kriton

Rory, it would be wise to steer clear of General Solutions. I know they have a cool looking product, we almost started carrying it awhile ago. But they have long been rumored to be heading towards BK, so they might not be the best long term relationship, especially if you start selling alot of this stuff and they do go BK and your left hanging with all your customers that now have no factory support other than you.

I have mentioned this company before and I have to say we have sold many of these units with no problems at all. Features are good for the price. Nuvico 8-ch. Stand-alone DVR w/ Network . Model : NVDV-8000N . Key Features . * Embedded Linux Operating System * Built-in Multiplexer * Triplex Function * High Resolution * Hidden/Covert Camera Function * Built-in Web Server for LAN/WAN/Internet * Automatic E-mail Notification: External Alarm, Video Loss, Power Loss * Remote Access & Management from Client PC * Dedicated Multi-site/Enterprise Client S/W or Plug-In for Internet Explorer 6.0 * External Backup Devices(USB2.0) Support: CD-RW, DVD-RW, HDD, Flash Memory Stick * Mini Player: Auto install when backing up files into CD or DVD * Upto 600GB of Internal Storage * IR Remote Controller - Addressable upto 99 DVRs

You might want to check i3dvr. I have sold their POS DVR's with very good success. What I liked about their POS opposed to others is the fact that we can install the DVR's and connect one cable from the DVR to the register. No power losses will disrupt the time date sync between the two. We used to use the AVE black boxes with some other POS systems and this is a problem we had. Also the POS search is one the best I have seen. Its very detailed, and you can search for tons of different criteria. It brings up thumbnails, you click on the thumbnail and the clip plays. Its that easy for the customer, powerful too. Not cheap though. It probably a little more than Kalatel but in my opinion, well worth it. I forgot to mention, remote POS search and playback works pretty good too. Remember for POS especially, you get what you pay for. We already have the setup with the Pelican case as you mentioned with the i3DVR unit. All the power, and camera cords fit inside a pocket. And we have four color bullet cameras, as well as a 15" LCD monitor. So when we pull up, we can do a 4-camera demo with POS rather quickly. For regular DVR situations, there are many others that will do the same for alot less. But if you need POS, in my opinion, this is the best one out there right now. I'm not a rep, just a dealer passin along info...... Check it out i3dvr.com

None of those auto tracking domes work anyway. The one for Bosch is made by Kodicom and I have yet to see ot autotracking and work for any length of time without problem.

Buy a cheap DVR, dont waste your time....

Cobus was with GE just like Penny who is with inetcam also. They have a couple interesting products, web servers that also do local recording. They also support cell phone remote viewing. I demo'd the product, and it doesnt seem half bad. Kind of pricey though.

We've used KT&C cameras and they're pretty good for a budget camera.

or you could try a bigger hammer......

Looks like Cobus is repping the iNetCam line now......

We use a little portable unit that prints on heat shrink tubing. You slide it over the coax or 2-cond and heat it on the wire. It prints on different sizes of shrink tube cartridges. They look great and stay on forever. I did a service call on a job we installed in 1995, and it looked like it was installed yesterday.

ok thanks everyone...

Yes they do have newer cards. The interface is o.k, but the support is bad I agree.

Yeah I figured it would be slow, but alot of customers are asking for it now....

You could assume that in theory, yes, but I'm looking for feedback from anyone who has used this feature to some degree of success. I haven't really had a chance to sit down and test it out with any of the systems we've been installing. So I was wondering if anyone else had with theirs?

Same here. Seems interesting though.

If the DVR has a VGA output than yes you could direct it to the HDTV VGA input. The IR remote you mentioned does owrk if setup correctly. Sounds like you did your homework. Well done.

Monitoring from regular TV sets? You will need to modulate the output of your DVR and put the video output to the input of your cable system if you want to view from any TV in the house. You will have no control only vieiwng frrom these TV's. If you want to network the DVR, then you can see on any computer screen and also have control over live vieiwng and playback. I have used Nuvico for my customers similiar to your needs, and it has worked fine for them. I'm not partial to any DVR, there are lots of good ones out there, I'm just basing it on our experience selling and installing these units and your specs and price range.

There is alot in that range, have you tried Nuvico or Vitek, or Everfocus? Anyone of those may fit your budget.

Depends on what you're looking? What frame rate is needed. What compression are you looking for? PC based or standalone? Do you need networking? How long does the customer need to record for?

looks interesting.

I agree that Kalatel is good. But am I the only one who thinks the GUI of kalatel is outdated?

We have some of the k-pro cameras, they're decent.

UTP and baluns will work fine, no problem. You can get baluns for like $25 each nowadays....

Try thsi ASUS motherboard. I think thats what i3DVR uses for their DVR's using the Kodicom PCI boards.

I forgot to mention, stay away form General Solutions, they are having major money problems, possibly BK in the not too near future unless something spectacular happens. Has been general industry knowledge for some time now.