We want to set up some CCTV system to get good quality images of any crims who come into our garden - we've tried the cheapy one from argos that records onto flash but as expected its rubbish.
We don't want to use a dedicated PC cos of the energy waste - but what other options are there that people are using to record?
If I were going to the bother of it, I'd go for a PC / net based system, that gets in touch with you if you're broken into and you can check the images online. You're much more likely to a) stop stuff being stolen and b) get what's stolen back, if you can actually ring the police when it's happening or very soon after IMO.
|We want to set up some CCTV system to get good quality images of any |crims who come into our garden - we've tried the cheapy one from argos |that records onto flash but as expected its rubbish. | |We don't want to use a dedicated PC cos of the energy waste - but what |other options are there that people are using to record?
Talk to your local Police Crime Prevention Officers. They need good quality images to use as evidence.
What do you mean by "records onto flash"? I have a "cheapy" one from Argos and it records ok onto VCR
Surely you mean "to completely ignore as they aren't admissible as evidence and even if they were we wouldn't do anything about it and you'd better not do anything yourself or we'll 'ave you and you can't show the images anywhere 'cos you'll be infringing the perps human rights"?
Ringing your local police when you're out of area is gradually becoming impossible.
After all, they wouldn't want to infringe the human rights of a burglar, would they?
I am in the middle of setting up a similar system, and I know what you mean. At the moment I have an old PC sat in the garage running Linux which records / motion detects / streams to the Net. This has all the power saving turned on, but I cannot let the disks spin down because if motion is detected, I need to start recording straight away.
I have been toying with the idea of using a large flash drive to record to instead. What disadvantages did you find with your camera?
We've got a server running all the time anyway - have been toying with idea of recording cctv at night on it as it doesn't have much cpu use from our processes during that time but concerned about overloading it
- having two running all the time adds up the running costs.
It came with a camera and you could only use that camera with it. It was rubbish at pics in the dark. Someone else had thought so too as there were smudgy pics of their car left on the flash card. The compression wasn't alterable though on the one we had - so you're restricted to their settings.
Get a mintron exview camera, the 12V1-EX is good. This produced normal CCTV output, you will need some means of recording it.
Pete
Part of our drive is right next to an alley where people walk their dogs so we'll have to watch out we don't get emailed every time a dog goes by.
Part of our reasoning for getting CCTV is that we've had "something" drive into our gates damaging them. The police man couldnt' write down it was done by car as no one witnessed it (And car tracks and broken headlights don't count)
|On Sun, 29 Oct 2006 10:59:26 -0000, "Doki" wrote: | |>
|>> We don't want to use a dedicated PC cos of the energy waste - but what |>> other options are there that people are using to record? |>
|>If I were going to the bother of it, I'd go for a PC / net based system, |>that gets in touch with you if you're broken into and you can check the |>images online. You're much more likely to a) stop stuff being stolen and b) |>get what's stolen back, if you can actually ring the police when it's |>happening or very soon after IMO. | |Part of our drive is right next to an alley where people walk their |dogs so we'll have to watch out we don't get emailed every time a dog |goes by. | |Part of our reasoning for getting CCTV is that we've had "something" |drive into our gates damaging them. The police man couldnt' write down |it was done by car as no one witnessed it (And car tracks and broken |headlights don't count)
If you had a recording *where one could read the number plate*, and the recording was timed and dated that would be evidence.
I am using ZoneMinder for movement detection. This lets you designate certain areas to watch, so in your case you would only watch your drive, and not the alley.
Evidence quality CCTV is expensive and, even if you have the quality, the cameras need to be sited where they show criminal activity in progress. Simply having someone walk into and out of shot at exactly the right time to have broken in is not evidence if they did nothing criminal while in shot. IMO, the only useful CCTV for crime detection or prevention is a professional remotely monitored system.
Colin Bignell
Dedicated s/h laptop however would be far lower power consumption.
Looks nifty - do you happen to know if its been ported to 'doze at all ?
Hopefully not if something reliable is wanted.
Processing of video on Windows has always been a challenge for it.
Try to find out more about just how man read/write cycles that particular type of flash drive is rated for. Some only have relatively limited numbers of cycles and wouldn't last too long if used in the way you outline.
My neighbour had an expensive new motorbike stolen from outside an office where he was working. Their CCTV picked up the thieves turning up in a van and taking it. He immediately phoned up the police: a
*week* later they turned up to look at the CCTV.Meanwhile the InsCo came round to inspect his garage (as the policy said it was garaged) hoping for an excuse not to pay, although whether it was garaged or not was completely irrelevant in this case. They took a £500 excess off him, and then told him that as it was a total loss payout his £500 policy of three weeks standing was void. So £1000 down and no help from police or insurance.
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