Discussion
Typical - told Amazon I wanted a refund this morning, so have the details I need to return it and ordered the Vstarcam dome camera.
And the Y-Cam burst back into life about 10am this morning, and has been happily recording stuff properly since.
I'll see how it behaves over the weekend - if it's flaky enough to lose days at a time (and didn't notice me walking across the drive and driving my car out this morning) then it's useless anyway but equally I don't want the hassle of removing it and packing it up if it's actually working!
And the Y-Cam burst back into life about 10am this morning, and has been happily recording stuff properly since.
I'll see how it behaves over the weekend - if it's flaky enough to lose days at a time (and didn't notice me walking across the drive and driving my car out this morning) then it's useless anyway but equally I don't want the hassle of removing it and packing it up if it's actually working!
The internal Vstarcam have become a little less perfect - they seem to go offline occasionally. Still generally happy with them but need to figure out why that's happening sometimes.
The Y-Cam is worse - after a weekend recording, it seemed to crash on Monday morning and had to be powered off / on. It will be on an Ethernet connection soon, let's see if that is better.
The Y-Cam is worse - after a weekend recording, it seemed to crash on Monday morning and had to be powered off / on. It will be on an Ethernet connection soon, let's see if that is better.
davek_964 said:
If the camera is stolen then you do lose the recording
I have my NAS at home synchronising with the NAS in the office so the cameras in each location are backed up to the other.I'm sure you could do something similar with video files up to Google Drive or iCLoud or whatever your chosen cloud provider is?
giblet said:
Can anyone recommend a plug and play high def camera kit with 4 external cameras and a dvr?
Speak to the sales team at http://www.henrys.co.uk/ who should be able to sort you out with something - am not affiliated with them, have just purchased several items from them in the past which I've been well pleased with. Ought to mention my next door neighbour recently purchased an 8 cam DVR system which was well impressive.I've got a CCTV 42 system at home and work and have never had any issues.
Totally self installed and the images are brilliant. I've used the images on more than one occasion to either identify staff who have been a bit naughty and visual identification is possible from many metres away.
These images were taken now and I've got access using SuperLivePro from anywhere in the world to include instant playback if any time over the last month or so.
These images are from work, the first showing the home screen (or one of the choices you have) and the second from one of our three buildings looking back at the main office.
We've got an 8 channel DVR and bear in mind the images on the iPhone aren't as good as those on the DVR screen in our server room and also we are rural, I mean rural so the only light source during the hours of darkness is that we produce!
Not cheap but you get what you pay for and when you need evidence buying the right equipment pays off
Totally self installed and the images are brilliant. I've used the images on more than one occasion to either identify staff who have been a bit naughty and visual identification is possible from many metres away.
These images were taken now and I've got access using SuperLivePro from anywhere in the world to include instant playback if any time over the last month or so.
These images are from work, the first showing the home screen (or one of the choices you have) and the second from one of our three buildings looking back at the main office.
We've got an 8 channel DVR and bear in mind the images on the iPhone aren't as good as those on the DVR screen in our server room and also we are rural, I mean rural so the only light source during the hours of darkness is that we produce!
Not cheap but you get what you pay for and when you need evidence buying the right equipment pays off
Edited by HoHoHo on Thursday 13th October 04:22
davek_964 said:
If the camera is stolen then you do lose the recording
I have my NAS at home synchronising with the NAS in the office so the cameras in each location are backed up to the other.I'm sure you could do something similar with video files up to Google Drive or iCLoud or whatever your chosen cloud provider is?
feef said:
davek_964 said:
If the camera is stolen then you do lose the recording
I have my NAS at home synchronising with the NAS in the office so the cameras in each location are backed up to the other.I'm sure you could do something similar with video files up to Google Drive or iCLoud or whatever your chosen cloud provider is?
I have a NAS at home and at work mirroring each other and I guess I could use that setup for my CCTV to ensure I have a backup
On Saturday, the Vstarcam dome camera turned up and I installed that.
Really pleased with it - video quality is very good (I think it's clearer than the Y-Cam) and being able to switch between 5 preset positions is great.
I've now enabled motion recording and disabled alerts on it, which makes it much easier to find the correct recording if anything happens - it still does constant timer recording (15 min chunks) but also saves if it detects motion. Better than the Y-cam which only record if they detect motion.
In torrential rain earlier there were a few drops on the dome, but it would be pretty easy to install something protecting that, so I might at some point - but it wasn't really enough of an issue to affect visibility significantly.
The one thing the Y-Cam does better is the sound - can't hear much from the Vstarcam.
I'm not too worried about people stealing a camera - or the memory card from it - when it's bolted 12ft up on an outside wall, so happy with this as a solution.
The Y-cams are now both connected to Ethernet, but one of them still stopped recording from 20:30 Thursday evening to 10:30 Friday morning. Y-Cam customer support were supposed to call me Friday - they didn't.
I've owned them for 2 weeks and have concluded they really are unreliable garbage. I would prefer not to have to remove them and install two new cameras - they are on their last chance. If they continue to work I'll keep them. If they fail again this week, I will remove them next weekend and replace them with 2 Vstarcam dome cameras - which will be about £150 cheaper than the two Y-Cams.
Really pleased with it - video quality is very good (I think it's clearer than the Y-Cam) and being able to switch between 5 preset positions is great.
I've now enabled motion recording and disabled alerts on it, which makes it much easier to find the correct recording if anything happens - it still does constant timer recording (15 min chunks) but also saves if it detects motion. Better than the Y-cam which only record if they detect motion.
In torrential rain earlier there were a few drops on the dome, but it would be pretty easy to install something protecting that, so I might at some point - but it wasn't really enough of an issue to affect visibility significantly.
The one thing the Y-Cam does better is the sound - can't hear much from the Vstarcam.
I'm not too worried about people stealing a camera - or the memory card from it - when it's bolted 12ft up on an outside wall, so happy with this as a solution.
The Y-cams are now both connected to Ethernet, but one of them still stopped recording from 20:30 Thursday evening to 10:30 Friday morning. Y-Cam customer support were supposed to call me Friday - they didn't.
I've owned them for 2 weeks and have concluded they really are unreliable garbage. I would prefer not to have to remove them and install two new cameras - they are on their last chance. If they continue to work I'll keep them. If they fail again this week, I will remove them next weekend and replace them with 2 Vstarcam dome cameras - which will be about £150 cheaper than the two Y-Cams.
giblet said:
Can anyone recommend a plug and play high def camera kit with 4 external cameras and a dvr?
I have this set up and apart from spiders loving the IR illumination, it's fine Amazon
Badger attack
motco said:
I have this set up and apart from spiders loving the IR illumination, it's fine Amazon
That looks excellent! I'd love to have an expensive system, but I just don't have the funds for the new property I'm buying. My budget of £250 for CCTV seems to point to that kind of system, and the images look good enough for my needs.Has anyone tried the Ring doorbell? Was thinking of adding that too but be interested to know peoples thoughts.
Sutton said:
That looks excellent! I'd love to have an expensive system, but I just don't have the funds for the new property I'm buying. My budget of £250 for CCTV seems to point to that kind of system, and the images look good enough for my needs.
Has anyone tried the Ring doorbell? Was thinking of adding that too but be interested to know peoples thoughts.
Check out the reviews. I quite liked the idea of it - particularly for when idiot delivery drivers completely ignore my instructions for when I'm not home. However, there are far too many reviews of it saying that it's very slow to notify you that there is somebody at the door and 9 times out of 10 they will have left by the time you could do anything about it.Has anyone tried the Ring doorbell? Was thinking of adding that too but be interested to know peoples thoughts.
For comparison, here's a daytime pic from my Vstarcam dome camera. It's an IP camera which records to inbuilt SD card, remote control with 5 preset positions and cost ~£85. Only issue I've really had is that every few days it seemed to reset itself to point straight forwards / down but the latest s/w update seems to have solved that. Domed, so no spiders.
Not got any nightime pics, but will add some over the weekend if I remember.
Not got any nightime pics, but will add some over the weekend if I remember.
Mr Apples said:
davek_964 said:
For comparison, here's a daytime pic from my Vstarcam dome camera. It's an IP camera which records to inbuilt SD card,
Is this an indoor camera looking out of the window? As I`m looking for this type of thing that records to SD card, any recommendations?
ETA : my internal cameras cost ~£35 and look a bit like mini daleks.
Edited by davek_964 on Friday 18th November 10:58
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