CCTV Video Capture

[Big Tim]

I'm in the process of wireing the house up with coax and cat5 cable as well as installing an alarm system.

What I'd like to do is to add some CCTV cameras, but use a PC to capture the pictures and software to trigger any alarms.

My research so far has been informative, apart from finding out about the capture cards that I can get for my PC.

To date I've come to the conclusion that what I want/need (to start with) is a 4-port PCI card. Of the few I can find any details of on the web or in the newsgroups is the Trust 814. But in previous posts (ages ago) it seems I'm limited to only one card in a PC. I can find this for sale (@£60 at the moment) online.

Other cards that have been mentioned such as the PICO 2000 I don't seem to be able to find and the other systems I can find are complete systems, such as the geovision. I'm not looking for a software element as I'll be building a Linux based PC.

So has anyone any suggestions as to a) a make of card that would be useful, and b) where I can get these cards.

I've already ooked at Henrys.co.uk and rfcomponents.co.uk for cameras and stuff.

Any suggestions?

(Cross posted on uk.d-i-y and uk.tech.electronic-security)

[Christian McArdle]

You could have bought USB based cameras. The camera sensor will be the same CCD, but the signals are kept in a computer friendly fashion rather than converted to an analogue signal that the computer requires expensive hardware to understand.

Christian.

[Alan]

...But you're limited by cable length with USB, and they tend to be "webcams" and not proper outdoor cameras...

[Chris Oates]

an example

[Big Tim]

Beat me to it Alan.

I've discounted USB cameras and usb capture cards for a number of reasons, which include:

• Limited length for cable runs unless you include repeaters which just ups the cost.

• USB tends to be webcams which wont stand up to being situated outside.

• USB has greater limitations on the amount of data that can be captured compared to a PCI card.

• I want to distribute the incoming signals around the house so I can also "watch" the cameras on the nearest TV if I so choose. I can see who's at the front door by switching channels doing this

What I didn't (forgot) to mention is that the PC that I intend to use will be up in the loft where all the cat5 and coax will be terminating. So I'm looking at a 30+ft run of cable for the front door camera, regardles of system used.

[R W]

You can get ethernet connected external cameras. You give the camera an address with RARP and away you go.

There's one used here....

[I J H]

try

they did an article on setting up such a system a while back.

[BigWallop]

A cheap router and some of these:

this, but watch out for the line wrap:

[BigWallop]

Or any of these:

[BigWallop]

Or this:

[BigWallop]

Or even these:

[Big Tim]

site, but I'm guessing that it's way out of my budget. Not that I'm sure what that is yet :-)

See further down there -vvv- for more info...

[Big Tim]

will cost more than is in the Kitty.

Keep going -vvv-

[Big Tim]

offering, like a number of others I've found, is a complete solution. So they supply the PCI card, the cameras and the software (and cable and stuff).

But I'm not sure what I want in the way of cameras yet, am thinking of using a Linux PC and ZoneMinder's (free) software and so a complete solution isn't the right solution for me. At the moment anyway.

What I'm trying to find out is where I can get the 3/4 camera PCI cards from although they seem to be a very rare thing indeed, unless you happen to be buying a complete solution of course.

I had it in my mind that I'd get a card and put in my PC, then get a camera and play about connecting it up using either alarm cable or cat5 cable so that I could supply the 12v down the wire and avoid the need for a local power supply for the camera.

Once I had this sorted I'd then get the additional cameras. My camera list is something along the lines of Front Door spyhole/external, Lounge, Kitchen and one external covering the Drive and Caravan. The BIG plan is to make the internal cameras part of the alarm system, so if someone gets in the house then I've got pictures of them.

So, in my enthusiasm I thought it'd take an hour to find a PCI card, then order a card based camera and I'd have a "Project" for the weekend. It was while trying to find "lots of choice" that I found that's there's very little choice out there.

What it looks like I'll be getting tomorrow is the Trust 814 PCI interface

and follow the products >

security camera systems links) for about £70 and a board camera from somewhere. On one of the NGs I've read that only one board can be in a PC so that is a limitation, but as I can't find an alternative and I should manage to cover the house with 4 cameras...

Thanks for the responses.

[Big Tim]

First thing I spotted was " Supports up to 4 cameras (colour OR black & white, not both)" so that looks like a negative (sorry, I only noticed what I'd typed after I'd typed it) as I'm not sure if the outside camera will be B&W or colour. I'm still looking into what "lux" and IR means :-). I think I want all the cameras to be colour, but (and this may be a dumb question) can you see the IR "lights" when they are activated? I had planned on trying to hide the outdoor camera, but I suppose if it's high enough up then only the window cleaner can have it away.

The Stingray 4 Port PCI thingy looks like the type of thing, but it's £190 before you've got a camera. Have I mentioned I have (deep pockets, short arms) a budget?

Still looking like the Trust 814.

[Chris Oates]

A good black & white system is preferable to a budget colour one - good colour cameras + lens = big outlay

no

We tried several 4 port cards & all seem to share the same chipset - the difference was the drivers which is CRITICAL to the PC running the card.

Tried that - didn't work with supplied software but worked with 3rd party software which didn't have motion detection.

This worked with windows XP

don't use it for motion detection or recording (VCR rack for that) but feed it from banks of multiplexers for screen captures for the Police.

The multiplexers are fed from a huge variety of cameras (all auto iris) auto infra red night vision, programable CCD that can 'look' into areas of vastly different light level, remote ones which are wireless linked - some are 240v & plug into a mains socket & some are run via 300ft of multicore camera cable

[Robin Davies]

Take a look here

It might give you a wireless idea

[Sparks]

How about this off eBay - They are always avalable!

is some info if you can't be arsed to look at eBay

Excellent Quality DSR Card (4 Channels) for Home/Office surveillance and security. Each PCI card supports 4 BNC/RCA cameras, and can chain up to 4 cards per PC, i.e. 16 Channels per DVR PC.

This robust DSR Card supports sophisticated functionalities including:

- 16 channel recording (using 4 cards together)

- remote monitoring through Internet / LAN

- time-stamped recording

- motion detection

Specifications:

DSR Card full resolution video: PAL (768x576), NTSC(640x480) generic PCI slot compatible available in all PCs

4 x BNC/RCA Video Input 1 x DB25 female connector for Alarm triggering 1 xDB15 female connector for Alarm triggering Video Server Software

runs on MS Windows 98/2000/NT (XP and 2003 is not officially support, but tested by our engineers, and it runs OK) low hardware requirement: PIII 450Mhz, 128Mb RAM, 10GB HDD, Network Card/Modem full resolution video: PAL (768x576), NTSC(640x480) configurable up to 16 camera (simple insert 4 DSR cards on the same PC)

16-channel digital multiplexing real-time digital video compression 7x24 remote access service through TCP/IP(Internet) and/or modem dial-up user access right control for different operations video playback using Media Player Pan/Tilt/Zoom Control motion detection recording alarm triggered recording programmable timer recording multilingual capability Remote Monitor runs on MS Windows 98/2000/XP/2003 extreme low hardware requirement: PII 233Mhz MMX, 64Mb RAM, 5GB HDD, Network Card/Modem password login and event log remote online video viewing local recording of video at remote machine remote historical video playback (both local and server video records) alarm alert function

Sparks...

[BigWallop]

Lux is the light level that gives the camera a working image. One Lux is very close to One Candle power. B&W Cameras work at much lower light levels, so are more preferential for outdoor use. Colour Cameras are OK in anything above 5 Lux, but B&W Cameras can give a decent image down to 1/2 (0.5) Lux. IR Lighting causes most images to glow rather white when closer to the camera, so try not to point the IR directly at the point you want to view, but keep it shining over the area of view. A human face, because of the red blood vessels near the surface of the skin, are the worst culprits of this effect.

If you are going on the route of using the PCI card with BNC connections, then you'll be able to use any standard Closed Circuit Camera on the market. All you'll need is either mains voltage or low voltage types. There are cameras called line fed, which plug in to a separate power supply then back to the PCI card and the cameras are fed down the single coaxial cable, so these might be worth you looking at.

I could go on forever spouting about CCTv systems, because they are our speciality at B.A.S.S, but every job is an individual and needs treated as such. Please shop about for a while longer before making your final choice, because, as sure as fate, you'll find something better after you've already bought something.

[Martin]

The PIC cards seem to be sold through ebay on a regular basis.