Home security cameras

[AdmiralKit]

Anybody have a home security system with video cameras?  I'm kicking around the idea of putting in two or three as I have a job that will occasionally have me out of town for a week or two at a time, and since my brother is moving out this weekend I'd like to have something to keep an eye on the house and the garage.  An ideal solution for me would be something that involves IP-based security cameras and some kind of an open-source DVR - I've got the computer networking skills to set up and configure it, but I'd just like to know what kind of experiences other board members have had, if any at all.

[mookieo2]

For something simple and decent you can pick up a few panasonic ip camera's and a Synology NAS. The Synology NAS has a built in ip camera dvr and it works quite well. For camera's you get what you pay for.

[spolic]

From a cop:  "Don't get them unless you can print up a high quality 8X10 photo to give to the cops. There are thousands of 5'8" - 6" hooded, sunglass wearing thieves out there."

[AdmiralKit]

Yeah, that's part of the reason why I was looking at IP-based systems - I think it's easier to get megapixel-plus resolutions on a networked digital camera instead of those crappy 320-line CCTV units.  At a minimum, I want to be able to read a license plate on any vehicle that pulls into the driveway, which is about 100' from where I'd set the camera up.  Since Indiana doesn't require a front license plate, though, that would make placement of the cameras a bit trickier to ensure I get some kind of usable evidence.

[mitt]

I use a single cheap trendnet IP camera stand alone (no pc), and I am amazed at the technology you can buy for $100.  The NAS posted above looks interesting for making a better system.

The drawback of the stand alone camera I have is that it can't do motion detection without having a computer on. The advantage is that it can run for weeks without a pc constantly running, I just have it send jpgs via email every 30 minutes.

That is where the NAS would work well in conjunction with a couple cheap cameras - a low power secure computer to run for weeks at a time - just not sure if it would have the ability to run the software the camera needs to enable motion detection.


chad

[mookieo2]

Yeah, that's part of the reason why I was looking at IP-based systems - I think it's easier to get megapixel-plus resolutions on a networked digital camera instead of those crappy 320-line CCTV units.  At a minimum, I want to be able to read a license plate on any vehicle that pulls into the driveway, which is about 100' from where I'd set the camera up.  Since Indiana doesn't require a front license plate, though, that would make placement of the cameras a bit trickier to ensure I get some kind of usable evidence.

Your looking at $$.

Check out Mobitex

http://www.mobotix.com/eng_US/content/view/full/2