Looking to DIY some security cameras, thoughts?

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Hello all,

Many moons ago I bought some cameras and a video capture card and installed them here.

Cameras on relevant walls, capture card inside my computer, job done.

One of the cameras died after about thirteen months (well, the infra reds did) but the other one is still alive and kicking. Except it isn't connected to anything, my video capture card was only compatible with Windows XP (so that'll give you an idea of how long ago this was) and I'm now using Windows 7.

Leaving aside the cost of running a computer with a 250W PSU 24/7 just to ensure everything from the camera was being recorded, we've had a spate of burglaries in this area and so I'm back in the market for some kit.

Any thoughts on the best set up for, say, a budget of £500?

Times have changed since my previous incursion into this environment, none of the companies I remember from before seem to be around anymore and everything these days seems to be geared towards using apps on smartphones to view footage.

I'd just be looking for a couple of night-vision capable cameras and either a capture card or a DVR which I could hook up to a television.

Thanks for your input.
 
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Hikvision, but as for which models depends on coverage required, light conditions.

darkfighter and Color vu in poorly illuminated places potentially.

Turbo would probably come in around budget, IP probably above budget, dependant on exact models
 
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This is something i'm looking into myself at the moment. Depending on where you want to install your cameras you may prefer to go for a POE "Power Over Ethernet" version, meaning that the cams are powered by the connection to the NVR and you wouldn't need to run additional power cables giving you greater flexibility on where you place them.
 
This is something i'm looking into myself at the moment. Depending on where you want to install your cameras you may prefer to go for a POE "Power Over Ethernet" version, meaning that the cams are powered by the connection to the NVR and you wouldn't need to run additional power cables giving you greater flexibility on where you place them.

Thanks for that but if I'm ripping up floorboards to run the video capture cables then I might as well run the power cables at the same time.
 
Shot gun cable is sometimes quicker and easier or run individual coax/cat5/6 with separate power cable. Screenshot_20200109-183704.png
Screenshot_20200109-183339.png
 
You can run a single Cat5e cable and use a power adapter and video balun on a non POE camera.
 
You can also get POC (Power over Coax) so youn only have 1 cable going to the camera and also no power pupplys as they are powered from the DVR.

HIKVISION is available all over the internet but very few are authorized dealers so if you have issues there is no suppot.

I used CCTV empier as they are authorized dealer's.

£500 will get you a good set up with 4 cameras with good night vision.

https://www.cctvempire.co.uk/CCTV-KITS/KITS-5MP-POC-HD-TVI
 
Not what you're looking for, but I have 3 Neos cams mounted outside. These keep 1 minute recordings for a month with the paid subscription (a few pounds a month I think). Cameras were £20 each and mounts another £10ish. So I paid about £100 for 3 cameras, all off-site cloud recordings. They run off USB powercables too, wifi.
They are better as indoor cameras really, but they do allow you to blank out parts of the screen. They record sound and motion, and the app is good too. But if used outside they do bring up a lot of alerts, so I have turned alerts off. Using them as a deterrent more than anything - some burglars don't care if their face can be seen, and others wear hoodies.
 

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