DVRs

Here is few under $1,00.00 with FREE Shipping.

ECO4-40GB ECO440GB 4 WAY 40GB DIGITAL MULTIPLEX W/PPP, ETHERNET, COMPACT, 30 PPS $821.00

ECO4-80GB ECO480GB 4 WAY 80GB DIGITAL MULTIPLEX RECORDER W/PPP, ETHERNET, COMPACT, 30PPS $945.25

Here is the link:

You might find a package at a discount store for around $1000, but since image quality is important, you'll need to beef up your budget two or three times. js

Depends on ones perception of image quality I suppose. What does the extra $2k get you?

email, ftp, or grps notification/ remote archive capacity. more fps per channel. triplex or better operations, real time viewing.

Other than fps, is there anything else that gives you a better view for $3k?

The quality images you seek.

Image quality is subjective, and I'm only guessing about what you will find satisfactory. It would help to know what you expect to see, and what you intend to do with the video. IME, people looking for residential video systems are trying to catch a neighbor, habitual vandal or thief, etc. Their desire for good video to turn over to the police or DA for prosecution is fueled by emotion, which cools once the cold reality of what you need to do/spend to achieve your goal sets in.

Images of the quality necessary to be of use in these cases require good quality equipment: (garbage in, garbage out)

1. An incident at night requires a special camera and good lighting to produce a good image.

1. A common mistake is to try to see too much with one or two cameras. Wide-angle lenses and low resolution imager chips common to inexpensive cameras see a wide area, but not much detail.

2. Once you have the cameras sending good video, you need a good DVR to manage it. A decent DVR will likely cost you at least K. Some will say that you need to pay a lot more.

Again, maybe all you need is to see that there is someone there. js

I'm trying to understand what someone means when they say to spend 2k to 3k on a system vs. 1k for better picture quality. When I asked that someone pointed out fps, but the rest was about ftp, e-mail, networking, etc., which as far as I can see is not about picture quality, especially if I don't use it most of the time.

I'm not trying to be disrespectful. I sincerely want to know what the extra money gets you in picture quality so I can decide if it's worth it. If it isn't I'd rather spend the money on cameras.

I can spend $50 bucks on a cheap dvr card to see if someone is there. What is special about the hardware or software that you get with a $3000 unit?

You could try posting the same question on

My point was that you need to spend money on good quality cameras, and more of them. If you do that, and get a quality DVR, it will cost you more than $1K. js

My $1k was the allocation for the DVR portion. I already own some nice cameras.

Thanks!

One thing I've not seen mentioned here yet, by you or any of the responses I've read so far, is whether you're looking for a "standalone" DVR, or a PC-based system.

A standalone will generally be less expensive *as a whole*, but if you have a suitable spare PC (and keep in mind, you want a DEDICATE PC for this type of system; don't be doubling it up with a game machine), you can put a DVR card and software in it for less than the standalone unit would cost; if you need to purchase a PC for it, that route will likely cost more.

Ftp, email, networking etc. are not related to image quality, but they're considerations that must be included when determining cost, as to whether you want or need any of them.

You also didn't mention how many cameras you're looking to hook up - standalone DVRs and DVR cards typically come in 4, 8 and 16-channel versions, with prices increasing accordingly the more channels you want. Framerates, capture resolution, and compression levels all affect both image quality, and along with how much time you want to record for, how much storage space is required... and all of those, including storage, affect total cost.

Yeah, I don't really have a spare PC that meets the requirements for most DVR cards. The advantage of a PC based system though is the ability to expand or change configuration as well as setting motion controlled areas for recording.

most unit that allow motion detection also allow setting up or blocking off areas for detection.

This goes back to my original issue. Finding documentation on this is ofen difficult.

tell me about it. i have put many hours into research on this kind of stuff. thank god for high speed internet. :) did you say how many camera dvr you were looking for?

Starting to wonder again of pc based dvr isn't the way to go.