CCTV for House

hjt

Hello Everyone,

I was broken into yesterday for the 3rd time in a year. I doesn't seem to bother them that I had an alarm nor it it seem to bother them when my father tried to catch them when they were coming out of the house with a TV under their arm.

I feel I dont have an option but to install some CCTV cameras as Im a female living on my own. Money is very tight so Im looking for a starter kit with one camera where I can build on over a period of time. I want something that can record directly to a pc that will be located in the attic, motion sensor, good picture quality etc

Any advise would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

KoolKid

There are plenty of good offers around from installers at the moment.
Take a look over the installers and suppliers sticky here.

Avoid the DIY kits, although a little cheaper the quality will usually be poor.
Also , go for a dedicated DVR rather than a PC . A proper DVR should have digital watermarking. Without that any evidence can be easily dismissed.
On camera quality look for 600tvl lines or better. If you have poor lighting also look for cameras with built in IRs. A good DVR will also allow you remote access via a PC and/or smart phone.
Cost wise for this installed expect around €500 upwards.
Hope this helps, any questions post away...;)

Jnealon

IMO a dedicated dvr is better than a pc sepecially if you are on a budget.
CCTV direct have been recommended here before by others.
Have a look at theit twilight cameras

Bull76

Hi,

I'm in the same senario, house broken into and car stolen. Looking at getting some form of CCTV setup.
So from an earlier post about pic quality 600tvl is better than 420tvl? by much or would it matter? Have been recommended a beltronic CCTV kit 4 cameras, eye ball dome 420tvl IR 3.6mm, Zeus MK2 4 channel DVR 500GB.

Anyone any ideas on it? or recommend a good setup and kit.

KoolKid

I wouldn't be happy with 420.
Any specs on the DVR . If that has a low frame rate that will make the playback even worse.

Jnealon

Beltronics sell adata kit which for the most part is fine. That dvr will only do 6fps A D1 which is the bare minimum, I'd usually aim for 12 fps. If you use motion detect you may get more.
The domes are also a fixed lens camera which I would not recommend unless you have done your calculations and that's all you need

zaxa

Good picture quality and low budget don't really go together. When you think about it your mobile phone is probably 3-5MP in resolution where as a 600TVL analogue CCTV camera equates to about 0.4 megapixel. You won't be able to make anyone out with an analogue camera unless they are right infront of it. Also why would you want to secure your property with a camera that is worse than most mobile phones available. Camera companies like Arecont Vision offer cameras up to 10MP, yeah the are probably 10 times the price of a standard camera but you would be better off flushing 500 euro down the toilet than going analogue these days. Just my opinion anyway.

maiden

Total novice here so please go easy tech wise, I need 2 cams, wireless and dvr, now that about as much as i know!!!

Any recommendations? If i get an electrician to install it, can i set it up myself??

altor

If your getting an electrician to install the system then I would be getting him to run cables for the cameras plus the power to where you want the DVR installed more so than going the wire free route.

I would use this for the DVR.Cameras would depend on what you want to see, lighting in the area and so on.
What you should do is get a few installer out to recommend what should be installed, even if you dont get them to install it, it will give you a better understanding of what equipment and cameras you will need although if the electrician cant give you this information I would not be getting him to install it.

Jnealon

maiden wrote: »

Total novice here so please go easy tech wise, I need 2 cams, wireless and dvr, now that about as much as i know!!!

Any recommendations? If i get an electrician to install it, can i set it up myself??

I would stay away from wireless as it is not very reliable unless you are prepared to spend a lot of money
Ring a few suppliers as there seems to be a lot deals around.
Although they say they are trade only they will sell to anyone

eire2011

hjt wrote: »

Hello Everyone,

I was broken into yesterday for the 3rd time in a year. I doesn't seem to bother them that I had an alarm nor it it seem to bother them when my father tried to catch them when they were coming out of the house with a TV under their arm.

I feel I dont have an option but to install some CCTV cameras as Im a female living on my own. Money is very tight so Im looking for a starter kit with one camera where I can build on over a period of time. I want something that can record directly to a pc that will be located in the attic, motion sensor, good picture quality etc

Any advise would be greatly appreciated

I recently got a reasonable diy infra red cctv camera , discreet , wireless,
fitted to under gutter high at front. Have a PIR beside it with chime. The camera is wireless(needs power though) and you can connect it to a video to record and onto TV. Basic DIY , records 4 hours (8 HRS-Long Play) Press record before bed will run for 8 hours excellent quality just with IR but combined with light fab. Cost around 70/80 euro ,had old video , set of four video cassettes a fiver in tesco!

So Now when anyone approaches driveway day or night (no light activation on Pir in daylight just chime) The chime bell rings , the person is recorded on camera (Dont forget to record!)a flick of the remote shows live on tv (records audio also) - perfect for a cheap starter (Pir with chime 50 quid on net)

KoolKid

Video cassettes?
Havn't seen those in years :rolleyes:
Even the cheapest of DVRs would be better.

eire2011

Ya fairly ancient ok ...have 3!! Does the trick do for basic diy cctv playback good quality.
KoolKid , could you say what would be the cheapest DVR that you mention? How long do they record for , is it continual? Does it re-record over older footage after a certain lenght of time ...amutuer here ..less tech speak pls!!

altor

eire2011 wrote: »

Ya fairly ancient ok ...have 3!! Does the trick do for basic diy cctv playback good quality.
KoolKid , could you say what would be the cheapest DVR that you mention? How long do they record for , is it continual? Does it re-record over older footage after a certain lenght of time ...amutuer here ..less tech speak pls!!

You can get cheap DVRs but I would not recommend them. As they say, you get what you pay for.
Yes, that is how they work. They will record until it runs out of space then record over the older footage.

KoolKid

eire2011 wrote: »

Ya fairly ancient ok ...have 3!! Does the trick do for basic diy cctv playback good quality.
KoolKid , could you say what would be the cheapest DVR that you mention? How long do they record for , is it continual? Does it re-record over older footage after a certain lenght of time ...amutuer here ..less tech speak pls!!

You get what you pay for. You could pick up a half decent one for around €250- €300 . That would include network card for remote access via web PC or Smart Phone.
How long they record for depends on HDD size, image size, image quality etc. Generally a months images at good quality is possible.
They can be set to over write the oldest images first. They can also be set to notify you first. You can also save certain incidents to keep & not be over written.

Jnealon

Once you see a dvr in operation beside a vcr you'll wonder how you ever went without one.
Plenty of budget models out there to choose from. Get one without a dvd drive to bring cost down even more.
Also check ebay ant the likes for second hand units

kirving

What about the Logitech Alert system. The camera's record internally to an SD card when your computer is off, and then automatically block transfer all the video captured once you turn it back on.

I'm considering one or two myself, anyone here farmiliar with them?

http://www.logitech.com/en-us/video-security-systems

maiden

I have seen a few systems that i like, i put up a post in bargain requests.

If I buy a system without a monitor, can i use a dell computer monitor that i dont use or is this type of monitor completely different????

Jnealon

maiden wrote: »

I have seen a few systems that i like, i put up a post in bargain requests.

If I buy a system without a monitor, can i use a dell computer monitor that i dont use or is this type of monitor completely different????

As long as the dvr has a vga output

maiden

Thanks for the quick reply!!! Great to know that, as the cctv systems are very pricy with monitors, and i have a fairly new flat screen dell monitor at home going to waste!