video surveillance camera systems reccimendation,s

[solarvic]

I want to install a surveillance system and have no experience with it. Decided that I want an ethernet connected nvr. Think I might get 4k system with 8 channels. with at least 4 cameras. What brands do you have and if you like it or know the prows and cons.

 

[arlo]

Probably Annke. That's what I installed at my friend's greenhouse. I has 8 wired cameras (not 4k).
I have built and installed several ground up pc based nvr systems using Avermedia pci-e cards.
The Annke system had options for wifi cameras if desired. I could give a short primer on how they work but there are tons of Youtube videos that cover the subject.
Would running individual cables to the cameras hinder you? It requires some hole drilling and crawling around in your crawl space.
IP cameras using power over Ethernet (poe) require a little extra equipment.
Motion detection and remote access on a phone, pc, etc. is pretty easy to setup.
Zoning in the nvr for motion detection is as easy as drag a mouse cursor over an area to exclude areas.
Example: you have your a/c system covered but the fan on the condenser trips an alert. You can zone out just the fan. Trees with moving branches, the same.
If you ask the questions I could answer them pretty good. $1500, 800, 500 was a little over my friend's budget and after searching reviews and a bit of reading, I chose the Annke system. In the first couple of weeks he caught 2 midnight shoppers and word got around. He figured he had lost several thousand bucks a year from theft. This year, no after hours intruders. It paid for itself.

 

[Inclined Orbit]

I installed a video surveillance system about a year and a half ago and only considered hard wired Ethernet due to some cheap devices that can render a wireless system useless. I bought a $15 device to test that claim and it really worked killing my neighborhood watch leads wireless cameras and Ring doorbell, with her permission of course. I walked up her driveway and into her house past all the cameras and all her video stuff went completely stupid. So no wireless for me.

With that I went with Reolink, one of a thousand companies that make this stuff. Their equipment is well made, very affordable and very scalable to your needs. It has a 2TB hard drive and each camera has adjustable sized areas within the screen that can be used for record start or the DVR can notify you via email or other means when there is activity in a designated area. The POE for the cameras comes right from the DVR, so no extra hardware is needed.

I have prior experience with other higher end commercial systems from Toshiba but they require some knowledge accessing your home router to open ports so the system can be accessed from the outside, etc. The Reolink is very cool where there is a bar code on the DVR and after you download the app, you point your phone camera at the bar code and it sets everything up for you including a secure tunnel to the DVR. I also tried to access and hack the Reolink system within my home LAN and it has its own firewall that seems to be impenetrable, so I don't think anyone from the outside could ever gain access to the DVR or what's coming off your cameras.

There are many companies selling Reolink on Ebay but I kept shopping until I found the actual Reolink company selling on Ebay. Here is a generic add for an 8 camera Reolink DVR with 4 cameras but if you shop around you should find the same thing from Reolink for less $$.

4k Ultra HD Poe Security Camera System 4pcs Wired 8mp Outdoor IP Cameras 8 Chann for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 4k Ultra HD Poe Security Camera System 4pcs Wired 8mp Outdoor IP Cameras 8 Chann at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Update:
I found the ad from Reolink, 8 camera DVR with four 4MP cameras for $333 with free shipping. This is exactly what I started with then added more cameras later and some with zoom function.

Reolink RLK8-410B4 8-Channel 5MP/4MP PoE Security Camera System for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Reolink RLK8-410B4 8-Channel 5MP/4MP PoE Security Camera System at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[Foxbat]

If you can afford it, a Synology NAS with the free Surveillance software is pretty awesome. Two camera licenses come with it, additional camera licenses are available as a one-time cost. With the Synology, you can put a whole lot more on the NAS than video, as it is the whole home DLNA server, and/or Plex, and Email, File serving, tons of features to justify the higher price.

24/7 Smart Home Surveillance | Synology Inc.

Centralize data storage and backup, streamline file collaboration, optimize video management, and secure network deployment to facilitate data management.

www.synology.com

Add in a PoE Ethernet switch with at least 8 ports, CAT5 Surge Suppressors (if you run your Ethernet cable outside your home), and the PoE cameras and you have a system that most would consider overkill.

 

[Inclined Orbit]

And another thing, before I was turned on to the Reolink security stuff and after I had played with an older but high end Toshiba DVR and cameras, I tried a free program called iSpy, which uses a regular computer as the DVR and you use an external switch with POE to power IP cameras or seperate POE inserters. It actually worked well with one or two cameras. Even with two cameras the computer I had at the time was so bogged down with handling a couple of HD streams it was useless for anything else like web browsing, etc. I got up to four cameras and it finally puked and ran out of steam.

Whatever computer boards they use in DVRs are optimized for the task and work well where your home computer is not. If you want all the fancy features and a lot of cameras just get the proper DVR and recommended cameras and forget running some software on your home computer, unless that's all it does and its designed for it. That will probably cost a lot more than an off the shelf DVR and will give you more trouble.

 

[solarvic]

Thanks everyone for all the sugestions. I looked at lots of reviews and watched a lot of youtube vidios. I bought a reolink RLK-800B
B4 from amazon with a coupon sale for $477.00 It has 4 4k 8mp camera,s. I also got a Amazon basics wireless mouse. 1 of the reviews the reviewer said he tryd 4 different brands and this is the one that worked. I wanted to have the receiver out of sight so if someone tryed to steal the receiver they probably couldn,t find it. There are so many different brands to choose from that it was hard to decide what brand to buy. I already have an ethernet switch but it is not poe. I am hopeing I can connect the receiver from my non poe ethernet switch. The receiver has poe to power the camera,s anyway. It would be nice if there is an app that I could display to my tv with either a firestick or my nividia player. I checked the forum about 11 pm and went ahead and made my purchase than checked the forum right after I bought it and had 2 more replys. Foxbat , Wish I would have seen your reply before I ordered, but It is too late now. I will still see if I can find a review.

 

[Magic Static]

Over 90% of security cameras are made by the Big Two companies in China. Hikvision and Dahua build for most of the names out there. And they are mostly incompatible with each other. Identify the actual manufacturer of your system when looking to add on to it.

 

[solarvic]

There are many reasons that I got surveillance system. First had a burglery , later Had a 2 year old compact diesel tractor stolen. My daughter and granddaughter has death threats from a rapper she dated. They moved out of state and I don,t trust the thug that he might try to do something to me or my property just to get even with with my family that moved out of state. The rapper is trying to intimidate my daughter and grandaughter as they are suposed to testify at his trail against him. He puts rapper songs on the cloud that has about 8 people on his hit list that he is going to kill. There is a long story. He names names and the police in his town will not do anything even though he is on bond. with stolen weapons charges and still has guns. The police say he has freedom of speech so can,t or want to do anything. So at least if I have a surveillance system maybe if something bad happens to me there might be proof who did it.

 

[Inclined Orbit]

Congratulations on your new system! Study the settings and how to make active areas for the cameras to detect motion. My goal was to have at least 10 days and hopefully 2 weeks of recording before it gets overwritten. Adjusting the active camera areas is important to reduce recordings from swaying tree shadows or from activity that you are not really concerned with. I have between 10 days and 2 weeks of recording now and if I just let it record 24/7 with eight cameras the HD fills up quickly. I have the older 4MP cameras and newer 8MP will fill up the HD faster. You can also scale down the resolution in areas where its overkill and keep the high resolution where you might want to grab a distant license plate, etc. Its fun to fiddle with and a good feeling when you get it all dialed in just right.

Thanks everyone for all the sugestions. I looked at lots of reviews and watched a lot of youtube vidios. I bought a reolink RLK-800B
B4 from amazon with a coupon sale for $477.00 It has 4 4k 8mp camera,s. I also got a Amazon basics wireless mouse. 1 of the reviews the reviewer said he tryd 4 different brands and this is the one that worked. I wanted to have the receiver out of sight so if someone tryed to steal the receiver they probably couldn,t find it. There are so many different brands to choose from that it was hard to decide what brand to buy. I already have an ethernet switch but it is not poe. I am hopeing I can connect the receiver from my non poe ethernet switch. The receiver has poe to power the camera,s anyway. It would be nice if there is an app that I could display to my tv with either a firestick or my nividia player. I checked the forum about 11 pm and went ahead and made my purchase than checked the forum right after I bought it and had 2 more replys. Foxbat , Wish I would have seen your reply before I ordered, but It is too late now. I will still see if I can find a review.

 

[Foxbat]

Speaking of license plates, while researching cameras for our system at work, I came across a few cameras that do license plate recognition and tag IDs inside the camera, at night, and at speeds up to 80 mph. It’s not a cheap feature, around $1K for the camera, so probably not for the average homeowner getting in to video surveillance.

 

[Inclined Orbit]

Its fancy technology but it only records the plate info. It can't tell you who owns the vehicle.

Speaking of license plates, while researching cameras for our system at work, I came across a few cameras that do license plate recognition and tag IDs inside the camera, at night, and at speeds up to 80 mph. It’s not a cheap feature, around $1K for the camera, so probably not for the average homeowner getting in to video surveillance.