Cctv

[Tommy J]

Hi all, I'm thinking of putting CCTV to cover our off street parking but I'm not sure how I would go about recording the footage.

Obviously I would wire it up to the VCR (PC's not good enough) but can I only record 6 hours if it's a 3 hour tape on long play?

Ideally I would like it for overnight, or when we're out but if a tape needs to be changed every 6 hours it's not much use.



Thanks for any POSITIVE feedback.

[Shambles]

You might be wise to look at PVR's (see the PVR section). I just bought one that gives me 15-20 hours recording to a HD from the TV (£130), but others like the Topfield will give 80-160 hours.

[Tommy J]

Thanks, Not that I know what a PVR is, but I'll find out by looking in there.

Karma heading yourway.

[TwoPlAnKs]

you can get time lapse recorders that can get 24 hours onto a 3 hour tape, they miss out frames to record more but obviously the more you miss out the less smooth the playback is

[Tommy J]

That would mean buying the recorder and the camera though wouldn't it?

[ABCMan]

a pvr is basicly a video recorder that records to a pc hard disc drive, the advantage of them is long recording times, quality is selectable when recording but some will still get 20-30 hours at realy high resolution, no point in cctv if you cant identify the toerags on it

[WRATH OF BOD]

if you can get an old pc with about 128 mb ram
700 celeron
20 gig hard drive
try a bnc pci card(upto 4 cameras at once)
i use one in my shop.it watches the rear carpark,front of the shop and inside the shop.
card cost about 18 quid delivered from hong kong.and about the same for the camera x 3
full colour

i got mine from ebay a bit like this one below

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...984590740&rd=1

[ABCMan]

guess its worth mentioning that sharp make a couple of slp video recorders that will record upto 15 hours before you need to change the tape, quality is ok (for vhs).

another thought would be one of these combined dvd/hd recorders so you could record to the hd and if you need a more permenent record then burn it to a dvdr.

i believe that maplins sell a unit that will allow you to plug upto 4 cameras in at once and provide a legaly enforceable timestamp to the recording

[Tommy J]

Thanks All

[Top Cat]

Maplins do a DVD recorder with inputs for 4 Cameras and if you fit a hard drive to example 80 gig gives you about 4000 hours of top quality recording [all date/time marked]

[Geezah]

I'd also recomend using an old pc.
If you take this route, then get a programe called 'Watcher'
You can set it so it only records when it detects motion, zoom, tilt and pan if your cam supports it, colour/BW/sound, it will alert yo via email or sms on detection, simple send to web function so you can watch from t'internet.

[Mav]

take a look at an ip camera you may require a public ip for viewing worldwide

they cost around 100 sovs no special hardware just networked to your pc and you can access it from any pc via snmp or the web

can be set to motion record or whatever sms or email you all that bollox