4 Comments February 26th, 2009

If I purchase a Tivo or DirectTV DVR, can I record images from a surveillance camera?

kellygirl12498 asked:


I do not have (nor do I plan to obtain) a subscription to Tivo, DirectTV or any other cable or satellite service. However, I was wondering if I could still purchase a DVR for the purpose of recording surveillance images at my home. I can record images to VCR but the strict limitation on the number of hours that can be recorded is inconvenient. Any other neat tips would be great too. Like, can I also connect a motion detector to the camera (which is wireless, by the way) so that it’s not running when there is no activity in the area?

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 6:05 am and is filed under Security Systems. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Responses to “If I purchase a Tivo or DirectTV DVR, can I record images from a surveillance camera?”

  1. ohm'slaw Says:
    February 28th, 2009 at 9:41 pm

    used long format vcr’s are a good way to go. check any nearby tv shops and security stores.dvr’s all vary on types of inputs allowed.

  2. skip_mcwilliams Says:
    March 1st, 2009 at 7:45 pm

    You could connect the Camera(s) to a computer, record onto a hard drive and then, if you needed to, transfer to a DVD using your DVD burner on your computer. The nice thing about this is tht you can control the size of the picture therefore the size of the files stored on the hard drive. This could get you many hours of video on your drive.

  3. ditto Says:
    March 4th, 2009 at 4:30 pm

    I would consider a stand a-lone DVD recorder with a hard-drive. They can record hundreds of hrs on the hard-drive and then if you need you can transfer it to DVD write. You will also be amazed to see how similar it is to Tivo and you don’t need a subscription. You can monitor while it is recording, you can search while its recording in slow mode or at speeds up to 100x you can even play a DVD while it is recording on the HD. Overall they are great machines.

  4. jj_36863_2991us Says:
    March 5th, 2009 at 1:37 pm

    nope only what is recorded on the channels on your dvr box.