Hi,
A couple of my buddies own a popular bar, the security camera system they're using currently is a very simple generic 4 camera system purchased from Sam's Club (it's made by Clover).

I've always hated it. The remote quality is horrible, and doesn't have any nice configuration options. Plus it uses some very generic pc only software for remote and local viewing.

Anyways, somebody tried to break into the place after they closed lastnight. They didn't get in, but the cameras only cover the inside of the building. I need to add at least another 4 cameras outside and I'd like to ability to upgrade in the future without throwing away the old one and purchasing a new one.

At my place, I've been messing around with motion, which is a software motion detector and I like it quite alot. It has a website with "Events" which link to the videos, the live streaming isn't the best but workable. However I only have 2 cameras using old tv tuners laying around and I'm not sure how the PCI bus will handle 8 or 12 cameras hopefully running around 15-25 fps each at a decent resolution.

What would you guys recommend? Going with a pure software system, and getting a decent PCI card that's capable of 8-12 individual video captures? or an off the shelf hardware solution?

I went for a combination of your two solutions. I have been using the Geovision system for the past 3 years. It has been very good, and I think the new versions are even better.

It runs in Windows, and has been as solid as a rock from the very first install, it has never once locked windows!!! I find it a really good solution and also gives me a PC to run various other functions from, such as x10 control of security lights etc...

I have also found that you don't need to spend a fortune on camera's I use small covert cameras that cost me £50ish, they are only B&W but do a great job. It's also a scalable system so you could buy a 12 input card and only use 8, I wish I had done that when I was planning my system.

Cheers

Cris.

http://www.supercircuits.com/
Have a bunch of gear. Many kinds of cameras and DVR's.

I've just bought an Axis network camera for a project at work. The thing is basically a embedded linux system with a camera and wired and wireless network adaptors. You can write your own bash scripts and schedule them in a crontab or fire them off a closing contact or on screen motion. It uses busybox so you have the usual bunch of built in commands. Or if you need more flexibility you can cross-compile stuff (it's ARM at heart).

Axis provide quite a few helper applications for grabbing video, stills and audio, automated ftp, http and email transfers. The script I've written grabs a frame every 5 minutes, ftp's a timestamped file to one ftp server (which we will use to build a timelapse video with) and a file called latest.jpg to another ftp server which will go on our website.

The cameras aren't cheap, the one I'm working with is over £200 for a VGA resolution one (albeit with a very good CCD so very little noise and excellent low light performance). There are some really nice ones about the £500 mark with C and CS-mount lenses.

I have a bunch of Axis cams around the house - love them!