Technobabble

Home Surveillance Systems

Posted by on Jun 26, 2007 | 6 Comments

I’m looking into home surveillance systems again. A recent string of burglaries has made folks nervous around these parts. A pair of local kids was just arrested after allegedly committing dozens of burglaries from cars and garages. These brazen young men hit house after house in a spree that went on for days until watchful eyes finally caught the getaway car’s license plate. While it wasn’t a home surveillance system that caught the thieves in the act (it was a neighbor), one can only wonder why none of the expensive homes had surveillance cameras silently standing watch.

While very few folks will go whole hog and install a full-scale surveillance system, it might not have taken much more than a digital video recorder and a couple of wireless surveillance cameras to thwart the crime spree before it grew to epic proportions.

I gave up on my initial quest to build a D-I-Y home home surveillance system after considering the drawbacks and expense of that dream system. Pan-Tilt-and-Zoom (PTZ) wireless cameras don’t come cheap … and most seem to require ActiveX controls. Seeing that my budget was as tight as my resistance to use any ActiveX, I put the project on the back burner. I don’t need a fancy alarm system … just something (in addition to our snarling dogs) to keep watch.

I’ll likely forego pricey PTZ units in favor of fixed cameras. And I’m thinking that the DVR might run on the yet-to-be-speced (cough, Mac mini) home media server …

[tags]surveillance systems, surveillance cameras[/tags]

  • Brie Sansotta

    Hi, Chris, I have Protect America ( 22 bucks @ mo.) as the phone-connected alarm system. THEN, I have cheap swivel cams screwed in around my home and high up on the tree in the front yard.

    One cam is on the backyard and wired into my laptop (seen on Camaredes). The cam in the tree is wired to my tape and cheap little video monitor inside. One camera on a side window is wireless to a monitor and tape unit in the front room. Another cam is hard wired onto yet ANOTHER tape unit in another room.

    Pretty jerryrigged together – OH, and I have a light setup in the backyard that is motion sensitive. Gets the job done. Brie

  • Jim

    I’ve used the X10 cameras in the past, they do well with a good light source but for an effective night use camera be prepared to spend the money on a good low-light unit or augment your camera with a strong motion sensor light.

  • bayoujim

    I bought an excellent long range,low light surveillance camera from tigerdirect.com, you will need a surveillance pci card such as Sargents also. This allows you to use your computer for monitoring and recording. Check the pci card to see if it has the proper connection for the camera that you choose.

  • http://www.keywebx.com keywebx

    Hello,

    If you are counting only on USB webcams or video capturing devices connected to your Mac, you can very easily build home video surveillance with our KeyCamX:

    http://www.keywebx.com/keycamx.html

    It is actively being developed and we are always open to new ideas.

    Best

  • Hugoton Horatio

    O.K. who out there has one that is computer controlled, will scan an area,
    then when it spots something out of the ordinary, stops, focuses on that
    object or person, refocuses to the correct lense setting, then uses the
    available amount of light available at the given time to get their ugly
    mug on a dvr or tape hidden in a securely remote location that can be
    later retrieved by the local constabulary.

  • Bob

    Hi folks,

    For longest time I was looking for a video surveillance system that could be managed and accessed from the web due to the fact that I tavel a lot I wanted to be able to access my cameras from anywhere and after months of searching and posting the requirment on the web I bumped in to http://www.GBSDVR.com system it seemed matched made in heavan because everything was webbased and they even hosted my video for me all I needed was to buy disk space on their system and pay a monthly fee for it. One major buying point for me was that it required no contract like other companies that want to lock you in for 1,2 or 3 years before they offer anything and needless to say I have been using their system for almost 4 months and not even a single down time. I highly recommend their system, it worked for me and it may work for you too. I wish everyone best of luck.

    Ciao,
    Bob the Builder