Mac Mini

[jota73]

Guys!

I am setting some securirty video in my house, just wondering if instead of using my Intel Mac for streaming the video through the internet will it be better buying a Mac mini and use this instead... I have installed 5 spy cameras all over my house (just checking over the baby sitter). Would you recommend me buying the mac mini or any other PC??

Please some advice

Juan

 

[Chundles]

You're spying on the babysitter? Isn't that illegal?

 

[jota73]

fortunately not in my country.... any advice?

 

[dpaanlka]

fortunately not in my country.... any advice?

Thankfully, not in the united states either.

Would you recommend me buying the mac mini or any other PC??

Well, yes it would be better to have a dedicated machine to do it, because you wouldn't want to use a computer for daily tasks that is constantly slow because it is constantly devoting it's resources to handling your video streams.

A Mac Mini would be an excellent choice.

If you want a less expensive (and a sortof fun project) solution, you could even hunt down a Power Mac 5400/5500 series with the A/V features, usually you can find those for like $20 and they do video stuff really well. You'd have to buy five of them, but they all come with built in displays, so what's that like $100? Just string them up in some room and have like a "security room" - there is inexpensive (and free) software available to make them stream as well as take snapshots at pre-determined intervals and post them on FTP servers. Of course, you'd have to wire all the cameras to them.

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This is one that I've had running (upside down) for about 6 months: http://main.system7today.com/software/stripcam.html Never had to restart once!