which specs are REALLY important?

[CCTVcams 0]

we're working on a complete redevelopment of our site, and as part of the new design, we're going to perform a review and re-write of our product categories and listings. so i'm curious, which specs are REALLY important when choosing a camera or dvr? if you were recommending to a newbie which specs to rely on, what would they be?

 

i'm just not sure how much value is given to specs such as shutter speeds, sync systems, gamma characteristics, signal-noise ratios etc. i'm pretty certain the additional (and often unneccessary) detail both confuses and intimidates a lot of our customers. would love some feedback - thanks!

[VST_Man 1]

DVR; triplex, MPEG4/H.264, 100Mbps internet connection, motion recording with selectable zones, hard drive size, remote "included"...not extra, CD writer, compatable with "all microsoft software".................

 

Camera's; lux level, F-stop, varifocal, voltage with current requirements, gain, resolution per TVL, indoor/outdoor, mechanical filter.

 

I guess the best way would be to reverse engineer your question and allow the customer to answer some quick questions via a drop down screw down format. ie. indoor/outdoor, voltage, IR required, TVL required, ect.

 

But then again I alway liked the pictures

 

and, with the newer OSD (on screen display) type camera's on the market there is a huge gap in what all those setting under the OSD really mean and how changing one can effect others. ie. with WDR OSD is you canb effectively disable the WDR if you "turn on" another setting in the OSD and never know it. Having paid for it and now you just turned it off unknowingly. DVR's are thier very own maze of settings.

 

Bottom line is buyer beware......................or hire me.

[rory 0]

mechanical IR cut filter vs washed out colors ..

effective pixels vs TVL ..

Infared Distance outdoors vs Indoors.. .

invisible Infrared Capability vs Lower Spectrums ..

temperature ratings for our friends to the North ..

fastest recording speed in the highest resolution. ..

evidence sharing quality vs recording quality ..

methods of evidence sharing ... .

multi site remote monitoring (one multi screen) .. .

motion detection recording. ..

audio recording ..

upgradable .. .

[CCTVcams 0]

lol - thanks guys. was hoping that we previously included too much information, but sounds like it's probably not enough! at least, not where it counts.

 

appreciate the prompt feedback and will try to incorporate as much as possible. thanks again and feel free to include any additional thoughts/insight.

[rory 0]

okay well basics is MPEG4 and High Res .. the other details can be in a full details section .. as the end users dont want to know that much detail .. a screen shot from each camera really works also ..

 

see a sample store I was working on .. never got off the ground since i live in a blacklisted part of the world ..

 

http://www.cctvauthority.com/shop/

[CCTVcams 0]

thanks for the link, rory - especially liked your description paragraph on the Nubix. this is more along the lines of what we're trying to achieve in our descriptions, as we think customers and search engine spiders would prefer to read descriptions than a table of product features.

 

thanks for sharing, and will definitely incorporate as many of the ideas as possible. especially software screenshots!

[CCTVcams 0]

by the way, on a side - why can't you set up the site for sales? customs doesn't allow you to ship to US, or is it just cost prohibitive? with your background and experience, probably wouldn't be too difficult to find a partner state-side that can drop ship on your behalf for a small cut of the take???

[rory 0]

Applied to at least 10 online merchants, even the international ones, either didnt hear back from them or they replied they dont work with the Bahamas ... arghhhh .. we basically need a US bank account and address... just havent had the chance to deal with that yet .. busy starting a video monitoring company right now ..