Slashdot Mirror

If you have a Mac and some cams (up to 60 cameras)
http://www.bensoftware.com/securityspy/
and http://www.bensoftware.com/securityspy/features.html
"SecuritySpy can send email notifications, play alarms, or run scripts when motion is detected."

If you have a Mac and some cams (up to 60 cameras)
http://www.bensoftware.com/securityspy/
and http://www.bensoftware.com/securityspy/features.html
"SecuritySpy can send email notifications, play alarms, or run scripts when motion is detected."

IP cameras have become quite cheap, depending on your needs. If you get PoE models they are also far easier to run than traditional cameras, as a single CatE cable can get the job done. I've set up small systems a number of places including my house, and it all works quite well and easily. While you can go the open source route, I found the easiest way is with some Mac software. You can even do it without network DVR software and use cameras that capture to onboard SD cards. I find that inconvenient, but it can be a good backup if your cameras are mounted out of reach but your server isn't.

Checkout, in no particular order:

• Vivotek
• Axis
• Panasonic
• Y-Cam

There's a product for every need. Cheap, $50 indoor lit-room only solutions to $2000 pan/tilt/zoom IR illuminated outdoor vandal proof units.

TrendNet makes affordable PoE switches. 10/100 is fine, an individual camera stream is maybe 2Mbps for a high res stream.

I use SecuritySpy on a Mac. Even watching 8 cameras it uses

Place cameras where you can get good shots of faces as they come through doors. Maybe one of your driveway or street in front to get a car. They won't stop the break in, although visible cameras outside may be a deterrent, but they will give you a fighting chance of catching the person who did it.

Oh, and get a dog with a loud bark. Most robbers don't want to find out if it is a small dog or big dog!

Nice idea. Such software may already support the feature that video is only sent when there is movement/change. So, you're not wasting bandwidth.

Perhaps this Mac software suits your needs http://www.bensoftware.com/ss/

Bert

SecuritySpy is one of the best software solutions I have found for affordable video surveillance. The software provides support for a variety of network cameras and similar solutions. MacOS appears to be the only supported operating system.

There are tons of webcam apps that record images only when the image changes. If you have a webcam in the bezel of your laptop, you can use it to record everyone who enters your cube, or even looks into it, when you aren't around. Or you can just buy an external webcam. Anyway, just run it whenever you aren't in there, and spool the images to a remote location on the network. First, you can see who is scoping your stuff, and then you can catch them in the act if that actually do run off with it. Hell, barring actual theft, it may just be fun to see what people do in your cube when you aren't around... or it may be chilling and paranoia inducing. Main disadvantage of security culture? A propagation of fear and fear-mongering.

For Mac, check out BTV Pro:
http://www.bensoftware.com/btvpro.html

Similar software exists for Winboxes as well.

Buy one of these and then buy this.

And then buy all that other stuff like cameras and routers and shit.

As other posters have mentioned, OS X has the software to do video capture from firewire devices. iMovie and the other commercial packages offer a neat set of options. For something in-between, you can check out BTV. I've used it on OS 8.6, 9 and 10.2.x with an ixMicro TV capture card, an iRez PCMCIA capture card, the Dazzle DV Bridge, an XLR8 Interview capture device, and most recently with a Canopus ADVC-100. Once the system has the drivers, BTV can capture from it.

1. Turn on Formac DV.
2. Plug RCA/Coax/S-Video into Formac DV/TV.
3. Turn on iMovie or BTV.
4. Done.

From there, I can capture movies (and convert to MP4, add effects, etc), or capture screenshots. No muss, no fuss.

So that's the video input part, on a machine that's 6+ years old. The Tivo part can be done with a bit of script magic (Applescript, perl, whatever) or tools like BTV from bensoftware. You can encode to MPEG/cinepak/whatever on the fly, or later on. If you don't need the Tivo part, Apple's software does a good job of recording things.

Total cost is about $50 these days, and I'll bet the quality is better.