PHAND

Could you be a little more specific? What are you looking to test for? Typically you just turn it all on and make adjustments for what you want to see.

Who setup and installed the equipment originally? Are they able to help? CenterV2 can be a bit of a pain to set up unless you have some idea on basic networking, port redirection, static vs. dynamic IP addresses, etc.. It's not a cut and dry walk-through sort of situation.

You sure it's not aluminum shielding? That's pretty common. Never heard of aluminum core. Heard of copper clad steel, but not aluminum. I'll never use CCS either.

I have a client with a cottage in the middle of nowhere, meaning no high speed internet connection, but the cottage does have a telephone line. He wants to be able to check on the cottage from time with images from the camera. I've explained to him that there is pretty much no way he is going to be able to pump video down the line of a 33.6k modem, but he may be able to download some timed snapshots. Anyone aware of a device that will allow you to dial into it with a modem, retrieve images from connected cameras, and then view them?

My guess is you are not redirecting all the ports required for remote viewing, or you are using the wrong password. You may be able to login using a control port, but the video may go over a different port. This would explain more why it would work on the local network. Check your documentation to be sure you are redirecting the right ports and that you have the router set up properly.

Oh, and put a motion sensor activate light outside. You'll find that may deter would-be vandals more than a camera hidden somewhere that they don't know about.

Costco, aisle 6. Or find yourself one of those DLink network cameras. Doesn't require a DVR, just a place to upload images. You could probably find one on ebay or some online retailer. Image quality is not great, but it will work. If you want good image quality and features expect to pay closer to $800 for an IP camera. More for weatherproof.

What resolution? CIF, 1/2D1, D1? What compression scheme? MJPEG, MPEG4, H264? You are doing POS, are you doing an overlay as well? Are you recording continuous or just based on motion? If you are not recording based on motion, why not?

In-wall speaker wire should be just fine. We've run 16g wire (stamped rated for 300V) many times. If you are talking about that transparent sheath stuff, then forget it. I don't even recommend that stuff as actual speaker wire.

Do you actually want us to post the reply? Tip is just that... the TIP of the plug. Ring is the ring of the plug. Two separate conductors insulated from each other on a phono type connector commonly used on the old switchboards to connect a telephone call by an operator. No google.. Just a lot of reading as a kid.

Stupid question first, is everything still plugged in? Plug the cameras into something else such as a video input on a TV to verify there is an issue with the monitor itself. Then try plugging a known working video source into the monitor, such as a VCR.

Video cannot be daisy chained. Each camera will need to be home run with its own cable for video and fed into it's own input on your recording device.

Using a mutliplexer would be fine. They can select to display any one of the cameras, or autosequence between all the cameras, or display 4/8/16 at a time, etc.. Or you could purchase a DVR that has a video output and will essentially create a tile of cameras for you. That may actually be cheaper in some cases.

I've seen them stuffed inside drop ceilings along with the alarm box. Not really the best idea due to firecodes and such, but..

Hi there; I'm a low-voltage contractor specializing in new homes in the Greater Toronto Area. While I mainly concentrate on residential construction for home theatre/automation, I've been finding myself adding more and more cameras to custom homes these days. I went to college originally for video production, so that education has helped out tremendously when it comes to the technical aspects of video technology and how to apply/troubleshoot it.

If there is a heater on site, I pile boxes around it to warm them up. Usually they have been sitting in the van over night. I usually refuse to do anything if it's less than -10C on site. cat5 sheath just breaks when pulling it out of the box. It's warmer now, just unfortunately no pre-wire jobs for the next while.

Not sure I understand your description/question. What do you mean 'only uses up the coax'? If it's a video camera (as opposed to IP camera) then it will transmit its video from the camera to recording device over a coax cable. You will also need to get power to the camera. That can be done locally where the camera is, or run some 18g or better pair wire along side the coax and plug it in near the recorder. As for controlling it, if this is a PTZ type camera, then you will need to run the appropriate cabling between the camera and whatever you are going to control it with. RS232 has a limited run length that I wouldn't put past 25'. RS485 is much longer. If you are unable to run a control wire to the camera and want to use the existing coax, I'm sure there is some sort of device to allow that. But I'm guessing it will not be cheap.

Only because the cable gets cold and is tougher to pull out of the box.. But it still gets done!

There is a significant amount of unknown variables and it would be best if actually there to better guess as to the optical requirements. Just set the camera up and view it. If it's not an acceptable image for viewing faces, move it closer. Repeat. The capture card doesn't even figure into the equasion until you can get an image off of the camera that you are happy with.

With cat6 you may find distances are marginally shorter for things like power due to the fact that cat6 has a higher twist ratio. This may even out with the use of 22/23g cat6 instead of 24g.

This would be contained in the specs for whatever manufacture/model of housing that you have.

A high resolution television? Pretty much any TV made within the last 10 years should be able to display a standard NTSC signal generated by a video camera. What make/model camera are you trying to use?

I've done the same thing except using OnQ's little 3.5" LCD screens. It has a 3 way rocker switch on it. Up = camera 1, down = camera 2, middle = off. It mounts in a 3-gang frame (do NOT use an enclosed box), run cat5 to it from it's power/input module which can be located elsewhere. Here's a picture.. phand.ca/doorlcd.jpg

While you could use software to digitally 'zoom' in on an image, it will not be able to create something from nothing. It just makes the pixels bigger. Disregard all the crap you see on CSI and other TV shows. Your best bet is to maybe add a camera closer to where you want, or add another camera with suitable optics zoomed in to the right area. If it's gated, put one right near the gate.

You have multiple ground points. Electricity will travel the shortest path to ground. You 'should' have all the cameras fed to one power supply. They 'should' all pass through the same grounding block, which 'should' also go to the exact same ground that the computer is plugged into. The DVR computer is plugged into the electrical system and runs over (presumably) to the main ground. You then have your cameras running through a grounding block, but they are grounded to a different rod. What may be happening is that something else on the same circuit as the computer is getting spiked and finds that the shortest path to ground is the computer which has a ground rod attached to it Geo card inputs. That's my theory at least.