Opinion on my DVR/cameras. Install location and hiding.

[fil 0]

I had bought a DVR/camera cctv system at Costco a few years ago, but never installed it. Here it is:

 

http://reviews.costco.com/2070/11533547/q-see-q-see-7-0-lcd-observation-system-w-built-in-4-channel-h-264-dvr-reviews/reviews.htm?page=2

 

I can't remember what I paid back then, maybe $399? I don't know if this one is different than any other QR4074 I see on other web sites...many times Costco gets a unique model of any brand/type of electronics, made only for them.

 

Since it had been a few years, I saw recently a system they had on sale that said "600 LTV" cameras. My camera box says QSDS636D4 (image sensor=color CCD). Are 600 LTV better than CCD? I know there's CMOS too. If it matters, we have extremely bright sun most of the year with temps in the 100's, if that matters, for cameras. This system is for my house. I'd rather it have at least 6 cameras versus 4, not sure if it's expandable... Or maybe 8, to connect 1 or 2 inside the house. My house/yards are tiny. House is single story.....the street is only maybe 30 ft from the doorway. I have crappy neighbors who like to treat my yard/driveway like a trash dump, so want to be able to have proof of them trashing it if I ever had to show the police. And of course, identify any would be thieves. Day or Night. Since I never opened the box, I'm wondering if current systems are better than this, so I can return it to Costco for a refund and get a newer one. I prefer to buy local versus online. Both Costco and Fry's Electronics often advertise DVR/camera systems. (QSee and I forget the other brand) However, I don't like Fry's customer service much, so I trust them less.

 

I'm thinking where/how to mount the DVR. If you keep it in your living room, you have to get up in the middle of the night & walk to the living room & turn on the screen to see who's outside. If in your bedroom, in the daytime you'd have to walk from the living room to the bedroom to view it. Also, wherever it is in the house I know I'll need to have 4 camera cables snaking down to it from the ceiling I'd have to hide. Another thing is, this has a hard drive. If a thief takes the DVR (with hard disk), all proof is gone. If you mount it in some metal box bolted to furniture or the wall studs, you wouldn't be able to access controls/see the screen, as the entire front would have to be accessible. Or maybe you could take the hard drive out, extend it with cables (may have to cut a hole in DVR box for that though?) , and mount just THAT in some metal box. Sounds like a lot of hassle to me, but like I said with the DVR gone, all chance of ID'ing a thief is gone.

[Kawboy12R 0]

CMOS and CCD aren't directly related to the number of TV Lines (TVL) the cams and DVR will show.

 

You're right that if someone steals the box then your record of what happened is gone. You might be able to set it up to email snapshots of motion events to an email account. It's tricky to have it accessible AND secure. Not sure what it has for connections but you might be able to lock it in a steel box with a lock on it. If you want to still be able to see the screen then you might be able to set up an external monitor if it has a video out of some sort. If it's got video out then you might be able to set up TWO video feeds with a powered video splitter- one to a tv or dedicated screen in your living room (or near the front door) and one in the bedroom.

 

Someone on here mentioned the idea of a setting up an obvious "bait" dvr and hiding the real one. If your current one won't do 8 channels like you want, it might be a good choice for the bait dvr. Setting it up as a front door cam with the built-in screen with another dvr hidden somewhere recording the rest of the cameras might be good, especially if you split the feed from the outdoor cam to the hidden dvr.

 

Also, IP cameras with internal SD cards might be worth considering. That way you can configure things so that you've got storage IN the cams as well as in a NAS or computer inside. I've do something like that with mine. Store motion events in the NAS and a continuous feed at 1 fps at lower quality in the cam. Trash the cam? Record locked inside. Break in and steal the HD? Different copy in the cams. Throw in a bait DVR, some email notifications for offsite snapshot storage and a UPS running the system and you're covered fairly well, especially if the thief has an alarm system ringing in their ears to speed them up.

[fil 0]

my cameras are 420TVL. Can this make a difference in ID'ing perpetrators?

 

Due to my budget, I can't afford to keep this one and buy a 2nd dvr, I have to decide. Enclosing it in a metal box with video out (if I have one) is an option but then the cost of the integrated LCD was then wasted. Good idea on splitting it though to a TV and keeping integrated LCD in another room.

[Kawboy12R 0]

The video quality will have more to do with lens quality, the electronics in the camera, and how much quality a cheap DVR loses when converting the analog signal to digital for storage on the HD than TVL, but having said that, nowadays 420 tvl is pretty low end. Some really good quality analog cams are "only" 600 tvl. NTSC video is only 480 tvl anyway so anything above that has little benefit. I wouldn't expect to be able to ID someone with your system from more than 5 or maybe 10 feet away under good conditions unless you knew them.