Should I be expecting higher quality than this?

[Yawnder 0]

I've got a CNB VBM-24VF camera. Due to its close proximity to the area I need to cover, I have it at the widest angle supported (2.8mm focal point) so that everything I need to cover is covered.

 

For my DVR, I've got a QVis Avalon. I think it's actually a rebranded Dahua but I'm not positive. Anyway it's setup to record at D1, 30FPS, H.264, VBR, "high" quality (about 200KB/s). I should note I've also tried the "highest" quality which apparently doubles the KB/s, but I didn't notice any difference in quality.

 

Here's my issue: quality is satisfactory for the most part, and at 8-12 feet, faces are distinguishable, but I'm wondering if they should be more so, bearing in mind the camera and DVR.

 

Please see attachments for an example; example1.png is not from my video but from someone else's YouTube video -- the camera he used is the same one I have. example2.png is from my video. The UPS truck was still moving slightly when the snapshot was taken, and is more like 25+ feet away but it still gives an idea as to what I'm talking about.

 

What do you think is at fault here? To me it looks like maybe the DVR is compressing the video too much, but I'm not sure. Is it the distance of the faces, the 2.8mm focal point, the DVR, the camera itself (maybe I should've gotten a megapixel camera but I think MP cameras and DVRs are more expensive, and also they don't do as well in low light apparently), or...?

[Yawnder 0]

Forgot to mention: I'm using 50 feet of 24AWG Cat5e, and these baluns:

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/VideoSecu-Video-Network-Transceiver-Connectors/dp/B000T8SO4M

[Securame 0]

For my DVR, I've got a QVis Avalon. I think it's actually a rebranded Dahua but I'm not positive. Anyway it's setup to record at D1, 30FPS, H.264, VBR, "high" quality (about 200KB/s). I should note I've also tried the "highest" quality which apparently doubles the KB/s, but I didn't notice any difference in quality.

 

Did you mean 2000Kbps/2Mbps there? Because 200Kbps sound like crap...

 

The images you uploaded are with such a low resolution that it is hard to see anything there.

[Yawnder 0]

The DVR software says "high" quality records at around 1700 kilobits per second, which translates to about 200 kilobytes per second. Also, the images uploaded were cropped from a D1 resolution still.

[easygibson 0]

I can't think of a reason to use analog cameras/DVRs with coax cable any more. That's kind of like using a buggy instead of a car. Neat maybe but not efficient.

 

Maybe this will help.

 

[MOD link removed]

 

We primarily install Mobotix cameras. If our customer is REALLY worried about a few hundred dollars price difference we might use Geovision brand cameras but for quality/price/ease of use, Mobotix wins every time for us.

[MaxIcon 0]

The DVR software says "high" quality records at around 1700 kilobits per second, which translates to about 200 kilobytes per second. Also, the images uploaded were cropped from a D1 resolution still.

 

Yeah, this is what inexpensive D1 analog looks like. By the time you buy good enough cameras and a better quality DVR, you might as well have bought a 720p Dahua system, with far better quality.

 

Quality will depend on the weakest link, of course, so if the lenses are cheap or the camera's mediocre, increasing the quality on the DVR encoding won't help.

[shockwave199 0]

This is an old thread bumped, I figure to sell mobotix it seems. But the images you posted are screen caps from youtube videos. It's not appropriate to use them as an example or expect us to comment on that- not even applicable. Show us YOUR sample pics and footage and then we'll know how you're situated. I've grabbed better screen caps than those two images. Let's compare apples to apples here. Comparing recorded analog footage to screen caps of a youtube video...no.