New setup and lots of camera questions

[wideLoad]

Hi IP cam gurus. Been lurking and have some questions:


(1) Are there any outdoor cams that mimic the nest/dropcam in that you can do 2 way audio via BI or sighthound or ??? The best I can find is the Hikvision DS-2CD2432F-IW but it's an indoor cam. I have read that, if hung under an awning or similar, it still can function outside. Surprised there's not more interest in this front -- I want to be travelling abroad but have an alert show up when someone's at my door and be able to communicate with someone as if I'm home.


(2) Should I buy re-branded hikvision (Swanns) from costco (http://www.costco.com/Swann-3MP-HD-IP-Add-on-Bullet-Camera-2-Pack.product.100146709.html) or should i go with aliexpress? If ali, any recommended vendors? I'm not in a hurry but I am worried about problematic hardware.


(3) Should I go with hikvision 2032 (bullet style) or 2332 (turret style)? Or, are there newer versions of the these (or diff brands) that I should be looking at.


(4) Motion detectors -- these surprise me because i thought the whole point was that the cam and BI would be doing the detection. Here's an example: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Pet-immune-wired-outdoor-pir-motion-detector-with-microwave-module-radio-transmission-module-etc/2023923305.html
Is this really better than BI or Sighthound? How do you even go about hooking this up to your cams and/or BI?


(5) People get real excited about this cam: http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/cEjecGhS
Night vision is something I value highly. In a similar vein lots of love for Huisun v2 and Imporx v2. Should I go this route or stick more w/ tried and true 2032's etc. If you do recommend any of these cams, any tried and true aliexpress vendors?

(6) I'm also installing an alarm system via either link interactive or suretydiy -- both use "alarm.com" for their app interface and it does offer security cam options. The prevailing concept is that you should keep your security system and your cam system as separate.. that being said, would be really slick to join them and alarm.com seems a bit above regular security companies. Any thoughts here?

I know there are areas that I could do more research on my own but i'm getting overload. Really appreciate this forum and any responses i get. Thanks everyone.

 

[tangent]

I'd say don't buy Hik's from Ali, hassles with chinese cams and firmware aren't worth it. If you want to buy from Ali, get Dahua. Otherwise buy a US version of the hik's (rebranded, eg. LTS) from a reliable source like milkisbad or nelly's.

2-way audio is going to be laggy if you aren't at home. worse if out of the country.

Yes motion sensors are more reliable than on cam, nvr, or bi motion detection. I personally wouldn't buy a microwave motion like you linked to from Ali. You could run afoul with the FCC and I just don't trust the reliability. How you choose to record will depend on your needs. Is the storage saved by only recording motion worth potentially missing something or relevant audio out of frame? Motion is certainly useful to flag events. Storage is cheap these days pennies a gigabyte, I remember being excited when hard drives dropped below $0.50/gb.

Excited is relative, people are talking about these longsee, huisun, etc cams not because they're amazing but because they're cheap and are better than the really crappy stuff at similar price points. The question is are the trade offs of one of these worth it. In general in I think you're better off with a nice reliable hikvision or dahua, full featured reliable firmware is very nice to have. I'd say don't bet the farm, buy cams slowly and try different models or different lens sizes as you go. Often 2.8mm is not the ideal lens size, 4mm is often more useful.

The camera integration options offered by most of these outfits are embarrassingly bad, you can sum it up with one abbreviation QIF... fucking QIF in 2016. They want to sell their QIF so don't hold your breath, but if these outfits were willing to interface with a real surveillance system then it might be worth talking about. If you want to give them more alarm verification capability, audio is more capable then you realize.

On alarms, another option is geoarm. Personally I prefer a nice Honeywell or DSC panel with as much hardwired as is practical to these wireless all in one units.

 

[Q™]

...(5) People get real excited about this cam: http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/3703-Hisilicon-Hi3516A-1-1-8-SONY-IMX178-Low-Illumination-Real-Time-5MP-WDR-Infrared/416662_32421572515.html Night vision is something I value highly. In a similar vein lots of love for Huisun v2 and Imporx v2. Should I go this route or stick more w/ tried and true 2032's etc. If you do recommend any of these cams, any tried and true aliexpress vendors?....

If you're installing the cameras outside the Longse LRDC60S500 RoboCat is a very good camera in my opinion. However, some people have been dissatisfied with them and believe that they have received "lemon" units (@pozzello comes to immediate mind). I have purchased two (2) units and I'm satisfied. In addition, you can purchase two (2) Hikvision Chinese region turrets for the price I paid for one (1) of my Longse LRDC60S500 RoboCat units. And -- in my opinion -- with additional light added to the field of view the Hikvision Chinese region turrets perform adequately.

I've purchased 20 cameras off of AliExpress and had a bad experience 3 times; there for in my experience there is a 15% chance that you'll have a bad experience with AliExpress whereas there is a 0% chance that you'll have a bad experience with Nelly's or milkisbad (LTS).

 

[wideLoad]

Thanks very much for the responses.


Here's alarm.com's (security company) current video cam offerings:
* https://www.alarm.com/partners/hardware.aspx
So basically, from my limited knowledge, a complete and utter joke. In addition, you don't even wanna know what they are charging for these things.


I think safe to say, gonna stick with DIY IP cams using BI or sighthound.


I had a few followups for anyone who might have the time to respond:
(1) Who is milkisbad and how do I order there?
(2) When ordering from aliexpress, are their certain vendors that you would recommend? There was a lot of talk about "Julia" but that appears gone.
(3) How do you integrate a 3rd party motion sensor with an IP cam? Is this something that BI can do? From looking at the pinouts/schematics it's not super obvious to me how this whole thing would work. Is using a separate motion detector a common practice??
(4) 2 way audio "should" (and I could be wrong here) only be as laggy as your ping time (plus a bit more from processing). Still very surprised that more people aren't requesting this feature.... it's so cool, you can (a) pretend your home to deter bad guys and (b) communicate with delivery people etc.
(5) Would you consider this an OK deal (2032's) considering Costco return policy and (hopefully) they are US firmware: http://www.costco.com/Swann-3MP-HD-IP-Add-on-Bullet-Camera-2-Pack.product.100146709.html

OK lastly, here's a breakdown of what I see my current options as:
2032 Family:
* Hikvision 2032 3MP // direct competitor Dahua IPC-HFW4300S
* Hikvision 2042 (is the newer 4.1MP version of the 2032) // Dahua IPC-HFW4421S is direct competitor


2432 Family:
* Hikvision 2432 (indoor 2 way audio cam, often used as "baby cam")


2332 Family:
* Hikvision 2332 (turret, 3MP) // direct competitor to Dahua HDW4431C (but Dahua is 4MP)
* Hikvision 2342 (turret, 4MP).


LRDC60S500 Longse. It's 5megapixel and people like its nightime performance


Huisun v2 // Imporx v2 (same cam): http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Hot-Sell-2016-New-Arrival-Rotary-Bullet-PTZ-Camera-with-Onvif-1080P-MINI-PTZ-IP-Camera/32583148851.html This is a PTZ cam and not sure what the fuss is. Maybe a much better deal than previous cameras in same category.


God, this post is getting long. If you're still reading, thank you. For brevity, i have very similar security requirements as everyone else. From the list of cams above is there an "obvious" way to go here? In particular, turret vs bullet? 3MP older cams vs 4PM newer cams? Longse vs traditional hik/dahua cams?


Thanks everyone. Even if you can't respond, very helpful to have a forum like this.... can't even imagine researching this "back in the day" (does dewey decimal system have a home security cam category??).

 

[mando209]

For #3 question to put a separate motion detector to ip cam,the ip cam has to have alarm input.u connect the motion detector to the cam.in cam settings u have the option to get email alerts each time the motion unit picks up something.


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[mando209]

Like this cam for example.check pic #3.alarm wire is labeled I/o in pic.

Look what I found on AliExpress
http://s.aliexpress.com/QnAF7ZrE


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