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home security video.

Iamnumber

Active member
Hi,


Looking for info and recommendations for products in video surveillance home indoors (perhaps outdoors too).


I have a short list of what I believe to required/ desired qualities... please point out if I am overlooking something vital or something I should consider.


Quality of footage should be enough to identify persons and see what they are doing .. (distance few meters .. perhaps more if I also place outdoors)


camera should be small enough so that it can be hidden.


motion, light, heat etc. sensors would be cool, also sensor must be small enough to be hidden.


Night vision would be nice, with automation to select between normal and night modes.


ability to transfer footage to a server on the internet with some regime .. would be shame if criminals ransack my home and they take footage with them.


operation on 12v or 24v dc highly desirable as it enables recording while electricity is cut off.


Nanny cams are a low end solution (cheap, poor quality of pic/video (?) limited capabilities/ features) .. I have not really looked into these products yet.. I figured out I better post here to find out what features I should really be looking for.


Thanks for taking time to read/ answer. Be safe!
 

Hydro8

Member
Their is a big gap between nanny cam type systems $100.-$200 and a mid grade system $500-$1000. Pro grade systems are $1000.+

What you are talking about is a mid grade system. I am not going to recommend brands but I will give you a run down of how the systems work. I have set up a few in medium and large grows.

The cameras are going to be decent sized(about the size of a pint glass) you will have to get creative to hide them. A $150 camera has some amazing features these days, night vision, motion and zone sensing, nice resolution(in the MegaPixels).

The DVR is about the size of a large book you can hide it in a locked room, ceiling, a difficult place to find and access. That way if something happens you will have the footage. The DVR depending on the size and setting will record for so long 30-90 days then when it runs out of room it will record over the previous footage. With good cameras and motion sensors it will only record when people are under it, so in a 24hr period you will only have the guys watering and pruning for 45 mins.

The systems can be a PINTA to set up and configure usually done by professionals or someone that can run CAT5 cable and configure the cameras.

People always rave about the DYI $200 systems but when something happens they have a low grade video of blurry blobs(worthless). You get what you pay for. Good camera systems do their job and get burglars busted.
 

Elmer Bud

Genotype Sex Worker AKA strain whore
Veteran
Hi,


Looking for info and recommendations for products in video surveillance home indoors (perhaps outdoors too).


I have a short list of what I believe to required/ desired qualities... please point out if I am overlooking something vital or something I should consider.


Quality of footage should be enough to identify persons and see what they are doing .. (distance few meters .. perhaps more if I also place outdoors)


camera should be small enough so that it can be hidden.


motion, light, heat etc. sensors would be cool, also sensor must be small enough to be hidden.


Night vision would be nice, with automation to select between normal and night modes.


ability to transfer footage to a server on the internet with some regime .. would be shame if criminals ransack my home and they take footage with them.


operation on 12v or 24v dc highly desirable as it enables recording while electricity is cut off.


Nanny cams are a low end solution (cheap, poor quality of pic/video (?) limited capabilities/ features) .. I have not really looked into these products yet.. I figured out I better post here to find out what features I should really be looking for.


Thanks for taking time to read/ answer. Be safe!

G `day I A N

Sadly.
All those features can be defeated by wearing a $10 hoody .

Thanks for sharin

EB .
 

Iamnumber

Active member
Thank you for responses.


Hydro8

Do mid range systems offer offsite transfer of footage through wifi? this is kinda important for me.. not a question about space but protection regarding footage. Your advice regarding hard to find/ access placement is very good and solid - There is a specific risk scenarios where it is crucial that footage (copy of) is safe and secure offsite.



Money wise 500-1000 usd is acceptable. I might get carried away and invest low 4 fig. if I get bang for my buck. I guess prices here are higher than in US. higher taxes - smaller market for such systems.


options to hide camera & dvr are very very limited. I can work something up but we building standards here are different to US (i think). No large spaces between walls (drywall? crawl space?) as I have seen in movies / reality series from US. - so placing camera (pint size) within wall is not possible.



In book case etc.. maybe .. I will have to think about it. tiny cameras (spy size) would be a lot easier - not to say those alone but as a support / backup for pint size?



Elmer
True.. I am willing to invest to security system despite that.
 

Hydro8

Member
Do mid range systems offer offsite transfer of footage through wifi? this is kinda important for me.. not a question about space but protection regarding footage. Your advice regarding hard to find/ access placement is very good and solid - There is a specific risk scenarios where it is crucial that footage (copy of) is safe and secure offsite.

I have tested remote storage and cameras and never found any reliable solutions. The problem is camera footage is big usually bigger then your wifi connection. Most wifi will give you high download speeds but small upload speeds(smaller then a decent camera). You get 3-7 high res cameras and that's a lot of data.. You need CAT5 cable hooked to a DVR.

I have configured systems that will reliably send snapshots to remote storage, the cam will send off a pic every 3-10 seconds.

Cheap nanny cams offer remote storage but their cameras are so cheap and small the files are like a 1990s cell phone pic and the video is around 2-frames per second. They are also very unreliable for any kind of commercial use.

In book case etc.. maybe .. I will have to think about it. tiny cameras (spy size) would be a lot easier - not to say those alone but as a support / backup for pint size?

I have played with small hidden cameras before and have always been very underwhelmed. They are usually in the quality range of a 1990s cell phone and they are usually linked to some kind of 3rd party service. What I did is find the top ones and buy them from a place with a good return policy then test them(they all went back).

In mid-grade you want IP/network camera which means you can hook a CAT5 network cable to it and run it to a DVR. Analogy is 1990s technology.

You can get good cameras as small as a coffee cup. One thing that makes many of them bigger is the night vision, that is all the small lights surrounding the lens. Without night vision they can get smaller.

These dome styles can be easy to hide they are about the size of a small soup bowl. I have put them in clocks, lamps, fake plants,


picture.php
 
I have tested remote storage and cameras and never found any reliable solutions. The problem is camera footage is big usually bigger then your wifi connection. Most wifi will give you high download speeds but small upload speeds(smaller then a decent camera). You get 3-7 high res cameras and that's a lot of data.. You need CAT5 cable hooked to a DVR.

I have configured systems that will reliably send snapshots to remote storage, the cam will send off a pic every 3-10 seconds.

Cheap nanny cams offer remote storage but their cameras are so cheap and small the files are like a 1990s cell phone pic and the video is around 2-frames per second. They are also very unreliable for any kind of commercial use.



I have played with small hidden cameras before and have always been very underwhelmed. They are usually in the quality range of a 1990s cell phone and they are usually linked to some kind of 3rd party service. What I did is find the top ones and buy them from a place with a good return policy then test them(they all went back).

In mid-grade you want IP/network camera which means you can hook a CAT5 network cable to it and run it to a DVR. Analogy is 1990s technology.

You can get good cameras as small as a coffee cup. One thing that makes many of them bigger is the night vision, that is all the small lights surrounding the lens. Without night vision they can get smaller.

These dome styles can be easy to hide they are about the size of a small soup bowl. I have put them in clocks, lamps, fake plants,


View Image

We’re do you recommend getting the done cams from?
 

Hydro8

Member
We’re do you recommend getting the done cams from?


Not sure where is a good place to buy cameras these days.

Most of the cameras I have installed were professionally and the sales guys would buy them from suppliers or the manufacturer. I have bought a few on my own and went bargain shopping on the internet a couple of things I found.

Many companies will not warranty cameras purchased from “non authorized” dealers which basically means anyplace that is cheap the cameras will have no manufacturer warranty.

Many of the bargain camera are counterfeit and sup par fakes. Amazon had a tons of fakes last time I bought some, an established dealer will probably have better quality control then random stuff from Amazon.

Hope that might help on your search.
 

exploziv

pure dynamite
Administrator
Veteran
Yeah, HikVision has some nice consumer products, also including kits of 4/8/16 cameras. Just make sure to get the better quality ones, with better camera resolution and bigger camera IR range. The price is usually very good.
Oh, and they have good mobile app to check the cameras too! Easy set-up and connection. If you have any question just ask.
 

piffd

New member
I have tested remote storage and cameras and never found any reliable solutions. The problem is camera footage is big usually bigger then your wifi connection. Most wifi will give you high download speeds but small upload speeds(smaller then a decent camera).


View Image


WIFI can and will give you symmetrical speeds on download and upload. your main bottleneck for the upload is gonna be the speed your ISP provisions you.
 
G

Guest

Depending on your level of interest and DIY ability its better to run ethernet cat 5 for them if possible. Yeah its a pain to get in the attic and the eaves for outdoor cams but you wont have any wifi issues and you can run them directly to your storage solution. AND if no AC power is handy you can use POE (power over Ethernet) takes a different switch than a switch that does not have POE built in. I run mine thru a switch on my home pc network and use a external hard drive in a safe location. If someone gets in the house they wont get the files. Lots of ways to do it. But I still like the HikVision for cameras and I may upgrade soon. I check mine once every few days just to make sure all is OK but otherwise dont worry about them.
 

St. Phatty

Active member
One option is - 2 camera systems.

One obvious, one hidden.

The hidden one positioned so that it captures an intruder trying to obscure the obvious camera.


Also, multiple cameras in each system.
 

thailer

Active member
Does anyone have experience with Ring products? They make those picture taking doorbells. They recently came out with a new security camera that live streams, video records and sends alerts to you phone. it says it does night vision but i can't find any sample pics to see what the quality is like. the reviewers say it works well at night. it doesn't run on batteries and is a wired connection.

https://shop.ring.com/products/stick-up-cam-wired?variant=14141462577241
 

f-e

Well-known member
Mentor
Veteran
If you want the features, without feeling overwhelmed, then perhaps look at trail cams. They have batteries, and charge ports. So power backup is covered. They have movement sensors, and night vision. Image quality can be seen in the adverts, but realistically cams should be placed where people are funneled past them, such as door ways where the intruder has better thing to be looking at. Like the grow they just found. These cams use the mobile phone networks, so will send pics to a phone not registered to yourself. It's not a security system that leaves a paper trail to you. Also, you can call them at any time and listen. So if you get a shot of some hoodies running around, you still have a chance of catching their names, or even recognising voices.

It's a really cheap introduction to the game, that is probably enough if used correctly. However I'm quite interested in phone apps. Old phones are almost free, and apps like skype can auto answer calls from an accept list. I would think they make useful remote cameras. Also 'find my phone' apps could be useful, if you put the phone in a small safe or other such container they will run off with. I would like to leave one at gorilla sites, to see if I should visit or stay away. I'm just not sure of the best option. Specific apps exist that use the cam constantly for motion sensing, so they could replace a trail cam except for the night vision. With decent resolution to. But my experience with cams looking for motion is sketchy at best. It's evolving though. With kids toys capable of facial recognition.
 

Zeez

---------------->
ICMag Donor
The older systems use a DVR Digital Video Recorder and analog cameras connected with a coaxial cable and a 12v power supply. The video quality was marginal even with 'good' cameras. The current setups are all digital and use Cat 5 (network) cables instead of coax. They come in 4, 8, 16 camera setups. The quality is good. The biggest company making the DVRs is Dahua and many of their products are rebranded. The Dahua standard is pretty universal while other companies may only use proprietary components. The universal standard to look for is ONVIF and a very good feature is POE Power Over Ethernet. POE meand=s you don't need a separate power supply and cables. Both DVR and cameras must be POE. Ebay cams with good reviews may be the cheapest price, but you must be careful.
 
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