huwbler

Hi Guys, I'm just wondering if there are any installers hanging around on these forums that had any experience with POS-systems which output sales and register information via RS-232. I know that some DVR systems natively support the capture, interpretation, and overlay of this information on a camera input. My question is this; are there any RS-232 digital-to-analogue converters that allow a POS to display the sales information as a composite video signal? Or is this only for the territory of DVRs with native support. Thanks!!

Nope it's OEM. AV-Tech make a fine product but they don't like making any changes at all, the prefer to just churn out the volume. So getting them to make any changes (read: improvements) to graphics/menu layout & text etc is difficult or impossible although i'm sure it would be a different story if you wanted to buy 50,000 units though!

Hey bpzle, You're correct. There is a small selection of products in the Swann range which are sourced from AV-Tech. It's a good thing too, because they usually manufacture excellent hardware with top notch reliability! Their good performance with network access is the reason you'll find them in our range, and considering they use Java for remote viewing this makes them compatible with Mac too. AV-Tech are a giant when it comes to Entry & Medium level DVRs. According to AV-Tech, they say that they are the biggest manufacturer of DVRs in the world

Check under the status section of the router to confirm that you do not have a double-NAT routing situation. For example, check the WAN or Internet IP Address to see if it begins with 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x, if it does then you will either need to bridge the modem which you have connected to it or will need to DMZ or Port Forward (NAT) your modem. Also, check if you need to port forward any additional ports on each DVR (e.g. an RTSP or data port). What sort of router and/or modem are you using?

Exactly. Frame, in this context, is abbreviated from 'Full Frame' and is the higher resolution setting, equivalent to 4CIF. It will offer you a higher picture quality from each camera, but at the sacrifice of hard drive space and/or recording frame rate (also referred to as IPS/Images Per Second by some developers in China). So, basically FRAME = 4CIF. QCIF = 176 × 144 (Quarter-CIF) CIF = 352 × 288 4CIF = 704 × 576 (4x CIF) 16CIF = 1408 × 1152 (16x CIF) Hope this helps guys (a bit late, i know!)

Hi Guys, Long time lurker, first time poster. My name is Huw and I take care of technical support for Swann Australia, and have worked within the company for more than 5 years. After noticing that there were a number of questions on Swann products that were being asked on these boards, I thought it wise to make myself available to answer them. Hopefully I can offer the inside scoop on those tough-to-crack problems, and can share my technical understanding of the Swann products and general CCTV. I'm sure there will be plenty to learn too. I'm fully aware that there are many companies out there that offer a superior product compared with Swann, but our market is the Home/Small Office/DIY/The cost focused consumer. Please don't hesitate to PM me if you have any questions.

Hi Michael, Typically the clarity of the picture will be reduced at night-time and you can generally see this effect in low-light conditions. The sensor on the camera must compensate for the low light conditions and increases the gain or 'sensitivity' accordingly, this unfortunately means that you will often get slightly snowy (noisy) pictures at night time with this level of camera. You can indeed get cameras that use a higher sensitivity CCD sensor, although these are likely to be more expensive. You might like to try using a motion activated (PIR) flood-lights as suggested by stevecameraman, or if your intention was more covert, you could try using IR flood-lights. You'll need to use ones which are around the 850-920nm range. If that's no good, then switch to a higher sensitivity CCD sensor. Look out for more surface area on the sensor (e.g. 1/3" over 1/4"), and a better low lux rating on the camera. When it comes to the difference between MPEG4 and h.264, MPEG4 is your best choice if video quality is your concern. Although h.264 can be viewed as a more advanced method for compressing video, and is often more space efficient given the same level of image quality, the compression profile that is used on the Swann h.264 DVRs is often quite low due to the extreme processor demand when compared with that of MPEG4. If you wanted to compress video on your PC, h.264 without a doubt. DVR with high compression profile h.264 codec, or high compression profile MPEG4? h.264 no doubt. A DVR with limited processing power that was using either low-profile h.265 or mid/high-profile MPEG4? go for MPEG4. Hope this helps /edit: typo + add signature