Home CCTV

[AlanR]

Evening,

Been having a couple of problems with kids round our way so I am considering installing a CCTV system, 2 -3 cameras, motion detection recording.

Has anybody got any recommendations for home cctv systems?

Regards

Alan

[oracleslave]

Been having a couple of problems with kids round our way

Any details on the problems? Do you want something as just a deterrent or do you have other plans for the footage?

[xoggoth]

I brought a DVR and CCTV camera from Security Consultancy & technical Ltd. Chinese made and instructions rather poor but works fine. Quite decent picture and works at night. (But not through a window which reflects the IR). You can program time and motion sensor area and sensitivity. DVR allows up to 4 CCTV channels. You can plug in a USB memory stick to transfer recordings to PC.

Make sure you ask for a lead that allows DVR output to connect to an ordinary TV video socket or you won't be able to see what is going on. The camera can also go direct to TV video input with the right adapter. (BNC to video) Maplin also does various adapters and leads.

Also have a remote radio pinhole camera kit from Pakatak. With receiver indoors and camera in shed, works over 50-60ft, again quite good picture. Rather narrow view, check if sufficient. Problem with radio is that interference (including break up due to poor signal or other people with devices on same channel) can spuriously trigger motion sensing on DVR. Think you can get 4.8mhz instead of standard 2.4Mhz which is better.

[minestrone]

If you want to do it on the cheap, like me , I got a couple of cheap web cams from ebay and used a bit of free software from http://www.visiongs.com/.

You can select areas of the image to trigger motion detection.

Has a web server so I can see the house at work and FTPs to remote server.

Good camera and it is as good as CCTV

You can go up to infrared and wireless web cams if you feel flash.

[Ardesco]

Waste oo time really unless you are hoping it will scare them into behaving properly.

The evidence will not be valid in court and the police won't want to know if you capture the little scroats doing something illegal on it.

[minestrone]

Waste oo time really unless you are hoping it will scare them into behaving properly.

The evidence will not be valid in court and the police won't want to know if you capture the little scroats doing something illegal on it.

I think if they are in your property it is allowed to be used, if you are taking pictures of public land then you have to put a sign up. Don't know though, the laws for us north of the border are totally different, no trespass here.

There was that chap who got his PC stolen and used the images from his web cam to convict the bugger. I have a camera above my main PC in my study looking back on the room for that. Like him FTPed to a server, also have one looking out over the front garden running from the same PC.

For the cost of a couple of web cams I think it is worth it.

[Hiram King Of Tyre]

I'd be interested in this. I have 8 acres with outbuildings (stables, barn etc). I was looking for an IP solution though really. I was looking for an application to run on a PC writing to an external disc.

[AlanR]

Cheers guys,

Essentially, things are going missing from the front garden and drive (before anybody says anything, no we don't have any gnomes), nothing major, things like bird feeders, black plastic caps off of the wheel nuts on out cars, flowers being pulled from the flower beds.

Also my wife's car has been scratched although we cant be certain that it happened on our drive or not. But i work away from home during the week so if it acts as a visible deterrence then that's half the battle, if anything happens then we may be able to see who it is. I have my suspicions who it is and i get on well with his parents so, if it is i can have a word with them and if they don't believe me...

Plus it will give us a bit more peace of mind when we go away.

Alan

[BrilloPad]

I built my own, but that's because I'm a sad git.

Though it did earn me £800 for a couple of magazine articles...

Well done Sir

Any links to the articles?

[xoggoth]

Not true it is no use as evidence. For legalities check gardenlaw and neighboursfromhell sites.