A Basic CCTV system for the beginner, by a beginner.

[bjoynes 0]

This is a overview of what I have discovered reading through various websites about CCTV, and what I decided would fit my needs. It is not perfect and would make a good starting point. Sometimes I have been surprised by how cheap a product is, and wondered why others are so expensive, while the cheaper product seems to have more features, better quality etc.

 

I think the hardest part of any CCTV system to decide upon is the DVR, and I’m still not sure if I have it right, but had to jump in somewhere. You will find many opinions about the cameras, but the DVR is still a mine field of jargon, specs and hidden pitfalls. You will find great specs on a product at a great price but the software is poor, or a cheap product, good specs but you are left wondering what the catch is. I decided to go with a standalone system, having used a PC.Based system previously.

 

On the forum http://www.cctvforum.com there seems to be a consensus that the CNB product line is a solid line with good prices. I have purchased the following products.

 

2x CNB, WCL-20S, Monalisa Weatherproof IR - 600TVL 6MM Fixed Lens, 34 LEDs, UPTO 90FT, DC12V

2x CNB, WBL-20S, Monalisa Weatherproof IR - 600TVL 3.8MM Fixed Lens, 12 LEDs, UPTO 45FT, DC12V

1x CNB, HDE2412, 8 Channel DVR

1x CNB VBM-24VF VANDAL RESISTANT DOME CAMERA, 600 TVL, 2.8-10.5mm VARIFOCAL LENS, 0.01 LUX

1x CNB VCM-24VF VANDAL RESISTANT DOME CAMERA, 600 TVL, 2.8-10.5mm VARIFOCAL LENS, 0.03 LUX

 

Notice that the first two products are similar except for the Fixed lens of 6MM & 3.8MM. It is also possible to get this camera WCM-20VF with a variable focal length of 3.8-9.5MM. I have not found any online companies that carry this product.

 

I decided to stay with the CNB DVR more for the recommendation of the software, and you have to start somewhere. The DVR market is huge and full of complications with recording resolutions, FPS on channels, codex’s and many other pitfalls.

 

When you look at the camera specs for all these cameras you will find that they are 600TVL, 600 TV lines, but that I believe is from the sensor, not what the DVR will capture. Some DVR’s will capture D1 quality but at a certain frame rate. The DVR I bought is an eight channel at 120 FPS. This means that if I have all eight channels recording I will only get 15FPS recording at CIF. This is still good enough for most play back. Look at the following recording rates for different resolutions.

 

D1 : 720x480 MAX.30

Half D1 : 720x240 MAX.60

CIF : 360x240 MAX.120

 

So if I set all my channels to record at D1 quality, I will only get 3.75FPS on each channel recorded. Do not get confused by the Display resolution that is coming off the VGA port. Some DVR products have HDMI outputs, as well as other connections. I don’t see how the HDMI output is helpful except to connect to an HDMI TV.

 

Going back to the cameras, I chose the Monalisa cameras for what seems to be better IR (Infra Red) monitoring. They do not wash out the detail in the image as a person approaches the camera like a lot of other cameras. The low light ability of this camera may have something to do with some of the DSP (Digital Signal Processing) to remove noise from the picture. You need to refer to some of the professionals on this board for a more in-depth and accurate explanation of what is exactly going on.

 

From reading some of the posts on CCTV forum, the you will find a lot of detail on the dome cameras I purchased, the VCM/VBM-24vf. These are both variable focus manually and do need some setting up to make them capture the best picture. Another issue you will see pop up especially when setting up the dome cameras is the use of a monitoring display. This allows you to monitor the picture coming off the camera so adjustments can be made quickly, without having to go back to the DVR to see if you are close or not.

 

At this moment I do not know what power equipment I will need, plugs, wire or other bits and pieces, but when my order arrives I will post and let you know what I missed, how the installation went, and what extra I need. At present the equipment has cost me $1,113.75, and I have 6 cameras, and one DVR.

 

The dome cameras I plan to mount flush to a brick wall about four feet above a door, and just below an eve, pointing south. I will drill a hole through the brick and route my wires into the void behind an upstairs wall, across to my DVR. This will give me a good line of sight up the driveway, and cover the side door of my home. The other dome maybe used to cover a side door to the house on the back, which has a deck around it, and is in easy reach as you come up the deck stairs towards the back door. Once again flush mounted with the wires passing through the wall.

 

I know this has been a rambling explanation, and I’m sure will generate more questions than answers. Also maybe some of the professional installers here will chip in the good and the bad about this installation and maybe some of the new home DIY people will get an idea of what it takes to select, purchase and install a system.

 

I do have a background in electronics, which will help somewhat in installation, but I still have some reservation on the DVR choice.

Well if I think of anything else I will added, and update as the products arrive and I make the install.

 

Thanks

 

Bryn

Edited August 16, 2010 by Guest

[Soundy 1]

Nice piece, Bryn! We'll look forward to following your progress in this thread. Hope you can include lots of pictures!

[bjoynes 0]

Thanks Soundy. I thought a rough go to guide might be a good start for some people. I find it is easier to follow in someone else footsteps until I feel comfortable to make my own decisions, why reinvent the wheel?

 

I will keep up with this thread so we have a start to finish experience. At some point I would like to start a DVR selection thread. DVR selection seemed to be the most difficult, too many cheap DVR's to entice you down the wrong road where stand alone DVR's are concerned.

 

Thanks

 

Bryn

[bjoynes 0]

Well good morning,

 

My package of CNB products have arrived and I now have the task of hooking things up. I do have the DVR up and running without a HD at present, and everything so far works well. I have also hooked up most of the cameras. Will need to help to set them up, as the color seems to be off on one of the cameras, a red shirt looks pink, and dark blue pants seems to look gray. When I get a chance I will post a long winded explanation.

 

A couple of questions though.

 

What is the best coax or coax/power cable to buy?

What crimping tool to buy, as I will need to crimp BNC connectors?

 

DVR is working well and is intuitive to operate with a remote, or from the front panel. As I do not have a HD installed yet, recording, motion sensing, recording resolution etc. has not been setup. It is not a bad idea to take it slowly, get comfortable with the product and then move on. I will say that the DVR worked straight out of the book with a 20 second boot up time, and as quick a shut down time. No on/off switch, so plug in and up comes the system. Shutdown via the menu and a pop up box will tell you when it is safe to pull the plug. If you have cameras plugged in to the DVR and powered on, then when the DVR is switched on you will see the pictures immediately as the DVR boots up.

 

When I switched the DVR on for the first time it sent me directly to the initial setup screen. I suggest you either change the password for admin and usr before you exit and switch the DVR off, otherwise you might find that you cannot get back into the system as it will ask for a password on the next power up. Fortunately I had the quick start up guide and it gave the default code of 1111.

 

I did find the DVR setup simple and easy to complete, especially compared to a PC Based Linux system and free software called ZoneMinder. I do link ZoneMinder but you do have to be comfortable with the Linux operating system, and be prepared to spend a few hours fiddling around.

 

Bryn

[Soundy 1]

Well we normally use either standard FT4 RG-59 coax with four-conductor station-Z wire for power... but you can use just about any 18/2 or 16/2 wire for power, or you can get Siamese wire (coax and 18/2 webbed together)...

 

Then you need either twist-on BNCs, or crimp-on, or compression BNCs... then the appropriate crimper for the type you get.

 

Or you can use Cat5e with baluns for power and video and not need BNCs.

[bjoynes 0]

Update.

 

CNB DVR. I decided to get a DVR without a HD, installed a used 500G HD WD5000AAKS, everything worked fine. The DVR has three screws along the back and one screw either side on the back, with three screws a piece up front along the side. A lot of screws...

 

The DVR has the ability to add a DVR recorder for backup or purchase it with one, I decided I did not need the DVD recorder so ordered with out. This leaves a lot of space inside the DVR with 4 SATA connections and 4 Power plugs. The DVR came with only one SATA cable, but did have the four power plugs. I have a couple of 500GB and 1TB HD's hanging around so might try adding some in the near future.

 

The system found the HD, and formated in seconds. I not too sure if this is a format as you use the HD or just a file allocation change. I do not belive it was a true HD format. The main chip on the board was a PowerPC chip, just for interest.

 

System was quickly setup to record 8FPS at D1 level on two cameras. The menu has a function to calculate the amount of time which was about 15days.

 

Next on my list is to remote into the system on my LAN.

 

Bryn

[bjoynes 0]

The DVR was already set to DHCP, plugged in the Ethernet cable and it automatically obtained an IP address from the router. DNS as well as gateway was fed directly and accurately to the DVR from the router. The web access requires a DirectX plugin which some have complained about, especially if you do not use IE, or a different operating system. I do find the webbased access better than the supplied software interface. Maybe someone has a suggestion for better software that might work with the CNB DVR. I have a Gigabyte Lan so I did not notice any problems with streaming data across the network.

 

I will say that when you add cameras to the system and use motion sensing for event recording, make sure you record the correct camera. It is possible to sense motion on camera 3 and have camera 1 record when you want camera 3 to record what caused the motion. Under the scheduler I have setup time record as well as event. It is possible to select just event recording which will save some space.

 

Two problems I have run into is the NTP(Network Time Protocol) setup and email notification. Both I will try and resolve later. Still learning a lot about the DVR, but Rory was correct about the remote software, it needs improvement. One thing I dislike about the remote software is the log in. You have to supply a ID/Password which is saved on your remote computer. This is bad form, especially if you are remoting in as admin. The system should ask for an ID/Password each time, or at least the password.

 

Bryn

[rory 0]

The DVR was already set to DHCP, plugged in the Ethernet cable and it automatically obtained an IP address from the router. DNS as well as gateway was fed directly and accurately to the DVR from the router.

Id set the IP to static, as when you want to port forward it is more accurate. Later on down the road the IP might change due to other computer on the network or power outage on DVR the same time, or for whatever reason. I normally start all DVRs with 192.168.1.200.

 

The web access requires a DirectX plugin which some have complained about, especially if you do not use IE, or a different operating system. I do find the webbased access better than the supplied software interface. Maybe someone has a suggestion for better software that might work with the CNB DVR.

Actually I found their software to be much better than others. Browser based is normally much more limited, so I am interested to know what you found better about it?

 

Still learning a lot about the DVR, but Rory was correct about the remote software, it needs improvement. One thing I dislike about the remote software is the log in. You have to supply a ID/Password which is saved on your remote computer. This is bad form, especially if you are remoting in as admin. The system should ask for an ID/Password each time, or at least the password.

I dont recall mentioning the CNB remote software needs improvement? Though Im sure it could as most software from DVR companies do I do think the Vsionis software does though, its called Nemon, its much more limited and slow response than the CNB software. Are you sure you got a CNB and not the Vsionis one? With the CNB you can goto the tools and check the box "use logon and logoff" and that will allow you to have to logon with a user and password before connecting to any DVR or using any of the program's features. Also, what software and version are you using, if its the CNB? I might have a newer one here.

[Soundy 1]

The DVR was already set to DHCP, plugged in the Ethernet cable and it automatically obtained an IP address from the router. DNS as well as gateway was fed directly and accurately to the DVR from the router.

Id set the IP to static, as when you want to port forward it is more accurate. Later on down the road the IP might change due to other computer on the network or power outage on DVR the same time, or for whatever reason. I normally start all DVRs with 192.168.1.200.

A few routers I've come across won't allow you to port-forward to IPs outside their DHCP range. Stupid, but true. A better option, if your router has it, is to set the DVR's IP as "reserved" or "static" in the router's DHCP section.

 

Oh, and if it's a Linksys... ditch it. I just went over this with a guy on another forum, he was having trouble port-forwarding to his XBOX because his Linksys router kept changing its IP... even when it wasn't being shut off. I've had the same thing happen on a customer's DVR before as well - 192.168.1.101 one day, 192.168.1.102 the next, even without a reboot. I've only ever seen this on Linksys routers... and none of them that do it even offer a reserved/static assignment option - double-whammy.

[rory 0]

A few routers I've come across won't allow you to port-forward to IPs outside their DHCP range. Stupid, but true.

Ive never had a problem with the linksys routers I use.

I never forward inside the DHCP range.

 

Oh, and if it's a Linksys... ditch it. I just went over this with a guy on another forum, he was having trouble port-forwarding to his XBOX because his Linksys router kept changing its IP... even when it wasn't being shut off. I've had the same thing happen on a customer's DVR before as well - 192.168.1.101 one day, 192.168.1.102 the next, even without a reboot. I've only ever seen this on Linksys routers... and none of them that do it even offer a reserved/static assignment option - double-whammy.

All I use are basic Linksys routers, never had a problem with DVRs and static IPs when using them.

[Soundy 1]

Well, YMMV, but I've used D-Links, Belkins, Netgears, ASUS, and a handful of other off-brands as well as Linksys, and Linksys are the only ones that have consistently had issues for me.

 

Maybe they just don't like the frigid sub-30C temperatures we get around here.

[Birdman Adam 0]

If you want the IP address of any device to always stay the same, just set it up manually with a static address. Then it will always stay the same.

 

The router was only doing it's job when it was giving out IP's

[Soundy 1]

Yes, but it shouldn't be randomly changing the IP. As long as the client renews its lease within the defined lease period, it should retain the same IP indefinitely.

[rory 0]

In the router I have here it says client lease time default at 0, which means 1 day.

So if the power goes off and the DVR comes up before the PC then perhaps the DVR would get the first IP in the range .. then the PC the second IP in the range? Anyway like I said for anything I need to port forward to I always use a static IP outside of the DHCP range, so cant say for sure whether the DHCP is changing it that much or not. Even when I setup a network of say 4 computers now, i always set them to static, particularly helps in the case of Windows installed on an Imac by the way, something in their firmware perhaps.

[Soundy 1]

In the router I have here it says client lease time default at 0, which means 1 day.

So if the power goes off and the DVR comes up before the PC then perhaps the DVR would get the first IP in the range .. then the PC the second IP in the range?

If DHCP is properly implemented and working, that shouldn't happen unless the power has been off for more than at least 12 hours.

 

Normally, once a client has received an IP from the DHCP server, it should then run until the lease period is half-expired, at which point the client should request a renewal. In most cases, the server will renew it right away; if it doesn't, or if the client doesn't pose the request, the server will maintain that IP for that client for the remainder of the lease period, after which it returns to the pool.

 

In other words, with a 24 hour lease, if the client doesn't request a renewal at the 12-hour mark, the client should still be able to send a renewal request and right up to the 23:59:59 mark, and get the same IP back.

 

If that's not happening - or worse, if the client is being given a new IP while it's still up - then there's something wrong with the DHCP server. In the case of the Linksys routers, it behaves as if the DHCP server isn't honoring renewal requests, so after the lease expires, the client sends a new request, and gets the next available IP, while its original IP returns to the pool. If the DVR is the only system on the router, then once that IP expires, the client should get handed its original IP again.

 

Yes, you can work around all this by manually coding the info into the DVR, and if that's the way you prefer to manage your network, then more power to you... the point is, you shouldn't have to kludge around like this. And it doesn't help if you have one of those rare oddball routers that will only let you forward ports to IPs within its DHCP range.

[rory 0]

true, ive never had the need to test it, just want to be safer than sorry and its easy to enter the static IP info. though forwarding in its own range is okay, I just do it outside as I can, in the case of the linksys the DHCP gives you 50 by default so unless one has 50 computers it should be fine just giving it a higher IP in the range if the router wont let you do it outside Personally Ive had better luck with Linksys than Belkin and Netgear, but down here ive come to all of them before which have failed or reset themselves completely, some covered in dust or in really hot environments, guess that doesnt help them.

[Soundy 1]

Personally, I tend to prefer routers that have the option to reserve IPs. I'll still sometimes assign cameras and DVRs static IPs for the sake of network management, but it's always better to have all the options available. Reservation is a basic function of DHCP design, where you can tell it that "X" MAC address will ALWAYS be assigned "Y" IP from within the pool range. With many newer ones, reserving an IP as as simple as looking in the DHCP table and clicking a "reserve" button (or ticking a checkbox) beside the desired machine's address. Almost all the ones that support reservations will also allow you to define the IP you want it to get, and many of those will even allow you to assign an IP outside the normal pool range.

 

That's the kicker with these problematic Linksys units: not only are they changing the IPs when they shouldn't, but none of them that do this have a reservation function either. In other words, they appear to use a half-assed implementation of DHCP.

 

I can't say I haven't seen problems with other brands either, but those have been rare and generally just one-offs. Linksys are the only ones in my experience that seem to always be a crapshoot.

[rory 0]

Im sure you deal with alot more routers than I do down here, really I dont have that many clients just mostly home users also, so I will take your word for it on this

However, most times Linksys are the only routers we can get our hands on here, or which people already have .. at least without spending alot more.

[Sawbones 0]

If you have an extra PC and a couple of network cards laying around, you can use Smoothwall and have a rock-solid, full-featured Linux-based router for free.

 

And it can be a VERY old PC... I've firewalled entire networks with as little as a 75MHz first-generation Pentium.

[rory 0]

Did you get the VBM-24VFs setup yet?

I just got 3 of them from a client to adjust, all 3 were out of focus brand new out of the box. Also sharpness on medium and 2 had Day night switch over on medium, the other didnt even have that feature and seemed not to even focus as good, also its default settings are different, it has SBLC off, while the other 2 have it at low on default settings (reset to defaults, initial), also the IDs vary but Im not using that anyway. Basically it seems only one is backfocused properly, so im going to have to adjust 2 of them for that. Guess they were between versions when the supplier ordered some of them. Anyway for the price cant complain, just not plug and play so going to have to do some work in the garage first Just a heads up incase you think the picture is not great .. just needs a little work.

[Soundy 1]

Rory, sounds like you got used cameras or something... maybe some that someone returned. Every 24VF I've installed has been set at 2.8mm with tack-sharp focus out of the box.

[rory 0]

Rory, sounds like you got used cameras or something... maybe some that someone returned. Every 24VF I've installed has been set at 2.8mm with tack-sharp focus out of the box.

Brand new boss .. plastic wrap and foam and all .. set to 2.8mm but slightly out of focus.

[Soundy 1]

Yeah, I dunno, I would suspect someone tried'em, then packed'em back up and returned'em, especially with some of the settings changed.

[rory 0]

Nah its the default factory settings that are just different between the 3 of them, or at least 1 of them. Its possible they opened them to check them .. dont know. But basically when you set the default settings, they come back different, seems its different versions of firmware. Its not that big a deal though as I didnt order them, but I did point the client to a site to buy from, a popular retail site actually. At least now I know to talk to them first in the future before I place an order myself, and make sure they understand I want identical domes. If I tell them I want them focussed though they would just laugh at me LOL

[rory 0]

Yeah, I dunno, I would suspect someone tried'em, then packed'em back up and returned'em, especially with some of the settings changed.

unless the client opened them up and messed with them .. he had them a few days before I got them. he'd have had to use the alan key though, also he has no idea how to hook them up. I mean I didnt notice any scratches on anything, all looks brand new .. till i scratched a couple things Not getting enough on this job to hurt my head over it .. i just really wanted to do it to test them out

 

PS. I did notice just now reading the manual on the CNB site, that the menu item under DAY/NIGHT, AUTO, which i have on 2 of the 3 domes, called SWITCH .. which is not in the user manual. Also on that 1 camera the SBLC is set to OFF by default .. which is also shown in the manual .. while the other 2 are on LOW. so SWITCH must be a new feature (its the level for switch over), and I guess I got 1 of the old stock. That would also explain why the setup defaults differ. Also notice in the manual that it has specs for the 600TVL version and a normal res version, the normal res having much lower lighting capability at 0.005 lux compared to the 600TVL at 0.01 lux .. if that matters though can cant even find a "normal" resolution one on their site LOL.