CSG

The Embedded DVR's are still more reliable than PC based. I never had a embedded like Dedicated Micros, or Samsung GVI stop recording and need a reboot. My dedicated Geo server (with all the latest hardware, MOBO, big memory, fast processor, blah blah blah,XP & latest service packs) has hung up a few times. I only use it for testing & demonstation, so for this purpose it doesn't matter. I run 3 other Win2k Advanced Server & 2003 Exchange Sever, they all need rebooting from time to time. The last thing you want after an incident is to find your DVR hung up on the blue screen of death, or one of those "send/don't send" error reports on the desktop. I can lock an embedded in a safe and come back a year later and it's still recording. That's the reliablilty I sell my clients. Windoze will crash given enough time. Perhaps if Windows can set to automatically reboot itself every 24 hours that would help to refresh fragmented memory, clean up memory leaks, clear hung drivers and such.

check your mobo docs, sometimes its the ATA drive that's the boot drive, usually the other ATA is the CD drive.

2 double pole double throw switches and a 9v battery will work a computar lens. 1 switch for focus and 1 for zoom.

I like the bigger drives cause it uses less of the drive controller slots. I think think the 500gb drives are the best price point right now. ( I know u said price wasn't a factor). I am using an Asus board that has 4 Sata and 6 Ide. Even after the CD and 1 drive for the OS, thats still 8 drives for storage! Can't really see much advantage of the smaller drives other than a cheaper dollar/Gigabyte ratio.

A true day/night goes click when you place your hand over the lens :^)

This is better and my "goto" camera for day-night: http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/DisplayModel?m=10001&p=3&sp=145&id=68026

I've strung up one aerial cable with 1/4" galvanized wire rope, a turnbuckle, shackles, and wire clips. I strung along some quad cable with it to control the zoom/focus. It's been up there a few years no problems.

Yeah, just make sure your mother/b has 2 PCIe express slots, since you'll want your video card to be PCIe also.

That's fine if you have a client that doesn't need to ask the price, but just signs the proposal on the dotted line. Unfortunately they are few & far between. At any rate I can still build my own pole if I need to for less, make extra margin, and still have a cheaper overall proposal. At one job they needed cameras at the far end of the parking lot as cars were being vandalized. The end of the lot was 200' away from the building, with a driveway at the far end. There was an existing lightpole there that I could mount cameras on. Now how to run the coax from the building to the lightpole without trenching the asphalt parking lot? After standing in the lot for awhile, I happened to notice storm sewers that ran the length of the parking lot. Aha! I ran the coax from the storm drain nearest the light pole to the storm drain next to the building, just needed a snake and picked up the wire from each drain which was spaced about 50' apart. I just need to dig a few feet from the back of the storm drain to the bottom of the light pole to conceal my wire (underground rated coax). Now I could have quoted trenching the lot, and patching with asphalt, but I knew that would be outside the clients budget. Stringing an aerial wire was undesirable too.

ADI won't sell to you unless your a licensed installer, or in the security business.

Those are basically still camera's,, and cctv by defintion is closed circuit television,, which a still camera is not.

I'm not sure but the only difference between the D shell and DVI seems to be the octopus connector for the cameras. Anyhow I have the D shell type and it seems to work fine. My monitor is DVI but that connects to the graphics card.

That's a good one!

The Good news is you got got a customer for life, the bad news is they are 80 years old

I like the optex beams too, but in some applications its not practical to run a wire for the far beam. For instance I installed a Optex outdoor PIR connected to a Vista 20 panel, with a NearNet radio/cell comminicator to protect a construction site. I also installed 2 stobe lights and 2 outdoor sirens, along with a CCTV system. One night the local crackhead jumped the fence, it was funny as hell to watch the playback, see him step into the detection area, see the strobes flashing, and then watch him go airborne to get back over the fence.

most probably look at the price, and the focal length, in that order

yeah, or do it yourself. you can do alot with a bandsaw, stickwelder, and drill press. One of our related companies has a machine shop / truck repair shop, so we make it ourself.

Optex PIRs work pretty good, they have one that does about 75' x 6' for outdoor use. Not affected by sunsets, car headlights.

This is where having a shop with some welding/fabricating capabilty comes in handy.

Those drill powered poles are nice, but pricey. On one job I was considering it, but due to cost considerations, opted to use my own galvanized 2" pipe with a shop fabricated swing joint at the bottom to raise & lower. It works like the mast on a catamaran sailboat.

I've been extensively involved with alarm associations. I think you'll find that most associations operate over a small region to address local concerns. Also, most associations cover the whole spectrum of low voltage business in order to have maintain a sufficient membership base. If you want to start an association be prepared to volunteer lots of your time to running it.

I have about 25 gateway profiles from Ver. 1 to 5 in our offices. Have about 3 of the LCD's go bad on the version 4's. (there's an internal bulb that can burn out.) Gateway has a repair deal where for $300 they ship you a box, you put the pc in and call fedex, and it comes back fixed. For the average home or office user they are great, eliminates all the bloody cable tangle from the typical pc setup and a space saver.

I have a number of the Gateway Profile All in One desktop PCs on our office, they are pretty good, big space saver.

I don't understand the use for them. If monitor dies, your DVR is worthless, and vice-versa. The DVR can't be hidden for obvious reasons. Limited harddrive space and cooling issues. Cable managment?

One bad point on the Geovison system is that in order to make changes to the system you have to stop recording. In more than one instance I've come back to the console and found it wasn't in the record mode, I probably forgot to re-enable recording. Standalone recorders are always in the record mode. For instance with Dedicated Micros, there is no way to stop recording unless you turn it off.