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CCTV setup

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Thunderchild

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I'm planning on setting some CCTV at home mainly to cover the front door as we are having suspicious callers and without a pictue I doubt the police will be able to do much. what do I need and what are my possible pitfalls, there is lots of gear on ebay and looks like i can get a camera and PCI recording card quite cheaply, can it be that easy ?
 
I'm planning on setting some CCTV at home mainly to cover the front door as we are having suspicious callers and without a pictue I doubt the police will be able to do much. what do I need and what are my possible pitfalls, there is lots of gear on ebay and looks like i can get a camera and PCI recording card quite cheaply, can it be that easy ?

Hi TC,
I use an old VCR for recording from my CCTV colour security cameras.
Some camera's have a sense wire/signal which can activate an internal unit that puts the VCR into RECORD mode.
I would suggest that you fit a PIR controlled light to illuminate the camera's view at night.

Another feature would be to make a date/time stamp on the VCR tape, this helps the police.

You can either buy or make a camera multiplexer for a number of camera's.

With regard to the police, on the two occasions I have given a VCR tape for evidence I have never got my tapes back, despite having a receipt for them.!

Personally I would not use a PC for 24/7 monitoring.:)
 
well I'd rather keep away from tapes as they are cumbersome, I'm mainly after recording people at the door so if I can set it off say when the door bell is rung it will capture from then on and save a lot of tape/disk space etc. Our particular problem is bogus callers, like last night it was someone claiming to be delivering a take away, when he realised that my dad was not "buying it" as he firmly stated we had not ordered a take away the guy went away muttering something about being conned ie: a typical get out of the situation retreat action
 
What about simply hooking up a webcam?

Then there might be some image processing software you can get which only starts recording when the image suddenly changes or a person comes into view.

You could also just put up a sign and a fake camera with a flashing LED as a deterrent.
 
I suggest that you use an IP camera. They can upload images and video without you needing a PC turned on. They also have motion sensing so that you don't get loads of nothing happening.
 
well I want decent quality and it needs to be manageable by a software and I think the range of usb cablw may not be enough, a capture card is quite cheap to get and they are sold on ebay specificly for CCTV with 4+ inputs: **broken link removed**
 
DVR based security video isn't overwhelmingly priced these days, and plenty of features. I also started with a very old webcam (not too good at night), a VCR, and an old TV. Tapes aren't good, as you pointed out, only 6 hours recording, and wear out quickly if you record daily, so do the VCRs... But it worked out well enough, and basically free. Had to replace the VCR, got a $30 one, which had 3 inputs, so added 2 more cameras, a cheap B/W, and a more expensive day/night. Added a sequencer so I could switch through the cameras on the TV.

Now, I have a DVR (very nice, salvage from hotel security, several panel buttons don't work, but bought a $35 remote), 4 cameras (3 day/night, the cheap B/W I had for years). Records 24/7, about 3 days worth on a 160 gig HD, sequences or quad display, motion detection, and tons of other things I'll most likely never use. Use a 22" LCD computer monitor for display. Also has a built in CD burner, and USB port to copy off video. This DVR is high end, around $1300 new, but many of the more useful features can be had in a DVR in the $300 dollar range (includes cameras).

**broken link removed**
Might check some of their other deals, or wait for a sales price, usually every month or so, they give a better deal on these. They sell cameras and DVRs separately at a decent price as well.
 
yea had stuff like that on ebay for about that price. I need something fairly hassle free as I'm moving soon from here so I will maybe pop in every few days to keep an eye on it, if it can run without need for human intervention good because my dad is not good with modern technology
 
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