Help with HikVision and FTP

[RunnerD]

I am trying to setup an outdoor security camera solution for my wife's small preschool. It is a house with a detached garage. We had to sue a concrete contractor in court, and a day before court, someone came and shut off our natural gas supply at the meter. He was trying to freeze and burst the pipes in the house (good thing I had a freeze sensor that called my cell phone - Simon XT alarm system ). Yesterday was the last court date, and we won the court case, so I am sure he is ready to do something else to the house (maybe burn down the house or garage).

WHAT I AM HOPING TO DO:

I want a total of 5 cameras. 2 behind garage, 1 on back of house, and 2 in front of house. I WANT TO BE ABLE TO RECORD ALL MOTION EVENTS TO AN OFFSITE HARD DRIVE (MY HOME COMPUTER). I am assuming this could be accomplished through an FTP server? Would the camera itself talk directly to the remote FTP server setup on my home computer, or is there a better way to do this? I want to do this because I have a feeling the guy might try to light the garage or house on fire, and I'm worried there would not be any video if the DVR was destroyed in a fire?

I am looking at HikVision cameras because they seem to get good reviews. I am looking for a camera that is capable of uploading these pictures/videos via FTP (or some other method) to my home computer. I am also hoping that a HI-RES camera on the back of the garage would be able to record license plates of cars passing down the alley? Is this possible? The back of the garage is about 10 ft from the alley. I have security lights in the back of the garage that light up the alley pretty well. Also, if a camera could send a picture to an email address every time it detected motion, this would also be great to pull up on my cell phone.

Can the HikVision cameras do this? Are there better alternatives for what I'm trying to do? I am open to cameras up to $150 - $160.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Eric

 

[bp2008]

Hello.

I have a few questions:

1. How fast is the internet connection at the preschool? Specifically the upload speed. Download does not matter.
2. How computer literate are you?

The best advice varies very significantly depending on your answers Like maybe a couple of Dropcams would be best for you, since they record directly to the cloud. They also cost a monthly fee and require a fair amount of bandwidth...

License plates can be read quite easily during the day assuming they are close enough to the camera. A camera with a fairly narrow lens (like 6 to 12 mm) increases the distance at which a plate is readable. At night it is much more difficult because license plates appear washed out or blurred unless you get the lighting and exposure and gain settings all just right.

I don't think Hikvision cameras will FTP entire clips (someone correct me if I'm wrong?) but if you had a VPN you could probably use a remote CIFS/SMB share as the storage location.

Have you also considered what happens if the power or internet lines are cut/disabled? It could render your entire security system useless.

 

[RunnerD]

By the time the power/internet lines were cut, I should have them on camera by then. I am fairly computer literate. Is their any outdoor camera that would write to a file on an FTP server in real time when motion is detected? Or is there some other way to go about this. I am not familiar with CIFS/SMB. I believe SMB would make a network drive (my home computer) available for the cameras to record to? I am not sure exactly how to set that up, but maybe I could figure it out. Anybody else have any ideas?

 

[whoslooking]

I would use an NVR they are cheap and can sit anywhere on the network, cheaper to run than a PC and are linux embedded adding WD-Purple hard drive you can't go wrong. using a PC 24/7 will fail at some point.

 

[fenderman]

By the time the power/internet lines were cut, I should have them on camera by then. I am fairly computer literate. Is their any outdoor camera that would write to a file on an FTP server in real time when motion is detected? Or is there some other way to go about this. I am not familiar with CIFS/SMB. I believe SMB would make a network drive (my home computer) available for the cameras to record to? I am not sure exactly how to set that up, but maybe I could figure it out. Anybody else have any ideas?

FTPing all those clips is going to use lots of bandwidth...bp2008 is correct in that hikvision will not ftp video, only photos...
if you are worried about fire, you can put a small nas in a fire safe or they do sell some fire resistant nas devices.

 

[RunnerD]

What cameras would record to the cloud? Is there a monthly fee for this? Are the HikVision cameras good, or do you guys recommend something different?

 

[fenderman]

What cameras would record to the cloud? Is there a monthly fee for this? Are the HikVision cameras good, or do you guys recommend something different?

Hikvision and dahua are the best in your price range...
Dropcam records to the cloud...its for suckers...they charge 100 per year for 7 days of footage and 300 for 30 days....they are indoor cams not outdoor and their image quality is inferior to hikvision/dahau.
If you really want to ftp video you can pc software like blue iris to do it- you will need a powerful pc for 6 3mp hd cameras...

 

[RunnerD]

Yes, I see what you are saying now... When the camera 'alarm' is triggered by movement, will it then send a series of pictures via email? Can this be configured with the HikVision? Maybe my best bet is to record to a fireproof NVR...

 

[fenderman]

Yes, I see what you are saying now... When the camera 'alarm' is triggered by movement, will it then send a series of pictures via email? Can this be configured with the HikVision? Maybe my best bet is to record to a fireproof NVR...

yes a fireproof nas or to via ftp..but ultimately you want video as the photos can easily miss the action...honestly fireproof nas is overkill, the likelihood of that happening is very low...just get an nvr or pc based NVR software like blue iris...in fact my opinion would be to use hikvision cameras that offer an sd card slot for recording and use that in conjunction with the NVR...this way you wont miss anything...even in a fire the exterior cams should be just fine...

 

[RunnerD]

Ok, this is what I don't understand. So if I have blue iris, it will constantly record the video stream remotely (off premise)? Also an NVR (network video recorder), will I be able to record the video off premise (record from my home and not at the business)? This does sound like a lot of bandwidth, unless it is only triggered to record upon motion?

 

[fenderman]

Ok, this is what I don't understand. So if I have blue iris, it will constantly record the video stream remotely (off premise)? Also an NVR (network video recorder), will I be able to record the video off premise (record from my home and not at the business)? This does sound like a lot of bandwidth, unless it is only triggered to record upon motion?

The idea is to keep the blue iris machine onpremises and either ftp it or use something like google drive to push it out...
IF you keep it off premises it will wont help to use motion detection because it will have to stream all the video 24/7...
The best solution is simply an on premises NVR and cameras that record to sd card as a backup, problem solved.

 

[RunnerD]

But if the house goes up in flame, so do the cameras and NVR ? It seems like this is the only route to really go though. With the NVR, is the video constantly recorded, or only alarm and motion events recorded to the DV?

 

[fenderman]

1) it is very unlikely that it will ever go up in flames...i doubt he will every do it - arson is a huge leap from shutting off a gas valve.
2) Even in a fire, the exterior is generally ok-the cameras will be fine....
With an nvr/pc you can set it to record on motion, however unless the nvr/pc is at the same location you would need to stream 24/7 because the unit needs the stream to analyse if motion occurred.
If you are really paranoid, get cameras with an sd card, record to pc with blue iris (you will need at least an i5 haswell for 6 3mp cameras) and have blue iris ftp the video on motion...this will cover all your bases.

 

[RunnerD]

Ok. This sounds like a plan. So blue iris will ftp video on motion to an ftp server i have on my home computer? This is something that is possible with blue iris?

 

[RunnerD]

Also, will blue iris email pictures?? How hard is blue iris to work with?

 

[fenderman]

Also, will blue iris email pictures?? How hard is blue iris to work with?

it can email photos...the cameras can do that on their own as well..
You will need to spend time learning to use it and set it up..it has tons of options..

 

[RunnerD]

Ok. Sounds good... Any recommendations on a good network video recorder? Something that can handle up to 5 or 6 cams? Or I'm sure I could dig through this forum for some recommendations..

 

[whoslooking]

If your using Hikvision cameras stick with a Hikvision NVR to use the full functions of the camera's.
Again it's all down to budget but a DS-7808 will do the job for less than $300 with a WD purple 2tb inside.

 

[JpEncausse]

Hi I have the exact same question:

@RunnerD The Flir FX record motion on SD Card then upload to the cloud

I want to setup 5 IP Camera HIKVision that will upload video to an FTP on the cloud
- I don't want to upload photo
- I understand I should use a router to work as a VPN for FTP Upload (for security)
- I understand uploading video takes bandwidth but I will have short few motions and video are H.264
- Why not using Flir FX ? May be but I would like MY own server

But back to basics :
- Do HIKVision can upload H.264 motion video to FTP ? Because I only see tutorial doing snapshot or FOSCAM upload raw stream without sound ...
- How good is H.264 compression of HIKVision ?

Thanks !