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hi newbie here..
i have purchased the swann 8600 dvr 4 camera kit..all cameras have a clean crisp pic.my problem is.all the cameras have a very close (zoomed in shot) i cannot zoom out at all i need a wider veiwing angle.the demo at the swann website says iit ptz over the net.. i havent conected to the net yet..because i didnt think that would make a difference..any help or suggestion would be appreciated

I just checked the spec sheet on that package on Swann's website (http://www.swannsecurity.com/webfiles/download/806DVR4-8600%E2%84%A2_combo_brochure.pdf), and though I was able to confirm that the DVR has the ability to support PTZ cameras, it doesn't appear that your cameras have pan\tilt\zoom functionality and are fixed focus. In other words, if you had cameras that could move around and zoom your DVR could handle it, it's just that your cameras don't have that ability.

That said, looking at these specs there doesn't seem to be a whole lot you could do with those cameras, short of moving them back from their target, to get a wider angle, but the good news is that we may be able to replace one of your cameras with a camera that has a wider angle lens. About how wide a field of view do you need, and about how far away will the camera be?

i think we got it taken care of now...thanx for your help

I have a swann 4 camera system that I jsut installed yesterday, and I am trying to record it on vhs for longer playing time. But I cannot get the vhs system to record the pic from the camera monitor even though I am running it thru the vhs and to a tv and have a clear pic, and it even shows on the screen that it is recording...but when I playback there is nothing. Any help on resolving this issue would be appreciated

The only thing I can think would be to check the signal path and make sure it's giving the VCR a recordable signal. Here is what your path should look like:

Camera -> DVR -> VCR -> TV

If you have it set up like that, make sure that you're using the proper video inputs and outputs as well (in other words, make sure you don't have an input cord plugged into an output jack, or vice versa). If you're good there, too, chances are there's something wrong with one of the items in the equation that will require additional troubleshooting.

One piece of side advice; you probably won't get longer recording time from a VHS tape than you would a DVR's hard drive since a tape only records for a few hours at a time while a hard drive should be able to hold days or weeks before filling up. There's nothing wrong with using a VHS backup, however it's going to increase your workload (with constantly changing tapes) and not really give you any significant backup time.