Please help in cctv minefield!

[dannydani]

Hi, this is my first post on here and after spending my the night reading through previous threads, I thought it may be easier to just ask myself.

I'm in the market for a cctv system for my home. I am on a tight budget (around £250) so not expecting the best obviously. My idea was to get a simple set up like this one: Swann DVR4-4150 8 Channel DVR CCTV Kit with 4 Cameras | Maplin
Or this: Swann DVR8-3260 8 Channel DVR CCTV Kit with 4 Cameras | Maplin
And then overtime upgrade the cameras as I go along. I'm just getting more confused now regarding D1/960h/1080p.
Can somebody who has a spare couple of minutes please advise me on a good set up within my small budget, or am I best buying a dvr separate along with better quality cameras individually.
I require a dvr, need to be able to record not stop on all cameras but I'm never away from my house for more than 7 days. I need approx 4 cameras but can always start with 2 and get more in time as I will probably end up with about 8 cameras haha. Night vision would be an advantage but I can always fit security cameras also if this jeopardises camera quality, viewing availability from my smart phone and cabling to connect it all.

I am aware that I'm asking a lot for a small budget but thought I'd be best asking here first before going into maplin and just getting sold anything or from buying a low quality system from eBay or Amazon.

I'm not great at electronics but should be able to set up myself.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Danny

 

[dannydani]

I forgot to mention, I have no problem buying a used set up if it got me a better deal too!
Thanks

 

[RajP]

So.. lets start with the picture quality.. 700TVL is ok picture quality wise but it does not capture a hell of a lot of detail in that.. I have 8 cameras and had all cameras 700TVL and found that yes you could see things but this lacked detail..

So I upgraded all my kit to 1080p and can't say I regret it.. I have moved up to 1080P AHD cameras.. I could have gone IP but then it was a lot more expensive and also would require running new CAT cables to each camera point. The current wiring is setup to allow 2 cameras on each CAT5 cable.

I purchased my DVR and Cameras from HDCCTV.co.uk. I have a 16 channel DVR with 6TB hard drive in it.. purchased the 6TB drive from Amazon and installed it myself.

The cameras have got night vision built in and it works pretty well.

The app they have allows you to view the cameras as well as playback recorded video. All 9 cameras are constantly recording and it has the ability to overwrite once the drive is full.

If I was in your position, I would buy a 1080P DVR and cameras and add more as you need.

Happy to answer any questions or queries..

 

[dannydani]

Rajp I appreciate your response, I have just been having a look now. Now from experience, would you say that the make of the actual dvr matters or just the spec? I was looking at the Swann set ups but didn't know if I should buy a cheaper 1080p dvr from eBay or something and spending more on buying better quality cameras to go with the 1080p dvr?

 

[RajP]

It all depends on what functionality it has and if that is what you need.. Plus, warranty cover is important as you may not get that from eBay purchases..