HK DVR....Dark and a bit grainy recordings.

[English Turbines]

Hobby King DVR recording issues..

Im using a HK dvr hooked up directly by wire into my Sharp Vision Monitor...Initially, I was suffering from a dark recording from my Sony HAD 600 tvl Camera....Sooo, on advice I hooked up the Cameras joystick and switched ON the WDR function to try and get the recorded image a bit brighter....Meantime, the live image on the Monitor is just perfect as brightness, contrast etc can be adjusted to compensate for just about anything....
  The WDR ON has improved the brightness issue with no dark areas on the recording. However, the recording seems to be lacking in signal strength as it looks rather grainy..
  Im considering hooking the DVR directly to my Lawmate 1.2G VRX to try and improve matters, as it would appear that the Video out from the Monitor is a bit down on signal strength..?
   Has anyone used one of those 4 output Video Boosters for cars and fixed this weak signal issue..?.... :'(

:vulture:

[English Turbines]

When I first posted, not many online, so, Im in the process of making a 1280mhz Patch Relay Module, so Im debating about putting the DVR directly onto the 1280mhz receiver output instead of at the end of the 5.8ghz relay in an attempt to improve signal strength for the dvr.
  Has anyone tried those Video Booster thingys where you can jack up the gain a bit?....Any good?

:vulture:

[Coyote]

They are fine for boosting the signal.

But ........ If your DVR is rubbish then its not a magic wand so it may / may not help you out. If the picture is poor with the DVR connected by itself straight to the receiver the booster will do nothing to help.

[English Turbines]

They are fine for boosting the signal.

But ........ If your DVR is rubbish then its not a magic wand so it may / may not help you out. If the picture is poor with the DVR connected by itself straight to the receiver the booster will do nothing to help.

Thanks Ian,

I suppose I should try it without the booster first to see if it improves matters...I would like to keep it on the 5.8g end if possible, but its another link in the chain.  Logically, fixing it direct to the 1280 RX seems like the best idea in the interests of recorded quality.....The WDR has improved matters quite a bit...but Im still not happy with it....Ill try it anyway, not sure about the HKDVR, I know it gobbles the Lipo....fitting a signal booster will make things even worse, but the Patch Module will have a 5amp Lipo, so it wont matter....Ill try your suggestion first m8....:)

:vulture:

[BigT]

I was browsing round one of those cash converter type stores and saw that there where quite a few old style DIgital Video Cameras for sale for not a lot of money. Now, these cameras will record way better than anything small like the HK DVR some are even hd. Some use tape and some use DVD and some of the newer ones are sd card, have a long battery life can also be used as a video camera and playback device.
Typical prices where from £25 up with a guarantee.
So I did a bit of research and came up with the web site listing DVR cameras that have an AV in socket.
http://www.4kam.com/camcorders_with_av-in_av_input.htm
The most economically priced seem to be Canon, but I wonder how many hundreds of video cameras are lurking at the back of wardrobes or in lofts unused?


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[iPeel]

I think another consideration would be whether you can give it the power it needs safely too, some cameras have very strange charge connectors and voltages. Also a big must for me would be that the thing defaults to the AV input and is easy to set recording.