4MP Domes for the best solution?

CDAPete said:

Fenderman: Thanks for your response. As you know, I am just getting started with BI4 so I have not sorted out the finer points of my recording choices. Can you elaborate on your comment regarding "Direct to Disk?" I don't see a setting suggesting it would record one way or the other. One of the considerations I am now facing is this: what would be a practical choice for a secure backup on a 'Cloud' of some type (off site)? Right now I am faced with buying an NAS for $300-$500 and having secure it in a hidden location and provide power and cabling to it. I have a 12MPS DSL connection here at my home and wonder if I might be able to use Dropbox or something similar. I'm sure this has been asked and answered somewhere but wondered what you might suggest. In the mean time please know that I am blown away by BI4.

Click to expand...

There is generally no need for offsite storage...local storage is faster and more reliable, there are three basic ways to go about this.
1) have blue iris record to the NAS and locally to the pc (this is accomplished by setting up a cloned camera and simply pointing the storage location to the nas...setup aux folders)...hide the cloned camera so you dont have duplicates on screen
2) have the camera write directly to nas as a backup..though setup can be tricky.
3) Buy a cheap NVR and set it to record 24/7....

Fenderman, good point. I should be able to find someplace to hide an NVR. I can always have my critical Snapshots sent via email and save them on the email server deleting them weekly as i have always done in the past. I just want something that will be offsite in the event of a break-in. I found a solution to my fuzzy License plate situation. I just installed an extra mini dome that I had with a 3X optical zoom lens. It is positioned very close to the edge of the driveway (pointing down the drive) and zoomed to fill out the screen with the nose of the vehicle as it passes. Now I just have to see what if anything it captures at night. Not expecting much but I do have a 196 LED illuminator in that area which may help.

CDAPete said:

Fenderman, good point. I should be able to find someplace to hide an NVR. I can always have my critical Snapshots sent via email and save them on the email server deleting them weekly as i have always done in the past. I just want something that will be offsite in the event of a break-in. I found a solution to my fuzzy License plate situation. I just installed an extra mini dome that I had with a 3X optical zoom lens. It is positioned very close to the edge of the driveway (pointing down the drive) and zoomed to fill out the screen with the nose of the vehicle as it passes. Now I just have to see what if anything it captures at night. Not expecting much but I do have a 196 LED illuminator in that area which may help.

Click to expand...

The NVR will be sufficient, no one is going to scour the house for the nvr...
As far as the mini dome, the ir illumination will only help if your camera has an ir cut filter.

Upon seeing your reply i just looked at my camera specs and it does say "True Day/Night IR Cut Filter". I'm not exactly sure what this means but it sounds like a good thing I'll have to dig into this and learn why. I have noticed that at night when using the camera outside of my front door it seems to be burned out quite a bit by the LEDs. Its way too bright so I think I have find a way to raise the camera's shutter speed or lower the intensity of the IR if possible. Not sure where IR Cut may come in.

CaliCam said:

Hello Fenderman

When you say "There is no turret with SD" are you referring to the Hikvision line of Camera's? Because I'm told that Dahua will have this model available sometime this week http://www.dahuasecurity.com/products_category/4-megapixels-543_2.html.

Click to expand...

It would now appear that this Dahua Camera is now available with Built In sound and a 128Mb SD Card

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/DAHUA-4MP-Full-HD-Small-IR-Camera-with-POE-IP67-Original-English-Version-without-Logo-IPC/1114243_32500199678.html

Just a note on the spider issue. All of my exterior cameras are the turret-style 3MP Hiks. Perhaps it's because I'm in FL, but our spiders, moths, and other insects are most definitely able to camp out on (and in front of) every one of my cameras. If that's 'significantly better' than bullet cameras, I'd hate to see how they are. Wait, I've had bullet cameras - and they're about the same.

I've tried everything from spider insecticides designed specifically for cameras, to sponges on pipes, to smearing the camera body (and everything within a few feet of it) with petroleum jelly. None of it works. As soon as you think you've treated everything within reach, some smarter spider will hang a web an inch further out, and dangle in front of the IRs.

The only real solution is to have completely separate IR illuminators and disable the internal ones. I've yet to do that, but imagine when I do, my HDD consumption will drop by about 90% at night.