Video door entry which displays on TV - possible?

I have a door viewer camera that replaced a peephole viewer. The hole in the door had to be enlarged slightly. Mine connects to a 7" TV monitor on the door and a DVR. Camera, monitor (for a motorhome) and 12V PSU from Amazon.

Paul.

Quite separate from the door entry device, how about a little bullet camera (or one with IR, or whatever) feeding into an AV input on the telly? She'd need to know how to select the AV input but I expect she could be trained. The cam could be positioned to make the best use of the available light, which often means that the view of the caller is a profile, which is OK I've found. Cam could be disguised if necessary.

Bill

This maybe?

Yes. It is easy almost all of them even the cheapest nasty ones from Aldi/Lidl produce a composite video out and a mono sound channel. The only snag is that you have to change from TV to another input.

The only snag is that she will have to press Aux AV input and remember to set it back to TV again afterwards. A TV that did PIP preview would really be ideal for this. Check the one you intend to buy does produce a composite video and sound output and you should be fine.

The odd one uses its own quirky LCD monitor at non-standard size/rates.

Chris Green pretended :

Not a door entry system, but I have a camera.....

It plugs into the audio and video in of a TV in the back of the house, the kitchen. It has a tiny control unit, with two buttons. One enables it sounding a tone, the second sets whether the TV is switched over to the cameras audio and video - both when it spots any motion within its view. I sourced it on ebay around seven years ago and the image is

Does she really need to see the person? A wireless door phone is what I use though I am a little disappointed with the transmitter battery life and the time the handset can remain off the charger.

Brian

That doesn't address my M-I-L's requirement I'm afraid. If she's up on her feet she can get to the front door and isn't too fussed about the security aspect of things, it's not in general that sort of place.

Her problem is that it takes her a long time to heave herself out of her armchair in the lounge to get to the front door to answer it.

Now that's an idea, separate the video completely from the door opener. There's a key safe anyway so she could always tell the visitor the number if she recognises them and, if she doesn't want to do that, she can ask them to wait while she gets to her feet to answer the door.

Thank you for the idea.

! :-) It's doing what we want but I'm not sure if it might be a bit too 'beta' still.

She probably doesn't need to see the person but she's a bit of a gadget queen so would *like* the video bit! :-)

MIL used to have one, it was supplied by Social Services (free to her). Cam mounted on wall above and to side of door (outside). Cable plugged into a wallwart psu and another cable plugged into the back of a scart plug which in turn went into the TV. As said by others, she has to know how to switch to another input on the TV and back again.

My Mum has a note on her door that says "Ring and wait". Would that help?

On a side note, where do you want to position the camera.

I have noted that cold caller such as chuggers and (I assume) ex-prisoners ring the bell, knock, then stand well back from the porch.

I did assume that this was to leave loads of personal space and so not appear threatening in any way.

However reading this thread, it would also move the caller out of the range of a downward pointing camera.

Cheers

Dave R

A slight variation which I have used a few times is to have a very small monitor so they don't have to mess with the telly remote. It can be on the shelf of the TV stand, or the sideboard, or on a coffee table near the person's favorite chair. I've used little Roadstar 7" sets for this. They're pretty good, if they're still available.

If you wanted the sound to come through the telly you could do it easy with a little mike module costing less than a tenner (Google CCTV audio).

Incidentally, I'd suggest you avoid HD for this because of problems interfacing it with the TV set or monitor (unless you want to spend real money).

The camera position has to be dictated by the lighting. Never position a cam looking downwards. You can't see people's faces properly. The cam needs to be at head height. (Maybe put a notice up: "If you are a juvenile delinquent please stand on the box")

Bill

yes and no. If you say use te TV as a sceeen to e,g., a linux computer you can add a TV card to that and still have TV and then construct a popup riggered by te doorbvell

Yes and yes if the proposed camera gives a standard definition TV output.

How many TVs have an analogue input these days? I had to search for one which still had a SCART. Most are HDMI and USB only.

My newish 4k TV has analogue inputs, not SCART though. It also has both terrestrial (digital and analogue) and sat (digital) tuners. I expect the chipset does them all so they are probably more common than you think.

What I don't understand is why it decodes DTS when it only has two speakers unless it puts decoded multi channel PCM over the optical output? I don't think that's very standard though.