Anybody Fitted Cctv At Home?

[kevin the chicken]

Hi,

Thinking of fitting a home cctv setup at home but not really sure what I need or where to look. Anybody else fitted Any?

[agent_zed]

not got any fitted but i was thinking of something similar. Rather than a full on dedicated system i was going to use an old computer and webcam. There are quite a few free computer programs that will make your webcam a security cam. It will turn on automatically if it detects movement and can be set to email you and send the video footage to another computer/hosting. Advantage being that an old computer/laptop is pretty cheap and a webcam is ~£5.

this is the one i was going to try https://www.ispyconnect.com/

[brumster]

Kevin, it takes quite a bit of planning but the short answer I would say is this... there are generally 2 approaches. One is to "play at it" and just have some sort of visual deterrent up; very often the footage is cheap, low-quality and pretty much useless at proving anything but can at least provide some idea of what's happened and when. The other approach is to make it a useable system, but this can get expensive (depending on number of cameras of course) as you need HD cameras to really pick out people's faces or car registrations.

 

That's a generalism - camera locations, the layout of what you're trying to protect and so forth can change things. Both are totally valid, although I will say one thing - if someone really wants "in", a camera won't stop them (trust me) and a face mask or a bag over the camera soon puts stop to it's usefulness.

[kevin the chicken]

Looking at probably three cameras as the other side is boxed in by the neighbours and they have cameras. If I am going to put them up then they might as well be of a reasonable quality. I am going to put security lights up too which may act as a visual deterrent. When I get a new gate put up that should make it harder to get around the rear of the house so hopefully that should deter anybody looking for easy pickings and make them try elsewhere.

The thing that has brought this about is that my neighbour who is 80 odd years old had three masked men break in on Thursday night while he was in bed, get him up and show them where his money and gold was. They only got away with 80 pound cash and some rings but they trashed his house. The house the other side had a similar incident about 3 years ago. They are elderly too. Both houses have doors out of sight of the road. Mine is not and I have good doors at the back too but I want do everything I can.

[Bob Tucker]

*king big dog....

[kevin the chicken]

Not greyhounds though. Big enough to spread themselves over a 3 seat sofa but too lazy to get to the back door. Seriously though I have now got a lurcher puppy and she has a big bark even though she is still small. As a postman I am always wary of houses where there are dogs but unfortunately a lot of people put up signs saying beware of dog whether they have one or not but it is another albeit small layer of security.

[Mrbarry]

Dogs make more mes than a burgler tho, and I'm yet to hear of anyone needing to walk a burgler or pick up their poo, put one in kennels during holidays, take one to a vet.... Woukdnt be my first call for security. As a pet however yes, if that's your thing. Security is simply a happy extra.

CCTV is like a door lock, only there to stop honest people. Those who want to take your things will, no matter what. A face mask and you have no idea who is in that video footage.

[kevin the chicken]

Those old locks are easy to bypass. We have a lock snapper kit on the fire engine and it is the work of seconds to prise off the cover, snap the lock and push the middle out. The new ones you can still break them off but you can't remove the middle piece. I would disagree about the upvc doors to some extent though as if they are properly installed, the ones without the panels are hard to break down quietly and thats important because the scroats don't want to make a noise. They like a quick shove and in with no noise. At the end of the day glass is easy to break but noisy and everybody has windows no matter how good their locks.

Our post office nearly lost its atm this morning, as you say if they want it they will get it especially if they have a John deere telehandler.

[philshelton]

Some cameras mounted under Sofit on porch are had to cover with bag. I went 8 channels DVR with 2 Tb hard drive motion detection puts a marker so easy to find on playback. Don't forget you need a notice to state you have cctv. I posted a video on line of a gang of yobs jumping all over my front hedge, police contacted me for a copy of the footage and 3 of them got done as they had damaged other property up the street. £350 well spent

[Guest peter2b2002]

we have 2 camera's one looks down the drive the other looking over the garden/orchard as some scum bag has been stealing our plumbs for the last 2 years, I got them from maplins work on a radio signal to a baset station that has the ability to send a live feed to your phone/email the camera's need a 240 suply the Base station has a 3gb sim card to record things also you can adjust the sensitivity of the cameras from cat size the person size, 1 good thing is it records to memory for a few seconds before the the scene is shown, I only found out this when looking at a recording of a van passing our house it started to record before the van came in sight the continued to record till after it passed

peter-2b

[maccavvy]

I have a pro fit mine . Wide angle dome ir illuminated up front .. wall mount on rear.. hard drive in house connected to TV.. great pic and came in handy in court when someone damaged neighbours car.

[agent_zed]

My brothers friend's dad has a house in a remote location i.e. no neighbours for about 2 miles but on a main-ish road. His dad is a computer expert and had a fully cctv'd place that would contact his via mobile etc etc but a couple of days before the robbery a gate camera somehow got broke!

 

They were watching and broke in as soon as he had left the house and took the keys to a couple of expensive cars and removed said cars at speed.

 

Sadly because we are in a remote location his phone didn't warn him until a hour or so later by which time the job had been done. The footage showed nothing useful.

 

As above though as much as you do they will be one step ahead. If you put in a full cctv system will it have battery backup? as it isn't hard to pull the main fuse on a house. Once the power is gone even if you have battery backup your router will probably be down so it won't upload to a remote location so they can nick your computer too and no evidence.

 

At the end of the day if they are going to break in and nick your car you'd be best placed to leave the keys in a nice easy place as better to have them come in and go quickly and leave you alone.

 

That said for my garage i have considered a trip wire and a smoke grenade, you can't steal what you can't see!!

 

...although might need some kind of delay/warning as it might be annoying when you forget

[BigLee]

I installed a SANNCE ( I think) 8 channel wired DVR with 2 TB hard drive like Phil. From Amazon Mine are on the wall and feed round to the box stored in the garage . Many put them under eaves and feed wires into loft. less than £200 for the kit. Records continuously and overwrites when full, You get about 2 weeks worth of recordings. been up a couple of years. Images or OK. and bit sketchy in the dark. The infra red is not the best. Also the quality of the cameras. They are OK, I have a couple who gone a bit pink and noisy. I have 7 cameras set up. 4 at front 2 at back and 1 in the garage. Not sure if its the camera, the cable or some water somewhere. They are cheap enough at less the £15 for a replacement.. You gets what you pay for but as a basic (what are the scrotes doing to the cars parked on the drive) solution, they are ok and cheap enough and do provide a small deterrent i believe.