New guy from upstate New York

[Riclyo]

I stumbled on your site trying to find a way to slowly upgrade what I currently have. I thought amcrest was a good idea when I purchased it but I’ve now come to the realization that it’s more of a false alarm headache than anything. My ultimate goal is to be able to set up a dedicated blue iris machine that can also be a media server and provide reliable motion detection from about 4-6 cameras.

 

[SouthernYankee]

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Welcome to the site.
You have learn a lesson the hard way by spending money, most of us have made than mistake.

Read,Study,Plan before spending money.... plan plan plan.
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My standard welcome to the forum message.

Please read the IP Cam Talk Cliff Notes and other items in the IP Cam Talk Wiki. The wiki is in the blue bar at the top of the page.

Read How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!) in the wiki also.

Quick start
1) If you do not have a wired monitored alarm system, get that first
2) Use Dahua starlight cameras or Hikvision darkfighter cameras if you need good low light cameras.
3) use a VPN to access home network (openVPN)
4) Do not use wifi cameras.
5) Do not use cloud storage
6) Do Not use uPNP, P2P, QR, do not open ports,
7) More megapixel is not necessarily better.
8) Avoid chinese hacked cameras (most ebay, amazon, aliexpress cameras(not all, but most))
9) Do not use reolink, ring, nest, Arlo cameras (they are junk), no cloud cameras
10) If possible use a turret camera , bullet collect spiders, dome collect dirt and reflect light (IR)
11) Use only solid copper, AWG 23 or 24 ethernet wire. , no CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum)
12) use a test mount to verify the camera mount location. My test rig: rev.2
13) (Looney2ns)If you want to be able to ID faces, don't mount cams higher than 8ft. You want to know who did it, not just what happened.
14) Use a router that has openVPN built in (Most ASUS, Some NetGear....)
15) camera placement use the calculator... IPVM Camera Calculator V3
16) POE list PoE Switch Suggestion List


Cameras to look at
IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED Review IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED (Full Color, Starlight+)
IPC-T5442TM-AS Review-OEM 4mp AI Cam IPC-T5442TM-AS Starlight+ - 4MP starlight+
IPC-HDW2231R-ZS Review-Dahua IPC-HDW2231RP-ZS Starlight Camera-Varifocal
IPC-HDW2231T-ZS-S2 Review-OEM IPC-T2231T-ZS 2mp Varifocal Starlight Camera
IPC-HDW5231R-ZE Review-Dahua Starlight IPC-HDW5231R-ZE 800 meter capable ePOE
IPC-HFW4239T-ASE IPC-HFW4239T-ASE
IPCT-HDW5431RE-I Review - IP Cam Talk 4 MP IR Fixed Turret Network Camera
DS-2CD2325FWD-I
IPC-T2347G-LU Review of the Hikvision OEM model IPC-T2347G-LU 'ColorVu' IP CCTV camera. (DS-2CD2347G1-LU)
N22AL12 New Dahua N22AL12 Budget Cam w/Starlight -- low cost entry

Other dahua 4MP starlight Dahua 4MP Starlight Lineup

My preferred indoor cameras
DS-2CD2442FWD-IW
IPC-K35A Review-Dahua IPC-K35A 3mp Cube Camera

If interested in Blue Iris and other setup items see the following post

Newbie Starter Guide to IP Cam System – VPN setup – Computer Hardware – Blue Iris – Dahua Cameras

This is an intermediate / newbie guide for people just starting out looking for a surveillance setup. I know this setup might not be for everyone and there are many options. You can find a lot of this information in the Wiki: IP Cam Talk Wiki | IP Cam Talk A great place to start in the Wiki...

ipcamtalk.com

Read,study,plan before spending money ..... plan plan plan
Test do not guess

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[gwminor48]

Hello, welcome to the forum.

 

[Riclyo]

Thanks for the welcome.

Read,study,plan before spending money ..... plan plan plan
Test do not guess

I have a Amcrest (4) camera IP2m-843E system w/nvr.

Part 1 of the plan is to test BI with at least one of my cameras.
I was able to connect Blue iris to (1) of my cameras as a test so I feel comfortable moving forward.

Part 2 is moving forward towards being able to ditch the NVR and use BI to control all the cameras I currently have.
I will need to build/buy a reasonably priced new/used machine to act as a NVR and if possible a media/backup server running raid to replace my outdated Synology at the same time. I looked at the recommended used optiplex and elite desks but don't see the option to install 3 hard drives. Also I'm not sure exactly how much additional CPU I will need but understand my future camera upgrades/additions will effect this.
Cameras are the priority, I can always upgrade to a beefier synology unit in the future if using the computer dual purpose greatly increases the price.

Cameras
I would purchase (3) better less finicky cameras that don't give a ton of false alarms and have good low light performance. I would put upgraded cameras in the critical area and relocate the amcrest to the less critical.
As far as picture quality I can make a camera map and would greatly appreciate any recommendations.

 

[SouthernYankee]

read

Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris

Buy refurbished. Don't build or buy new. The most cost-effective Blue Iris computers are refurbished business-class systems such as "HP EliteDesk" and "Dell OptiPlex". You can usually get a good deal by searching [URL='http://www.ebay.com/']Ebay[/URL] for specific CPU model numbers, and...

ipcamtalk.com

look at the the stats for a number of systems.

Blue Iris Update Helper

Blue Iris Update Helper

biupdatehelper.hopto.org

I use an HP EliteDesk 800 G1 Tower i7-4790 3.60GHz 16GB, purchased on ebay, for $160.00. (a very good deal) It had a 1TB hard drive. I remove the 1TB harddrive, add an 240GB SSD and a WD 4 TB purple from Amazon. The tower can support 2 drives and an SSD.

I use a NAS and BI clone cameras for backup.