Real-time, time lapse video monitoring and recording

[KOPBET]

I'm looking for recommendations and ideas to put together a real-time or time lapse video monitoring system for indoor/outdoor application using either conventional video or IP cameras. I'm particularly interested in WWW access to the video from anywhere as well as motion enabled recording. Cost is a consideration. I can't spend $1000 per IP camera.

Anyone having started or completed a security project such as this or just have something to share please opine.

Thanks.

 

[vette-dude]

KOPBET,

Harbor Freight has a video system less monitor for around $30. If you would like I can go over there and take a look at it for you. Can't get to it till next week. Can't imagine it is a Top of the Line model but it is supposedly for indoor/outdoor applications.Ad states:

Weather proof Security Camera with night vision
Automatically adjust from Day to Night vision
Built in Microphone
Monitor not included
$29.99 Regular $39.99

Harbor Freight
804-745-5615
6500 Hull St. Rd.
Richmond, VA

Might be what you are looking for.
Randy

 

[vette-dude]

KOPBET,

Did you want me to check this out??

Randy

 

[KOPBET]

Not necessary Randy. But thank you for the offer.

I don't intend to use it, but I did find a B/W camera once used in a banking application along with a 10" B/W dedicated monitor (free stuff). B/W looks like crap and the image is not very useful. Camera not suitable for outdoors unless put in a housing (which creates other problems). So, I'm looking at color IP cameras with built-in Linux web server that can be accessed anywhere Internet connectivity is available. Some cameras even have auto-iris (and infra-red illumination available), motion detection and even wireless LAN available. Price keeps going up big time with more features. It appears that for what I want the thing to do it is going to cost $$$. I just need to find a local retailer to sample the goods before buying.

I guess nobody out there wants to talk about their security cameras?

 

[IH2LOSE]

http://www.x10.com/home/offer.cgi?!LND293,../googleadw1c.htm?>x10phrase:5.00Here is a link to a popup advertizement I get all the time.This is a product I do plan on purchasing for my home to check in on things while we are vacationing.

I own a service related company and in the the high income areas we work in 90% of the home have hidden survalance systems installed in them.they are called nany cams.Very cool stuff.

I now make the assumtion that I am being filmed in all the homes we visit.

the cameras are tiny and until you are shown the cameras you could never find them if you knew they were there and were looking for them.

 

[KOPBET]

http://www.x10.com/home/offer.cgi?!LND293,../googleadw1c.htm?>x10phrase:5.00Here is a link to a popup advertizement I get all the time.This is a product I do plan on purchasing for my home to check in on things while we are vacationing.

I own a service related company and in the the high income areas we work in 90% of the home have hidden survalance systems installed in them.they are called nany cams.Very cool stuff.

I now make the assumtion that I am being filmed in all the homes we visit.

the cameras are tiny and until you are shown the cameras you could never find them if you knew they were there and were looking for them.

Thanks for the link, but with all of the annoying pop-ups that this company blasts at us everywhere we go on the web, I wouldn't buy diddly from X10.

 

[John Mcgraw]

I do a lot of CCTV work at work,and we have completely switched away from tape recording, and have gone to a PC based digital recording system. Unfortunately, a price of $800-$1000 a camera for pc-based systems is about the going price. The system we use is made by Salient Systems and is a super system!
The real advantage of digital systems is their ability to only record true motion events. You set up a grid on the screen, and define the areas of the grid that you wish to watch for movement, and the system only records when the pixels in that area of the picture are changing. You have not lived until you have watched hours of videotape looking for when an event happened. With digital, you only see activity, and not hours of no movement. The system can be hung on a LAN or can be connected to a internet connection, and can alert a remote site and transmit the images to that computer. It is really nice to be able to burn a CD and hand it to the police when we have an incident!
Time-lapse recorders are a dying breed and can probably be obtained on Ebay for a small fraction of what they originally cost. Brand new, top quality VGA cameras are pretty cheap now days, but I would not buy a camera with less than a 1/3" CCD in order to get quality resolution.
Another issue is the light level. Color cameras do not work as well in low light levels as black and white cameras do. Most of our exterior cameras switch automatically from color to B&W when darkness falls. This function adds a lot to the price of a camera, so you might be well off with a B&W camera if part of it's time is spent recording in the dark or near dark. You can even put an infrared illuminator in that will be invisible to the human eye, but will allow recording in total darkness. Such illuminators are very cheap and can be obtained almost anywhere.
Regards, John McGraw

 

[KOPBET]

Thans John,

Sounds like you are doing a lot of what I want to do already. Can you expand on what you recommend for PC recording, or do you use camera mounted memory systems like CF cards? Does then I/R illumination work only with B/W imaging? When the camera detects movement to start recording, does the digital camera record on its own or does it signal an external digital recorder?

 

[John Mcgraw]

All of the digital recording systems that I am aware of use a computer which is online at all times to record the images directly to the hard drive. The computer will display up to 16 individual cameras on screen at the same time and will make the decision as when to record any camera based on motion or a time schedule. It is unrealistic to expect to find a digital stand alone recording camera since the ammount of storage space necessary to store full motion video is very large.
We use 400 Gig hard drives and usually only record motion at 1 to a max of 3 frames per second. This makes the motion a little jerky, but dramatically reduces the stroage needed when compared to 10+ frames per second. You should be able to get away with a pretty small hard drive if you were only recording 1 or 2 cameras and were willing to allow the images to be overwritten in a few days.
There are a bunch of systems available and they are becoming more common. I would guess that there are some small 2-4 camera systems now available that would be a lot less expensive than the industrial grade stuff that we use.
I would just do a search for digital video recorders and see what comes up.
Regards, John McGraw

 

[John Mcgraw]

Try this link: http://www.nvsystems.com/dvr.htmI did a search and saw single camera systems as low as $200. There are lots of systems out there, even some stand alone DVD-R systems.