New from Far Northern Caifornia

[Vicki Taylor]

I am new to security cameras and completely lost when it comes to a lot of the settings mine talk about. I bought my first one from Amazon after a bear climbed my back fence, then my chicken wire pen fence, ripped the front of both sections of a small pend I was raising some juvenile chickens in and ate 4 of my them, then climbed back out in another spot. The only proof I have that it was a bear is the huge bends in the chicken wire, the ripped off wooden cage fronts...oh and the big muddy bear paw print on the fence where it climbed over. I had also been loosing a lot of pond fish to something so I bought a couple of affordable security wifi cameras and placed them where I could record anything else that might go after my critters (along with putting a baby monitor out by the chicken pen so I can hear any ruckus out there at night). Now I have added one by the front door and have ordered forth one for a wider view of the front yard. My husband passed away in February so I am alone now except for the dogs so am appreciating the sense of security they provide. Not knowing much about them I bought ones I could afford that had good reviews so ended up with 3 Amcrests. The have worked well for me but I have heard since that are not always the best choice and the reviews are often fake. BUt they are what they are so I will stick with them until they stop working for me. I am not pleased with their options for monitoring and playback though so am looking at Blue Iris as a replacement for their monthly service per camera. I am wondering if I try the 1 camera option at $29.99 and decide I like it well enough will I be able to upgrade and pay the difference of $20.00 to go to the full version or would I have to repurchase at the full $59.99?

 

[Mike A.]

Not sure about the upgrade from single to full. You can contact them directly for that.

But the better way to do it would be to just run BI as a demo for the first 30 days. That will give you a good intro at no cost.

 

[looney2ns]

Welcome Vickie,

You will find that using Wifi for security cams has it's limitations/problems, and reliability gets worse the more cams you add.

You can try out BI for 15 days for free to see if you like it.

Make sure your PC can handle BI.
Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris | IP Cam Talk

 

[Vicki Taylor]

Thanks for the feedback on that. I am kind of stuck with wireless as I am not physically capable of running a wired system and it's not really in the budget either. It was appealing to me for this reason. I don't plan to add any additional cameras any time soon so hopefully BI will be able to handle the 4 I already have purchased (only 3 installed yet though) I have only had minor issues in the several months I have had them such as temporary loss of recording that required a reboot. I would still be able to view live shots, but the individual camera would not record and motion activity overnight for 1 night and I would have to reboot.