RE: OT: Birdbox with Colour Camera

["Steve Morgan" <smorgo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I used a CCTV cable from CPC that combines video, audio and power over
a
single cable about 5mm in diameter. This runs from an IP65 box mounted next
to the bird box up into the loft (through a small hole in the eaves) and
back down in Node 0 (AKA Bedroom 4). The camera is connected via standard
BNC/Phono/Power connectors in the IP65 box. That allows me to take the box
off the wall.

For capture, I use Windows Media Encoder under Windows Server 2003. As well
as capturing, it will also broadcast to Windows Media Player. To limit the
size of the capture files, I have Media Encoder record for an hour and a
script to move the capture file before kicking Media Encoder off again. For
capture hardware, I use a Hauppauge WinTV USB.

If you use a colour camera, make sure it's one that switches to B/W Infra
Red when the light level drops. Most of the action (such as when the
female's laying) seems to happen at night and a colour camera wouldn't
capture it.

Hope that helps,

Steve Morgan


-----Original Message-----
From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
familyberry
Sent: 16 March 2008 12:33
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] OT: Birdbox with Colour Camera

We've put up several birdoxes in the woods at the back of us and now
we've decided that we'd like to put up a birdbox which incorporates
a colour camera so that we can watch the birdy going-ons.
I've looked at several sites which sell such things, both wired and
wireless, but thought I'd tap into the combined experience and
wisdom (?) of group members before I part with any money.
Does anyone have any experience and recommendations to offer? In
particular I'm torn between the (supposed)ease of wireless (but
power still needed for the camera!) and the possible problem of
feeding cables through the outer skin of the house if we go with a
wired solution. I'm probably going to have to mount the box on the
front of the house which faces North, and feed any cables directly
through the front wall into a bedroom or into the loft and then down
into a bedroom. If anyone has fitted one of these boxes, I'd be
interested to know how you've done the cabling
Also, any recommendations for displaying and saving the pictures? I
have an old Dell Latitude CPx laptop running XP which I'd probably
like to use, however, I also like the idea of being able to display
the camera output on our main TV in the lounge so we can use picture-
in-picture to follow the birdy goings-ons.
Any help or recommendations will be most welcome.




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