MikeW 0 Posted January 12, 2009 New to this technology. Here is what I am wanting for my house. I would like to install 8 cameras throughout inside/outside of house and connect to a DVR. I would like to have a dedicated LCD monitor in one room and have two High Def TV's be able to watch both satellite (DISH - current) as well as switch channel/input to view the 8 cameras at one time. Is this possible? If yes, what do I need or what do I have to look for in my decision for buying a DVR? Thanks for your help. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Soundy 1 Posted January 12, 2009 There are a number of different ways to do this, depending mainly on what you want to spend and whether you're set on a standalone or a PC-based DVR. What's your budget for the DVR? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MikeW 0 Posted January 13, 2009 Soundy - I was budgeting around $1500 for a DVR and a total of around $3000 for the entire system. What I really want is to have two LCD monitors (one in the office and one in the bedroom) and then have one TV be capable of viewing the 8 cameras. I have that TV hooked up to a surround sound system (Pioneer Elite) and was thinking I could possibly use one of the inputs like DVD2 to simply push one button on the remote which will shift to that input. If this is possible to design in this fashion I would truly appreciate any advise. Net is looking for a DVR capable of having two LCD Monitors and one TV input. Also - was thinking of a stand alone DVR but has network capabilities for remote viewing. However, the two LCD's would be hooked direct to the DVR and not viewed via a PC. Thank you, Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Soundy 1 Posted January 13, 2009 Well, if your TVs have VGA inputs, you could always just use a VGA splitter to split out the signal from the DVR to its own monitor. The downside to that is needing to either run VGA cables to each TV, or pull Cat-5e and use a pair of VGA baluns for each (not cheap). That would give you the best quality, but you'd be limited to the TVs having the same display. You could also either find a DVR with a separate composite output that will give you a split-screen display (best option), or use something like an AverKey to generate a composite signal from the VGA output (most models have VGA pass-thru). I know a number of PC-based DVRs that will do the job (most that use a XECAP card have the composite MUX output), but they're a little beyond your price range. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MikeW 0 Posted January 13, 2009 This data is very helpful. Wondering what you all think of this for a solution to my requirements: I am looking at a DVR (Promax 900 KXSeries DVR) which has outputs of BNC, VGA and SVideo. Both BNC and VGA can output at the sametime. Therefore, my thought is to put a VGA splitter to use to route to two LCD monitors and use the BNC to route to the input of my Surround Sound Receiver as the DVD2 input. This hopefully would allow viewing on two LCD's and the TV at the sametime. Anyone think this won't work? I really appreciate the help and sorry to drag this one on. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Soundy 1 Posted January 13, 2009 That should work just fine. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
