Ready to buy a Hikvision/Dahua single camera setup

[socalfusions 0]

After recent and persistent suspicious vehicles loitering and discarding trash ranging from condoms to fast food I've decided to go ahead and purchase a dedicated cctv setup. Due to budget concerns I was recommended to look into either Hikvision or Dahua cameras as they are budget friendly IP cameras. My only requirements are nightvision, license plate reading ability and audio. Regarding reading license plates I'm aware that the camera has to be placed close to the ground, my only concern is the higher risk of the camera being vandalized in such a vulnerable spot. I also don't know how I would mount it so low where as mounting it somewhere on the house would be a much easier option. Furthermore are the lower end Hikvision/Dahua cameras able to read license plates with their lenses? While I would like audio capability I'm pretty sure this would raise the price of the camera significantly and I'd only want it to record some excessively noisy neighbors.

 

I'd love to be able to view the live footage from my PC monitor but am unsure of whether it would be wise to store all of the footage to my PC since I've read it takes quite a lot of space. I have no idea of what brand of DVR to buy but would again like to get a similar budget friendly one to match the level of camera I get.