TallDoode

Honestly, no. I will give the Geo software playback a shot. I use one called GOM which allows me to "drag" through the video quickly. A 5 minute video only takes 5 seconds to go through, but then I have to double click to open the next one, drag through it, etc. Time consuming when you have over 1000 videos in a 24 hour period. I will try Geo and see what it can do and if it is any better. Thanks for the tip. dave

This is a quad core system with very fast hard drives. My old software (PICO2000) created 15 minute files (1.2GB each) that were easy to search. Unfortunately PICO doesnt work well with 2 cams, let alone 4. It is old software (2005 was the last update). Nowadays a 2 - 3 GB video file is not considered all that big. A ripped DVD is 4 - 8 GB and playable. I have tried motion detection. Didnt work at night. Not sure if it is the cameras or just what but i have two different camers (Lorax and Q-See) and neither worked at night. Not sure what a "yard beam" is though. SOrry, I am a noobie at video surveilance. Thanks, dave

What about software for a PC that is storing the data? I bought a GeoVision FV-800 that came with software but it only records in 5 minute chunks. I review the footage from each night to see if anyone has been creeping around my driveway and having to go through 288 AVI files every day, per camera, with four cameras... is REALLY irritating. I need something that records 30 - 60 minutes for each file. I have emailed the GeoVision software people but 5 minutes is the max and while they may change it in the future it is not going to be soon enough for me. Anyone have any thoughts? Not IP - just four cameras plugged into a GV-800 in a Windows Vista computer with 2TB of disk space. Thanks, dave

I have noticed that about the insects. About twice a week I have to clean the lenses. I have done a search for "Security Monster" on the message bases to try and contact that person about getting new cams but there were no hits on this. While I dont mind using one of the click thru ads, I would prefer to use someone who has been used and been recommended vs. just someone who is advertising on the site. I thought I knew what I needed but cctv_down_under got me confused again! . I thought I wanted to get away from IR and just into a very good low lux camera. Guess what I need to do is choose a vendor, call them, discuss what this discussion has been about and have them recommend a system for me. Thanks again everyone for your help. FYI - the local news here in Vegas picked up on my security video of the guys trying to break into my car and ran the story on the 11:00 news last night including the video. Hopefully there wont be any repercussions from vengeful car break-in people. Cheers, dave

Cool. Thanks. I will try to track one down. Cheers, dave

Wow, great discussion people. Thanks!!! So all this being said, we have plenty of light outside on the driveway. We have lights on the garage and a "yellow" street light across the street. If low lux is the way to go, I am all over that, but the "low lux" cameras I have purchased before from Fry's were junk. They said .03 lux but you couldnt see anything beyond about 4'. The light from the garage lights extends all the way to the road. Another irritating thing about these cameras is thier narrow field of view. Seems like I only get about 20' of "view" with them (my Lorax and Q-See IR cameras). What is a good, low lux camera for day/night? Is there such a beast? While we do have most crime commiteed at night, we have enough people wandering our neighborhood during the day to have me want to get images of them. If all else fails, I have a 4 port GV-800 so I could use my 2 cameras during the day and turn them off at night, and switch to 2 low lux cameras. While I cant say "money is no object" I can spend what I need to in order to get night time pictures that are good enough for the Police to ID people breaking into cars. Thanks again for the discussion and the education. Cheers, dave

All, I apologize if there is a thread for this but I did some searches and didn't come up with anything. I have a Q-See. Not sure the model but it can see 80' at night and have 470 TVL. Indoor/outdoor. Actually a decent camera. I wish it was more focused (even in the daytime things appear blurry a bit) but I didnt see any way to open it and try to focus it. Anyway, the reason for my post is that I use the cameras for trying to find out who is breaking into our cars at night. I have this one trained on my Truck in my driveway. The image at night is pretty good (I thought) however the other night my wife took out some garbage and passed in front of the camera on her way back into the house. The camera is mounted about 14' off the ground on my garage and when she was about 10' away on the driveway it got a decent image of her, but then as she got closer she turned into a big, white, blurry ghost. She was wearing a dark shirt and has dark hair. My point is that I am trying to use these to identify someone trying to get into my truck at night, but all I would see is a big, white, blurry ghost which I doubt the police could do much about . There is quite a bit of ambient light out there - lights on the garage, street lights etc. so would a low lux camera instead of an IR camera be better? I tried a few low lux cams from Fry's but they really sucked (cheap ones, less than $150.00). Is this normal for an IR camera to do this at night? Thanks for any opinions or recommendations. Cheers, dave

So to add to this - is video surveillance of my home to catch criminals or deter them? Personally I would rather deter them by putting up a "look up and smile at the camera stupid" sign. I have video of guys checking our car doors at 2:30 in the morning but the picture is too grainy to be of any use identifying them. They would never have seen a sign that they were under video surveillance (i.e. they jumped out of thier car and checked our cars and left quickly). My plan is to put up signs stating the property is under video surveillance in case someone is "casing" my home to come back later (we get a lot of flyers on our door every week for lawn care, home cleaning etc) but hopefully catch anyone who doesnt see the sign. Just curious if you guys are "catch em" or "deter em" sort of members . I am new here. Cheers, dave

I don't know that I agree. No one asked what he was going to monitor, when, lighting, 24/7 or just during business hours etc. Many times the threat of video surveillance is enough and having cameras mounted and visible helps. I have two cameras doing home monitoring. One is a Lorex the other is a Q-See. I like the picture better on the Q-See at night, but the Lorex seems to be better during the day. Swann makes good cameras and the Costco bundles for daylight hours are decent and you can recognize faces in them just fine. At night, due to the limited IR, they are not as good and you only get a few feet of view. One of the issues with larger IR cameras (like my Q-See that "sees" 80 feet in 100% darkness) is that if someone gets within 10 feet of it, the IR is so "bright" they look like a ghost. That is a problem I am trying to address right now. I want to see who is breaking into our cars and a big, white blur doesnt help the police much My recommendation is to look around and see what you can put together for your budget but the Q-See from Costco is a decent monitoring system for a small business that is well lighted and not likely to be robbed after hours when the lights are off (since cash is typically removed every night). Plus, the 8 cameras looking down on someone think twice about robbing you (assuming that is what you want them for). My .02. dave