Unless the images are huge, I don't think 4fps would kill your link.  

And I've never tried Xprotect for triggered events, or motion-control recording.  I know Luxriot does motion-control (increases the recorded frame-rate when it detects motion), but I'm not sure about the Xprotect software.

Holy Toledo...  


500-camera system served one man...


And the taxpayers paid for that shizzle too.  

You're ahead of me... I never could get it to function.

My system has paid for itself with the crimes and vandalism it has solved.  

You'll kick yourself once something happens, and you had all that equipment just sitting there, unused.

I concur.

I have a couple of their newer (7211, and 7111) domes deployed... I like 'em.  Great picture quality.

Yes it is!

$50 for that camera would be a steal... they're going for >$600 on Ebay:  Link

But bear in mind that GVI security went out of business in 2011... so support will probably be non-existent if you have problems.

Paging Captain Obvious to the white courtesy phone.

Link


ETA:  knocking/pretending to be selling something, or looking for insert-random-name-here are a common burglar MOs.  If nobody answers, they either kick the door, or go around back and make entry through a rear door or window.

To take your questions in order:

1.  A supervised alarm system is FAR preferable to one without any connectivity.  The latter is just a noisemaker... and lasts until they decide to smash it.  I'd get the cellular option as well... it takes that "cut the phone lines" maneuver (which isn't just James-Bond fantasy land... it happened to a colleague of mine during at attempted burglary) out of play.

2.  The key to keeping your system private is to change the default passwords.  A stunning number of people fail to do this, and thus their cameras end up on Google, with all sorts of people logging in to watch them.  Now, that's fine if you're an exhibitionist, and that's your thing.  Personally, I chuckle at the thought of the retching my pale, hairy, naked body would induce in any poor bastard who decided to watch me naked.

3.  Crawling through insulation sucks.  Get the system put in before you blow in a bunch of extra insulation.

Totally agree.

That is what I would do... I wouldn't hang it.

Another common question that I've seen come up with increasing frequency is about "Car Cams" or "Black Boxes."  

Everyone has seen those "America's Wildest Police Chases!!" videos from various agencies, where some horrific crash/shooting/chase is recorded on a vehicle mounted camera.  These LE-geared models record to a trunk-mounted video recorder, and sometimes include telemetry from the vehicle: speed, direction, unit #, etc.  The videos make for great TV, but the video units themselves are quite expensive.  They're part of multi-thousand-dollar systems... some of them include wireless links that enable the vehicle to automatically dump the recorded video to a secure server when the vehicle pulls into the station or sally-port.  

They require a lot of wiring, lock-boxes, expensive cameras, remote mics, WIFI bridges, and so forth.  This is MUCH more than the average Joe wants to do to his vehicle.

Fortunately, alternatives exist... some of them quite reasonably-priced.

Enter the "black box."  Quite popular in other parts of the world, they've been slower to catch on in the United States.  These are integrated flash-based camera units that mount on the inside of your vehicle's windshield.  They're not technically a CCTV product, as much as they're a stand-alone video camera.  Some are merely that; a camera.  Others actually include GPS tracking data, and when paired with their viewing software, can provide a full Google-maps-based route of where you were, what street you were on, how fast you were going, three-axis G-sensor readings, and HD video of the trip.  

Not bad for $2-300 each.  

I've been using the following camera in my vehicle for about a year:




It's a SmartyHD BX1500, with a 170-degree wide-angle lens.  It records to a standard SD card, includes GPS readings, and integrates with Google maps through the software.  In a year, I've only had one occasion where if flaked out.  After contacting their tech support, and re-initializing the flash card, the problem was fixed.   The interface looks like this:



I'll call your attention to a couple of things (don't mind the pixelated areas... those are for PERSEC).  See the squirrel (circled in red) in the road?  Now note the circled area in the G-force graph below the video window... see the dip in the red line?  That shows where I slammed on my brakes to avoid hitting the little tree rat (my kids were in the car).  The interface is intuitive, and it allows you to export video, and stills.  The configuration screen looks like this:



You can adjust frame-rate, video quality, resolution, mode, and so forth.  

The video quality is quite good during the day.  You can see where you're going, read signs on the edge of the road, and see any events that happen in front of you.  The video is not, however, good enough to read license plates... a major strike against the system.  

The night video quality isn't the greatest.  In fact, unless you're driving through a well-lit area, you don't see much.  Here is a GIF I made of my nearly hitting a young deer on a country road.  The only lights out there are my headlights.




(To be continued)

The video taken by the Smarty is 1280x960, which is quite a bit more detailed than standard analog video.  I wondered how it would compare, scene-for-scene, so I mounted a small Pyle analog camera down on the bumper of my truck, with the signal going back to an Axis video encoder.  The Axis records to a micro-SD card, and I took the video directly off the card for comparison.

The video was shot simultaneously by the Smarty, and the analog Pyle camera, and synced-up with Sony Vegas.  

The hardware:



Vs:








Notice a couple of things; the reflection off the inside of the windshield partially degrades the video of the Smarty camera... and the only camera that can resolve the license plate of that vehicle in front is the analog camera (I suspect that is mostly because it's six feet closer to the vehicle compared to the Smarty).  

License plates are a particular challenge for the wide-angle 170-degree Smarty camera, since it seems to lack the pixel density.  Smarty makes a 120-degree model, which we will try to test in another installment.

(To be continued)

Now we're going to compare three different cameras:  an analog Pyle Camera, a SmartyHD with a 120-degree lens, and a FineVu CR300-HD.  

The cameras were all mounted on the same vehicle, and the videos were shot at the same time, on the same scene.  We already tried a 170-degree Smarty, so now we're going to try the 120-degree.  Here are the contenders:

FineVu camera with a polarized filter:



SmartyHD BX1500 120-degree model:



Analog Pyle camera:





We looked at the analog camera previously, so let's examine the two new cameras, side-by-side.   The FineVu is considerably smaller than the Smarty:



The Smarty takes an SD-card, while the FineVu takes a MicroSD card:



The mounts both attach to the windshield with 3M red/clear mounting tape:



They both have video-out ports (Note to Subnet), and the FineVu can actually be directly mounted as an external drive through the USB port.  The Smarty requires that you remove the SD card to extract any recorded video.



The business end:





Here is a short clip of day video on a straight road.  The first portion is the analog camera, the second portion the Smarty, and the third portion the FineVu.  The analog camera is much more of a down-on-the-road view, since it's mounted to the bumper (and it gives you a fine close-up of a squished squirrel towards the end of its portion), while the other two are mounted high on the inside of the windshield.  





Here is a night-view of a U-turn.  The sections are in the same order:  Analog, Smarty, then FineVu.  



Note that all of the cameras give good coverage during the day, but all three degrade significantly at night.  The Smarty is particularly dark, while the Pyle/analog and the FineVu provide much more detail beyond the reach of the vehicle's headlights.  The Smarty has the best video quality at night, but the least light sensitivity, so what you can see is pretty clear, but beyond that it's all black.

Note:  if purchasing the FineVu camera, get the polarized filter.  It significantly improves the video quality during the day, and takes out a LOT of the glare and reflection from the inside of the windshield.  It doesn't show as much in this video, but on other segments I've shot it's VERY noticeable.  The filter is highly recommended.

Well... here's a new one.  A CCTV camera planted to find a grave site vandal...

Only to find out it's a nasty 79yo crone who has a grudge against the deceased's widower.

Holy sh*t...  

Looks like you can get that done for about a hundred bucks.

Link