Feedback on Security system

[thomashoward]

is this a good onefor home use? Quality Vs. Price?
Thanks in advance

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?prodid=11750439&whse=BC&topnav=&cm_sp=RichRelevance-_-categorypageHorizontalTop-_-PopularProductsInCategory&cm_vc=categorypageHorizontalTop|PopularProductsInCategory

[JDay]

Not really. Good home surveillance systems do not come as a kit.

[blakdawg]

What exactly are you hoping the system will do for you?

I have spent a fair amount of time and money for video surveillance in my office. I find the video system useful for knowing what's going on - e.g., how many cars (if any?) are in the parking lot? Are the lights on in the office? Are there clients in the waiting room?

The system I've got is not especially effective at preventing crime, or apprehending bad guys after a crime has occurred. I had a guy break into my wife's car about 15 yards from, and in clear view of, my most expensive/nicest camera. He didn't act at all concerned about the camera. It was at night, and the camera lens is ringed with IR LED's that glow red (you can get invisible IR LED's but they're even more expensive). The bad guy ran away when the car alarm went off. I gave a copy of the video to the San Jose PD, who were happy to take a report, but they didn't recognize the guy (I did get nice clear video of him) so there wasn't much else to do.

I also think the system might be useful when there's an identifiable person who might or might not do something bad - e.g., if you can identify a bad guy in the video, that might be helpful to the police. So, if you're concerned about bad neighbors, or neighborhood kids vandalizing your car or whatever, maybe it'd be helpful.

The camera that got clear video of the car break-in was $200 by itself, and that's probably the lower end for even a reasonable camera. If you want nice sharp video, you're probably looking at $400 up into the thousands per camera. The video quality you get from the consumer-grade cameras sold in bundles will be disappointing if you're expecting something similar to what you see on TV from casinos or big shopping malls.

I would also think about getting a lot more storage space - I have 2 TB in my video machine and that's good for 8 cameras at 2FPS for about a month's worth of storage. You won't always know when you want/need video for a few days - twice I've had cops come to the office wanting external video recordings (once for a murder, once for an armed robbery) but it takes them a few days to canvass the neighborhood.