However, if bad wiring in the structure is found to be the problem, locating it and then having someone fix it is not exactly a quick or cheap fix. If you discover that your image problems are related to the power supply or cable, you simply need to swap them out. Faulty power supplies and/or faulty cable are frequent culprits but improper wiring in the home/building is much more common. Ground loops occur for a few different reasons but this issue will always present itself in the form of horizontal lines running across your screen (hum bars). Ground loops are complicated are really boring to explain, so we’re not going to. The lines can be horizontal or vertical, and are always colored. When power bleeds in to the coax portion of the video wire, it will eventually also damage the motherboard inside the DVR and cause irreparable damage that no product warranty will cover. This is frequently seen when staples or other cable anchors are used to secure the wire. A similar image would be seen when current is injected back over the wire in to the DVR. Just ensure that no metal on metal contact is being made from the camera to any part of the structure. Mounting a block of wood to this surface and then your camera to the block is very simple fix for this. If you find yourself unable to mount your camera to anything other than a metal/conductive surface, you’ll need to find a solution to the problem to avoid ever having one. That current will move around everywhere is can and eventually travel right into your camera if it’s not insulated. Bleeding is usually a result of something being wired improperly and that current is making contact with the conductive surface or being injected back over the wire in to the DVR. Surges are really the big reason for this but “bleeding” electrical currents is the other.
There’s a general rule among the professionals who actually know what they’re doing that says, “Don’t ever mount your cameras to a metal surface.” We’re paraphrasing but you get the idea. The solution is to points the camera downwards and remove any close by objects/walls out of the field of view. That is because the camera attempts to reduce the glare by making the picture darker by altering its auto electronic shutter, which in effect make the rest of the field of view too dark to see anything. If you take a look at the image below, you will see that the top of the image is very bright where the reflection is happening, and the rest of the field of view is dark. If the camera has night vision (infrared IR LEDs) then it will have IR reflection causing either glare in to the camera, or causing the camera to alter its electronic shutter to compensate for the glare. Infrared glared is a common issue if you mount the camera under an eaves or overhang and point the camera with having the eaves in the field of view of the camera. Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) is not a solution and will not save your camera. Highly reflective surfaces are just as detrimental. These don’t always need to come right from the sun. Monitoring or reviewing video for the first several days after installation will show you if that camera will need to be adjusted or not. Of course no one is intentionally pointing their camera into the sun but the sun moves and sometimes in a way that can hurt your camera. Before very long, you’ll begin to see some pretty awful video degradation this includes blurriness, changes in contrast, and eventually complete blackout. Over time this will start to create distortions on the glass but this is nothing compared to the effect it has on the image sensor. Direct sunlight entering your camera’s lens will eventually run into your image sensor just beyond that. The sun is more than capable of destroying your cameras if you’re not careful. This just isn’t the case you’re just going to have to take our word for it. Sun Induced Burn OutĪ common thought among the public is that if a security camera is rated for outdoor use, this means that it’s impervious to almost anything. For as many things that can potentially going wrong, each one of those problems presents themselves with their own set of unique characteristics. The good news is that identifying the problem isn't as difficult as you may think. The most noticeable are going to be problems with the image itself. There a lot of things that can go wrong with security cameras.