CCTV

anti5580 · 7 Jul 2013 at 14:16

Hi,

I'm interested installing a CCTV solution within my home but don't really want to spend a lot of money on it.

I'm stuck on how to go about it and was wondering if anyone here can shed some ideas? Is it possible to build a PC and just purchase cameras? If so, what software do I need?

Would it be better to buy a all in one solution? I would probably have issues with getting power to required locations, would PoE injectors be needed?

It doesn't need to be fancy, maybe a maximum of 4 cameras.

Any help would be great.

Thanks

newbiejim · 7 Jul 2013 at 14:31

you could buy a NAS and some Y Cam IP cameras (Ive found these to be decent), NAS would give you extra functionality as well, IP cams give u remote viewing too :-)

, circa £150 per cam, Synology NAS circa £180 plus HDDs..........NAS much better than having a PC on, also u have a plethora of IP viewing apps for android and apple devices.

ThomP · 7 Jul 2013 at 14:34

I'm interested in this too but won't be looking at it for another 6 months.

You could perhaps build a new machine then install Zone Minder ( http://www.zoneminder.com ). ZM will accept all types of cameras, you can use webcams, network cameras etc But that's way beyond my knowledge.

Cheers,
Thomas.

anti5580 · 7 Jul 2013 at 14:35

I had a look at the Synology solution which seems decent but from what I read you also need to buy a 4 camera license if you want more than 1 camera, cost around £170 for the licence.

newbiejim · 7 Jul 2013 at 14:50

anti5580 said:
I had a look at the Synology solution which seems decent but from what I read you also need to buy a 4 camera license if you want more than 1 camera, cost around £170 for the licence.

That's only if u want to use their embedded software, imho its not necessary (and a bit flaky), you can just set up a schedule on camera to write to a directory on the NAS and overwrite when getting to a certain amount, also viewing IP cams from tablets and smartphones is trivial now too

anti5580 · 7 Jul 2013 at 16:17

Do you have a cheap recommendation on an IP camera?

newbiejim · 7 Jul 2013 at 16:53

anti5580 said:
Do you have a cheap recommendation on an IP camera?

I don't sorry, Y CAm was about the cheapest to get decent performance I found, not that I did a lot of research on cheap IP cams tho

anti5580 · 7 Jul 2013 at 17:00

Thanks I'll have a look at those.

I was checking out these TRENDnet TV-IP572PI installed with a PoE switch connected to my PC.

Only ever played with TRENDnet switches, not 100% sure on cameras

clocka · 7 Jul 2013 at 17:56

iSpy software looks good. Been playing with it on my microserver with a couple of usb webcams. Its free for basic functionality, remote viewing is quite cheap.