Same as elekie doc here, we had the people who updated and maintain our alarm system supply and fit a 4 camera system with internal hard drive recorder, night vision is very good.

From my research before investing try and avoid wireless go for a fully wired system (confirmed and recommended by the pros), both for alarm and surveillance, we have static dedicated monitors in two rooms (standard desktop monitors that can be bought cheaply), the screen is divided into 4 views of which any one can be zoomed in full screen mode and rewound up to any point up to about 30 days IIRC, any time day or night it takes but a moment to see all around the house all the garden and driveway and more, the unit is also internet linked so we can view the same set of screens on a phone, reassuring for SWMBO if i'm away early hours and something disturbs the dogs.

Cameras have been in probably over 5 years now at a cost of £800 i think, so far no failures of any description, looking at the unit the brand appears to be QVIS, i have no idea how high or low end that brand may be but its worth every penny it cost, the beauty of fully wired is once installed should the system or an individual camera fail replacing individual items will be a fraction of the initial cost.

Edited by gordonbennet on 05/08/2024 at 18:05

Are any of them Teslas? They have a quite comprehensive video monitoring system (but it may possibly be disabled in the UK).

In a similar vein, I wonder if any (more fancy?) car dashcams can be tweaked to provide this function, if they have sufficient internal battery capacity, storage and some kind of presence detector?

Had some lovely viewing this morning.

Over the period of an hour a bunch of blue tits raided every outside camera for the spiders which inevitably set up home in the nooks and crannies, i'd planned to put the multiple extensions on the James vacuum today to remove the webs, no need the birds have cleaned up nicely, the close ups of these charming birds going about their work made our morning.

We like to think they're some of the number who we feed over the cold seasons and breed in our nesting boxes every year without fail.

Edited by gordonbennet on 18/08/2024 at 12:35

Yes, deterrent is what I'm after rather than catching, given that's probably impossible.

On a related note, local new police office knocked on the door last week - I was away working, but SWMBO answered and he was walking up the road canvassing all the neighbours trying to obtain CCTV, somewhere in the region of 40+ cars were keyed, on what is, usually at least, a busy, but mostly crime free main road in a pleasant suburb.

Car in for 3 panel repair today - paying for it myself, rather than the paying the excess and risk the premium going up - even though I have 9+ years NCD which is protected.

I suppose with that many crimes being recorded in that postal district, the cost of insurance will inevitably rise.

Finally, I have moved some of the obstructions preventing the car from being stored on the drive, so at least that will help, but not for those less fortunate who can't park on a drive.