Recommend me a decent budget home CCTV kit

My mate installs CCTV systems and i've helped him out on a few jobs.

If your gonna install it yourself then best to buy a DIY system, just search CCTV systems, there are plenty of suppliers out there, try avoiding the cheap systems on ebay available from abroad though. Im sure you can buy 1/2/4/8/16 camera systems.

Nearly all cameras have day/night function in which they will automatically switch over when it starts getting dark, obviously if you have decent lighting then picture will be better than if it's total darkness.

The recording is done via a DVR which come in all sorts of memory sizes. I helped out with a system install last month and the 1TB DVR was about the size of a small DVD palyer. We located it in one of the bedrooms with a small 15" monitor and wired the 4x cameras through the loft to the DVR. All the cables were neatly clipped so didn't look messy. This particular system my mate set up for remote mobile viewing. Most DVR's can be networked for remote viewing. So you can be anywhere in the world and watch live video of your camera's at home on your mobile phone or laptop. Now that i find so cool.

My mate tries to avoid wireless systems as he's had problems with interference in picture quality.

Shame your so far away from the Midlands, im sure my mate would have quoted you up a decent system if you were nearer.

My old man has the maplin kit with a pc dvr. The system runs really well through the PC and the night vision on the camera is reasonable. The playback is good and the software is good too! Think the PC DVr is mate by swan? and has 4 channels for four cameras ...hes running two atm!

I went with the easy option: IP cameras. I got recommended panasonic, and ordered a BLC 160 which has a nighttime LED to light the scene. Recording is based on motion / perimetric sensor and will send video or stills to FTP or email as well as allowing live view over the Internet. Got it from network webcams- highly recommend both. It does power over Ethernet, so only one cable. Job done.