Home Security Cameras...

[PhotoWrangler]

I'm interested in setting up a home monitoring system with security cameras and some sort of light duty recording system. I don't want anything that requires major hardware, but something that saves a few days of video, and is reliable. And I want something that I can install myself, and view an online stream with, and expand over time.

have any of you done anything like this, and do you have any suggestions?

 

[skieur]

Do the research on the net. There are video cameras and recorders in HD format that look like a rock in your garden or a hanger in your closet. The best kind are turned on by motion and some will turn on a light in a high position along with a video camera and recorder. Cost is much less expensive than what you would think.

 

[mipo]

The DIY Alarm Forum might be a place to gather some informations.
The Best DIY Alarm Forum For Security And Fire Systems Help On The Net

 

[minicoop1985]

Do the research on the net. There are video cameras and recorders in HD format that look like a rock in your garden or a hanger in your closet. The best kind are turned on by motion and some will turn on a light in a high position along with a video camera and recorder. Cost is much less expensive than what you would think.

Agreed with everything skieur said. Do your research and make sure you can effectively cover the entire area you want to cover. There's a lot of good stuff out there, and in recent years, it's become much less expensive to set up a stand alone (AKA recording on a local hard disk) home monitoring system.

 

[skieur]

The DIY Alarm Forum might be a place to gather some informations.
The Best DIY Alarm Forum For Security And Fire Systems Help On The Net

I am convinced that a video recording is more effective than an alarm. One burglary victim took stills from a video camera around to local schools until the perpetrators were identified and then the police were called.

 

[Woodsman]

I set up two outdoor cams last spring to catch night critters and such on the property. As others say do your research and then decide how much you want to spend and invest. I went with two low end outdoor cameras with IR for night detection. My biggest issue outdoors was power for the cameras since they were not going to be mounted through a house wall for power from the inside. I decided on Power over Ethernet (POE). That limits your model options but served my purposes well since my house is wired for ethernet already. I picked up a POE switch and two outdoor cameras and some outdoor ethernet cable and weatherproof boxes, all told under 400 bucks. I run a monitoring program on a spare computer which is left on all the time and when motion is detected a video is saved to a shared NAS drive in the basement. It works well although summer bugs and rain can cause a lot of false triggers at night on the IR.

 

[TheLost]

I set up two outdoor cams last spring to catch night critters and such on the property.

Like this?

 

[ferny]

Unless you're spending big money don't get pulled into camera's with IR lights on them. There won't be enough and they won't be strong enough. If you want IR then buy a separate light to do it. Buy the DVR separate. They're only a HDD with software and the software will dictate what facilities it has. The one I got has Android and Ethernet things in it, but they've never been used. You can even buy the box, HDD and software separately. The camera is the important thing. Look what's in your budget then view examples of it on YouTube to see what quality it has. Bullet cameras are better then dome ones, but I went for the dome option as it's harder to damage. I spent just over £250 on a camera, DVR and the cables. It's continuous record as well but was ok as the footage would only be looked at if needed and you'd know roughly when any incident happened to make that easier. Foxes and other wildlife would always be setting it off anyway. It's also near a motion sensitive flood light for night illumination.

 

[Steve5D]

Here ya' go: The Spy Store