Basically there is two components and a heap of wire that make up a CCTV PC surveillance system
The Card
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/4-CH-DVR-PC-CARD-4-CCTV-DIGITAL-SURVALANCE-UK-12-50_W0QQitemZ5849883040QQcategoryZ60839QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
This is the type of card I have, it is a PCI card, very easy to fit and comes with the card drivers and the controlling software, I have it set to run all night with the motion detection on, this basically means that if there is nothing moving in the area that the camera is pointing then it will not store an image onto the hard drive, but as soon as something comes into view then the software will record the action until no movement is detected, 5 seconds after the last movement it will stop recording, thus saving hard drive space. That is the problem with this type of capture, it requires large amounts of disk space. You can set this card up to run and record all the time, just run without recording (watching) or as I do with motion detection. A low lux camera and normal street lighting gives me a perfect view of the nights proceedings (you will be suprised the amount of cats roaming the streets, well I was). You should get these cards for around £15.00 now.
Camera
The camera can range from around £20.00 to £100.00, it would pay to get the most expensive one that you can afford, the cheap ones are just that, in bright sunlight you would be hard pushed to identify anyone. Basically there are two type of camera, CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Silicon) and CCD (Charge Couple Device). The CMOS is a digital image and not the one to use.
The CCD is a true camera type lens and far superior to its counterpart. The CMOS sensor is a kind of sensor that is normally 10 times less sensitive than the CCD sensor. A human eye can see object under 1 lux illumination ( full moon night ). CCD sensor normally will see better or as good as the human eye in the range of 0.1 ~3 lux and are 3 to 10 times more sensitive than a CMOS sensor. CMOS sensor's sensitivity are normally in the range of 6 to 15 lux. CMOS sensor have 10 times more fix pattern noise then CCD sensor. As CMOS sensor will become useless under 10 lux. All camera for serious application are using CCD sensors. The CMOS sensors are normally used on very low end home security.
So if this is to be used an night you will most certainly want a CCD type camera. I have also got a IR nightvision type camera with the led's around the lens, save your money, these are crap.
Hope this helps
regards
succuba
EDIT: Forgot to mention computer specs for this package :-
Hardware Recommendation
CPU Pentium III 450 or above
Motherboard Intel 82440 GX (or BX) based with adequate number of PCI slot or equivalent
Memory 128MB SDRAM (PC 100)
Display SVGA display with 1024x768, 16M color
Network 10/100Base T or Modem (for sending over internet)
Harddisk 10.2GB
Operating System Window 98
Plus IE 5.0 or above
Pretty low spec really
regards
succuba
