Black Friday?

[Zoraman]

Hello everyone,
I am a newb to all this and am in the market for a security camera system. Just wanting to know if the peeps on here might know of any good deals that maybe available for black friday? I am looking for a 6-8 camera system that is middle to high end for a home. I have been into the home automation hobby for a few years and have always wanted to install a nice home camera system. Right now I have 2 older foscams for indoor use but have been intimidated on pulling the trigger on a full blown outdoor/indoor system. I have looked at all the "brand name" complete systems in best buy, sam's, amazon, etc... But then I come on here to read up and it looks like everyone is talking about other cameras and build your own system type of thing. Could anyone give me some advice on what the difference is with the cameras that are on these boards compared to the big box complete systems? Also which camera set-up do you recommend? Hikvision,etc.

Thanks,

 

[fenderman]

Welcome to the forum..this camera is by far the best value today. Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z)
Read the forum and consider either a pc based NVR running something like blue iris or milestone, or a standalone dahua NVR depending on your needs.

 

[nayr]

If your looking for surveillance related deals you can usually find HDD's for cheap on BF; check newegg/microcenter/amazon for desktop or server grade disks 4TB or bigger.. just dont get any archival storage for video surveillance; its cheap and tempting but totally inappropriate.

WD Purples are unlikely to go on blackfriday sale; but WD Reds likely will and they are the next best thing.

 

[randytsuch]

If your looking for surveillance related deals you can usually find HDD's for cheap on BF; check newegg/microcenter/amazon for desktop or server grade disks 4TB or bigger.. just dont get any archival storage for video surveillance; its cheap and tempting but totally inappropriate.

WD Purples are unlikely to go on blackfriday sale; but WD Reds likely will and they are the next best thing.

I was hoping for a purples bf sale at amazon, wishful thinking?

Is the red "good enough"?

 

[looney2ns]

Hello everyone,
I am a newb to all this and am in the market for a security camera system. Just wanting to know if the peeps on here might know of any good deals that maybe available for black friday? I am looking for a 6-8 camera system that is middle to high end for a home. I have been into the home automation hobby for a few years and have always wanted to install a nice home camera system. Right now I have 2 older foscams for indoor use but have been intimidated on pulling the trigger on a full blown outdoor/indoor system. I have looked at all the "brand name" complete systems in best buy, sam's, amazon, etc... But then I come on here to read up and it looks like everyone is talking about other cameras and build your own system type of thing. Could anyone give me some advice on what the difference is with the cameras that are on these boards compared to the big box complete systems? Also which camera set-up do you recommend? Hikvision,etc.

Thanks,

Welcome Zoraman, go here: Dahua and start your education.
You can typically put together better system for same or less then buying a kit.

 

[looney2ns]

I was hoping for a purples bf sale at amazon, wishful thinking?

Is the red "good enough"?

Nayr said above: "WD Purples are unlikely to go on blackfriday sale; but WD Reds likely will and they are the next best thing."

 

[Zoraman]

Thanks everyone for the replies. What are WD Purples and WD reds? I am just trying to educate myself. LOL

 

[zero-degrees]

Thanks everyone for the replies. What are WD Purples and WD reds? I am just trying to educate myself. LOL

Evening @Zoraman

Check this thread out where I posted several guides to get you comfortable with IP camera technology if you are not already: Resource Guide on IP Technology for all Noobs
After that then jump into subs like "Hikvision" or "Dahua" or "Blue Iris" on the site.

As for the Western Digital drive colors - that is how WD classes them - that's all. They are each designed to apply to different industries/devices. Here is a site that will give a quick description of them all. WD corp site also has something like this but you have to bounce between pages, so this quick reference will prob get you started: Western Digital WD HDD Colors Difference
Just note: NEVER use a Green drive for a security system (PC or NVR based) I would also recomend against the blue drives. I have used black drives in the past when working on a budget system and still know of 3 family members NVR's that have black drives in them and have for several years without issue. However, I use Purple drives in almost all NVR applications - I might be drinking the kool aid, however, they haven't failed me yet. Internal Storage Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) and Solid State Drives (SSDs) | Western Digital (WD)

Also stay away from the "systems" sold in big box stores. While they may be a good value and some are dahua/hik hardware simply rebranded they are typically all the same lens/hardware. So you get 8 cameras that are all 2.8, 3, or 4mm. For most situations this won't work as you may need 1 or 2 cameras that are 2.8/3mm, prob going to want a few that are 4mm, finally with 1 or 2 that are 6mm. So, typically it is better to custom build/configure a system so that you can get cameras/lens configurations that apply to each mounting location.

Side note: I typically can find purple drives the cheapest at my local Fry's store. Typically cheaper then amazon or newegg and right now they are again on sale actually. $129 for 4TB retail boxed drive, this is bare bone OEM price of a lot of sites. WD Surveillance Storage 4TB Internal Hard Drive Retail Kit : WDBGKN0040HNC-NRSN

 

[logbuilder]

Regarding BF deals, I was on the HomeSeer.com site and they have their software licenses at 50% off. I've been looking deeply at home automation and HomeSeer looks pretty good compared to Smartthings, Vera, or Home Assistant. While 50% off on their licenses sounds like a good deal, even with that discount, they are still very expensive once you get the base software, plugins and the HSTouch designer. I'm teetering on the edge of commiting to HS. I'm finalizing my research on how to integrate HS and Blue Iris. Looks promising. But it is pricey!

 

[alastairstevenson]

I would also recomend against the blue drives.

I have one in a general purpose Linux box, which I thought was a reasonable choice for an environment which doesn't work the HDDs all the time like Windows.
I noticed that after 3 months the 'Load / Unload cycle count', SMART attribute 193, was over 100k, so the disc would have suffered a premature wearout failure.
It turns out they come with a predefined idle timeout of 8 seconds.
I changed it to 5 minutes and the count has barely moved since.

 

[zero-degrees]

Regarding BF deals, I was on the HomeSeer.com site and they have their software licenses at 50% off. I've been looking deeply at home automation and HomeSeer looks pretty good compared to Smartthings, Vera, or Home Assistant. While 50% off on their licenses sounds like a good deal, even with that discount, they are still very expensive once you get the base software, plugins and the HSTouch designer. I'm teetering on the edge of commiting to HS. I'm finalizing my research on how to integrate HS and Blue Iris. Looks promising. But it is pricey!

I'm not huge into home automation but after just glancing at the HomeSeer products they appear to be extreamly over priced. The controller hardware alone is basic under powered hardware for the price - a $50 RPi can compete with that hardware. Also there are to many z-wave manufactures/controllers/add on's that are produced by reputable manufactures and pairable to any custom built system to pay propritary prices like those listed at home seer.

There are a few threads around the forum that talk about home automation here and I am fairly certain none are spending anywhere near the kind of money homeseer is asking....

Seriously - Even after the hardware cost you still only get a basic license setup - most features even the average home owner/new to automation user would use are listed as an *Additional Cost on their comparison page... I mean, If I spend $1,000 on the controller I still have to spend another $40 for my ecobee thermostat to connect.... An addtional $100 for the remote app, $100 for my Vista 20P alarm panel, etc. Most of these items already have a individual app/driver included for free. Granted the HomeSeer app will pull everything together under one roof, but this is a serious nickle and dime type system even after the pricey controller...

For these prices you can look at something like control4 which is more reputable/supported/main stream than home seer IMO.

 

[randytsuch]

I'm not huge into home automation but after just glancing at the HomeSeer products they appear to be extreamly over priced. The controller hardware alone is basic under powered hardware for the price - a $50 RPi can compete with that hardware. Also there are to many z-wave manufactures/controllers/add on's that are produced by reputable manufactures and pairable to any custom built system to pay propritary prices like those listed at home seer.

There are a few threads around the forum that talk about home automation here and I am fairly certain none are spending anywhere near the kind of money homeseer is asking....

Seriously - Even after the hardware cost you still only get a basic license setup - most features even the average home owner/new to automation user would use are listed as an *Additional Cost on their comparison page... I mean, If I spend $1,000 on the controller I still have to spend another $40 for my ecobee thermostat to connect.... An addtional $100 for the remote app, $100 for my Vista 20P alarm panel, etc. Most of these items already have a individual app/driver included for free. Granted the HomeSeer app will pull everything together under one roof, but this is a serious nickle and dime type system even after the pricey controller...

For these prices you can look at something like control4 which is more reputable/supported/main stream than home seer IMO.

A pi and Domiticz software makes a nice cost effective home automation system to get you going. I have zwave stuff, so have a zwave stick in the pi to actually control the switches. Or you can just stick with wifi stuff these days I think, and control from the pi's wifi