oderus1671 0 Posted February 18, 2006 Hey all! I have a dumb question about cameras. Before I ask the question and run for cover I am VERY familiar with the old addage "you get what you pay for". Found this out by buying a cheap dvr card from ebay... I know, i took that one on the chin, but gracefully chalk it up as a life lesson. That being said, I am on an EXTREMELY limited budget and need to purchase one more camera for my home, as I am about to testify against my very crazy neighbor. I have 2 cams in the front yard, and one on the side yard, now all i need is one for the backyard. These are the 3 cams I have now. [link removed by mod - contains pirated cards] I am hooking them up to an Avermedia NV5000 thats coming in on Monday. I am ashamed to say the dvr card Im using now is cheap Tiawanese junk from ebay, thats why I got a "better" card coming. ( couldnt afford the mighty GEO!) That being said, are there any sub-$100 cams available that have a decent picture? I dont need to pick up liscence plate numbers or anything like that, just be able to see the person walking thru the yard. IR would be nice, but the ones I have sorta suck at night and I normally dont run the cameras while I am home. Only while I am at work. Any ideas? *runs for cover protecting head from verbal projectiles* Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ncpilot 0 Posted February 19, 2006 OT--you got a funny home website!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted February 19, 2006 Guys no links to web sites selling pirate cards pleeeaasee .. thanks. To answer your question, yes and no, for a standard color bullet you can get it for that price, and give you a pretty decent quality, not high res and cant handle lighting too well but over all its not bad for the price. For IR cameras not really, they are sub standard at that price, and thats being nice to them. See this post http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=4092#33236 And before all the other sales people jump on the bandwagon, please no links to "i can sell you this", just info and details please, PM them if you want to sell them something .. thanks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
securitymonster 0 Posted February 19, 2006 These have been popular for budget cameras in my neighborhood. Image Device: 1/3" Sony CCD Number of Pixels: 510 H x 492 V Horizontal Resolution: 420 TV Lines Minimum Illumination: 0.0 lux with IR S/N Ratio: More than 48dB (AGC Off) Load Impedance: 75 Ohms Lens: Fixed 6.0mm Power: DC 12V 250mA (IR On) Construction: Weatherproof Aluminum Housing Video Output: BNC Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oderus1671 0 Posted February 19, 2006 Guys no links to web sites selling pirate cards pleeeaasee .. thanks. Oops! Sorry about that! I guess I didnt even look at their dvr cards. The link I attached was supposed to be the camera page where I bought them from. My most humble apologies! Still interested in some suggests for budget cameras, though. While Im here, this question is sorta related to the budget camera question. I have found that a lot of budget cams are Sharp chips. Should I avoid these, or is it a preference thing? Ive read the Sony chipped cams are better, but never found a "real-life" side by side comparison. Thanks, and again, soooo sorry for the bad link! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted February 19, 2006 Yep stay away from Sharp, you can still get a really inexpensive CCD Color 0.5 lux Bullet Camera for the price you want to pay .. see the image in the other post i linked to. They will all be 1/4" CCD though, would have to double or triple the price for a 1/3" CCD. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kandcorp 0 Posted February 19, 2006 There are definitely some sub $100.00($95-$99 ) cameras that are very good. If your looking for an IR bullet type cam like sec. monst. posted, you should be able to find a decent one. Oh, and props for getting the Aver NV5000. Awesome DVR card, you will be very very satisfied. Make sure though you are using the new Version 5.5 software. Are you going to be using that card for 4 channels @120fps or 8 @15fps. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oderus1671 0 Posted February 19, 2006 i will only be using 3 cameras to start with, but maybe my misses will let me add more later! shes the one determining the budget, so i better listen to her real good! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Securitymaster 0 Posted February 20, 2006 i will only be using 3 cameras to start with, but maybe my misses will let me add more later! shes the one determining the budget, so i better listen to her real good! Amen to that! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oderus1671 0 Posted February 20, 2006 OK, so heres the specs on those cameras Im using right now... Product Details • B&W 1/3" Sony Super HAD CCD • 0 LUX, 12 LED IR Illuminators 10 Meter • 420 Lines Resolution 250,000 Pixels • 3.6 mm Fixed Board Lens Optional 4, 4.3, 6, 8, 12 or 16mm • S/N Ratio More Than 50 dB • AWB [Auto White Balance] • BLC [Auto Back Light Compensation] • 12 Volt DC 250 mA max (power supply sold seperately) • Working Temp -10C~+40C • Standard BNC Connector • Includes mounting hardware. Got these cams for $72, should I just go ahaead and order another one? I am also curious to see if the picture quality will be better on the NV5000 dvr card coming in today. Does the dvr card make a difference on picture/video quality? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jasper 0 Posted February 20, 2006 The DVR card will effect the quality of the recording. And depending on what compression you use to record the video will determine how good of quality the playback video will be. Maybe you should wait and see how the first camera performs with your DVR before ordering another one unless you have tested it in the situation you plan on using it in. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kandcorp 0 Posted February 20, 2006 The NV5000 should give you very good results with any 420TVL, 1/3" Sony camera. Set it up at 640x480 and Mpeg-4 compression. Going from some off brand knock-off card to this DVR card will definately improve performance and quality. What is your PC hardware setup for the DVR card? If you want to see a demo of the NV5000 in action please visit: http://www.ilinksurveillance.com/html/demo1.html and select the first demo link. All of the cameras are 420TVL, 1/3" Sony's except channels 1, 5, 10. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oderus1671 0 Posted February 20, 2006 What is your PC hardware setup for the DVR card? I am currently using a home build, with the following specs: XP Home sp2 Abit NF7-S mobo AMD XP3200 cpu 1.2 gig Mushkin pc3200 RAM ATI 9800 pro 128mb 2x sata 80gig WD hdd's (1 for OS 1 for programs) 1x 30gig WD IDE hdd (for music, downloads, video, documents, pictures, ect) 3meg cable internet very adequate cooling 19" LCD monitor Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oderus1671 0 Posted February 20, 2006 There are definitely some sub $100.00($95-$99 ) cameras that are very good. If your looking for an IR bullet type cam like sec. monst. posted, you should be able to find a decent one. Oh, and props for getting the Aver NV5000. Awesome DVR card, you will be very very satisfied. Make sure though you are using the new Version 5.5 software. Are you going to be using that card for 4 channels @120fps or 8 @15fps. The CD that came with it is version 5.1. Is this the version your talking about? I went to avermedias site and they only have version 4.7 up there. Is there an alternate website or something Im missing? BTW, this is hands down the best and most informative forum for security stuff out there. Thanks to all of you guys here! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kandcorp 0 Posted February 20, 2006 5.1 Should be OK to use. There is not much difference between the 2 except IP cam support and a few other features that you will probably never use. If you want you can visit our site and download the software from there. Release Notes: http://www.ilinksurveillance.com/downloads/NV5.5releasenotes.pdf Software Version 5.5 http://www.ilinksurveillance.com/downloads/NDVRDSS550035.zip Thanks, Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kandcorp 0 Posted February 20, 2006 I just checked Avermedia's site and they do have 5.5 on there. Click on application software to download 5.5. http://www.aver.com/2005home/support/downloads/faq_nv1000nv3000nv5000.shtml Make sure you uninstall 5.1 if you have installed it already. I would also suggest you read the FAQ's as well. Thanks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oderus1671 0 Posted February 21, 2006 ok, got the card in and wow! what a difference! I have a feeling I will be a happy camper with this card. The software is much much better than the other junk i was using. Now all i need to do is play around with it a while to figure it out! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kandcorp 0 Posted February 21, 2006 Well, let me know if you have any questions about your new Geo-Killer Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CollinR 0 Posted February 21, 2006 I'm interested as well, aver hasn't been that bad to me in the past but I have never used their DVR card. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kandcorp 0 Posted February 21, 2006 You should definately consider it CollinsR. They have come along way and make some incredible DVR cards now. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jasper 0 Posted February 21, 2006 What is their software policy? Do they charge for upgrades? How often do they come out with updates? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WendyWei 0 Posted February 23, 2006 What is your PC hardware setup for the DVR card? I am currently using a home build, with the following specs: XP Home sp2 Abit NF7-S mobo AMD XP3200 cpu 1.2 gig Mushkin pc3200 RAM ATI 9800 pro 128mb 2x sata 80gig WD hdd's (1 for OS 1 for programs) 1x 30gig WD IDE hdd (for music, downloads, video, documents, pictures, ect) 3meg cable internet very adequate cooling 19" LCD monitor Dear Customer: For NV5000 products hardware spec suggestion list please refer to http://www.avermedia.com/nvd/hardware-recom.asp We are highly suggested to use P4 CPU to run our NV series and for the most stable security DVR, we strongly recommend NOT using VIA/SiS/ALi chipsets and SiS VGA chips with our products due to their severe limitation of the chipset design. Thank you for purchasing our product and hope our product could satisfy you. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WendyWei 0 Posted February 23, 2006 What is their software policy? Do they charge for upgrades? How often do they come out with updates? We never charge our customers for the upgrade version of AP. We keep on adding features and testing new functions for NV series and recently we release a formal version of AP around 2 months. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
