Musings on a connected house

The insurance company offers me a discount if I have one or more security cameras in the house.

They require that the data be recorded and stored somewhere, so I figure a PC with a decent sized hard disc should do pretty nicely.

However, those little webcam devices are pretty pointless, because they have very limited depth of field (mainly because the intended use is for video chat); so I guess they're out. I have some conventional CCD cameras left over from my race car, but that means I need capture hardware as well.

I can get a Geovision card (GV-250, 4 inputs) for $201 or a LifeView USB (1 channel) for about $100. The GV starts to look much more attractive, but it won't work with a VIA chipset on the M/B according to their own website. If it doesn't need too much power, I have an older machine it might be OK with.

Film at 11...