Another issue, could use you guys help

[OhSoFLY 0]

OK Im back. Last time it turned out I had a bad 8way splitter cable to power my cameras... I ordered a new one and now its all good.

 

I have all my zones and MD stuff set up. In the daytime my cameras all work well and I am starting to learn how to go back through the files to see what they have recorded. Now I have another issue I did not notice until now.

 

At night, when it gets dark, all my exterior cameras seem to turn off. All of the IR rings are constantly lit up so I know they are being powered, but the images on the monitor go back to the default screen which is black with the "H.264" logo on them. The one of my cameras that is inside gets a very poor image with alot of snow in it. The single inside camera is not is as low of light area as the other 7 are which are outside watching my property. The single camera is inside my veranda. If I turn the lights in that room on, the image gets good like they all have in the daytime.

 

Ive played with the settings and stuff, but cant seem to get them to record the nightvision. Is there some setting that I am missing? I do not know what all the options are.

 

I have all 8 cameras set to record on schedule, which is 0001hr - 2359hr 7 days a week, they are all on MD (motion detect) with 5 second pre-record.

 

What is "Camera masking", this is the one I dont understand.

 

The DVR was from Ebay, and came with very poor instructions.

 

On a side note, these cameras have come in handy once already. Someone hit and runned the people across the streets car (I live on an S-curve) and my MD system caught the little blue import car doing it. The witness said it was "A 2 door dark import car" but my cameras showed the police that it was a dark blue, toyota celica GTS, licence plate not visible, but they were able to find the car a few blocks from where we live and were able to charge the owner (a 21 year old kid) for speeding, hit and run, and whatever else. They were able to determine his speed at 75kmph by measuring between where 2 of my cameras saw the car, and calculating with the time stamps on the videos which record in hundredths of a second.

 

Its a good time it was daylight or I wouldnt have recorded this.

[the toss 0]

If what you are getting at night time is the same as what you would get when you disconnect the camera (unplug) then it is most likely a power problem rather than a REALLY bad night time image. Almost certainly what is happening is you power supply dropping its bundle when the IR leds turn on because it cannot supply the extra power requirements of the IR leds. Solution - upgrade your power supply. I usually allow 500mA per camera which in your case would require a 4Amp supply.

Camera masking is a feature that enables you to prevent a camera from being displayed on the realtime view. It still records & can be viewed in playback mode An example is if you had a camera in the boss's office. Now he wouldn't want the receptionist to be able to see what is going on (if the monitor is in reception). Of course to use this properly requires that passwords & access to playback be managed properly.

[OhSoFLY 0]

Thanks for the reply. Ill go out in the morning and see what my power supply is rated for and start from there.

 

So from what you are saying, I should be able to unplug the power leads for a few of the cameras and see if my images come back online since the power needs would be dropped with only half the cameras. Seems kind of silly that they would ship me a power supply that is not capable of running the 8 cameras they sold me. But if thats the case I will just get another power supply from somewhere. I guess thats Ebay for ya right.

 

My kind has a night vision goggle thingy, and he says when he looks at the cameras during the daytime, the LEDs are on. Meaning they are on all the time, i can only see them in the dark.

 

Anyhow, you have given me a starting point, and I will report back my findings.

[OhSoFLY 0]

OK, So my power supply is 12VDC @ 5amp as per the sticker on the power box. All my cables are the same 20M cables that came with the setup, they are all the coax for video signal, and the 12V wire in one with 2 heads at each end for hooking them up. Its not possible to install them backwards as they have different ends on each end of the cable.

 

This is a photo of around 8am. You can see that some of the cameras havent come on yet. 2 hours ago only the middle was working, and it worked fine, this is what happens at night. All the other 7 were the blank H264 screen (this is what the channel shows if I unplug a camera) All the IR lights are on constantly if I go out and look at the cameras... By 10 this morning, they will all have great images and work fine until 5pm when it starts to get dark. I tried unp;ugging power to a couple of the cameras and it makes absolutely no difference on the screen for images and quality. I know this is going to be some stupid issue but I just cant figure it out. I dont get alot of time to play with this stuff as my job puts me away quite often. I just wish it worked well so my wife could see the cameras on the TV in the house. Shes a little nervous that they dont work properly, and cant watch the kids in the veranda and back yard.

 

Cam 1 is front street right

2 is front street left/right walkway

3 is front street center

4 is left walkway

5 is inside my veranda

6 is my backyard and rear gate

7 is back alley left

8 is back alley right

 

Only 5 is inside, the rest are mounted outside under my roof egdes, snow doesnt contact them. The wires are all tucked in behind my homes siding and not exposed to the elements. I have checked with my multimeter and get 12VDC at all the plugs on the camera side constant.

 

[the toss 0]

That power supply should be ok. Next is to determine if the problem is DVR related. Next time you lose a channel unplug the I/P to the DVR & plug it directly into your monitor & if any type of picture re appears then the problem lies with the DVR.

Why have you set it to schedule 0001 - 2359

Why not full time motion

[OhSoFLY 0]

I cant plug the cables into the monitor directly, they dont have the correct plugs.

 

Im gone to work for a few days, but Ill see if I can dig up an old tv that has coax cable inputs and try out your idea thanks.

 

I have it set as that cause it wanted me to put in times for it, and there wasnt a checkbox for full time.

 

Ill try and snap some pics of all my setup screens and post them up saturday. Thanks for the help, its really sweet I can get this kind of help online.