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Is inexpensive video surveillance possible? 2

Submitted by timholman
timholman writes "After a series of burglaries and auto break-ins in my neighborhood, I'm thinking about adding some video security cameras to my home. To me, the object isn't just deterrence — if someone tries to break into my house or my car (parked on the street in front of my house), I'd like to provide a high quality image of the perpetrator to give to the police. Inexpensive video surveillance systems are nearly useless, since the image quality is atrocious. The problem is being able to get good image quality at an affordable price. After some research, I've decided that using network cameras to FTP images to a central server over a HomePlug network is the best solution. However, good megapixel network cameras (e.g. Stardot or Axis cameras) can easily cost more than $1000 each. Has any Slashdotter dealt with a similar situation? Is there any way to get reasonable quality (preferably open source) video surveillance equipment for home use (daytime and nightime) without paying an arm and a leg? Is it better to go with a couple of expensive cameras, or a multitude of inexpensive cameras? Is paying two to three thousand dollars simply unavoidable if I want to monitor my front and back yards?"
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Is inexpensive video surveillance possible? More

Is inexpensive video surveillance possible?

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  • I highly recommend the Axis 207MW 1.3MP ethernet/wireless which sells for around $390. The integrated software supports motion detection and event based email or ftp upload. It will also generate javascript in the "Live View" menu which can be used in various ways e.g. I made a simple 6 framed webpage that displays streaming video for all cameras on one page. The only negative experience I've had with and Axis camera is the first time installation of the activeX plugin in IE; no problem with firefox.
  • Last year, I installed an 8 camera front & back video system at my house. I chose low-cost $50-$60 ASTAK CM-612W video cameras for 7 of the cameras, and one $150 camera for the back hill. All cameras are mounted under the eaves of the roof and are run with the (included) 100 feet of cable back to a central location. In that location I have a PC with an $160 PV-149 8 port PCI Video capture board from http://bluecherry.net/ [bluecherry.net] and then installed ZoneMinder an open-source video capture and storage on my Fedor

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