Security Cameras

Khannie

Anyone know of a reasonably priced solution that allows you to take input from a variety of outdoor cameras and store them on your PC?

Motion detection ones would be nice, but not a pre-requisite. If it (for example) took one picture per-second that would be ok too. Hdd space is cheap.

I'd be willing to pay in the region of 500+ euro for 3 reasonable quality cameras and whatever it takes to connect them to the PC.

zilog_jones

I used to work in a shop/petrol station with at least 8 cameras, and they all connected to a generic tacky-looking PC - it had loads of BNC sockets across a couple card slots at the back, and they just took the analogue composite video from the cameras. There was some software on it that recorded from all of them at the same time, and would give you a view of all cameras at once or a selection of them, and you could look back to any time that was recorded.

Dunno what the software or cards were, and dunno what kind of hdd space you need - but stuff like that does exist. It just used normal analogue CCTV cameras, so technically anything that outputs composite video will work with it. Only thing you need to take into remember (regarding putting cameras outside) is that they'll need a power supply of some sort, be it mains or DC.

Khannie

Nice one. That's a good start. I've seen cards that say they'll take 4 inputs on ebay for next to nothing. I'm only slightly concerned that they'll take lots of processing power to do so (I'll be using the computer for other things too, though I could get a dedicated one I suppose).

Was the software "pico2000" by any chance?

Cameras seem very cheap on ebay, but I'm sure they're rubbish.

zilog_jones

I remember now the PC was from MCS Computers in Limerick (they do CCTV stuff, but most their PC hardware is godawful 3rd-rate junk).

After random google image searching for screenshots of CCTV software I found the program they used - GeoVision. Seems to use MPEG4 compression.

momozone

try and google for Veo security cameras. We bought 3 indoor cameras and the recording software for around 800EUR.

Doolittle51

Have a look here:

http://camnode.ie/shop/index.php

Anyone ever used this stuff? I'd like to know if it's any good. It's quite cheap....

RotalicaV

If i remember correctly i think SouperComputer was selling something like this awhile ago but never got rid of it in the end. He had a decent high end system i think.

Getting paranoid?

Khannie

RotalicaV wrote:

Getting paranoid?

Haha. A bit I suppose. Long story. Suffice to say that it's gotten to the point that it's either cameras or hurls with the local filth. Cameras will keep me out of prison and get them prosecuted.

the_syco

RotalicaV wrote:

If i remember correctly i think SouperComputer was selling something like this awhile ago but never got rid of it in the end. He had a decent high end system i think.

Getting paranoid?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054886332

Still unsold, I think.

maidhc

If you look at maplin's catalogue/website they have a lot of bits and pieces.

Not saying you have to buy from them, but you might get an idea as to what you are looking for.

_CreeD_

http://www.x10.com/techtoysab2.htm

The site looks garish but they have a pretty extensive and affordable catalog.

Khannie

the_syco wrote:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054886332

Still unsold, I think.

Thanks for that. I think that does hardware encoding, so it's a lot more expensive. A bit outside my price range (for the card alone).