This is all really overwhelming.  After a series of car thefts and a home invasion in our neighborhood my wife has lit a fire under me to get a security camera system, understanding that a security camera is really more suited towards being a forensic device.  If I want to get the outside of my home fully covered I will need ~6-7 cameras, by my estimation.  If I buy a $1500-$2500 DIY 8 camera 1080p PoE kit is it going to be of decent-enough quality and features to make it worth it? Ideally we'd have something that could push notifications to our iPhones and all all that stuff.  If I'm the kind of guy who wants a "set it and forget it" type of solution, am I better off hiring a pro than going the DIY route?

Thanks, this is good to know.  We've got a 1-story ranch so the cable runs shouldn't be too hard I don't think, and will give me an excuse to finish out laying down plywood in our attic.  Everything will be mounted on the soffit except for the front/back door cameras, which will have to be mounted on brick (the ceilings on our front/back porch are way too high to mount a camera there and get a good picture of someone's face by my estimate).  Are there any sites out there that cover camera placement and review systems?

I also assume that all of these PoE cameras are running the same standard, so that if I decide I need a different type of camera in a given spot it will just work?

Also, what about cloud storage options? I like the idea of having the DVR there in my house and not on some server in God-knows-where, but it doesn't do me much good if a thief steals the DVR too. Seems like a good solution would be a cloud service that ran on the back end in addition to my DVR and only stored say the last 24Hrs of video or whatever.

Sorry to barrage you with these questions. Like I said, this is overwhelming.

any of the Scwann Costco system you would still recommend, some of the older ones in other threads are no longer stocked.

looking for maybe 8 cameras, at least two on a remote switch in a separate building. Can you put redundant drive in these DVR systems?

And how do these cameras do in cold northern temps?

GrayMan,

There are so many of these threads, and you so kindly post in nearly all of them -- if this information has been posted elsewhere, please forgive me for not being able to find it.

I recall a post where you stated that you run a Core2Quad, 4GB RAM, Win10 and some camera software, monitoring some 15 cameras, etc.  

Wondering if you would mind posting some specifics, if you have them:

- What resolution on the cameras, and at what frame rate?
- Is the Core2Quad doing motion sensing, or is that offloaded to the cameras?
- What model/speed Core2Quad?

I've got several old systems around the house doing various things, and am in the process of repurposing one for a six or eight camera system running Zoneminder or motion, 1080p minimum on all cameras, trying to see if I can get by with what I have on hand or if a CPU or CPU/MB upgrade is in my future.  

Thanks.

You will MURDER ZoneMinder trying to do that at full resolution and framerate, especially high resolution ZoneMinder is not resource friendly. In order for that to work you'll need a recording software that does recording, not decoding then saving as jpg images like ZoneMinder does. Milestone, Exacq, Luxriot, etc etc.

You can concurrently do lower resolution and framerate with ZoneMinder if you wish for notifications and alerting. That's how I run my setup is I record 24/7 on 5 cameras using Milestone using the full quality 3MP streams (although I wish I would have gone Luxriot, I liked it better), then have a separate Linux VM for ZoneMinder using only the low quality streams from the camera that does email alerting and publishes an HTTPS endpoint to the internet (I use cert auth, so I don't rely on ZoneMinder for security at all). I run everything off of a 1U server with 24 fairly slow cores and 128GB of ram running Server 2012r2 and Hyper-V and it has performed fine the last year or so (I also run a few other VMs off of it).

I never got edge motion detection to work all that well on my Dahua cameras, certainly not for email alerts, that will make you go crazy, but ZM I can fine tune pretty well. I have alerts on my Front, Side/Garage Door, and Carport cameras and I typically get between 5-15 alerts per day with about a 85%+ hit rate depending on the weather and time of year. (Early spring occasionally the sun and some trees out front create shadows just perfect in front of the front door camera that makes the motion detection go nuts with alerts, but generally it works fine.

So ive got the single story 50s ranch, open attic.

My biggest issue is bugs. Looks like the IP 1080Ps box sets all have the included IR stuff which will get built over quick.

What do you recommend for separate illuminatiors? The property is a 3/4 acre around the house with a long driveway.

Same question, could use a flood IR illuminator with some reach.  Recommend a brand?

I'm not sure if this is the right thread for this but has anyone had luck setting up the cloud service on Nelly's ION NVR? I have the 16 channel model and cannot get the cloud to register or see the NVR. I type in the serial number but keep getting the "Username does not meet the requirements" error when trying to add device. The username is admin which works fine when logging in directly on the NVR.

Yes they do. I emailed them they are working on it. I was hoping someone else had a fix. Lot of people with good knowledge here.

That ring doorbell and camera setup looks pretty slick. 6-12 months on a charge for the batteries so no wiring required sounds too good to be true.

And $30/year isn't too bad for their cloud option.

Have you actually used their stuff GrayMan?

I've been doing some searching reviews on youtube and I'm not sure they can be trusted.

It looks like ring gave free gear and "sponsored" (i.e. paid for) reviews from a shitload of people with the condition that it be a positive review.

the netgear arlo cameras look decent too, but unfortunately they're battery power only.

I bought one of the ring stick-up cams to try out. I figure I'll return it to amazon if it's crap.

Setup was very easy. It took me all of 10 minutes to get it connected to the router and screwed onto the wall outside.

It has a motion detect mode that records clips and sends alerts to your phone upon motion. Seems to work, but I think I need to play with the sensitivity and zone settings to get it right.

The live view mode lets you view the feed (through an app on your phone or a windows 10 application on your pc).

Both modes provide audio and you can hit a button to talk through a speaker on the camera.

For power, it came with a long USB cord with a weather seal on the end that goes in the camera. I don't see a good way to get that into an outlet inside the house without drilling holes so instead I used a shorter non sealed cable and just ran it down the wall to an outdoor outlet.

It looks like of crappy that way so if I end up keeping it I'll have to come up with a better solution.

Initial feedback:

Live view is kind of buggy. I had hoped to be able to leave it up 24/7 on my computer just to be able to keep an eye on the driveway, but it closes itself down randomly apparently (sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes after 20).

Sometimes live view won't even start from the app. It gives an error saying it couldn't initialize. Try again and it starts right up.

So thumbs down on that. Also, it records the live view sessions to their cloud server. Which I'd rather not do since I'd only be using it when I'm at home and want it up on the computer.

The motion alerts seem to work ok, but like I said above,  I need to work on the sensitivity settings.

Video quality frankly sucks. The specs say 720P but it's so compressed that I think I'd have a very hard time making someone out who I didn't already recognize unless they were right next to the camera and standing still. The audio quality is decent though.

It has a night vision mode so I'll check that out after it gets dark this evening.

Another big worry is that the mount it comes with screws onto the wall, but then there's a quick release tab on the bottom to take  the camera off. This is so you can easily bring it in to charge if you're running on batteries.

So the thing is not very secure. Basically it's a 200 camera just sitting out there that someone could pick up and walk away with. I'm not super comfortable with that, or with the power being an ugly cord running down the corner of my siding to an outdoor outlet right below.


On their website FAQ they do say:

"
WHAT IF SOMEONE STEALS MY RING DOORBELL?
Ring Doorbell is equipped with proprietary security screws that keep the device securely mounted. If your Ring Doorbell is stolen, please contact us with a police report and we will replace it free of charge.
"

The "security screws" bit is laughable. They're just small normal wood screws. And they only hold the mount to the wall. The camera just clips into it.




Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

Yeah after using it for a couple of days ... Sending it back. I'll get something wired instead.

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

Just a nerdy bit of fun. Instead of alarm type motion alerts I went online and found a text to voice converter, and an online audio converter. I downloaded the text to voice, and converted them to .wav files. Added them to Blue Iris sound files. I now have motion alerts in a sexy British female voice.


Audio file converter


Text to Voice

Bump

Wow, Ive been going through this thread and while its very informative and I appreciate your free expert information all these acronyms have my brains angry.
Ive had 2 neighbors get their cars worked over by a thief, one was in their unlocked garage and the other was parked outside so the perp's probably not a big threat but he may get more confident since he hasn't been caught.
I need a plug and play system
The way my driveway and road is it will be really hard to get a license plate (in the sticks here) unless I put one on a pole somewhere or spend a shitload of money for one camera at the corner of my house that is the only spot I could get plates so I'm not too concerned about that.
All I need is a good day/night system
I also have a 30x30 shop/man cave that is 120ft from the house that I would like to put a camera on. Im not sure about that one because I really don't want to dig a trench for a cable and I don't know if wireless will work that far. My wifi works on the phone if the roll up door is open but not at all if its closed so I'm guessing a wireless camera on the outside should work?

Ive looked at Swann, Night Owl and some other names Ive never heard of at Home depot, Best Buy and Walmart
Can you give me a recommendation? Around $200 give or take

These are some I've looked at
https://www.amazon.com/Swann-SWDVK-8ALP14-US-Compact-Security-Recorder/dp/B015WCV4LE/ref=sr_1_4?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1477102490&sr=1-4&keywords=swann+security+camera+system

https://www.amazon.com/Night-Owl-Security-TL-84-Hi-Resolution/dp/B00G1SWBMK/ref=sr_1_13?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1477102811&sr=1-13&keywords=night+owl+security+camera+system

This stuff is over my head. 1080, IP yea but putting a system together buying parts separately I really don't want to do. Ive got a few tabs open to keep up with the acronyms
Searching through Amazon sucks, I get all kinds of listings searching for 1080 systems
Can you point me to something in a box (model number) that has everything in it? The 1080 may be out of my budget
thanks

I have this system.  It has 3mp cameras not 4mp.  The NVR works with the swann 4mp cameras though.

It was very easy to install and set up.  I had no previous experience with these systems before installing it.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1122002-REG/swann_swnvk_873004_us_nvr8_7300_8_channel_3mp_nvr_with_4x_nhd_815.html

You have the one you linked?
I just left Best Buy and they have Swann and Night Owl1080p plus other brands and they are all analog, every system they sell in store.
I'm also confused after going there, the systems are 1080p and on the description it says analog but also says the cameras are IP 67 rated. what is this IP? I guess not the same IP you speak of?

IP 65, 66, or 67 is how waterproof they are.  Nothing to do with network IP.

http://www.budind.com/blog/2014/02/the-mysteries-of-ip-rated-enclosures-explained/

Yes I have the system I linked.  Bought it from B&H also.  

I believe the IP67 is a weather resistance rating.

Q-See setup

Just ordered this to experiment with IP cameras. I have a couple of WD purple drives to use with it. I've been using analog for years and want to try IP at the house. Any opinions?

Is there a motion detector that you recommend to go with a lower cost Hikovision syestem like you posted above?

TheGrayMan, can you give a specific recommendation for IR illuminators that you've used?

I remember seeing a tutorial on how using an off-camera illuminator helps, and the difference was stunning, but I can't seem to track it down, nor do I remember if you said "here's a link, buy this one."

Thanks much for the links above! I was toying with getting a Swann system last year, but the Hikvision that you linked looks even better. I am looking at doing an install at our office, and our parking lot lighting doesn't throw like I'd like it to (we are nestled in residential, so more light isn't an option).

Rob

Thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for.

Rob

Have it all set up. The picture quality kills my old analog system. I'm just having trouble streaming it to the q-see app on my iPhone. I think it's a great box setup for the money. Obviously this is just a starter ip set, but it definitely good stuff.

Gray Man, I keep seeing many people mention the Hikvision stuff but when I read reviews about them on Amazon people constantly comment there is no support, no warranty, no instructions.  What is your experience?  I'm looking for a small 4 channel POE Stand Alone system and am wondering what you can suggest.  Everything review on the web seems to be heavily influenced by manufacturers.

Thanks for the info.  They are just over in Tulsa so I will give them a call.  Another question, would you consider using a NAS as an NVR or would you simply go with the stand alone system?

Thanks. I just got of the phone with Nelly's and they alluded to the same thing.  I will be placing an order with them in the next week.  Thanks for the information.