Recommendations on replacing BNC DVR system.

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n3wb
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Hi,

Trying to help upgrade a DVR system for a friend (elderly).

CURRENT SETUP: LTS LTD8316T-FT 16 channel DVR with 12 cameras, 4TB drive. Seems like the cameras are hard to see at night and some recordings are missing due to maybe hard drive issues (full, maybe SMART errors). Looks like it uses BNC connectors although I see some small black rectangular box about 5 inches away from the connector to the back of the DVR. Not sure what that is. Sorry, I'm just going off photos. I'm hoping it is some kind of BNC to ethernet adapter. With my luck, it is probably something related to power instead.

THE PLAN: Thinking best to replace the DVR, add 1 new IP camera, and replace 4 of the old cameras (BNC?) that are in more critical areas where we want better quality recordings. I believe all of the existing cameras are on coax. We are okay with running a cat 6 for the new camera, but probably don't want to replace the coax.


1) What type of NVR would you recommend? I've scene some hybrid ones that handle both BNC and IP. Are those recommended?

I've been playing around w/ Synology Surveillance System for another site. I have 2 cameras at a remote location recording to the Synology over a VPN. I'm surprised it works well. Not sure how well it would scale. Also, not too happy about having to buy more camera licenses if going this route.

I'm comfortable w/ Linux, so I took a glance at Zoneminder, but given my time constraints, I think a pre-packaged kit w/ cameras and NVR might be best, but is there a thing w/ BNC and IP cameras? I guess I could buy the IP camera separately.


2) What about cameras? Looks like turrets are the best type nowadays? On the IP side, I have scene a lot of good reviews (paid?) on the Annke 4K DH800, but it seems like "real" people don't like Annke. Any recommendations on BNC type 4K cameras? Would like to have good night vision.

3) Best NVR location: Another thing to add: I have 2 other sites that I need to setup cameras (maybe 5 cameras each) and need NVRs. Would it be advisable to just have one NVR device to record everything over the Internet? The NVR could be located at a place with a 1Gbps fiber connection. Remote sites probably only have 5mbps upstream. Not sure if enough bandwidth. Part of me is like, why buy 3 NVRs when I could just buy one beefy NVR.

4) Features I would like in order of importance:
4K ability or quality images at night.
Ability to get email/text notifications if motion detected
Ability to reliably show a stream on an Amazon Echo Show. (I read about Monocle skill, but probably not comfortable if have to use their gateway) -- trying to avoid buying a Ring Doorbell w/ subscription, but would like that type of functionality.
Person detection to avoid false notifications.
Ability to have full administrative screens via remote web interface access to the NVR. I'll have to maintain this system remotely. The current DVR seems to have limited web access functionality (can do more if in front of the device), don't want to buy IP-KVM.
Good phone app (elderly user).
Backup offsite in real time if motion detected.

I probably need to get this setup in the week or so due to some recent security scare. Sorry for the long post. Trying to help a senior feel safer.

Thanks for any help.
 

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n3wb
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Just wanted to provide an update. I've confirmed that the cabling used for the cameras is cat5e and not coax. The black rectangular boxes hanging off of the DVR's BNC connector cables are passive HDTVI Transceivers which then have the cat5e wired into them. So, looks like I can get an NVR that just does IP cameras and I can buy 5 new IP-based cameras. Any recommendations? I guess I can just keep the old BNC cameras on the old DVR until we decide to replace those cameras and put the new ones on the new DVR. Or, is there a cheap BNC to POE ethernet adapter so that I can put these old cameras on the new IP-based NVR?

Thanks
 
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