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Pitfalls with home CCTV systems

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ajb:
While it's a lot spendier than other options, the NVR systems from Synology and Ubiquiti seem to be pretty good in terms of functionality, and both give you the option of remote access/viewing without actually needing to store your footage in the cloud. 

For Synology you can add NVR licenses to most of their NAS products, so you while it's expensive to get started, it includes general-purpose network storage, at a wide range of different capacities, and you can set up remote replication and remote access (via dynDNS) if you want.  They support a ton of IP cameras, since the NVR is just ingesting a video stream.

I'm less familiar with the Ubiquiti stuff, but I think it's a more closed ecosystem in terms of which cameras are compatible, but you get a pretty nice all-in-one management interface that integrates nicely with all of their other networking/access control/voip stuff.  It seems like some of the functionality is a little rough around the edges still, which is a bit of a downside, AIUI a lot of it is fairly new and still under active development.

tom66:

--- Quote from: themadhippy on July 29, 2022, 02:48:32 pm ---which is basic what this barging basment unit was, a basic pc with 8 cameras recording  24/7 to a hard drive

--- End quote ---

Kind of ridiculous then that got spec'd.  I got a 5 channel DVR with 2 cameras, just needed to add a hard disk, for about £50.  A quick Google suggests you can get an 8 channel unit without cameras for about £60,  so how a PC even remotely came into the cost consideration I just don't know.

thm_w:

--- Quote from: BradC on July 29, 2022, 07:50:23 am ---Friends don't let friends use Swann, or anything off the shelf at Bunnings for that matter.

Most of the "affordable" consumer grade stuff comes from Chinese companies that are partially owned by the CCP (for whatever that's worth). Most have had one or more complete authentication bypass vulnerabilities in recent history and in general they comply with the "The S in IoT stands for Security" mantra. ie, there is none.

Keep the systems off the internet, and if they do insist on remote access do it via a vpn. Prevent the cameras or NVR getting outbound access. Avoid the "cloud" based solutions. Make sure the devices are recording 24/7 rather than on-motion because guaranteed they'll miss the event you actually need the footage from.

Most consumer grade NVRs have multiple PoE ports on the back for a point-to-point camera cable install, but aggregating at a cheap PoE switch can often be more convenient.

Don't cheap out on storage. Thumbsuck 1TB per month per camera.

Companies like Hikvision or Dahua are about as far toward the bottom of the barrel as I'd recommend you go, and in general a camera is going to be a couple of hundred bucks. Recorder double or triple that, plus drives.

You can go cheaper, but you get what you pay for.

A step up from that would be a PC running Milestone X-Protect (free up to 8 channels) or BlueIris (paid and up to 64 channels). Personally I think BlueIris is a toy, but it's a decent step up from Chinese NVRs.

--- End quote ---

Hikvision is not "bottom of the barrel" its basically the best image quality consumer level camera you can get.
Swann sells rebranded Hikvision products, as do many others.

Of course they have a range of cameras, you have to spend ~$150 as you say for good quality (4MP/2K). But you don't necessarily need a 8MP+ image for every location. A front door camera for example, 1080P is probably fine.

John B:
The proposed system is a Dahua TiOC system.

NiHaoMike:

--- Quote from: BradC on July 29, 2022, 01:08:05 pm ---If you'd spent much time playing with powerline ethernet you'd no longer be surprised.

--- End quote ---
The insulation in newer buildings often contains foil layers which severely attenuates Wifi (especially for outdoor cameras), Homeplug is not affected by that. Neither is going to beat a proper Cat5/Cat6 run, but installing that's not always an easy option.

--- Quote from: tom66 on July 29, 2022, 04:41:23 pm ---how a PC even remotely came into the cost consideration I just don't know.

--- End quote ---
Could be a used (then) high end PC or server with crypto mining further subsidizing the cost.

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