CCTV what have you got? Advice needed

[Mcaff]

Looking to add a couple of cameras to the front of my house at the door and at the garage/driveway.

If I can fit them myself that would be ideal so something idiot proof to set up would be great.

Was looking at mostly wireless systems however can be swayed to a wired system if it's the way to go.. I'm utterly clueless when it comes to cctv.

If it could be standalone, not have to connect into my computer or TV that would be a bonus but again advise me otherwise.

So what do you guys recommend or have yourselfs? Any links to where to buy would be spot on.

Thanks in advance.

 

[withoutabix]

I think the Easiest system I found was this but haven't actually got round to buying it yet!

https://www.arlo.com/en-us/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01DVVY81Q/?tag=cliospnet01-21

 

[JamesBryan]

Hikvision stuff

@DannyR is the man for this stuff iirc.

 

[Mcaff]

I think the Easiest system I found was this but haven't actually got round to buying it yet!

https://www.arlo.com/en-us/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01DVVY81Q/?tag=cliospnet01-21

This looks pretty spot on to be honest, a little more than I wanted to spend though.

 

[withoutabix]

This looks pretty spot on to be honest, a little more than I wanted to spend though.

Thats the reason i haven't got it yet haha, Ive got standard CCTV wired atm and it it works fine but getting it on your phone app etc is a nightmare the apps don't work and require VPN's to work properly and isn't easy to set up etc so something like this is ideal but you pay for that ease of use!

 

[Mcaff]

Thats the reason i haven't got it yet haha, Ive got standard CCTV wired atm and it it works fine but getting it on your phone app etc is a nightmare the apps don't work and require VPN's to work properly and isn't easy to set up etc so something like this is ideal but you pay for that ease of use!

I'm the same I've got a single camera at the front of the house that saves to a hard drive, but logging on to view it is a task at best.. plus it's about 5 years+ old now so it's not new technology. Unless anyone suggests something better I may just bite the bullet and go for that.

 

[GrahamS]

A friend of mine has a door bell with a camera in which links up to an app, telling her when someone's at the door using a motion sensor. You can speak to them telling them where to leave a parcel or just keep an eye. Can be battery or wired into the normal doorbell output. About £150 last time I looked but really great quality and worked well.

 

[Mcaff]

Thats the reason i haven't got it ....

Read some not so great reviews saying the battery isn't great and the motion sensor can is the problem being overly active... possibly back to the drawing board.

 

[Andy_con]

I recently switched from a desktop pc to a hikvsion nvr and it seems to work very well. I got it on ebay and not had a single issue.

 

[Gareth]

I use Hikvision as recommended by DannyR and am very pleased with them, its easy for me though as I have a server running 24x7 in the house anyway, so recording and configuring them is a breeze.

 

[Mcaff]

I recently switched from a desktop pc to a hikvsion nvr and it seems to work very well. I got it on ebay and not had a single issue.

I use Hikvision as recommended by DannyR and am very pleased with them, its easy for me though as I have a server running 24x7 in the house anyway, so recording and configuring them is a breeze.

Have either of you got links to what you have, I'm a full novice on this so any help appreciated. Cheers

 

[Andy_con]

Have either of you got links to what you have, I'm a full novice on this so any help appreciated. Cheers

this exact auction

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/4ch-Hikvis...order-System-1080p-Ds-7604ni-e1-4p/1343139164

 

[Gareth]

I have 2 of these cameras:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B017C45K2O/?tag=cliospnet01-21
Mounted with these:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00Q0QKH56/?tag=cliospnet01-21
Powered by one of these POE switches:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00LMXBOG8/?tag=cliospnet01-21
But you'd need a computer/server to record it to.

 

[JamesBryan]

this exact auction

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/4ch-Hikvis...order-System-1080p-Ds-7604ni-e1-4p/1343139164

Does that come with a HDD? It's not quite clear in the description.

 

[Andy_con]

Does that come with a HDD? It's not quite clear in the description.

no, I already had a hdd so it suited me

 

[GiT]

Hikvisions here too. All POE running on a little BRIX PC server.

Not the cheapest, but the quality is brilliant.

 

[charltjr]

I've got a three camera Arlo system, it's good, the geofencing is really useful because you can have interior cams which are only active when you're not at home.

It does have some limitations which don't make them suitable for every application - they're motion activated by PIR sensors so only react to motion within about four or five metres max, and also take a second or two to start recording so you have to place them carefully. Also the batteries aren't cheap, although they do last a long time.

That said, for a completely wireless system which is an absolute doddle to install and use I can't really fault them. You do pay a big premium for that convenience though.

 

[Mcaff]

I've got a three camera Arlo system, it's good...

I really like the look of the arlo system but reading some reviews on the battery's etc it might not be best for me! However in every other way they seem great. Do you have rechargeable battery's in yours?

The other system people have been suggesting isn't really great for me as I'd have to hook it up to a computer/ server and for me that would just be a headache like the camera I already have.

 

[Andy_con]

Power over Ethernet is the best solution, one cable for everything

 

[iain187]

Is there such a thing as a wireless camera that has internal storage.
If I do PoE I need to get a cable from the camera location to my router which I cant be arsed to do, but if the camera is wireless and has internal storage, I can just get power from somewhere nearby and connect with my phone etc + I wouldn't have to buy any kind of storage server

 

[Mcaff]

I think these Arlo cameras have free storage on the cloud as far as I'm reading.

Is there such a thing as a wireless camera that has internal storage.
If I do PoE I need to get a cable from the camera location to my router which I cant be arsed to do, but if the camera is wireless and has internal storage, I can just get power from somewhere nearby and connect with my phone etc + I wouldn't have to buy any kind of storage server

 

[Andy_con]

Is there such a thing as a wireless camera that has internal storage.
If I do PoE I need to get a cable from the camera location to my router which I cant be arsed to do, but if the camera is wireless and has internal storage, I can just get power from somewhere nearby and connect with my phone etc + I wouldn't have to buy any kind of storage server

Why are you connecting the camera to your router? Why not an nvr box?

 

[charltjr]

Re: Arlo - Just running the standard batteries that came with it so far.

The one that gets triggered the most (between five and ten times a day, 45 seconds per clip) is down to 22% after five months, the other two cams are both above 60% still but they only average three or so recordings a day.

Cloud storage is free and goes back a week, there are paid tiers with more storage but since you can download anything you want to keep I've never seen the need.

I don't think there's any doubt that a PoE solution is technically better, and cheaper to run, but it really depends how much effort you want to put in. The Arlo cams are *so* easy. Can always get them from Amazon and return within their returns period if you're not happy with them.

 

[charltjr]

Just to quantify that, I have two cams outside and one indoors. One outside cam is on the front of the (detatched) garage looking down at the parking, one is on the back door, the internal one is in the hall covering the front entrance and the path anyone needs to take to get to the stairs. That'd be a fair bit of Ethernet cable, nothing complicated, but I really couldn't be arsed.

If your install is simpler then PoE probably makes more sense.

 

[iain187]

Why are you connecting the camera to your router? Why not an nvr box?

Ideally I'd put them on my network with everything else but I guess that works too.

 

[Mcaff]

Just to quantify that, I have two cams outside and one indoors. One outside cam is on the front of the (detatched) garage looking down at the parking, one is on the back door, the internal one is in the hall covering the front entrance and the path anyone needs to take to get to the stairs. That'd be a fair bit of Ethernet cable, nothing complicated, but I really couldn't be arsed.

If your install is simpler then PoE probably makes more sense.

This is my issue I want a camera on the front of the garage overlooking the drive. The garage at its closest point to the house is 6m away then to the camera easily another 6 - 10m. So would need a load of cabling, then the other camera is for on the front porch witch is at the other side of the house from any computer or router. So I think the Arlo could potentially save a load of headaches.

 

[welsh182]

I installed one of these for a friend recently, quality is great and after a bit off messing with port forwarding on his but home hub 6, works perfectly for remote monitoring on his phone.

No hdd, but a 250gb seems to work well enough

 

[Andy_con]

Ideally I'd put them on my network with everything else but I guess that works too.

an nvr connects separately to your network. if you have a load of ip cameras connected to your router you risk slowing it down with lots of traffic to handle

an nvr doesn't require a screen once setup, so it can be placed in a suitable location

 

[welsh182]

And the missing link is

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262783323993

 

[yourcodenameisnick]

With this NVR box thing, is it easy to connect to the router? Or what is the other way of watching the camera back?

I want to put two cameras together, one looking back into the garden, and another looking onto the drive. I could feed a wire from each camera into a room in the house which contains the NVR, but how could I see the footage back easily?
The router is the opposite side of the house, so I couldn't connect the NVR box to the router with an ethernet cable.

 

[Andy_con]

And the missing link is

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262783323993

BNC, how 80's

 

[Andy_con]

With this NVR box thing, is it easy to connect to the router? Or what is the other way of watching the camera back?

I want to put two cameras together, one looking back into the garden, and another looking onto the drive. I could feed a wire from each camera into a room in the house which contains the NVR, but how could I see the footage back easily?
The router is the opposite side of the house, so I couldn't connect the NVR box to the router with an ethernet cable.

yes it just plugs straight into a router via cat5 cable.

you don't have to connect a nvr to a router, you would just need a screen to view the footage directly from the nvr

 

[welsh182]

No idea, I didn't buy it, just fitted and connected to his phone. It works well for the cash

 

[yourcodenameisnick]

yes it just plugs straight into a router via cat5 cable.

you don't have to connect a nvr to a router, you would just need a screen to view the footage directly from the nvr

Any other way of getting the footage off the NVR? The NVR box would sit in a built-in wardrobe so there's no space for a monitor.

 

[Andy_con]

Any other way of getting the footage off the NVR? The NVR box would sit in a built-in wardrobe so there's no space for a monitor.

if you want to get the hd footage off you will always need to connect a screen to transfer onto a memory stick or something. but unless there is an issue why would you want to view the footage?

mine sits there for months on end and I wont even turn the screen on unless there is an issue

 

[Adam D]

Hikvisions here too. All POE running on a little BRIX PC server.

Not the cheapest, but the quality is brilliant.

Which model do you use?

I'm thinking of the below which seems to give decent reviews.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017C4WCES/?tag=cliospnet01-21

At work we've have a few DS-2CD2332 fitted recently and the image quality is spot on even at night. They connect up to a Qnap NVR but i'd probably be using a low powered PC and a POE switch.

I did have a quick go on the work ones at using the built in recording feature to a shared folder/drive on one of our servers but the file formats came out non standard. Maybe i was doing something wrong but i didn't have time to look further into it. I suppose the downside of using just a PC is the lack of easy connect to a smart phone app but from bits i have read you can still use an application with some port forwarding to each camera (i hope).

 

[GiT]

Which model do you use?

I'm thinking of the below which seems to give decent reviews.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017C4WCES/?tag=cliospnet01-21

At work we've have a few DS-2CD2332 fitted recently and the image quality is spot on even at night. They connect up to a Qnap NVR but i'd probably be using a low powered PC and a POE switch.

I did have a quick go on the work ones at using the built in recording feature to a shared folder/drive on one of our servers but the file formats came out non standard. Maybe i was doing something wrong but i didn't have time to look further into it. I suppose the downside of using just a PC is the lack of easy connect to a smart phone app but from bits i have read you can still use an application with some port forwarding to each camera (i hope).

4 X DS-2CD2142FWD-IS https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017C4CCI4/?tag=cliospnet01-21

All POE so connected to a POE Hub (X 4 currently). https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017C4CCI4/?tag=cliospnet01-21

Brix J1900 Barebones https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017C4CCI4/?tag=cliospnet01-21

Add 4GB Ram - Small SSD and an external 2TB HHD on USB

17 Days continuous 1080i Recording.

 

[yourcodenameisnick]

if you want to get the hd footage off you will always need to connect a screen to transfer onto a memory stick or something. but unless there is an issue why would you want to view the footage?

mine sits there for months on end and I wont even turn the screen on unless there is an issue

My car was stolen last year, they broke into the house in the night to find my keys to the car.
Ever since then I've been really jumpy, so something like this where I can monitor the house even whilst I'm in it would be great.

 

[Andy_con]

My car was stolen last year, they broke into the house in the night to find my keys to the car.
Ever since then I've been really jumpy, so something like this where I can monitor the house even whilst I'm in it would be great.

Very understandable, if you want to monitor you will need a Ethernet cable to your router.

 

[Andy_con]

Which model do you use?

I'm thinking of the below which seems to give decent reviews.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017C4WCES/?tag=cliospnet01-21

At work we've have a few DS-2CD2332 fitted recently and the image quality is spot on even at night. They connect up to a Qnap NVR but i'd probably be using a low powered PC and a POE switch.

I did have a quick go on the work ones at using the built in recording feature to a shared folder/drive on one of our servers but the file formats came out non standard. Maybe i was doing something wrong but i didn't have time to look further into it. I suppose the downside of using just a PC is the lack of easy connect to a smart phone app but from bits i have read you can still use an application with some port forwarding to each camera (i hope).

There are good and bad things about using a pc. I've always used a pc and only switched to a nvr very very recently. Both have their good and bad points