Best 8 Channel, 5 Camera, NVR system?

[Emmet 'Doc' Brown 0]

Hey Guys!

 

I'm hoping someone here will be able to advise me on what is a decent home cctv package to get for my budget ($1000/£650/€900).

 

I've been doing a lot of reading up on cameras, DVRs, NVRs, and cables, but am still a little confused by all the different options and brands.

 

What I *think* I want is a system that has the following:

 

* An 8 channel NVR (with the built in option to automatically backup recordings online - to dropbox or something similar).

 

* A decent Hard Drive (at least 1TB).

 

* 4 good quality cameras (720p HD or better).

 

* 1 high quality camera (this will be pointing down my driveway, so the ability for it to read license plates is important).

 

I was reading about how the camera quality is important, but also how the choice of cable, and NVR affects picture quality, so I really want to make sure I choose a system that is good in every area (I don't want to spend money on really good cameras only to have bad picture quality in the end due to a cheap NVR/cables).

 

Am I right in thinking an NVR with Cat5 cables gives good picture quality? (I don't need the cameras to be wireless, so a wired ethernet set up would be perfect).

 

Wide angled cameras would be good, but again, I was confused because some places I've seen said that the wider the angle the more difficult it is to see things like license plates, so any advice on that would be great.

 

I want all cameras to have night vision and motion sensor capabilities.

Also, a mouse to interact with the NVR menu would be good, but not essential.

 

I was thinking of buying an 8 Channel NVR package that comes with 4 cameras like this one...

 

http://www.costco.com/Swann-8-Channel-HD-NVR-Security-System-with-2TB-HDD-and-4-3MP-HD-IP-Cameras.product.100146086.html

 

...and then buying a 5th (high quality) camera separately, but in some places I've read that packages like these from Swann, KGuard, Lorex etc are not great quality and often break down after a while, is this true? Or are they reliable brands?

 

That's my shopping list any help would be much appreciated, thanks in advance!

[SyconsciousAu 0]

I think you might find that the system you have linked to is a Hikvision re-branded as a Swann so it might not be so bad.

 

As for number plate capture you may want to read the thread I started over here.

 

In short most megapixel cameras will capture a plate by day, assuming the plate occupies enough of the scene to give you at least 200 pixels per metre. North of 300ppm is better though.

 

By night is when things get interesting. You need to keep shutter speed up, to overcome headlights, and so you don't get motion blur, but that means you need more illumination. If you are only covering a driveway that makes things a little easier because you already know the exact area the plate is going to pass through and your speeds should be fairly low.

 

 

 

These are my results.

[vvsabvv 0]

I'm interested in the same setup now just trying to find a good recorder and camera system. Keep us posted on what u system you decide on

[vvsabvv 0]

What kind of system is this?

[Boogieman 1]

What kind of system is this?

junk...dont even consider this type of system from spammers.

[vvsabvv 0]

What kind of system is this?

junk...dont even consider this type of system from spammers.

 

That's what I thought when I saw the prices and opened their website. Do you have any suggestions Boogie man??