Renegade

I have an IT background and am generally able to handle tech stuff of all kinds. I have installed my own security system with coverage of 18 windows and a couple of floor sensors in the past, but have little to no surveillance knowledge. I'm wanting to build a surveillance system for my home and office that I can grow as I can afford it. I'm just going to lay out what I think I want to do and please correct me with what I should do where needed. I have plenty of computers at my disposal that I can dedicate to this project and was thinking that a DVR card would be a good place to start, but I'm way open minded to a dedicated DVR if that is a better way to go long term. Initially, I plan to focus on a good card that I can build around and probably just add a camera or two at a time as I figure out what fits my needs well. I plan to start with a good DVR that will handle at least 4 channels with a decent frame rate and from what I'm reading it sounds like starting with an 8 channel card might make more sense even if I only plan to do 4 cams. The main purpose of this system will be perimeter surveillance to a DVR that has basic control that I can access remotely even if its just by a remote desktop connection to the main unit. I would like to be able to have my wife who works at home access the video at the same time I access it. Then after I figure out what I'm doing at home I will either duplicate or upgrade into another system for my office. My house is a brick two story with a garage that sticks out about 20 feet on the front of the house with a 30ft two car wide drive way and one medium size tree in front of the house that doesn't shade the driveway at all. The entrance is recessed just down a sidewalk that runs along the side of the garage and the front porch is about a 6ft square that is covered. Above the garage near the front porch overhang is an area in my office that I would like to locate my system as its heated and cooled and has access to the area above the front porch and has access down the eaves of both front corners of the garage. My first camera or two will be focused on covering the drive way as that has been a problem with teenage vandals even though its fairly well lit with coach lamps. The next area will be the front porch or door camera and I'd like to have audio available here as well so my wife wouldn't have to risk going to the front door when she is home alone. Then general coverage of the front and back yard would be nice with possibly a few inside cameras later, but I'm guessing my budget is going to give out before I get to the door camera as I prefer to buy quality stuff that will last me. One good camera that would cover the driveway during the day and especially at night will get me by for now and eventually it would be nice to look into something that could cover the street area in front of the house as well as possibly being able to control it to swivel and zoom as needed. Thanks for taking the time to read my overly lengthy question and offer me some help.

I keep having people tell me to get a dedicated system and not mess with a DVR card yet I've seen a lot of good posts about DVR cards. Are they old news? If you got a new setup today would you still get one? Would it be a hybrid?

Thank you! That is exactly the answer I've been needing to hear spelled out especially since I always have plenty of quality computers around that I could dedicate to this purpose. Now, if I could just get a recommendation on what cards I need to decide between. I get the feeling this is like a religious kind of decision. Looks kinda like the software the card comes with is almost more important than the card. Do I want to get a hybrid? Is there somewhere to get some decent reviews to compare cards? Any more help would be greatly appreciated.

Can you access it from a pc at your home? How about gotomypc on your home computer?

Welcome!

Welcome! I'm new as well.

Just looking around for some help choosing a DVR Card and a camera or two to get me started.

Thanks