Hard Drive Recorder (NON PC) for Surveillance

sillygoose

Easy... Emprex media recorder/player

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Emprex-ME1-Media-Player-Recorder/dp/B0015RQRSG/

You will need to add a hard drive in but other places sell it with one in. Plenty of connections in/out including AV. As simple as pressing record on the remote and off it goes. Records straight to MPEG2 (DVD standard). If you want to get the video off to a PC you just plug it in USB and it acts like an external hard drive and you copy the files off. Doesn't have motion detection but hooked up to the TV you can fast forward through the recording until the point of interest.

I often leave mine running all day and night as I use it to batch copy movies off my Sky box for keeping on DVD's later (only way is to leave the sky box playing and record that). I also take the device on holiday and hook up to the TV there and use to catch up on all the movies I don't have time to watch - using it as a player.

It can record in various quality modes from HQ to LP and encodes/records the video in real time very well. Any old hard drive with a few hundred megs will do. Its sold on ebay often cheaply with or wothout a drive.

RealGem

closed wrote: »

Without any motion detection, you are going to have to spend a long time reviewing the recordings.

thanks, yes I thought that, but the one I linked to above has motion detection.

Also, my Dad never goes out for long, so even if the DVR is set to continuous recording, he can fast forward through the length of time he was out. The vandalism happened once when he went out for 20 minutes!

bluesnake wrote: »

we have a few bespoke camera boxes at work. they are windows boxes but have seen 1 linux one years ago.

This is great software http://www.h264soft.com/

Thanks a lot but a computer is not an option, as stated above.

bluesnake wrote: »

vcr tapes lat 8 hours at best, have to be rewound and to fast forward through 8 hours - !!!!!! as it is unworkable!!!

True under normal circumstances. But not unworkable for my Dad, as he is out for only a short length of time, to go to the shop etc, so if he comes home after half an hour and finds further vandalsim, he only needs to rewind 30 minutes. It once happened when he was out for 20 minutes.

He actually has (would you believe) over 30 VHS tapes, most of which have only been used once or twice, as he taped movies he liked, but only ever watched them once.

To use them 24/7, he'd only need 21 tapes, plus a few spares to keep as evidence. The tapes rewind automatically, and he would hear this happen so he could put the next tape in.

Plus we might get a DVR with motion detector.

thanks

sillygoose wrote: »

Easy... Emprex media recorder/player

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Emprex-ME1-Media-Player-Recorder/dp/B0015RQRSG/

You will need to add a hard drive in but other places sell it with one in. Plenty of connections in/out including AV. As simple as pressing record on the remote and off it goes. Records straight to MPEG2 (DVD standard). If you want to get the video off to a PC you just plug it in USB and it acts like an external hard drive and you copy the files off. Doesn't have motion detection but hooked up to the TV you can fast forward through the recording until the point of interest.

I often leave mine running all day and night as I use it to batch copy movies off my Sky box for keeping on DVD's later (only way is to leave the sky box playing and record that). I also take the device on holiday and hook up to the TV there and use to catch up on all the movies I don't have time to watch - using it as a player.

It can record in various quality modes from HQ to LP and encodes/records the video in real time very well. Any old hard drive with a few hundred megs will do. Its sold on ebay often cheaply with or wothout a drive.

Thanks, I have not seen these before. On that Amazon page it says people buy a particular hard drive with it, but it appears to be an internal hard drive, which I don't understand. I guess they must be putting it into their computers???

I also don't yet understand how this device can work WITHOUT a hard drive?? I need to read more about it, but thanks for the tip.


UPDATE:
OK, I've read a few reviews for that Media player/ recorder, and sorry to be a dunce, but is everyone on there using this device with a PC?

I need a stand alone device, which I think you understood, as you said "if you want to link it to a PC..." Sorry but I'm a bit confused about this device. Can the Emprex be used with just a portable TV as a monitor, and an external hard drive?

thanks a lot

sillygoose

RealGem wrote: »

thanks, yes I thought that, but the one I linked to above has motion detection.

Also, my Dad never goes out for long, so even if the DVR is set to continuous recording, he can fast forward through the length of time he was out. The vandalism happened once when he went out for 20 minutes!




Thanks a lot but a computer is not an option, as stated above.

True under normal circumstances. But not unworkable for my Dad, as he is out for only a short length of time, to go to the shop etc, so if he comes home after half an hour and finds further vandalsim, he only needs to rewind 30 minutes. It once happened when he was out for 20 minutes.

He actually has (would you believe) over 30 VHS tapes, most of which have only been used once or twice, as he taped movies he liked, but only ever watched them once.

To use them 24/7, he'd only need 21 tapes, plus a few spares to keep as evidence. The tapes rewind automatically, and he would hear this happen so he could put the next tape in.

Plus we might get a DVR with motion detector.

thanks




Thanks, I have not seen these before. On that Amazon page it says people buy a particular hard drive with it, but it appears to be an internal hard drive, which I don't understand. I guess they must be putting it into their computers???

I also don't yet understand how this device can work WITHOUT a hard drive?? I need to read more about it, but thanks for the tip.


UPDATE:
OK, I've read a few reviews for that Media player/ recorder, and sorry to be a dunce, but is everyone on there using this device with a PC?

I need a stand alone device, which I think you understood, as you said "if you want to link it to a PC..." Sorry but I'm a bit confused about this device. Can the Emprex be used with just a portable TV as a monitor, and an external hard drive?

thanks a lot

Yes! needs NO computer. you fit a bare IDE hard drive inside the Emprex case.

From there you can operate the Emprex via onscreen menu's on the TV and the remote control. You would connect the AV output to your TV and the camera to AV in. (It comes with lots of cables) The device can even format the hard drive (in fact its required initially.)

Anything you record then goes on the internal hard drive as video files and then you play back just like a VCR straight to the TV.

I think what is confusing you is it also has 2 USB ports. One can connect to an normal external USB hard drive, think of this as an extension to provide extra storage space if needed. The other USB port is a computer one. Should you get a recording of the crime on the Emprex, you can then plug it into a computer and copy the apropriate video file off the Emprex onto the PC to put onto a DVD for example to pass to the police.

ps no longer made but plenty around, here is one on ebay already with a big hard disk installed. Also when playing back you can zoom in on areas of the picture!

googler

The Panasonic HDD/DVD recorders won't take USB sticks, but will take SD cards, to which video can be copied....

RealGem

sillygoose wrote: »

Yes! needs NO computer. you fit a bare IDE hard drive inside the Emprex case.

From there you can operate the Emprex via onscreen menu's on the TV and the remote control. You would connect the AV output to your TV and the camera to AV in. (It comes with lots of cables) The device can even format the hard drive (in fact its required initially.)

Anything you record then goes on the internal hard drive as video files and then you play back just like a VCR straight to the TV.

I think what is confusing you is it also has 2 USB ports. One can connect to an normal external USB hard drive, think of this as an extension to provide extra storage space if needed. The other USB port is a computer one. Should you get a recording of the crime on the Emprex, you can then plug it into a computer and copy the apropriate video file off the Emprex onto the PC to put onto a DVD for example to pass to the police.

ps no longer made but plenty around, here is one on ebay already with a big hard disk installed. Also when playing back you can zoom in on areas of the picture!

That's very helpful thanks a lot Sillygoose!

googler wrote: »

The Panasonic HDD/DVD recorders won't take USB sticks, but will take SD cards, to which video can be copied....

Thank you too Googler

neilwoods

Ringo 24601 posted in post 2 the ideal option for yourself, a CCTV system. Does not matter where you but it from, but that is the ideal device.

That camer you posted is ok for short distance and daytime, does it have an ir filter, as a lot can have, if so then useless for night time, even if you use a IR light.

Also if you do capture something, what do you want to do with it. Show it to police and maybe use in court. The police and courts like cctv with timestamp, doesn't have to have it, but it helps.

Most CCTV dvr these days will have 2 usb ports, 1 for the mouse, other to plug in pen drive so can copy the video off, plus the video footage is time stamped.

paddyrg

Just to challenge assumptions a second - do you really need digital recordings if your dad can set the video recording before popping out, then coming back in, only watching if there has been vandalism? The police will find it easier to watch a VHS than some of the arcane formats cheap DVR's record in (one I had to extract data from used a time division multiplex so each frame belonged to 1 camera, but not as simple as each 4th frame as they all went at different framerates! Only way to extract (and speaking as something of an expert on video codecs and container formats) was with manufacturers toolkit which was NOT included with the DVR!).

2010

One or two of these is all you need.

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?hl=en&sugexp=frgbld&gs_nf=1&cp=13&gs_id=1e&xhr=t&q=dummy+cameras&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1600&bih=785&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=10436220555355089303&sa=X&ei=AWRxT5XBOIav8QParchF&sqi=2&ved=0CIoBEPMCMAA

neilwoods

paddyrg wrote: »

Just to challenge assumptions a second - do you really need digital recordings if your dad can set the video recording before popping out, then coming back in, only watching if there has been vandalism? The police will find it easier to watch a VHS than some of the arcane formats cheap DVR's record in (one I had to extract data from used a time division multiplex so each frame belonged to 1 camera, but not as simple as each 4th frame as they all went at different framerates! Only way to extract (and speaking as something of an expert on video codecs and container formats) was with manufacturers toolkit which was NOT included with the DVR!).

Thats assuming they a VHS. Most modern DVR untis that come with usb backup and the video compression is H.264 (mpeg4). Which I suspect the police would be more than capable of playing back.

Don't get me wrong VHS could be fine, it is more about the camera that is in question, a small pin hole camera used with VHS, not going to be very good quality.

Also avoid those dummy camera's at all cost's, the ones with the flashing led. They scream at your saying DUMMY CAMERA.

paddyrg

neilwoods wrote: »

Thats assuming they a VHS. Most modern DVR untis that come with usb backup and the video compression is H.264 (mpeg4). Which I suspect the police would be more than capable of playing back.

Don't get me wrong VHS could be fine, it is more about the camera that is in question, a small pin hole camera used with VHS, not going to be very good quality.

I agree it does depend a bit on the camera resolution, but those cheapo ones resolve to about 320 lines, same as VHS. A high-def recording of a low quality image will still be low quality, just low quality with higher duplication of pixels! But the plus side of a VHS is that you can take the tape (and if needs be, the player) and it is rock-solid.

What I will say is CHECK the DVR actually does record as separate H.264 files (the boxes are very vague). The one I had to spend a DAY extracting 2 streams from had a USB export - just because the ports look familiar doesn't mean the container or codec are in any kind of useful form. I thought it would be a 20-min job, but to get the files onto a form the police could use (a VHS or regular DVD) took, as I said, a whole day. All to save the company that installed the system probably £50.