Flat 4x4

Had some bother, so need advice on what's available to record anything going on outside our house - at night especially.

Any ideas or recommendations other than tieing the dog up on a long rope outside ? (joke) Are there standalone units that you can buy that 'just get on with it' and loop every day, without going to the expense of full VCR set ups?

Ideas welcomed !

47 NAT

Try Maplins, they have most things and are reasonably priced as well.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/

Nath

Flat 4x4

Cheers Nath - will have a look. I wonder if they do electrified driveways as well ?

imlach

Just installed one in my house - 2 camera setup, recorded to PC 24/7. Has motion detection as well, so doesn't use up the hard drive too quickly.

2 cameras, 24/7 for the last week on motion detection has used about 8Gb of drive.....but the front one records quite often as it records the busy pavement too...

NWMark

what kind of cameras / pc hardware is required to set this kind of thing up??

Thanks

Mark

imlach

Well, I've got it running on a dedicated PC, but that is perhaps extravagent.

The PC capture card (PCI) costs from £100 to £300 depending upon how many camera inputs you want. The cameras are, again, from £50 to £200 each depending on quality (colour, 380/480 lines, IR iluminators etc).

www.rfconcepts.co.uk is where I went....

Geovision system.

imlach

The other good thing about the Geovision system is that it can act as a webserver too, so coupled with broadband, you can view it anywhere.....

If anyone is interested, I can let you see my webcam system working.
Send me a PM (personal message and I'll see what I can do)

Flat 4x4

I had a look at the site thanks. Being fairly PC-illiterate, I need to get a package option to be honest where everything is included and easy to set up. They seem to stock everything - if you know what you want !

imlach

yes, the website is a bit messy I tend to agree.
What is your budget?

Flat 4x4

What I'm looking for is a usable (zoomable?) mugshot for anyone who messes with the cars/property at night - to pass on to plod. This will probably need 2 cameras min / poss 3. My budget is limited but if something does the job well without having to be techy genius, then £200/250 ?

Flat

imlach

Zoomable is difficult unless you are watching it at the time of the offence. Also, more expensive for pan/tilt/zoom cameras....

Your budget is quite tight. I've seen capture cards on Ebay for tens of pounds, but don't know what their quality is like...my setup not including PC cost around £400+ for 2 camera system (with potential for 8 cams). However, I went for high spec colour cams with IR illumination at night at 0 lux (switches to b&w).

boomer

Flat 4x4,

£200/250 - for a three camera system, low-lux (so you get clear pictures in the dark) plus date/time stamp to help provide evidence in court? Not a realistic goal

Buy a fifty quid VCR, run it in LP mode (8 hrs per tape) and a decent camera (from, say, RF Concepts, as per above); and repeat where necessary - would be a good start.

If you are serious, then consider a digital quad/recorder plus cameras - but that will cost several hundred pounds (plus fitting).

mb

Flat 4x4

If the price is not realistic, is there a system with say 1 camera which does the image capturing that you can then download and enhance on my normal (rather than a standalone) PC ? The purpose at the moment is for us to identify who was/is involved rather than to be capable of the image itself standing up in court.

Flat 4x4

Anyone ?

imlach

To be honest, a camera connected to your VCR on long play is probably the cheapest solution. A weatherproof b&w camera can probably be had for £50 or so from B&Q/Argos/Maplin/wherever.

Anything else seems overkill/too expensive for your needs.