jm91rs

I don't know much about CCTV systems, but I'll try to quickly summarize what I think I need. I'd like a system that would record video that I could look back on in case there was vandalism or theft on my house/property. I think I want a DVR system as I don't want to hook this up to a computer. There are 3 ways to get into my house through a door. I want a camera on my front door, on my driveway/garage area, and one on the back door. So I need 3 cameras (I'm assuming I need 4 channel system then). I could just go on amazon and buy some system with 4 night vision cameras, but I can't find good information on picture quality. I plan on crawling through the attic to install this myself. If I get a system that can't even read a license plate of a car parked on my 40 foot long driveway it would do me no good. If I watch some blurry figure vandalize my truck it would just make me mad that we didn't have an image of the face! So I'm looking for opinions on brand or what kind of image quality I need to be looking out for on the camera. (I assume image quality is decided by camera quality rather than the dvr model?) Price is a factor, I'm not looking for fancy. If I could watch the video on my phone or work computer that would be cool, but it's not a necessity. Thank you for any basic help you can provide. I'm hoping to buy something and not be mad that the quality stinks.

I understand that reading plates at night is tough, I'd imagine the flare from the headlights will make it hard to see much of anything else. Luckily my bedroom is right over the driveway and unless the thief is in a hybrid I'm probably going to wake up to anyone pulling in the driveway. We've had a run of day time break ins in our area, so catching the plate will be for that purpose (of course if the guy is smart the plates aren't actually his). I'm assuming most of you guys are professionals here and you won't be buying kits out of a box to throw in someone's house, so what I'm asking for here is 1) is it important which DVR system I go with or will any of the basic 4-8 channel 1TB systems work fine? and 2) what am I looking for with a camera? Are they rated in pixels, do some zoom better than others on play back? I'm lucky (except on my energy bill) that the previous owners of my house went absolutely nuts with automatic outdoor lighting. We can play a basketball game in my driveway at midnight without flipping a light switch. There is a good amount of lighting all over the front, not much in the back. *my budget is the lowest amount it takes to get it done correctly.