I'm trying to spec out a 4 camera cctv system working on Linux Zoneminder. I'm going to use this capture card
linky
I'm pretty happy with my choice of cameras but I am struggling to find out what the minimum pc specifications might be.
I know there are folk who have done this on here and also people who's day job it is. Can anyone help, or offer details of their setups.
I have a really nice passively cooled mini-itx board I would love to use but I have a feeling its marginal 
I will post the specs when I find them.
Before anyone says I'm aware of the problems of home cctv and its use as evidence.
quote:
Originally posted by liam.mccaffrey
I'm trying to spec out a 4 camera cctv system working on Linux Zoneminder. I'm going to use this capture card linky
I'm pretty happy with my choice of cameras but I am struggling to find out what the minimum pc specifications might be.
I know there are folk who have done this on here and also people who's day job it is. Can anyone help, or offer details of their setups.
I have a really nice passively cooled mini-itx board I would love to use but I have a feeling its marginal
I will post the specs when I find them.
Before anyone says I'm aware of the problems of home cctv and its use as evidence.
Rather than use your PC to manage your cctv, (is that all its for?) why not have a look at made for purpose cctv 4 channel recorders.
They have lots of features, zone alarm / area denial etc, timers and can save a lot of farting about.
4 Channel CCTV DVR - Fit you Own SATA Drive Hard drive on eBay (end time 15-Dec-10 12:59:09 GMT)
This was the first one I found on Eclart, no HD but made for purpose, and you can swap the drives should you need to.
Evidentially the Police would visit you at home and do an external copy, if it was a murder your system recorded ie major crime the complete HD would
get pulled.
I am fairly well versed with cctv operation, the imagery gathered is only as good as the sytem its recorded on, and the proficiency of the
operator.
You can foresee then that static point cameras operating in poor light, generally positioned above head height ie looking down , will gather imagery
of the tops of peoples heads. If your system is to protect against buglers, the trend is to wear hats, and even if they dont your back to the issues
of forehead shots and maybe poor quality/low light.
Most criminals are generally cctv aware, and will operate with that in mind, its their business not to get caught. Evidence from fixed cctv systems
in my experience is only ever supporting other stronger evidence, ie you catch him at it ! or the Police do.....
Physical security & good lighting is for my mind a better option first, before spending on cctv.
You dont say what your protecting with the cctv , so again that is a factor in its worth or not...
My experience with cctv is fairly broad, however Ive not been involved at pointy end stuff for around five years, so technically Im out of the loop,
and others may answer better in this area.
If I can help I will, please ask or u2u
It's not going to be easy to get a definitive answer as there are too many variables, you will need to think about the cature rates that you
require and if the hardware/software solution can handle this at full rate as well as replay access at the same time.
If you end up looking at not using the pc that you have try and find a package deal to include the cameras and a dvr, 4 channel dvr's are now
available from under £100, excluding hard drive.
One thing that we have learnt on pc based systems is to have a seperate hard drive for the recorded data ( not to use the system drive) and try to use
a drive specifically designed for video data. i.e. seagate sv 35.3 drives.
Be wary of any systems still using non-sata hard drives as you will struggle to find replacement drives that work reliably.
hth Roger
We've installed a few BT878 based systems but found few programs compatible and didnt have much joy but to be honest never tried Linux zonealarm
but that was back in the days that DVR's were expensive.
We now just use DVR's which are IP and Java ready, saves a lot of faffing about and they just work out of the box.
Cheers,
Bob