On 30 May, 18:05, Adrian C wrote:
Hi,

Owing to ongoing hassle with the next door nutty neighbour (we've just
had trees entirely in both our front and back garden vandalised by him)
I'm looking to splash about £300-400 on four cameras and a hard drive
based recorder. Police can't take any action otherwise ;-(

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/290438777726

Looks interesting - the domes will mount under the eaves of the roof,
though I've heard comments that 1/3" is a better bet than 1/4" for the
cameras.

Only interested in wired systems.

Though looking at the above kit, I'm now wondering about D-I-Y rolling
my own with a security DVR card, cameras and a server box. So if anyone
has done that with cards similar to

http://www.camsecure.co.uk/CamsecureBT878aPCICard.html

??

--
Adrian C

Having just done similar security , er, review.

Capture cards , unless you get free power forget it, box takes a fair
amount of power and unless need some feature that full size PC offers
it`s as stable as a blancmange, though if want go that way Zoneminder
on a dedicated box offers lot of features

http://www.zoneminder.com/

DVRs are cheap as chips and have AV drives fitted, got an AV Tech
similar to one you linked to with 500Gb WD AV drive for £160 on
ebay,AV drive is guaranteed for 3 years of 24/7 operation, desktop
drives overheat.

Have 2 with Sharp 1/4" ccds in them , theyr`re OK , one is a door
viewer camera that people simply dont notice unless point it out to
them, other is outdoor but compact with no IR ring, which alawys glow
in dark surroundings.

Have a 460TVL 1/3" Sony Super HAD where the quality and sensitivity
are a visible notch up from Sharp, stay in colour to very low light
levels and excellent low light ability. Vari focal is handy that ones
a 4-9mm adjsuted by screwdriver, down at 3.6 mm view angle is probably
near 90 degrees.

Could also get board lenses and swap out lenses on other cams but its
a faff.

Connections, either power and video (but no audio) so called
`shotgun` cable which is expensive on long runs, or CAT5 Baluns
easily go to 200m+, RJ45 socket to BNC , 2.1mm Power and if required
Phono Audio, ebay or DX, cheapest found on exterior grade Cat 5
Kenable

http://www.kenable.co.uk/

Might need a couple of this to that connectors to avoid chopping
plugs, i.e. door viewer cam had video out on phono, Maplins do Phono/
F, to BNC/M in a plug.

Cheers
Adam