Unable to set some cameras to 960H mode

[aliflair 0]

Hi, I'm new to this forum. I recently bought on ebay a "DVR Combo kit - H264 Model ABQ-5504H-4" to replace my faulty WatchGuard system that I had for 5 years. It used the pre-terminated Siamese video/power leads, the plug and play type, physically compatable with the new system. They are embedded in the walls so changing them is not really an option. The new system has Aprica as the manufacturer written on it and was made in China. It is advertised as a 700 line 960H system. Before I installed it over the old wiring I made sure it was all working with the supplied equipment and it seemed fine. I then replaced one camera (on the longest run of wiring) and the new CCTV and its power leads. The new camera worked great and the picture quality is a definite improvement with nice night vision.

 

Now here was my mistake, it was getting late and I ran out of daylight so I should have just left my old 3 cameras unconnected on the new system but I didn’t, I connected the old cameras to it. They started working on the DVR (in D1 mode), no problem I thought, I'll just connect the new cameras the following day and the DVR should pick up the 960H settings and be fine. So I swapped them over and in daylight it seemed as though they were fine, but at night time they are very grainy and noticeably different from the first camera that I put in. It's like the DVR has remembered the D1 settings that it first saw for those 3 cameras and it won’t change, but the original camera is great.

 

I am running out of ideas to get the 3 cameras working like the good one. I've tried setting the DVR to D1 mode then back to 960H thinking it would reset all cameras, that didn’t work. I've checked each camera "stream" through the software and they all appear to be a WD1 (ie 960H) settings, the same as the camera which is working fine. I've powered the unit down of course. I did a "Reset to factory settings" and still the same.

 

About all I can think of now is reformatting the hard drive, maybe swapping the "good" camera to one of the other terminals to check if it’s a hardware issue with the other 3 cameras or those 3 lines, but it does seem strangely coincidental that 3 of the cameras would have the same issue. Failing that I suppose I can take them all out and use the wires supplied to see if it is something to do with the wires embedded in my walls.

 

Has anyone got any ideas for me to consider on how to get the system to reset and act as if it is a first time hook-up before I have to go through those tedious steps? Thanks

Edited July 20, 2016 by Guest

[karenbigbro2 0]

Why have you bought a system with 700TVL cameras? These cameras are probably older than your existing system. 1000TVL cameras were discontinued last year in favour of AHD. The market is flooded with old cameras but 1080p AHD is the new technology - at great prices.

[aliflair 0]

Why have you bought a system with 700TVL cameras? These cameras are probably older than your existing system. 1000TVL cameras were discontinued last year in favour of AHD. The market is flooded with old cameras but 1080p AHD is the new technology - at great prices.

 

ignorance i guess, and still more expensive to go that way now that i have looked at prices. but the one i bought is not worse than my old system, but 3 cameras are currently returning a picture that is the same.

[aliflair 0]

Since I first posted I have tried to reformat the drive but it won't let me via the software, maybe because its the only one, I'll have to try that at the weekend by taking it out and doing it on a computer.

 

I switched the "good" camera with one of the others to check if it was a fault with the other cameras, but the good camera still had the same picture making me think it is related to the wires or connections. I have changed connections at the DVR and it makes no difference. And I have run one of the newly supplied wires thru my house from the DVR to one of the "bad" cameras to see if they become "good" but sadly no. So at the moment its kind of got me stumped.

[the toss 0]

The IR on these entry level cameras is really no good for more than about 5 or 6 metres regardless of what the sales pitch says. Now remembering that the camera is working off REFLECTED IR light lets analyse your pics starting at top right.

This pic is of driveway , lawn & road. What you are seeing at night is the reflected light from half the driveway and a bit of lawn. These two things reflect different amounts of IR and so are just discernable in your pic. Most of the IR just fades out in the distance. Letterbox & road are too far away to reflect any useable IR & so do not show. Next pic is of the front pathway. In this pic there is a rendered wall , a brick wall , pebble garden , path and column. Again all these things reflect differing amounts of IR and so show up to some extent. The column shows up best because it is front on to the IR & so reflects the most. Next comes the BBQ area. Lots of different things of different materials here to reflect the IR plus it is a more confined space. Last pic is the Gym. Again, an enclosed area with lots of different things to reflect that IR. This is helped enormously by the light coloured carpet in most of the pic.

 

What you really need is to have people walking around these areas to determine where the pic is acceptable & where it fails. White lighting (not IR) will help to a huge extent in those outside areas.

 

As I tell my customers - almost any camera will perform ok in daylight , the real test comes at night and these budget kits dont do the job

[aliflair 0]

The IR on these entry level cameras is really no good for more than about 5 or 6 metres regardless of what the sales pitch says. Now remembering that the camera is working off REFLECTED IR light lets analyse your pics starting at top right.

This pic is of driveway , lawn & road. What you are seeing at night is the reflected light from half the driveway and a bit of lawn. These two things reflect different amounts of IR and so are just discernable in your pic. Most of the IR just fades out in the distance. Letterbox & road are too far away to reflect any useable IR & so do not show. Next pic is of the front pathway. In this pic there is a rendered wall , a brick wall , pebble garden , path and column. Again all these things reflect differing amounts of IR and so show up to some extent. The column shows up best because it is front on to the IR & so reflects the most. Next comes the BBQ area. Lots of different things of different materials here to reflect the IR plus it is a more confined space. Last pic is the Gym. Again, an enclosed area with lots of different things to reflect that IR. This is helped enormously by the light coloured carpet in most of the pic.

 

What you really need is to have people walking around these areas to determine where the pic is acceptable & where it fails. White lighting (not IR) will help to a huge extent in those outside areas.

 

As I tell my customers - almost any camera will perform ok in daylight , the real test comes at night and these budget kits dont do the job

 

Thanks for taking the time to reply and now it all makes sense why my playing around didn't change anything. All good it’s mainly for the deterrent effect on crims so I’ll stick with that (plus my burglar alarm) for now (at least until I get burgled, then I may reassess) or this unit breaks, will make sure I do a bit more research next time. And finally it’s not carpet in the “good” photo, it’s an outdoor gym so it’s concrete, but doesn’t change your reasoning. Cheers.