CCTV_Suppliers

What will be your furthest cable distance? Your take on running UTP cable is the correct one... it is future proof in case down the road you decide to change your cameras to IP based cameras... There are Passive video baluns that will allow you to extend UTP cables as much as 1,500' straight run... however, anything beyond this distance, survtech's suggestion will stand. Just keep away from cheap UTP cables... which are a dime a dozen in the market... rather go with best quality UTP cable you can find at a reasonable price... it will pay major dividends in the long run. In world of UTP, go with CAT6 cable with higher bandwidth - this way not only it will serve your immediate needs, but also your future equipment requirements... Here is another area of concern if you decide to go with this path - power requirement for each of your cameras! You can not run power for the same distance (greater than 1,000') using standard power supplies... a suggestion is to find a local power source near each camera to power up such unit. It may be cheaper to take this route rather than installing special power supplies that provide much greater current to offset the voltage drop at the other end caused by the resistance for longer cables... Good luck!

To connect your touchtracker to MPLT32, follow the diagram here: http://americandynamics.net/WebApps/getDocument.aspx?filename=Manual_MPLT_InstallAddendum.pdf This diagram shows how to connect your keyboard to your matrix... as well as other keyboards, etc... we use the same diagram if needed... You can not run data through your DVR - it does not support S-NET... Let us know the outcome...

Please check your PM...

DG, as bpzle stated, we need more info... but for typical retail store, here are what most people use... 500 square feet store - maximum 4 camera package preferably mini-domes with hi res cameras and with lenses that cover 2.8mm to max 6.0mm.. many choices of good quality equipment available and at decent price.. 1,000 square feet store - maximum 8 camera package and again, go with mini-domes with hi res cameras, but lens configuration between 2.8mm - 12.0mm range... again, many choices for good quality equipment and very decent price. 12,000 square feet space... you probably can get away with 16 camera package, but it could be tricky... all depends what you want covered and distance of views... mini-domes will be the best choice, as not only you can get them installed on the walls, but also suspend them from the ceiling (dependent on height)... You also can consider mixing boxed cameras in this situation allowing more flexibility on lens configuration.. Regardless which route you take, make sure you stay with brand name equipment and insist to get three years warranty on everything you purchase. If you can not install yourself, find a good local installer - they worth every penny, as they will do a professional job once and not to worry about equipment misgivings due to inadequate installation. If you need quotes, let me know and I can send you PM... Good luck!

This version of WINE is very stable... Doing a great job riding on most Linux platforms... some setup issues, but nothing major... Ubuntu and Suse are actually few of the major supporters.

Here is the url for this system manuals - http://www.gesecurity.com/portal/site/GESecurity/menuitem.f76d98ccce4cabed5efa421766030730?selectedID=300&seriesyn=true&seriesID= You should find the answer in one of these manuals... unless someone manually changed it to be different.

What is the front end equipment? If not avail, what protocol do you need for the data flow?

I'll be there... for the entire show... something I have not done for many years.. I hear that they will be many newer products that everyone is talking about... newer IP solutions and even cheaper and better DVRs... new apps, etc... Besides, will have a chance to see many friends that I have not seen in so many years.

We had similar problems with Debian... and chose to go with Ubuntu instead and worked fine... It is fairly simple program and works most of the time... It has much less bugs compared few months ago... and it is getting more stable. If you were able to make it work with CentOS, then you are fine... It is a very stable distro and has less packages that you do not need most of the time. I do not think it has something to do with the specific distro not working, rather the hardware it supports based on what you are using. Older the hardware, better it will work. Very few distros out there support new hardware...

What do you want to know about ZoneMinder bud??

There was a new firmware that we used that overcame this hard drive recognition limitations... I know that we were able to take these systems over 1TB easily... Besides the firmware upgrade, we had to replace the power supply, which itself was a limitation... We have quite of few of these DVRs in use at the moment with many of our customers. We fix GE DVRs no problems... as long as the motherboards are intact. The motherboard availability is a very major problem - GE does not have it nor available elsewhere... Sometimes we take motherboards from other systems that we have no uses, but availability is a serious concern. If you want, get hold of us for this repair. 99% of the known problems were caused either by limitations on the power supply or firmware upgrades, which GE is no longer provides. If interested, please PM and I can help.

What brand PTZ domes are you looking for?

You are on the right path and asking questions to find the right components before spending anything... I am not familiar with Geovision, but there are many here that do - Rory may jump in?? I hear that they are good performers. Most homeowners usually buy embedded systems at least from my experience... simple plug and play and with minimal programming requirements.. They work day in and day out without any need to "upgrade" operating system or worry about virus attacks... Most majors have them and from what I understand, other companies make them as well... But then, if you are computer savvy and set on Geo card and the software, then that will be fine too... The quality of the picture that you need is very much dependent on presence of the light and that is what you should consider before making any decisions... just scan the areas at night to find out if you have light or could install some motion detection lighting.. Eventually it could be cheaper to go to this route than considering IR based cameras... stay away already put together packages... pick your components based on aesthetics (heck it is your home after all and you want it to look good too) and lighting conditions and you could have different type of camera at each angle... it is your preference at the end anyway. Once you make this determination, then it will be easier to shop for specific camera components...

What is the make and the model of your DVR that you already purchased? Regardless what type of resolution cameras or better yet, day/night cameras you use, DVR will determine what you see and what you can playback... Lets say you have a decent DVR that will give you decent playback resolution (this is the key for most DVRs), regardless what CIF rate or even D1 capable, I have seen too many DVRs claiming such specs and yet, performance has been substandard. If providing that your DVR will do the job, then the rest is not really a serious issue... There are quite of few outdoor cameras in the market and I can vouch only major manufacturers - pricing is very affordable and is not a $1,000 per camera... Dependent on your lighting conditions at night, you can mix some day/night minidome cameras with cameras that operate with IR... Such cameras could be some bullet format or even with minidome configuration... Some examples: Bosch makes some very decent and affordable bullet camera... I am referring to their WZ14N, WZ16N and WZ18N series cameras... work great and does the job very nicely - pricing could range from $120 to $340 range dependent on the model... comes with three years warranty and gives you no nonsense performance... They also have minidome outdoor day/night cameras, but at higher price... Panasonic, American Dynamics, GE, Sanyo and few others have decent day/night minidome performers within $250 range or even higher.. but higher price will not justify your mean - some models come with special features that are desired in commercial application and that is why the price could be much higher... My suggestion is to get back to us with type of DVR you already have.. and I am sure others will jump into this thread with even more recommendations... I can tell you that no IP solution out there is for you - cost vs. performance vs. maintenance vs. warranty... IP is not ready for prime time for residential applications... yet. It will make a perfect sense if the cost of the IP cameras become more reasonable and even more importantly, the IP software becomes substantially lower in cost or even better, not cost for the software... then your only other real cost will be a decent computer system with a lot of storage... so that you can take advantage of this solution... but I personally think it is not for homeowners as of yet...

My suggestion is to call CBC direct - http://computarganz.com/p.cfm?s=24&p=375 - they are very good providing support on all their products.

What is the make and the model of this DVR...

I have been using this company - http://videobaluns.com/ for a very long time... they mainly produce passive baluns and hubs... Decently priced and works very well in more than 1,000' video runs. They also have the tool-less version that works fairly good... Pricing should hover between $30 to $40 per pair (two baluns)... As for the power, you should run a separate 18/2 cable - most do anyway. The remainder pairs in the CAT5E could be used for your PTZ control... dependent on the protocol and required pairs of course.. We mainly use CAT6 cable due to its higher bandwidth capabilities...

These new Panasonic 504's are fine... chances are very good that these cameras were part of a bad initial batch when Panasonic introduced them... and we had our share of these type of problems... Of course, persuading Panasonic that it is a bad camera is yet another serious task, but at the end, they will change (or changed in our case). They did not tell us what were wrong with them, but the new replacements worked perfectly... 484 series are no longer avail from Panasonic, but you may find them with some distributors.. It was a great product while lasted, however the new 504 series is better performer.

What is the make and the model of your DVR???

TCC, unless if you can find newer version firmware for this unit, you will be stuck with maximum 140G storage per channel... I will suggest to contact GE and get the latest firmware and I am sure they will provide it... You may have to create an account with their website and chances are good that the latest firmware may be found there, or GE tech support can e-mail it to you... If so, be very careful how to upgrade the firmware - it is easy only if you know how to perform this task. As for the above problem of system not booting... When you are replacing the drive, the system first recognizes and then formats to its own... regardless if the hard drive contains any data or not. However, I have seen this problem when even after you change the hard drive, it sort of trying to boot, but does not.. What we confirmed the problem being is that the power supply is not providing enough power... and GE power supplies had problems in the past even when they were shipped brand new. All initial power supplies sent with GE recorders (all series of CBR, DSR and DVMRe) came with 5A external power supply... much later they confirmed that this power supply did not really performed well, as provided power was not enough for all the components. It was not that obvious initially, but over time, they started failing more often than usual... It has gotten worse when someone was trying to add more storage or add the second drive.. As a solution, GE came up with 7.5A version of the same power supply and all known problems pertinent to limited power supply went away... Here is the power supply that I am referring: [edit by mod-store link removed, please pm them the link] - This power supply actually helped us tremendously in fixing too many problems associated with adding more internal storage and up to 1.5TB in some models... Good luck and let us know the outcome...

Wow... amazing technology...

What's the question bud?.. Expert on this DVR, I am not... but I know enough to be dangerous...

I know of at least three...

We tested Hikvision 2MP camera outdoors.. it is not a good performer unless you have a lot of night lights. But then again even Arecont, Bosch, AD and others (coincidence is that most of such manufacturers cameras use the same chipset from Arecont) higher MP cameras are under performers during the night anyway... One of the posts in this thread shows night picture using Mobotix camera - it looks good as long as the area is very well lighted... I wander what the picture will look like if they turn of half of the light or more... There is one box camera from Grandstream - http://www.grandstream.com/products/gxv_series_surveillance/gxv3601/gxv3601.html - that we will test soon. According to its specs, it is a low light camera and ability to stream H.264 video... I guess we will see how it performs soon enough.

JD, do you have an average price points at this time for this 5MP camera? I tell you, very impressed with Hikvision cameras... they keep very minimal stock and most of the time, you should plan ahead if you intend to purchase large quantity - anything more than 10 units... otherwise you have to wait for at least 2 weeks for product arrival from China... Can not say much about the warranty response nor how they handle it, but from as little as we know, it could take 2 weeks or more to get replacement available... We tested their cameras with several software packages... it works and does fairly good job. The price points are very favorable... I just wish that they get on the gear and bring in more product for stock.