Video Surveailance - kind of OT

There have been two significant crimes where I live in the last couple weeks. One was at a gas station (inside), one at a fast food restaurant (inside).

Both had video camera. They should the footage on the news so the public might help in IDing the crooks...

But I got to tell you, the video was so bad that you couldn't really make out anybody.

I figured there were a bunch of people here who set up this type of system, that could explain why the video like these crime scene tapes are soooooooo bad. It seems that a system with clearer video would be a great assistance in cutting crime in my area, and I just wonder what the problem are.

Thanks in advance...

Reply to
AZ Woody
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This is VERY typical.

You are correct.

However, most businesses and even governments consider security a non-revenue-producing function, and an expense rather than an investment.

So they buy the cheapest low bid garbage and do zero maintenance. Never change the tape, never clean the recorder heads much less send the recorders out for annual maintenance and have heads and all rubber parts replaced.

We do high reliability video surveillance for governments and occasional VIPs. It is *very* common for our imitators to quote less for the entire job installed than we would pay for just the hardware. We did a high profile install a while back which ran $1/3 million. The next lowest bid under us was $55K. Fortunately the FBI was in on the project and their protection guy knew the ins and outs of a decent video install.

There are some articles in the White Papers section of our website which go into this in more detail if you're interested.

Regards ... Steve

********************************************************************* Steve Uhrig, SWS Security, Maryland (USA) Mfrs of electronic surveillance equip mailto: snipped-for-privacy@swssec.com website
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+1+410-879-4035, fax +1+410-836-1190 "In God we trust, all others we monitor" *********************************************************************
Reply to
Steve Uhrig

While I don't think that the local bodega can afford a $333,333.33 video system or even one for $55K, You're correct in pointing out that the el cheapo poorly maintained sytems can be improved upon, Actuall, I have a pretty good system at my house that records "evidence quality" video for under $2K.

Reply to
brobin

Owners of both businesses were not paying attention to the state of their CCTV equipment that deteriorated over time. The tapes were most likely written many, many times over, and every time it introduced more and more distortion.

What they should have done, is to purchase a new DVR-based system that can be had for less than $500 these days and throw the time-lapse VCRs out of the window. The single time you actually need to look at the video usually pays for the entire investment into a good quality cameras and a good DVR. Thieves are known to be ordered by court to pay business owners for the CCTV equipment once caught, BTW.

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Reply to
equity-loan.info

Reply to
obo

No, they're becoming cheaper and cheaper by the day. They are, in many cases, just glorified PC's with a video capture card. Supercircuits sells a WCV31 Security Camera DVR Quad w/120GB HD for $389.

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"The all new DVQ-1 offers the luxury combination of a color quad processor and a full time digital video recorder. The DVQ is a four channel unit that will record up to four cameras and audio for up to 2400 hours on a 120GB IDE hard drive"

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

"equity-loan.info"

There are numerous reasons to switch to DVR. The ability to move instantly to the point in the recording that you want to view is probably just as important as the video quality. I'd keep the old time-lapse stuff, though, so that a really bright thief who gets the idea to steal the tape can pop out a recording of Mary Poppins while the real images are stored in a secure, hidden DVR cabinet.

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

personally I would want a multiplex as opposed to a quad processor unless you can bring up full recorded screen on any camera with the quad which you usually can't do with a quad. This is inferior unit without that ability and therefore still a stretch in my book. And not networkable. Thanks for the link though.

Reply to
obo

Youch! I believe Mr. LoanInfo said, simply, you could get a DVR for under $500. We were comparing them to simple time lapse VCRs, IIRC. This unit

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is not only is a DVR, it has a *color* quad processor, built-in, too. Given the choice, I'd rather have the quad DVR than a single channel time lapseVCR, which is usually what $500 will get you. I'm not sure what operational details are, since the instruction manual link doesn't work but I think you're asking for a little much for $500. Most 7-11's could care less about networkability and I don't recall seeing time lapse VCR's with network interfaces.

FWIW, they have about 50 other models of DVR including single channel models for $219 here:

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I'm pretty sure at least ONE of them will satisfy the statement that you can get a decent DVR for under $500. They are also fairly pricey - almost everything they sell can be found for about 20% if you shop around.

A few of us here bought 16 channel multiplexers from Ebay for about $100. Still plenty of money left over to buy a separate DVR that records whatever channel was selected via alarm, video motion detection or operator control. There seems to be a very solid supply of muxes and DVRs for sale on Ebay as casinos and other big CCTV users upgrade to fancier models.

In terms of superior video quality and ease of searching even a cheap quad DVR beats a VCR-based system hands down, especially in terms of operators who record on the same tape for six months straight! With a 120GB drive going for $60 on sale capable of holding 2400 hours of video, you can also keep an incredible archive going for very little money.

I still think Mr. LoanInfo was quite correct when he suggested you can get (or build) a very nice DVR for under $500. The unit I cited would be an

*incredible* step up for many places that nowuse a single camera and a time lapse VCR. More importantly, you can pick up some incredibly nice models used on Ebay, and unlike VCRs, you don't have to worry about the video heads or the transport mechanisms being worn out from excessive use. There aren't any in a DVR.

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

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