CCTV advice what to install etc,

[pontiend]

Sorted.
I do not use my cameras for surveillance.I just watch and record the birds at my feeders.
What I need is decent motion detection and recording.I like Blue Iris it works well for me.
Apart from ispy with all the other software that I have tried I have problems getting the software to see my cameras.Probably my fault.
I have no problem with blue isis though, a search finds both my cameras .Both are WiFi though one of them has no aerial, it is at the end of a 30 meter lan cable.I have taken the plunge and got a license from Ebay £38.
I am sure that it will see my new camera when it arrives.
Edit.I am not on commission.

 

[2cvbloke]

GeniusVision is a very fiddly program to use, it took me quite a while to work out how to connect it to my camera aswell as set up its detection zones (and how to switch them on!!), but once it's set up it just works, the only issues I've had to date is HDDs crapping out on me, so may be worth setting it up with a basic RAID configuration seeing as most motherboards are able to do such things these days...

 

[2cvbloke]

Unfortunately, the camera was useless tonight, some little 5h1t (or a few of them, I don't know) broke three windows on my uncle's house, and all I saw (which didn't get recorded) were a set of cowardly legs running off down the street. Seems I'm going to have to invest in more cameras...

 

[Archive-8]

Sorry to hear that, hopefully no one has been hurt?

Do you know what type of camera you are going to look for? E.g. Bullet cam.

 

[2cvbloke]

Nobody was hurt thankfully, just damaged windows (outer panes smashed, inner panes either cracked or intact), my brother's been up here for the past couple of weeks and he has a habit of bringing trouble with him (doesn't know when to draw the line at getting into people's faces, if you know what I mean), and I personally believe he's gotten on the wrong side of someone who decided to attack the house, whether it's the start of something bigger, I don't know, but right now, protecting my uncle (whose house it is) is a priority, I just hope it doesn't involve having to move house.

As for what cameras, I really don't know right now, I've dug out that crappy wifi Sricam I have and will have to put that up over the uncle's yard, it's already set up to be recorded on my server, it just needs putting up outside somewhere...

 

[Terryl]

If you want video evidence that will stand up in court without heavy enhancement of the video (I've seen crappy stuff thrown out due to enhancement problems) you should get a good hi-res video system.

Pay up and get some good stuff.

 

[2cvbloke]

Paying up is the problem, as a family, we haven't the cash to be stumping up on such things, my camera over the front door was £23 and the footage from that was used in a court as evidence against someone who broke into a house a few doors down (they were caught trying three doors in the video, a few minutes before they were chased off out of the house they burgled), so it may have been cheap, but it provided someone with evidence at least...

But like I say, money is an object right now, and all I can do is use what I've got to try and cover the bases as best I can, though the best way to deal with the problem is to go to the source and tell him to go back to lancashire where he bleedin' well belongs...

 

[pontiend]

GeniusVision is a very fiddly program to use, it took me quite a while to work out how to connect it to my camera aswell as set up its detection zones (and how to switch them on!!), but once it's set up it just works, the only issues I've had to date is HDDs crapping out on me, so may be worth setting it up with a basic RAID configuration seeing as most motherboards are able to do such things these days...

Yes it looks like a decent program.I have tried before to get it working.I could not get it going though.The last try yesterday a search could see my WiFi camera but not the one on the lan cable even then I could not get the camera to show on monitor view.I finally gave up and got a license for Blue Iris.that picks both cameras up straight away.


Re sricam my first camera was one of those no ir cut,it worked alright.The camera on the birdhut is a sri spoo7 .It would be a good camera if the brightness contrast etc could be altered.As it is the colour is a bit rich and a bit too dark.All the settings are on a phone app no way to alter the brightness etc though.

 

[2cvbloke]

Yeah, GV takes some fiddling to get it to "see" cameras (made worse by chinese cameras which "borrow" other standards and modify them to be slightly different and non-standard!)I remember it took a while to get it to see the Sricam until I read that you had to set it up as a Foscam (again, a borrowed standard, but modified into a non-standard), this one I can't recall the model of (I did post about it earlier in this thread I think though), but it does have IR cut, but has an annoying habit of not turning the IR on unless it's totally dark, may need to add something to filter out the light over the LDR to reduce its sensitivity...

The web interface on it does provide some crude brightness and contrast adjustment though, it took me a while to "find" the thing on my network initially (turned out to be 192.168.1.11:81), but it's there and kind of useful, but it's not that good to be honest.

 

[dan rose]

Here recently I talked to a few people about getting a security camera for my apartment with a PVR. My mom has called me several times when i go to the college at night or driving for the bar. My mom calls me up and tells me someone is trying to get in through the front door he or she opens my screen door BANGS on my door and turns the handle. At odd hours it could be from 1am to 7:30 am I am getting tired of it so here recently I have bought a security camera for my front door that will sit on my pc tower outside. I want to get a PVR so I can record it while I am gone so I can catch the bastard trying to get in. I have live in the same apartment for 22 years I thought I would never had to get one well times have changed. Maybe I can go into cctv business as a side project from this. What do you guys think about this? Here are some pics it says login sorry. The black trash bag has an old PC tower with the guts out of it and powered multiswitches inside. I have 8 lnbs going to 4 zinwell switches and 3 disque switches. Its feeding 3 rooms of my apartment.

Login camera working

Login camera outside

Login camera outside again

 

[2cvbloke]

Ended up mounting the crappycam on my window using the stick-on parts (usualy used for sticking the cams on car bodies, windscreens, bike helmets & tanks, and other smooth surfaces) from an imitation gopro camera kit, the lens on it is a very narrow angle so wouldn't do well in the uncle's yard, but from the height that it's at now, it does a good coverage of his yard, and that's what's needed, just incase the brother repeats his stupidity and rubs someone else up the wrong way again...

 

[2cvbloke]

Unsurprisingly, the sticky pad came loose, but not the side on the window, but the one that had been pre-applied at the factory to the plastic mount, so, had to take it down again, clean off the glue, peel off the pad on the window, clean off more glue, then stick it all back up again, and after that I had to take it down again as the stupid camera wasn't staying connected to the wifi, so replaced the antenna, still wouldn't have it, gutted it, rewired it (adding a much longer ethernet cable for when I give up on the wifi part and just hard-wire it to something), and put it back up, and it seems to be working now, but, my god that Sricam is a POS, one of the most useless cameras I've used over the years...

Sricam - Do not buy!!!

 

[Captain Jack]

Sri means "go have a sh!t" in Russian..

 

[2cvbloke]

Sri means "go have a sh!t" in Russian..

Sounds perfect then, I've been referring to it as "shitcam" since I first tested it after I got it...

 

[Archive-8]

Just had the reminder email, from the ICO about my cctv license. £35 is now due.

 

[jeallen01]

Long time since I looked at this thread, but from what I been seeing and hearing here and elsewhere (e.g. on TV) it looks like I should bite the bullet and install a suitable system - however, I've got rather lost in this thread trying to decide what to buy & install, so i would be very grateful if one or two people could give me "potted" summaries of what to look at and what kit to buy (or NOT buy)?

Basic requirements (with some questions/comments in italics) appear to be:

1) 5-6 HD (720, 1080, or what resolutions?) cameras, with one of those indoors and the rest mainly high up on the exterior walls, and maybe an additional one on/in the garage which is around 30m away.

2) 8-channel CCTV PVR
NB: Given what I have read here, I would rather not involve use of my home network PCs or NAS machines at the moment, but maybe that's a thought for a future upgrade with appropriate s/w when the basic system is working OK?

3) The PVR would probably best be located in the attic, and, generally, I would prefer to use Ethernet connections (separate power feed, or PoE with appropriate PoE switch?) rather than WiFi if I could - BUT the garage cam, and maybe others would have to be WiFi due to cabling issues
NB: Is it possible to use a mixture of wired and wireless cameras on any of the currently available PVRs - or would that mean having separate wired and wireless video capture cards in a PC system (I do have an old case/PSU which could take several suitable cards and so on, although that will also need a new m/b)?

4) To me, that looks like I will have to use an all-, or part-, Wifi system for the cameras as I can't see how I could achieve the required setup without that - but I am "worried" about "someone" accessing the signals and/or the underlying systems, and so do any of the camera/PVR systems use any sort of wireless security encryption, or how else do they try to minimise "spying" ?

5) How how best then to monitor the cameras in the downstairs lounge or elsewhere?
NB: the Loftbox in the attic for the house TV distribution has a CCTV 460-860 MHz I/p and all the current TV's are both analogue & digital so that's probably the best approach if the PVR has an RF o/p as well as a video o/p . However, I think that I will probably have to fit an external RF modulator on the VGA o/p from the PVR.

6) How to enable my next door neighbours to monitor the cameras as well? They are registered keyholders for our existing monitored alarm system (and we feed each others' cats when people are on holiday!) - anyway, I know that they would be happy for the system to cover the front and rear of their property as well as ours.
NB : If the PVR has one, I could split the RF o/p and feed one cable to next door, but might have to get them an analogue display!

Sorry if that's a long list of questions and possibilities but any help will be most appreciated - maybe not answers to "everything" but just comments "here and there" would be most helpful!

Thanks in advance

John

 

[Archive-8]

Some dvr' sour there have a "hybrid" mode for analogue and ip cams. The oswoo dvr I have is onvif compatible, I don't have any of the onvif cams.

My system started life as an entirely analogue system, then something happened to the analogue camera above the garage door, this forced me to install ip and now has a 50/50 mix.

So I can view all of my cameras I have to use 2 nvr/dvr's.

The ip cams go to my Foscam NVR (total of 4, 2 from yeovil and 2 from Sherborne) this is plugged into my oswoo dvr along with 2 more analogue cams.

I am able to view my cams anywhere anytime using the apps on my phone, or on a pc.

How long do you want to back up the recordings for? I have mine set to 14 days, with a 1TB Hdd.

Are you looking to buy a kit with it all? Or assemble it all yourself?

What sort of budget?

 

[jeallen01]

Chris

Thanks for the quick comments.

As for my thoughts:

- How long to record for? - probably 2 weeks for 5-6 cameras if possible (the US LOREX site told me that I would need something like a 4TB disk for 1080p recordings to do that - so a normal 1TB is probably not big enough)

- Kit or home-assembled - unless I could get something like this one shown on the LOREX site from a UK supplier which can handle both wired and wireless camera connections, I think it will probably have to be home-assembled for the reasons mentioned in my previous post today, mainly the mix of the wired & wireless connections requirements.

That Foscam NVR (if it's something like this one, although I don't need the Alarm inputs) looks interesting for hard-wired IP cameras, but then I need to deal with the wireless ones - that has lead me to consider installing another wired & wireless router to aggregate both types of camera (maybe the old Edimax that I replaced with the current ASUS one) on a separate wireless network from the house system, and then that connecting router to something like that Foscam NVR, which in turn is connected to the main house router and internet connection. At least, that way, I can locate the CCTV system router up in the attic to get the best possible range (might use the directional WiFi antenna that I have).

Finding decent compatible wireless cameras without spending a fortune will be another problem to solve.

OTOH, had wireless connections not been an issue then I might be considering something like this IQCCTV unit because of the various "stuff" that comes with it , including the Dropbox support.

I really don't want two separate systems for wired and wireless camera support - not least because I don't think my brain will cope with it!

Edited: Judging by the Customer reviews on Amazon, that Foscam NVR only works with Foscam cameras (and then only some of those, dependent on the s/w).

 

[Archive-8]

The foscam NVR I have is the FN3004H all my ipcams are Tenvis (foscam clones)

Foscam FN3004H Mini 4 Channel NVR | Foscam UK


My outdoor cams are these TENVIS IP602W Outdoor Wireless Waterproof Bullet IP Network Security Camera UK | eBay are the IP602, I have IR flood lamps all over the outside of the bungalow.

 

[jeallen01]

Chris

Thanks - neat bits of kit.

Just come across this Yeskam 8 channel NVR + 6 wireless cameras package - looks quite interesting and seems to fit most of the requirements, but now waiting to find out if it will work with other ONVIF cameras, and also with wired cameras via a router. Would have to add some of the other stuff that I mentioned earlier though.

Any thoughts?