ChuckP

I took AGC and BLC off after rory made the recommendation. I think my best bet will be going with IR, the UF100 looks affordable and looks like it will work in my application. Due to restrictions in the community setting up spot lights where the cameras are aimed would be too much of a problem.

The cameras during the day look real good though; they look pretty much in focus and not far from what they look like on a monitor. http://www.deerwoodleasing.com/dvr/daylight.jpg Do you think having a infrared spotlight would help during the nighttime?

The card was a MP5016 Avermedia with 120fps recording (however I found out later 5fps max per camera) which does not make a whole lot of sense. Im looking forward to some sort of software update that may fix this. The price I paid was $850 from an online retailer.

Well I did expect some loss but on the monitor it looks brilliant.. I think one of the problems is I have the system running on a 1ghz 256mb RAM machine and it appears that most people use around 2ghz. Do you think that could change the quality? I have the cameras set to 640x480 now and 5fps recording per camera. The only question I have left is it has the option of recording JPEG or MPEG-4, whats recomended?

Oky I setup a TV and connected it to the cameras. After I adjusted the cameras they looked great on the TV, however when they are connected to the DVR system they are grainy and slightly out of focus... Is this something I should expect from a digital DVR system? AverMedia was by no means cheap but it wasnt one of the high end systems either. Do you think I would have bettter luck with a different unit? Here is a shot: http://deerwoodleasing.com/dvr/configured.jpg

Will do and I will post pictures when Im done so others can see the pic quality from these cameras/DVR system.

Thanx guys for the quick responses, here is a copy of the manual: http://www.visualsecurity.com/downloads/pdfs/sony/sscm183_383.pdf my configuration is as followed: (DC/Video): DC (LL/INT): INT (OFF/AGC): AGC (OFF/BLC): BLC (OFF/CCD-IRIS): OFF On V-Phase I have it all the way to + (I didn't notice any difference in changing it). On Level I have it all the way to + then back about a 1/4 turn (This would bleach the image all the way + and make it pitch black at -). The power is AC24V from a fused box on power backup. Also rory, thanx for the compliment I figured it was time to put some cameras up, ever since we have had our house egged and firworked to death. The kids who eggs us the last time didnt get away

Those are actually the sun shades as those two cameras get a lot of sun prior to sundown. I dont have any CCTV monitors, will a normal TV work with a BNC connector on one side to the camera and a TV connector to the TV? right now Ive used a cell phone to talk with someone else looking at the monitor, very difficult, if I did this as a profession I think I would buy one of those handheld monitors