netsplit504

First off, I'd like to say that this forum is awesome and I've spent many hours over the past week absorbing as much information as I can. From the information I've found, I've gotten most of my security system down, except for the actual capturing part. I am going to be using an old PC (running Windows), but am having trouble finding a capture card. Since everything else has already been purchased, to stay within my remaining budget the capture card needs to fall in the sub-$100 range. The problem is that many of the cards that I'm looking at in this range don't seem to have many reviews, so I'm not sure if I am getting a decent card and am hoping the experience on this board will help. It will be a pretty basic system, with only one camera input being captured, so right now I am torn between the idea of using a standard 4 input DVR capture card or, since it will be a one-camera system, using a more universal card such as an ATI all-in-wonder or something similar to that. If I do decide to go with one of the non-DVR specific cards such as this, will the capture software recognize this input just as it would recognize an input from a DVR capture card? Any suggestions on qualtiy sub-$100 cards is also greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Thanks again to both of you!

Thanks for the tips, as you can probably tell, I'm a bit new to all of this, but am trying to learn as much as I can by reading other posts. I guess my next question would be regarding a quality DVR to use, but I'll go post that on the appropriate sub-forum. Thanks again!

Looking at only the resolution and lux numbers, am I pretty certain to get a pretty decent camera? Or should I be looking more at reviews to be sure that the camera doesn't stutter/freeze while recording, etc? I was looking at the Everfocus EM500NHP3 (http://www.everfocus.com/product.cfm?productid=54) but cannot seem to find any reviews or footage. Going back to my original question, are pinhole cameras pretty consistent as far as performance, or should I go with a more tried and tested cam that others have vouched for? Thanks!