Seeking Oppo opinions, home security camera systems edition

"ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com" (ita97)
09/12/2019 at 00:01 • Filed to: None

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I’m considering a security camera system for my house. Does Oppo have any advice or recommendations? I’m thinking along the lines of 4-8 exterior cameras covering various approaches to the house and the front and back yards generally, feeding into a DVR type box with a big HDD inside continually loop recording. Having a camera point out across the frontage road and interstate behind my house might be neat, too, if nothing else for capturing occasional shenanigans. This would ideally be viewable and controllable from my home PC. I’m not sold on the necessity of app/remote viewing away from my home network.

I’m thinking remote app viewing would be neat, but something tells me many/all of those apps make your camera feeds view able to the servers their going through. Similarly, I’d be curious how many of these boxes have their firmware phoning home to servers in who knows where if they’re connected to my home network.

I’m most tempted so far by these Samsung/wisenet systems along the lines of what can be pickup at Sam’s Club/Costco. Part of me wants to think that at least being made by a South Korean company, the software is at least phoning home to an allied intelligence service... Anyone have experience with these systems? I’m not opposed to a build-my-own setup if I can find something pointing me in the right direction, and the it was price competitive.

I’d prefer cameras powered by CAT5 Ethernet cable instead of BNC, but I could work around that.

DISCUSSION (13)

For Sweden > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
09/12/2019 at 00:27

Are you willing to save money by devoting a few days to learning to to use Raspberry Pis and MotionEyeOS?

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > For Sweden
09/12/2019 at 00:30

I not opposed to that as a concept , but I’d have to know more about it.

For Sweden > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
09/12/2019 at 00:34

https://www.instructables.com/id/Pi-Hidden-Camera/

His Stigness > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
09/12/2019 at 00:47

I use Reolink PoE cameras. I’ve got two PTZ cameras currently running, with five more 8mp cameras to be set up along with a Reolink NVR. I currently have the two cameras being recorded to my NAS. They’re high quality with an easy to use interface.

All of their offerings can be found on Amazon.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > His Stigness
09/12/2019 at 01:13

This is very much along the lines of what I’m looking for.

DipodomysDeserti > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
09/12/2019 at 01:31

I’ve always used big dogs. They’re bad at relaying information back to me, but a much better deterrent than cameras, and they don’t speak Korean.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > DipodomysDeserti
09/12/2019 at 01:40

I’ve certainly got that in the head of house hold security in the form of the German Sheph e rd that isn’t fucking around and that knows all the German words. This is more like a supplement. It might also be fun to capture on camera folks almost universally backing away from the door after they after the German Shepherd threatens their life and rears up to pound her paws against the door from the inside.

cmill189 - sans Volvo > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
09/12/2019 at 02:22

I used to use Foscam and upgraded to what they became or absorbed into, Amcrest. They’re based in Houston and have good deals across Amazon, eBay, and their site. All of mine have been returns or open box. No failures in years of Utah weather extremes. All of mine are PoE and run to a dedicated desktop running Blue Iris. However, for simplicity you can run them all via the onboard software.

I have used many cheap and knockoff cameras in the past. They all essentially work the same. The difference being the “cheap Chinese” were constantly phoning home. This led me to subnetting my entire security network and denying all WAN access. Sometimes having a crazy person pfSense router setup is a benefit.

DipodomysDeserti > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
09/12/2019 at 02:58

I’ve always been if the mindset that it’s best not to have any AAR of someone breaking into my house captured on film. Whether it be the doges, me or my missus who gets to them first.

PartyPooper2012 > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
09/12/2019 at 08:03

I highly recommend RING.COM. Camera is decent. They have various cameras - door bells, stick up cameras power by solar power, battery and even hard wired. Footage get captured when one of 3 things happen - you view live, it detects motion or someone rings a door bell (when a door bell camera is one in question) All of that is uploaded to cloud where you can view and download as needed. Pricing is not that bad either.

I’ve also used zmodo system available on amazon. Decent system. Has a bit iffy smart phone viewing capabilities but might be better now. That has a centralized local hard drive. Loops as you said. It’s a bit of a pain to review footage. Decent cameras though - quality during day and night is ok. Might be different now or depends on the system you get, but what I had was wired system and that takes a bit of doing.

both have similar downsides - if power or wifi is down, you can’t view on your smart phone. If power goes out, it does not record - even if using solar panel - no way to upload later.

Ring has a feature where neighbors who have cameras can also report activities and it creates a neighborhood watch of sorts. Police has been known to utilize this feature to investigate crimes.

There was a time when I had a package delivered and left on a porch of sorts. I had a door bell camera and zmodo camera both pointing at the entrance, but not low enough to see package. Anyway, some package thief came and took the package. Both cameras got her face, but not the fact that she had a package in her hands. That little fact was not enough for police to do anything with her.... but I knew what she looked like. Few days later I saw her down the street. Called the cops. They came and detained her. Only to find out she had outstanding warrants. Got arrested and later admitted to stealing packages around neighborhood including mine.

Moral of the story, place camera in the way that it gets the faces and that might be growing legs and walking with the thieves.

Thomas Donohue > His Stigness
09/12/2019 at 08:14

+1 on Reolink. I’ve got six POE, with some being recorded via old PC using the free Reolink app.

Biggest issue is alarms caused by bugs attracted to the infrared illuminato rs at night. Not a huge deal, but c an be solved by better software (Blue Iris) or external illuminators placed away from the cameras.

PartyPooper2012 > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
09/12/2019 at 08:17

Can’t reply to my original comment to add, but, most important thing I forgot to mention is the intercom. You can talk to people at your cameras with Ring.

You’re at work. Someone comes to the door to install your cable or check your meter - you can use the intercom to talk to them - tell them to come back later or to wait while you get in your Integra and drive home right quick.

Discerning > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
09/12/2019 at 09:16

I have a dual setup. One is closed circuit and records to an HDD. This one we have pointing towards access points.

The other is cloud based and only records when it detects motion - and that’s blink. It is pretty good. I can see whenever someone comes to the door and I can actively view any camera if I get an alert.

Wat I want to get though is a closed circuit that also allows me to view the cameras live.

Hd an incident a month ago where someone was scoping out my property and walking the perimeter. I could see them love from a couple of limited view cameras but I couldn’t get a good look until I reviewed the closed circuit at home.

Looked like they were scoping out properties in general to try to solicite buying out homes. I hope they contact me directly in the near future so I can follow up on their questionable actions - maybe shoot them a video link and follow up with APD.

If you knock on my door and no one answers, it is not an open invitation to walk my property line and take photos of my house and attempt to look into my windows.