bmw1999m3

Basically just something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/312838223236 and hooking it into a typical DVR audio-in RCA jack

I've used cheap chinese RG59 cable (with Copper Clad Aluminum center conductor) with absolutely zero issues whatsoever. Picture quality always is perfect. Granted my longest runs have only been a few hundred feet, so maybe pure copper is preferred if you're going thousands of feet, but I even tested out a camera on a 1000' spool of the CCA cable and the picture looked fine. Not sure why it gets such a bad rap.

Hello, what is the best type of wire to use for CCTV audio? I've tried using ethernet twisted pairs and standard RCA audio signal cable but I still have buzzing/humming I want to eliminate. Thanks.

Many of my cameras IR-Cut LED Boards are having LEDs going out. Are these just unreliable and prone to failure or are they highly sensitive to proper supply voltage or what? Help appreciated. Thanks.

Hello, on my home security camera installation I used cat5 when I first set it up, which I later regretted after finding out how superior coax was for video. I installed baluns and ground loop isolators which fixed some video quality problems, but was still glitchy(tearing, flickering, video anomalies). Then I tried an AHD camera on the same wiring and haven't had any more glitching(so far). Is this because AHD is better suited for cat5 twisted pair wiring compared to regular analog video? Are some video standards more compatible with UTP wiring or vice versa? If I can get away with replacing my regular analog cameras with AHD cameras instead of replacing all my wiring, it would be much easier. Thanks.

Hello, so I know coaxial cables like RG59 and even RG6 are widely used for CCTV cameras, but what about smaller coax cables like the types used in cars? For example if you take apart a BMW back panel to expose the antenna amplifier, there is a small 1/8" coax cable running the length of the car. Could something like this be used for CCTV video? It would be useful for reducing cable bulkiness, not having to drill such big holes in walls to run cable bundles, etc. Input appreciated, thx.

Hello. If the standard power wire size for security cameras is 18 AWG, then why do all the power "pigtail splitter" adapters I see on the market have a crappy little 20 or 22 gauge wire in them? It seems to me like this would be a 'bottleneck' in the power distribution. You'd think even 18 gauge would be too small when you've got multiple cameras being powered on that wire. Nevertheless, I tried it anyway and the cameras worked fine and wire didn't get hot. Is it because wire thickness only matters when considering great distances/runs where volt drop becomes a problem?

Depends on how much you want to spend. I am not familiar with using Dropbox but most cheap DVR's these days support all the motion detection, phone app support, internet/remote monitoring support, etc. I started off by just getting one of those fairly cheap DVR's on Ebay (just type something like "4 channel DVR" in the search, sort by price->lowest to highest, then look at DVRs around the $30-$40 range). Then you can get some standard 12v cameras which cost about $10-$15 a piece and get the appropriate length of cable you want, hard drive size, etc. This is what I did and am still very happy with my cameras after several years of constant use.

Hi, what exactly is the "termination" feature on a DVR? I can set this feature ON or OFF for any specified video channel. All it apparently does is change the brightness- I don't get it. Insight would be appreciated. Thanks

I am using basic analog cameras. I thought baluns were needed on both ends if using cat5 because it is 100 ohm cable. The GLI's I have are marketed as GLI's+Baluns, that's why I used them at the camera end: To break the shared power and signal ground inherent to these cameras, and also because it's how I got the best image quality so far. I have tried using regular baluns on both ends, and still had lots of signal issues because of the ground loops. I have also tried GLI's only without baluns on the DVR end, but the image quality had even more issues that way. Not sure why some channels clean up perfectly and some don't, despite trying all the same devices in every combination.

I cut into the cat5 sheath and pulled out the twisted pairs where I want the camera located. Some are further down the line than others. I don't know if that's what you meant by extending but that's what I thought you meant. There is no significant length of signal wire that is not twisted pair(just the pigtail hanging out of the camera). I honestly did not understand. I have baluns on all channels at the DVR because I thought that's where the 100 ohm wire needed to be converted back to 75 ohm, it is also what gave me the best results for cleaning up the images on problematic cameras(in combination with a GLI at the camera end). I still have a couple cams with bad picture quality despite trying baluns and GLI's on them, with no improvement.

I have 16 cameras positioned around my property. Cat5 for security camera systems is supposed to be acceptable up to 1000 ft. Trust me, none of my cameras are anywhere near that far away. The cable runs are at maximum 150 feet or so. Is it really that important that I get a tape measure and go measure all of my exact wire lengths and give you 16 different measurements? Trust me, none of the cameras are at extreme distance. On any given cat5 cable I have cameras placed at various lengths because why would I want 4 cameras all right next to each other at the ends of the cables? Yes they are extended(if I'm understanding your question correctly). I am using real baluns with coils in them (not the fake ebay ones that are actually just connector tips). I don't see why a 10A power supply is not good enough. The current draw of each camera is only 80mA daytime and 260mA in nighttime IR mode... That's less than 5 amps maximum for all cams total during highest load, with 5 whole extra amps available for spikes. Even if power were an issue, why would the camera still be putting out a bad image when I plug them into a test battery? Power availability is not the problem.

I don't understand the question about terminating each camera at cable end... ? At the end of the cable I spliced on a BNC connector and plugged in the camera. I don't understand what else there is to do..?? Most of my cameras have GLI's at the cable end (between cable end and camera). The ones that don't are because the GLI's and baluns haven't helped the picture quality anyway. At the DVR end I have a balun on each channel. The cable lengths vary because the cameras are positioned at various corners of the house. They are powered with a 12VDC 10A power supply with their own dedicated power wire(not running power down a cat5 twisted pair). I already know it's not a power problem because plugging in the cameras with poor video signals directly to their own power supply does not fix the issue (They aren't low on voltage or amperage). I am using copper cable and the baluns are passive.

I already know all my cameras are good- any time I see a problem that's basically the first test I do, by removing the camera and plugging it directly into a monitor inside my office. As I stated in my previous post, If I go with coax I'd have to run all new signal cables (16 cables running through my wall for 16 cameras). I'd rather minimize the amount of cabling I'd have to run (hence cat5). As for power, I am already running a separate dedicated 16-gauge power wire for all of my cameras to maximize the usefulness of the cat5 for video signals. So I know power is not an issue (I know how to test for voltage at plugs and even if I didn't, I have a portable 12v battery I use for testing purposes-I know there's no power delivery problem).

Thanks for the reply. I know it's not a power problem because I have a portable 12v battery I use for testing purposes. Plugging the camera directly into the battery didn't make a difference, signal quality is still terrible at DVR end. I'm thinking the problem must lie within the wire but I don't see how because I didn't pinch/crimp or break the wire anywhere. I have had rotten luck with these cat5 analog camera systems and have been fighting signal degradation issues since the beginning on multiple cameras. Sometimes baluns and Ground Loop Isolators fix quality issues on some cameras, but not on others, and I don't know why because they are all set up the same way. For example on some cameras I had crosstalk/rolling effects and the image cleaned up perfectly with a GLI. On other cameras with the same problem I would install the GLI and the image would go completely black, or have no improvement at all. I've even tried swapping replacement GLI's and Baluns in case they were bad, and they were not. It's really hit and miss and I don't understand it. I have good connections and am certain the wires couldn't be this problematic because of the sheer amount of signal issues I've had over the years with all brands of cat5 cabling. Whether it's cheap or expensive wire, I've still experienced signal quality issues on both and I haven't narrowed down the cause yet. The signal is traveling down probably about 150' of cable. I use a single pair for each camera signal (for example, solid green for camera signal + and striped green for camera signal -)I have already tried plugging the BNC into other DVR channels and even into a screen input source directly with no changes in quality. If I can't figure out how to get reliable and consistent results with cat5, I'm thinking of switching to coax. So far I haven't because I don't want to run a bundle of 16 cables through a hole in my wall if I can fit 16 camera channels on 4 cat5 cables instead.