Questions & Answers

Rather than trawl through the many questions we have been previously asked to try and find an answer to your question we have created an informative CCTV buying guide which covers all aspects of choosing and fitting a high quality CCTV system. We look at everything, choosing a CCTV DVR recorder, what to consider when looking at individual cameras and we even have a section devoted to high definition HD 1080P CCTV.

If you are planning a CCTV system and would like our help please don't hesitate to get in touch via our contact us page. We aren't just a website, we are a real company with real people full of knowledge.

Previously asked questions

Firstly can I say what a great website you have, very informative, I must say I have learnt lots with your great tutorial videos. My question is, I have recently got rid of my old PC, which I had a Geovision GV600 PCI DVR card in. I run 4 cameras, just for domestic use. I run a business from home but dont require anything too complicated, its has just been to monitor movement on the rear and front doors of my property, garage and vehicles. I have since sold my PC and bought an All in one Sony PC due to space and looks. I thought I could make due with a USB DVR but it is very flawed, the motion detection is useless and it slows my PC down. I am really looking at getting a dedicated DVR and yours look great, especially after seeing your videos. What I need to know is do they need to be set up on a monitor for initial setup as this may be a problem. My PC does not have a VGA port. I need this DVR to be totally used on a local network. With this system I could now place the DVR in the garage, have all the BNC and power cables going into there and just the LAN cable coming into the house. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks Nick

Thanks for the compliments, they mean a lot to us. We are not big fans of PC based cctv systems for all the reasons you have mentioned and then some. A stand alone DVR recorder will often cost no more than a good capture card and associated software and you ave a totally autonomous system which doesn't rely on your PC being left on all the time (not something they are designed for).

We would recommend some form of monitor be connected to the stand alone DVR recorders over and above an ethernet (LAN) connection. This helps with the initial set up of the DVR and also allows a couple of settings to be made which can't be done using your PC. These are the on screen motion triggered areas to be set and the percentage of hard drive allocated to normal and event triggered recordings to be changed. It doesn't need to be  fancy monitor, a TV (with either a scart or a phono input) would suffice or even one of our small 7 inch set up monitors.

Is it possible to configure the internet settings (port forwarding, ip address etc.)myself, or is the only way by purchasing the remote package?

It is possible to configure the internet settings yourself. The problem isn't actually our DVR recorders because we ship them in what's called DHCP format which means they are assigned an internal IP address number by the router automatically. The tricky part is setting up what's called Port Forwarding on your internet router. This is what we do when we do a remote set up. We also sort you out with an update client account to get round the problem of Dynamic rather than static IP addresses as well as configuring email alerts and so on.

So if you are IT savvy then you will be able to sort out the remote access yourself. There are no special tools or codes needed for our equipment.

Are the video output signal levels on the DVR suitable to connect to the 7" set up monitor so that it could be used as a small monitor. Derek.

Yes, the camera output levels are the same as the DVR output levels meaning that once you have used the set up monitor for adjusting the position, zoom and focus of the cameras you could use it as a small monitor, particularly if the DVR was tucked away somewhere such as a loft.

Does the day/night K-series camera connect to a DVR via BNC? Thanks Fred

All our cameras use industry standard BNC (for video) and 5.5mm DC sockets (for DC power) to connect to the system. There are no products which use strange bespoke or proprietary fittings on our site.

Hi guys, can you tell me why there are 2 differant cable types used, Cat5 or RG59 Coax and DC "shotgun" combined cable? Using the Cat5 to make up your own leads seems very straightforward using the balluns, but im not sure where the other cable comes into the equation. Also, can you tell me the recording resolution of your DVR's please? Thankyou for a very imformative website in what is normaly a mine feild! Gary.

Thanks for the kind words on the website, we do try! Traditionally CCTV cameras have been wired using RG59 coax (for video) and 2 core (for the DC power). "shotgun" is a specialist cable which comprises RG59 with a 2 core cable joined on the side. Video baluns which allow video signal to be sent down a pair of Cat5 wires are relatively new to the CCTV scene and so we have some people who are familiar with the system and others who aren't. For that reason we offer both systems. You are correct in saying that the Cat5 cabling method using baluns and screw in DC plugs & sockets is a very easy and effective way to connect your cctv system. For that reason we sell a lot of it.

All our DVR recorders are capable of recording in full D1 resolution, 4 times the resolution of CIF.

My CCTV on the front of my terraced house pointing down onto my front door catches a tiny view of my neighbours property but I have nowhere else to put it. What can I do is it illegal. My neighbour has put up a makeshift porch with a window directly looking onto my front door, not facing the otherwise onto their own land what is the difference.

We get quite a lot of people asking about fall out from video cameras, in other words areas that are filmed which are not on their property. With a private installation such as yours there isn't a problem if you film public areas such as the pavement in front of your house providing they are captured as part of your legitimate filming of your own property. With private property such as a neighbour what you can't do is point a camera straight into their garden to film their activities, that would be seen as intrusion and quite rightly so. When a small area is captured, and in fact whenever your fit cameras, speak to the neighbour and invite them in to see the camera view. This will allay any fears they may have that you are trying to spy on them.

Hi, I'm looking for a camera that can essentially see in the dark. By that I mean i would like to see a person with good definition in a black room with absolutely no lighting - is this possible? if so can you recommend something suitable? Many thanks Graeme

Yes, any of our cameras with built in infra red illumination will be able to do this. In fact infra red used indoors is potentially more effective than when used outdoors because it bounces around the surfaces a little to give a more even light. Normally infra red is centred around the middle of the camera's viewing area in the same way a torch lights up the darkness. In terms of the specific camera it depends on your required angle of view, distances involved and the camera body style you prefer.

iam using night vision digital ccd camera during daylight hous the picture i s ni-on perfect and records to my harddrive ok but at night the picture is terrible with a destinct red ness to the image i do have a light that comes on at dusk and goes off at dawn if i switch this light off during darkness it makes no difference to the image its still terrible any ideas as to the problem and possible sulutions thanks Steve

Judging from the camera part number it looks like you have a wireless camera rather than a hard wired one. Generally the actual camera part of these tends to be of a much lesser quality than good hard wired cctv cameras. They are built to a budget and knowing that the wireless connection will cause problems the general consensus seems to be that there is little point in worrying unduly about going too far overboard with the camera electronics!

When testing cameras we find that it is during night time performance where issues are likely to raise their heads and the biggest difference in performance is noted between individual electronic combinations of CCD and DSP. I doubt very much if the light is causing a problem, the fact that it makes no difference whether the light is on or off proves this.

Day night cameras with built in Infra-red illumination - a potential problem.

Following on from the question above we thought we'd add a little extra comment. We often get calls from people who are experiencing problems with their cameras when operating at night with the infra-red lighting activated. During the day all is well but at night they have a white section on the screen or the whole picture has a white tinge to it.

What usually causes this is reflection of the infra red light back into the camera. People are confused because during the day there is no obstruction so they don't think that could be the cause. What happens though is that the infra red light bounces off a surface close to the camera lens. you have to remember that although you can't see the infra red light it is very bright and combined with sensitive electronics it doesn't take much to cause a reflection problem. So always make sure you don't have surfaces too close to the lens of your cameras, this includes sun visors adjusted too far forward.

With traditional vandal dome cameras there is a soft sealing ring that fits between the camera lens and the inside of the clear plastic dome. This ring is designed to protect against internal reflection, make sure it is present and fitted properly.

Hi, I'm looking for a camera system that will be mounted onto the side of the house overlooking a shared car park and protected so that nothing can be thrown at it to move the camera location. I would like it to record the data (day and night) once the sensor has been triggered and be able to access the viewing anytime I need it. I would also like a hidden camera at the front of the house that also records. Can you recommend anything? M.

The most ideal cameras for you would be our traditional vandal dome or large open faced vandal dome cameras. Whilst the traditional vandal dome camera offers a little more by way of protection against objects being thrown at it the downside is that the built in infra red illumination is less effective than the open faced vandal dome cameras.

Both body types are extremely resilient to being moved once installed.

There is no sensor as such to pick up movement, that job is done by our DVR recorders and you can select which areas of the screen you choose to detect movement. The ideal is to have as small a trigger area as possible . This reduces the number of false triggers you are likely to suffer. For your hidden camera you could either fit one of our bullet style cameras discreetly (we sell a lovely 4-9mm varifocal zoom lens version) oe fit a camera disguised as something else. We sell a camera disguised as a PIR detector but that is only suitable for indoor use. You might be able to use it in a very sheltered outdoor location but it is not weatherproof to any extent.

We have got a problem with cobwebs on our cctv cameras. During the day it isn't too bad but at night we can hardly see out of some of the cameras. The motion detection recording keeps triggering as well sometimes. We have cleaned them but sometimes the spider cobwebs come back in a day or two. Someone has suggested that it is the infra red lighting which attracts the spiders. What can we do to solve the problem. S.

Spiders are a really big problem for cctv systems. The reason things are worse at night is because the infra red illumination reflects back into the camera from the cobweb. During the day time the light source is the other side of the cobweb so you don't notice it. It's like looking out of a window at night. With the lights on in the room you can't see out but with the lights off you can see because the outside lighting is brighter.

The answer is to use our spider repellent spray. We have tested quite a few of the ones on the market and settled on a product which we sell in the camera accessory section. It sprays a chemical which dries as a clear lacquer and the spiders can't stand it so stay away. We were really sceptical when we first used it but have been really impressed. A repeated coating every now and again keeps the spiders away. The problem we found with simply cleaning the cobwebs off was sometimes they were back the very next day. This will sort your problem.

was pleased to see your demos on youtube and I have a couple of questions. I am thinking of installing a dome camera on the front of our bungalow. Do you have any models available that make it impossible to see looking at the exterior of the dome, which way the camera is pointing. If so can that camera be auto movement scanning? Many Thanks, Mike

With the traditional vandal dome cameras it's harder to see exactly where the cameras are pointing. That said if you position your cameras properly I'm not convinced it's critical that you act in this ultra covert manner. A couple of cameras positioned well can avoid any dead areas and so there is now way for someone to "avoid" your CCTV system.

As for moving cameras again I'm not sure it's the way to go. With any form of moving camera it can only look in one place at a time and when it's pointing one way the other area isn't covered. Given a PTZ camera costs probably 3 times the price of a fixed camera for most domestic installations I'd suggest fitting more cameras so all the areas are filmed 24 hours a day.

Finally there are cameras which detect movement and zoom in on it or follow a target. Whilst these can work in some instances you still have the same problem of only filming one area at a time and multiple targets (ie. 2 people moving in different directions) cause  problem. Again, I would advocate the fitting of more than 1 camera (for no more money). Auto moving PTZ cameras can be a good idea to give back up to other cameras when used in conjunction with movement triggered target points. These are when you set movement detection up on a fixed cameras and use that to trigger the PTZ to zoom in on a related target point. Our DVR recorders can perform this task. With your home CCTV system keep it simple !

Hello We are a small electrical contractor have been approached by an existing customer to supply and install a good quality cctv system to monitor the car parking around their premises, the site is of reasonable size and the car parking is located several different areas in and around the site.we intend to install the DVR and monitor in the office of the main building but would like a solution to wiring cameras at a distance of over 85mtrs from the DVR but local to another building on site,We would like if possible to run a single cable from the office to the 2nd building and on to the distant cameras with cat 5 cable for both video and power Could you suggest a suitable method that does not compromise on picture quality. N.

The perfect solution would seem to be to transfer video signals from any cameras to the DVR using Cat5 and baluns. At 85 metres I really think you would be best placed powering the cameras locally rather than trying to power them from the DVR. This will mean that by using 1 length of cat5 cable you have the ability to transfer up to 4 cctv camera signals from the remote location to the DVR recorder.

It would cover you if the client initially says they want a single camera covering the car park but later decide they would like additional cameras. We find this happens quite a lot. Once a customer gets used to CCTV on site they then think of other areas they might like to cover. You will be able to oblige having spare capacity and come up smelling of roses!! Powering the cameras locally also allows additional cameras to be fitted even long range ones such as our 6-60mm day night camera with it's more powerful I/R illumination or possibly one of our ANPR cameras if they wanted to monitor a car park entrance closely for instance.

Are you able to clarify what the law says about putting up CCTV cameras in a domestic situation which I understand is not covered by the Data Protection Act? We are moving to a freehold property and although the property management company say that we do not need permission from them to put up CCTV cameras, they say that the installation of this item needs to comply with current legislation and ensure the camera is not pointing at any public open spaces. The cameras need to be pointing at our property only. Can you clarify exactly what this means i.e. if it is mounted above the front door of the property can it take in part of the pavement and part of the road as well as the front door and windows? Does it constitute an offence if it  shows pictures of people and traffic passing by in front of the property? Dennis.

The whole data protection issue is one we get asked a lot so here goes. The important thing is to determine who the data controller of a CCTV system is:

A data controller is defined within Section 1(1) of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the DPA) as “a person who … determines the purposes for which and the manner in which any personal data [is] processed.”

If it is the case that individual home owners decide the manner in which the information collected by a CCTV camera or CCTV system will be processed, then the exemption in Section 36 of the DPA will apply:

The exemption in Section 36 of the DPA states that where information is processed for “domestic purposes” (i.e. for the household affairs of a non-commercial entity) then that individual will be exempt from the Data Protection Principles and also from the requirement to notify the Information Commissioner’s Office of their processing.

As for cameras filming areas outside the boundaries of your private property The Information Commissioner's Office’s CCTV Code of Practice (2008) states "even if the camera overlooks the street or other areas near their home." Clearly you have to be mindful of other people's rights and so you couldn't point a camera into your next door neighbour's garden to film them but capturing a footpath outside your home and so on shouldn't be an issue.

how to connect my cctv in vpn network .Such that we can access from remote location. Veejay

As far as the CCTV system is concerned you VPN (virtual private network) is no different from any other network. Simply plug the DVR recorder into the internet router at that particular location using one of the patch cables we offer and access it in the normal way.

Our computer is an Apple Mac. If we purchased a CCTV system from you, would we have problems setting up this system for access over the internet? Would we have any problems accessing this system using our Apple Mac laptop from an overseas Hotel? Would we have any problems accessing this system using our Apple Mac laptop from an overseas Internet Cafe? Kind regards Graham [please note that this question refers to our System 1 DVR]

When you remote access our CCTV systems your home computer doesn't actually come into the equation at all. It will most likely be turned off asleep! The DVR recorder plugs straight into your internet router and has no direct contact with your computer. The DVR recorders even have a built in update client to get round the problem of dynamic, rather than static, IP addresses.

Our CCTV DVR recorders have 2 different remote access possibilities. The first is a full function control panel which allows you to view live video feeds from your cameras, change settings on the DVR, review previously recorded footage and save footage to your viewing computer. To use this you need to be connected via internet explorer and so your Mac will need to do this using windows running on parallels. The second remote access possibility is a more basic system which allows you to view live static images fro the cameras either 4 cameras at a time or one at a time. This will work on any browser including safari and does not require the remote computer to download any type of programme.

Dear Sir, Your h.264 how is motion detected. Is it dependant on variations of light, that can create false triggering, or is it actual physical motion. Yours truly, A.B.

There is a lot of confusion over motion triggered recording on CCTV systems with a lot of people thinking it's the camera which does the motion detection. What actually happens, as you rightly say, is that the DVR recorder it's self does all the clever work. What it does is compare 1 frame against another or a series of frames against one another. If the DVR detects a change then it assumes movement and handles that section of footage accordingly.

With our DVR recorders you can tell the DVR which areas on screen to look at and which to ignore. By choosing which areas to look at you can reduce the number of false alarms, you can also adjust the sensitivity of the detection. All that said you will still get some false alarms due to light changes, insects and so on but it shouldn't be terrible. Bear in mind also that the 4 camera DVR has a 1,000 event memory and the 9 camera DVR a 3,000 event memory before it starts recording over the earliest event so you don't have to be too precious about the odd false trigger.

I HAVE A SMALL BEAUTY SALON AND NEED A CAMERA AT MY RECEPTION MONITORING THE TILL AND DOOR.THEY ARE BOTH OPPOSITE EACH OTHER. THE DOOR HAS TO BE LOCKED ALL THE TIME BECAUSE OUR TREATMENT ROOMS ARE UP STAIRS I WOULD LIKE A SMALL MONITER IN ONE ROOM SO WE CAN SEE CLIENTS AT THE DOOR DO YOU DO ANY KITS I CAN BUY AND WHAT WILL I NEED. HOPEFULLY IT WONT COST ME LOADS I WOULD BE GRATEFUL FOR YOUR ADVICE. K

Treat the door and till as two separate areas, you won't get 1 camera to do both areas. You don't say what type of location you work from, ie whether it's inside a larger retail outlet, on a parade of shops and so on. If your budget allows then our combined 4 camera CCTV DVR recorder and monitor would be ideal for the main reception and run a feed from the video output to a small monitor in your treatment room. You could use cat 5 cable and video baluns to do this run if you wanted to then all you need is a flat head screwdriver.

For the cameras why not consider our internal dome cameras with 2.8-11mm lens if they don't need to work in total darkness. That way you can zoom in or out during installation to frame your chosen subject really well. It would also allow you to get really high levels of detail when filming your till.

I have installed 4 cameras with a dvr unit, 3 of these work fine but one seems to be effected by interference. The cable that connects this camera runs by machines and electric cables, is there any way to stop the interference. Richard

Interference is a bit of a grey area in terms of when it will and when it won't happen but there are some general rules which will help you avoid it the most important of which is don't run your camera cables along side other cables. where necessary cross them at right angles. This also includes cables you might not think would cause interference such as satellite dish wires.

We tend to find cat5 / balun method of transferring video signals is particularly resilient to interference.

i am looking at a ptz camera looked at maplins which only has 10 mteres of cable and not extendable i require at least 18 mteres for location i would also require control which maplin include can you give me some idea of one of your cameras as a kit with say 20/1 zoom or more thanks. Brian

That doesn't sound like a particularly professional camera and to be honest Maplins do tend to gear themselves around the cheaper end of the "home use" market. We are not big fans of cctv products which use their own propriety connections as opposed to industry standard connectors. This is because should any part of a system fail or need upgrading you have to change the entire system rather than a particular component.

A PTZ camera should have a standard BNC output for video, a pair of wires for power and a pair of wires to take a control input (usually in the form of RS485). There are a number of different control languages used by PTZ cameras but by far the most common is something called "Pelco D". It comes in various speeds known as baud rates. It is important to choose equipment which complies twith these industry standards and has standard connections. We offer a number of different PTZ cameras both indoor and outdoor and can provided PTZ controllers as well. Our standard outdoor PTZ camera actually comes with a 10 times optical zoom lens rather than a 20 times zoom lens (which I assume you meant by 20/1). I would imagine a 20 times zoom lens features digital zoom which we are not a great fan of. All you are doing is amplifying the visual noise and pix-elating the image. We show the difference between digital and optical zoom on our camera buying guide .

An Excellent site! I require a top quality system with two external waterproof cameras. however assuming I place the DVR in the office near the computer one camera would be approx. 25 metre away but the other would be about 200 metres from the DVR. what do I do? John

In terms of video transmission, not a problem. Cat5 cable used in conjunction with our passive baluns will allow video signal to be carried from the camera to the DVR for up to 300 metres. Getting power to the camera is more of an issue. Low voltage such as the 12 volts used to supply all our cameras suffers voltage drop along the cable. At distances of 30 - 50 metres this isn't a problem but your 200 metres will certainly be an issue.

The best way to get round this is to power the camera locally from a mains supply close to the camera.

Excellent, clear and straightforward website by the way. Re the 9channel DVR; we are looking to connect it to our existing company network, or does it have to be connected directly to the router ? Also, once connected to the network, can it be monitored via any pc on the network ? Thanks Pat.

Thanks for the kind words. Yes, the DVR needs to be plugged into your router, you can obviously do this via your wired network and patch panel but ultimately it needs to go into the router. Once installed you will indeed be able to view the CCTV footage, both live and pre-recorded on any pc using internet explorer.

CAN YOU DO INTERNET VIEWING SET UP ON ANY DVR SYSTEM INSTALLED. N.

Our remote set up for viewing your cctv system over the internet is predominantly aimed at our eqipment because we know it can be done! We do offer the service for other brands of equipment at a slight price premium to cover the extra homework we have to do. Call us for more details.

Can you use the IR cameras pointing through a window ? David.

A question we get asked a lot, and the answer is no. The infra red light reflects off the glass back into the camera giving you a white screen. Even if use non I/R cameras you still have a problem if the light level inside the room is greater than that outside (in other words if you have the lights on in the room at night). You will just see a reflection in the glass.

I'm interested in the 9 channel DVR on your website, and just had a couple of questions: Does the unit support D1 recording on all 9 inputs simultaneously? If so, what frame rates can be expected? Does the unit support the recording of any audio? Pete.

Yes, the DVR does support full D1 resolution recording on all 9 channels simultaneously. You get 50 frames per second at D1 resolution (200 frames er second at CIF), shared between all 9 cameras. Our 9 channel DVR has 4 audio inputs. Hope that all helps.

Are B4 series 2.8mm - 11mm zoom lense camera what would angle width be at 2.8mm at a distance of 7 metres when camera is fixed 3 metres high. Harold

Hi there. At it's 2.8mm zoom range a 2.8-11mm lens has a viewing angle of slightly over 90 degrees. That means 7 metres away from the camera you would be viewing a width of approximately 15 metres.

I would like to know how simple it is to set up a system and exactly what do I need. Are the CCTV's connected to a PC, if how and what is needed to connect and run? Kathleen.

Our CCTV systems are simple enough to connect and if you have any problems once you've bought the equipment we are only a phone call away. Anything that is difficult such as fitting and formatting the DVR recorder's hard drive we do for you before it's shipped out. We offer camera to DVR leads which are pre-made with all the correct ends on them as well to keep things easy.

The DVR system isn't plugged into your computer at all - we are not big fans of PC based CCTV systems for a number of reasons. What you can do is plug the DVR recorder into your internet router so that footage can be seen over your local network or via the internet if you are away from home but you don't have to do this. You can just keep it as a simple stand alone CCTV system.

Hi, As well as being able to view the cameras using the recorder's web interface, are the recorders able to output a real-time signal via coaxial cable that can be viewed using a normal TV? I have a TV signal distribution device in my loft that combines and sky and tv signals to all of the TVs in my house. One of the spare coaxial cable inputs it has is for "CCTV", I am wondering whether the recorder can generate a signal that I will be able to feed into this, and therefore be able to tune each of my house TVs to a channel that will allow me to view the CCTV cameras. Whilst at home this will be much easier than going to a computer based device to see who is coming up the driveway! Karl

Hi there Karl. Yes, that would be no problem at all. Simply take the feed from the main monitor output on the DVR and plug it into your TV signal distribution device via a modulator. What the modulator does is give your DVR output signal a frequency which can be tuned into by a TV plugged into your distribution system. Modulators are widely available form around £20 or so.

Do you have CCTV with 16 or 24 channal 2TB and how is the price. Ali.

Hi there Ali. We have just included a 16 channel DVR recorder in our line-up and it is priced at £369.95 plus Vat.

Can hidden in pir camera deliver picture to a tv to help identify visitors to front porch as well as to the dvr and monitor situated elsewhere? If so, what cabling would i need? Chris

hi there Chris. Yes, that would be no problem. The PIR disguised CCTV camera is perfect for filming a front door or entrance porch as it also has built in audio. It is the perfect camera for capturing doorstep confidence tricksters and rouge trader types. Wire the camera into the DVR in the normal way and have an output from the secondary "call monitor" output on the DVR recorder running to your TV. You can set the DVR to show that camera on the call monitor output. Hope that helps. Henry.

I need good quality audio from a recorder how can i tell how good your systems are. Dennis

Your best option for audio is to use our stand alone microphone. Although compact it has a very good audio capture and features a variable gain which allows you to turn the sensitivity of the mike up or down.

Really Amazing website, more than well done.; nowadays I’m looking for a DVR to install a cctv in my store Today I stumbled across CCTV42, but before one year ago I had installed a DVR card on my desktop computer and I have internet on it. My question is what shall I do in my configuration to make my PC as a server to see my home throw internet. Ihab

Thanks for the kind words. The answer is you don't need to use your PC at all. Simply plug the DVR directly into your internet router using the ethernet port in the back of any of our DVR recorders. You will then be able to view your cctv system on any computer connected to your local network or if you set up port forwarding on the router via the internet. If you are unsure as to port forwarding we offer a remote set up service to do this for you using screen sharing.

Hi Henry, great site and information. We may be buying a home soon which is a bit remote, so I'd feel happier with CCTV around. Out of interest, what happens if there's a power failure, I guess the system is dead. I could look into a UPS I guess, what advice do you have in such circumstances? Many thanks for your time. Tim

You've done my job for me and answered your own question. A UPS or uninterrupted power supply would indeed be the answer. Locate it by the DVR recorder and power supply for the CCTV cameras. If the power fails the UPS will continue to power your cctv system via it's built in inverter. As a guide our 4 camera 5 amp power supply draws up 0.5 amps at 240 volts, in normal use it draws around 0.1 amps.  The 4 camera DVR recorder about the same. This means they have a power consumption of 30-60 watts depending on cameras fitted. In theory a small 550va unit should provide several hours of back up. Do be aware though that invertors are notoriously inefficient, particularly the cheaper ones so take quoted qouted performance figures with a pinch of salt.

Uninterrupted power supplies are available from around £50 upwards form a number of sources.

I've scanned through your website and I may have missed it but I don't see that you are selling any wireless cameras. I would have thought these would be easier to install that having to run cables everywhere. Is there a reason that you dont market/recommend a wireless system? Jeremy.

In theory wireless cameras are a great idea as they reduce the amount of wiring needed, (they still need wiring up for power of course). Unfortunately all the ones we've come across have been rubbish. In testing we find issues with image transfer depending on camera location an so on. We also find that the actual cameras tend to be fairly low grade with limited lens options and less than ideal electronics.

For us there is no substitute for cable connected cameras. IP cameras also suffer from the same lack of lens options and less good camera electronics. They are 3 times the price of an equivalent wired camera and we see problems with bandwidth issues as well as interference / loss of video in many applications. We need to supply products that we can be assured work in all instances.

Great site, very helpful. A strange question maaybe? I would like to install a cctv camera which allows me to show a dartboard on my plasma screen. The camera's I have been looking at are: the CCTV Bullet camera with 4-9mm zoom lens and the Bullet camera with 12mm lens. Could you tell me which one, if any, are appropriate. Thankyou - Ray

Hi there Ray. A simple enough job to do. I would recommend you go for the 4-9mm zoom lens bullet camera, that way you can zoom in or out to best fill the screen with the dart board. All you need to do then is buy our "Kit to show any of our cameras directly on your TV" and a camera to DVR (in your case TV), lead. Hope that helps and the crowd go wild when someone scores the magical 180!

This is a truely brilliant site with everything explained in plain english and fully detailed. I was interested in the dome cameras for internal and external use, your info is very good but what about the power supply to each individual cameras ? Is an electrician required to provide supply and sockets? Nick.

Once again many thanks for the compliments. No, you won't need an electrician to wire in power to the cameras. Our CCTV cameras work on 12 volts rather than mains voltage so you don't need a spur at each camera point. What normally happens is you run a cable from the camera to the DVR recorder, we can supply these ready made in 10, 20 and 30 meter lengths. The cable has 2 parts to it, a video transfer cable and a 12 volt DC transfer cable. You have a 12 volt transformer located by the DVR recorder which can plug into the mains using a standard electrical plug and this in turn feeds power to the camera via the camera to DVR lead. Everything is available plug and play.

Even when making up your own custom length camera to DVR leads using Cat 5 cable the video baluns and 12 volt DC plugs and sockets only require a small flat head screwdriver to make the connections.

I have an Apple Mac laptop. When I buy a 4 channel CCTV recorder from yourselves, will this cause any issues with the Remote Network Setup service you offer? I'm off on holiday in a couple of weeks and the hotel I'm staying at has free Wifi. I will be taking my laptop and want to be able to see what is going on? G [please note that this question refers to our System 1 DVR]

Our DVRs have 2 types of control panel. The primary one is a fully functioning control panel that allows the full configuration of 99% of the settings available on the DVR. This is accessible through Internet Explorer on a Windows computer. The secondary one is a cut down version that allows you to see what is going on at that time. It shows a series of jpeg images and simple HTML that can then be viewed on any browser. We have a Mac in the office here, and what works best is to install Parallels Desktop for Mac with Windows XP and just use that for the CCTV control panel as required. This would then work with any internet connection you find on your holidays. The nice point of our DVR is that if you're not on Internet Explorer we have a 'fall-back' - the HTML and jpeg version which a lot of DVRs out there don't offer.

I've been looking for a sensibly priced, 'professional quality' CCTV system to use at home for months. Today I stumbled across CCTV42  - a truly excellent site, well done! Two questions: 1) Is there a wall bracket for the large open faced vandal dome cameras and 2) how long is the fitted lead on these cameras (I want to mount them on a first floor soffit and run the cabling in my loft)? Many thanks. Kevin

Thanks for the kind words. We do sell a wall bracket for the vandal dome cameras which is here. However if you are planning to mount the camera on your soffit boards then you won't need a bracket. Simply fix the vandal dome camera straight to the soffit.

Interested in purchasing CCTV up to 35 metre range and recorder. Good spec. What would you recommend and is lighting necessary or recommended for day night surveillance and additional cameras to be added on later. John

35 metres is quite a long distance to film. Our 9-22mm lens is pretty powerful and should do the job. What also makes it a good lens is that you get a good depth of field, ie things are in focus over a large portion of the distance from close to far away. Any additional lighting is always a good thing as our cameras can use that to improve the image and they don't need much additional light to make a difference. We are evaluating a 6-60mm lens at the moment which will give high levels of detail over incredibly long distances. The trade off being a narrow field of vision ie a small angle of view.

We have been burgled twice in 6mths, CCTV seems a good deterrent however...what is to stop the burglars destroying the CCTV recording equipment? R.

Locate the DVR recorder in a secure location, this could be a locked cupboard or somewhere secluded such as a loft space. Connecting the DVR recorder to your internet hub or router means you don't need to physically touch the recorder on a day to day basis. You can access the controls using your computer on your local network.

I'm looking for waterproof cctv camera  that's captures very sharp images from approximately 40 feet to keep an eye on the front of my house, preferably that will capture facial detail at night within that distance and even number plates. Any help would be appreciated; it'll be recorded into an existing DVR system. B.

By the sound of things you need one of our B5 series day / night cameras fitted with a 9-22mm lens. That will allow you to zoom in as required to capture detail. From 9mm to 22mm gives you a decent choice and somewhere within the range will do the job for you.

Love the website and all the help. Question - what would you recommended for a standard home security setup? Its for day and night, to cover a double width drive of approx 15m x 20m for a semi detached house. Thanks Gareth

Thanks for the kind words. All CCTV systems are individual to the environment in which you fit them. That said for a standard house fitting a couple of mid range (large open faced vandal dome or B4 series day / night cameras) with 2.8-11mm varifocal lenses and a couple of smaller fixed lens cameras (small open faced vandal dome or K-series day / night cameras) with either 3.6mm or 8mm lenses would probably be a good starting point.

Obviously this is just a rough guide and we are always happy to discuss individual cases either over the phone or via email.

I have two Cameras, and an outdated recorder can I fit your £149 recorder to these perfectly good Cameras. Les

It should be possible to use existing cameras with any of our DVR recorders. You need to make sure your existing cameras output their video signal using an industry standard BNC female fitting. If that's the case then you're all sorted.

Can the 4 channel DVR be connected to a computer LCD monitor. the monitor only has VGA input ? I cant see the VGA output on the pictures on the website although the item descrition says it can. As we have some interesting cable runs, do you sell video/psu cable on a drum so that I can make my own cables ? John

Yes the DVR does have a VGA output. The VGA output used to be a cost option and hence the photos on our site. We now include it as part of the standard spec.

Yes we do sell cable by the roll, either Cat5 or RG59 Coax and DC "shotgun" combined cable. If you have any questions regarding cables just give us a call on 01895 233311

Hello, I am looking for a camera of similar dimensions and specs to the mini-covert-camera-36mm-wide-angle-lens with the sony ccd and chipset, but one which is wireless and runs off a 12v battery pack. I would prefer to buy of a reputable buyer such as yourselves as opposed to some ebay seller. Can you help me at all? L.

I'm afraid we don't sell wireless cameras. First of all they aren't wireless because you need to power them up and we have experienced problems with signal quality. Rarely if ever do they live up to the manufacturer's

How do you connect your cctv systems to the internet ? D. Patel

The main bulk of the information is contained in our video "Connecting a DVR to a network or hub" .

Basically you connect the DVR recorder to your internet router using on of our DVR to internet leads. Once that's done the video talks you through accessing your cctv system over your local network. To access the system over the internet you would need to set up a thing called port forwarding on your internet router. If you are concerned about that part we offer a remote set up service using a screen sharing process. That service is outlined Here

I am just looking into CCTV and am interested in the remote access over the internet. Can you get real time access to individual cameras as well as getting access to the hard drive for recorded information. And can the alarm trigerred sent bot emails and txt messages to a mobile phone. Thanks. Martin

You can indeed get real time access to the feeds of individual cameras through the internet. If you are using a PC with Internet Explorer then you will be able to access the hard drive for the recorded information and to modify the settings etc.

The alarm trigger can send e-mails, but not texts. If you needed it to send texts as well you could sign up to a text message provider who offer email-sms services (they text whatever you e-mail them).

Do I Have To Have A DVR Recorder? Can I Not Use A USB DVR? And Connect The Camera To The Ends of The USB DVR? And Connect The Other USB Into My Laptop? So I Can Watch Online + On My Laptop.? If I Do This Will I Be Able To Do What You Did In The Video - Where U Look For Motion Vids Ect?? Thanks. B.

Henry from cctv42.co.uk replies:

I assume you are referring to something like Maplin's USB DVR at £80. We don't recommend using a PC based system to record cctv footage for a number of reasons. CCTV storage places a huge load on a computer's hard drive which is designed to operate for 8 hours a day and have rest periods within that time. We fit very specific hard drives in our DVR recorders for this reason.

In the event of your house or work place being broken into I would imagine the first thing to go would be your pc / laptop and with it the footage of the robbery !

That particular product is quoted as recording in CIF rather than our recommended D1 quality (go onto cctv42.co.uk and see the difference on in the DVR buying guide section) and I suspect that will be the case with most similar products.

I have no idea of what functionality a product like this has in terms of motion detection and so on.

In terms of remote viewing, the computer would need to be on all the time (and that probably means on rather than in sleep mode). You are also relying on the PC to update the Dynamic access address, (assuming you are accessing the internet using a Dynamic IP address). This again relies on the PC to be on and working.

It is a pretty poor product to base a cctv system on. If you want cctv then an extra £70 does the job properly with a dedicated professional h.264 DVR recorder. The USB device used mjpeg to compress data rather than h.264 and so will need more space on the hard drive for a given amount of info which is another thing to consider.

Hope that helps

Henry

I've been on your website and have to say well done. thumbup Loads of info and easy to understand, I've been on a couple of other sites looking for cctv and found them far more confusing than they obviously need to be !

I want to film our cars on the front drive and the front of the house in general, I might film a passage way to the side of the house, possibly even the back of the house because there is a pathway running alongside our back garden fence where people could climb over but wasn't going to fit them at the moment. Is it difficult to set the DVR recorder to take an additional camera or cameras at a later stage?

Also I like the idea of being able to see the cameras when I'm away. You say it's possible but how hard is it - I work in IT, so am reasonably handy with a PC.

Any suggestions in terms of camera selection and so on? Oliver.

Hi there Oliver

Firstly thanks for the compliments, we spent a long time planning, researching and building the site so it's always good to hear we're getting somewhere near the mark. The problem is that most people just think cctv is all the same and so you just need to go out and buy a box of cctv. That obviously is not the case. There are many variables, a mistake with any one of which could potentially render your cctv system next to useless.

Hopefully the site explains some of the differences and holds your hand through the selection process. Failing that of course we're here to help !

I haven't see the site where you plan to install the cctv but from what you describe I would suggest you consider fitting the following:

DVR recorder choice :

Our 4 channel DVR is a good bit of kit. h.264 compression, hexaplex operation (lets you do loads of different things at once), D1 recording resolution (industry best), remote accessible over the internet, built in client updater (means you don't need a static IP address) and it even comes with a mouse and a remote control. Oh, and it has a VGA output as well as an analogue output.

Fit the the DVR in one of your upstairs rooms, preferably at the front of the house. That way you can run the cable out and across the outside of the house to the cameras. I would suggest two cameras at the front of the house, one at the side to film the alley way and 1 at the back of the house.

Camera choice :

This is probably the most important bit to get right. From what you have described I'd think our B4 series day / night cameras would do the job nicely. The reason I'm suggesting them is because they have powerful built in infra red lighting which switches on automatically in low light conditions and they also feature zoom lenses. A zoom lens allows you to tighten in or widen out so that your chosen subject fills the screen. The most common fault we see with cctv installations is where people just fit a wide angle lens camera thinking it will cover a wide area. They end up wasting pixels on unimportant subject matter and as a result the bits they do want to film aren't detailed enough.

The side alley camera could be another B4 day / night camera or even one of the smaller K-series day / night cameras. The same for the rear of the house. As an alternative to using standard day / night cameras you might consider what's known as an open faced vandal dome camera , fit the larger ones to ensure satisfactory infra red performance.

As an alternative to fitting a third camera filming the alley to the side of your house think about running a cable down to one of our Small open faced vandal dome cameras with a 3.6mm lens and no I/R fitted on the outside wall right by your front door. They don't have built in infra red lighting but because all our Sony Pro pack cameras film down to 0.01 lux they don't need much help by way of lighting so when you open the door the light from inside your home be suffice. A small light fitted above the door would also work well. The feature of this camera is that because it doesn't have infra red illumination you don't get any glare from close up objects at night so someone approaching your door gets filmed accurately from a close distance day or night. As a deterrent to cold calling scammers (hello we're from the water board etc), or people hoping to fish your car keys through the letter box it works a treat.

In terms of adding additional cameras at a later stage absolutely no problem at all. It's won't disturb the settings you already have in place for existing cameras. The only thing to consider is whether to fit a larger hard drive in advance when buying the DVR. Don't forget if you order the DVR and hard drive together we'll fit and format it for you F.O.C.

Finally networking:

Viewing the DVR over your computer system is quite simple. Just plug the DVR into the back of your internet router using one of our DVR to hub leads. Then follow the instructions on our connecting your cctv to a network video.

To access the cctv remotely using the internet is slightly more tricky although by the sound of things in your case it will be simple enough. You need to set up port forwarding on your internet router and arrange a client updating service using someone like DynDns to take care of any dynamic IP address issues. The DVR can automatically update DynDns using it's built in client updater.

For the less technically minded folks we offer a remote set up service for viewing our systems over the internet outlined in our remote set up service video.

Sorry for the long winded reply but there was quite a lot of info to cover. I hope you found it useful and feel free to give us a call at any time during office hours.

I live in a small block of flats and over the last 12 months we have had a spate of petty thefts of items previously left quite safely on the landing areas. Most recent was the theft of an item left by the postman outside my front door. Although there was a certain monetary value it wasn't particularly high, it is the fact that it was taken ( perhaps by someone living in the block although anyone could have followed the postman in even though it is supposedly a secure block) that is most disturbing.

I have been looking at your dome cctv cameras with a view to buying one which would cover the landing area immediately outside my flat and the flat opposite. There are only 2 flats to a floor. Only one camera would be required, whatever action the other residents wish to take is of course, up to them. The block is owned by the local authority but it is unlikely they would be interested in having cctv installed to cover the entire block so this is a measure I am prepared to take on my own.

Do you have anything which would suit my purpose and if so, can you give me a price for the system I would need? MJ

Henry at cctv42.co.uk replies:

Hi there.

Recorder-wise our 4 channel h.264 stand alone recorder. A great unit and more than capable for what you want. It does have a feature which allows to you record all the time but when the camera sees some movement to place that section of footage in a separate section on the hard drive. Cost £149.95

A hard drive to go in the DVR recorder - our 250GB drive will be fine. £49.95 fitted into the dvr and formatted.

Camera - wise I'm assuming you don't need to film in complete darkness. In that case our 4-9mm zoom lens internal dome camera. £69.95. We do sell a fixed lens camera in either 3.6mm, 8mm or 12mm lens options for £49.95 but I think having the zoom lens will allow you to zoom in or out to best fill the screen with your chosen subject.

You need a power supply for the camera £5.99 for a single camera.

A lead from the camera to the DVR recorder £9.95 for 10 metres, 14.95 for 20m, 19.95 for 30m

And finally you will need a lead to go from the DVR recorder to your TV £4.95 2m, £6,95 5 metres and a scart adaptor so you can plug it into your TV £3.54

You would then have a professional quality cctv system capable of taking 3 more cameras at a later stage if you wanted to add them. Simply buy the camera and a camera to DVR lead.

If you were going to fit another camera one option is our 3.6mm open faced dome camera with no I/R (£64.95). This is designed to fit just to the side of your front door on the opening side of the door (rather than the hinge side). It films anyone at your door and is a perfect deterrent against cold callers or confidence tricksters claiming to be from the water board / electricity / gas etc

Hope that helps.

How to install cash register on dvr ? N.

Henry at cctv42.co.uk replies: A brief question but hopefully I'll be able to give an answer!

I assume you are asking how best to cover a cash register on cctv. It depends on how much ambient light there is. Providing there is normal lighting, ie enough for the person to see who is operating the register then you don't necessarily have to fit a camera with infra red illumination. Of course if you do then the till will be covered in complete darkness outside working times as well.

Obviously it depends how far away from the cash register the camera is but I would suggest using a camera with around a 11-12mm lens as this will allow you to film the register in detail. Our 12mm bullet cameras were designed specifically with cash registers in mind as they are unobtrusive. You could also fit an internal dome camera or vandal dome camera. Given I don't know exactly where the camera is going then an internal dome or vandal dome camera with 2.8-11mm lens and our diamond Sony electronics pack should see you well covered. The vandal dome cameras have the benefit of infra red lighting as well as a more rugged construction. Aim to film the till and surrounding area in as much detail as possible. If you are really concerned then have 1 camera filming the general area and 1 filming the till it's self zoomed right in for maximum detail.

Hope that helps.

I would like to join all my bird box camera's together on 1 screen & have no idea where to start. I have 2 cameras which connect to 2 diferent teles I want 1 monitor. Can you advise please.? I would like to view all the camera's at the same time perhaps adding 2 more if possible. Karen.

Henry at cctv42.co.uk replies: Hi there Karen. The most obvious solution would be our 4 channel DVR at £149.95 plus vat. This would do several things:

Firstly it would let you present 4 separate camera inputs on a television. You could either watch all 4 channels at the same time on a split screen or you could watch individual cameras full screen. The benefit of a DVR is that whilst you are watching one camera the others are still filming, so if you went back to one of the other cameras and thought oh no, I've missed some activity you could go back and see what had happened.

You could also set the DVR to record when it detected movement, so you wouldn't have to scroll through hours of no activity, you could just look for "events" in the DVR memory.  If you really wanted to get fancy you could even connect the DVR recorder up to your internet router and watch your boxes when you were away from home !! You would also be able to look for movement triggered recordings.

Oh, by the way don't forget you'd need a hard drive fitted to the DVR for it to store information. I would have thought a 250GB hard drive would be sufficient.

Hope that answers your technical  question.

All the best.

We have wireless a internet, can a wireless adapter be connected to a dvr, or must it be "hard wired". I'm assuming there will be nowhere to intall the drivers for such a device. Mr P.

Henry at cctv42.co.uk replies: Hi there John

Slightly confused by the question but I'm assuming you have wireless internet and you're asking how to connect the DVR to your network. The answer is you would need to plug the DVR into the back of your internet router (the thing which I assume you are using to provide the wireless internet). Our DVR to router leads come up 25 metres long. It would also be possible to use a power bridge to connect the DVR to the router. A short lead goes from the DVR to a box plugged into the mains, a corresponding box pugged into the mains near your router has a wire attached from it to the router.

Once the DVR is connected to the router then it can be accessed wirelessly from a computer using your wireless internet / network in the normal way exactly as you would log onto the internet (although you aren't actually accessing the cctv system over the internet because everything is on your local network which improves speed and quality.

Hope that answers your question

I am very interested in your products, but I noticed that you do not sell wireless cameras. I need this because it is very awkward to route cables on my premises, are there any sender/receiver units available that I can connect between the cameras and the recorder (similar one to the ones for TVs)? Mr P.

Henry at cctv42.co.uk replies: We don't sell wireless cameras because we haven't come across any that we are happy with at a sensible price point , (we'd be charging over £1,000 and it would take a specialist installation / set up team to install at further cost). Combined camera / wireless senders usually have fairly low grade cameras and you get interference depending on where everything is located. Sometimes cheaper systems work but usually when the siting is so close that you might as well have used a cable run. We can't afford to supply stuff that doesn't work more times than it does.

Another thing to remember is that you still need to get power to the camera and by the time you've done that how much more effort is it to run a video lead there as well (bear in mind all our video cables are combined video / power cables).

I can't stress enough how much it's worth persevering to try and build your system using hard wires. You won't suffer any signal loss at all and you can upgrade cameras at will in the future. It might be worth considering getting in an electrician in to do the cable runs for you, they do them every day. Also consider running cables outside the building where appropriate.

The other thing to consider is fitting the DVR recorder in a remote location where camera cable runs are easier and then running a longer DVR recorder to internet router / network hub lead and DVR to monitor cable. We can supply both of these in pre-made lengths of up to 100 metres.

I read your site with interest. Would it be possible to use one of your cctv systems for training. We need to be able to record some meetings between trainees and customers and also record the teaching of trainees. This takes place in several different rooms.  This is all exercised with consent and according to strictly regulated protocols.

As such a passive constant recording would not be appropriate for this situation . Recording would have to be facilitated from the room in which the recording takes place. It may be simultaneous in several different rooms. Subsequent viewings should be available over our network in any room with a PC. Sound recording would be crucial for this application. I did not see any microphones on the web site. Mr S.

Henry at cctv42.co.uk replies: The training application is perfectly possible. To activate the recordings you would use the alarm triggered record function. All a PIR detector does is close or open a circuit (you can choose whether the alarm circuit is normally open or closed on the DVR recorder). In place of a PIR detector just put a switch, turn it on to record, off to stop. The nice thing about this is that accessing the recordings is quite straight forward. Each room is a unique channel and so you can search individual recordings on a room by room basis. To retrieve a particular recording you'll need to know roughly the time it was made and go from there.

Access via a computer is simple enough providing the DVR is plugged into the network router (your internet hub for example).

Re sound recording we don't have any microphones on the site but will have a general purpose one on soon. In the meantime we can supply something suitable for your application, and I'd advise a slightly higher quality mike than a standard cctv one. Combined cameras and microphones aren't really that good. The camera & microphone end up too far away from the subject to get a good recording. You want the mike placed closer to source it's recording.  Our 4ch DVR only has 1 audio input, our 9ch DVR has 4 audio inputs. So you would need to use a 9ch DVR if you wanted to record video and audio in 2-4 rooms.

Camera wise you have a number of options. Be aware that whilst the wider angle cameras will capture footage from most of the room if placed in a corner, the detail level will be relatively poor. The more telephoto lensed cameras (larger numbers of mm) will capture more detail but over a smaller area. Given that all the meetings are (presumably!) going to take place in a well lit environment I would probably suggest a ceiling mounted interior dome camera. I would go for a zoom lens to aid installation and allow you to frame the picture as best you can, probably our 2.8-11mm lens unit would be best.

Why can't I use an old VCR to record my CCTV cameras - I remember we used to use one at work. W.Smith

Henry at cctv42.co.uk replies: There are quite a lot of reasons why you don't want to use a Video recorder as the basis for your CCTV System. The tapes need to be constantly changed as they won't start to record over themselves from the beginning as a DVR will do. Finding specific events is much harder because you can't just go straight to them. But the biggest problem of all is the limited recording time. Around 3-6 hours. There are (or were) time lapse systems which extended this time a bit but nothing like the time you get with even a modest DVR which can easily be specced up to record a week or more. VCR died a death as soon as hard drive memory started to become affordable.

Hi there. Great website by the way. I want to record the car details of vehicles entering our car park at work but also want to film over a wide area as well to cover vandal damage or accidents. I've already tried a camera, which filmed the whole car park but it didn't give very detailed of cars coming or leaving. Do I need to buy a camera with a higher TVL? Jim

Henry at cctv42.co.uk replies: Thanks for the compliment Jim, we try hard with the website and I'm glad it's appreciated.  No, Television lines are not the answer. You need two distinct cameras. One with a telephoto lens aimed at a point where you know all the cars must pass, probably the entrance. Another wide angle camera to cover the car park as a whole.

For the wide angle camera you want to be looking in the 2.8-4mm range. The camera that immediately springs to mind is our B4 series 2.8-11mm day / night camera. For the telephoto camera 10mm upwards will start to capture the level of detail you need on the entrance gate depending how far away the camera is from the car. The camera that springs to mind there would be our B5 series 9-22mm day / night camera. In both cases you've got built in Infra red lighting which I'd imagine would be useful at night. The only thing to decide is if you want the Sony Pro or Diamond  electronics packs.

Is it true that it's illegal to film in the back garden of a semi detatched house ? Raj

Henry at cctv42.co.uk replies: No it isn't, providing you're not pointing the camera right into the neighbour's garden. You mustn't invade someone else's privacy or ability to enjoy their private space and you must also treat recorded footage as if it were data under the data protection act.

If you're going to put a camera up in your back garden tell the neighbours, allow them to come and see the footage for themselves so they are happy you're not invading their privacy. If you have a shared or communal area ask them if they would like you to record it for both of your security. You might even find they are prepared to contribute to the cost of CCTV or want to install their own system which you can work together with to ensure all areas are covered.

I bought a CCTV system from another company and have spent the last year trying in vain to access it over the internet. I've even gone to the trouble of paying for a static IP address. I've tried to set up port forwarding and to be honest I don't know if my problems are with the DVR, my settings or something else. No one has been able to help me. Can you do anything

Henry at cctv42.co.uk replies: Ah - the joys of remote access. As you probably know we are unique in offering a remote DVR network set up service for £49.95. If you know what you're doing it isn't rocket science, if you don't know what you're doing it's slightly more complicated than brain surgery!

Unfortunately you will need to purchase one of our DVR recorders and if necessary a hard drive to go with it. Don't worry we'll fit and format the hard drive for you prior to delivery. Your existing cameras and cables should plug into the new DVR assuming the other company's products use industry standard connectors. You will also need a DVR to router lead if you haven't already got one which is available in our cables section.

We need to use one of our DVR recorders to ensure that's not the root cause of the problem and also because then once we've got you hooked up to the internet we can help you with any set up issues you might have. The short answer is yes we should be able to sort you out.