Need advice re. home video security system

[steve2000x]

I want to have four cameras hooked up so i can record to hdd - maybe motion activiated if continuous recording too big a data imprint, and night vision. So that i can also monitor via i'net.

Anybody have experience doing this ? And what products you liked or didn't like ?

 

[swtethan]

We have a Swann system at my dads shop, it has a 4 input pci card with software for $99

If you need more cameras, just add more cards. The capture card itself is able to broadcast on the net also, you need the software that came with the card installed on another computer to login and view. a 300GB HDD records for about 30 days with 1 camera and loops back over itself. The clips save into a folder for each day in how many length segments you want. I think it saves every 5-10 seconds.

 

[swtethan]

we have it running on a p4 2.4ghz w 512mb ram windows xp for about 1 1/2 years now without any problems. Just get a huge HDD and good cameras w/high resolution.

 

[swtethan]

http://www.swann.com.au/s/products/view/?product=379


thats the card


http://www.swann.com.au/s/products/view/?product=319


I recommend these cameras with infared night vision


frys sells them online http://shop3.outpost.com/search?search_...egular&sqxts=1&query_string=swann&cat=


If you can get them, get the bulldog cameras or the maxi cameras since the bulldog has a 33ft range at night and the maxi a 60 ft range both with high resolution.

 

[cubeless]

we have 10 cameras at an apartment building on 3 of the swann cards... swapped to them when we took lightening hits that cooked the original, ridiculously overpriced, 'professional' cards... switched to the swann sw, too... works fine, but u might want to use multiple disks if u get a bunch of activity at times (with motion detection we still have 3 or 4 cameras recording most of the time...) i am using 3x 200gb and 1gb on a p4 1.8... it runs around 100% a lot of the time, but it's in a server case with a lot of airflow and doesn't seem to have a problem...

 

[GEOrifle]

The cameras are so big, is any SMALLEST sizes available?

 

[swtethan]

We also have quarter sized cameras that are about 1" deep, it has about 10' range in clairty. The cameras you see are about half the size of a fist, theyre not big at all.

 

[steve2000x]

Thanx for the info, it's real helpful looks like what i'll be getting ....