Yep and to tell her to put kettle on I'll be home in 5  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

Will mention that to her in September


Mine is linked to the TV also, with one press of a button we can see what is going on outside, records to HDD, just over two weeks is stored before it records over it, can also copy to DVD or USB.

Hi

I have used avtech systems at home and at work, I found that these systems to be of pretty good quality with no issue at all in the last 4 years of using them there are 2 user interfaces video viewer for PC and laptop and the eagle eyes app for the phone and iPads, I found that it not so compatible with the windows phone but fine with iPhone and android type. There are a wide selection of cameras available this is where the price kicks in really as the price of cameras can shoot up in the hundreds. I found it cheaper to get 2 fixed cameras rather than a pan and tilt, zoom camera which can cover a wider area. No need to pay extra for a static IP address if you haven't already got one, you can sign up for free on the dyndns.org site and register your own domain, well as far as I know it's still free as I pay for mine now as I have multiple sites. Also depending wether you install your self or get someone in to do the install and setup, and depending where you have the DVR you can get power line adapters to get a feed down to the router unless you can easily get an Ethernet cable to it. Mine is in the loft space and I use the power line adaptor, also with it being in the loft I have attached it to the arial system so I can get it on every TV in the house which is good if you hear a noise you can flick over and check outside or if your waiting the a fast food delivery you can see them coming up the drive . Also you will need to configure the router with 2 things the dyndns so that it's IP is updated all the time as IP address can change every week or so and you will also need to configure and open a port for the DVR so depending on your IT skills you might need help on this bit if you do it yourself.

Hope this helps a bit

Doctor you have PM

Craig

Been setting my system up here is a shot from one of the rear cameras distance is about 15 meters with extra I/R lighting so to the naked eye its pitch black.

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Admin note: this post has had its images recovered from a money grabbing photo hosting site and reinstated  MY 2012 HSE LUX
MY 2010 XS

i had a 4 camera system for the kennels I owned, the main use was to see the clients coming down the access path so we could be ready for them. yes they were good apart from the spiders that kept trying to make a web in front of them overnight.

Thinking about getting something similar for where we live now.Having cameras up would I think let the criminal elements in our society think there is something valuable to steal.

If i did get one it would be linked to a monitor and not via a computer but that is personal choice Ex 2010 Freelander2 GS-e Diesel manual Silver owner

ill chip in here too. Despite Maplin being a bit low end, the more expensive Swann kits are pretty decent. I have the cheapest one with 2 cameras and it is very good.

As others have said, get the best camera you can - above 900 tv lines and as wide a lens as possible, which ups the cost.

Again as others have said, DDNS which most routers support will do the job of remote access. If you want remote access from a smart phone, make sure the supplier has an app for your mobile OS. Windows Phone is generally not supported

Some of the Maplins kits now are I/P cameras and systems I believe MY 2012 HSE LUX
MY 2010 XS

Be aware of the difference between ip camera and dvr. IP cams tend to be standalone and don't come with built in recorders so are more for real time viewing. The DVR systems on the other hand need the recording box but will just sit doing their thing until you need to check something happened say yesterday.

My Swann box is connected to my network allowing remote viewing and it also sends email alerts depending on conditions.

Yes you can get a whole kit form maplins HD I/P cameras and an NVR (network video recorder)

So you connect your I/P cameras up to a POE switch using cat5 cable then connect the switch to the NVR and the internet and you can view the I/P cameras from any where in the world and you have the CCTV recording in HD

Just make sure that it is a POE switch and it will provide power to the cameras and carry the video signal in one go saves on running cable


Craig MY 2012 HSE LUX
MY 2010 XS

You learn something new every day I wasn't aware you could connect IP cams to a recorder. Although it does beg the question of what would the average user gain by paying for say 5 network enabled cams and one recorder when they could buy better quality bullet or dome cameras and one network enabled recorder - I would assume (haven't checked) that the latter would be cheaper.

You would only need one NVR with lots of hard drive space...some cameras record 130 gig a day!

cameras like this one on the outside would be good

http://www.hikvision.com/en/us/Products_show.asp?id=9130

I'm looking at getting some of these myself.

Craig MY 2012 HSE LUX
MY 2010 XS

I'm just wondering what the difference is between a DVR and an NVR is. With a DVR you connect standard cameras to it and it records and shares remotely. An NVR from what I can see does the same, only it uses ethernet for the connection to the cams. The NVR cams seem more expensive too.

Some NVR's require you run a single cable from each camera all the way back some don't.

The best way would be on a house for example is to mount all the cameras on the outside high up run all the cables into the loft to a switch then one single cable from the switch to the back of the NVR where ever that is, if you get what i mean

The NVR's that you are looking have a built in POE switch hence you need to run every single cable back from the camera to the NVR

does that help  MY 2012 HSE LUX
MY 2010 XS

Oh I get the differences, I'm just not convinced of the benefits. Fair enough running one cat5 from loft to elsewhere is less intrusive, but I'm not sure that would justify the cost difference.

Placement and cable runs are an issue regardless of what system you choose and as most people will be installing them in the home it os the first thing they should consider.

Ut is all a bit moot for me as I already have my system in place but always good to understand the other options.