CCTV systems advice needed

1animal1

1animal1

The Clar!! it mouves!!!
Joined
Dec 27, 2007
Messages
9,991
Reaction score
40
Points
48
Location
Sheffield
I am looking for a 4 camera system with hard drive recorder, budget was initially £2-300 but may pay up to £500 if it is worth my while as appreciate with most things, you get what you pay for.

I spent most of last night googling systems but they are so confusing and i would imagine i could end up paying £500 for ***** quite easily!!

I was thinking the wall mounted bullet cams, the rear has a good sensor driven flood light so i could mount the cams above this to provide a decent pic, the front however would need to be infra red, although id prefer without the LED's that shine and show the camera if possible.

I am planning on hard wiring a system in and would require at least 250gb HD

only question i have so far is what does the lense size mean 3mm versus 6mm etc etc, and is 470 enough resolution or will i see a big improvement with 500+

any help is good help :)
 
Is this something for you to be able to monitor your car or just a CCTV in general?

I've heard many times before that home CCTV footage (no matter how good or how well it's been installed) will not stand up in a court of law, as it can easily be tampered with and crap like that

Just to warn you it's what i've heard, don't know how true it is

As for the system alone, i talk a lot to a client of ours who does CCTV and cameras and stuff, and his moto is always "pay cheap, pay dearly" meaning that you buy some cheap stuff and you will regret it if something happens and the CCTV doesn't catch the evidence very well

Hope that helps buddy
 
Also from my experience at the office here the local council forced us to put "CCTV IN OPERATION" on all exits and to made clearly visible to anyone entering the premises, not sure how you stand with personal property though but imagine it's the same.

Hope it's not to do with your asbo neighbor's thread I have just been reading, really feel sorry for you!

Think we could plan some form of revenge with 100+ audis revving outside her house when she's trying to sleep. Also in accordance with your other neighbors too :)
 
i am having toruble with nosiy neighbours who have just been issued with an abatement noticve and are resorting to other tactics such as trying to poison my dogs with grapes.... police have advised me to fit a system for which i am allowed to cover 1/3rd of their garden and prove where the items are being thrown from, the plan is to have two at the back and two at the front......

regards regualtion, as long as they are fixed and covering 2/3rds of my proeprty i am fine without the CCTV data protection act paperwork...sorry for the short reply, just on my way out :)
 
Dude, i believe Maplins do a decent setup for a decent price as well, so might be worth having a look at what they have, alternatively, you could have a PC setup and use that, you know like a DIY jobbie.
 
Maplins have a 4 camera kit with 500gb hard drive on offer right now, I have just got one, yet to install it though.
 
Nilz, yep, thats the one. Register on the website and get another £15 off. I added a monitor and qualified to get £25 off.
 
We paid about £450 for our cctv cameras. Infrared etc and yes you do have to display stickers to show that you have it installed. I would question your motive for not wishing to make the cameras obvious as I'm a firm believer in preventing the crime from happening in the first place rather then catching them in the act and running away with your property. It's all about making the criminal think twice and not about trying to prosecute people.
 
Wait hold up, if it's for your neighbours which I must of got confused with protecting your own property ignore my last comment. But still..I think it's best to use CCTV as prevention rather than the cure.
 
cheers chaps.....no offence but i've always associated Maplins with cheap tack, i used to be a sound/lighting engineer years ago and know a lot of their sound equipment is overpriced junk. I'm sure the cctv systems are fine i just prefer to use a branded item such as Sony cameras etc.

thanks for the suggestion Nilzy, unfortunately the PC based systems benefit more from being on dedicated systems as opposed to one that you would use, which is why i just wanted a recorder with HD and possibly a DVD RW drive installed.

TKU, you only have to display one sign for the whole lot, my plan is not to hide anything, i want the externally mounted eyeball design so they are discrete, having the LED's shining draws attention to people that otherwise wouldnt see them making them a target (or more of) i also take the view that they are unsightly enough as it is without having LED beacons on all night. The primary measure here is to catch me nieghbours at something that would enable me to get them evicted. The landlord is trying to get out of letting me pay for a section 8 eviction notice now (or i feel he is).....after everything that has kicked off i no longer feel safe in my own home and wont do until these 'tramps' move.....the point is not the noise or nuisance now, its principle not to mention what it will do to my house value assuming i want to sell - deflated market, buying up the scale would work more in my favour!! its like living in a cage

worse is that i am away on more and more business trips spending nights in hotels and leaving the misus here alone with the dogs..... prevention takes a back seat in this instance.
 
Tim,

Check out some of the systems at cpc/farnell/onecall Your Search Results | CPC

Reasonably priced and next day delivery. Have not bought any yet, but will be soon.

I agree though, that Maplins have gone really downhill on quality and up on price the last 10 years or so.

I was also a sound/lighting tech in the dim and distant past. In fact the 1st amp I built aged 15 was a modified version of their excellent old 150W Mosfet amp. Still had it 12 years later until it got nicked from my car at a service station :-(

Good luck with catching the w**kers next door. Hope you get them before they cause any harm to your hounds...

Cheers,
 
cheers ALi, appreciate that mate - i remember before joining a band i toured with, seeing my brother going to buy the cheap and nasty NJD lighting systems from Maplins, the old twisters and octopus :) occasionally we resorted to using their crossovers when we were really desperate for nightclub installs - i used to work closely with the chap who part owned Cloud electronics and so was able to offer a fair comparison and see how **** their parts really were, that must have been around 96-97 so i think your being kind with the 10 years......doesn't time fly :)
 
My dad got his set-up from Maplin, it's not the best. It randomly misses chunks of time out :huh:
 
1animal1 said:
cheers ALi, appreciate that mate - i remember before joining a band i toured with, seeing my brother going to buy the cheap and nasty NJD lighting systems from Maplins, the old twisters and octopus :) occasionally we resorted to using their crossovers when we were really desperate for nightclub installs - i used to work closely with the chap who part owned Cloud electronics and so was able to offer a fair comparison and see how **** their parts really were, that must have been around 96-97 so i think your being kind with the 10 years......doesn't time fly :)
Click to expand...

Indeed it does. My claims to fame are doing lighting for 'Ned's Atomic Dustbin' at the Newcastle Riverside in 1991 while at Uni there, and FOH mix for the Kendal Folk Festival 2nd stage the same year while I was home for the summer. My one and only time pulling a 40+ hour 'day'!!

Funnily enough, my neighbour's son is a party DJ, and he started out with NJD lights and a rather nasty Numark amp which lasted 4 gigs before I had to replace 4 output transistors. A little while later it fried the main board and he ditched it. Now got him a pair of 2nd hand Matrix UKP1300 amps which are cracking little amps for the money. He even managed to blow a channel on an old Cloud VTX1500 he was lent!! A tamper-proof limiter has now been added to his rack!!

Now only really use Maplin for the odd bits I can't get from the Electroncis workshop at the Engineering Science department, or urgent audio connectors... Most of the rest of their stock is overpriced for what it is. Bought a portable HDD a while back as it was a steal on offer, but rare indeed.

Cheers
 
you sound like your still well into it all matey........ i have completely lost track, band i used to work for was run by the main guy behind jimmy james and the vagabonds (bass guitarist), Radiation and the Helicopters (very big in S Africa in the 80's).... headed up by his misus who was a massive solo artist over there (Adelle First), i lost track as they moved back over there late 90's as it was safe to do so - fun whilst it lasted but not something to aspire to for life unless you hit big - otherwise you'd still be karting gear around at 65 :)

i have found a really good guide on cctv now but still think i'm gonna lose an arm when settling for a system...why cant things be easy for a change!!
 
1animal1 said:
I am looking for a 4 camera system with hard drive recorder, budget was initially £2-300 but may pay up to £500 if it is worth my while as appreciate with most things, you get what you pay for.

I spent most of last night googling systems but they are so confusing and i would imagine i could end up paying £500 for ***** quite easily!!

I was thinking the wall mounted bullet cams, the rear has a good sensor driven flood light so i could mount the cams above this to provide a decent pic, the front however would need to be infra red, although id prefer without the LED's that shine and show the camera if possible.

I am planning on hard wiring a system in and would require at least 250gb HD

only question i have so far is what does the lense size mean 3mm versus 6mm etc etc, and is 470 enough resolution or will i see a big improvement with 500+

any help is good help :)
Click to expand...

If you PM your number I'll talk you through it all. CCTV is what I do. :)

REgards Ian

PS I'm in Wales for next 3 days watching Rally, so might be Monday before I can get back to you!
 
am a electrician by trade but i have fitted this kit several time and for the money its not bad at all
ESP Digi View 4 CCTV System
please note do shop around as we only paid £300 for the Kit all in
 
Tom you wanna give cpc a good look at. They're based in Preston Lancashire it's like an Argos for geeks you'll get everything there from bugging devices to PCB components not bad on price and good quality. Example I ran hdmi around the house thought it would be easier to buy leads terminated maplin wanted £60 for each 20m lead. CPC charged £15. They sell all sorts of camera gear. You could probably build up a good quality setup with what your spending or they do off the shelf kits from around £200
 
Ok after days of debating over what to get i finally bit the bullet

This is the DVR i settled for

Apollo HD DVR HDMI H264 500GB DVR

and these are the cameras (or a similar more updated version of) purchased from H.harolds in Sheffield @ £80 a pop

Genie CCTV LTD35V

in addition i have purchased CAT5 cable to reduce the amount of cables running to each camera, yet to purchase the baluns Informer CCTV Video Balun Twin Pack BNC Male & RJ45 to convert the signal, oh and this power unit Informer CCTV 5A 12VDC 4 Way CCTV Power Supply

so far so good, drilled the holes through the cavities, run the trunking inside which looks a lot neater than my initial plan of having round trunking outside, the cables run into the loft then fed down past my waste pipe (to the ground floor) where i have cut a hole in the base of the box that hides the pipe, fixing a dry wall socket in place ready to go into the DVR which will be hidden behind my main TV - connected via HDMI.

off to Essex tomorrow on business, fitting the cams will have to wait till Thurs night now :(
 
Glad you got sorted dude do you need to terminate the cat5'e or already done?
 
Tim, sorry to hear about the troubles. Totally sucks! Can you give us a review of the system overall in varying conditions (night time and day time etc). I'm thinking of a CCTV system from a new network I'm throwing into the house - just for the sake of it really. The only think I don't want is to make my home look like a prison, so I would prefer little dome cameras. Fortunately I don't have bad neighbours, just work long hours etc. I'm a while off installing, but think it's on the cards.

Cheers fella
 
damo.h said:
Glad you got sorted dude do you need to terminate the cat5'e or already done?
Click to expand...

Not done yet mate, just this minute ordered the video baluns and female 12v connectors.....tonight i'm having to redrill the cavities with the SDS as the camera plugs wont go all the way through whilst taped to the metal bar im threarding them through with - who ever said this was a quick job :)

recomdos said:
Tim, sorry to hear about the troubles. Totally sucks! Can you give us a review of the system overall in varying conditions (night time and day time etc). I'm thinking of a CCTV system from a new network I'm throwing into the house - just for the sake of it really. The only think I don't want is to make my home look like a prison, so I would prefer little dome cameras. Fortunately I don't have bad neighbours, just work long hours etc. I'm a while off installing, but think it's on the cards.

Cheers fella
Click to expand...

will do mate..... i'd hate for anyone to have to do the research ive just done from scratch.....

which reminds me, im yet to call Ian back from above...sorry Ian i have just had an extremely busy week mate, speak soon

Tim
 
ok ok first chance i have had to update you chaps....

The system was finally installed on Friday, so far no problems and the functionality is brilliant for what i expected, ok you have to spend a bit of time positioning the cams so as to get the best picture owing to outdoor lights and various other factors, but after doing that it seems i can be happy with my purchase. I have managed to access the unit via my laptop on the same router, still to work out how to access it at work, all down to the necessary securtity settings.

I am already considering another 1 or 2 cams to add so well worth the extra few quid for the 8 channel DVR, also possibly adding a micrphone to the front of the house too to be able to gather evidence from that.

Only one issue to report sorry, the unit would not work with my 1080i LCD tv either by HDMI or VGA and so have had to settle on an old tft monitor that was lying about.....still toying wioth upgrading to LED/3D or to wait for the 3D tv's next year that dont need glasses...out this xmas in Japan
 
or indeed flame throwers.....although shot guns may be kinder to the environment

entertaining either way
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
CCTV
Replies
6
Views
654
silver_vw
silver_vw
jojo
CCTV help.
Replies
12
Views
1K
jojo
jojo
Randomjim
  • Start Poll
Advice needed
Replies
33
Views
2K
hiltoa
hiltoa
rasA4
CCTV and alarms
Replies
6
Views
813
veeeight
veeeight
voorhees
Consumer Advice needed
Replies
6
Views
694
head
H
Top
Back