Badly need an upgrade in my camera system and need help.

[SouthernYankee]

4K is not the answer. Correcting mounting is part of the answer. The correct cameras are the other part.

Read, Study, Plan before spending money.
The general rule of thumb on PTZ, is they will be pointing in the wrong direction when the action occurs, Better to get multiple fix mounter cameras, maybe with variable focus lens.

As a side note I have 3 cameras covering the front door. I have two covering the driveway, Two covering the back door.
-----------------------------------
My standard welcome to the forum message.

Please read the IP Cam Talk Cliff Notes and other items in the IP Cam Talk Wiki. (read on a real computer, not a phone). The wiki is in the blue bar at the top of the page.

Read How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!) in the wiki also.

Quick start
1) If you do not have a wired monitored alarm system, get that first
2) Use Dahua starlight cameras or Hikvision darkfighter cameras if you need good low light cameras.
3) use a VPN to access home network (openVPN)
4) Do not use wifi cameras.
5) Do not use cloud storage
6) Do Not use uPNP, P2P, QR, do not open ports,
7) More megapixel is not necessarily better.
8) Avoid chinese hacked cameras (most ebay, amazon, aliexpress cameras(not all, but most))
9) Do not use reolink, ring, nest, Arlo cameras (they are junk), no cloud cameras
10) If possible use a turret camera , bullet collect spiders, dome collect dirt and reflect light (IR)
11) Use only solid copper, AWG 23 or 24 ethernet wire. , no CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum)
12) use a test mount to verify the camera mount location. My test rig: rev.2
13) (Looney2ns)If you want to be able to ID faces, don't mount cams higher than 7ft. You want to know who did it, not just what happened.
14) Use a router that has openVPN built in (Most ASUS, Some NetGear....)
15) camera placement use the calculator... IPVM Camera Calculator V3
16) POE list PoE Switch Suggestion List
17) Camera Sensor size, bigger is general better Sensor Size Chart


Cameras to look at
IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED . Review IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED (Full Color, Starlight+) - 4MP starlight
.................... Dahua IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED review
IPC-T5442TM-AS ..... Review-OEM 4mp AI Cam IPC-T5442TM-AS Starlight+ - 4MP starlight+
IPC-B5442E-ZE ...... Review - OEM IPC-B5442E-ZE 4MP AI Varifocal Bullet Camera With Starlight+
IPC-T2347G-LU ...... Review of the Hikvision OEM model IPC-T2347G-LU 'ColorVu' IP CCTV camera. (DS-2CD2347G1-LU)
IPC-HDW2231R-ZS .... Review-Dahua IPC-HDW2231RP-ZS Starlight Camera-Varifocal
IPC-HDW2231T-ZS-S2 . Review-OEM IPC-T2231T-ZS 2mp Varifocal Starlight Camera
IPC-HDW5231R-ZE .... Review-Dahua Starlight IPC-HDW5231R-ZE 800 meter capable ePOE
IPC-HFW4239T-ASE ... IPC-HFW4239T-ASE
IPCT-HDW5431RE-I ... Review - IP Cam Talk 4 MP IR Fixed Turret Network Camera
IPC-T5241H-AS-PV ... Review-OEM IPC-T5241H-AS-PV 2mp AI active deterrence cam
DS-2CD2325FWD-I
N22AL12 ............ New Dahua N22AL12 Budget Cam w/Starlight -- low cost entry

Other dahua 4MP starlight Dahua 4MP Starlight Lineup

My preferred indoor cameras
DS-2CD2442FWD-IW
IPC-K35A Review-Dahua IPC-K35A 3mp Cube Camera

If interested in Blue Iris and other setup items see the following post

Newbie Starter Guide to IP Cam System – VPN setup – Computer Hardware – Blue Iris – Dahua Cameras

This is an intermediate / newbie guide for people just starting out looking for a surveillance setup. I know this setup might not be for everyone and there are many options. You can find a lot of this information in the Wiki: IP Cam Talk Wiki | IP Cam Talk A great place to start in the Wiki...

ipcamtalk.com

Read,study,plan before spending money ..... plan plan plan
Test do not guess

 

[James022]

Ha i know it's crazy how you realize, in order to cover all the angles one cam can't do it.

That is impressive! Kudos on the setup.

 

[James022]

4K is not the answer. Correcting mounting is part of the answer. The correct cameras are the other part.

Read, Study, Plan before spending money.
The general rule of thumb on PTZ, is they will be pointing in the wrong direction when the action occurs, Better to get multiple fix mounter cameras, maybe with variable focus lens.

As a side note I have 3 cameras covering the front door. I have two covering the driveway, Two covering the back door.
-----------------------------------
My standard welcome to the forum message.

Please read the IP Cam Talk Cliff Notes and other items in the IP Cam Talk Wiki. (read on a real computer, not a phone). The wiki is in the blue bar at the top of the page.

Read How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!) in the wiki also.

Quick start
1) If you do not have a wired monitored alarm system, get that first
2) Use Dahua starlight cameras or Hikvision darkfighter cameras if you need good low light cameras.
3) use a VPN to access home network (openVPN)
4) Do not use wifi cameras.
5) Do not use cloud storage
6) Do Not use uPNP, P2P, QR, do not open ports,
7) More megapixel is not necessarily better.
8) Avoid chinese hacked cameras (most ebay, amazon, aliexpress cameras(not all, but most))
9) Do not use reolink, ring, nest, Arlo cameras (they are junk), no cloud cameras
10) If possible use a turret camera , bullet collect spiders, dome collect dirt and reflect light (IR)
11) Use only solid copper, AWG 23 or 24 ethernet wire. , no CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum)
12) use a test mount to verify the camera mount location. My test rig: rev.2
13) (Looney2ns)If you want to be able to ID faces, don't mount cams higher than 7ft. You want to know who did it, not just what happened.
14) Use a router that has openVPN built in (Most ASUS, Some NetGear....)
15) camera placement use the calculator... IPVM Camera Calculator V3
16) POE list PoE Switch Suggestion List
17) Camera Sensor size, bigger is general better Sensor Size Chart


Cameras to look at
IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED . Review IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED (Full Color, Starlight+) - 4MP starlight
.................... Dahua IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED review
IPC-T5442TM-AS ..... Review-OEM 4mp AI Cam IPC-T5442TM-AS Starlight+ - 4MP starlight+
IPC-B5442E-ZE ...... Review - OEM IPC-B5442E-ZE 4MP AI Varifocal Bullet Camera With Starlight+
IPC-T2347G-LU ...... Review of the Hikvision OEM model IPC-T2347G-LU 'ColorVu' IP CCTV camera. (DS-2CD2347G1-LU)
IPC-HDW2231R-ZS .... Review-Dahua IPC-HDW2231RP-ZS Starlight Camera-Varifocal
IPC-HDW2231T-ZS-S2 . Review-OEM IPC-T2231T-ZS 2mp Varifocal Starlight Camera
IPC-HDW5231R-ZE .... Review-Dahua Starlight IPC-HDW5231R-ZE 800 meter capable ePOE
IPC-HFW4239T-ASE ... IPC-HFW4239T-ASE
IPCT-HDW5431RE-I ... Review - IP Cam Talk 4 MP IR Fixed Turret Network Camera
IPC-T5241H-AS-PV ... Review-OEM IPC-T5241H-AS-PV 2mp AI active deterrence cam
DS-2CD2325FWD-I
N22AL12 ............ New Dahua N22AL12 Budget Cam w/Starlight -- low cost entry

Other dahua 4MP starlight Dahua 4MP Starlight Lineup

My preferred indoor cameras
DS-2CD2442FWD-IW
IPC-K35A Review-Dahua IPC-K35A 3mp Cube Camera

If interested in Blue Iris and other setup items see the following post

Newbie Starter Guide to IP Cam System – VPN setup – Computer Hardware – Blue Iris – Dahua Cameras

This is an intermediate / newbie guide for people just starting out looking for a surveillance setup. I know this setup might not be for everyone and there are many options. You can find a lot of this information in the Wiki: IP Cam Talk Wiki | IP Cam Talk A great place to start in the Wiki...

ipcamtalk.com

Read,study,plan before spending money ..... plan plan plan
Test do not guess

Wow! Thank you for the info! I have alot of reading and studying! Thank you again

 

[James022]

Side note, any system that also does alerting? Example : someone walking in the driveway, like a email or voice prompt.

 

[djernie]

Side note, any system that also does alerting? Example : someone walking in the driveway, like a email or voice prompt.

You can setup any of the systems you get send alerts. But personally i do not have any alerts sent to me. i do not care or need to look in on my home when i am away. I have an alarm system that will call the police if my home is broken into. Other than that i check my camera footage every morning to see if anything crazy went on during the night.

 

[James022]

You can setup any of the systems you get send alerts. But personally i do not have any alerts sent to me. i do not care or need to look in on my home when i am away. I have an alarm system that will call the police if my home is broken into. Other than that i check my camera footage every morning to see if anything crazy went on during the night.

Good point!
Do you have only motion right vs all the time recording

 

[samplenhold]

Do you have only motion right vs all the time recording

Most folks do 24/7 recording. I do 24/7 recording and instead of an NVR, I use Blue Iris on a Win10 PC. Blue Iris will send all sorts of alerts...emails, text, etc.

 

[James022]

Most folks do 24/7 recording. I do 24/7 recording and instead of an NVR, I use Blue Iris on a Win10 PC. Blue Iris will send all sorts of alerts...emails, text, etc.

It's that the way to go nowadays? Should I still to an NVR under one roof or Blue Iris and a PC. I see that with blue Iris, you can practically add any camera vs NVR it has to be compatible.

 

[samplenhold]

It's that the way to go nowadays? Should I still to an NVR under one roof or Blue Iris and a PC. I see that with blue Iris, you can practically add any camera vs NVR it has to be compatible.

It depends on how much you want to get involved in this. An NVR is fairly simple, plug and play. Getting a PC for BI, POE switches, setting up BI, takes more dedication. But BI is more versatile. Some folks will tell you it is not that hard, and I agree. But some folks like an NVR.

 

[James022]

It depends on how much you want to get involved in this. An NVR is fairly simple, plug and play. Getting a PC for BI, POE switches, setting up BI, takes more dedication. But BI is more versatile. Some folks will tell you it is not that hard, and I agree. But some folks like an NVR.

i am willing to put in the work, and get involved as long as it is reliable. Example...with the NVR, the system get rebooted automatically. Add the NVR to UPS Backup System + Add to a Networked powerstrip to remotely turn power off and on, is much easier and piece of mind vs having a Windows 10 Machine, with Blue Iris, that can possibly blue screen some day after updates, or someone remotes into it, etc. Yes you can add the computer to a powerbank/network powerstrip, but you cannot manage the computer without having eyes on it.

I am just trying to think if something fails while away, how simple will it be to guide a non-tech person, etc.

 

[ipOsX]

Could someone persuade me that I need continuous recording vs properly set up motion/event/alarm recording? I'm thinking that if I were to switch to 24/7 recording, 99% of it would contain nothing of interest while costing plenty in terms of resource, storage, time and power.

 

[samplenhold]

I am just trying to think if something fails while away, how simple will it be to guide a non-tech person, etc.

Not trying to persuade you either way, but to clear up the issues.

A dedicated WIN10 box running only BI is more reliable than any NVR, IMHO. The only thing running on my BI box is BI, Network Time Sync, and an antivirus. It is connected to an UPS. All three apps will restart if the system reboots. If the power is out long enough to drain the UPS, when the power comes back on the PC reboots and everything comes back up. I have been running this setup for over a year and it has never blue screened. It has been 100% reliable. You can control when updates get installed and when your system reboots.

The whole reason that I got into this was that we travel a lot and are gone for over a month at a time and I wanted to be able to check on the house while we were away as one time there was an issue upon returning and I had no way of knowing who/what/when. As far as a non-tech person having to 'fix' something, I don't think anyone in this day and age has never turned on a PC.

Now having said all of that, yes people have had issues with their BI box and with BI itself. But people have had issues with NVRs. Check this forum, multiple threads on both.

On the issue of 'someone remotes into it': If you secure your network like it states in the Cliff Notes, that should never happen.

So ultimately it is you that has to decide which way to go.

 

[samplenhold]

Could someone persuade me that I need continuous recording vs properly set up motion/event/alarm recording? I'm thinking that if I were to switch to 24/7 recording, 99% of it would contain nothing of interest while costing plenty in terms of resource, storage, time and power.

That is totally up to what you define as requirements for your system.

For me, I desired full time recording with at least 30 days of storage since we travel and are gone for at least that amount of time per trip. I feel storage is cheep and the discs will be turning whether they are recording or waiting for motion, and the cost of that power is miniscule compared to the rest of my electric usage.

What I have found for record on motion/event/alarm is that while one camera may trigger, you do not get to see what happened at that time on the other cameras. Sure you can set it up to record on all cameras if one is triggered, but you do not get to see what happed before the trigger and after. Case in point. We had some door checkers come through my neighborhood and my driveway cams alerted to the guy checking my Jeep in the driveway. But those cameras did not see his friend. Because I have overview cameras and zoomed in cameras, I was able to track them as they turned the corner of my street, took things from other people's cars and yards, which way they went after that, and 10 minutes later their return to leave the subdivision on a bike and scooter they had nicked from down the street. I spooled the appropriate clips to a USB drive to give to the Constable. He said, "Yeah, I know those guys. Thanks".

 

[ipOsX]

What I have found for record on motion/event/alarm is that while one camera may trigger, you do not get to see what happened at that time on the other cameras. Sure you can set it up to record on all cameras if one is triggered, but you do not get to see what happed before the trigger and after.

Great detective work - but can't the triggers be configured to record pre- and post the event?

 

[djernie]

That is totally up to what you define as requirements for your system.

For me, I desired full time recording with at least 30 days of storage since we travel and are gone for at least that amount of time per trip. I feel storage is cheep and the discs will be turning whether they are recording or waiting for motion, and the cost of that power is miniscule compared to the rest of my electric usage.

What I have found for record on motion/event/alarm is that while one camera may trigger, you do not get to see what happened at that time on the other cameras. Sure you can set it up to record on all cameras if one is triggered, but you do not get to see what happed before the trigger and after. Case in point. We had some door checkers come through my neighborhood and my driveway cams alerted to the guy checking my Jeep in the driveway. But those cameras did not see his friend. Because I have overview cameras and zoomed in cameras, I was able to track them as they turned the corner of my street, took things from other people's cars and yards, which way they went after that, and 10 minutes later their return to leave the subdivision on a bike and scooter they had nicked from down the street. I spooled the appropriate clips to a USB drive to give to the Constable. He said, "Yeah, I know those guys. Thanks".

Exactly how my system is running. Record 24/7, on blue iris computer. I have motion alerts on all cameras, and blue iris saves the motion clips. All i have to do is check the motion clips when i want to and if i find any thing, just save it to flash drive for the police. Unlike others i do not need to check my system when i am away, i just leave it to my alarm company at that point. i bought a computer from the one of the ebay links in the wiki and added an extra nic card to it and more memory because it is cheap. Then added a 4tb hard drive. And i took the cd player out and put in a 256mb SSD hard drive there and that is my boot drive with all the blue iris software on it and all storage goes to the 4tb drive. It sounds hard but i just followed the wiki and youtube videos and I am good to go.

 

[djernie]

Great detective work - but can't the triggers be configured to record pre- and post the event?

You can do anything you want with blue iris, that is why we use it it is more versatile than an NVR. But some people like to use NVR so it is up to the users.

 

[James022]

Not trying to persuade you either way, but to clear up the issues.

A dedicated WIN10 box running only BI is more reliable than any NVR, IMHO. The only thing running on my BI box is BI, Network Time Sync, and an antivirus. It is connected to an UPS. All three apps will restart if the system reboots. If the power is out long enough to drain the UPS, when the power comes back on the PC reboots and everything comes back up. I have been running this setup for over a year and it has never blue screened. It has been 100% reliable. You can control when updates get installed and when your system reboots.

The whole reason that I got into this was that we travel a lot and are gone for over a month at a time and I wanted to be able to check on the house while we were away as one time there was an issue upon returning and I had no way of knowing who/what/when. As far as a non-tech person having to 'fix' something, I don't think anyone in this day and age has never turned on a PC.

Now having said all of that, yes people have had issues with their BI box and with BI itself. But people have had issues with NVRs. Check this forum, multiple threads on both.

On the issue of 'someone remotes into it': If you secure your network like it states in the Cliff Notes, that should never happen.

So ultimately it is you that has to decide which way to go.

Great! thank you for the write up. for remoting into the cameras....do you have to turn on the VPN on your phone to check your cameras, or is there some other way of checking.
this will be hard for my wife to overcome especially since she has an iPhone and is known to just click on an app.

 

[djernie]

Great detective work - but can't the triggers be configured to record pre- and post the event?

Most prefer to record 24/7 because you do not have to setup pre and post record. Because blue iris will record motion events, then all you have to do is go back and check all the motion events. You can tell it to pre record once it detects motion. And you can tell it how much pre record you want. It's all in the WIKI so be sure to check it out.

Video Tutorials

IPCT member @[URL='https://ipcamtalk.com/members/dasstrum.26160/'][COLOR=#0000b3]Dasstrum[/COLOR][/URL] put together these great Blue Iris video tutorials for the community. You may view the original thread here...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[djernie]

check out the WIKI, i read through the wiki and other forums for 4 months before i purchased my computer and began purchasing my cameras. It a lot of information but everyone here helped me along the way. Just study read and study and read again. It seems intimidating but the reward is great.

 

[samplenhold]

Great! thank you for the write up. for remoting into the cameras....do you have to turn on the VPN on your phone to check your cameras, or is there some other way of checking.
this will be hard for my wife to overcome especially since she has an iPhone and is known to just click on an app.

I have gone a different route than VPN. But if you have BI, then you are not viewing your cameras directly. You view BI. Others would have to chime in on how that works on an iPhone. But my guess is that you click on the VPN app and then the BI iPhone app. I would imagine she could do that.