New Guy Looking For a Little Advice

[Shafenator]

Hey Everyone, name is Ben and I am looking to start a POE camera project to protect my home with the rise of suspicious activity around the neighborhood. I also live on a golf course and occasionally get the drunken idiots driving their carts in my yard.

I've been browsing the last couple weeks on this forum to figure out what I want to buy and decided to join. I am a Network Admin but I haven't played around to much with camera systems so I am hoping to learn a lot here.

I checked out the cliff notes I and I briefly talked to Andy from Empire Technology about Dahua equipment. I see a lot of members like these cameras over Hikvision which I was originally looking to purchase.

To start I am looking to purchase an 8 port POE NVR and 1 single mini dome camera for the front door and will slowly expand from there. I most likely will max out at 6 or 7 cameras.

I think I am pretty dead set on the Dahua IPC-HDBW4231F-AS for the front door and I am going to mount it underneath the vinyl soffit and route the cables through the attic and then into my home office. I will probably buy the junction box just to be safe. Ignore the front lights in the night picture, I will have to do something about that as I am sure its going to cause glare.

I am however a little undecided on the NVR. The two I am trying decide between is the Dahua NVR5208-8P-4KS2 and the Hikvision DS-7608NI-I2/8P.

I assume it wouldn't be any issue running the Dahua camera with a Hivision NVR correct? I do see the camera uses H.265&H.264 encoding and the Hikvision NVR appears to support this. Are there any drawbacks between the 2 devices that I need to consider? The Hikvision NVR will save me about $50 so I am not too terribly concerned with that.

I appreciate any guidance/info and I am happy I joined the forum!

 

[tangent]

I assume it wouldn't be any issue running the Dahua camera with a Hivision NVR correct?

It's better to stick to the same brand if you get an NVR, the basics will work regardless but setup is more difficult and some features like line crossing detection won't work if you mix brands. I think you'd probably be happier with a cheap refurbished i5 or i7 pc running BlueIris.

 

[fenderman]

Consider a turret camera.... You will have issues with spiders and Ir reflection with the Dome... Not to mention that the infrared on the Mini Dome is weak

 

[Shafenator]

It's better to stick to the same brand if you get an NVR, the basics will work but setup is more difficult and some features like line crossing detection won't work. I think you'd probably be happier with a cheap refurbished i5 or i7 pc running BlueIris.

Yeah that is what I was thinking, I Will probably go with the Dahua NVR if I go the NVR route.

I thought about Blue Iris but I was trying to keep this as simple as possible. I however do have an HP Z400 (cant remember which processor this one has) and a Lenovo ThinkCentre M92 with an i5 processor laying around that I could possibly use. Not sure if either of those would be sufficient as I haven't researched Blue Iris too much. If one of those would work all I should need is an unmanaged POE switch and obviously a good SATA HDD correct? Is there anything special I need for the graphics card?

Consider a turret camera.... You will have issues with spiders and Ir reflection with the Dome... Not to mention that the infrared on the Mini Dome is weak

I could look into that. I was just going off what Andy recommended and he recommended the mini dome for the front entrance. Thanks!

 

[tangent]

Yeah that is what I was thinking, I Will probably go with the Dahua NVR if I go the NVR route.

I thought about Blue Iris but I was trying to keep this as simple as possible. I however do have an HP Z400 (cant remember which processor this one has) and a Lenovo ThinkCentre M92 with an i5 processor laying around that I could possibly use. Not sure if either of those would be sufficient as I haven't researched Blue Iris too much. If one of those would work all I should need is an unmanaged POE switch and obviously a good SATA HDD correct? Is there anything special I need for the graphics card?

Check out the wiki at the top of the page. A 3rd gen or newer i5 should do pretty well. Integrated Intel HD graphics are best, newer models work better.

 

[tangent]

I could look into that. I was just going off what Andy recommended and he recommended the mini dome for the front entrance. Thanks!

I'll second the turret recommendation for your front door.

 

[Shafenator]

Check out the wiki at the top of the page. A 3rd gen or newer i5 should do pretty well. Integrated Intel HD graphics are best, newer models work better.

I think you changed my mind about Blue Iris. I forgot that I have a Lenovo M900 i5-6500 that I can use from work. It also has 8GB RAM and a 250GB SSD. I saw in the Wiki that Blue Iris can use an SSD for the Clip Database. Does that mean I can throw the OS and the Database on the SSD and then buy a secondary mechanical HDD for video recording or is there no real benefit from this. The SSD I already have so no cost there...

 

[jasburrito]

Sounds like a good project. I am trying to do something similar now. I bought cameras from Andy and have ran all my wires. Hopefully to the correct spots. Could I run all my ip Poe cam cat 6 wires to a switch then run 1 cat6 to the NVR or computer? I am kinda confused on the networking thing. I have not bought any nvr switch computer yet. Still trying to get a grip.thanks. Good luck on your project

 

[Shafenator]

Sounds like a good project. I am trying to do something similar now. I bought cameras from Andy and have ran all my wires. Hopefully to the correct spots. Could I run all my ip Poe cam cat 6 wires to a switch then run 1 cat6 to the NVR or computer? I am kinda confused on the networking thing. I have not bought any nvr switch computer yet. Still trying to get a grip.thanks. Good luck on your project

I assume you bought an NVR with POE correct? If so then all you need to do is run all your Cat6 wires from the cameras straight to the back of the NVR. No computer is needed, you just plug the monitor and mouse into the NVR .

 

[tangent]

Sounds like a good project. I am trying to do something similar now. I bought cameras from Andy and have ran all my wires. Hopefully to the correct spots. Could I run all my ip Poe cam cat 6 wires to a switch then run 1 cat6 to the NVR or computer? I am kinda confused on the networking thing. I have not bought any nvr switch computer yet. Still trying to get a grip.thanks. Good luck on your project

yes. you can get NVRs with a built in poe switch and without. Many people like the ones without as it's easier to directly access/configure cameras, but each has its place.

 

[jasburrito]

I ran eight cat6 wires from camera locations to mech room that has router and fiber optic for internet. Then ran cat6 from mech room to master, entertainment areas. Can I control nvr or computer from those locations. Or will I have to do all my viewing and adjusting in mech room. Thanks again. Gonna watch some more YouTube videos. To learn. Will share if I see a good 1. Free bump anyways

 

[Fastb]

you can get NVRs with a built in poe switch and without

Tangent point is valid. Surfing to the cams is valuable for configuring the features in the cam. The NVR interface to the cam doesn't support all the cam's features.
Another consideration is fan noise. The POE NVR has loud fans, since it's dissipating more power (for the poe). If the NVR will be in your office, near a bedroom, or near your entertainment center, then the noise may be objectionable.
Consider a separate poe router that is fanless.

Can I control nvr or computer from those locations. Or will I have to do all my viewing and adjusting in mech room.

You can control your NVR in two ways:
- connected to the NVR directly, with a monitor mouse connected directly
- connected to the NVR from your lan.
For viewing,
- you can get live views, playback, and more from Smart PSS.
Most times, I use Smart PSS on my laptop with WiFi to the home LAN to reach the NVR. Then I review events that are visible on the Playback timeline. Or I use Live View to see who pulled into my driveway (after I get the push notification on my cell phone)

Shafenator and Jasburrito, welcome to the forum!

Fastb

 

[looney2ns]

Could I run all my ip Poe cam cat 6 wires to a switch then run 1 cat6 to the NVR or computer? I am kinda confused on the networking thing.

Yes.

 

[looney2ns]

I think you changed my mind about Blue Iris. I forgot that I have a Lenovo M900 i5-6500 that I can use from work. It also has 8GB RAM and a 250GB SSD. I saw in the Wiki that Blue Iris can use an SSD for the Clip Database. Does that mean I can throw the OS and the Database on the SSD and then buy a secondary mechanical HDD for video recording or is there no real benefit from this. The SSD I already have so no cost there...

Yes, that's what you want. WD purple HDD for the recordings.

 

[Shafenator]

Hello, we would like to recommend you to get not any HDD, but one that is optimized to work in a surveillance system. Normal HDD's are not designed to work so many hours and will cause problems in the system. Seagate's SkyHawk is a surveillance HDD that works 24/7 and has a storage capacity that can reach up to 10TB (depending on your need). Also it can support up to 64 cameras. Besides, if you choose the SkyHawk Al-Surveillance it comes with a 2-year rescue warranty.

Good luck with your surveillance system!


Seagate Technology | Official Forums Team

IronWolf Drives for NAS Applications
SkyHawk Drives for Surveillance Applications
BarraCuda Drives for PC and Gaming

Totally, I went with a WD Purple Drive. Already got my computer built and just waiting for the 4TB drive. Also purchased a TP-Link Gigabit POE switch as well.

Just waiting for Andy to send me a quote for the Turret which I will be using for the front door IPC-HDW4231EM-ASE .

More exciting is the fact that I just realized my Netgear NightHawk AC3200 supports OpenVPN which is cool. Doesn't look like they support IOS which might be a bummer. I will have to research a little more as the manual that came with the router 3 years ago said it didn't support IOS "at this time" so not sure if its available now.