FAQ

How do I get a static IP address for my connection?

The Static IP address is something your ISP (Internet Service Provider) would be able to setup for you. A Static IP is an IP address that does not change if you connect or disconnect from the internet. Only your ISP can provide this to you, we cannot.

Where do I put the static IP information for my connection?

This information is to be put into the DVR once you've obtained all of it from your ISP or once you have the router setup and are able to connect to the internet. It's recommended by CCTV Imports to use a Linksys router being as they are easily setup and can be remotely managed if you are to run into an issue connecting it.

How many Frames per Seconds will I see online?

There is no way to tell exactly how fast your video will come across the Internet. The speed depends on your connection to the Internet and the DVR's connection to the internet as well. The DVR's can use any sort of a Ethernet connection but are not compatable with a dial up modem connection.

How many computers can be connected online to view the video from the DVR online?

This depends entirely on the DVR itself. Some DVR's we have will allow 1 connection while some allow up to 15.

What are the RCA jacks for on the back of the DVR?

The RCA jacks on the rear of the dvr are for audio (if applicable). Also you will notice BNC "Loop" outputs on the rear of the DVR's and these are for use if you would like to view a specific camera on a separate monitor to watch specifically.

Here is additional information from CCTV and IP Security expert.

Every router on the planet is different. However, for the most part they all have the same basic features and log on capabilities. The first thing you will need to do is log into the router via the web interface. This is typically done by looking in the manual it came with or online to find it's default IP address. Enter this address directly into the address bar through your browser. (Example: Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox, etc.)

It will ask you for the username and password to log onto the router. The default username and password for a Linksys for example is Admin and admin. This will also be in the first few pages of the routers manual. Find the settings tab for port forwarding. This can sometimes be under the "settings" or "advanced settings" in the routers menu. Sometimes you'll have enter each port individually, sometimes you can put in a port range, 2200-2250 for example. Be sure to save your changes after you have entered the port forwarding information. That's really all there is to it. If you get into trouble, refer back to the user manual for port forwarding. The manuals have gotten considerably easier to read and understand over the last few years and with a little searching around through the browser interface you'll quickly find it's rather easy to setup.

For the DVR...

There really isn't too much to setup on a DVR or NVR for port forwarding. Most of the DVRs on the market come pre-set with ports that are activated for things like client menus, playback, searching of videos, and even smartphone streaming. You'll just need to know which ports your particular model of DVR uses to forward through the router. This information can be found either on their website or in the manual from the manufacture. Worst case, call the tech support division of the DVR you've purchased and ask them which ports need to be forwarded to take advantage of the remote client software and other features your DVR offers.

Hope that helps. Thanks for the question.

Thanks,

IP Ratings

IP RATINGS FOR WEATHERPROOF / WATERPROOF CAMERAS

Example of Rating: IP65

Lens Field of View Chart

Focal Length Angle of View

2.8mm 97.4 degrees

4mm 71.6 degrees

6mm 44.4 degrees

8mm 34.5 degrees

3.3-8mm 95.2-35.9 degrees

5-60mm 53.6-4 degrees

How to know the know the number of TVL in a CCD sensor. Because the vendor says it is 480/540 tvl. Is there any procedure to calculate the TVL?

There is not an exact way to measure this that I am aware of.

The main thing will be for you to compare the quality of a couple of different cameras. For instance if you have one camera that is 540 TVL and the resolution seems fine you can compare that to another security camera from a different manufacturer. Then you can see if there is much of a difference.

You will want to check both how the cameras look on your monitor as well as the quality of the recording that you have from each of the cameras.

Security Cameras are no exception and in fact, the many different specifications and functions available quite often confuse the average buyer. That is why we dedicate this article to briefly explaining the most useful parts of a security camera so that you, the customer, can make an informed decision on which type to use.

As this is a guide made for the not-so-technically-inclined, we won’t bore you with the details about how the image sensors absorb light and transfer them into electronic signals or how TV lines are related to bandwidth. Instead, we bring you the meat, the details, and important facts you can use.

Image Sensors

Image sensors are one of the most important part of a security camera as you would be blind without one. The two most common types are CCD (charge coupled device) and CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor), which uses two completely different technologies for capturing images.

You also have the Super HAD CCD and Interline CCD, which are improvements upon the traditional type of CCD, for a total of 4 different image sensors. What’s the difference?

CMOS

Uses only 1/5 to 1/10 as much power as CCDs

Cheap due to low cost of production

Great for battery-powered cameras

CCD

Less electronic noise than a CMOS

Better image quality

Super HAD CCD

Twice as sensitive as traditional type of CCD

Has a 6 db better smear rejection ratio than the formal traditional type of CCD

Interline CCD

High resolution

Large pixels for high sensitivity

High frame rates with multiple outputs

Fast line dump for faster sub-sampling

Low image lag and smear

Great for machine vision, microscopy, fluoroscopy, and other applications that demand high imaging performance.

In the end, which is best?

You might quickly vote for the Interline CCD, and you might be right, but recent advances in technology have minimized any quality differences between CMOS and CCD, so to a beginner I would say: It’s pretty much the same since image quality does not solely depend on the image sensor. Look at the other specifications too.

TV Lines

“TV Lines” refer to the horizontal resolution measured in relation with the picture’s height. That is, for a standard 4:3 aspect ratio, your 720 pixels across the screen divided by 4/3 would give a max of 540 TV lines in theory. Of course, it depends on the lens, the CCD, the camera output direct to a monitor, etc. The important thing to know is: The more the better.

Causes for low TVL A poor quality or badly set-up camera.

A poor quality or poorly focused lens.

Poor quality video cables. These can cause distortion of the high frequency analog signals.

The network bit rate used to transmit the video. If the bit rate is too low then TVL will be reduced.

Product quality. Poor design of the analog to digital conversion electronics can greatly reduce TVL.

“TV Lines” refer to the horizontal resolution measured in relation with the picture’s height. That is, for a standard 4:3 aspect ratio, your 720 pixels across the screen divided by 4/3 would give a max of 540 TV lines in theory. Of course, it depends on the lens, the CCD, the camera output direct to a monitor, etc. The important thing to know is: The more the better.

Technically speaking, "bandwidth" is the width of the electromagnetic "band" of energy used to transmit some stream of information. For example, each television channel in over-the-air NTSC takes up roughly 4 MHz of the radio frequency spectrum. The term bandwidth has been generalized from its origin in physics to be roughly equivalent to "data rate" — the amount of bits or bytes a system transmits per second. This extension is natural, because higher data rates generally require a wider EM band to transmit. This isn't really accurate since you can get a higher data rate without increasing the bandwidth by using a given amount of the EM spectrum more cleverly. This usage persists, however, so you'll need to take context into account to know whether a person is talking about the actual width of a band of the EM spectrum or they're just using the term to mean "data rate".

D1 is a resolution standard in the NTSC system, "Full D1" means 720x480 pixels and can Record at 30 FPS the PAL and SECAM systems full D1 is 720x576. You also see "cropped D1", which is 704xNN, which is useful because the 8 pixels on either edge of the video frame aren't supposed to contain useful information. Therefore, some programs will prefer the cropped D1 resolution to save bandwidth. Other popular resolutions are often described in terms of D1: the SVCD resolution is 2/3 D1 (480xNN) and 352xNN is 1/2 D1. Occasionally you see SIF somewhat inaccurately described as 1/4 D1.

Full D1 DVRs are separated from the category of D1 DVRs by being able to both record at D1 resolution and CIF frame rates (30FPS) (CIF records at 360 x 240 pixels). Full D1 DVR is the highest quality DVRs. For a full comparison of CIF and D1, please see our CIF vs. D1 knowledge base article.

The NTSC, PAL and SECAM television systems are all interlaced. Each half-frame is called a field.

Frames or (less commonly) Fields per second. If context doesn't provide a clue, you can usually assume that "fps" means frames per second.

Video systems work like film projectors

They show still pictures in rapid succession; if the frame rate is high enough, the small differences between each frame trick the mind into thinking it is seeing motion. See also field

In an interlaced video system, only half of the lines making up the frame are shot at a time. For example, the camera might capture only the odd frame lines first, and then capture the even lines second. If the frame rate of an interlaced video system is 25 fps, it has 50 fields per second. Since each field is shot separately, interlacing makes a 25 fps system look like a smoother-running 50 fps system without actually having to use the doubled bandwidth required by a true 50 fps system.

The National Television Standards Committee. This committee defined the analog over-the-air television standard originally used in the United States. Since its inception there, its use has spread to the rest of North America, to parts of South America and to Japan. It has 480 horizontal lines of video data and 29.97 frames per second. See also resolution. Compare PAL and SECAM

Phase Alternating Line. This term describes the over-the-air video encoding used in Australia and most of Eurasia. It has 576 horizontal lines of video data and 25 Frames per second. See also resolution. Compare NTSC and SECAM.

Measuring and describing resolution in analog video systems is tricky. In digital video systems, you can simply use pixel dimensions: for example, you might say a particular digital video system has 352x240 resolutions. In the analog world (e.g. over-the-air television, cable TV, composite and S-video...), the only firm resolution is the "horizontal lines of resolution". For example, NTSC 480 horizontal lines of resolution. (By the way, be careful to note that when you're talking about the vertical resolution of a picture, you speak of horizontal lines — 480 horizontal lines of resolution mean that you can display up to 480 alternating black and white horizontal lines and see them all distinctly. Similarly, the horizontal resolution is defined in terms of vertical lines.) Horizontal resolution is trickier: in an analog system, there is no way to tell how many vertical lines of resolution the system can show without measuring it, either with physics or by running a test signal through a system and viewing the result. For example, the low-resolution VHS format will only distinguish about 240 vertical lines of resolution. The tape format simply can't store any more detail than this. Your television probably has 400-500 vertical lines of resolution, and professional equipment has at least 720 vertical line of resolution.

There are a number of named Resolution standards resoling standards: D2 and SIF being the most popular. All of these standards are designed to put a name to a particular data rate that is independent of the frame rate difference among video systems —NTSC is 29.97 fps and PAL/SECAM is 25 fps. Consider D1: it's defined as 720x480 for NTSC, and 720x576 for PAL and SECAM. You will find that 720x480x30 is equal to 720x576x25; therefore, "full D1" implies the same amount of data per second in all television systems for which it is defined. (29.97 fps is only one frame in a thousand lower than 30 fps.)

A French acronym whose expansion I forget. :) This system is similar to Pal but of course not so similar as to be directly compatible. It was invented in France and today is used there almost exclusively. It used to be used elsewhere in the world, but most everyone else has converted to either PAL or NTSC.

The Source Interchange Format is a Resolution standard defined as 352x240 for NTSC and 352x288 for PAL and SECAM.

Full Forms Related Questions

AGC

Automatic Gain Control. A circuit for automatically controlling amplifier gain in order to maintain a constant output voltage with a varying input voltage within a predetermined range of input-to-output variation.

AUTO BALANCE

A system for detecting errors in color balance in white and black areas of the picture and automatically adjusting the white and black levels of both the red and blue signals as needed for correction.

AUTOMATIC BRIGHTNESS CONTROL

In display devices, the self-acting mechanism which controls brightness of the device as a function of ambient light.

AUTOMATIC GAIN CONTROL

A process by which gain is automatically adjusted as a function of input or other specified parameter.

AUTOMATIC IRIS LENSES

A lens that automatically adjusts the amount of light reaching the imager.

BANDWIDTH

The number of cycles per second (Hertz) expressing the difference between the lower and upper limiting frequencies of a frequency band; also, the width of a band of frequencies.

BAR TEST PATTERN

Special test pattern for adjusting color TV receivers or color encoders. The upper portion consists of vertical bars of saturated colors and white. The power horizontal bars have black and white areas and I and Q signals.

BLOOMING

the defocusing of regions of the picture where the brightness is at an excessive level, due to enlargement of spot size and halation of the fluorescent screen of the cathode-ray picture tube. In a camera, sensor element saturation and excess which causes widening of the spatial representation of a spot light source.

BRIGHTNESS

The attribute of visual perception in accordance with which an area appear to emit more of less light. (Luminance is the recommended name for the photo-electric quantity which has also been called brightness.)

BROADBAND

In television system use, a device having a band pass greater than the band of a single VHF television channel.

BURNED-IN-IMAGE

Also called burn. An image which persists in a fixed position in the output signal of a camera tube after the camera has been turned to a different scene or, on a monitor screen.

CCD

See Charge Coupled Device

C MOUNT

A television camera lens mount of the 16 mm format, 1 inch in diameter with 32 threads per inch.

CCTV

Common abbreviation for Closed-Circuit Television.

CHARGE-COUPLED DEVICE

CCD. For imaging devices, a self-scanning semiconductor array that utilizes MOS technology, surface storage, and information transfer by shift register techniques.

COAXIAL CABLE

a particular type of cable capable of passing a wide range of frequencies with very low signal loss. Such a cable in its simplest form consists of a hollow metallic shield with a single wire accurately placed along the center of the shield and isolated from the shield.

COLOR BURST

That portion of the composite color signal, comprising a few cycles of a sine wave of chrominance sub carrier frequency, which is used to establish a reference for demodulating the chrominance signal. Normally approximately 9 cycles of 3.579545 MHz

COLOR SATURATION

The degree to which a color is free of white light.

COMPOSITE VIDEO SIGNAL

The combined picture signal, including vertical and horizontal blanking and synchronizing signals.

COMPRESSION

The reduction in gain at one level of a picture signal with respect to the gain at another level of the same signal.

CONTRAST

the range of light to dark values in a picture or the ratio between the maximum and minimum brightness values.

DB

Basically, a measure of the power ratio of two signals. In system use, a measure of the voltage ratio of two signals provided they are measured across a common impedance.

DECODER

The circuitry in a color TV receiver which transforms the detected color signals into a form suitable to operate the color tube.

DEPTH OF FIELD

The in-focus range of a lens or optical system. It is measured from the distance behind an object to the distance in front of the object when the viewing lens shows the object to be in focus.

DEPTH OF FOCUS

the range of sensor-to-lens distance for which the image formed by the lens is clearly focused.

DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING

An algorithm within the camera that digitizes data (the image). Examples include automatic compensate for backlight interference, color balance variations and corrections related to aging of electrical components or lighting. Functions such as electronic pan and zoom, image annotation, compression of the video for network transmission, feature extraction and motion compensation can be easily and inexpensively added to the camera feature set.

DISTORTION

The deviation of the received signal waveform from that of the original transmitted waveform.

DYNAMIC RANGE

The difference between the maximum acceptable signal level and the minimum acceptable signal level.

FIELD

One of the two equal but vertically separated parts into which a television frame is divided in an interlaced system of scanning. A period of 1/60 second separates each field start time.

FIELD OF VIEW

The maximum angle of view that can be seen through a lens or optical instrument.

FOCAL LENGTH

Of a lens, the distance from the focal point to the principal point of the lens.

FOCAL PLANE

A plane (through the focal point) at right angles to the principal point of the lens.

FOCAL POINT

the point at which a lens or mirror will focus parallel incident radiation.

FRAME

the total area, occupied by the television picture, which is scanned while the picture signal is not blanked.

GAIN

an increase in voltage or power, usually expressed in dB.

GAMMA

A numerical value, or the degree of contrast in a television picture, which is the exponent of that power law which is used to approximate the curve of output magnitude versus input magnitude over the region of interest.

GHOST

a spurious image resulting from an echo.

HUM

Electrical disturbance at the power supply frequency or harmonics thereof.

INTERFERENCE

Extraneous energy which tends to interfere with the reception of the desired signals.

IRIS

An adjustable aperture built into a camera lens to permit control of the amount of light passing through the lens.

JITTER

small, rapid variations in a waveform due to mechanical disturbances or to changes in the characteristic of components. Supply voltages, imperfect synchronizing signals, circuits, etc.

LENS

A transparent optical component consisting of one or more pieces of optical glass with surfaces so curved (usually Spherical), that they serve to converge or diverge the transmitted rays of an object, thus forming a real or virtual image of that obje