Learning and wanting to know more .....

[Angel.Eyes]

My sister-in-law gave us two wireless cameras with a receiver connected to our TV. It works to show the video on TV, no audio and no event recording that is when someone comes in our front door and that's just it. No records or notification of anything and must be home to watch it. It must be an old system. I joined this forum in the hope of learning more about security cameras, what to do and what to buy. I like to be a smart buyer buying only what is reliable and reasonable which record events, viewable when I am not home, push notification for alarms on my iphone, Remote viewing where ever I am, two way audio, etc... I am still a newbie learning what I can put together as DIY. My wife installed a Ring doorbell that triggered my interest to know more and want to have a better and more flexible system. Thanks for allowing me to be a member of this forum. God bless..

 

[looney2ns]

Welcome, start here:

 

[samplenhold]

Welcome to the forum. Read what is posted above^. Pay special attention to the Cliff Notes.

Once you get some of the background, you will have to decide on how to interface with the cams. Basically the choices are a dedicated NVR, a PC running cam software, like Blue Iris, or if you have a NAS that has cam software using that. People on this forum, in general, have decided one over the other. Though I have seen posts of folks that use both an NVR and a software solution at the same time.

I started out using NAS cam software but was very unhappy with it. I ultimately went with a PC running Blue Iris (BI). There are pros and cons to either NAS or PC software solutions. They are discussed in the Cliff Notes.