I spent the weekend experimenting with a Panasonic pan/tilt/zoom network camera and a fixed day/night (infrared) camera with DVR card. What an experience!
Hardware - fixed Sony 1/3" CCD infrared camera (23 LEDs) from CCTVSpeciality.com (product SPE-218) and the GeoVision GC-650 DVR card with GeoVision 8.01 software (total 60fps per card).
Panasonic BB-HCM331A network camera.
I installed the GV-650 initially in a Pentium 4 2.8 GHz PC - Intel D865GLC motherboard and later in a 2GHz AMD 64 MSI NVidia nForce4 Ultra motherboard. The Panasonic was simply connected to my 8 port gigabit switch.
There is no question that the GeoVision software is designed for professional applications. I was able to get the local access to work in both PCs even though GeoVision did not recommend installing the board in other than a "pure" Intel environment. I hooked up the fixed camera. The DVR software sucked up the CPU big time. My P4 was running constantly at 85%+ and my AMD 64 was running at 70%+.
Even though the GeoVision has its own web server, I was not able to access the camera from other than the PC on which the software was installed. When I tried to view the camera from another PC on my local network, all I got was a blank screen although the login seemed to go ok.
The Panasonic was a piece of cake! I could access the camera from my local network as well as the Internet. I set up my old Linksys BEF-SR11 Version 2 router to forward port 80 to the IP address of the camera. I could then access the camera over the Internet by specifying a URL of my Comcast IP address. The router forwarded the packets to the camera.
I put both the Panasonic and the fixed camera in the same place so I could compare images. I would have expected the 1/3" Sony CCD to produce a better image than the 1/4"CCD Panasonic. It did not. The fixed camera image was not only grainy but the color was terrible. I went into the GeoVision software to see if I could fix the image from the fixed camera. I really could not improve the image all that much.
The GeoVision DVR card also was emitting a constant beep as if it was letting me know that it was doing something. In fact, when I had the PC speakers on, the beep came from the speakers. Very strange.
My only issue with installing the Panasonic had to do with the power supply. I purchased a 100' DC power cord extension cable expecting the Panasonic to use a standard DC power cord. It does not. The Panasonic DC power supply has a 32' cord but the end that plugs into the camera is not standard - it has a pin in the middle of the plug. My extension cable would not work. I do not know if you can get a DC extension cable that works with the Panasonic. It is important to note that you must be able to plug in the Panasonic within 32' of were it is installed. I purchased a 100' Ethernet cable expecting that I could mount the camera 75' or so from the gigabit switch/power supply.
The pan/tilt/zoom of the Panasonic is amazing. You get about 130 degrees of horizontal movement. Even though I had a 3.6mm wide angle lens on the fixed camera, the field of view was only about 85 degrees.
I guess I could eventually figure out he complex GeoVision software.
To make a long story short, the fixed camera and DVR card will be returned on Monday. The image quality of the fixed camera is poor. You better have a dedicated PC if you are going to use a DVR card. It brought my AMD 64 2GHz to its knees.
I can show you the Panasonic image. The Panasonic is currently located under my deck pointing out to my back yard towards the woods. It will be interesting to see what image I get when the sun goes down since there is practically no light out back (unless there is a moon). I decided not to use the Panasonic viewnetcam.com web site.
Enter a URL of Enter a username of and a password of . Click on SINGLE when the main page loads. You cannot pan, tilt or zoom the camera. In fact you cannot do anything - you control precisely what logins can and cannot do. The image reloads ever 3 seconds - another setting you control. Not much action unless my miniature schnauzer Molly is running around. It is very easy to control access to the camera. I am getting a new Verizon mobile phone this coming week and I will be able to view the camera images on my phone.
After I send the fixed camera and DVR card back, I will get a second Panasonic for the front of the house. I am totally sold on the Panasonic network pan/tilt/zoom camera. Now to find out about getting a special DC extension cable for the Panasonic so I can mount it more than 32' from the power source.
P.S. My daughter in Asheville North Carolina was just watching Molly in the back yard here in Maryland - the Internet access works fine.
I will leave the above username/password active through tomorrow if you would like to look at the Panasonic image.
Hardware - fixed Sony 1/3" CCD infrared camera (23 LEDs) from CCTVSpeciality.com (product SPE-218) and the GeoVision GC-650 DVR card with GeoVision 8.01 software (total 60fps per card).
Panasonic BB-HCM331A network camera.
I installed the GV-650 initially in a Pentium 4 2.8 GHz PC - Intel D865GLC motherboard and later in a 2GHz AMD 64 MSI NVidia nForce4 Ultra motherboard. The Panasonic was simply connected to my 8 port gigabit switch.
There is no question that the GeoVision software is designed for professional applications. I was able to get the local access to work in both PCs even though GeoVision did not recommend installing the board in other than a "pure" Intel environment. I hooked up the fixed camera. The DVR software sucked up the CPU big time. My P4 was running constantly at 85%+ and my AMD 64 was running at 70%+.
Even though the GeoVision has its own web server, I was not able to access the camera from other than the PC on which the software was installed. When I tried to view the camera from another PC on my local network, all I got was a blank screen although the login seemed to go ok.
The Panasonic was a piece of cake! I could access the camera from my local network as well as the Internet. I set up my old Linksys BEF-SR11 Version 2 router to forward port 80 to the IP address of the camera. I could then access the camera over the Internet by specifying a URL of my Comcast IP address. The router forwarded the packets to the camera.
I put both the Panasonic and the fixed camera in the same place so I could compare images. I would have expected the 1/3" Sony CCD to produce a better image than the 1/4"CCD Panasonic. It did not. The fixed camera image was not only grainy but the color was terrible. I went into the GeoVision software to see if I could fix the image from the fixed camera. I really could not improve the image all that much.
The GeoVision DVR card also was emitting a constant beep as if it was letting me know that it was doing something. In fact, when I had the PC speakers on, the beep came from the speakers. Very strange.
My only issue with installing the Panasonic had to do with the power supply. I purchased a 100' DC power cord extension cable expecting the Panasonic to use a standard DC power cord. It does not. The Panasonic DC power supply has a 32' cord but the end that plugs into the camera is not standard - it has a pin in the middle of the plug. My extension cable would not work. I do not know if you can get a DC extension cable that works with the Panasonic. It is important to note that you must be able to plug in the Panasonic within 32' of were it is installed. I purchased a 100' Ethernet cable expecting that I could mount the camera 75' or so from the gigabit switch/power supply.
The pan/tilt/zoom of the Panasonic is amazing. You get about 130 degrees of horizontal movement. Even though I had a 3.6mm wide angle lens on the fixed camera, the field of view was only about 85 degrees.
I guess I could eventually figure out he complex GeoVision software.
To make a long story short, the fixed camera and DVR card will be returned on Monday. The image quality of the fixed camera is poor. You better have a dedicated PC if you are going to use a DVR card. It brought my AMD 64 2GHz to its knees.
I can show you the Panasonic image. The Panasonic is currently located under my deck pointing out to my back yard towards the woods. It will be interesting to see what image I get when the sun goes down since there is practically no light out back (unless there is a moon). I decided not to use the Panasonic viewnetcam.com web site.
Enter a URL of Enter a username of and a password of . Click on SINGLE when the main page loads. You cannot pan, tilt or zoom the camera. In fact you cannot do anything - you control precisely what logins can and cannot do. The image reloads ever 3 seconds - another setting you control. Not much action unless my miniature schnauzer Molly is running around. It is very easy to control access to the camera. I am getting a new Verizon mobile phone this coming week and I will be able to view the camera images on my phone.
After I send the fixed camera and DVR card back, I will get a second Panasonic for the front of the house. I am totally sold on the Panasonic network pan/tilt/zoom camera. Now to find out about getting a special DC extension cable for the Panasonic so I can mount it more than 32' from the power source.
P.S. My daughter in Asheville North Carolina was just watching Molly in the back yard here in Maryland - the Internet access works fine.
I will leave the above username/password active through tomorrow if you would like to look at the Panasonic image.