ZoneMinder Forums

For those of you that have experience with X10 equipment. How would you rate the quality and reliability of their camera equipment. We have had some issues recently in our neighborhood and will be installing a system of some kind. We can cover the perimeter with 5 cameras and possibly 4. Where we live is very dark at night and I am concerned about the low light capabilities of the X10 for the price. We have 4 QSee cameras that we could use, but I haven't been too impressed with them at all.

So is the X10 product line a viable solution? The price seems right.

Also If I go with the wireless solution, will I still need a capture card?

I know this post covers a number of possible topics so I apologize if the post is rather disjointed.

X10 is having a big clearance sale so I would like to capitalize on the savings if I could. For all I know they are always having a big sale. I don't really know.

Thanks for any input.

They're always having a big sale, and their web page resembles an infomercial a little too much for my taste. That being said, I have a friend that uses them in his back yard. He says they die occasionally, but he doesn't care because they're so cheap. I doubt you'll get much light sensitivity.

Thanks, I kind of suspected that.

I'm sure I'll have some more questions as time goes on.

I bought a wireless X10 camera back in 2000 at Fry's. It was terrible, I couldn't get a picture at all if the camera was more than 5 feet from the receiver. When I did get a picture, the quality was bad. I returned the camera the next day.

As to your wireless question; you will still need a capture card for any analog camera. A wireless analog cameras come with a receive box that has TV output. If you get a wireless IP camera , then you don't need a capture card.

I have a couple of older x-10 cam and the low light capability is nil. They are inexpensive for a reason.

Wireless is also problematic, anything which runs at the 2.5#hz range will interfere, most often that's cordless phones, my wireless router, etc. The microwave knock them out completely. I finally ended up pulling them apart, throwing the wireless components, and hard wiring them.

If you want cheap cameras to play with in broad daylight they are fine, otherwise I wouldn't recommend them.

Joe

Just a few words,
I would have paid you to take mine
I gave mine to a neighborhood kid, was the only way I could get rid of them.

Thanks for your input.

I have four qsee and one sony cam (all IR capable) that I will be hooking up. Someone mention that they had their qsee cams working under ZM. Even though the qsee quality isn't that great... it's a starting point.

I was curios about the x10 as they seem to have ads everywhere I look and was looking for some first hand experiences.

Now I have to pick up a capture card, most likely the 8 port flavor. If anyone has any recommendations (or horror stories) I'm listening...

This will be either an ubuntu or red hat install. (x86_64)

Wait, you want to use X10 cameras for perimeter security? Based on all their spam-like ads I thought those were for video taping certain bedroom related activities. Oh man.