SeanMort

Well done kandcorp

Oh, and I intend the cameras to be streamed to a separate server based solution for recording/review if possible. I have access to the Axiz products but it's $$$ over here. My primary problem is the reliable transmission side of things.

Securitymaster, I don't mean to be controversial or anything. It does work on short links, and also when one of the monitors is not terminated. Essentially you're splitting the signal along two paths without much regard to impedance or capacitance, but on longer links the picture will be slightly screwed up (put a scope on it and see what happens to the HF response and colour burst). Distribution amps (DBA) were designed to take care of this problem. Most distributors stock DBA's at a reasonable price.

There are two ways you can do this. Sorry Securitymaster, but I think that what you suggest would lead to impedance problems and a bad picture on the monitors. 1. A 1 in X 2 out Distribution Amp situated at each dome, each output feed going to each monitor respectively. Once you have two video feeds at each monitor point you can use a quad or switcher there, and select any camera you need in full screen, or quad. Needs more cable but is a more flexible solution. I don't think you will battle with picture quality. 2. Situate a quad either between the domes or at one of them. Take a video feed from each dome into the quad. Take the quad output into a 1 in X 2 out Distribution Amp and send a video feed to each monitor. Less cabling probably but less flexible as you can't select a full screen view of either dome unless you change it at the quad.

Hello Catherine, What camera system are you using (make/model/brand) and how is it set up in terms of frame rate and quality settings ? I assume that you are playing back images from a digital video recorder using a networked computer and remote viewing software ? How is the computer set up for its display settings ? Sorry for all the questions but some more info is needed. Sean

Not a bad idea. Sure it's just for LPR ? Just warn the "short skirts" brigade about it

For a test chart got to http://www.cctv-focus.com/ I don't think the new LTC books have a chart in them but the training material is excellent. Thomas is right about the method, but for it to be "true" it has to be measured at the centre of the monitor CRT as the monitor also has a resolution factor that fades on the peripherary of the tube. We used to get super resolution (around 700TVL) with the old tube cams but the CCD's seem to be catching up !! Interesting enough, a couple of years ago the British Home Office's Police Scientific Development Branch researched and developed a performance test target called Rotakin for CCTV systems. One of the important things that came out of their research is that there is a factor called "static resolution" and "spatial resolution" (the resolution of a moving target). The target rotates at 25RPM and is calibrated with B&W bars and the like. The target is intended to allow installers to set up cameras for optimal use viewing moving objects. You had to invariably use the shutter settings with varying results (how many people really use this feature ??). It was just so expensive that it ended up being used by manufacturers, trainers and those with a few $$. I now have one gathering dust in my store (any offers ?).

I've not used the Phillips DSR1 before but I have used a GE/Kalatel/Calibur (same manufacturer) DSR2000 and a Dedicated Micros Sprite Mux together with excellent results. I have heard (only a rumour though) that the Phillips DSR is in fact a Kalatel with different packaging, much like the Vista Columbus DVR in the UK (also made by Kalatel) ?? I shouldn't imagine there would be any problem connecting the two makes together anyway if the manual says it can be done (don't forget the sync cable). Just check in the DSR menu if you are able to select the correct encoding by the manufacturers.

Happy Birthday and well done on an excellent forum !! I think that because Xmas is coming up everyone's under pressure to deliver projects in time. That's where everyone is .....

Ok, you didn't say it was a case of $$$, but unless you hide the DVR really well you could have a problem getting a DVR with features to suit on a low budget. Is a second hand GE or similar a problem ? There may be other low cost DVRs available with the feature/s you need. Anyone else have a suggestion ??

JR for President !! He would've pulled things right and Bush would've woken up in the shower, not choked on a pretezel We've also got the see-sawing petrol price. It must be remembered that South Africa pioneered its own petrol from coal process during the 1970's when sanctions prohibited our oil imports. This went hugely great for the economy until the early 90's when things came right (politically) down here. Now all the refined and local fuel costs the same !!! We get a new price every other week. Our government uses a costing forumula that makes Einstein look stupid, and cannot find anyone clever enough to explain it to Joe Public

The Alarm Monitoring function for the GE DVR's via WaveReader software is pretty good at this. You can setup how many pics you want uploaded from each alarm/event. It's not constant streaming of video but only alarm pics that are sent, although the connection should be live for instant performance.

I've used this before with good results; http://www.fmsystems-inc.com/prod_list.cfm?cat=cctv&industry=none Product code CCR412

Left off the "n" in dimension It's POETS day today, I guess that's why ?? P#ss Off Early Tomorrow's Saturday

Here's one that I find handy: http://www.archive.org/web/web.php Browse through 40 billion web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago. Handy for websites that no longer exist but you still need info from. My last contribution: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/history.php Everything you need to know about Linux. But as I mentioned in a previous thread somewhere here; the Google Earth site. Just because I can get close up aerial pics of a customer site, trace it into Visio, and it also has a dimesion tool.

If you're using the motion detection feature of the DVR just be aware that not only people movement will trigger it. Unless the camera is monitoring a stable view, like an internal passage with no windows to the outside, it may generate all sorts of nuisance alarms from cars, feral cats and the like. Even the settings offered to counter this may degenerate its usefulness and purpose. Maybe use the alarm inputs instead with a beam or PIR for certain camera points. This will promote better confidence in the system in that you actually have genuine people movement triggering an alarm.

An update on this thread; I recently had to repair a DM DS2 from a disk crash (it has two drives installed) and was faced with the same problem Herm' had. Not wanting to send it back to the supplier because it's out of warranty I "discovered" how to re-format the drives and load new software just as DM would do it. PM me if you need to know.

How small is the transmitter ? You get some that are no bigger than a matchbox and fit into the camera housing where it also gets its supply (12V). We always try to keep these things out of harms way though, and by that I also mean the weather. These small TX's usually have no AGC and sometimes get affected by either extremes. So we put them into the splice enclosure, which is most often in another bigger enclosure housing the PSU and so on.

Here's the reply I got: "Hello Sean, Sorry, the Desa is from before my time at Bosch or its not something we use in this region so I have no knowledge of possible issues. I have however had the occasional funny with the domes which were solved by firmware upgrades or replacement. Cheers for now Name Withheld" I would really make it your suppliers problem. If you've installed everything according to spec then they must surely stand by their product. The person by the the name of "they" seems to get away with a lot in co's like this

I will check out the issue with an old friend of mine who works for Bosch Security in Oz. See what comes up.

I'm not totaly familiar with the Bosch product but I've had the same problem a few years back with other PTZ domes. Maybe for a different reasons though; 1. It was the VCL dome range. When the dome is powered up it spins around and tilts to finds its reference. There are two Vertical and Horizontal metal tags inside the dome painted white for this purpose, and on the rotating chassis in-line with these tags is an tiny integrated IR LED TX/RX device. This device needs its light to be reflected back off the tag when it get there to say OK I'm where I'm supposed to be at. These domes are made in the UK, so when we installed them here in South Africa, the sunlight is so much brighter that it over-powered the RX circuit of this device and the dome occasionally spun around trying to find itself. We cured the problem by coating these little IR devices with a permanent marker pen (we gave it some shades ) 2. Another dome I remember it happening to was a Sensormatic model. This dome was constantly sending data to & fro (I think it's position sensors fed the data back first for sector titling, and then incoming data placed the dome), and whenever it didn't like the data it got back it took itself for a spin. Sensormatic had to get their software sorted out. They also denied having a problem !! (most of them do). From what you say, it sounds like a bug in their software, but .. Questions: You did say this only happens with the remote software, even when using 485 ? How have you configured the data paths (star, multi-drop) ? If star, are you using a data/code distributor ? The cable run is no problem. Is it all fiber, or only certain sections? What fiber units are you using ? Can't say this helps you but this is my experience. Lets see what else can be suggested.

I've seen quite a lot of threads where fiber is discussed and there are a lot of questions. I have over the past decade put together quite a lot about fiber training specific to electronic security. I have quite extensive practical experience in this field with CCTV systems and would be happy to try my hand at putting something together from what I already have for this purpose. Given the nature of this forum I would imagine it to be largely free of the diagrams that usually accompany this material, but no less informative. To my thinking it could be posted directly into a sticky in this forum so that PM requests for this info is avoided. Comments / suggestions ??

Does the DVR have an RF output and/or an S-VHS output ? It should be detailed in the user manual. Also, does your TV have an AV (Audio/Video RCA jacks) or S-VHS input ? The use of S-VHS connections between DVR and TV, if they exist, would be best for High-Res. Just purchase the cable from a local TV/Audio shop. Then move onto the AV jacks if no S-VHS is available and you have this facility. The resolution should still be very good. Otherwise you will have to purchase an RF Modulator to channelise the DVR output onto your TV. The quality results of this would still be good but not as good as AV or S-VHS. Also, check the "sharpness" setting of the TV if it has this feature, and make sure it isn't set too high. Probably around 85 - 90% would be right.

Anyone experienced this with an Ultrak KXR2316U DVR of about 4 years vintage (Ver 2.5.0M) ? : I inhereited this site where three of these DVR's are installed (approx 3 years ago), and one of them has a peculiar problem. The unit has been acting up lately in that it won't boot up properly, if at all, and then it mysteriously rights itself a few days on and carries on as normal. The client had an incident that they viewed on playback the next day, and which I was called to download a few days afterward. When I went to download the images I didn't find them, only the footage for all the days before the incident, two hour files on the day of the incident, and then it appears that the DVR stopped recording for the next three days, and then carried on recording all by itself !! . The DVR's are locked down so tampering with them, as far as I know, is not going to happen. My question is: 1. Can footage/hour files on these version DVR's be erased from the remote control or front panel ? By this I mean the individual hour files. Can it be done if the unit is not locked down ? Can it be done via a network connection ? 2. Can anyone tell me why this has happened, as apparently it has happened before (symptoms unknown). The customer is certainly not happy with this, and neither am I. I know these DVR's are OEM'd from Pos-Watch in Korea and then "badge engineered" so it's possible the same unit has a different badge elsewhere in the world. The new version KXR2316U is a completely different unit, still made by Pos-Watch. What other problems has anyone else had with this model ? Any help / suggestions are greatly appreciated !!!!!

Yeah Yeah !! I should know better. The connector appeared to be solidly seated. But let me tell you that this DVR is organised chaos inside. To get to the ribbon connector on the backup drive requires the dexterity and fingers of a child. Ever get an uncomfortable feeling about a particular brand of DVR ?? I get this feeling.