I’m the IT admin at a medium size company that has taken on the task of upgrading our CCTV system. I’ve been researching and looking at topics on this forum for basic pointers. Being in IT for many years I’m comfortable with setting up a PC DVR to replace our current DiT DVR (which seems to be a piece of crap which was purchased by a predecessor.) We have a handful of cameras to use initially that are direct coax connections but we want to move to IP based cameras to utilize the network infrastructure we already have.
I have 2 questions that I hope someone can help with here. I’ll add that I want to do this right and am not too concerned with hardware expense as we will do most the labor ourselves.

1. What is the best DVR card brand for support and reliability? I was thinking of the AverMedia NV6480e as we are planning for 16 cameras eventually.

2. Is it better to purchase a good DVR software package or use the one provided with the card? I was considering something like LuxRiot.

Thanx for any help or insight you can give me.

Dennis

I've managed to figure out how to use our current PoS DVR for now. So for the few hardwired cameras we will continue to use this DVR.

Now I plan to build a PC system for only new IP based cameras for future addtions so I don't need a DVR card. At this point I'm going to build a Dell pc with lots of processing power, memory, and hard drive space. Then purchase a good DVR software package. Will probably end up with about 8 to 10 cameras, some of them PTZs.

Does anyone have experience with LuxRiot?

Or does anyone have any input on DVR software for IP camera systems?

And finally, any experience with Sky Way Security ?

Thanks

There are several threads in this forum which can match your requirement.

http://www.cctvforum.com/post-82998.html

With your ip cameras, there are hybrid dvr cards or NVRs as well.

You may find these sites helpful:


http://security-made-easy.blogspot.com/ (See the July 10 post)
www.bluecherry.net
www.cctvsentry.com
www.kcusa.com