Low cost security camera software for home use?

Most "decent" software of this type is tied to hardware sold by the same manufacturer. I could suggest several different packages, but every one of them will only work with their specific capture cards (in most cases, it's actually the SAME type of card, but the software is specifically coded to work only with its own branded cards).

Since you don't mention what sort of hardware you're using to connect "a few" cameras to your computer, it's really hard to suggest any particular software. Since your average media PC supports only one, MAYBE two composite video inputs, the reasonable assumption is that you're using some other sort of capture hardware to support "a few" cameras.

Oh! I didn't realize that it was that hard to do :) I already have a dedicated MCE machine I use for movies and TV. I have quite a few DVR devices attached. Mostly Hauppage PVR-150's 350's and a Pinnacle card. There is actually a lot of software out there that supports these types of devices - but it is all rather costly. I did get a rec for a cheaper package on Yahoo Answers but it doesn't look to be of very good quality.

Also, I suppose a "dedicated" camera/capture/software solution might be better but I'm just trying to utilize what I have. I'm even able to use the video-in ports on these card while simultaneously using the tuner ports for recording TV so I'm still going to try with what I have. If it winds up being too unreliable I guess I'll have to spend the $$$ for a better solution.

At any rate, to answer the last part of your post. You CAN have more than one or two such inputs on an MCE. We've been doing it for years. That's how we can record multiple shows. Just add more capture cards or USB devices!

you can get an inexpensive 4 input capture card and software for 100 bucks and not have to screw around. I bought a cheap Lorex card (comes with software) for a client (no money) and I was very surprised at the features, quality and ease of installation. Actually, I was shocked. However, I did real cameras not the cheap Lorex ones.

Well, the main problem there is spreading the duties across multiple devices. Your PVR software may have no problem with them (I know BeyondTV has no issues recording simultaneously from my HVR-1600 dual-tuner card *and* my All-in-Wonder), but that software isn't really suited to what you're trying to do here... most surveillance-type software, even the really generic stuff, isn't designed to use multiple capture devices. It probably COULD be... it just isn't, because it's typically used with a single multi-input (4-, 8-, 16-channel) device.

It comes down to the economy of scale: there's very little market for surveillance/security recording software to use a number of different consumer-grade capture devices on a single machine... so there's very little software that will do it, and even less that's going to be anywhere near "cheap".

Remember that surveillance recording has different criteria than recording TV shows... specifically, long-term recording of multiple inputs requires that video take as little space as possible, which often means smaller resolutions and higher compression ratios than "TV" video... and almost always means FAR lower framerates (typically 1-3fps vs. 30fps for standard video).

I know it CAN be done (as noted above, BeyondTV handles it nicely)... but again, that's software designed with a different criteria. DVD-quality video take a LOT more space and processing power than surveillance video.

If you have Bosch IP cameras or encoders the "Lite" software is free for up to 4 cameras.