Q-See QT SERIES User Manual - page 11
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ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
Most users prefer to operate their systems with the DVRs recording only when motion is detected. This
provides the most efficient use of the hard drive’s capacity, plus making it easier for a recording to be
located. However, if the a camera’s location has a lot of “environmental” motion, such as a fan, wind, or
the like, you will receive a lot of “false alarms.” Usually, these events can be avoided by simply adjusting
the placement of the camera. Other situations may require some fine-tuning of your settings. Chapter 8
Alarms, covers these settings in detail, but some easily avoidable situations are presented below:
TV/Computer Screens. If the camera can see a video screen, it will trigger a motion alarm any time
the screen changes, whether there is a video or simply a screen saver. The screen can be masked out as
described in Section 4.2. You can also reduce the level of motion sensitivity in specific areas of the screen
by following the instructions in Section 8.3.
Fans/Machinery. Motion is motion and if machinery within the camera’s field of view starts automatically, it
will cause an alert. Similarly, if the camera is mounted on a wall with machinery on the other side that causes
it to vibrate, that can also cause it to detect motion. Moving machinery within the camera’s field of view may
be masked off as mentioned above, or motion detection may be turned off for that channel. If there is another
camera that covers access to the area where the machinery is located, you can set it so that the first camera
will only be recording when triggered by a motion event detected by this second camera. See “Triggers” in
described in Section 8.3.
Bugs. An occasional insect flying through the field of view is usually not enough to trigger an alert.
However, some flying insects are attracted to infrared light and will swarm the camera. This is usually a
temporary situation that occurs at only a certain time of the year. Lighting the area with yellow “bug light”
of sufficient brightness can keep the camera operating in daylight mode and keep the infrared LEDs turned
off. A second solution is to set the channel to record all the time, and turn motion detection off at night until
“bug season” is over. Reducing the motion sensitivity (Section 8.3) can also reduce alerts as can using
another camera to trigger recording as described above.
Additionally, keep your cameras clear of spider webs as the movement of the webs due to wind or critters
in the web will cause an alert. The reflection of the infrared off the webs and back into the camera will also
reduce the night vision range.
Snow/Rain. As with bugs, this is usually a seaonal event and may require motion detection to be temporarily
disabled to avoid false alarms. However, positioning the camera further under shelter, such as closer to the wall
and away from the edge of the eaves, can make the rain or snow too small for the camera to notice. Adjusting
motion sensitivity may also help in some situations.
Standard analog camera image stretched to fit
HD aspect ratio.
960H camera image.
PICTURE 2-11
960H CAMERAS
A new standard for analog video cameras, 960H increases the width of the image from D1’s 720x480 pixels
to 960x480 pixels. When connected to a DVR with 960H capability, this allows the camera to take advantage
of the wider aspect ratios of most monitors and HD screens to deliver a wider, clearer image, without the
distortion caused by stretching to fit the screen. This is demonstrated in the image below:
You can use 960H cameras with analog DVRs that don’t have that technology, but the DVR will be unable
take full advantage of the capabilities for best results.