Home security question

[bling]

Recently, there are a few things (hiring a dog-walker with our keys, couple friends' place got broken into, my relocation to NYC with my girlfriend staying behind....) got me thinking in getting a home surveillance camera system.

Being a complete idiot with electronics, I would like to get some enlightment from those who have more knowledge than I do. The following is my wish list:

- I'd like the camera(s) to be hidden since I don't want the dog-walker to know it's existance.
- Acess video(s)/shot(s) from internet (while I am in NYC)
- Record digital video clips with motion detection (preferrably without a designated PC attached to the system since I travel w/ my laptop)

I'd like to know what system and budget should I be considering...

Any suggestion? Thanks in advance!

 

[Daedalus]

How many cameras do you want to hook up? A single camera is pretty easy, and there are some cool ones that have 2 chips built in, one for daytime and 1 for night vision. I bought a Panasonic system that included 3 wireless cameras and a central receiver that took pictures and interfaced between the cameras and my TV/PC. It was advertised as motion-activated, but what the package didn't say was that you could only set up 1 camera at a time for motion, not all 3. Setting it up with my computer network was not easy. I'm not all that network savvy and the instructions were terrible. That plus the image quality of the cameras was terrible. I also decided I prefer pan/tilt/zoom control on the cameras. I returned it for a refund. I've looked around, and it seems the cameras alone for the system I want are $700-1200 each. Wireless is cool, but probably not worth the extra $$$ and there are far more options available if you're willing to run a wire. I think a dedicated PC is the best way to go with it for a good solid system. There are a lot of software packages out there, so it would make customization and uploading to a domain easier. A lot of software packages have downloadable trial versions. I got several from cnet.com, but none had all that I wanted.

 

[Ojas]

Hi bling.

I noticed Costco offers several DVR-based, Internet-enabled systems, including ones with wireless cameras. Entry-level seems to be the 4-channel Q-See DVR model for $550 that has a 160 GB hard drive and 4 cameras. According to the specs, you can view remotely over the Internet. No PC is required and setup seems to be straight-foward.

It seems pretty cool. Maybe something like that would do the trick.

 

[Daedalus]

Good find, I may try one of them. When I bought mine last year I checked Costco too, but they didn't have as good a selection then.
Most of these little cameras are at 380 lines of resolution, which looks pretty poor to me. Some are at 420 and a few are even better. I saw a camera at Fry's that had around 500 lines of resolution and the image was fantastic...but it cost $200.

 

[NsXMas]

I just set up claymore mines at my house. Any intruders will go kaboom.