Help please with a house yard wildlife camera system

[Sam917 0]

This is a bit of a lower level system than most of you-all deal with. But I am hoping to get some help on both what to expect from PC DVR cards or stand alone DVR's.

 

I want to put together a video system for monitoring wildlife activities around our house. This won't need the high level cameras, but I would like decent images. So on kind of a tight budget, I have identified low end items that will give me what I need, though not much more.

 

Knowing what I would get, I went ahead and have 4 wired Ebay level cameras and 4 wireless Ebay level cameras with their 4 channel receiver. I know they are not great but so far they do what I was expecting and I will be able to distinguish dogs from cats, foxes from deer etc. Part of the goal is to identify their pathways and general behavior as well as determine what critters come thru. I have tested the cameras and their images look to be suitable for now. But I need to get the recording and motion detection stuff next.

 

So all was going well until I looked for the DVR part. That's where I need some insight from you-all here. I find relatively low end software for the Ebay level cards and stand alone DVRs. Then I can find higher end security items which are way above the $ I hope to spend for the entire project. I found two video capture programs (like Crazy Pixels) but they won't handle the Ebay level cards. But I find little in between.

 

The choice seems to be to take a chance that the Ebay card & software will be adequate or jump up to a stand alone dvr from a security supplier. Kind of a big step fro $100 for Ebay card or DVR vs $250 to $900 for more professional DVR's.

 

And there seems to be no effective way to find out what the Ebay cards and their included programs will actually do.

 

In better economic times, I'd spring for the better stuff, but things are really tight these days. So hobby/fun projects like this don't have a lot of $.

 

edit: Can anyone here help with what I might expect for from these options

particularly as related to their software

A) the $100-$150 or $85-100 level Ebay DVR PCI cards?

B) a stand Alone DVR box in the $150 to 250 range from Ebay

C) a stand alone DVR box from Amperor that lists there for $250

 

thanks

Sam