New Camera System Install

[Mrrr0809]

I posted here several months ago. Have done a bit more research since then and tried to find individuals who have more knowledge than I do on system set ups.
We built our home two years ago and had the electrician hardwire 11 individual CAT5 wires to predetermined locations. Hindsight is 20/20. Wish I had doubled them up.

I would really like to get this system up and running shortly. I guess a few basic questions I have:

-Dedicated PC always seems to be the forum recommendation from all the posts I’ve read. Is NVR ever an acceptable option? The idea would be to most likely record 24/7. I would like push notifications sent to my phone when activity is detected between certain times.

-If going the PC route, I know refurbished is most affordable, but are there individuals or companies that sell a complete refurbished PC with your desired specs meeting your needs or must you get everything piecemeal?

-Is Dahua still top dog on the forum here for your common residential outdoor setup?

-Are bullet cameras still preferred over dome cameras for most applications?

-I remember Andy being the forum salesman for Dahua products and am certainly happy to use him. Are there any active members that install as a primary occupation or side work? I would love to employ a forum member and learn from them as the system is being installed rather than give the business to a run of the mill company should it come to that.

 

[The Automation Guy]

NVRs are used by a lot of members here. However they are built for a specific set of features/functionality/capacity so you must do your research and buy one that is going to meet your needs now and in the future.

Computers on the other hand are customizable and easily changed. You might start out with 1 or 2 cameras thinking that is all you will ever need and then slowly evolve and end up with lots of cameras. Your NVR system may not be able to keep up, but a computer system will. Plus, the feature set of something like BlurIris is better than most NVRs. You can get a i7 6700 series computer with 16gb of RAM for around $325 on EBay now (I know because I just bought one this month). That, along with a $60 BI license will be more than enough to have a dozen or more 4mp cameras. Add a used 24/48 port POE switch for less than $100 and you have a complete package for under $500. I think you will be hard to find a NVR solution that offers the same capacity/capabilities for anything close to that price.

The Dahua 5442 4mb series cameras are great and highly recommended. They offer exceptional nighttime functionality, built in AI, and are very reasonably priced for their performance. I would definitely suggest buying one to try out (make it a variable zoom model and use it to test potential camera locations to see what focal length you ultimately need).

Dome cameras are not suggested for anything but indoor use (and even then there are probably better choices). Don't mix up dome with turret cameras however. Turret cameras have the same basic form factor, but without the plastic dome covering everything (which is what causes most of the issues with domes). Turrets generally perform just as well as bullet cameras and can be smaller a lot of time.