Hello all,
Moving into a new house at the end of the month, but whilst I’ve been waiting (nearly a year) for it to be built I’ve been planning all the home automation and security I’ll be tinkering with when we move in.
Thought I’d sign up just to show my appreciation for the forum and members that make it what it is, (I’ll make a donation!) as it has helped with the warts-and-all reviews of cameras that some of you have done to decide on some good value Dahuas which I purchased from Andy via Aliexpress, as recommended on here. They turned up in three days! (Thanks Andy!)
Thanks to the members for sharing lots of great information. Seems there’s quite a few knowledgeable people on here that chip in to help others.
Was originally going to go with some 4k hik turrets but the fixed lenses put me off. Due to not knowing exactly what lens I needed, I did a 3D model of the field of views (I’d already drawn the whole house to scale in sketchup whilst bored over christmas and then used ‘IP Video design tool’ for camera modelling) and found the perfect lens was somewhere inbetween the 2.8mm and 4mm choices you get with the fixed lenses on hik turrets so I’m glad my patience held out.
Ended up with an 8Mp Dahua turret for front where there is sufficient lighting, 2Mp starlight for rear where its going to be a little darker.
I’ll add them to my other IP cameras (some Axis, and cheapo-but-functional SV3C) which I already have recording on an existing QNAP NAS running their QVR Pro software (which works pretty well).
I also have homebridge running in a docker to push the streams through to homekit for live views on my iPhone.
Oh, and my homekit hub is an AppleTV which I found an app for called ‘IP Cam Soft Lite’ which is a super simple interface that opens really quickly and allows me to view the cameras live on my TV too.
Next on the list of cameras is a doorbell that is ONVIF or does RTSP.
The numerous discussions I’ve seen a few of you have had in the past has helped me steer clear of some of them that look good when judged on spec alone. Frustrating that there doesn’t seem to be anything that ticks all the boxes. I think the Hik (or clones) seems to be closest, bar the poor wifi signal and even poorer image quality at night. Still been tempted to order one but just about held back.
Certainly not going to be conned into the subscriptions strategies a lot of the other manufacturers are trying to push at the moment by removing all other ways to interface to them. The sooner they give that up as a bad idea the better. L
Anyone got hold of the new Dahua one yet? DB11 is it? I think I saw someone on here was going to get one from Andy to test out so I’ll cross my fingers its an improvement on their earlier efforts.
Martin
Moving into a new house at the end of the month, but whilst I’ve been waiting (nearly a year) for it to be built I’ve been planning all the home automation and security I’ll be tinkering with when we move in.
Thought I’d sign up just to show my appreciation for the forum and members that make it what it is, (I’ll make a donation!) as it has helped with the warts-and-all reviews of cameras that some of you have done to decide on some good value Dahuas which I purchased from Andy via Aliexpress, as recommended on here. They turned up in three days! (Thanks Andy!)
Thanks to the members for sharing lots of great information. Seems there’s quite a few knowledgeable people on here that chip in to help others.
Was originally going to go with some 4k hik turrets but the fixed lenses put me off. Due to not knowing exactly what lens I needed, I did a 3D model of the field of views (I’d already drawn the whole house to scale in sketchup whilst bored over christmas and then used ‘IP Video design tool’ for camera modelling) and found the perfect lens was somewhere inbetween the 2.8mm and 4mm choices you get with the fixed lenses on hik turrets so I’m glad my patience held out.
Ended up with an 8Mp Dahua turret for front where there is sufficient lighting, 2Mp starlight for rear where its going to be a little darker.
I’ll add them to my other IP cameras (some Axis, and cheapo-but-functional SV3C) which I already have recording on an existing QNAP NAS running their QVR Pro software (which works pretty well).
I also have homebridge running in a docker to push the streams through to homekit for live views on my iPhone.
Oh, and my homekit hub is an AppleTV which I found an app for called ‘IP Cam Soft Lite’ which is a super simple interface that opens really quickly and allows me to view the cameras live on my TV too.
Next on the list of cameras is a doorbell that is ONVIF or does RTSP.
The numerous discussions I’ve seen a few of you have had in the past has helped me steer clear of some of them that look good when judged on spec alone. Frustrating that there doesn’t seem to be anything that ticks all the boxes. I think the Hik (or clones) seems to be closest, bar the poor wifi signal and even poorer image quality at night. Still been tempted to order one but just about held back.
Certainly not going to be conned into the subscriptions strategies a lot of the other manufacturers are trying to push at the moment by removing all other ways to interface to them. The sooner they give that up as a bad idea the better. L
Anyone got hold of the new Dahua one yet? DB11 is it? I think I saw someone on here was going to get one from Andy to test out so I’ll cross my fingers its an improvement on their earlier efforts.
Martin