I'll try to make this short....
I spent a bit of time doing some intro research on a surveillance system for my rowhome. Mostly the research was "Which piece of Chinese garbage is not going to quit in 2 weeks?" I landed on a Reolink 4mp poe system because of all the reviews and claims about night vision distance. I later found out that reolink elicits reviews in exchange for free products, so yeah I'm a sucker.
I ran all new cat6 through my house, 2 runs to the back, 2 in the front where the NVR is. I never mounted the front cameras, but I had them hooked up in my room, next to the NVR. The back door camera looked good during the day, but it was grainy as hell at night. I tried everything: wire trace, cam swap, new wires, nvr settings, nvr factory reset and firmware update... nothing made any difference. In fact, it only got worse. And on top of that the cameras in my room began deteriorating too. This is barely 1 month after purchase. Tonight I managed to get Amazon to give me a full refund despite being outside the refund window.
So now I need a new setup! I refuse to go wireless, as I'm sure you all do too. Running those wires was more of a pita than I expected, so I plan on using them! What I need is for my two front cameras that hang under the 2nd story window overhang to be able to read license plates. I live on a really tight street, and cars get hit all the time. I just bought a nice new(ish) Grand Cherokee Overland that I want to keep an eye on. In the back i have issues with people sneaking in my back patio and stealing chairs and candles and stuff, so i want 2 cameras out back for that. Baltimore city just installed these led luminaries in all the light poles, so I have a bright directional glare in the back that was keeping the reolink cam's IRs from kicking on. So I need good low light performance back there, but long sight distance isn't important. And lastly i just need an nvr to control it all. Critical features are motion sensing with scheduling and masking, 24/7 recording, PTZ controls, HDD or SSD (obviously), and mobile app preferably with the option to remotely control the NVR (unlike reolinks BS app).
It would be great if up could point me to a full setup meeting my needs, but I'm doubting that is going to happen. So instead could you just recommend some good individual pieces that will work together without any advanced knowledge in the subject. Clearly, I'm not an expert, and unfortunately I also do not have a ton of time to devote to researching the finer aspects of ip cams. Thanks in advance.
I spent a bit of time doing some intro research on a surveillance system for my rowhome. Mostly the research was "Which piece of Chinese garbage is not going to quit in 2 weeks?" I landed on a Reolink 4mp poe system because of all the reviews and claims about night vision distance. I later found out that reolink elicits reviews in exchange for free products, so yeah I'm a sucker.
I ran all new cat6 through my house, 2 runs to the back, 2 in the front where the NVR is. I never mounted the front cameras, but I had them hooked up in my room, next to the NVR. The back door camera looked good during the day, but it was grainy as hell at night. I tried everything: wire trace, cam swap, new wires, nvr settings, nvr factory reset and firmware update... nothing made any difference. In fact, it only got worse. And on top of that the cameras in my room began deteriorating too. This is barely 1 month after purchase. Tonight I managed to get Amazon to give me a full refund despite being outside the refund window.
So now I need a new setup! I refuse to go wireless, as I'm sure you all do too. Running those wires was more of a pita than I expected, so I plan on using them! What I need is for my two front cameras that hang under the 2nd story window overhang to be able to read license plates. I live on a really tight street, and cars get hit all the time. I just bought a nice new(ish) Grand Cherokee Overland that I want to keep an eye on. In the back i have issues with people sneaking in my back patio and stealing chairs and candles and stuff, so i want 2 cameras out back for that. Baltimore city just installed these led luminaries in all the light poles, so I have a bright directional glare in the back that was keeping the reolink cam's IRs from kicking on. So I need good low light performance back there, but long sight distance isn't important. And lastly i just need an nvr to control it all. Critical features are motion sensing with scheduling and masking, 24/7 recording, PTZ controls, HDD or SSD (obviously), and mobile app preferably with the option to remotely control the NVR (unlike reolinks BS app).
It would be great if up could point me to a full setup meeting my needs, but I'm doubting that is going to happen. So instead could you just recommend some good individual pieces that will work together without any advanced knowledge in the subject. Clearly, I'm not an expert, and unfortunately I also do not have a ton of time to devote to researching the finer aspects of ip cams. Thanks in advance.
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