How to attach a cat door to a screen

The problem was how does one attach a cat door to a screen?  We needed a solid locking door as he's not allowed out at night (too many cat, raccoon, etc fights) and to keep the squirrels out, they totally destroyed the cushions on our chairs. 

With an anchor point on one side only I didn't think it would hold up to daily use.  And it was too low for easy access, so quickly it was clear I needed a raised sill.  

First plan, replace the flap with high sill and medium cat door, however after consideration, he's a 20 pound cat, I went with the larger dog sized door and placed it to the left.

Then I used a lower sill 2x4 and framed the top and right sides with wood and attached with 3 hole angle brackets and a long deck screw on the right.  This made the door rock solid and gave me a good attachment for the screen.  Note the top and left framing boards extend beyond the edge of the door so I have some place to attach the screen. 

The white plate at the left slides in to lock the door.

I put some scrape wood around the outside to grip the screen in place securely.  Since it's a prototype build I just used whatever scrap wood I had.

In the year 2050 - future predictions

Paid Blogger will be a growing job position.  In the future one will question the positions and statements of friends and family by asking "are you being paid to say that?"  Views and opinions will be bought and sold by friends and family just like Mary Kay and Tupperware is today.

Simplified English (with all the odd spellings and useless articles removed) will be the global language. Forget about Esperanto.

The traditional university system will collapse.  The idea you need to go to a room and sit under bad lighting in uncomfortable seats with distracting people and straining to hear/see a presenter is already at and end.  Better quality presentations on almost any subject are on Youtube.  Recorded presentation can be paused, replayed, upgraded and continuously rated and enhanced by people who are good presenters, unlike the average college professor is.  Interaction with the teacher will be just as it is today, with the TA.  Only the TA will be mostly replying to comments on the video, so he won't be wasting time answering the same questions again and again.  Universities are half way to this model now, only in future it'll be free, and campuses will close.  Students will watch Youtube in the comfort of their homes, anywhere in the world, and be able to "attend class" whenever it suits their schedule.

Diplomas will be replaced with a certificate system like CCNA, you'll be getting collections of certificates to get jobs.  Not longer will 90% of getting a higher degree be about working university politics, that'll be gone like fluorescent lighting, 100 seat  lecture halls and hard wooden chairs.

The FBI formally changes its name to Face Book Investigation as all real crime starts with drama on Facebook.

Headphones

DZ09 $16 SmartWatch phone review

That's right, $16 for an Android phone, that you wear on your wrist.  And you do not need a "real phone" to pair with, the DZ09 has a SIM slot, so it's a full phone on its own.  I'm not certain is runs Android exactly, maybe just supports Android phones you can connect to, and there is not "App Store" on it. The model I purchased is the "Yuntab SW01" which seems to be another brand name for the DZ09, it was $16 when ordered, now up to $19.  I've heard they can be had for $7 on eBay.

The DZ09 operates in two modes, one is paired with a phone via Bluetooth or two, with its own SIM card.  While paired, you can make and receive calls via the BT phone link, and you can check email, SMS and other notifications via the watch.



The watch is lightweight, reasonably comfortable.  It has a camera, voice recorder, audio player, sleep monitor, Pedometer, image viewer, alarm, calendar.  Also remote controls for the phone, you can launch the phone camera, take a picture and view on the watch.  It has a 32GB SD slot and charges via standard USB port.



When you're running via the SIM as a phone, the watch has Facebook, Twitter and a web browser to use. The watch worked fine with the Tracfone SIM taken out of my Samsung Galaxy 5 phone, I'm pretty certain it's GSM/T-Mobile service.  Call volume and sound quality is very good.  Now have tried my AT&T GSM SIM, worked fine too.

The main thing I  was looking for was a wearable mp3 player, for listening to books on tape while I'm working in the yard.  With a speaker, so I don't need to deal with headphones, and wearable as I can't hear the sound from the phone when it's in my pocket, and with me always as I'm going in and out of doors, up ladders, etc.  What I got for $16 was perfect for audio books, and a lot more!  Now I get incoming calls, SMS and all the notifications from my phone, without having to constantly check my phone!  And with sound playing from the SD card, it doesn't stop when I'm out of BT range, nor get static or run out of battery life fast, issues I was having with my BT headphones.


Still testing but the battery seems to be good for all day use.  I'll post some more data after longer use.

Two card slots, left MicroSD, right AT&T cellular SIM card, when you have the SIM card in you have the option of making calls via BT link or Local, which means use the SIM card, same for SMS.
Micro SIM fits perfect, but Nano SIM worked too, really you'd want to use an adapter for Nano SIM.

The watch can display 3 different analog clocks.

You need to install an app on your phone BTNotification

Picture format is Jpeg (cat pics always make your reviews more popular :)

Image
Format                                   : JPEG
Width                                    : 240 pixels
Height                                   : 240 pixels
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossy

Audio recording format is Adaptive Multi-Rate:

General
Complete name                            : 121322421700.amr
Format                                   : AMR
Format/Info                              : Adaptive Multi-Rate
File size                                : 11.3 KiB
Duration                                 : 7s 220ms
Overall bit rate mode                    : Constant
Overall bit rate                         : 12.8 Kbps

Audio
Format                                   : AMR
Format/Info                              : Adaptive Multi-Rate
Format profile                           : Narrow band
Duration                                 : 7s 220ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 12.8 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 1 channel
Sampling rate                            : 8 000 Hz
Bit depth                                : 13 bits
Stream size                              : 11.3 KiB (100%)

Audio recording sample (DZ09 does not record video, I just added all the pics to the audio sample as Blogger wasn't allowing my audio only clip to upload):

500 Beers rated

Pub where my quest began, with their 80 Beers Around The World

Simple ratings:
Ratings:
+Best thing ever
^Buy more
-Good enough
\Bad, pour down drain

Quick summery; 

Best beer in the world, Duchesse de Bourgogne 

Best brewery in the world, Weltenburger 

Best beer for the price,Yuengling

My award for drinking 80 different beers in 80 days

The list:

American (note there's hundreds of craft brews, few are worth rating)
--------

^1554 Enlightened Black Ale

^American Lager - Freedom Brew (MD)

^American Lager - Amber Lager (MD)

-Almost Heaven Amber (WV)
-Anchor Porter (CA)
-Anderson Valley Wild Turkey Bourbon Barrel Stout

-BJ's brew pub chain, most beers are ^

^Englander ale

^Beach Chalet Brewery San Francisco (CA) 4/5 brews are ^^^

-Boatswain H.L.V. Ale (WI)

-Budweiser (really there's worse beers, at least I can drink it)
-Bud American Ale (not bad, better than standard Budweiser)

^Budweiser Discovery Reserve

\Coors

^Coors Batch 19

-Devils Backbone Vienna Lager (VA)

^Devil's Canyon Full Boar Scotch Ale BOTTLED (CA)

\Devil's Canyon Full Boar Scotch CANS (CA)

^Devil's Canyon Kitty Beer Kolsch (CA)

^Dixie Blackened Voodoo Lager

-Danish Red Lager | Figueroa

^Fat Weasel Pale Ale

\Flat Tire - you'll need a whiskey to wash the taste out (CA)

^Genesee beer (NY)
Gibbons?

^Gorden Biersch Marzen (CA)
^Gorden Biersch CZECH Pilsner (CA)
-Gordon Biersch Maibock (CA)
-Gordon Biersch Blonde bock (CA)
-Gordon Biersch Winterbock (CA)
^Half Moon Bay Brewing Company Amber (CA)
-Half Moon Bay Brewing Company Kolsch Style Ale (CA)
-Half Moon Bay Brewing Company Papa Juice Old Ale 13.5% (CA)
-Half Moon Bay Brewing Company Saison (CA)

-Hamm's

-Jackrabbit Brewing Company Jack Porter (CA)

-Josephsbrau Drive Thru Red Dry (CA)
-Josephsbrau Heller Bock (Gorden Biersch) (CA)
-JosephsBrau PLZNR (Gorden Biersch) (CA)
-JosephsBrau Winter Brew (Gorden Biersch) (CA)
^JosephsBrau Bohemian Lager (Gorden Biersch) (CA)
^JosephsBrau Black Toad Dark Ale (Gorden Biersch) (CA)
^JosephsBrau Stockyard Oatmeal Stout (Gorden Biersch) (CA)

^JosephsBrau Summer Brew (CA)

-Leinenkugel Bavarian Dunkel

-Lone Star Beer
^Michelob Original Lager
^Michelob AmberBock
-Michelob ULTRA Amber

-Narragansett Clam can (RI)

^National Bohemian can (MD)

-PBR

\Rolling Rock (NY)
\Speakeasy Prohibition (CA)

^Samuel Adams Winter Lager (MA)

-Samuel Adams Summer Ale (MA)

^Samuel Adams Beakaway Blonde Ale (MA)
^Samuel Adams Octoberfest Lager (MA)
^Samuel Adams Black Lager (MA)
-Samuel Adams Pumpkin Ale (MA)
-Samuel Adams Spruce Lager (MA)
-Samuel Adams Coffee Lager (MA)

-Screech Owl Blonde (WV)

^Tart Of Darkness  The Bruery (CA)

^Tied House Mountain View (CA) 4/5 brews are ^^^

\Trumer Pils god awful  (CA)

Pennsylvania (where the good beer is)

----------------------------------------------

^Aldus Brewing - Raspberry & Pomegranate Sour Ale (PA)

^Aldus Brewing - Pretzel Wheat (PA)

^Lancaster Brewing Co. Shoo-Fly Pie Porter (PA)

^Lion's Head tap (Wilkes-Barre PA)

^Straub Oktoberfest Marzen (PA)

^Straub Amber Ale (PA)

^Straub Lager (PA)

-Stoney's (PA)

-Victory Yakima Glory (PA)
-Victory Storm King Stout (PA)
-Victory Lager (PA)

^Yards Octoberfest (PA)

-Yards Washington's Porter (PA)

-Yards Jefferson's Golden Ale (PA)

-Yards Poor Richard's Spruce Ale (PA)

^Yards Pale Ale (PA)

-Yards IPA (PA)

^Yards Golden (PA)

^Yard Brawler (PA)

^Yuengling Black and Tan (PA)
^Yuengling Bock (PA)

^Yuengling Bock 2024 (PA)

-Yuengling Flight (PA)

-Yuengling Light Lager (PA)

-Yuengling Golden (PA)

+Yuengling Hershey’s Chocolate Porter (PA)

^Yuengling Oktoberfest (PA)

+Yuengling Premium (PA)

+Yuengling Traditional Lager (PA)
^Yuengling Porter (PA)
^Yuengling Lord Chesterfield Ale (PA) better on tap or bottled than in cans

Older brands

Schmidt's, Gibbons, Stegmaier's, Schaefer's

Belgian
-------

^Bavik Super Pils
+Duchesse de Bourgogne
-de ryck ale special

^Herkenrode Noctis
-Larine Grand 95 10%
^Monk's Café Flemish Sour Ale | Brouwerij Van Steenberge

-Pax Pils  Belgian Pilsner
-Piraat Ale
^Struise Tsjeeses Reserva
-St. Bernardus Abt 12

British
-------

^Adnams Southwold Bitter
^Adnams Broadside
-Bateman Rosey Nosey
-Bombardier
-Coniston bluebird bitter
-Dorothy Goodbody's Stout bottle conditioned
-Fiddler's Elbow
\fraoch. heather ale
-Fuller's E.S.B.
^Fuller's London Pride
^Fuller's London Porter
^Fullers Organic Honey Dew
-Fuller's Vintage Ale
-Fuller's 1845 Bottle-Conditioned
-Gales Prize Old Ale
\Green King can
-Hambleton Nightmare Yorkshire Porter
-Harveys Christmas Ale
-Harveys Elizabethan Ale
-Hen's Tooth bottle contitioned
-Hook Norton Hooky Bitter
-Lees Harvest Ale (Sherry Cask) too strong
-Marston's Pedigree
^Moorhouse Pendle Witches Brew
-Moorhouse Black Cat
-Newcastle
-Newcastle blonde
^Newcastle Cabbie
^Newcastle Werewolf
^Olde Suffolk English Ale - Green King
^Old Hooky
\Old Speckled Hen
-Old Crafty Hen
-Old Tom Ale
^Pitchfork Rebellious Bitter
-Robinsons Trooper
_Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale
\SkullSplitter ale
-St. Peter's Golden Ale
-St. Peter's Organic English Ale
-Timothy Taylors Landlord Pale Ale
-Tanner's Jack Morland Brewery
-Thatchers Green Goblin
^Theakston XB
-Theakston Old Peculier
+Wadworth 6x
^Whitbread

^Wychwood Bah Humbug!
^Wychwood Hobgoblin
-Wychwood King Goblin
^Wychwood Goliath
-Wychwood Scarecrow
^Wychwood Ginger Beard
^Wychwood WychCraft
-Young Special London bottle conditioned


Czech/Slovak
-----

^Bohemia Regent Premium Dark
^Czechvar Czech Budweiser
-Eggenberg Samichlaus Classic 14%
-Golden Pheasant
^Karlovalko
-Konrad Premium Lager
-Krusovice Imperial Lager
^Krusovice Cerne
-Kralovsky Lev - Black Lion Czech
-KrÃlovskà Lev Votrok Lev Lion Lager
^KrÃlovskà Lev Votrok Lev Lion Premium Dark Beer
^KrÃlovskà Lev Votrok Lev Lion Pale Double Bock
-Pilsner Urquell
^Praga Premium Pils
^Praga Dark Lager
^Primátor Premium Dark
-Primator Double Bock
-Rebel
+Templier  Lager original  czech lager beer 5.1%
-Staropramen Premium Beer Czech

^Zlata Praha Original Lager


Finland
-------

+Alexin Panimo Ruis Rye Lager
\Lapin Kulta
^Koff
^Sinebrychoff Porter
^Karhu
^Teerenpeli (all of them)
-Karjala
-Huvila ESB
\Huvila Arctic Circle Ale $14
^A. Le Coq Porter (Estonia)

German / Austrian
-----------------

-Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Urbock = taste
^Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen
^Aktien Maibock 748862021152
^Aktien-Brauerei Heller Belli Bock
^Aktien-Brauerei Jubiläums Pils
^Aktien Hell
^Aktienbrauerei Kaugbeuren ABK Hell
^Aktien Tanzelfestbier
^Aktien Doppelbock Buronator
-Aktien Kaufbeuren Spezialbier Edel
-Altenmunster Winterbier Dopplebock
-Andechser Vollbier Hell
^Andechs Kloster Hell
-Andechs Kloster Double Bock
-Andechs Weissbier Dunkel

-Arcobrau Coronator 7.2%

^Arcobräu Mooser Liesl Helles Bavarian Lager
^Arcobrau Urfass Lager
^Arcobrau Pale Weiss NA bitter
^Arcobrau Zwickl Lager
\Ayinger Jahrhundert
-Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen
-Ayinger Altbairisch Dunkel

-Ayinger Bavarian Pils 

^Ayinger Maibock

^Bayreuther Hell

-Berliner Geschichte Helles Lager Privatbrauerei Eibau

-Berliner Geschichte Pilsners Privatbrauerei Eibau
-Bischofshof Hefe-Weissbier Dunkel
^Bitburger Premium Pils
-Bitburger Radler
-Burgkopf Pils
-DAB Original - Dortmunder Actien Brauerei `
-Dinkel Acker Cd-Pils $1.05
^Dinkel Oktoberfest Marzen $1.05
^Einbecker Mai-Ur-Bock $6 .33l
-Einbecker Ur-Bock-Dunkle $6 .33l
^Erdinger Oktoberfest Weissbier
-EKU - too strong
^EKU Pilsner
-Edelstoff Augustinerbrau Mundien
^Ettaler Kloster dunkel
-Flensburger Gold
-Flensburger Pilsener
-Flensburger Dunkel
^Freigeist Bierkultur Abraxas
-Freigeist Salzspeicher Sour Porter Cherry
^Freigeist Sauer Porter - Raspberry
^Frah Kolsch
-Fuechschen Alt
^Gaffel Kölsch
-GÃsser Austrian
^Göller Rauchbier
-Gose bier Leipziger
^Grieskirchner Pils
-Grimbergen Double Ale

^Grfliches Hofbrauhaus Freising Jagerbier

^Grfliches Hofbrauhaus Freising Dunkel
^Hacker-Pschorr Munich Gold
^Hacker-Pschorr oktoberfest
^Hacklbirg Humorator
-Harviestoun Old Engine Oil Black Ale
^Henninger Premium Lager
^Heller Belli Bock - Aktien-Brauerei
^Hofbrauhaus Dunkel

^Hofbrauhaus Jagerbier
-Hofbrauhaus Oktoberfestbier
^Hofbrauhaus Original
^Hofbrauhaus Winter Spezial
^Hovels Original
-Innstadt Doppel Bock
-Innstadt Original-Hell
-Innstadt Passauer Barockbier
^Innstadt Passauer Barockbier extra
-Konig Ludwig Weissbierr
-Kanig Pilsener
vJever
^Kostritzer Schwarzbier Black Lager

-Kostritzer Pale Ale
-Kulmbacher Eisbock
^Lammsbrau Neumarkter Dunkel
^Lammsbrau Organic Dunkel
-Leikeim Feines Schwarzes
-Leikeim Landbier
-Mahrs Bräu Kellerbier
-Miltenberger Doppelbock
^Moosbacher Kellerbier

-Paulaner Hefe-Weizen
^Paulaner Oktoberfest Marzen
^Paulaner Original Munich Lager
-Paulaner Salvator 7.9!!!
-Pinkus Munster Alt
-Pinkus Ur Pils
-Radeberger Pilsner
^Reissdorf KÃsch
^Reutberger Export Dunkel
-Reutberger Export Hell (expensive)
^Rieder Dunkel ^
-Rieder Festbock
-Rieder Radler very fruity
^RIEDER Marzen
^RIEDER Urgcht
-RIEDER PILS
^Rieder Classic
\RIEDER XXX WEISSE
^Ritterguts Gose Original
-Samichlaus Classic Malt Liquor
-Schlagl Abtei Pils
^Schlagl red ale
^Schlagl kristall beer
^Schlagl Malz Konig
-Schlagl Roggen Gold
-SchlÃgl Urquell
-SchlÃl Zwickl
-Schneider Aventinus Wheat-Doppelbock
-Schonramer Pils
-Spezialbier Edel - Aktien-Brauerei
^Spaten Oktoberfest Ur-Marzen
^Spaten Dunkle
-Stiegl Goldbrau Premium Lager
-Schwaben Brau Das Naturtrabe
-Schwaben Brau Volksfestbier
^Schonramer Pils
-Sanner Kalsch
-Surtaler Schankbier
^Tucher Helles Hefe Weizen
^Tucher Dunkles Hefe Weizen
^Veltins Grevensteiner Naturtrübes Landbier
^Veltins Pils
^Warsteiner
^Warsteiner Dunkel

\Warsteiner Oktoberfest
^Weihenstephaner Original Premium Lager
^Weihenstephaner Pilsner

-Weihenstephaner Braupakt (with St. Bernardus)
^Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier
-Weihenstephaner festbier
-Weihenstephaner Kristallweissbier
-Weihenstephaner 1516 Kellerbier
^Weltenburger Kloster Anno 1050-
^Weltenburger Kloster Asam-Bock
^Weltenburger Kloster Barock Dunkel
^Weltenburger Kloster Pils
^Weltenburger Kloster Winter-Traum
^Weltenburger Korbinian
^Weltenburger Hefe-Weissbier Dunkel
^Weltenburger Urtyp Hell
^Weltenburger Barock Hell
^Westphalener Premium Pilsner

^Westphalener Dunkel
-Westheimer Premium Pilsner
-Wolters Pilsener Premium

^Wolters Black (can)

^Wurzburger Pilsner style beer
-Zunft Kalsch (cream ale)

^Zhigulevskoye 5.4% Old Russian Brand

^Zlato Prazske Lager

Polish
------

^Piwo Ciemne Dark Lager

^Perła Export 
-Okocim O.K. Beer
^Okocim premium malt liquor 7% can
^Tyskie Gronie
^Warka Strong
^Zywiec dark
^Zywiec light

^Zywiec Porter

Russian
----------
-Baltika Porter 6 (Russian)
-Baltika extra  9 (Russian)
^Žatecký Gus Černý (Russian)

Ukraine
----------
-Doms Golden Ale - Carlsberg Ukraine
^ Lvivske 1715

^ Lvivske Premium

^Obolon Magnat Ale

^Obolon Lager

^Obolon Premium Lager

^Obolon Svitle Lager 4.5%
^Umanske Kozak  5%
Umanske Red Ale,

Ireland

---------

^Guinness Stout (tap)

+Guinness Stout (at the brewery in Dublin)
-Guinness Stout (can)
-Guinness Stout (bottle)
-Guinness 200th Anniversary Export Stout Beer
-Guinness Blonde American Lager
^Murphy's Irish Stout
^Smithwick's Ale (tap)
\Smithwick's Ale (bottle)

Other

-----

^Mastri Birrai Umbri Blonde Ale (Italy)

^Peroni tap (Italy)

-Niksicko Pivo - (Montenegro)

^Efes Dark | Anadolu Efes Brewery (Turkey)
-Estrella Galicia (Spain)
^Grimbergen Double-Ambree (France)
-Kronenbourg 1664 (France)

\Grolsch (Dutch)

\Heineken (Dutch)
\Koningshoeven Quadrupel (Dutch)
^Oranjeboom Premium Lager (Dutch)
-Peter's Brand Pilsner classic (Dutch)

-Sapporo (Japan)

-Kirin (Japan)
-Monteith's Black Beer (New Zealand)
-Norse Porter
-einstok toasted porter
\13th Century Grut Bier
\Cooper's Sparkling Ale (Australia)

Cask Ale, in the States!

BJ's on tap selection

Bottles in the Hearst Castle cellar:

The Gibbons brand was introduced in 1936 when the name of Lion Beer was changed to Gibbons in order to avoid confusion with other similarly named brands produced by other brewers. It was named for Charles A. Gibbons, an early officer of Lion, Inc. For many years the brewery produced Gibbons beer, ale and porter, and the brewery traded as Gibbons Brewing Company. Gibbons was the flagship brand of The Lion until the acquisition of the Stegmaier brands in 1974. Gibbons beer continued to be produced until November 2009, when the Lion Brewery stopped packaging beer in 16oz returnable bottles.

In 1967 The Lion acquired the labels and recipes of Bartels Brewing Company, which was founded in nearby Edwardsville, Pennsylvania in 1889. Bartels was a traditional darker beer in contrast to Gibbons, which was a lighter modern style. The Bartels label continued to feature "The Professor", a highly regarded symbol when Bartels was the biggest selling brand in the region, who had dispensed words of wisdom in Bartels advertising. Like Gibbons beer, Bartels was discontinued after the Lion Brewery stopped packaging beer in 16oz returnable bottles in November 2009.

Home Security Cameras

So you want to watch your home, pets, kids, the nanny, the postman from your phone?  Here's what you need to do!


The choices are either to use a 1) "webcam", or use a 2) CCTV system.  The better choice is the CCTV system, if you own a drill and/or can run a wire between rooms.  If your DIY skills consist of piling up books and taping things together, then likely you'll be using with the webcam solution.

1) The "webcam" NEST thing.

Pros -

"Wireless" "view on your phone"

It sounds easy to install

No need to run a video cable

Cons-

Very high cost per camera ($100 and up) and you'll end up buying at least 2-3 and still not be able to see much.

It's not really easy to install, because you still need to run a wire (for power).  So you are either tied to installing the webcam only near outlets, or streching extenstion cords in awkward and dangerous ways.

Recording is tricky, either you need to record in low res or your SD card fills up in a few hours.  Otherwise you can record the stream on computer, for which you will need to buy at least another 1TB drive to have enough space to record on to, and you need keep the computer running always.

Wireless video quality is terrible, it's choppy, slow and or too low res to see anything, because your wifi router is either too far from the webcam or can't handle the streaming video bandwidth, because you also are using your wifi router to do other things, like stream Netflix and buy webcams on Amazon.  So you need to buy another wifi router and place it closer to the webcam, and run a network/power cables to support your "wireless" webcam.  And don't forget to buy another extenstion cord!

2) CCTV/DVR system

Amcrest 960H DVR

Pros -

Great video quality, like looking out a window, since you are on a Closed Circuit Televison system

View on your phone, or computer, or TV.

No need for a computer, or SD cards, storage is built into the DVR.

Low cost per camera ($20 for 1000TVL)

Can have 8-16 cameras attached.

Cons

Need to buy a headend/DVR ($99) and drive ($60 1TB)

Need to run video cables (which power the cameras too)

Types of CCTV systems

CCTV/DVRs today can be split simply into two catagories without getting into too much detail, one is "960H" which are the 1000 lines of resolution models, and two the "1080p" 2000 lines of resolution models.  Sure the 1080p models looks fantastic, but we're not watching hours of great enterainment on these DVRs, just the mailman on the porch everyday, and maybe an inturder breaking in once in a while, so I think  960H is good enough picture quality, and the DVR/cameras for the 1080p units cost around 4 times as much as 960H systems do.  So if you spend hours every day watching what your cat is doing on your phone, then maybe you should spend $1000 on a 1080p DVR/8 camera setup for the cutest pics.

I upgraded from my older Swann DRV to the Amcrest 960H 8CH ($170 including the 1TB drive).  There are many, many makes and models of security DRVs out there. I saw from the number of reviews Amcrest is shipping a lot of units, so it should have good community support for problem solving and there's lots of how-to videos from Amcrest on YouTube.

Swann SW245-SBD DVR4-Pro-Net 

Buy a good data plan!

One thing you'll find out about real fast is streaming cameras to your phone will burn up all the data on your phone's wireless plan in no time.  That's another reason why 1080p systems are not worth it, they use up 4x the data rate if you actually want to view in HiDef.

What you may want to do is have two configurations on your phone app for each camera.  One with the internal IP address of the camera (your LAN address) and two, with the external IP address (or DynDNS name) of your internet router.  Google "port forwarding" and the brand of your internet router to set up access to your cameras from the internet.

Some different "960H" cameras reviewed:

Jennov Metal Dome 

These are all about 1000 lines of resolution cameras, most having the 1/3" CMOS CCD chip, so in picture quality they are all very close and what I'm really looking for is viewing angle, how wide a image can each camera capture?  Four of the cameras I tested all claim to have a 3.6mm lens, yet I found with the same spec CCD and same size lens they have very different fields of view.



Operation
The Amcrest is pretty easy to use with a good menu system on the console and a good web app.  Except for one problem.

The three cameras below are very similar.

The EWETON and the ZOSI are very close, with maybe the ZOSI being a couple
of degrees wider field, and the HIS being a few degrees wider than the ZOSI.
Qualitywise, they are very close.  I might pick the HIS for best picture.
However the HIS enclosure and mount are very flimsy.  The ZOSI and the
EWETON are very soild and would be much more vandel proof.

EWETON 1/3" CMOS 1200TVL 3.6mm lens

 HIS VISION 1/3" CMOS 1200TVL 3.6mm lens 90 Degree?

ZOSI 1/3" CMOS 1000TVL 960H 3.6mm lens

The Jennov 1200Tvl  Dome camera has the widest field of view by far, maybe 90 degrees.  None of the product listing on Amazon accurantly state what the field of view is for any of these cameras.

Jennov HD Color 1200Tvl  3.6mm 72°view 1/3"CMOS

The ANRAN 1200TVL is different, this one claims a 1/2.5 CMOS Sensor and the lens is 4mm.  It has 1 IR LED where the all the other cameras have 30+ IR LEDs.  But for sure the ANRAN is plent bright, possibly the brightist of the lot.  However I'm not too interested in IR power, as I colo my cameras with motion senser spotlight.  So when anyone steps in the field of view the lights come on and I get a great picture of their face as they turn to look at the light.  Having motion senser spotlights is also a great deterence to would be thievies and vandels.

ANRAN 1200TVL 75ft Sensor:1/2.5" 4mm Fixed lens

Of all the cameras, I would say the ANRAN 1200TVL has the best picture, but the narrowest and most close up field of view, which is great for getting lots of picture detail.  It also has a tiny joystick on the cable that lets you set options and it's the only one that comes with the power supply.

Jennov 1200Tvl 3.6mm Bullet Cam



Logisaf 1200TVL 6mm

Another pic from the EWETON  1200TVL 3.6mm

Three older 420 lines cameras from Swann:

Swann Super NightOwl  53 viewing angle 1/4-inch CCD 420 lines

Swann Bulletcam, 420 lines

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

Swann Alpha C9 SWA31-C9 Wide Angle

• 
  

Latest $14 1200TVL camera

Swann Alpha C9 at night