I am currently using 2 cheap cameras connected to a GE Symsafe DVR. I'm about to add 2 more cameras and will upgrade the others in the future as I need clearer images.
The Symsafe DVR is dying. I can no longer review video over the network and have to use the console. In addition, the motion detection is not creating the alerts so I have to sift through hours of video.
I just built a server where all my camera inputs are so it makes sense to add a card. I also prefer to do all monitoring through a computer and only use the output to view live footage. My server uses an AMD A8 on an ASUS motherboard with 8gb ram. I currently have around 2tb of archive drives with an SSD to run Windows 7 x64. I plan on adding more archive disks as well. There are plenty of free resources.
I have very little money right now but I need a replacement. A card seems to meet my needs the best, but a DVR seems like less money. What is important to look for in a card? I know I need high resolution, but I'd like a faster frame rate when possible. It seems now that I miss a lot of detail from the cars turning in the fractions of seconds missed. The full D1 DVRs are expensive though. Will I get the same from a card?
[Edit] I forgot to mention that I would like to record all the time, but have motion detection create events for faster searching.