May want to build a security system dvr

Hi all,

I'm thinking about building a security camera setup for my house. I'd have probably 3 or 4 cameras I'd want to store the output of. I know that sam's club sells complete setups, but I think I could probably build something better for not too much more money. Do any of you guys have suggestions on building the dvr unit itself? I'd probably build a pc running xp just because that's what I'm familiar with, but how much storage space would it need to keep at least a few months of camera output? Any particularly good dvr software out there for me to consider?

Well 1 TB will store about 400 hours, so a few TBs should do it.

Alright man storage space all depends on the size and frame rate that you want your stuff to be saved at. Remember the human eye can only detect about 40 fps so anything higher your just wasting space.(OF Course the higher you go the more streamless it looks on playback) DESA has some really good software that gets packaged with there bosch systems. I dont know if you can buy for your own or not. Now for the connections are you using a BNC connector or straight COAX? Because with coax your going to need multilple tv tuners to read. BNC you can get a 4 Cam Input PCI card.

I'd get a dedicated system for this...you will encounter far less troubles using something that is actually designed for this purpose.

I bought and installed a multi-camera system for my mother's store from here. Four color camera startup systems start at $477 with a 500GB DVR. The 500GB may not sound like much, but it can hold well over a month of 24/7 recording (hers is a 250GB model and can, so I assume the 500GB can go into two months).

Sure, a PC-based system will give you many more bells and whistles depending on the software you use, but when the novelty of it wears off (and it will quickly), you are not going to spend time reviewing your recordings unless something making it necessary to do so actually happens.

Where I used to work, we had a system with 13 cameras, based on a windows pc. It was actually a prefab system sent to us by a company (I forget the name of the company) that builds security equipment, and it worked pretty well.

Reviewing the video and burning it for the police when needed is VERY important to me-that's the whole purpose of having the system. I used it quite often in a working capacity, and though I don't expect to need it as much at home it still needs to be capable of providing useful evidence if someone comes and tries to steal from me.

To answer a question above, I'd expect to probably use cameras with bnc connectors, though I've seen something about megapixel cameras that use an ip connection and provide higher resolution. One thing about the cameras where I worked is that they were good for facial recognition but were not good enough to resolve a license plate on vehicles. I want something good enough to do that, and I realize that I'll have to pay for that-both in camera cost and in storage capacity.

While working with the police in a professional capacity, I came to realize that one of the best ways to put people in jail for stealing was to have good solid evidence against them. Blurred, pixelated video is not the way to do that. A reasonable number of fps (say 15 or more) and not compressing the hell out of the video goes a long way toward identifying people, and the police usually respond with greater effort when you can provide them with better-than-average evidence.

In that case use a IP cam for outside where you think the most traffic would be. Like front door? and use the others with BNC for normal use to prove that someone steals. That will cover you on the ground of recognition and proving that they stole.

This link has a TON of info about the various options as well as comparisons of IP vs. analog, etc. Check it out!

CCTV 101

Qnap NAS devices support DVR. There is a limited amount of cameras supported in the non professional versions, but you might want to check it out.

Recently I quoted a 4TB NVR (network video recorder, for IP cams) to a customer.


Total price: About $25K.

Yeah, if you need a lot of camera's then the price goes up very quickly. However for a cheaper solution (max 2 cameras) you could get a Qnap NAS for about $300 (depending on the features you need). Add to this two camera's (they support quite a wide variety of camera's) and large disks and you are set.

For added security the TS-239 can mirror and encrypt the disks (but costs more then the basic 1 disk devices).