survtech

That is one of the major points I have brought up to Todd Rockoff and he says that "version 2 of the HDcctv spec will allow up to 300 meters on RG59". On the discrepancy between the spec and the actual need to use RG6, dead silence! Version 1 of the HDcctv spec calls for up to 100 meters on RG59. I wonder what other aspects of the spec are not being met?

That assumes HDcctv is better than IP. At this point, that really remains to be seen. Broadcast video hardly has the same needs as CCTV. Otherwise, we all would be using 3-chip cameras, $2,000 monitors and who knows how expensive recorders. Hardly! 25-pair CAT5 takes up far less space in cable trays and conduits than 25 RG59s. That is a very prime reason for twisted-pair analog. And you are correct about us and HDcctv technology!

Yes, 10m ethernet used to be run on coax (10base2 / 10base5) but the NICs were designed for unbalanced cable and distances were extremely limited; especially 10base2. Everything else you mentioned is balanced (station wire, speaker wire, DB9 serial cables, et al). Twisted or not, it is still two separate, non-coaxial conductors. For all I care, you could use BX, but it is not recommended for very long runs. Coax, aside from capacitance issues, also is the wrong impedance and would probably introduce standing wave reflections into the signal to boot.. By the way, UTP is not required - STP works as well, and in noisy situations, even better. You just have to remember to only connect the ground at the head end.

In very limited production with very limited makes and models, no standalone DVRs (PC capture cards only), 720p only, expensive broadcast SDi switches; with limited range on coax (100m on RG59), etc. Define "major". Most companies involved in equipment production are minor players in the field. More mis-statements and half truths. Where do I start?:* RG6 is more expensive than RG59. Although HDcctv can use RG59 and RG6 antenna cable, which is cheaper than the copper/copper used for analog, it can't use twisted-pair and the "inexpensive" RG6 cannot be interchanged between HDcctv and analog cameras. According to the HDcctv spec, it is supposed to be able to use RG59 for up to 100 meters but that apparently is not an option with existing equipment. So much for a "standard"! * Distances between camera and recorder/monitor are limited compared to analog video. * There are no monitors apart from $2000+ studio monitors capable of viewing SDi signals directly. * Matrix switches are very expensive and of limited usability, since they are designed for broadcast.

I wouldn't. Control cable needs to be "balanced", which means a twisted-pair; coax is unbalanced, which means a center conductor and a shield (ground). You can use RG6 for the video, but not the control.

I haven't seen that but West Penn does make specialized siamese that is two pairs of CAT-5e for video and control plus one pair of 18 or 16 for power. CC2418 has 18ga. power and CC2416 has 18ga. power. They also make plenum versions: CC25418 and CC25416.

Try these links: http://www.km.kongsberg.com/ks/web/nokbg0240.nsf/AllWeb/5F2647B96CB89EC9C125765F003D390C?OpenDocument http://www.mirion.com/index.php?p=imaging_products http://www.nucron.co.kr/eng/ http://safety.kellysearch.com/suppliers/Nuclear+Closed+Circuit+Television+(CCTV)+Equipment/139622

I don't know if they can or will provide you with schematics but they have helped save us a ton of money. Many casinos buy new PTZs when the old ones fail. The average price of a new DD4CBW35 at nearly $2,000. We get them fixed for far less: We used to return our broken PTZs to Pelco. The average repair was maybe $700. Then we started using Moore's Electronics. The average repair dropped to something like $500. Now we repair them in-house. The average repair has dropped to under $300. With over 150 PTZs, replacement or factory repair costs add up fast. Many of our Spectra IIs have been in service for up to 10 years - an eternity for PTZs getting nearly constant use..

I'm not familiar with PTZ systems other than Pelco's. The Pelco Spectra series' camera menus are accessed by a <95> sequence on the CM9760-KBD keyboard. Perhaps other PTZs are also accessed in a similar way.

Although we do repair ours in-house (Spectra II, III and IV), we don't bother going down to component level. It's not worth the effort and requires surface mount soldering/desoldering equipment. Also, Pelco won't release service manuals. We buy the entire module from TLS and return the old ones for a small credit. That includes camera heads.

Try Time Lapse Supply. You will probably need to replace the Receiver-Driver PCB. Part Number: PA03-9620-00A1-B Crosses To P/N PC03-9620, PA03-9620, PA03-9620-00A1, PA03-9620-00A1-B, PA03-9620-53A5, PCB-9000-620, PCB-9000-620-B, PCB-9000-620-B-1, PCB-9000-620-B-2, PCB-9000-620-B-3 Description: Receiver-Driver PCB, Pelco Spectra II B-Stock Note • All Spectra II Receiver Driver PCB revisions are interchangeable. • The Spectra II Receiver-Driver PCB is sold without firmware. • Use the original firmware from PCB being replaced Price: $250.00 http://www.timelapsesupply.com/pelcospectraii.html By the way, they can assist with troubleshooting or perform the repair if you want.

MPEG2 is closer to MPEG4 than you think and takes up far less disk space per unit of time than MJPEG. Our system uses MPEG2 and the typical D1 bitrate averages around 1.5-2mb/s. We could simulate MJPEG with it by using all I-frames but for a given picture quality, we would have to crank up the bitrate to at least 5mb/s.

I think that the real question is frame rate vs. resolution. There are a number of DVRs that advertise themselves as, say, 4-channel 60fps. Unfortunately, many of them can only do that frame rate at CIF. Despite having the capability to do 4CIF, the maximum frame rate often drops to 15fps, or less than 4fps per camera.

Yes, that is what they claim. However, we placed so-called 600-line JVC monitors right alongside 450-line Samsung monitors and fed them with a variety of color cameras rated at between 470 lines and 540 lines and the actual, real-life resolution improvement was marginal, at best. Perhaps the rest of the equipment in the chain was the limiting factor but we couldn't identify the suits of more than 70% of non-face cards and pretty much any face cards on the same gaming table using any camera fed to any monitor (including the JVC and Samsung CRTs and the Orion LCD). In my opinion, once an NTSC color camera gets to 470-480 lines, everthing else is marketing hype. The same goes for monitors. There are subtle differences: on some cameras, the limit was ~60% suit ID while on others it was up to 70%. The reason for those differences had nothing to do with pixel count, etc. In fact, our best resolution results came from Pelco CCC1300H2 and CCC1370H2 cameras rated at 470-480 lines; but in an area with a relatively large amount of blue in the lighting. The area was indirectly lit by twin 8' flourescent lamps encased in blue sleeves that reflected off the ceiling. I believe that the shorter wavelength of the blue lighting and its indirect, diffuse nature had something to do with our results. The only ways we can ID card suits is using multiple analog cameras per table or using at least XVGA cameras (1024x768). By the way, all my discussions of resolution assume NTSC equipment. PAL, by its very nature, has better horizontal resolution.

BTW There are 1000TVL CRT monitors. However they [typically] only come in B/W. They are great for focusing though, color OR bw cameras. until they drop off the ladder I did say color! How many colors can you see on your monochrome monitor? Since you seem to know it all, perhaps you would like to explain to the readers why there are 1000 line monochrome monitors but color monitor resolution is typically limited to 450 lines?

Why would you say that? You mis-stated something and I corrected you. It doesn't bother me that you were wrong. I posted facts, you got confused and your feelings were hurt so you got mad at me. If I was wrong for not writing an entire essay explaining EVERYTHING, then for that I apologize but I have lots of other work to do. What facts? Cheap Chinese ones? Counting unused pixels is like counting unused brain cells - they may look good on paper but are of absolutely no use except to fill the cranium!

You do know that CNB is Korean/Chinese? Doesn't that make their cameras "cheap"?

Why would you say that? You mis-stated something and I corrected you. It doesn't bother me that you were wrong.

Effective or active pixels are the only ones that matter. Any others do not participate in the production of video and are, therefore, wasted. A case in point: most 720p cameras actually use 1.3MP imagers. 720p is 1280x720, but the imager is 1280x1024. Since the camera is designed to use only 921,600 active pixels, the rest have no bearing on the image. Besides, color NTSC itself is limited to around 450 lines of resolution. It doesn't matter if the imager has more pixels than approximately 720 horizontal, no NTSC monitor is capable of displaying the additional resolution; no DVR/NVR is capable of recording it and most, if not all, analog switching and distribution equipment is incapable of passing it.

Huh?!? From the Manufacturers' spec sheets - active or usable pixels: Pelco CC3751H-2 768 (H) x 494 (V) C10CH NTSC 768 (H) x 494 (V), approx. 380k, PAL 752 (H) x 582 (V), approx. 440k Sanyo VCC-6584 768 (H) x 494 (V) VCC-5884 768 (H) x 494 (V) Bosch LTC 0455 768 H x 494 V LTC 0485 768 H x 492 V Panasonic WV-CP280 768 (H) x 494 (V) Are they "cheap chinese brands"?

Nope, that's normal. Analog cameras usually look best on CRT monitors. You might check out the Orion LCD monitors. They come pretty close to CRT in PQ.

Max pixel count for 99% of NTSC analog cameras is 768x494 or less. A very few may be higher (Panasonic WV-CW5xx claims 976x494) but, despite its claimed 650 lines of horizontal resolution in color mode, no other analog equipment is capable of recording or displaying that.

Any camera with a CS mount can accept a wide range of lenses. Assuming the sensor is 1/3", you can get a Computar T2314FICS 2.3mm Manual Iris, T2Z1816CS Varifocal 1.8-3.6mm Manual Iris or auto-iris versions of them. They are relatively short lenses that will fit in domes that have a CS camera. If the camera has a different lens mount or imager size, all bets are off. http://computarganz.com/index.cfm

What size display is the field monitor? My guess is that its resolution is not sufficient to see the "grain" that results from low light levels. Many cameras, including Pelco PTZs, have an AGC circuit that increases video gain as the light gets dimmer. That AGC circuit also amplifies any noise in the picture. As the light signal gets weaker, the picture will get noisier. The fact that your PTZ was switching to B/W tells me that the light level at the camera is weak so I would guess that you will either have to provide more light or live with the graininess. Other than that, you could go into CAMERA > and adjust the AGC Limit value (Default is 25, I believe), but your picture will probably get too dark. A partial fix may be to use a clear bubble instead of a smoked one, which does block some light (about 1 f-stop). That is the point of the color/bw cameras in the first place - as the light gets dim, they switch to black and white, which works better in low light.

It is up to the individual. Information sharing is a two-way street. You can't expect to get if you don't give. So that begs the question: why are you here?