New to all this Security Camera Stuff

[Glenn McDonald]

This maybe the wrong area to post this, please let me know if it is.

I have been researching poe video security systems for the home, I also work for a company that has had several different systems that have been very disappointing. So you can see I'm leery of choosing a off the self system. I have a 4 year old 4TB Win 8 server I would like to utilize with Blue Iris. I know I will need to upgrade the video card. I am looking to put to 2 8 port poe switches in one on in both sides of home to minimize cabling. But my real question is going to be in camera quality. I would like 4k quality but I see it will probably drain hard drive resources, so I have been looking at 4/5mp dome and bullet cameras. Are there any resources here that will help in choosing the right cameras with the best quality that are Blue Iris compatible. I will be diving through forum threads also for info. Just thought I would ask also. Thank for any help that could be given.

Glenn from Louisiana

 

[ThomasPI]

Glenn you are in the right place. I’d strongly suggest you read the Wiki here and follow that up with looking at the Dahua 2MP Starlights. If you are dealing with low light situations, they are the king of the hill. Don’t chase the high MP cams. What hardware are you running ? Blue Iris does not play well with video cards such as Nvidia. Best source for cameras here is Andy as you will find. Do some searching.

 

[SouthernYankee]

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What is the CPU on the windows server.
I would recommend not upgrading the Video.
Add an SSD for the OS and BI.
Use the hard drive to store video.
Think about upgrade OS to Windows 10.
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My standard welcome to the forum message.

Please read the cliff notes and other items in the wiki. The wiki is in the blue bar at the top of the page.

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

Quick start
1) Use Dahua starlight cameras or Hikvision darkfighter cameras or ICPT Night eye cameras (https://store.ipcamtalk.com/) if you need good low light cameras.
2) use a VPN to access home network (openVPN)
3) Do not use wifi cameras.
4) Do not use cloud storage
5) Do Not use uPNP, P2P, QR, do not open ports,
6) More megapixel is not necessarily better.
7) Avoid chinese hacked cameras (most ebay, amazon, aliexpress cameras(not all, but most))
8) Do not use reolink, ring, nest cameras (they are junk)
9) If possible use a turret camera , bullet collect spiders, dome collect dirt and reflect light (IR)
10) Use only solid copper, AWG 23 or 24 ethernet wire. , no CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum)
11) use a test mount to verify the camera mount location. My test rig: rev.2
12) (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.
13) Use a router that has openVPN built in (Most ASUS, Some NetGear....)

Cameras to look at
IPC-HDW2231R-ZS Review-Dahua IPC-HDW2231RP-ZS Starlight Camera-Varifocal
IPC-HDW5231-ZE Review-Dahua Starlight IPC-HDW5231R-ZE 800 meter capable ePOE
IPC-HFW4239T-ASE IPC-HFW4239T-ASE
IPC-T5442TM-AS Review IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED (Full Color, Starlight+)
IPCT-HDW5431RE-I Review - IP Cam Talk 4 MP IR Fixed Turret Network Camera
DS-2CD2325FWD-I

My preferred indoor cameras
DS-2CD2442FWD-IW
IPC-K35A https://ipcamtalk.com/threads/review-dahua-ipc-k35a-3mp-cube-camera.37581/#post-373517

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