Buying CCTV and finding the best equipment for you generally depends on how much you want to spend. The basic rule for buying such things (and this applies to computers as well) is first, determine what would be best and second what would be cheap then find your affordable ground and try to spend toward the upper range of your budget. The risk is that if you go too cheaply you will not be happy with what you have bought. Then, Once you've decided what you really want within your range then find the best price by searching searching, and more searching.

The good thing about a separate DVR is that it can be placed somewhere like in a cupboard and hidden. Then I would use it's output to feed back to my PC. You only feed the info to your PC and if someone steals the PC then you've lost the images unless it has the ability to download to the internet. This should be on the higher range equipment. Be careful, thieves think about stealing cctv evidence, it’s on their minds. It even can be said of a VCR. What if the crime was breaking in and stealing the TV/VCR? With a separate DVR feeding to the PC it would give me the double protection. Your PC could send images to the internet and the secret hidden DVR would be available for backup.

Be warned with INFRA-RED cameras these days, the range for night viewing is not great, they’re just not that great to be honest. Most are just your typical Chinese rubbish. The technology is too cheap in the cameras you get on the home setup market so you may need a separate infra-red light source. Another downer, the infra-red cameras won't work through glass since it reflects back to the camera lens. Unfortunately they must be outside if you want surveillance upon out-door areas. A costly addition to a setup would be to have infra-red cameras that don't have their own light source, mount them inside and then mount a separate infra-red flood light system, this is a common application and very effective.

Back in the good ‘ole days CCTV Cameras were extortionate. But now as with all technology markets, their prices have come drastically down and they are well within the reach of the common householder. The modern CCTV Cameras are almost all digital available with wireless technology. So much for “closed circuit”. Another good feature is they can also be connected to the USB port of computers and can produce digital images and many other functions. Then your CCTV images can be uploaded to the net and made available over the oceans.

It’s up to you, strive for what you want to achieve, not what others want to sell you.

A man, a plan, a camera. Installing cctv cameras now for almost a decade I have become somewhat nostalgic on sharing the good news of the eyes part of the "eyes and ears" of our community.