Security Monitors & Tivo?

[restart88]

I have been pondering getting some sort of video monitoring system for my home for a while now. Last week someone broke into a neighbor's house while I was home. Heck I probably heard some it too but their darned dogs bark constantly and I've grown tired of running to the window to see what's what all the time.

So after the break in I decided to order a wireless camera & receiver. As I searched for one I noticed there were many that claimed they can be connected to a DVR. So I'm wondering! Can I use a Tivo? Perhaps a deactivated box? I have a 540 that I intended to retire when I move up to an S3 anyway.

Any thoughts?

[stevel]

You can't record on a Series 2 TiVo without service.

TiVo isn't really suited for this, though some people make it work. You have to set up a series of manual recordings for segments of, say, 6 hours with settings to delete as space needed. Also, most TiVos do not record from B+W cameras, though those are getting rarer nowadays.

There are DVRs made specifically for this purpose, and they record at a much lower frame rate so that you can get a lot longer time recorded, plus other convenient features. You can also set up a PC to do this - some video input cards come with suitable software.

[freeze12]

Like Steve said,no..You cannot use a Tivo DVR. I have a home security system with 4 cameras & a 160gig DVR that I purchased from Supercircuits as they are a very good company to deal with. Remember to buy a good camera etc. because if You buy something of low value that is what you get & eventually You will end up buying the better product.Buy a camera with good resolution/Lux

http://www.supercircuits.com/

[mick66]

The old Philips S1 Tivos w/o subscription work just fine with video cameras - color or not.

[restart88]

Guess I forgot that a S2 wouldn't record without a subscription. But I have plenty of old PC parts lying around so maybe I'll go that way instead.

It would have been nice to give the old Tivo a life after but it sounds like it may be too much trouble then to set up anything like that and have only modest use.

Thanks for the ideas!

BTW this is the camera I ordered:
http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDetail.do?oid=159285

[ZeoTiVo]

TiVo isn't really suited for this, though some people make it work. You have to set up a series of manual recordings for segments of, say, 6 hours with settings to delete as space needed. Also, most TiVos do not record from B+W cameras, though those are getting rarer nowadays.

You need the sub for an S2 so it is true that they are not the way to go from scratch, but if you have a lifetimed unit doing nothing else then you could easily set it to record in 24 one hour increments and just set it to keep until space needed and let the hard drive size determine how far back recordings go.

That would be the easy part as channle 0 on my TiVo will record from the composite input easily.

[restart88]

Well heck that I could live with. I'd pay $5 a month, which would be a whole lot cheaper than buying a dedicated security DVR. Would have been nice to be free though. lol

Not sure about the 24 hours segment though. Right now I just have the stock drive but my greater concern is if something happens say in the 23rd hour and it gets erased before I know I want the proof, which is kinda the whole point of recording. ;)

I've also wondered about being able to see the live feed when I'm on the road. I suppose I could use a Slinbox for that, right?

Or am I costing myself more money by trying to save money?

----------------------------------------------------

Oh wait! you said "24 one hour increments." Yea, that could work!

[ah30k]

The nice thing about real security systems is that they can trigger off of events and only record interesting things. With a TiVo solution you will record 99% inactivity. PC based or dedicated systems use either image processing or thermal triggering to record only when events dictate it.

[mick66]

and they (real security systems) cost quite a bit. That's why people look for simple cheap alternatives.

[restart88]

and they (real security systems) cost quite a bit. That's why people look for simple cheap alternatives.

:D

That would be me.

[JJ]

Check your local Fry's
for the Samsung SHR-1040. A dedicated purpose DVR that has the time/date stamp and other features you will need if you have to go to court someday.

Disadvantage is that you must stop recording to review content. Price is comparable to a 160hour Series1 box on auction site, in the $200.00US range. It can also use consumer type composite or pro type RJ12 cameras. You can even mix/match pro/consumer camera types.

With four cameras running the matrix can be viewed and when there is something of interest, individual strams can be viewed or reviewed at full screen. Final advantage it can output VGA or composite for maximum flexibility...

[ah30k]

and they (real security systems) cost quite a bit. That's why people look for simple cheap alternatives.
How about an unused PC with one of the following two solutions...

A wired or wireless web cam and Blue Iris software for $19 (http://www.blueirissoftware.com/). The Blue-Iris reads the webcam and only records when the image changes. It also can include th minute or so prior to the trigger. I've used this before with great results when neighborhood kids were ding-dong-ditching everyone in the hood.

How about Motorola's HomeSight (http://broadband.motorola.com/consumers/home_monitoring.asp ) which has sensors such as water sensors for when the sump pump overflows, IR cameras for night vision and motion sensors. This system can text or e-mail you with a notification and video clip when triggered.

These are relatively inexpensive solutions for home use but rely on the PC. If you have to include the price of the PC, the price will naturally be higher.

[Reidsch]

I'm using a product from lukwerks called wilife. it records onto a hard drive on your computer. it works great. PM me with questions as i've become an expert on this product.

[restart88]

Check your local Fry's
for the Samsung SHR-1040. A dedicated purpose DVR that has the time/date stamp and other features you will need if you have to go to court someday.

Disadvantage is that you must stop recording to review content. Price is comparable to a 160hour Series1 box on auction site, in the $200.00US range. It can also use consumer type composite or pro type RJ12 cameras. You can even mix/match pro/consumer camera types.

With four cameras running the matrix can be viewed and when there is something of interest, individual strams can be viewed or reviewed at full screen. Final advantage it can output VGA or composite for maximum flexibility...

That may be the way I go once I get my additional cameras, though a PC option seems promising too.

I'd also really like to be able to stream video of home when I'm out of town. Living in FL I worry every time I hear reports of wind back home. ;)

One down side of any wake on motion option though is my front yard remains fairly busy over 15 hours a day, and even then a car comes by every minute or so. So what if I like having a camera on the mail box, which is by the street? Saves me from running to the window constantly. lol

The wireless receiver accomodates "up to 4 cameras" but it looks like I may have to mix with wired cameras to get up to even 4 due to local interference.

Sadly, the receiver will either scan 1 or 4 frequencies whether you have other cameras or not so that creates a smal but resolvable problem.

[Reidsch]

just an fyi to your problems listed.

Motion detecting. The Lukwerks software has "zones" that you can pick in the field of view to detect motion.

I think the max is 6 cameras

The remote viewing piece is free, no subscription needed. I did a lot of research on these systems prior to buying one. I ran across an article in the WSJ about Lukwerks. I really like it so far.

[dd9]

Been using an unsubbed S1 Tivo for quite a few years to do this. 12 hour recordings allow for the green bar to show the actual time of day an incident took place (except for the hour of 12). A 120g disk allows for 3 days at high quality and 6 days basic. My total investment is under $200 for a decent 480 line IR camera. Tivo was free and the disk was laying around unused.

[restart88]

Just an an update it looks like a Tivo solution would not be ideal so I am working towards either a PC card or SA box. I could live with 4 channels (more would be nice) and at least 1 audio channel. I really want to be able to stream the feed over the internet even if I have to get a slingbox to do it. More on that later. ;)

I picked up a cheap 13" Durabrand TV from Wal*Mart for $50 which I am using on one wired camera and have a 2nd camera going to an aux port on my HDTV set. I've given up on Swann wireless because of issues with interference but their Maxi Day/ Night camera rocks! :D

But I did pick up this funny little story which I just had to share which I came across in reviews for another wireless system. He had gotten a wireless 4 camera system from the friend.

i got this from a friend and i set them up around my house i connected them to my sling box and when i was at school i just so happend to look at my phone to check up on my house...turns out the same friend who gave this to me was in my house and stole my ps3... i called him and asked him to leave my ps3 at my house and put all my stuff back ware he found it...and i wouldnt tell the police about it..so he did and i havnt talked to him sence

[classicsat]

FWIW,, I have seen 4 input capture cards, made for security.

[restart88]

Just as an update, just to get started I bought the Avermedia NV3000 (already wishing I'd got the NV5000 due to the 30 FPS - like 7.5 per channel.

Keeping in mind that I'm an absolute novice and that their "manual" consists of like 3 pages I'm coming along pretty well. I like that it has remote viewing but I'm not sure yet if it's working. Works fine within my network but I tried a dialup connection on my laptop and when I type in my believed IP addy (not 100% certain I have it right but I get the same numbers from 3 different IP lookup sites) it says page not found.

Just curious. It has a POS option via a serial port on your motherboard. Any way I can connect Tivo somehow as the POS and have a Tivo stream available remotely, kinda like a lower quality Slingbox I suppose?

It also has some other slick features like having a camera at a remote location and 2 way audio communication to a remote location which, if I ever get it setup, I could essentually have a free unlimited long distance 2 way video phone to mom. lol

Not a bad idea because mom is getting up in years and we worry when her cat knocks the phone off the hook and the line stays busy for long periods.

Out of coincidence my local news did a segment of the growing popularity of these camera systems. But from what was reported the only difference between the homeowner's system that they used in the segment and mine besides a few more cameras is $30k and a hand held remote control. :)

[shpope]

You have to setup your router to forward the correct port to the NV3000. If all you type on your local network is http://192.168.1.45 (or something like that) then the port is port 80. If you type http://192.168.1.45:2328 (or something like that) then the port is 2328. You'll have to look at your router manual to determine how to forward the ports.

Hope this helped.

[restart88]

Unfortunately, no. I'm getting totally depressed. I really wanted this working since I'm going out of town and it is apparent that it won't be.

I'm totally lost as to how to what to do. I set up all the ports for forwarding and even turned off Windows firewall despite making an exception for those ports (while I try to get it to work).

I'm not ever certain how I'm supposed to access the camera. Should I just type in my real IP address then add a colon and 80 (the camera port as I understand it)? Or do I go to a website and type in a username?

I wish this thing came with much better documentation and their website & tech support isn't much better for a novice. :(

[hammer32]

I'm a bit late coming to the thread, but I found an old multiplexor on eBay a few years ago to combine the signals from a few of the X-10 type cameras and have them connected to a Mac running a program that looks for motion and posts still pics to a server. It's also connected to an old Series 1 (mod'd) that can record about 8 days using manual recordings.

[restart88]

You have to setup your router to forward the correct port to the NV3000. If all you type on your local network is http://192.168.1.45 (or something like that) then the port is port 80. If you type http://192.168.1.45:2328 (or something like that) then the port is 2328. You'll have to look at your router manual to determine how to forward the ports.

Hope this helped.

That was the nut of the problem. What the card maker AverMedia lacked in it's thin setup & operation manual (something like 3 pages) they more than made up for by walking me through. I was a total virgin to port settings, not to mention most everything else involved. But now that I have 4 cameras up & running and the feeds accessible anywhere there's a web connection. I'm in hog heaven! :)

I may opt for different software later but for now the company product meets all but my nit picking needs, including the ability to record AND to be able to record at a remote location (nice feature to have if someone breaks in and takes the PC along with the rest of your stuff. ;)

So while I may revisit the Tivo solution later for a pet project I'm glad I opted for the card, which worked out well since I had a spare E310 PC. I'm tempted to move the card to my E510 which I use as a media server (if I understand the term) but one drawback about the low end Dell PCs is of course a scant 2 PCI slots and I'm using one for a wireless card already, so that means I'd have to switch to a USB wireless adaptor if I want to add a 2nd camera card. But that's tomorrow's headache. :D

Thanks all for taking the time to help!!!!