upgrade from analog to digital - questions on POE options

C

cam_man123

n3wb
Jan 31, 2025
4
1
NC
New here and thanks in advance for any guidance. New house, old camera system in need of an upgrade. Very handy just not an electronics wizard, so need a bit of guidance on using the existing coax cables. Current system is DVR with 4 wired cameras. Coax and 12V wire to each camera. Very solid professional install, DVR in need of replacement etc, so looking to upgrade to digital for enhanced features etc. and trying to use existing wiring as upgrade to ethernet wire would be difficult.

Looking at new NVR with 4 wired cameras. Wire runs are not long, center of house to the 4 corners. Not set on a system yet, so open to advice there. So here is my main question on the BNC-ethernet conversion. Here are the options I see:

- I am familiar with the POE converters that will allow me to run the power and signal over the coax. Due to space constraints at the camera end, these converters will be difficult if not impossible to use, not to mention cost of these
- I could use the separate existing 12V to power the camera separately, this leaves me with just a BNC to ethernet conversion (unpowered). Is this possible? I see cheap and small BNC Balun converters, can these handle the signal quality and data needed for the newer high resolution cameras? I can't find any information on this part. Other ideas?
- WiFi cameras are a possibility, but need to figure out the power supply issue. It appears the newer cameras want to use USB power connectors at 5.5 VDC for powered cameras. I have 12V and no 120V outlets near any of the cameras. This introduces a whole new complication, in that I cannot get power to the cameras. Don't really want to deal with batteries.

At a bit of a loss here , short of pulling new cable, this is not looking as easy as it should be. As with everything else in our world, the equipment keeps upgrading and changing Appreciate any insight on this.
 
Is the house one story?

If it is, you probably have attic access in which case it would likely be easy to run new wires.

If it is not, having your cameras two or more stories above the ground is pretty pointless. Cameras pointing down at the ground from that level are generally only going to catch the top of a person's head, not their face. Even if a person looks directly at the camera, the fact that they are likely at least 25 feet away from the camera means that a typical 90 degree view camera is not going to provide enough detail on their face to make a proper identification of a stranger. Sure you might be able to tell that it was a "white male", but that is probably all the detail you will realistically have to provide a description of the subject.
 
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Wifi and cameras do not go together.

Cameras connected to Wifi routers (whether wifi or not) are problematic for surveillance cameras because they are always streaming and passing data. And the data demands go up with motion and then you lose signal. A lost packet and it has to resend. It can bring the whole network down if trying to send cameras through a wifi router. At the very least it can slow down your entire system.

Unlike Netflix and other streaming services that buffer a movie, these cameras do not buffer up part of the video, so drop outs are frequent, especially once you start adding distance. You would be amazed how much streaming services buffer - don't believe me, start watching something and unplug your router and watch how much longer you can watch NetFlix before it freezes - mine goes 45 seconds. Now do the same with a camera connected to a router and it is fairly instantaneous (within the latency of the stream itself)...


The coax to POE adapters work, but as you mentioned, the cost for them and the space requirements can make it problematic in some instances. In many instances it might be cheaper to have a low-volt tech run POE.


And +1 above. 4 cameras are usually not enough for any useful video. Might be able to tell the police what time something happened.

Without knowing what your goals of the camera is, this thread is used as the go to for the new person here outlining the commonly recommended cameras (along with Amazon links) based on distance to IDENTIFY that represent the overall best value/best bang for the buck in terms of price and performance day and night. It might be a 2MP camera in some instances.

The Importance of Focal Length over MP in camera selection

And coupled with that thread is this great thread which will show why all of the same 2.8 or 3.6mm cameras is the wrong choice:

i-want-2-8mm-cameras-everywhere-to-see-everything-this-is-why-you-need-specific-fovs-with-purposeful-focal-lengths.70053/

We would encourage you to look at those threads in detail.

It will probably raise more questions than answers LOL.
 
Thanks for the replies. My main question though was about the BNC to ethernet conversion (unpowered). I see cheap and small BNC Balun converters, can these handle the signal quality and data needed for the newer high resolution cameras? I can't find any information on this part.

This is the path of least resistance if it can be done. If not, I need to look into running new wire.

I did not address the items you guys posed in your notes, as I am good there and I appreciate the comments on wifi cameras. My current cameras are mounted at "1st story" level, they are about 10-20 ft from where I would want to ID someone, I could go on about my exact wiring install and why it would be difficult to replace (not impossible, just difficult), but am trying to get straight to the point of my question. Thanks again in advance for any support.
 
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wittaj said:
Those balun converters are to use ethernet cable to span for a coax analog camera. They will not work for POE cameras.

You need these that put a converter on both ends and provides POE:

Click to expand...

I've used those years ago at my old place and can verify they work fine
 
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Thanks for the details. Was hoping they might work as the smaller size just might fit in the junction boxes I have in place... and hey, the connections on the end are right!! oh well... The ones linked above are a bit too big.

Might look further into the HD cameras (non-IP) to better understand if they bring some of the advanced ID stuff to the table. I have not really looked close at them. I need to replace the DVR anyway, so may consider a newer DVR.

options to explore..
 
The newer XVRs from Dahau do some limited AI stuff. Analog cameras by default can't as they dont have the processing to do it. Any advanced ID/AI stuff will be by the XVR
 
I appreciate the guidance. I'll check those out. Yes I am starting out with my initial wishlist to make this upgrade easy. Who knows what will happen as I peel away the layers. Thanks again.
 
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