well we've been having troubles from pain in the backside neighbours from late night drinking to kicking footballs at our windows on purpose and at our sky dish. Reported it to the relvant people who seem to do nothing. Had a victim support person turn up out of the blue today and they siggested putting a cctv camera up on the inside and if it is slightly watching your sky dish and catches them in the act you have instant proof ? (buy the way :) the list of their stupidity is far to lon to type, were tolerant to a level but they have gone beyond too far)
So knowing nothing about cctv, I thought you guys would know ?
Do I need something that connects to my pc or tv ? also would need to store the footage maybe on a hard disc or a blank dvd ?
Not going into the what and how routine,but if you do get surveilance equipment I suggest you don't let it be visible or let ANYONE know you have it...otherwise they will give you more grief than the norm as problem neighbours hate that sort of thing and will do their uttermost to get shut of it.
>> Plug into home pc (which must be switched on 24/7!).
Damn, you shop dearly...ever thought of buying on ebay for a fraction of the cost of maplins,after all maplins probably get their surveillance equipment from HonkKong too. :-)
Got three Maplins within spitting distance - can decide to do something, buy it, install it and be back in the office within 30 mins.(1)
Ebay and Hong Kong doesn't cut it in this case!
1) And sometimes you need to work fast, some f*cker cut the lead to one of my works camera and I had it replaced immediately, b4 anything else could be attacked.
Beware also that you may get into trouble with the constabulary over a totally mythical "law" that it is illegal to take photographs of children. BTDTGTTS.
There must be hundreds of identical webcam applications out there - every cam comes with its own - and then hundreds of apps like the above. Why? Surely there are only so many things you can do with captured image
- store, ftp, http, email etc - why are people still bothering to write new ones! Doh.
Actually, I want to upgrade mine to one that automatically tracks movement, pan/tilt/zoom onto target. Anyone know of a good one?
You need a decent camera. Most webcams and CCTV cameras are inadequate beceause they tend to be quarter frame VGA (320x240) which is inadequate for evidence. You really need broadcast quality cameras and low compression images in order to identify who is doing what and to what. Look for a camera and a recorder that can at the very least cope with full frame VGA - for CCTV this is 672x544. There are some recorders around that can do it, but the majority of DIY shed cheapies just offer
336x272 or sometimes "VGA" at 672x272 which is inadequate.
Also be aware that many of the night time cameras are a dead giveaway because they use "infra red LED illumination" that extends into the visible spectrum. A bright glowing red ring in the sky is a dead giveaway that you are recording using CCTV.
You might get further with the relatively expensive option of a low-light Mini DV camera. Some of them offer the ability to output the image via S-VHS or Firewire so that you can use an external recorder or PC to store the video. The quality in low light is much better than that of the cheap(ish) CCTV. Most of the "Quad" digital CCTV recorders that I have seen record an entirely inadequate image and some require that you install only HDDs supplied by the maker. This means great expense and limited availability.
Unfortunately a decent DVR doesn't come cheap I've used things like this:
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the past, typically costing between £1500 and £2500. The 16 camera ability isn't necessary, what is important is the ability to record
720x576 video at 25 fps. That's sufficient to unequivocally identify a scumbag if used with a suitable quality of camera.
The cheapest option would be a webcam and a program that takes shots when triggered by movement ( motion detection ). Webcams are cheap enough, but if you want reasonable quality pics or night vision then the price goes up.
The software can be had for free - Pryme is one such program and can be found here:
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paid-for version, Tincam, is very good - I use it myself.
Any photos you take can be time-stamped and saved - or you can take short videos triggered by motion.
Well, if you're serious about it there's only one real choice, Axis webcams which have an integrated Linux server and network connections. Not cheap, but very good and available in PTZ weatherproof enclosures.
Because simply writing one doesn't mean it's any good - or that it does what you need it to do. Or that it's stable, or fast, or easy to use. I went through at least half a dozen before I found that Pryme, and later Tincam, ticked all the boxes for me.
One of the manufacturer's apps does that - face tracking, they call it. Might be Logitech?
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