NetTech26

Hi Johnny, Are you recording the cameras on your computer? 3 cameras is not a lot of bandwidth unless your running a very old network. Typically its a 1-5 mbps per camera, so it is not much, but your computer might not be able to render your images fast enough. For your camera question, your will need to connect them to your router or a switch in order for them to communicate with your computer. But you can plug one camera in directly to your laptop as long as the Ethernet cable is a crossover.

We use Honeywell, Pelco, Bosch, OnCam Grandeye, Everfocus, Winic Tech and a few other smaller brands. When you buy cameras individually, typically they do not come with wires. We use CAT6 for both analog and IP cameras. We also have a 16/2 going to each camera for 24VAC power. Some parts of our building that are newer we only have a CAT6 and the camera is power via PoE.

I would run an outdoor rated CAT6 wire to each camera and put a Balun on the cameras/DVR. That way if you ever upgrade to IP cameras, you already have to proper wiring. Also, on some baluns, you can run power over them as well.

I am a little confused on what you are trying to accomplish? Are you trying to convert from a DVR to a NVR, and you have analog cameras?

For the system I operate, we use both analog and IP cameras. We are switching over to IP cameras so its more of a network topology then the analog system. But you will need for IP camera system. Cameras switches (if they are not PoE, you will need to add power supplies and a wire for power. Typically a 16/2, or 18/2) NVRs Viewing stations keyboards if you have PTZs

Besides the wire, check your polarity of the wires in both ends

Check the firewall on your computer it may be blocking port 9001, or check that your antivirus is not blocking it either. If your trying to view it thorough you ISP, maybe they are blocking the port.

Look for cameras the stream h.264 and are ONVIF compliant. This will give you a better ability to hook them up to a lot of different VMS (Video Management Software) systems. If you want to store the retention on your NAS look at putting some type of software on your computer or make a server to record them on. There is a few decent types of Open Source software out there.

Maybe check to see what the address of the camera is? Do you have video? If so its probably not a power supply issue.

Thanks. is there any differences between the media converter and balun ? As what jeromephone said. A balun just converts analog video to go over twisted pair wires such as CAT5, and a media converts is what its name is. It converts media from one type of signal to another. From what I am gathering you will need to keep your encoder, in order to view your analog cameras via IP.

Your computer might be on a different subnet then your DVR. Open a command prompt window and type in "ipconfig" to see what network you are on. Your computer should be in the "192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254" range to be able to communicate properly to the DVR.

Check the power going to the cameras first. Make sure they all have the proper voltage from the power supply end and at the camera end. No power no video. Once you determine that the cameras have power, and you still over no video. Check each coax connection at the DVR and the camera end.

Most cameras have an Alarm Input on them. You will need to connect a switch to the two wires or connections on the camera. When the camera detects that the circuit is complete on these two wires, it will output a programmable alarm. To get a video to popup is something that your VMS (video management software) can probably do with some setting changes.

Buy IP PTZ cameras. I am starting to buy Winic IPC-PD63230-W domes. I have not looked into if they sell a outdoor housing, but I sure they do. These cost me about $800 USD and the outdoor housing is probably about an additional $250 USD. So this is close to your price range. These camera support steaming, but you will need to set up some type of server that will control the stream and put it our on the internet. A quick google search for how to stream and IP camera to a webpage brought me to https://ipcamlive.com/.

You have a few options, but the cost will probably be your determination. You will have to buy new cameras. Preferably a IP camera with PoE (Power over ethernet) and is ONVIF compliant. If you want to keep the existing wiring, this can be possible by using Ethernet over Coax converters. I have used these http://www.nvt.com/content.php?type=template&key=productfamily&ckey=eoc is my casino before. You plug them in and they just work! But they are bloody expensive. Option 2 would be to run new wiring to each camera. I recommend running CAT6, buy PoE (power over ethernet) cameras and switches. For your recorder, you will have to check if it can input a IP camera. Its its strictly a analog recorder I would doubt it.