Newbie Costco Kit Questions

[Chapin]

I don't want to dork other threads with my few questions here. I've searched and haven't found answers that fully satisfy my basic questions. Please bear with me if I've missed or mis-understood the info I've looked at. There is a lot of great info available.

I'm looking to get a NVR/Cam system. Dahua seems to be the popular one here. Through this board, I've located this deal:
Lorex / Dahua OEM 6x 4K / 8MP security camera system w/ 8 port POE IP NVR 2TB HDD kit at Costco B&M YMMV for $799.99

I think that I will buy this. It seems like an excellent deal.

Is the HD on this NVR up-gradable to a larger size? Can it automatically archive to a NAS? It seems that it won't store very much video with 6 4K cams recording 24/7.

Are the camera lenses replaceable? It might be nice to get some different lens angle for a couple of them.

Does this NVR work with cams connected to the network (Unifi POE switch) or do they need to be connected directly to the NVR?

Are these cams and NVR ONVIF compliant and will they work with other cams/NVRs if I outgrow these?

I see a lot of positive reference to the Dahua Starlight cams. Are these only available in 2MP? I presume they could work with this set up. (are they available H.265?)

Thanks.

 

[mat200]

I don't want to dork other threads with my few questions here. I've searched and haven't found answers that fully satisfy my basic questions. Please bear with me if I've missed or mis-understood the info I've looked at. There is a lot of great info available.

I'm looking to get a NVR/Cam system. Dahua seems to be the popular one here. Through this board, I've located this deal:
Lorex / Dahua OEM 6x 4K / 8MP security camera system w/ 8 port POE IP NVR 2TB HDD kit at Costco B&M YMMV for $799.99

I think that I will buy this. It seems like an excellent deal.

Is the HD on this NVR upgradable to a larger size? Can it automatically archive to a NAS? It seems that it won't store very much video with 6 4K cams recording 24/7.

Does this NVR work with cams connected to the network (Unifi POE switch) or do they need to be connected directly to the NVR?

Are these cams and NVR ONVIF compliant and will they work with other cams/NVRs if I outgrow these?

I see a lot of positive reference to the Dahua Starlight cams. Are these only available in 2MP? I presume they could work with this set up. (are they available H.265?)

Thanks.

Welcome Chapin,

It's easy to get swamped with information here, so I wanted to share some general notes with you

Please check out @giomania 's notes:
Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z)

I have also made notes which are a summary of a lot of the reading I've been doing here,:
Looking for some advice and direction!

With regards to that particular kit, there is a long wiki and thread on SD that is referred to in the ipcamtalk thread, please see the link for lots of details - including questions associated with HDD replacement.

The NVR appears to be a Dahua Lite version, with 8 PoE ports and 1 HDD Sata connection. You should be able to use an external PoE switch if you like, it may take some extra time on your part to configure the cameras, cameras spec sheet and similar Dahua OEM model are listed in the SD write up. Note the lite versions of Dahua NVRs do not appear to use IVS features from what I have read.

Starlight models will work with this kit - you may have to adjust some port, user/password combinations if Lorex changed it from the Dahua OEM defaults.
Please see the above links for links to starlight models, also there is a list of the starlight models on the SD write up. Also note that the starlights are able to perform the way they do is because the allocate a larger pixel on the chip to gather light and thus currently are only in 2MP - to get 8MP you would need to 4x the size of the chip - and that would get expensive as well as make the camera larger.

As the cameras in the kit are Dahua OEMs they are ONVIF compatible and a SD user has reported that they work with Blue Iris.

Have fun joining us here.

 

[Chapin]

Thank you very much for this. After reading this info and further reflection (aka as sleeping on it) I am not going to jump on this. I think I will be better served by the low light performing Starlight cams and a 16 channel NVR with IVS.

I was initially seduced by 4K and the prospect of a deal that is too good to pass up, even though I realize it is not the best gear for my application.

Now, the urgency is reduced as I don’t need to begin the frantic scouring of Local Costco’s.

 

[mat200]

Thank you very much for this. After reading this info and further reflection (aka as sleeping on it) I am not going to jump on this. I think I will be better served by the low light performing Starlight cams and a 16 channel NVR with IVS.

I was initially seduced by 4K and the prospect of a deal that is too good to pass up, even though I realize it is not the best gear for my application.

Now, the urgency is reduced as I don’t need to begin the frantic scouring of Local Costco’s.

Hi Chapin,

One option which I was thinking about was buying this for the folks and replacing 2 of their 4K cameras and adding them to the front of my place, and getting them 2-4 starlights.

The Costco kit while not perfect is a good deal - significantly much better image results for the price compared to the over priced Arlo Pro systems many are picking up.

imho If you have a larger house and property definitely look at a 16 channel NVR.