Hi all,
Just like most other folks here, long time lurker and first time poster. This seems at the onset one of those things where you may be able to read your way to a first time setup, but my word is there a lot of variability out there. I won't be able to figure this out on my own, so it's time to surround myself with those smarter than me.
Some background: Girlfriend and I are in a rent house in northern Dallas. We're in a nice quiet neighborhood and after a couple months I really haven't heard of any commotion around here. However, despite that, I've been in a 3rd floor apartment for the last 4 years where I really haven't had to worry about security at all. Time for a paradigm shift.
I've been doing lots of reading on different indoor and outdoor cameras and have gotten past the point where I cut through all the BS and will forego the Ring, Nest, Arlo, etc. options. I was originally looking for both indoor and outdoor, but wanted the outdoor more for deterrence than anything and bought a couple dummy cameras that I've mounted. I may go with real cameras in the future, but that's where I'm at now.
As for an indoor camera, my thought is that hopefully I can deter burglars with the fake cameras outside, but if they're so brazen as to actually break in, I'd like coverage on the inside, especially by my custom PC, that will include motion detection, facial recognition, etc. My *main* thing here is when I'm out of town. When I'm in town, I'm here every night, am a light sleeper, have 2 dogs that will bark their heads offs, and if worse comes to worst have an old school Texas security system called Mr. Ruger. But if I'm out of town, that all goes out the window and the best I have is a nice neighbor keeping an eye on the place and grabbing my mail. With the motion detection, if I'm out of town and motion is detected, either my house is haunted or someone has made their way inside and I can take the correct measures.
I'd really like to go middle of the road here to start out. I'm really against a plug and play cheap option like most folks want cause I realize you probably get what you pay for. But I don't need a multi-thousand dollar setup to start. Preferably something that's built solidly from a reputable manufacturer, can start out in one room of the house or between two rooms (living room and kitchen) for half-ish house coverage, hard-wired, local storage over cloud, with the ability to expand the system.
Not quite looking for specific model numbers or setups, though I will most gladly take recommendations. Moreso looking for great brands and pros/cons between those that I see here often like Duhua, Reolink, Ubiquiti, Amcrest, etc. I really need to be able to shrink the universe down to a fixed number of options so I can make a good choice from there.
I really appreciate everyone taking a look and helping start me on my journey to extra peace of mind.
Thanks.
Just like most other folks here, long time lurker and first time poster. This seems at the onset one of those things where you may be able to read your way to a first time setup, but my word is there a lot of variability out there. I won't be able to figure this out on my own, so it's time to surround myself with those smarter than me.
Some background: Girlfriend and I are in a rent house in northern Dallas. We're in a nice quiet neighborhood and after a couple months I really haven't heard of any commotion around here. However, despite that, I've been in a 3rd floor apartment for the last 4 years where I really haven't had to worry about security at all. Time for a paradigm shift.
I've been doing lots of reading on different indoor and outdoor cameras and have gotten past the point where I cut through all the BS and will forego the Ring, Nest, Arlo, etc. options. I was originally looking for both indoor and outdoor, but wanted the outdoor more for deterrence than anything and bought a couple dummy cameras that I've mounted. I may go with real cameras in the future, but that's where I'm at now.
As for an indoor camera, my thought is that hopefully I can deter burglars with the fake cameras outside, but if they're so brazen as to actually break in, I'd like coverage on the inside, especially by my custom PC, that will include motion detection, facial recognition, etc. My *main* thing here is when I'm out of town. When I'm in town, I'm here every night, am a light sleeper, have 2 dogs that will bark their heads offs, and if worse comes to worst have an old school Texas security system called Mr. Ruger. But if I'm out of town, that all goes out the window and the best I have is a nice neighbor keeping an eye on the place and grabbing my mail. With the motion detection, if I'm out of town and motion is detected, either my house is haunted or someone has made their way inside and I can take the correct measures.
I'd really like to go middle of the road here to start out. I'm really against a plug and play cheap option like most folks want cause I realize you probably get what you pay for. But I don't need a multi-thousand dollar setup to start. Preferably something that's built solidly from a reputable manufacturer, can start out in one room of the house or between two rooms (living room and kitchen) for half-ish house coverage, hard-wired, local storage over cloud, with the ability to expand the system.
Not quite looking for specific model numbers or setups, though I will most gladly take recommendations. Moreso looking for great brands and pros/cons between those that I see here often like Duhua, Reolink, Ubiquiti, Amcrest, etc. I really need to be able to shrink the universe down to a fixed number of options so I can make a good choice from there.
I really appreciate everyone taking a look and helping start me on my journey to extra peace of mind.
Thanks.
