Help finishing my home IP cameras setup - LTS NVR

[NewbeeTX]

Hello all,
This will be my first home camera setup. I was first looking at Ubnt but ended up steering towards Hikvision / LTS. I would like to have 6 cameras around my home. I've decided on the following so far:


- LTS 8 Channel NVR -
LTN8708-P8


-Front door camera -
CMIP3142-28S
Fixed Lens Dome 4.1MP - 2.8mm


-Rear patio door camera -
CMIP1142-28
Fixed Lens Turret Network IP Camera 4.1MP - 2.8mm

I want to add more cameras to the corners of my home for general coverage and also less expensive than these. Prefer dome over bullet however I am flexible. Can someone recommend IP cameras that will work great with this NVR (look for ONVIF only?) What exactly do I lose by not going with hikvision/lts cameras?

Is 2mp decent enough? Prices of longse look appealing although has anyone regretted them? Any other great bargain cameras? Please help!

 

[NewbeeTX]

I am finding Hikvision cameras at a great price compared to LTS, any reasons not to mix Hikvision cams with LTS NVR?

 

[fenderman]

I am finding Hikvision cameras at a great price compared to LTS, any reasons not to mix Hikvision cams with LTS NVR?

Note those hikvisions are china region cameras that cannot be firmware updated and have no warranties. Dont buy domes or bullets..buy turrets...the longse 5mp with imx178 have excellent nightvision though no warranty ...

 

[NewbeeTX]

I do have some interest in those as well. My concern as well is, at the door entry points I've invested in LTS 4mp. Would I be ok with 2 mp at the corners of the house? That's what I can't decide!

On another note, Dahua seems to be a great price as well. Any thnig to lookout for by mixing with LTS NVR?

 

[CoreyX64]

ONVIF takes care of the mixing and matching for the most part. Out of all of the manufacturers explicitly supported by a Hikvision/LTS NVR, Dahua is not one of them. Will they work? Yes, but you must use ONVIF which strips many functionalities out as opposed to using a native protocol already defined. For example, a Hikvision camera/NVR combo using the Hikvision protocol will allow the NVR to leverage the full feature set out of the camera. If you flip that same setup to the ONVIF protocol, that strips down to a basic video steam and basic motion detection. Most everything else is rendered unusable. That would be the case with Dahua as Hikvision does not, at present, directly support Dahua's protocol/API. While they do let you define custom protocols, that is only for RSTP streaming, no "smart" functionality of any sort.

On the region issue, Chinese cameras have a shorter warranty (yes, they do have a warranty, it's usually only about 1 year and is limited to that reseller only). Support is limited to email exchanges for the most part, and as @fenderman pointed out, the firmware is nothing short of gridlocked. The most I've ever been able to do with my Chinese cams is flash ghosted firmware which upgrades them to an extent, but that was back in the 5.2.x days, now cams are shipping with 5.3.x which no one has figured out yet and don't count on that happening anytime soon. Generally though, if the camera works as intended, you will never need to touch the firmware on it, only ever the recorder. (Security/feature set upgrades)

To sum all of this up: only purchase the cheaper Chinese cameras if you fully understand the risks involved as I've somewhat described them above and countless other threads/individuals on here have explained to the Nth detail. I'm not saying this to be a scare-tactic. They are cheaper for a reason. While I absolutely disagree with the ethics behind region locking, I understand the reasoning as to why they do it (it hurts business and legitimate Authorized resellers). I agree with not supporting them, but to cripple the product is an entirely different avenue. A camera's only true regional restrictions are the frequency (60hz US, 50hz CN) and the format (NTSC US, PAL outside US, although this is less of an issue anymore)

When it comes to the NVR, never ever purchase a Chinese region device. Stick with places like LTS or Nelly's who offer exceptional support. I've never purchased from LTS, but heard many good things about them. I've purchased from Nelly's before and the few times I had questions they were very helpful and courteous. I purchase a mix of US and CN devices regularly, so I reside on both sides of the fence. My NVRs are all genuine US Hikvision branded equipment, and cameras are pre-patched Chinese so they work with US equipment. (Smart cameras I stick with US however).

Also, if you haven't noticed, LTS and Hikvision equipment very closely resemble each other. That's because LTS equipment is Hikvision under the hood. It carries a different branding with a different channel for support (can't contact Hikvision for any LTS problems), but otherwise near identical.


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[NewbeeTX]

Thank you. After some time this weekend researching I understand that although I can make other cameras work, based on the potential limitations I am not so sure it's worth it. I will bite the bullet and go with a full LTS system!

 

[Razer]

Thank you. After some time this weekend researching I understand that although I can make other cameras work, based on the potential limitations I am not so sure it's worth it. I will bite the bullet and go with a full LTS system!

Sounds like a good plan to me, but I would personally reconsider buying the 4mp cameras. I have had both, and have over 40 of the 4mp cameras going now but greatly prefer the 3mp cameras after testing them out thoroughly. I went back to the 3mp cameras and am much happier with the night footage. I also like the 4:3 picture image of the 3mp cameras over the widescreen only option on the 4mp.

Depending on your lighting I would go 3mp or even 2mp for the really dark areas. My locations are VERY well lit and the 4mp still do not do great.

 

[NewbeeTX]

Thanks for the feedback Razer; in my front I have very well lit areas and will consider 2 or 3 mp cameras.

 

[CoreyX64]

4MP cams do fine at night with artificial light. See my pics here:
Large setup IP cam help
https://www.ipcamtalk.com/showthread.php?t=10363

Which 4MP cams did you have? I have domes which aren't as good as EXIR turrets for night vision but I think they were fairly clear (the ones outside anyways, pitch black they do get a little grainy)


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[Razer]

4MP cams do fine at night with artificial light. See my pics here:
Large setup IP cam help
https://www.ipcamtalk.com/showthread.php?t=10363

Which 4MP cams did you have? I have domes which aren't as good as EXIR turrets for night vision but I think they were fairly clear (the ones outside anyways, pitch black they do get a little grainy)


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I am using the 4mp bullets, and I do not use the IR on any of my cameras as my cameras usually do not even go into night mode my lighting is so good. These are mounted outdoors, and in many cases I will have say 18 3mp cameras and one or two 4mp cameras tossed in for testing. At one location I have 12 of the 4mp cameras outdoors and only one 3mp camera there to compare against. In every case the 3mp camera is visibly better at night specifically. I might not know or notice as bad except for I can literally compare shots of the same conditions side by side and the 4mp is just not good enough compared to the 2 and 3mp versions.

Day mode, or indoors with good light then the 4mp are fine but you can definitely tell which is which just by looking at recorded footage at night easily. I have a pretty large testing base of 1400 cameras of varied types and in the end after testing I went back to the 3mp cameras as they were better in several respects. Stream size was another big difference, 4mp cameras stream size averages 2x to 4x larger stream for some reason and puts a hurt on storage too.