need suggestions for CCTV camera

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M@crosoft

The Weather Man !
Forerunner
hi mates,
my dad runs a school and he has decided to buy 8 CCTV cameras for 8 of his classsrooms.
here in VARANASI the general sellers of CCTV told us that each CCTV camera will cost 2.5k to us and 9k extra for DV-R(8 channnel)card that will be pluged in the computer for recording purposes....................is this really a good deal ? i am sure i would get better prices in mumbai & delhi but 8 channel DV-R card costs 9k?
suggestions are appreciated:)
 
Hey microsoft, me too in the same biz as your dad. We are about to open a new wing of our 20 yr old institution for which i am too working on similar options for CCTV + DVR. We already have more than 20 CCTV cams in our existing structure.
These CCTV dealers are dumb and most of them selling imported Chinese/Taiwan products at insane prices as you mentioned.
I am in touch with an old dealer who would be giving me quote of the products from his new reliable tie-up. Will see if it's any better than the existing deals.
In the meanwhile, i worked myself with the following option -

1) Buy the cheapest camera available. Somewhat like the following which is available for 500/- or so.
eBay India: SECURITY CCTV COLOUR CAMERA WITH AUDIO (item 250500876565 end time 26-Sep-2009 02:52:13 IST)
The technical specifications of this camera and the camera your dealer providing is exactly same, so no loss of picture quality.

2) Buy an audio-video cable along with a power cable (to power the camera). You may skip the audio cable if audio is not needed for certain area.
Connect the power cable to the electrical supply.

3) Now if wish to have the output of the camera on
a) a TV - Buy a 14" CTV for 2-3k and plug the video cable to the video in of the TV and enjoy the live view. But since you will be having more than 2 cameras, you will need a switcher to connect 8 video cables of the camera to the TV. The cost of the switcher is unkown to me at present but can be had from your local CCTV dealer.
In this case, no recording arrangement has been done.

b) a PC - Buy a 4 channel USB DVR card, somewhat like - eBay.com.hk : 4CH USB DVR Video Capture Record Card 4 CCTV Camera NEW (item 400000791508 end time Sep-25-09 05:18:27)

I bought this card from another international website for 1000/- (incl. of shipping to india)

It has 4 video input, 1 audio input and a recording software.

You may now connect 4 of your cameras to this card and watch/record/schedule record from the 4 connected cameras to your PC. Wanna connect another 4 camera, get one card more and connect to the other USB port of the PC and go on.

I am still looking for more than 4 channel dvr card as such to work out some low cost model.

This may save you 25k+ on your entire setup microsoft as compared to your dealer.
 
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thanks for the above information...
BTW 8 channnel DVR card are also available in the market as well as on ebay!
the thing is .........the camera which costs Rs599/-^^ has got any warranty??
and the cctv dealer also says that we can't watch live video if we use dvr card for recording purposes on PC.....is this true?
 
No, you can surely watch live while recording on PC with the DVR card.

These cameras are not on warranty but failure rate so far has been negligible.
 
How is the image quality from these cameras ?

Can we install them in the lobby and basements of our apartments and the main gate for recording the activities and if necessary can the people passing by identified in case of any wrong doing from the recording during day and night ?

Is a stand alone DVR a value proposition or PC Based DVR Card for recording and viewing 16 cameras ?

Thanks
 
ok, am bumping up a old thread here. I have done following setup as my home security cam:

Ubuntu + Motion (Software) + Cheap chinese cam. + Twitter

Result:

I get alerts whenever there is a motion at home and I can work peacefully. Earlier I used to poll the cam regularly.

Now I am thinking of going full fledged with a proper cam and a dvr. Can someone please comment back if the quality is better than a webcam?

+LT
 
AVTech Webcams are easily available and priced about 4000 for a 350 Line camera with min lighting of 0.5 Lux. You can fit different lenses in them. The quality is much better than the Chinese cams.
I think the model number for the entry level model is AVC 561
 
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