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Oreon,
Those Swann cameras are of varying quality. They sell quite a few models and often switch guts. You may still find identifying marks on the camera which could point you to a lower cost source. Really, the choice should be based on required field of view, distance, light levels, and money (good 1/3" ccd or cheap CMOS). Then pick an interface depending on if it's networked or providing a raw signal to something smart.
Will this be production surveillance or just testing?
You only want one camera? Will the PC be dedicated?
I haven't had great luck with PC add-on solutions. One camera will work but the software is awkward. If it crashes you don't capture, and may not even know it's down. Easy for the PC to be wasted. You may be better off with one of the many Ethernet/WiFi cameras, as pixelbend mentioned. Plug it in and go. Site monitoring doesn't scale well beyond single cameras but they're neat for simplicity.
The low-end DVR boxes aren't great either. Each exchange benefits & problems. The best easy solution I've found is ~$400-500 for a mid-range DVR. They're self-contained multiple input boxes the size of a component cd player.
- ~$400-500 handles 1-4 cameras, RCA or BNC. 1-16 available, admin sw treats them as a group.
- Records all detected motion at up to 60fps
- Can trigger alarms or other devices, or be triggered by sensors
- Review & record simultaneously
- Easy marking and output to tape
- Remote viewing
- Simple HD exchange - pseudo-tapes
- They typically employ image watermarking to help video stand up in court.
The best part is they just run. It's a controlled working appliance with predictable buttons and remote control. Nobody installs hardware or software that takes it down. Much more reliable for surveillance than PC's. (of course, inside it's a PC running *nix, but then so is TiVO.)
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There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195
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