Which CCTV

[morpheus83uk]

I am looking at getting some form of CCTV for my house since having my garage and car broken into as two separate incidents. I would like to throw up some CCTV with a sign to state CCTV recording in progress as a deterrent so its not an easy target as it comes with more risk of getting caught.

On the flip side it could be saying I have stuff to hide which is worth stealing.

What sort of camera's do people recommend? I have been quoted £1500 from the same company who did my alarm for a 4 camera system which has HD quality images and 1TB of recording space and runs off a DVR with an 18" monitor included. I don't think I will need the monitor as I could use the TV I presume but I don't know.

As we have kids playing football all over the place I don't fancy them smashing the camera's so I am looking for dome cameras so when they decide to kick the football at them I am not continually paying for them to be either replaced or repaired or put back up.

One company I got quotes from was £600 which is significantly cheaper however said he would run all the cables down the side of the house where they can easily be cut which to me seems pointless as the cable gets cut the camera doesn't record as it doesn't have power and even if its separate power it will still not be saving the images to the DVR as its not got a route there.

The company which has quoted me £1500 does do a professional job as in all the cabling hidden down cavity walls etc so just a mounted camera on display outside and all the cabling hidden away properly so I know what I am paying for and the price wont change any problems they deal with them and I will have on going support from them as well.

What do people think of the quotes?

I have also seen SWANN in Costco and I have been told they are quite good however I wont be able to cable these into the cavity walls which is the issue I would have and then would have the same issue of the cables being cut as well.

Any thoughts?

James

 

[sparkymarka]

Avoid swann cheap tat rubbish ! And in life you only get what you pay for !

 

[rabu]

I install HD cctv for a living, £1500 is steep. the price you got at 600 is above some but less that some, cables are ok outside if there in conduit for protecton, doesnt matter how well the cameras are installed,if someone wants to break in they will find a way round it, be that smashing them off, spraying the lenses with black paint (seen this alot, usaly get a great face pic just befour they spray it) ... running cables down a cavity is bad idea as they can be caught and snagged on wall ties/ lumps of mortar, also should anyone be drilling though they dont expect a cable in the wall cavity. The way we do them is usaly outside via conduit or inside occasionaly bury in plaster but most often in small trunkin. Hope this helps.

 

[morpheus83uk]

Thanks both for your replies. I can see your point of having the cable on the walls and also in the cavity. What sort of a price would be about right for 4 camera's including VAT and labour?

The cables from the £600 guy wouldn't have been in conduit just tacked onto the wall and where the camera's are going to be placed I cant see any reason for the cables to be drilled through or snagged etc. Once they are in though surely they shouldn't move?

So what sort of brands etc should I be looking for?

Many Thanks

James

 

[sparkymarka]

Your not getting HD cameras for £600 fitted ! A buget HD-SDI recorder 4 channel 4tb will cost around £400 on its own ( not some cheap Chinese unit) and forget about 1tb on HD you need 4tb to start!

 

[rabu]

If cables go in cavity, ok no one may not drill though them, but mice can climb a cavity so could sometime be chewed on, also its not the easiest job to feed them down and pull them out, far easier in conduit or trunking. Labour rates are hard to guess, depens on where your from, what firm and what the house is like to work in, around the manchester area we tend to charge about £100 per install on a average terrace/ semi that can go up if cables are being buryed in walls, or lifting floor boards... Install time should be around half a day give or take a bit, again depens on access and how easy your home is to work on.
Brands and prices for stuff are harder to say as some firms get things cheaper than others and alot of brands are trade only, so even if you was to get your own stuff, acctualy going geting it could be tricky, Most of the time brands arnt that relavant i know one firm in china making camers and rebranding them under half a dozen uk names, also do you realy need HD? most of the time 1000TVL is alot cheaper and almost as good in terms of viewing.

 

[E999]

I would say 1500 pound is about right for a full system.....you just need to check out what DVR/cams they are fitting as this will be key......

I now only fit the Samsung SRD-443 with Samsung SCV-2081 dome cams....never had a call back, never had an unhappy customer....


See previous people on here who bought this set up and are chuffed!

Stay well away from Swann junk - buy cheap you buy twice in this game.

As for 600 supply and install, this offer is a con...not possible!

 

[sparkymarka]

1000tvl camera that's all fine dvr s can only use 576 lines if recording in d1 so the extra 500 don't mean a thing !

 

[morpheus83uk]

Thanks for all that!

I have looked at this and can DVR's only go up to D1 or can they go higher? Ii was looking at and NVR and they seem to be able to go to full HD. Can DVR's not do this?

Also doesn't it depend on the compression of the camera or DVR as to the size of the HDD? or doesn't it compress the feed its receiving?

 

[sparkymarka]

960h give a better picture if used with 960h cameras
Next step HD-SDI give 1080 check specs some only 720
IP cameras plus NVR same again BUT check the specs on camera and recording

 

[morpheus83uk]

Thanks

Can you have IP camera's with DVR's?

Many Thanks

James

 

[sparkymarka]

Normally a NVR but some hybrid machines out with x number of analog camera s and IP cameras or there are now some hd-sdi / analog which know what type of camera is connected. Eg dynamic- cctv. Mx dvr

 

[morpheus83uk]

Ah its just because I was told I would be supplied with a DVR maybe this was just said to make things more simple on the call..