gordon861 0 Posted October 14, 2009 Hi, I'm new to CCTV stuff so looking for some advice before wasting my money. About a week ago I woke up to find the window of my car had been put in on my drive. What I'm looking for is a fairly cheap home CCTV DVR system to monitor the drive etc. in the hope of getting faces/ID if it happens again. I was looking at a Killer HD8 High Definition VGA DVR from cctvdirect in the UK. Does anyone have any thoughts on these units? Or suggestions of better unit? I figure that I'm better buying a unit like this instead of a "4 cam kit with cameras" from Maplins as it will allow me to use the cameras I want and add to it in the future. I also like the idea of being able to lock the unit away and just access the footage over the home LAN as required. The plan would be to increase the number of cameras to cover around the house as finance allows. Any comments or obvious things I'm doing wrong? Thanks Unit Specs Features- High Resolution VGA Output - Offering a screen resolution up to 1280x1024 - H264 Enhanced compression - Quality recording - Easy to control interface using a mouse or IR remote (both are supplied) - USB data back up to easily export data for police evidence (can be played back on any PC). - IR extension Jack allows unit to be hidden - Photo capture - easilly extract still images - Remote access allows your unit to be seen from anywhere in the world - 2 channel audio recording - 100 frames per second. - Superb value, a new generation VGA DVR. Full Specification • Split Display Mode: 1,4 • Operation: Mouse/IR Remote Control • Multiplex Mode: Quadruplex (Live/Record/Playback/Ethernet) • Display Resolution: 1280x1024 Live frame rate: 30/120fps (NTS) 25/100fps (PAL) • Colour: 16M Colours (Y:8, U:8, V:8 ) 4:2:2 • Playback mark: Yes • Watch dog: Yes • Wall mount: Yes Recording • Frame rate: PAL: 50/100fps • Recording quality: 5 levels • Compression: H.264 enhanced Max compression rate: 300:1 • Motion Recording: Yes • Pre-recording: 3 seconds to 10 seconds • Post-recording: 1 second to 255 seconds Playback • Search mode: Smart search by file/event/frame/time/date • Search speed: Date,Hour,Minute,Second,Frame,Pause • Playback speed: Pause, X1, X5, X15, X60 Connection • Video in BNC: X8 • Video out VGA: X1 • Audio line in: RCA X2 (1 VP-P) Phono Sockets • Audio line out: RCA (L,R) (1 VP-P) • Ethernet 10/100M: RJ45X1 • DSUB9: 1(Alarm in X4, Alarm out X1 • IR extension jack: 1 • IR extension cord - Included • IR receiver: Yes • USB Port: X2 Alarm/Motion • Motion detection: 12 (4x3) motion zones • Motion detection sensitivity: 100 Levels • Number of Alarm Inputs: 4 • Number of Alarm outputs: 1 • Alarm type: Relay, NO, NC Event • Size of event list: 4096 events • Event source: Alarm,Motion,Video Loss, Power on/off, Discontinued Record, Mark USB Ethernet • 10/100M LAN: Yes • Remote Viewing: IE Suggested Resolution: 1024x768 • PPPoE: Yes - DDNS: Yes Backup • HDD Capacity: SATA 3.5" 160GB - 1TB • USB: Yes Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neutech 0 Posted October 14, 2009 If your buying that unit go for the XD8 better machine 200FPS record plus MPEG4 I know its more expensive but having compared the 2 of them i'd go with XD8 Next on the list is cameras, this is where a lot of people wont put that bit extra ££ into, the old story of junk in junk out If you want to go top end Samsung B9374 ... lovely camera fitted a number of them in last few months If you dont want to stretch that far the - Adjustable Ultra High Res 540 TVL is a good camera for the ££ as you have said hide the machine away, either hook into your TV Dist system with a modulator, this will let yuou view on a spare TV channel anywhere in Home and use IR extenders to operate the unit,also LAN is other way but not as handy to operate as TV option Where you based? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gordon861 0 Posted October 14, 2009 The extra recording makes sense, esp once you increase the number of cameras. Extra £150 could hurt but an 8 cam system running at 4 cam speed probably won't be so useful. I assume the dome cameras can also be mounted onto a wall rather than a ceiling. I'm in the UK just outside London. The fact that CCTV Direct seem to be the only suppliers of that unit is also a bit of a concern, I can't even find the manufacturers website. Also the prices being charged for the hard drives are about twice what they should be. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neutech 0 Posted October 14, 2009 The extra recording makes sense, esp once you increase the number of cameras. Extra £150 could hurt but an 8 cam system running at 4 cam speed probably won't be so useful. I assume the dome cameras can also be mounted onto a wall rather than a ceiling. I'm in the UK just outside London. The fact that CCTV Direct seem to be the only suppliers of that unit is also a bit of a concern, I can't even find the manufacturers website. Also the prices being charged for the hard drives are about twice what they should be. The cameras are 3 axis so can be wall mounted direct but watch the angle of view required as the IR asembly gets in the way, to be honest we disable the IR as all they do is attract spiders, use a decient lighting system or security lights instead, the soffet/facia board is good place to fit them or a wall arm What you will find with DVR's such as "killer" etc is these are products made for suppliers like CCTV Direct etc, you will find they are made under a generic brand in korea/taiwan etc hench you probably wont find them on a website. i have looked at the 16XD in operation few weeks back that another company installed and for the price it seems a nice unit. as for only running 4 cams on 8 cam DVR well the 8XD has 25 FPS per channel while the cheaper unit has 12.5FPS on record so quality will be better and speed Hard Drives...the reason you see more expensive drives are these are Seagate SV35 commercial rated units not home PC, they have 5 years warrenty and are designed for 24/7 use, dont be tempted by cheap home PC drives, yes they might last a year/two if your lucky but not worth hassle There are lots of smaller companies out there that sell CCTV to end users, its down to you who you go with, but ask about on this forum and see what results you get Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tomcctv 187 Posted October 14, 2009 Hi Gordon. i think you are will find the spec on the dvr you posted is the same as most d1. mpeg 4 systems. take a look at the avermedia. you get full uk support. (not that you will need it) it is a very simple system to use. price wise well in your budget which means you can spend more on the cameras. take a look at this system below vga or tv output / sound/ 4 camera inputs/ internet viewer/mobile viewer. 30 days recording at 25fps they is a dealer not far from you in london. and if you would like to see a demo i can let you dial into mine at home. http://www.avermedia.com/AVerDiGi/Product/Detail.aspx?id=151 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jonno 0 Posted October 14, 2009 Hi Gordon. i think you are will find the spec on the dvr you posted is the same as most d1. mpeg 4 systems. take a look at the avermedia. you get full uk support. (not that you will need it) it is a very simple system to use. price wise well in your budget which means you can spend more on the cameras. take a look at this system below vga or tv output / sound/ 4 camera inputs/ internet viewer/mobile viewer. 30 days recording at 25fps they is a dealer not far from you in london. and if you would like to see a demo i can let you dial into mine at home. http://www.avermedia.com/AVerDiGi/Product/Detail.aspx?id=151 Hi Tom, Read this post and would be interested in viewing the Avermedia DVR. Also, can you let me know the dealer in London. Still persevering the Avtech on the dongle!! Cheers, John. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
