kaysadeya

I've had good luck buying used cameras on ebay. Never tried to buy any DVR-type hardware there though. However, if you can get something for a throw-away price, it's worth a shot. You'd also be able to report your experience on this forum and save others either some money or grief.

Next time consider getting siamese cable that has both the RG59 and two 18awg wires for power. Cheaper than two separate wires and much easier to run. The kind of wire you’re describing is best used for extension cords. I think the “loose fluffy thingiesâ€

You can buy RG6 with copper shielding and it's "better" than RG59 copper. However, unless you're going a really long distance, RG59 will likely be more than good enough.

Slats, I don’t mean to hammer on you because it took me a long time to figure out my computer wasn’t big enough to host the GeoVision card I wanted. Building a CCTV system is not a typical consumer-type process and that’s probably why you can’t buy quality CCTV gear at the Home Depot or Circuit City. However, you’ll discover that this forum is your best resource to help you through the process. You’ll have to learn a lot of details and make major investments on the faith that most what you read in this forum is true. Even then you will most likely make expensive mistakes. Building a CCTV system is a time-consuming process that takes a lot of detailed research. You can minimize the errors if you check and double-check the specs and ask questions here about the equipment you’re interested in before making the investment. I’m afraid the best you can expect from most suppliers is to answer an occasional question and to make good on a replacement if the unit they sent you failed.

It's official! Bush is going to address the nation tonight to report on an "Al Qaeda Cookie Conspiracy."

Right, Rory.... How many fingers do you see?

You heard it here first folks! This news should be national by this evening and world-wide by tomorrow morning.

For the non-British needing a translation: http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/ZT.HTM

I don't have any use for an indoor camera. I might move it, if I can't work out the lighting problem. I was originally going to use one of those new-fangled Bosch day/night domes at that location, but blew most of my budget on the Sammy 721s.

No way! It’s a professional operation. I don’t want to spread any rumors, but I have it on good authority that the cookies are made at some secret location in Mexico. The whole operation is overseen by some sort of mysterious Cookie Lord who has close ties to higher-ups in both the Mexican government and the DEA in the US. The profits are laundered through operatives in Las Vegas and then distributed to the TV networks to fund reality shows. There are evil forces out there trying to rot our teeth, expand our waistlines, and make us even dumberer. We all need CCTV systems so we can watch our own reality shows, not those funded by the government! (One of our cats already has a cult following.) Ok, I'm still going to try to stay out of this one...

Well, the Girl Scout issue is major and I couldn't help myself...

Don’t get me started on those Girl Scouts!! Their ethics are below those of the average crack dealer. I mean they get you hooked on those cookies and then jack the price every year. Who makes those cookies anyway and why can’t I buy them directly from them?

I'm staying out of this one....

I'm staying out of this one...

Yes, it's cheap. I think the problem is that it's getting way too much IR light from the UF100 reflected off the car. I played back a portion where I went to reposition the camera. At one point, my head blocked the light from the UF100 and the image around the edges of the frame became clear. Not sure where to go from here, but the night image is totally unacceptable.

I never understood why racks are so expensive.

I have to retract what I said about the WPX-2330. Maybe someone here can explain why, but the night view of our black car is horrible. The first couple of nights we covered the car with a silver car cover, but tonight we left it off and the image is very noisy and lots of blushing where the IR lighting reflects off the paint. I have a cheap Lorex B&W that looks much better at night.

Sounds nice. I'm old enough to remember a time when locking the door was an after-thought and you could leave the top down on your convertible car in public places. Now I lock everything up by muscle-memory – don’t even think about it. I don’t mean to portray that things are out of control where I live, but all sides of my house are exposed to any passerby and having an effective CCTV system is piece of mind. For example, without a CCTV system in the backyard, I wouldn’t leave my chipper there and would probably always lock the sliding door when I take a shower. Having a CCTV system relieves most of the constant low-level paranoia I have acquired from various experiences over the years. But that’s just me. I don’t want to be anyone’s victim and am technically inclined, so installing a CCTV system is a natural defense. My motto is “Plan for the worse, but hope for the best.â€

I'm sticking with my soldering iron.... "One more step and we're talking third degree buster!!"

No worries. The turbans would clash with the Bermuda shorts.

No such thing as "too much infomation" in this forum. Thanks. Yes, I’ve seen some mentions of “IR correctedâ€

Then you're probably ok. But as bryan1656 said, you might want to ping an attorney to be sure your back is covered. In many cases, audio is as important as video. Video without audio is only half of the story.

Can you expand on this? Where, exactly, is it illegal for you? This is very interesting for me, and maybe for others out there. Maybe we can come up with a good list of places where it's legal and not. Thanks! Sorry, I just saw your reply... From what I understand, in most US states (if not all), it's illegal to do audio surveillance without posting a sign at the ingress points to the area being monitored. In my case that would be my front and back yard, which wouldn’t be practical. Personally, I wouldn’t be interested in recording conversations as detecting the nature and location of a particular sound. But it’s not practical in my case.

Interesting. This is probably the problem. By the way, where can one get optically correct/clear glass that doesn’t block IR light?

This is one of those "fat" bullets. The IR appears to work pretty good, though I'd have to turn off the extremes to confirm how well. What's nice about this particular unit is that it comes with a replacement LED array to use when the original one burns out. So far, I'm happy with this camera. The ebay price is a good deal.