hi all.
Im wanting to get some cameras at home. I have my old desktop pc sat gathering dust, is it viable to use this as a recorder for 4 cameras? If so, is
it as simple as getting a tv tuner card and some software?
The light fingered brigade have been at my van again 
Cheers! Off on hols on sat so hoping to get suitable cameras mounted tomorrow and just connect them when i get back.
IP cams are the way to go you can even view them with a smartphone app.
I've been trying to find a programme to do this for ages with no sucess. All the ones I have tried have some shortfall.
Key points are movement or sound activating and adjustable duration along with recognisable quality and a time stamp.
Interested to see if others have been more successful than I.
Cheers!
Just istalling my second Foscam IP camera so can recomend these dont need your old PC for this but it could be the FTP server to receive images from
the camera when it detects somthing. everything is done by the camera apart from saving the images
Though I would say its motion detaction is sensative ( its not a "zoned type " but its ftping images to my 500 Gb NAS drive so not too
bothered .
Regards
Agriv8
[Edited on 4/8/11 by Agriv8]
I thought of doing this, i bought a 4 channel input things with software etc, but it meant the PC always needed to be on and the software wasnt
great.
I bought this instead - http://www.maplin.co.uk/500gb-4-ch-h.264-network-dvr-with-2-x-ccd-cameras--advanced-mobile-access-517239
its an awaome bit of kit for the money. Very cusomisable (motion sensing, timed, external trigger etc), probly the coolest function is the remote
access, simply plug it in to your network/internet and you can access it on any PC via wireless. Set up a Dyndns account and you can also access from
any PC connected to the internet anywhere, and on top of that, you can access it via a Smart phone.
Very geek-sheek.
ISTR When looking at this aabout 3 years back the CoffeeCup web cam software did all this and was a breeze to setup.
There was also a Linux distro specially tailored for this but ISTR it was a bit picky about the computer hardware it ran on.
quote:
Originally posted by Agriv8
Just istalling my second Foscam IP camera so can recomend these dont need your old PC for this but it could be the FTP server to receive images from the camera when it detects somthing. everything is done by the camera apart from saving the images
Though I would say its motion detaction is sensative ( its not a "zoned type " but its ftping images to my 500 Gb NAS drive so not too bothered .
Regards
Agriv8
[Edited on 4/8/11 by Agriv8]
Zoneminder is the way forward, guys. Written by one of my clients and fully open source. If you're not handy with Linux there is a live CD you
can use that does it all for you. It will also let you watch live and recorded video via your smart phone. I've used it a lot with my
iPhone.
IP cams are great if you just want to view, but as soon as you start trying to do motion detection they suck up CPU time on the host PC and if
you're planning on running on old hardware that's not the best idea.
Use a capture card that doesn't have compression (aka H.264) on board if you want motion detection. The reason being that the card compresses
the video and the PC just has to decompress it again to analyse it which is a waste of cpu time. Cards based on the BT8xx chipset will be easy, but
make sure you get one with the same number of processing channels as it has inputs. A lot of the cheap multi channel cards only have one processing
chip and achieve multiple channels by putting a frame from each input through in order. The result is low framerate - eg 4 channels in use = quarter
framerate. The easiet way to check is to plhyscially inspect the capture card and make sure that it has the same number of bty8xx chips on the card
as input channels!
I've had good results with Osprey capture cards in the past, but they're not exactly a 'locost' solution.
Also these cameras are good for the price as long as your subjects are reasonably close. eBay Item.
Hope that helps!
Chris
cheers everyone! Im liking the price in loggyboys link, was thinking it would cost twice that.
I could easily spend a whole day failing to use a pc for it, so i think it makes more sense for me to buy a ready system.
Thanks again! Just need the garage defender and the flood lights now!
No experience of these things myself but I seem to remember from experience of others on here, you need a pretty high quality and you need a sign
saying you've got CCTV aswell for it to be admissable in court.
Just so that no one wastes their money! 
cheers,
James
quote:
Originally posted by loggyboy
I thought of doing this, i bought a 4 channel input things with software etc, but it meant the PC always needed to be on and the software wasnt great.
I bought this instead - http://www.maplin.co.uk/500gb-4-ch-h.264-network-dvr-with-2-x-ccd-cameras--advanced-mobile-access-517239
its an awaome bit of kit for the money. Very cusomisable (motion sensing, timed, external trigger etc), probly the coolest function is the remote access, simply plug it in to your network/internet and you can access it on any PC via wireless. Set up a Dyndns account and you can also access from any PC connected to the internet anywhere, and on top of that, you can access it via a Smart phone.
Very geek-sheek.
Some years ago I looked into this, and was advised (by a lawyer) that you should not use motion detection if you want to use the video in court - even
if you get an absolutely clear vedeo of someone exiting you house with your TV under their arm, their lawyer will just say He put it back guv, someone
else must have come along later and stolen it - prove they didn't' (assuming they weren't caught with the goods of course), then the
onus is on you to show there is continuous video so that no one else could have taken it. Conclusion - use 'time lapse' not motion detection
to reduce the file size.
Regards
Hugh
quote:
Originally posted by James
No experience of these things myself but I seem to remember from experience of others on here, you need a pretty high quality and you need a sign saying you've got CCTV aswell for it to be admissable in court.
Just so that no one wastes their money!
cheers,
James
quote:
Originally posted by ChrisW
...
IP cams are great if you just want to view, but as soon as you start trying to do motion detection they suck up CPU time on the host PC and if you're planning on running on old hardware that's not the best idea.
.....
Chris
