I am looking for a home security solution and managed to convince my family to not use any Cloud based cameras.
Right now, I got 2 IMOU (Dahua rebrand) indoor WiFi cameras for cheap ($20 each). I mount one on garage ceiling and one in front window (able to see the road toward front door).
I managed to configure them correctly (i.e., connected to dedicated AP to a VLAN without Internet). I am able to view camera footage on computer by open RTSP streams via FFMPEG.
I haven't setup NVR yet. As long term solution, I am planning to use Frigate & home assistant as I already got a homelab / NAS server setup.
Here are the questions.
Any recommendations? I don't have a lot of budget (maybe up to $100 per camera) as I have a hard time to convince my family to not use something like Blink that cost only $20 per camera up front.
Right now, I got 2 IMOU (Dahua rebrand) indoor WiFi cameras for cheap ($20 each). I mount one on garage ceiling and one in front window (able to see the road toward front door).
I managed to configure them correctly (i.e., connected to dedicated AP to a VLAN without Internet). I am able to view camera footage on computer by open RTSP streams via FFMPEG.
I haven't setup NVR yet. As long term solution, I am planning to use Frigate & home assistant as I already got a homelab / NAS server setup.
Here are the questions.
- How many cameras are enough and where to put them? The house is 2-story, around 2,500 sqft (~250m2), with a backyard. In addition to the ones I have, I am thinking putting one for each side door (to backyard), one for backdoor, one for front door. Is that enough?
- These IMOU cameras can operate at 1080p @ 30fps. The current stream bitrate is 1Mbps H265 (I can change it to 4Mbps max using config tool). What would be a reasonable resolution without being too expensive?
- One issue I found is that the camera occasionally stutters and drops frame. I already setup my AP to operate at the least congested wireless channel and uses the TCP version of RTSP (much better than the UDP version). The frame drop is on average 200-300 frames per hour (according to FFMPEG). Is that just the nature of WiFi camera?
- I found a lot of the cameras (including the one I got) support SD cards. Are they necessary? If so, how large (in term of GB capacity) is enough? I currently did not install SD cards as I can just record off the RTSP. If there is an power outage, so do the cameras (unless they are powered by battery or solar), so I don't think they are useful.
- I have considered wired (PoE) cameras. However, as the house is a bit old, there is only very few pre-installed Ethernet cables in the wall. The network cabinet is also incredibly small (a square-shaped box just wide enough to fit an 8-port switch, also has a lot of old Coax, Telephone wires), making it infeasible to put PoE switch inside. I don't have much expertise on electrical installation (I am a software engineer), so installing a ton of Ethernet cable outside the house and inside the wall seems daunting.
- Because of the reasons mentioned above, I haven't decided on the outdoor camera solution. The lack of near-by power supply makes even WiFi camera difficult. I came up with 2 ideas right now. 1) use WiFi camera and connect them to solar panel and batteries (my current IMOU camera uses 2-3W at 5V DC). 2) Use dedicated battery powered cameras. These cameras are designed to last over 6 months without replacement/recharge. However, I couldn't find any that works without Internet out-of-box, and may be impossible.
Any recommendations? I don't have a lot of budget (maybe up to $100 per camera) as I have a hard time to convince my family to not use something like Blink that cost only $20 per camera up front.
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