Camera recommendation?

[Lactoso]

Howdy all. I need some help deciding on a camera solution.

I have a mixed environment of Macs & PCs, and am as of yet undecided on which exact HA and monitoring software I'm going to go with. Right now for the monitoring software I'm leaning towards Security Spy which is intended for usage on Macs, but whose tech people say there is a solution for viewing on PCs as well.

The thing is that I really need to setup a couple of cams ASAP, before deciding on a SW package, setting up new vid server, etc.. So I'm thinking an IP camera would do the trick, no? Ideally they'd be viewable on the Mac and the PC, but for now I'd settle on either platform. Good quality pic is important, but so is low price (because I doubt these are going to scale well into my final system).

Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance,
Ed T.

 

[electron]

Give Active Webcam a shot, it has a 30day trial, but doesn't really expire in case you need to try it longer. It has a built in webserver etc, so you could view the images on other platforms, and supports multiple cameras, and is probably more flexible than any other security camera software product out there.

 

[Lactoso]

Give Active Webcam a shot, it has a 30day trial, but doesn't really expire in case you need to try it longer. It has a built in webserver etc, so you could view the images on other platforms, and supports multiple cameras, and is probably more flexible than any other security camera software product out there.

I had seen links to Active Webcam before, but figured it probably wouldn't work too well for me since every time I tried to access it, it would crash my browser (Safari 2.0 on Tiger).

I am able to open it up in MSIE and can see that it states that no plug-ins or libs are required and can be viewed from ANY web browser. I'm able to view their demo camera using the Java link and it looks pretty good (albeit at 1 FPS).

Any recommendations for a cheapish DVR card? I say 'cheapish', because I'm unsure as to what I'll finally use permanently.

Any recommendations/sources for good cameras? I'm willing to invest some cash (as much as needed, as little as possible ) on the cameras because I figure they'll scale right into the eventual 'permanent' system. Right now I'm looking for a good color cam for the front of the house and a low/no-light cam (could be B&W) for the back.

Thanks a bunch for your help!

Cheers,
Ed T.

 

[electron]

check out this thread:

http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=1883

I personally get mine from AutomatedOutlet.com.

I am still looking for a good and affordable multi input card which is WDM compatible.

 

[Lactoso]

Thanks Electron! From zero to sixty camera options in less than six seconds...

I guess I'll pick up whatever DVR card strikes my fancy (and budget) for now.

Once again, thanks for the help.

Cheers,
Ed T.

 

[TonyNo]

E, what about that one from ebay/China that came up before?

 

[electron]

the seller never got back to me, so I kind of gave up until something falls in my lap

 

[TonyNo]

Wow! Good to know!

 

[Stinger]

check out this thread:

http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=1883

I personally get mine from AutomatedOutlet.com.

I am still looking for a good and affordable multi input card which is WDM compatible.

So I convinced you on Active Webcam, but you're still not listening on that DVR card?

It works great, at least the one I think you were looking at. I had no issues with the seller if it's the one from Hong Kong you are refering to.

 

[electron]

the card YOU have is awesome, but too expensive for me It's the same seller tho, I emailed him, he said he couldn't get back in touch with me until next day since he couldn't provide the info right away, but I never heard from him again.

 

[Stinger]

I should have had this in my previous message in the thread, but for those that are interested in a very decent DVR card that I found in my long quest for one, here is a link to ebay with sellers of the card:

Ebay Search for recommended 8 port DVR card

As E pointed out, it's not the cheapest at $213.00, but it works great with Active Webcam (I wouldn't recommend the software that it comes with, I think it's Pico2000).

I think the seller has a 4-port that does 50/fps, but the 8-port at 240/fps gives you 30/fps per camera.

I can't believe I may need another one now, I went a bit camera crazy.

 

[electron]

I would go camera crazy as well if I had access to such a nice card 8 ports @ 30 FPS is incredible.

 

[Threadhead]

I had seen links to Active Webcam before, but figured it probably wouldn't work too well for me since every time I tried to access it, it would crash my browser (Safari 2.0 on Tiger).

Crashed my Safari when I tried it too. But Firefox (on Tiger) works just fine.

 

[Rupp]

Do these multi port cards take a lot of CPU cycles when streaming multiple cameras? Does the Active Webcam stream multiple streams at once? If it does do you have to run an Active Webcam exe per stream? Can these multi port cards simply act as a camera switcher?

 

[ALEDOUX13]

I'll give you a heads up on CPU util next week as I am setting up the 120FPS card with 4 Hawk-I camers on a brand new system for my friend.