Before I sold out for law school, I worked with some DVR software from Sony that was actually pretty good. Unfortunately, I can't for the life of me remember the name. (Just found it - Sony RealShot) At the time, it was pre-release, but I think it was supposed to come out in late 2004. I'm sure it's Windows-only, but it didn't require a dedicated box, like a lot of the commercial DVR providers. So, at least you'd be able to handle OS security without having to battle the DVR app, too.
Of course, it being Sony, there's a good chance that it only works with Sony cameras. I only worked with their cameras at the time.
As for rolling your own... I wouldn't think it would be that hard, if you're willing to put some developer hours to it. Most of these IP cameras use the same HTTP-based mechanisms for sending data. I managed to get video off of a couple different cameras without too much trouble. I developed in.Net but I'm sure there are libraries to support this in whatever language you prefer.
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Before I sold out for law school, I worked with some DVR software from Sony that was actually pretty good. Unfortunately, I can't for the life of me remember the name. (Just found it - Sony RealShot) At the time, it was pre-release, but I think it was supposed to come out in late 2004. I'm sure it's Windows-only, but it didn't require a dedicated box, like a lot of the commercial DVR providers. So, at least you'd be able to handle OS security without having to battle the DVR app, too.
.Net but I'm sure there are libraries to support this in whatever language you prefer.
Of course, it being Sony, there's a good chance that it only works with Sony cameras. I only worked with their cameras at the time.
As for rolling your own... I wouldn't think it would be that hard, if you're willing to put some developer hours to it. Most of these IP cameras use the same HTTP-based mechanisms for sending data. I managed to get video off of a couple different cameras without too much trouble. I developed in