The Annual CCTV at home thread.
Discussion
Alucidnation said:
Yes to all.
Reolink are very good but make sure you get a proper rated SD card for them.
Great - thanks for that.Reolink are very good but make sure you get a proper rated SD card for them.
Looking further at their website it seems that they say a micro SD card class 10 with greater than 26Mbps transfer speed. I'll most likely use Sandisk High Endurance Class 10 cards for video monitoring with 40MB/s write speed (so 320Mbps).
Thanks.
No real need for an NVR for basic home security.
The reolink app and desktop client work extremely well and depending on how high the video quality is set, will give at least a week of recordings (set to motion detection).
In fact, I think the new cameras will take up to 128gb sd card where the previous models only went up to 64gb.
The reolink app and desktop client work extremely well and depending on how high the video quality is set, will give at least a week of recordings (set to motion detection).
In fact, I think the new cameras will take up to 128gb sd card where the previous models only went up to 64gb.
LocoBlade said:
You only need SD cards in the device if you're setting them up standalone or if you want a backup recording on the device itself in case the NVR goes down for whatever reason.
Ok - that's good news. Knowing me I'll probably put SD cards in as a backup, but really useful to know they're not strictly needed using the NVR.Thanks.
I would go for hikvision. I knock down and build petrol stations for work and they always leave the cameras on most of them so i just used four of them for my system and bought a dvr got s chap to fit them, image quality is like watching hd tv really is brilliant. We have a screen on the wall of the kitchen showing the four cameras all the time. Hikvision well worth the money
Jeff1976 said:
I would go for hikvision. I knock down and build petrol stations for work and they always leave the cameras on most of them so i just used four of them for my system and bought a dvr got s chap to fit them, image quality is like watching hd tv really is brilliant. We have a screen on the wall of the kitchen showing the four cameras all the time. Hikvision well worth the money
Well, I looked at HikVision initially due to several recommendations on this and other threads, but as I mentioned in my post above, most of the suppliers seem to be geared up for supplying to installers. It's also not easy to actually see the prices, as they all seem to need you to register on their website/set up a trade account before you get access to prices, which to be honest, if they are going to make me jump through hoops, I'll go with an alternative.In terms of quality, Reolink do HD and also 4k if you want it (I'll stick with HD), so should be up with HikVision, and in any case, plenty good enough for what I need.
I have a few of the Reolink solar powered cameras which are really good, just fix to wall and it's done, no wires except for the cable from the solar panel. Can view on phone or laptop and their SD cards allow me to play back recordings.
The only negative with their wireless cameras is that you can only live view for a few minutes before it cuts out. So you can't have say a tablet/phone/laptop left permanently on showing the live image, because after a few minutes the app closes and you have to refresh the image.
The only negative with their wireless cameras is that you can only live view for a few minutes before it cuts out. So you can't have say a tablet/phone/laptop left permanently on showing the live image, because after a few minutes the app closes and you have to refresh the image.
The difference in daytime image quality between my £40 Reolinks and my £100 Dahua (which are direct competitors of Hikvision) is zero, and that's a £100 camera sourced via AliExpress on a slow boat from China, it would have been significantly more expensive if bought from a UK supplier. The night vision on the Dahua is marginally better but not worth the extra spend especially in OPs case where he's only interested in monitoring daytime activity.
Reolink 5MP Camera. Got 4 of these running into an NVR over POE. Its a piece of piss to install, its VERY configurable, I have all sorts of custom zones and timing set up, I even have it set so that at certain times, in certain areas, it sets off an audio warning on the NVR (which is in a cupboard in the house as a warning of someone in the back garden at night)
Even our lass uses the app, which is a measure of how good it is.
Its really, really impressive for the cash.
Note the camera sensors are all in 4:3 format so when you view on most devices which are widescreen nowadays, it scales it to suit the screen, hence the squish.
Screenshot is from the web browser app, scaled to fit screen, and then uploaded to PH's web host thing so I bet is ruined the quality, so not the 'full' resolution of the camera but at least it gives you an idea of the clarity.
Edit - yes, as I worried, the image you are seeing has been shafted by the upload process and the way PH forum is displaying it. Its much, much clearer than what you can see on the forum.
Even our lass uses the app, which is a measure of how good it is.
Its really, really impressive for the cash.
Note the camera sensors are all in 4:3 format so when you view on most devices which are widescreen nowadays, it scales it to suit the screen, hence the squish.
Screenshot is from the web browser app, scaled to fit screen, and then uploaded to PH's web host thing so I bet is ruined the quality, so not the 'full' resolution of the camera but at least it gives you an idea of the clarity.
Edit - yes, as I worried, the image you are seeing has been shafted by the upload process and the way PH forum is displaying it. Its much, much clearer than what you can see on the forum.
Yes to all your questions on Reo
I record 24/7 but have motion alerts as well
The motion alerts are good for showing who was at my gate at weekends (deliveries etc) where as I can review the whole day if I see someone dodgy loitering around
The NVR and software is straightforward to setup, if you have a bit of tech knowledge its even easier
I cant fault it tbh.
Buy dome cams if you can spiders BLOODY LOVE bullet style cameras and the webs make the IR feature useless at night . anti spider spray helps but only lasts a few weeks
I have some of my cameras outside and one or two inside out a window. You dont get the night vision, but I have security lighting outside anyway, I find they are more subtle inside, less likely to be nicked (or spotted) and protected from the elements.
I record 24/7 but have motion alerts as well
The motion alerts are good for showing who was at my gate at weekends (deliveries etc) where as I can review the whole day if I see someone dodgy loitering around
The NVR and software is straightforward to setup, if you have a bit of tech knowledge its even easier
I cant fault it tbh.
Buy dome cams if you can spiders BLOODY LOVE bullet style cameras and the webs make the IR feature useless at night . anti spider spray helps but only lasts a few weeks
I have some of my cameras outside and one or two inside out a window. You dont get the night vision, but I have security lighting outside anyway, I find they are more subtle inside, less likely to be nicked (or spotted) and protected from the elements.
I've no experience of using DVR or NVR. Those using NVR's, are you using PoE or Wireless?
I'm guessing the NVR connects to the cameras and records everything, and you can then connect the NVR to a TV, or perhaps a wireless connection to a phone/laptop?
Are the wireless NVR's known to have good connectivity with the cameras, or is PoE the way to go?
I'm guessing the NVR connects to the cameras and records everything, and you can then connect the NVR to a TV, or perhaps a wireless connection to a phone/laptop?
Are the wireless NVR's known to have good connectivity with the cameras, or is PoE the way to go?
Edited by LeadFarmer on Monday 10th May 11:21
I found the Hikvision suppliers helpful but not useful - https://www.cctvkits.co.uk/
I find sites like this both - https://www.ipcamtalk.com/forums/
I've been running Hikvision POE for a number of years now and it's been good enough for the price I paid at the time, which is something like 5 or 6 years. My NVR with 3TB storage is a bit overkill for running two dome cams and still has recordings on it from January 2020. It is set up for motion detection. The Hikvision app is pretty hit and miss and does drop out for me at random times and I was tempted to move to blue iris but will leave that until H/Vision do something like charge for it.
I find sites like this both - https://www.ipcamtalk.com/forums/
I've been running Hikvision POE for a number of years now and it's been good enough for the price I paid at the time, which is something like 5 or 6 years. My NVR with 3TB storage is a bit overkill for running two dome cams and still has recordings on it from January 2020. It is set up for motion detection. The Hikvision app is pretty hit and miss and does drop out for me at random times and I was tempted to move to blue iris but will leave that until H/Vision do something like charge for it.
I've been running TP-Link Kasa cameras, 1 outdoor and 1 indoor, mainly because they integrated with the same app as my smart mains sockets and I'm really pleasantly surprised how good they are. Good clear recording day & night with smartphone notification of movement. Connects via WiFi, but the only minus being a moulded USB plug for power (so hole through wall needs to be bigger than the wire. Holds over a week of notifications in the cloud which is free.
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