netsplit504

Thanks again to both of you!

First off, I'd like to say that this forum is awesome and I've spent many hours over the past week absorbing as much information as I can. From the information I've found, I've gotten most of my security system down, except for the actual capturing part. I am going to be using an old PC (running Windows), but am having trouble finding a capture card. Since everything else has already been purchased, to stay within my remaining budget the capture card needs to fall in the sub-$100 range. The problem is that many of the cards that I'm looking at in this range don't seem to have many reviews, so I'm not sure if I am getting a decent card and am hoping the experience on this board will help. It will be a pretty basic system, with only one camera input being captured, so right now I am torn between the idea of using a standard 4 input DVR capture card or, since it will be a one-camera system, using a more universal card such as an ATI all-in-wonder or something similar to that. If I do decide to go with one of the non-DVR specific cards such as this, will the capture software recognize this input just as it would recognize an input from a DVR capture card? Any suggestions on qualtiy sub-$100 cards is also greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Thanks for the tips, as you can probably tell, I'm a bit new to all of this, but am trying to learn as much as I can by reading other posts. I guess my next question would be regarding a quality DVR to use, but I'll go post that on the appropriate sub-forum. Thanks again!

Looking at only the resolution and lux numbers, am I pretty certain to get a pretty decent camera? Or should I be looking more at reviews to be sure that the camera doesn't stutter/freeze while recording, etc? I was looking at the Everfocus EM500NHP3 (http://www.everfocus.com/product.cfm?productid=54) but cannot seem to find any reviews or footage. Going back to my original question, are pinhole cameras pretty consistent as far as performance, or should I go with a more tried and tested cam that others have vouched for? Thanks!