CCTV colour problems!

[jim_mids 0]

Firstly let me apologise if Ive posted this in the wrong category!

 

Need some advice with a CCTV system that I bought from Maplins (ok,ok you can stop laughing now!).

 

250gb DVR with 4 cameras - All working fine , apart from one problem...

 

The colours are all wrong! , Grass is showing as purple , and the driveway is currently a dull green! . The actual image quality is good and workable , but the colour is like something out of a 1960's festival! Tried swapping the camera , same problem.

 

Its BNC into the back of the DVR , and the output is currently BNC to scart adapter into a LED TV. (Tried it on another TV with the same issue.)

 

Thanks in advance for any help folks!

 

Jim

[tomcctv 190]

Firstly let me apologise if Ive posted this in the wrong category!

 

Need some advice with a CCTV system that I bought from Maplins (ok,ok you can stop laughing now!).

 

250gb DVR with 4 cameras - All working fine , apart from one problem...

 

The colours are all wrong! , Grass is showing as purple , and the driveway is currently a dull green! . The actual image quality is good and workable , but the colour is like something out of a 1960's festival! Tried swapping the camera , same problem.

 

Its BNC into the back of the DVR , and the output is currently BNC to scart adapter into a LED TV. (Tried it on another TV with the same issue.)

 

Thanks in advance for any help folks!

 

Jim

 

 

 

 

Hi there £15 IR cameras from maplins .... not much you can do. other than buy more cameras. the cameras in maplins kits are just cheap cameras.

[jim_mids 0]

Agree , however I had a maplins wireless camera before this kit, located in the same position - and that was fine. Wondering if its anything to do with white balance or something like that ?

[tomcctv 190]

Wondering if its anything to do with white balance or something like that ?

 

 

you would be ok IF the camera has these settings but they have nothing to set. its just colour all the time with IR.

[jim_mids 0]

Yeah , there's settings on the tv - quite detailed , but dont know of they are going to make any difference.

 

Just out of interest , here's a screen shot - as you can see , some of the image is ok - but the tree and grass are a nice shade of pink! , also black tends to look pink!

 

[jim_mids 0]

Thanks for the reply .. here's what I have tried so far :

 

1. Tried another TV for both live view and playback of recorded , same issues , colours all wrong.
   
2. Swapped the scart adapter , currently the route is bnc to phono into scart adapter. Also tried phono straight into yellow video input - same results.
   
3. Tried swapping cameras , same problem.
   
4. Used a camera indoors under natural lights - my skin appeared blue , and blacks appeared pink!
   
5. Interesting thing is , early morning the colours appear correct - after about 9am it all goes down hill again.

 

Ive included a few more stills , just to give a better idea.

 

 

As you can see form this one - the car appears green , its actually light blue! And the brickwork is blue!

 

 

And in this one, my nice blue grass!.

 

Any more ideas guys?

 

Jim

[shockwave199 0]

Have you tried tweaking any of the display settings in the dvr for each camera? There should be picture settings to adjust. Could be your hue is off and you need to drop the saturation a ton. Thing is though- blue skin and all is just pointing to REALLY poor cameras. I've had some q-see cmos cameras up and the landscape colors weren't accurate because there is no IR cutoff- which I believe is your problem coupled with just a horrid camera. But even still, my cameras showed accurate color for clothing and skin. You could identify what colors someone was wearing perfectly, or the colors of cars, but the leaves on the trees in the same shot were purple. Your colors are just whacked, totally. Try adjusting and if all else fails, return the package for something better. Good luck.

 

Dan

[rory 0]

Try adjusting the Hue on the DVR or TV.

Like Tom said thats probably just how they are, with cameras some are decent some are not no matter the price or even from the same brand.

[thomas79 0]

Hello!

 

I have same problem...firstly i'd tried on pc with same issue, thereafter i bought a dvr unit.it is again same tricky problem.

my opinion is it is issued by camera.

anyway

is anybody found any solution for it?

 

thanks

[Ken Layton 0]

Several things to check:

 

Poor connections, maybe a bad connector either on the camera or on your cable.

 

Bad cable.

 

The power is too low at the camera (low voltage).

[jim_mids 0]

Morning , Thanks for that last post . I spoke to an electrical engineer at work and he has suggested that it may be a power supply problem. All four cameras have the same colour issues - so cant imagine that they are all faulty!?

[Kawboy12R 0]

Find a local electronics or computer supply place that does cctv as well. Take one of your cameras and talk to the tech there and ask if you can see it hooked up on their system (they WILL have something to test it on). When it looks crappy on their system too, check out one of their recommended cams and buy at least one. When you install it at home, evaluate the saved video recording of your DVR by comparing it with the live view. You might want to pitch the whole system if you can't identify faces where and when you need to.

[1sehturk 0]

bad cams

[the toss 0]

cheap bad cameras.

[okiecctv 0]

I had the same problem with a swann DVR and cameras.

It didn't matter which cameras I swapped. I was met with the same result.

The colors were all wrong. My hedges were almost blue, and my terracotta tiles were almost white.

I adjusted the tint at first but then got some great advice about the power supplied to the cameras.

 

The problem was caused when my installer , an electrician with no specific knowledge of security cameras, violated the cable length runs to the cameras with respect to the power.

All cameras are fed from a single power supply with multiple feeds for the individual cameras.

Since the length was too long for one of the cameras the voltage reaching all cameras was too low for any of them to register proper hues.

 

Solution 1: Use individual power supplies and have them plugged in as close to the camera as possible. This identifies which cable run was too long and compensates for it.

Solution 2: Change the power supply to a slightly higher voltage unit. Substituting a 13.5V adapter for the stock 12V did the trick for me without introducing any risks.

[SunnyKim 2]

That seems a wrong set up of camera parameters that you can not do anything about. You can return or trash if you do not like the color.

[sheffcitylad 0]

I also have this problem, I have swapped the swann cameras for storage options cameras both bought from maplins and this has happened also. The cameras work fine with the storage options dvr but when I connect them to the swann system the colour is as you have described. I have also tried powering the cameras with the storage options power supply but still have the same problem. My conclusion is that this must be an issue with the swann system and compatibility. I wanted to use the swann system as this as hdmi output but the storage options does not. If anyone has any solution your help would be greatly appreciated.

[colin99 0]

Had this problem with a Swann camera from new, was replaced under guarantee.

 

Then later had a defective cable to another camera, the DC kept getting cut. That camera then also failed to a pink colour. I replaced the cable and camera.

 

I believe the problem is that there is an IR filter which has to be switched out for night operation and switched in for day operation. This I.R. filter operation can be damaged, probably by poor DC supply or by transportation shock, so the I.R. filter gets stuck out and gives the terrible colours.

 

Handle cameras carefully and make sure there is a good D.C. power supply to them.

 

Colin

[^Gecko^ 0]

The screenshots definitely make it look like there is no IR filter at all. Nothing can be done about this.