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[nashcam]

Thought I would put up something simple to watch the house, and plan on placing a camera inside the attic looking out through one of the eves to watch the cars in the driveway and the front yard.

I have read through the forums, and have an idea on what I will buy, but suggestions would be helpful especially on how to record the video so that I don't have to tape over it. I know this has probably been asked a lot, but thought maybe some of the folks who have been around this forum could help me make a better informed purchase.

I'm not to worried about audio and most likely will leave it off unless it is just as easy to use. Prefer color and hard wired would be easy enough to do. I have a light on the outside of the house in the driveway area so not a lot of problems on that side either.

No real security problems, just living in today's world and have used cameras at work for several years and realize the value. Thanks in advance.

[nybuck]

For video recording, I would recommend a computer used as a Digital Video Recorder, or DVR.
Positive:  Inexpensive, can be viewed from anywhere via the internet, large storage volume.
The only drawback is your computer would have to be 'on' if you want to record.
A wired camera, or wireless receiver gives you analog video, which can be split to one or many TV's, computer, VCR, etc.
For the computer attachment, you can use the VA12A and associated software.  I have not found them to be user-friendly.  As many have said before, there is a USB video adapter quite similar to X10's available quite reasonably on Ebay.  If you only want one camera, they are quite reasonable.  When you are using one camera, you get full-motion video (30 frames per second).  Since you only talk about one camera, I will stop there.  The included software allows you to record full-time or the software will sense changes in the image, and sensing this as motion will start recording.  Using this motion-only recording, you can get months of video stored, unless you put your camera at the shopping mall. 

Simply do an ebay search for "USB DVR" or "USB Video".  Amazon.com has similar items for a few more dollars.  Certainly under $20 and you should have a working USB video capture device with DVR software.

Just one word of caution:  Inexpensive cameras such as X10's require a LOT of light to get a nice clear picture.

I hope this helps!  Let us know how it worked for you! 

[nashcam]

Yep, just the one camera planned and that's exactly the type of suggestion I was looking for. Thanks