Surveillance camera's @ banks & gas stations/convenience stores.....

[Led Zeppelin]

With all the technology out today, why is it that banks and stores still those have crappy-ass one half-frame per second black and white cameras? A brand new gas station, not too far from where I live, that was just completely rebuilt from the ground up less than six months ago, was robbed a few days ago, and I was very surprised to see when the police released the tape on the news of the suspect robbing the place, you could barely make out what color he was, let alone having a clear view of his face. The camera/tape quality was horrible. I would have thought that of all places, that store would've been equipped with the latest technology out there, seeing how it's been open for all of two months. Banks are guilty of this as well.

 

[flot]

I've been wondering the same thing. I've been toying with the idea of using a tivo and some color video cameras for my own house, and I could spec out a pretty impressive system for about $700. Unfortunately that's way more than I want to pay - but $300 and some clever hacks and I think I could do it.

 

[InverseOfNeo]

Usuallly the tapes are just standard length, and they use one tape for a 24 hour period. Its not always the camera that is giving crappy quality its the method they use to record it.

 

[moonshinemadness]

Another thing why do they still record to Tape and not digitally record it straight to a HDD or CF Card

 

[TommyVercetti]

I guess it depends on how much money one is willing to spend. But it still beats me why a gas station would cheap out on this. Lots of places store all this on hard drives. Place I used to work, if you disputed your hours (like when you came in), they would review the footage from that day. You could see everything clearly.

 

[Walleye]

i want to mount a forward facing camera in my car and have it constantly record the last couple hours.

that would be great. mount it right in the center. i'd also have a mic in it.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: moonshinemadness
Another thing why do they still record to Tape and not digitally record it straight to a HDD or CF Card

so the manager of a gas station can be a typical manager of a gas station and still work the "video-thingy"

 

[Pepsi90919]

Originally posted by: moonshinemadness
Another thing why do they still record to Tape and not digitally record it straight to a HDD or CF Card

the tim horton's where i used to work had like 7 colour cameras that reported to a PC, and the manager could watch the cameras by logging into the system from his house.

 

[Paulson]

People are too stupid/too cheap to adopt new technology... they think it's a waste of money... but when the get broken into... oops? There's a waste of money too.

 

[huesmann]

Planning on doing a little armed robbery?

 

[Led Zeppelin]

Originally posted by: huesmann
Planning on doing a little armed robbery?

lol. With what they use to 'record', I don't see how I possibly couldn't get away with it. Talk about too easy....

 

[Anubis]

simple answer is cause they are chreap

and if you gonna rob the place bring along a home made EMP gun it wont matter what kind of cameras they have then

 

Originally posted by: LedZeppelin

Originally posted by: huesmann
Planning on doing a little armed robbery?

lol. With what they use to 'record', I don't see how I possibly couldn't get away with it. Talk about too easy....

if you think the FBI could not do anything to make that image better, you got another thing comin 🙂

That being said, I do think that these people need to go digital. I'm going to find out why they havent yet. Perhaps its something to do with the courts? (Kind of like you cant use a digital camera to photograph a crime scene, only a 35mm.)

 

[Led Zeppelin]

Originally posted by: FallenHero

Originally posted by: LedZeppelin

Originally posted by: huesmann
Planning on doing a little armed robbery?

lol. With what they use to 'record', I don't see how I possibly couldn't get away with it. Talk about too easy....

if you think the FBI could not do anything to make that image better, you got another thing comin 🙂

That being said, I do think that these people need to go digital. I'm going to find out why they havent yet. Perhaps its something to do with the courts? (Kind of like you cant use a digital camera to photograph a crime scene, only a 35mm.)

I didn't know that either.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: FallenHero

Originally posted by: LedZeppelin

Originally posted by: huesmann
Planning on doing a little armed robbery?

lol. With what they use to 'record', I don't see how I possibly couldn't get away with it. Talk about too easy....

if you think the FBI could not do anything to make that image better, you got another thing comin 🙂

That being said, I do think that these people need to go digital. I'm going to find out why they havent yet. Perhaps its something to do with the courts? (Kind of like you cant use a digital camera to photograph a crime scene, only a 35mm.)

they only use 35mm film because digital pics CAN be editied in a way to add or remove evidence. that is teh reason. and also because before 6months ago digital SLRs cost way to fusking much

 

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by: moonshinemadness
Another thing why do they still record to Tape and not digitally record it straight to a HDD or CF Card

Cost of videotape vs. cost of hdd space is the reason. When I worked at Blockbuster we had 3 months worth of tapes (roughly 90 tapes) that we rotated thru. How much HDD space would be required to hold 90 days worth of video and how much would it cost?


Lethal

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: FallenHero

Originally posted by: LedZeppelin

Originally posted by: huesmann
Planning on doing a little armed robbery?

lol. With what they use to 'record', I don't see how I possibly couldn't get away with it. Talk about too easy....

if you think the FBI could not do anything to make that image better, you got another thing comin 🙂

That being said, I do think that these people need to go digital. I'm going to find out why they havent yet. Perhaps its something to do with the courts? (Kind of like you cant use a digital camera to photograph a crime scene, only a 35mm.)

You been watching too much Law and Order.

Zoom in on that corner.
*zooms in to see a blurry car*
Okay, now zoom in on that car
*zooms in to see a huge purple blur*
Okay, can you enhance that?
*one button and the car is crystal clear*
Okay, now see those 4 pixels there where the licence plate is? Zoom in on that.
*zooms in to see four black black white black pixels*
Okay, enhance that
*one button + 4 pixels = perfect image of a license plate*

laff

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: LethalWolfe

Originally posted by: moonshinemadness
Another thing why do they still record to Tape and not digitally record it straight to a HDD or CF Card

Cost of videotape vs. cost of hdd space is the reason. When I worked at Blockbuster we had 3 months worth of tapes (roughly 90 tapes) that we rotated thru. How much HDD space would be required to hold 90 days worth of video and how much would it cost?


Lethal

Well, right now my ATI capture settings say that I can capture 3+ days worth of 320x240 at 15 fps video with 11 KHz 16 bit mono audio in 9 gigs. So let's be conservative and go for 3 gigs per day. Multiply that by 90 days and you've got 270 gigs there...

 

[daveymark]

Well, how much would someone make off with from a gas station? $200 maybe? And then will the offender ever get caught? And how many times would the gas station get robbed? Say the gas station gets robbed twice a year, that's a $400 loss, so why spend all this extra money when the perp probably will never get caught anyway, and the gas station is out the money regardless? The gas stations probably go with the minimum amount for insurance reasons.

 

[Cyberian]

Originally posted by: FallenHero

That being said, I do think that these people need to go digital. I'm going to find out why they havent yet. Perhaps its something to do with the courts? (Kind of like you cant use a digital camera to photograph a crime scene, only a 35mm.)

I didn't know that, but it makes sense now that you mentioned it.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: LethalWolfe

Originally posted by: moonshinemadness
Another thing why do they still record to Tape and not digitally record it straight to a HDD or CF Card

Cost of videotape vs. cost of hdd space is the reason. When I worked at Blockbuster we had 3 months worth of tapes (roughly 90 tapes) that we rotated thru. How much HDD space would be required to hold 90 days worth of video and how much would it cost?


Lethal

Well, right now my ATI capture settings say that I can capture 3+ days worth of 320x240 at 15 fps video with 11 KHz 16 bit mono audio in 9 gigs. So let's be conservative and go for 3 gigs per day. Multiply that by 90 days and you've got 270 gigs there...

What is the point of changing formats if the quality doesn't improve or, in your case, could be worse. I'd like to see the qualiy of those settings when the screen is divided into 4ths so it records all 4 cameras at the same time (or how ever many cameras are being used). Of course you could try and capture each camera independently but then you just increased your HDD requirements by 4 and will probably special capture hardware unless you want make a box for each camera.


silverpig,

Yeah TV and movies take things a bit far, but I'm sure Law Enforcement can do a lot to clean up/recover what is on the surface horrid video. http://www.avid.com/products/forensic/


Lethal

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: LethalWolfe

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: LethalWolfe

Originally posted by: moonshinemadness
Another thing why do they still record to Tape and not digitally record it straight to a HDD or CF Card

Cost of videotape vs. cost of hdd space is the reason. When I worked at Blockbuster we had 3 months worth of tapes (roughly 90 tapes) that we rotated thru. How much HDD space would be required to hold 90 days worth of video and how much would it cost?


Lethal

Well, right now my ATI capture settings say that I can capture 3+ days worth of 320x240 at 15 fps video with 11 KHz 16 bit mono audio in 9 gigs. So let's be conservative and go for 3 gigs per day. Multiply that by 90 days and you've got 270 gigs there...

What is the point of changing formats if the quality doesn't improve or, in your case, could be worse. I'd like to see the qualiy of those settings when the screen is divided into 4ths so it records all 4 cameras at the same time (or how ever many cameras are being used). Of course you could try and capture each camera independently but then you just increased your HDD requirements by 4 and will probably special capture hardware unless you want make a box for each camera.


silverpig,

Yeah TV and movies take things a bit far, but I'm sure Law Enforcement can do a lot to clean up/recover what is on the surface horrid video. http://www.avid.com/products/forensic/


Lethal

One mistake, that's actually with 320x240 30 fps 32 KHz 16 Bit Stereo for that time and file size.

Uh, he was asking how much HD space it would take to record 90 days worth of video.

Here's a quick capture at those settings so you can see the quality.. Seems much better than that choppy crap you see on the news 😛

 

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: LethalWolfe

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: LethalWolfe

Originally posted by: moonshinemadness
Another thing why do they still record to Tape and not digitally record it straight to a HDD or CF Card

Cost of videotape vs. cost of hdd space is the reason. When I worked at Blockbuster we had 3 months worth of tapes (roughly 90 tapes) that we rotated thru. How much HDD space would be required to hold 90 days worth of video and how much would it cost?


Lethal

Well, right now my ATI capture settings say that I can capture 3+ days worth of 320x240 at 15 fps video with 11 KHz 16 bit mono audio in 9 gigs. So let's be conservative and go for 3 gigs per day. Multiply that by 90 days and you've got 270 gigs there...

What is the point of changing formats if the quality doesn't improve or, in your case, could be worse. I'd like to see the qualiy of those settings when the screen is divided into 4ths so it records all 4 cameras at the same time (or how ever many cameras are being used). Of course you could try and capture each camera independently but then you just increased your HDD requirements by 4 and will probably special capture hardware unless you want make a box for each camera.


silverpig,

Yeah TV and movies take things a bit far, but I'm sure Law Enforcement can do a lot to clean up/recover what is on the surface horrid video. http://www.avid.com/products/forensic/


Lethal

One mistake, that's actually with 320x240 30 fps 32 KHz 16 Bit Stereo for that time and file size.

Uh, he was asking how much HD space it would take to record 90 days worth of video.

Here's a quick capture at those settings so you can see the quality.. Seems much better than that choppy crap you see on the news 😛

eh, it looks pretty crappy playing full screen on my TV via S-video out of my comp. 😉 The the stuff you see on the news is usually not the entire image but zoomed in on the subject. So if you zoom into the clip you linked to 2x or 4x it looks really, really crappy. If your clip was 640*480 then we might start getting somewhere.

And like I said, is the cost of moving to a tapeless system enough of an improvement (in terms of quality, conviences, and reliability) that it justifies the price?


Lethal

 

[silverpig]

Yes.

😛

😉

 

[crypticlogin]

Another thing why do they still record to Tape and not digitally record it straight to a HDD or CF Card

The medium is one thing but the other part of the equation is the system and its own reliability. Those tape recorders were designed to run for *years* 24/7 with little maintenance and no failure. Your recording computer won't be either (a) priced affordably enough for gas station Joe or (b) won't have the proven reliability of these continuous record tape machines.


(waiting for the "my linux boxen's been running three years straight! but it idles when i sleep" remark)