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Few things can be as frustrating as picture problems. You get your system all ready to go, flip the switch, and WHAM! One or more channels look terrible. The good news is that the majority of video problems can be traced to just a few causes. Most problems are comprised of the following:

Snow

Horizontal bars rolling though the picture

Vertical bars rolling through the picture

Ghosting

Herringbone pattern (diagonal lines through picture)

Lower channels look fine, upper channels are not

These six are the main symptoms youll find when seeing video problems. Thankfully, most are fairly easy to fix.

Snow -

Snow is caused by inadequate signal strength at the tuner. Its usually caused by:

1Splitting the signal too many times.

2A weak signal from the antenna or cable company

3A very long cable run

If the signal is snowy at all your tvs, especially if you have more than 4 tvs, you probably need an RF amplifier. check the strength at the demark (service entrance). If it is fine there, add an amplifier before the splitter. Make sure to use a quality unit with good bandwidth (out to at least 1000MHz). If you have digital cable or a cable modem, get an amplifier with a bidirectional return path to allow for communication back to the cable company. If the picture looks bad at the demark, contact the cable company.

If it is bad at only one TV, you may have a bad cable between the splitter and the TV or a very long run of cable. You can amplify just that run.

Horizontal Rolling Bars

Horizontal rolling bars are caused by DC power getting into the cable system. To fix it, disconnect the TV from all other components in the system. If the bars disappear, add the other components back in until the bars return. When you find the offending component, use a DC blocker to eliminate the DC power path to the system.

Vertical Rolling Bars

Vertical rolling bars are caused by AC power getting on the cable line. The best fix for this is to use a ground breaker. A ground breaker eliminates the electrical connection between the TV and the cable system. A ground breaker is also the main fix for a hum on your audio systems speakers.

Ghosting

Ghosting is caused by the tuner receiving identical signals at slightly different times. It can be caused by your TV receiving a local station broadcasting over the air and via the cable system at the same time. Make sure you are using good quality RG-6 coax cable and good compression fittings. Replace any low quality cable splitters or combiners with high quality units. Make sure they are tight also. This will also cure another cause of ghosting, signal reflection inside a poor cable.

Ghosting can also be caused by multi-path interference on an antenna system. This is especially true in an urban environment with lots of hills and tall buildings. To combat this, use a very directional antenna aimed directly at the desired station.

Herringbone Pattern

A herringbone pattern is caused by radio frequency interference from other stations transmitting on the same channel or adjacent channels, powerful radio signals, computers, etc. Another common cause is being equidistant from two transmitters operating on the same channel.

In short, this can be caused by just about any sort of RF radiation at the correct frequency. Really great shielding found on high quality cables helps to combat this. If you are getting this interference while modulating an A/V source on a certain channel, try switching to a different channel.

Poor Upper Channel Reception

Poor Upper Channel Reception is caused by poor signal strength on the upper channels. Use an amplifier with a tilt compensator that allows adjustment of the upper channels relative to the lower channels. This will prevent overdriving the lower channels while providing the upper channels with enough gain. Also, check to see if all components in the RF system are rated to at least 1GHz and RG-6 or RG-6Quad shield cable is being used throughout.

Bio: Steve Faber has almost 15 years in the custom installation industry. He is a CEDIA certified designer and Installer 2 with certifications from both the ISF and THX. His experience spans many facets of the industry, from the trenches as an installer and control systems programmer, and system designer, to a business unit director for a specialty importer of high end audio video equipment, a sales rep for a large, regional consumer electronics distributor, and principal of a $1.5M+ custom installation firm. He currently is senior sales engineer for Digital Cinema design in Redmond, WA. For more on how to get the best video in your home or theater see Home Theater Video

The vivid colors of autumn have now faded, the first big shopping day of the season is past, winter has already started to show her hand, and this year that we seemed to just ring in sees her days dwindling away. Yes, it's December on Cape Cod and it comes with a special feel in the air. Beginning with the weekend after Thanksgiving, there are many delightful activities all over the Cape that people of all ages can enjoy. You will see a different side of the Cape other than sunny beaches, whale watching and seafood, but it might just start a new christmas tradition in your family for years to come.

Towns all over Cape Cod celebrate the coming of christmas with various activities that have become traditions. christmas strolls, caroling, festive harbor lights, and holiday fairs bring residents and visitors together to celebrate. Concerts and shows abound, helping build the excitement of the season. Many Bed & Breakfasts show off their warm and cozy accommodations with open houses, homemade refreshments and their best holiday finery.

You could start the festivities off by joining a holiday wreath making workshop on the Saturday after Thanksgiving at Pastiche of Cape Cod in West Barnstable. Or how about joining the Chatham-By-The-sea celebration starting in mid-November and stretching through December. There are arts and crafts fairs, candy cane making, holiday plays, and a dinner dance at the Chatham Bars Inn. The Chatham celebration all culminates in a First Night Celebration on New Year's eve.

In Sandwich, the Heritage Museum and Gardens are decked out with a million lights on over 100 acres of gardens from November 24th through the 31st. They also have indoor Victorian displays, a holiday boutique, holiday treats and free rides on an antique carousel, along with other special programs. The classic and timeless holiday tale, A christmas Story, is being performed at the Harwich Junior Theater from December 8th to the 30th. Other performance treats include the Cape Cod Symphony, the Vienna Choir Boys, renditions of Vivaldi's Gloria and Handel's Hallelujah Chorus, as well as readings of Charles Dickens' favorite christmas Carol.

christmas strolls have become a popular Cape Cod tradition in many of the towns. Barnstable, Chatham, Dennis, Falmouth, Harwich, Hyannis, Osterville, Sandwich and Yarmouthport tie in these holiday strolls with other events such as caroling on town greens or at lighthouses, tree lighting, the arrival of Santa (sometimes even by boat!), festive shopping, open houses, holiday treats, special museum events and christmas parades.

Only a few of the holiday activities awaiting you have been listed here, but if you have never experienced the christmas season on Cape Cod, you might want to consider spending a few days exploring what the Cape has to offer. So break out your warm clothes, the hot chocolate and your christmas spirit and start a new tradition for you and yours here on Cape Cod.

Linda Behrle has spent many wonderful vacations on the Cape beginning in her childhood. It is still her favorite place on earth to be. You can find out more about things to do on Cape Cod and christmas on Cape Cod at her website http://www.everythingcapecod.net, as well as complete information for all of your vacation planning needs.

As a home owner, you are the only person responsible for the safety of your home. The police won't be around to protect you, and will only come after the fact. The bottom line is you need to protect yourself and a home video surveillance camera system is a great way to record any suspicious or illegal activity that occurs at your home.

A complete video surveillance system can record all activity to VHS tape or to disc, where you can burn a CD. This information is valuable to law enforcement to be able to find the criminals. No one is immune from being robbed. The cost of a system is low compared to your potential losses of irreplaceable items.

According to the FBI, 79% of all home burglary's are done through the front or back door, or a ground floor window. You need to have systems in place, inside and outside to record all areas of the first floor of your home, and maybe 1-4 cameras on the second floor.

There are many choices for you to consider starting at $99 for some cheap junk on eBay, all the way up to complete PC based systems that will record all activity to disc using state of the art wireless cameras and cost thousands of dollars. We will cover some of the basics that you will need to know in order to determine which surveillance camera system is right for you.

When choosing a video surveillance camera system for your home, there are several things you need to consider:

• Will You Use Hidden cameras vs. Visible Cameras?
• Will You Use Wireless Cameras vs. Wired Cameras?
• Will You Need Indoor Systems or Outdoor Systems?
• How Will You Record The Activity, VHS Recording vs. DVR Recording?

Hidden cameras The first thing you want to consider is whether you want your cameras to be visible or not. Modern technology has reduced a video camera down to miniature levels. Hidden cameras can be hidden ANYWHERE, even behind a pinhole, and can be put in practically any everyday item in your house; smoke detectors, TV antennas, clock radios, baby wipes, Pringles chips, etc. The advantage is that the criminal won't know they are being recorded, and you should catch more theft. Hidden cameras could be more expensive then visible cameras.

Visible cameras A visible camera system consists of any number of visible cameras from the black dome cameras you see in most stores, to the old fashioned kinds on brackets pointing at you at the bank. There are also high resolution cameras that can zoom in to tight detail. The advantages of these types of systems is that your criminal will know they are being watched, and that should deter a lot of crime that normally would occur without the cameras.

If you have a tight budget, even a series of dummy camera's, camera bodies with no working parts except a flashing red light, are proven to deter crime. If you don't have the funds for a working video surveillance system, just installing four to twelve dummy cameras fools the criminal into thinking you have a real system in place.

Do you really want visible cameras in your home? It seems the best choice for a home are hidden cameras.

Wireless cameras vs. Wired cameras You have two choices for the type of surveillance system, wireless and wired. Both have advantages and disadvantages;

Wireless Camera system Wireless camera systems are the fastest systems to install, as you just need to mount the cameras, hook up the wireless receiver in the back room, and wire it all together to a power box and some type of system to record the video.

The advantages of wireless cameras are that they can be installed in locations that are difficult, if not impossible to wire. They can be moved to different locations easily, as often as you like, and if the need arises, they can be hidden inside everyday objects like wall clocks, radios, table lamps, etc.

To overcome the disadvantages of a wireless camera, you should buy one with a higher frequency transmission band of at least 1.2GHz or above. The best are in the 2.4 GHz range. If you need to take video from the wireless camera a long distance from the receiver, or there are walls, metallic or steel obstacles between the wireless camera and the receiver, you should buy a wireless model with a higher transmission power, that is, a transmitter with longer transmission distance. Another good idea is to use a high gain antenna for the transmitter or receiver, which will improve the signal transmission/reception.

The disadvantages of wireless cameras are that the video stream might be disturbed or influenced by moving objects or strong radio or even telephone frequencies. Video/audio transmission is limited within the prescribed transmission range. These disadvantages will not occur with a wired camera.

Wireless camera systems are also more expensive than wired systems, as they require a lot of receivers and transmitters to received the video that normally would run in the inexpensive wires. However, the costs are usually worth it, as it could cost less to install, and less to relocated. Overall, the video/audio signals from a wireless camera are less stable than a wireless camera.

Wired Camera Systems Wired camera systems are more stable due to the cable, which doesn't have the interference problems associated with wireless systems. You need to run a video cable to each camera in order to get a video feed. You will have to run the wire either through the walls and ceiling, or have it exposed on the wall. While the cost of the system is less than a wireless system, it will require more work to install, and if you are paying someone, it might cost more than buying a wireless system.

You should look at the total costs to purchase and install both systems and go with what is best for you. Overall, the video/audio signals from a wired camera are more stable than a wireless camera.

Looks like Wireless cameras win here, easy to hide and install.

Indoor Systems vs. Outdoor Systems Depending on your needs, you will need a camera for indoor or outdoor needs. If you have the funds, you should have a camera in front and out back to monitor the entrances. You will need a camera that can withstand the elements. Unless it's specifically sold as an outdoor or waterproof camera, a regular camera can't withstand the beating from Mother Nature that a weatherproof camera can endure.

You can find many types of outdoor camera, dome, bullet, and standard. All are enclosed in waterproof cases and some even have heaters for cold areas. You can also buy armor dome cameras that will withstand direct hits from bats and hammers. These are recommended in high crime areas.

It looks like a Wireless system will fit the bill, unless you need outdoor capabilities, then you want to consider a surveillance system that will let you hook up wireless, as well as outdoor wired cameras.

Video vs. DVR Recording You need to determine if you want to record the activity. It's a good idea to record the video so you can give a copy to law enforcement for future needs. You have two choices, VCR or DVD.

VCR allows you to record the video with a Video Cassette Recorder (VCR) directly to a VHS tape. You can use a bank of standard VCR's, or there are high density VCR's that allow you to record days of video. Some come with motion detectors and won't record unless the video changes. The disadvantages are that you have to know about what time the event occurred, or you will have to review all the tape sequentially, or on fast forward.

The latest technology is using a DVR or PC based DVR system to record the video to disc. The advantages are a DVD can be burned from the digital recording. This is the easiest system to review your recordings, as you can jump ahead to any point in the recording, unlike the VHS tape. The initial cost will be larger than a VCR system, though you won't need to buy tapes, and the ease of use will be worth the extra money for a DVR based system.

You have two types of DVR systems, DVR recorder and PC based. DVR recorders feed the video directly into the hard drive or disc on the recorder and you either burn the disc, or back up the hard drive. These come in a variety of sizes, from standard sizes for indoor uses, down to field use DVRs the size of a pack of cigarettes that can record up to 60 hours of video from a hidden surveillance camera.

Your other option is the PC based surveillance system that uses a Personal Computer, a video capture card, and VISEC surveillance software as a control center that can not only record the video and burn it to disc, a quad can be installed to monitor the feeds on real time over a computer screen, and break it up into quadrants to monitor multiple cameras at the same time, in real time.

We have only just scratched the surface of video surveillance systems with this brief overview, and future articles will focus on the pros and con's of what is out there, and is it right for you.

Don't delay installing a surveillance system for your home. You never know when crime will strike and it is too late after the fact. Get it on disc so the police can arrest the criminals.

Christopher Winkler
Author
Eye Spy Pro
Supplier of Video Surveillance & Spy Equipment
mailto:cwinkler@eyespypro.com
http://www.eyespypro.com/complete-systems.htm