Swann PRO-681 User manual

1
Advanced Features:
On-Screen Display
MOSD06052011
English
PRO-660
PRO-670
PRO-680
PRO-661
PRO-671
PRO-681

2
About the OSD
So - you’ve got one (or more!) of Swann’s range of PRO cameras, and you want
to use some of the advanced features. Good call! It may seem a little tricky at first,
but it’s pretty easy once you’re up and running.
You can adjust almost any aspect of how the camera captures images. If you’ve got
experience in photography or video-making, then many of the camera’s functions
are things you’ll be familiar with.
If you don’t know much about cameras and optics, don’t worry - there’s nothing
you can do in the OSD which can actually damage the camera. If it does all go
wrong, you can use the Reset to Factory Default option to set everything back
to the default/automatic settings.
Contents:
About the OSD 2
TheRS485 Controller 3
Connection Guide 4
Menu Structure 6
Setup (Main) Menu 7
Setup Menu: Continued 8
Exposure Menu 9
DWDR Menu 10
Special Menu 11
Motion Menu 12
Image Adjustment Menu 13
Inage Adjustment Menu: Continued 14
CRT Adjustment Menu 15
LCD Adjustment Menu 16
Backlight Compensation Menu (BLC) 17
Highlight Compensation Menu (HLC) 18
Manual White Balance Menu 19
Technical Support 20

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The RS485 Controller
Using the Quick Configuration
The Quick Config button will give you instant access to the following settings:
1. DYNAMIC: Digital Wide Dynamic Range (DWDR) [page 10]
2. CONTRAST [page 14]
3. SHARPNESS [page 14]
4. BRIGHTNESS [page 9]
5. AUTO BW AT NIGHT: When disabled, the camera will attempt
to create color images at night. This can result in increased color
information at the cost of image quality.
• These settings are exactly the same as the ones in the Main Menu.
• Cycle through these settings by pressing the Quick Config button repeatedly.
• The Quick Adjust buttons will change the setting you’ve currently selected.
• To confirm a change and exit the Quick Configuration screen, click Save
Quick Config.
Connecting the OSD Controller
The two connections (RS485 and DC
12V) are located on the bottom of
the controller.
Use the supplied RS485 jack and
power splitter to connect the
controller. A complete connection
diagram is located on pages 4 - 5.
Quick Adjust +
Main Menu
Save Quick ConfigQuick Config
Quick Adjust -
Arrow Buttons
The arrows are
used to navigate
through the main
menu.
DC 12V In
RS485 Port

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Connection Guide
1
2
3
1. Connect the DC in plug on the
camera cable to the DC out pin
on the end of the extension cable.
2. Connect the BNC connector on
the camera cable to the BNC
connector on the extension cable.
3. Plug the green RS485 plug on
the end of the camera cable to
the RS485 port on the extension
cable. You may need to connect
the two wires to the RS485 plug.
(See insert, above right).
4. Plug the RS485 connector on the far end of the extension cable into the PTZ
controller. As with step 3, the plug may have to be connected to the wire
terminals.
5. Connect the BNC Output on the end of the extension cable to your video
monitoring/recording device (typically a DVR).
6. Connect one output from the power splitter to the DC in plug on the end of
the extension cable.
7. Connect the other output of the power splitter to the DC in plug on the OSD
controller.
8. Connect the power splitter’s DC in plug to the DC output jack on the power
adapter, and connect the power adapter to a wall socket.

5
4
5
6
7
8
Attaching the RS485 Plug
1. Using a small, flat blade
screwdriver, loosen the two
screws.
2. Observing the adjacent diagram, insert the PURPLE/RED wire into the LEFT/
UPPER port, and tighten the screw so that it is held securely.
3. Repeat with the GREY/BLACK wire into the RIGHT/LOWER port.

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Exposure
Special
Setup
White Balance
Backlight
Reset Factory Default
BLC
HLC
WB Manual
Cam Title
Motion
Privacy
Image Adj Font Color
Display
Shutter
Brightness
AGC
DWDR
Menu Structure

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Setup (Main) Menu
Exposure: Controls how sensitive the camera will be to light. Press SELECT to
enter the Exposure sub-menu (page 9) to access the detailed exposure controls.
Note: As the cameras have fixed iris lenses, control over exposure is determined
by the electronic shutter (that is, how long each frame is “exposed” for). Unlike
manually altering an iris, this setting will have no effect on your depth of field (how
much of your image is in focus).
Special: Accesses the Special submenu, where many of the unique features of the
OSD can be found (such as options to set the camera’s on-screen Title, adjusting
the way the camera responds to Motion and allows you to access the detailed
Image Adjustment submenu). For more information, see the Special Menu section
on page 11.
White Balance: Controls how the camera interprets and displays colors. There are
a few settings, which are as follows:
AW1 (Automatic White Balance 1): The default setting, which will attempt to create
as neutral a white balance as possible. Colors tend to be slightly underexposed,
but represented quite accurately. The color of the light will have less of an effect
on how the camera perceives color.
AW2 (Automatic White Balance 2): The other automatic option for white balance
control. Rather than attempting to automatically correct for the hue of the light
(technically known as the “color temperature”) the camera attempts to accurately
represent what it can see as the human eye would perceive the same scenario. As
a result, images captured under daylight will seem slightly blue, whereas images
captured under artificial lighting will be tinted yellow (for tungsten filaments) or
green (for many fluorescent tubes).

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AWC --> SET: Allows you to create a custom white balance. You’ll need a sheet of
thick white card/paper. Hold the paper in front of the camera so that it covers just
over half the viewing area. If you are using a camera with a vari-focal lens (such as
the PRO-680/681) adjust the focus so that the piece of paper’s edge is sharp and
clear. Then, press SELECT. The camera will use the white card/paper to ascertain
the color of the light, and will adjust itself accordingly.
Manual: Click SELECT to open the Manual White Balance control menu. Here,
you’ll be able to have full control of how the camera determines color. For a
rundown of the Manual White Balance Control menu, see page 19.
Backlight: Controls what part of your images the camera will try and properly
represent, and how it responds to really bright lights.
OFF: The default setting. The camera will try and expose the whole scene evenly.
This may cause some areas to black out (under-expose) or white out (over-expose).
BLC (Backlight Compensation): The camera will try to expose things in the
foreground properly, even if this means that the background will over-expose/
white out. Press SELECT to open the BLC Menu, where you can fine-tune how the
camera responds to backlighting.
HLC (Highlight Compensation): Places a black mask over extreme highlights in your
images. It can be useful to block out, for example, a bright window during the day
or car headlights at night. Press SELECT to open the HLC menu to control how and
when highlight masking will occur.
Reset: Possibly the most important menu item of them all! If you find that the
camera is behaving strangely, then chances are something has been set amiss.
Setup Menu: Continued

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From the EXPOSURE menu, you can control how the camera reacts to lighting
conditions.
SHUTTER: This setting controls the behaviour of the electronic shutter. In a
nutshell, it controls how long the camera will expose each frame. The longer that
the electronic shutter is “open”, the more light it will let in.
We recommend leaving this on AUTO (this will adjust the shutter speed
automatically). Only on rare occasions will AUTO not prove the best option -
however, these are so infrequent as to be almost unmentionable.
BRIGHTNESS: How light/dark the images coming from the camera will be. Unlike
the SHUTTER setting, this won’t affect how much light the camera needs to see to
create a high quality image. Rather, it affects how the camera processes the images
once they’ve been captured.
Increasing the BRIGHTNESS setting can be useful if you have an unusually dark
monitor/television, or are trying to view images in a very bright environment.
Typically, the default value is fine unless you have specific problems you’re trying
to overcome.
AGC (Automatic Gain Control): Gain is a fancy term for amplifying a video
signal. It works in a similar way to amplifying music – the higher the gain, the
louder/brighter your images will be, but so will the background “noise” (in video
terms, “noise” refers to the random, grainy speckles that appear in images).
When should you decrease/increase the gain? Well, probably never. The MIDDLE
gain control is reliable and quite accurate. Only in the event of extremely unusual
lighting conditions or a very non-standard monitor/television should the automatic
gain control be adjusted.
Exposure Menu

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DWDR (Digital Wide Dynamic Range) Menu
You can change and set the way that the camera captures and represents different
lighting conditions.
LEVEL: The higher you set the LEVEL, the more dynamic your images can be. It
works by changing how the camera interprets data from the CCD (the actual
image sensor). If this setting is low, then bright areas will have a tendency to
“white out” while shadows will do the opposite and “black out”. The higher you
set the DWDR, then the more the camera will attempt to compensate for this, and
you should get more detail in dynamic lighting scenarios.
In some cases, setting the DWDR Level too high can degrade the quality of your
images, as the camera may try overcompensating when it doesn’t need to.
DWDR Menu