Stand alone or PC Card?

My main concern using my desktop at home is CPU usage. Also would be compatibility with my existing apps. For this reason I have thought about going with a standalone, however when the one I like (Avermedia 1304NET) is $400 ... and the geo cards are $92 for a 2 channel (which I can probably get by with)... it only seems logical to look more closely at the pc card dvr's.

So what do you guys think??

With the prices dropping on standalones and the dependability, I vote for standalone.

Whichever one you use, the PC should be a dedicated PC as well.

However, I used the GV250 2 channel card on my PC for about a year without any major issues. Could not play videos at the same time Geo was open, at least it would stutter some and cause minor problems, but then again I had a 2.0Ghz 6 year old AMD system with 512MB of DDR ram.

Yeah, using a video capture card uses a ton of resources and limits the use of other video applications or high memory consuming programs. Because of this, you should have a dedicated PC if you are serious about protecting and/or prosecuting. Thats why a stand alone is usually better IMO. You can get a decent MPEG4 remote accessible 4 channel stand alone for around $500 and it will most likely come with client software which you can use to burn media off the DVR to your PCs CD/DVD burner or archive on your PCs hard drive.

If you only have four cameras, then I would strongly recommend to go with EB1304Net which is a great unitl and I have install many of those unit. if you want to see the remote demo you can connect to EB1304net.iLinkPro.com. User id: user and password is: 111111

If you only have four cameras, then I would strongly recommend to go with EB1304Net which is a great unitl and I have install many of those unit. if you want to see the remote demo you can connect to EB1304net.iLinkPro.com. User id: user and password is: 111111

yeah I havent even used it myself but I tested the remote video on a friends DVR and it was great quality (compared to others in that price range), and he said it works great so ..

Thanks for the replies guys! That's what I was afraid of with a DVR card (needing a dedicated system). I already have 4 computers at my house (one A/V , one desktop, one server, and a laptop)... I really don't need to have another one running and burning electricity, haha.

It seems as if the 1304NET is the way to go for sure. It should consume much less power too. I have been trying to search through this site reading as much as I can about the unit. I can get one locally today it appears.

If you only have four cameras, then I would strongly recommend to go with EB1304Net which is a great unitl and I have install many of those unit. if you want to see the remote demo you can connect to User id: user and password is: 111111

Cool, thanks. This worked. I like it.

My next things to figure out are cameras and wiring.

Wiring - I was considering using cat5 cable with the adapters on both ends that handle signal and power. What do you guys think of these? Good quality? Signal Loss? Best place to get the adapters?

Cameras - I read that you want to go with at least 1/3" CCD. I will need pretty good night vision probably since this is for my house and weird things seem to happen at night. Anything to watch out for?

Look at the IR bullet cams, we have some and a lot of the others on the forum do too. Want to go with a good varifocal auto iris too. Depending on the type of shots you want.

Auto iris means Auto F-stop ? I am a hobby photographer and varifocal and auto iris seem like buzz words to me .

Auto iris means Auto F-stop ? I am a hobby photographer and varifocal and auto iris seem like buzz words to me .

Auto Iris Lenses are powered by the camera and the Iris opens and closes depending on the light changes.