Network Video Recording

[craigg]

I am not sure if i am posting in the correct section but humour me either way...

We currently have a room which is out of the way of the main ICT department and was prone to being vandalized, so when we put new computers in there we also installed a two small security cameras.

The problem is that every morning I have to go over there and put the tape in and press record. You can imagine that when its busy this can be a bit of a nause.

I was wondering if there was any sort of recorder box/IP VCR/Linux solution that would take the scart input and enable me to view/stop/start from my pc.

Any information would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Geoff]

You should look at Zoneminder.

ZoneMinder: Linux Home CCTV and Video Camera Security with Motion Detection

You will need fairly decent hardware to run it though. Plus you will need to use IP cameras, such as the ones from AXIS.

Axis Communications - Network cameras, IP cameras, security cameras, surveillance cameras

[nutso]

We use a couple of boxes similar to this in our school:

DVR4 SecuraNet 4-Channel Network CCTV Recorder (DVR) > Maplin

It uses standard BNC rather than SCART, but since you might be running an RCA to SCART adapter, it would be easy to convert the RCA to BNC instead. All controls can be operated over the network.

[use-IP]

craigg, is it actually a SCART connection from your cameras to your VCR?

It's important to know what format you have from the camera, we can then advise on how to record to network/PC e.g. what gadget will convert for you.

Although, with some network cameras sub £100 it may be cheaper to replace the current cameras with network cameras and use free video recording software ...

[PyROm]

We had the same problem. We used a program called dorgem which is free and very basic. It runs on windows and takes any video source as input, eg capture card, usb webcam etc. We found a Phillips tocam usb webcam worked well. It can run a webserver to show a current view of the room and can upload .jpgs via a share or ftp to a remote server.

[craigg]

craigg, is it actually a SCART connection from your cameras to your VCR?

It's important to know what format you have from the camera, we can then advise on how to record to network/PC e.g. what gadget will convert for you.

Although, with some network cameras sub £100 it may be cheaper to replace the current cameras with network cameras and use free video recording software ...

Yeah it is scart from the cameras into VCR.

Thanks for all your help guys!!!