Any one have success with surveillance cameras

[mactruck]

Well my car got broken into last night and now I want to set up a surveillance camera. Only my Ipod was stolen. It was like 4 years old and the battery did not work so its not that big of a loss to me but it got me thinking about hooking up a security system. I know the price has come a lot so I think its time. If anyone has any cameras they like or have worked with any I would like to know what you think.

[atreyu]

Well my car got broken into last night and now I want to set up a surveillance camera. Only my Ipod was stolen. It was like 4 years old and the battery did not work so its not that big of a loss to me but it got me thinking about hooking up a security system. I know the price has come a lot so I think its time. If anyone has any cameras they like or have worked with any I would like to know what you think.

man, that sucks. my jeep got broken into a few months ago so I can relate. i can give props to the Axis 207MW. I bought it for work so price was not factor (to me). It is wireless and wired, and I think it has audio and motion sensors, as well as triggers. It is accessible via a basic web page, and has multiple video formatting options.

[jayd512]

Though I've not set one up for a Linux user, most home surveillance systems can be accessed via a web-interface.
It's quite similar to logging into a router page, which makes sence as many units are nothing more than a DVR with network ports.
So I wouldn't think that there would be any issues just because you use Linux.

[atreyu]

Though I've not set one up for a Linux user, most home surveillance systems can be accessed via a web-interface.
It's quite similar to logging into a router page, which makes sence as many units are nothing more than a DVR with network ports.
So I wouldn't think that there would be any issues just because you use Linux.

true. and that brings up a good point: a lot of the cheapies are just streaming a live feed. or possibly sending you stills/clips via FTP/email, etc. The actual recording surveillance units come w/a separate DVR unit (usually) - which most likely IS Linux ;) - but is a lot more $$.

[jayd512]

I setup a security system for a friend a few months ago.
I didn't ask him the price (none of my business) and I don't remember the brand.
But included was the DVR unit, and 4 cameras (2 color w/ night-vision, 2 simple B&W).
Easy set-up, easy installation.

And the DVR has a 500 GB HD for video/audio storage.


Not sure about the price, but this frugal individual was complaining about the total cost.

[Steven_G]

With some research and if you're willing to put in a little sweat equity you could probably hack something together fairly cheaply. Find a used / rebuilt system with a hotspot built into the wifi (make sure both the wifi and hotspot are supported, if not in the kernel then in the proprietary drivers *before* you buy). Get some cheap wireless cams, hotspot them to the terminal, stream and record the video.

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EDIT

Some of the newer wifi cards (and this feature may not be supported yet in *nix) have two way video streaming built straight in to the card for to or from streaming with any compatable device. I'm not at home right now, so I can't open my box. But, it's about a year old and has an Intel card that has that feature. I've never used it. But, according to the docs (in doze) it's 2-3 clicks and done.

[mactruck]

I found this deal on Woot. I have been reading the reviews and it looks ike its only supported with stupid IE and I want one I can rotate, tilt and zoom. It looks like a great deal other wise.

[Steven_G]

The specs say that it also can be done on LAN. But if you don't want cable strung all over the place then will IE run in wine? Or you could always setup a doze VM for the video feed.

[atreyu]

I have been reading the reviews and it looks ike its only supported with stupid IE and I want one I can rotate, tilt and zoom. It looks like a great deal other wise.

I'm not familiar w/that model, but I spent half the day today futzing w/a security cam (from Geovision) that was IE-only. It was a combination of ActiveX controls and the H.264 codec that kept me from having joy in Linux. In fact, I never even got it to work in Windows 7 w/IE8. I got it to work w/Firefox and Apple's QuickTime plug-in though. In my desperation, I even installed Safari for Windows and that worked better than IE8. But w/Linux, nada - even after installing gnome-mplayer and gecko-mediaplayer, as suggested by Mozilla (the issue I believe was the ActiveX controls).