' Just looking at the manual, looks like they are embedded XP mpeg4 machines. Software looks good, nice GUI.

Can't think of anything you won't already know but just for a kick off - Less RFI and EMI in cat5 so you can have longer runs than RG59. More conductors in cat 5 so can handle several signals at once. More lines of cat5 will fit in trunking. Cat5 will work with IP cams. Downside for cat5 - Baluns Cat 5 also holds knots, so better for tying your gal to the bedstead.

General rule of Mathematics – you cannot solve a problem with too many unknowns. What are the dimensions of the warehouse? (it could be 20 feet wide and 7,500 long ) Where is the office? In a corner? in the centre?

Should just be HDDs and DVRs Apostrophe makes it possessive – ie something belonging to the HDD I wouldn't give a toss elsewhere but that is a commercial website, it's just sloppy.

No idea i'm afraid, hope they are better at building them than they are at English grammar DVR'S and HDD'S

Sorry Lill, thought you were in the US because you used the term 'gas station'. Take a look at Bosch Dinion XF – expensive but very capable on all counts. Still not as good as an LPR camera but probably as good as you will get for tricky lighting.

Arnie is OK by me. Not my king, we only use claymores.