Re: Outdoor CCTV problem

[Jim <alarminex@xxxxxxx>]

On Oct 4, 12:58=A0pm, JakeD <fgdfg...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> G. Morgan <G_Mor...@xxxxxxxx> wrote innews:ro4k87pufcae4ep2r1j2nfr5hb58gs=
1tqk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
>
>
>
> > Cheap equipment, or not enough light. =A0Take your pick, both are proba=
bly
> > correct.
>
> > What equipment are you working with?
>
> Yes, the gear was relatively cheap: On the other hand, it is up-to-date
> technology, so perhaps it's not all bad. It's a 4-channel DVR/receiver th=
at
> records to an SD card, and the 12v cameras have 30 LED's. All made in Chi=
na
> (I think) and purchased on eBay. I actually ended up with two very simila=
r
> DVR/receivers, which could be helpful, because using one alone, I have
> awful trouble picking up four cameras. There is a lot of interference and
> usually one out of the 4 cameras isn't picked up. Perhaps I should try
> wiring the cameras to a DVR (luckily the cameras have wire outputs) -
> because this wireless setup seems very problematic indeed.
>
> JakeD

All I can say Jake is ....... you shoulda come here FIRST.

Many times, a person will come to me and tell me that they bought
"this great camera system on line" and they tried to install it and
they can't get it working. Depending upon what they bought ..... very
rarely will I take the job. You see, I've learned that once I touch
the equipment .... and something goes wrong .... the equipment very
quickly becomes "my system".

As it is .... CCTV equipment has become very popular and companies are
making it very available to the general public. The problem is .....
the general public has no idea of the amount of detail that must be
put into choosing a camera system. Therefore they only key in on on
the hype, razzel dazzel and glitter that the camera companies
advertise with making it seem like it's a "no brainer" .

(Because you didn't know)you probably never looked at whether the
cameras were REALLY out door cameras, or what's the smallest amount of
light necessary to acutally see something of value (ie lux value),
back lighting compensation? What camera view could use 350 lines of
resolution versus 540 lines? Is it a day night camera? Why is it
better if it is? 1/4 inch or 1/3 inch CCD? Standard, wide angle or
telephoto lens? ...... and there are probably 20 more spec's that I
could list, depending upon your application.  In addition, off the
shelf wireless products are usually designed to work on "open"
frequencies. That is ..... frequencies that are used by thousands of
devices. Telephones, door bells, dog collars, or on non protected
network frequencies with very little transmitting power. Whether you
realize it or not, video takes a lot of bandwidth to transmit and even
some professional wireless system have their problems.

To make what you have now ..... work, is going to take trial and error
movement of cameras and even then it will only result in unreliable
and intermittant performance. Hard wiring will make a difference but
the quality of the video will be minimal. It may be that it will be
acceptable to you but if you were to see it beside even a low end
professional system, you'd be amazed at the difference.

Please excuse me but ..... unfortunately, you're coming here with a
pair of sissors and you want to know if we can tell you how you can
use them to cut your lawn. Best advice I can give you is to do some
thorough research and then go out and buy a lawn mower. Or ..... pay
someone to provide you with the appropriate tool to do the job. As I'm
sure you know, professionals get paid to do what they do because they'
have the experience, done the homework and the trial and error. You
just didn't dig deep enough to find out what you didn't know about
CCTV. Sorry!