I desire to set up a couple of security cameras at my home and the local church school principal asked me to make recommendations for a video security system there. Can you please give me guidance on any of the following questions that I have.
For purposes of conversation, I doubt that the school would want to spend more than $2,000 for the equipment (Recording equipment and three or four cameras) and they will install it themselves (money is tight in a self supporting school). For my home application I do not want to spend more than $1,000 for the same and it will also be DIY. A lot less at my home would be even better, of course!
Which is best for video with minimal to moderate hassle, on the low to middle of the price spectrum, and bang for the buck (value) perspective? A Network/Internet camera (one with a built in web server, not a USB webcam) or the traditional cameras that are not networked. My observations are that the decent network cameras are still quite expensive while you can buy all sorts of video security cameras on eBay for < $100. It seems like much of the time that I try to view a camera on-line it seems to not work at all or not work well, causing me to question their reliability. Also, in reading product reviews on Amazon.com and other sites, I see that a lot of people seem to have trouble with the initial configuration of such products thru firewalls and such. I'm also not sure if the video quality is generally as good as a traditional camera or not. Nonetheless, it seems like it would be nice to not have to route thru a PC and still make yourself directly available on the net.
What is the best hardware to record the video? You can buy 4-camera video capture cards with software on eBay for $20 - 50. You can buy a dedicated DVR to do the same for several hundred dollars. If one has a late model PC with a large hard drive and fast processor, is there a good reason not to use it for video surveillance? Does the software that's out there work good or is it bug and hassle prone? What are the pros and cons and issues here.
There is also a $100 device on eBay titled "IP Network web camera video server 9100A, DVR, AXIS" that looks impressive and supposedly turns regular cameras into a network based system. It can be viewed at
Is there something better that is beyond what I've spoken of here?
If anyone could speak to the pros and cons of the various options, including naming any makes and models of specific products and/or web links, I would be forever grateful. Without actually buying and trying all the options, it's so hard to know what is best. I hope that some of you on these newsgroups have gone before me and got it figured out and tested some of these products.