Home Technology DIY

Can anyone reccomend a good DVR for home security surveillance. My ofice uses a large 16 channel DVR which I am very fammiliar with, but it is out of my price range and has more features than I need. I would like to find one with fewer channels (at least 3) and with built in motion detection. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I use this model: DVR4017N from security cameras direct. DVR has four channels and good image. i use mine with no monitor because it is on my home network i can view, configure and control it from my PC. you need to buy a hard drive also, because it comes without one. it will support up to 500GB HDD, mine has a 160GB i reused from a busted pc. It has good motion detection 16x12 grid overlay which means in configuration the screen is divided into a grid 16blocks x 12blocks and each block can be activited or deativated for motion detection. this is useful to prevent recording if you have an area in view of the camera with constant motion such as a busy highway that you dont want to trigger the motion detection. it costs less than $300. here is the text from security cameras direct: With the DVR4017N you will be amazed by the price and fully satisfied by the performance. This DVR will allow you to record real-time video in MPEG-4 or JPEG compression. You can even view your home or workplace from anywhere in the world via secure network connection and have up to 5 concurrent users. Record in manual, timer, motion, alarm or remote modes based on your needs. The 16 x 12 grid overlay makes setting up the smart motion detection fast and easy. If you have a power outage the system auto recovery feature will reset the DVR to pre outage status. Video loss detection will alert you of a camera failure for peace of mind.

Here is a link to the DVR
[url:1kq6o618]www.scdlink.com/Details.cfm?ProdID=2348&category=16[/url]

I am looking at buying the DVR4017N for my home. Can you tell me how the network interface works? Does it need special software?

Viewing the DVR4017N DVR over a network does not require special software. It can be accessed from any web browser using the DVR built in web server, or with the video server applet that is included with the DVR. Here is a screenshot of the video server applet in use. Note only 1 camera is connected so the others appear as blue screens.

Here is a screenshot of the login page for network access using a web browser. You can see the link at the bottom that says 'Download AP'. this links to a download of the video server applet pictured in my previous post.

This is the save view of the DVRs built in web server after logging in. The controls work well, although there is a slight delay using the controls over the web. The video server ap seems to respnd a bit quicker than the browser interface.