GREGRUSH

The definition of TVLs (or its full name: HTVLs) is: Horizontal Television Lines: the number of VERTICAL black and white lines that can be counted horizontally on a space equal to the height of the screen. Ok, to put it in layman terms: take a TV screen (aspect ration 4:3, that is 4 wide, 3 high) and put a picture in it that consists of vertical black and white lines. You can distinctly see the lines (not a gray pattern). Then measure the height of the screen and use that measurement to set the limit of the amount of lines you can count from left to right . You should end up with a perfect square full of black and white lines. COUNT them (horizontally). if you get 500. that is 500 TVLs. That is how TVLs work and it applies to ANALOG cameras on what is called STANDARD RESOLUTION. The maximum amount of TVLs for NTSC (USA) is 704. for PAL (EUROPE) is 720. There is also DVR resolution and it has to be good enough to handle what the camera puts out. For Standard Resolution there is CIF, D1 and 960H 960H is the best one and it can handle cameras with 700 TVLs. it is also called WD1 (Wide D1) coz it is a system that gives you a "better picture" by taking the pixels generated on a D1 system and duplicating each one. It is also called by us the "Fat D1" HD is High Definition, but still Analog (not IP). They can be 1080p or 720p. The cameras work not on TVLs but on MP (Mega Pixels) the "p" in 1080p means PIXELS. The DVR has to be compatible with the HD technology of the camera. There are several: HD-SDI, HD-CVI, HD-TVI, HD-TUBO, etc. There are also hybrid and tribrid DVRs. This means that they can work with various technologies: CIF/D1/960H (Standard Resolution), HD (such as HDCVI) and IP. In some cases, they have some channels dedicated to analog, some to HD and some to IP 1200TVL cameras... Im sure some clerk got busy making out some formulas converting TVLs to pixels or pixels to TVLs in order to market their cameras with a bigger number. These are just analog cameras. Probably D1 or 960H. NOT HD and NOT IP. Probably 600TVL. It looks like you have some type of HD system (1080p with BNC connector), so this 1200TVL camera will NOT work with your system. TVL cameras are soon fading away as they dont give good quality footage. These are installed by people that need a CCTV system just for legal requirement (not due to security concern). These days, most systems are either HD systems (HDSDI, HDCVI, HDTVI, etc.) or IP. When you buy a PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) camera be sure it is with a resolution that your DVR can handle. Also, be sure your DVR has the control connection for it (RS485). Keep on looking, there are lots of PTZ cameras that are IP cameras, but there are also quite a few HD PTZ cameras out there! Good luck with your system! Gregory Rovira logging off!

A Wifi extender, Wifi repeater or an Access Point will do it. Even some routers can act as signal repeaters. Anything that can extend a wireless network as these are IP cameras

I have worked a lot with these cards. As far as I know is a no can do. However, if you access the cameras remotely using the DSL multi-view option, you CAN select which channel you want it to show up in your quad screen configuration. You can even display the same channel four times if you want! So that would be a solution: setup the web cam server, acces the cameras on LAN through the web browser and see the working channels on your screen. (you first click on the channel, then on the screen for it to show up) Hope that helps, let me know how it goes! Good luck with your installation! Gregory Rovira and 54C9 logging off!

You are missing some steps. Ill lay it all out for you: 1- enable DHCP on DVR 2- setup an HTTP Port (NOT 80! and not anything below 2000!) 3- if there is a media port, set it up too (not the same as the above) 4- if there is a mobile port, set it up (not the same as any of the above) 5- go into your router and enable DHCP 6- Reserve the IP address to your DVR on your router or... disable DHCP on DVR AFTER it has gotten an IP from the router 7- Setup your DVR as a virtual server on your router or... set it up in games/apps or in port forwarding Be sure to set it up for TCP and UDP 8-Enable DMZ and setup the DVR as the host for the DMZ Thats it. you can view the DVR remotely using the IP address OF YOUR MODEM However, this address usually changes. In which case you need to A-contact your provider and get a STATIC IP ADDRESS or, B-set up a DDNS account (No-IP.com, ChangeIP.com, DynDNS.com) 9-If you set up a DNS account, enable DDNS on your router (enter User name, password and Domain name) 10- Reboot router (most wont change the settings unless this is done) Access your DVR remotely on the web using DNS:HTTP PORT (ie: mycameras.freedns.org:8080). try using Internet Explorer and be sure to activate the ActiveX controls on your browser Access your DVR remotely on your smartphone using the correct app for the DVR and using the MOBILE port (if it the DVR has one). If the DVR does not have a mobile port, just use the HTTP Port. That is all. Good luck with your system! Gregory Rovira and 54C9 logging off!

RG6 cable that is 100% copper and 100% wire mesh shield works always best and it gives you less failures and thus, less of a headache in the future. Having said that, most of us prefer UTP Cat5e stranded cable (100% copper, tight twist) coz it is easier to handle. Video Power Baluns are always preferred coz they use the RJ45 ports and connectors and transmit both: video and power over the same cable run. The limit on those is 100 meters. Video Baluns (only video) will extend your signal to 400 meters (you just gotta make sure to make a good connection and get it well protected too) What you propose is also valid: 4 cameras going to a hub video balun using coax cable and from there to another hub with UTP cable. The receiver hub then hooks up each channel to the DVR. Good luck with your system! Gregory Rovira and 54C9 logging off!

The definition of TVLs (or its full name: HTVLs) is: Horizontal Television Lines: the number of VERTICAL black and white lines that can be counted horizontally on a space equal to the height of the screen. Ok, to put it in layman terms: take a TV screen (aspect ration 4:3, that is 4 wide, 3 high) and put a picture in it that consists of vertical black and white lines. You can distinctly see the lines (not a gray pattern). Then measure the height of the screen and use that measurement to set the limit of the amount of lines you can count from left to right . You should end up with a perfect square full of black and white lines. COUNT them (horizontally). if you get 500. that is 500 TVLs. That is how TVLs work and it applies to analog cameras. The maximum amount of TVLs for NTSC is 704. for PAL is 720. 960H refers to DVR resolution. It can handle cameras with 700 TVLs. it is also called WD1 (Wide D1) coz it is a system that gives you a "better picture" by taking the pixels generated on a D1 system and duplicating each one. It is also called by us the "Fat D1" HD is High Definition, but still Analog (not IP). Yes, they can be 1080p or 720p. Bue be careful: Ive also seen 1200TVL cameras (he he he): Im sure some clerk got busy making out some formulas converting TVLs to pixels or pixels to TVLs in order to market their cameras with a bigger number. Analog cameras are soon fading away as they dont give good quality footage. These are installed by people that need a CCTV system just for legal requirement (not due to security concern). These days, most systems are either HD systems (HDSDI, HDCVI) or IP. Good luck with your system! Gregory Rovira logging out!

Wow, you really spent quite a bit of time painting a very accurate picture of your situation, what you got in hand and what you want to accomplish! I will tell you a system that will work for you and will get you what you want: Get Geovision DVR based on PC. These are PCI-E cards that come with 4,8 and 16 channels. you can expand your system just buying more cards, inserting them on your PCI-E slot and interconnecting each one. They come for Windows and Linux systems. Have enough FPS to handle 30FPS for each channel, integrated sound channels, awesome motion detection configuration, video analytics (missing object detection, unattented object detection, traffic counting, etc.) it can activate alarms, control PTZ cameras with ease and have a really easy to use interface (windows-like). HOWEVER, you need to have a powerful PC to get the most out of such cards. Google "Geovision" and see what they have. Yes, you will get low quality on any analog system out there. If you want good quality footage you gotta go with IP or HD systems (HDCVI, HDSDI or HDTVI) make sure cameras and DVR are compatible, coz you cant mix technologies. HDCVI is usually a good choice: not too expensive and it does the job. IP is good, but consumes a lot of your bandwith (which may not be an issue on a home-based system) True, bad wires are an issue. best for CCTV is RG6 cable that 100% copper and 100% mesh shield. But most of us use for convenience UTP cable. If you use UTP, best is to use UTP CAT5e stranded cable and make sure the twist is tight (not loose). Dont forget to make your system burglar-deterrent: big camera housings for outside cameras, floodlights with motion sensors and signs that warn people that they are being watched / recorded Placing microphones are always a big legal issue. Check out what you can/cant do according to local laws. The issue you mentioned with Chinese DVRs recording on chinese servers is due to CCTV technicians that do not have a clue on networking and how to setup a system to be viewed remotely... so the guys who sell DVRs (the chinese) now sell DVRs where all you have to do is log the serial number of the DVR and they will host the videos on their server for you. This is easily solved: Dont use their service! just get a router, forward the DVR port, set up a DNS account and view your cameras remotely on the internet or on your smartphone. Not a big deal (if you know what you are doing) Hope this was of help Good luck with your system!

Oh brother... Passwords with security systems are a touchy issue and in many cases you end up loosing the DVR. However, there are several options I have found successful: 1- Open the DVR and see if it has a small battery. Just like in a computer, take it out, wait a while (this could be 2-5 mins in some systems while in others it may take up to 2 hours). This clears out the memory of the system and leaves the DVR with factory default configurations 2- If there is no battery, look for a reset button, a reset jumper or a microswitch 3- If no luck with either one of those, another way is to access the DVR via LAN and change the settings using the CMS software. It uses a different user ID and pasword so getting in it should not be too much trouble. Give these methods a try and good luck!