ceshomru 0 Posted June 24, 2006 Okay, my family has a daycare and we just bought a new house to put it in. So we want to put in a CCTV system, we pretty much know what we want, but we don’t know what brand and what quality to get. We need two outdoor cameras (day and night) that work on motion. And we need two indoor cameras, we prefer hidden, that can record on a schedule. We are 89% sure we want a standalone because of the ease of use, and reliability of communication and compatibility. We need to be able to record for about a month or more and then have it start to overlap. At least 200 gigs is what we think is necessary. Our budget is $1500, we will do all the labor ourselves so that does not have to be computed. My question is, what brand do I look for, and what quality of camera do I choose (we would like to distinguish faces and such). Please let me know if I left out any important information. I am not new to technology and computer application, but am new to video surveillance. So any help is greatly appreciated. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wachhund 0 Posted June 25, 2006 For $1500 you are going to be somewhat limited. Although you can get some quality stand alone systems, adding quality cameras will easily put you over budget - especially if you are looking for facial recognition. There are plenty of dealers on this site though. Hopefully one of them can help you out. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ceshomru 0 Posted June 25, 2006 Yeah, I figured as much, if it were up to me I would have a $2500 budget. I think if I could find a DVR for a decent price then I could some how convince them to put a little extra in for the cameras. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted June 25, 2006 You can get a GE Storesafe for that, though not 200GB ... maybe like 80GB .. its 30pps and on motion i get over a month with 4 cams at one business lobby .. when 1 camera is picking up motion only, it will be the full 30pps, real time .. for example. Basically i would aim for around $2500 with cameras ... though even that is closer to dealer pricing .. Sanyo has some DVRs a little less expensive than the GE .. ive never used them myself but they come highly recommended .. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ceshomru 0 Posted June 27, 2006 Ok I have decided to make it a PC system so that I can upgrade more freely. I know it will probably be more expensive, but my question is; Is it alright to buy a Dell pc then add on a dvr card, or is it better to build the PC myself, I build PC's all the time so I know I can have more control over what I put it in there, but I just want to make it easy and get a prebuilt system. So will Dell be able to handle the work? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
securitymonster 0 Posted June 27, 2006 yes a Dell will work, but make sure the computer has the requirements the card needs. Some vendors sell cards preconfigured on Dell machines. Don't go cheap on the card, if you want to save money buying a dell, then so be it, but spend good money on a card or you will be kicking yourself in the butt later. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wachhund 0 Posted June 27, 2006 A PC based system is not necessarily more expensive. You have to check with the dvr card manufacturer to see what chipset it likes and if it works with AMD or Intel processors or both. We build our own so we can have better control. You can buy a barebones kit from tigerdirect.com and get a dvr card from someone here or online....just stay away from ebay. Ask Rory...I'm sure he knows the best deals out there.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
