CCTV recommended camera

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dudalemon

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Topic # 230738 11-Mar-2018 06:12

Hopefully i got the right section.

Does anyone have a CCTV kit installed for their home (outdoor) that they recommend?

Is Morepork any good? I had a read of their product and i like the idea that it automatically records when required and you can view it on your smartphone or app anytime. However they recommend an electrician to install it so i was wondering if the kits at PB Tech are any good (since an electrician installs it)

At my parents house there are people that keep ringing the gate doorbell and running off and being retired people, my parents want to enjoy the peace so i was hoping installing a kit that works very well at night would stop this from happening.

Any help is appreciated

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Reply # 1972672 11-Mar-2018 11:58

I got sick of people coming to the house and ringing the doorbell so just plugged the inside part into a timer. Outside of hours I want to be bothered, no doorbell. And I cant hear them knocking normally so they just go away and try to sell their entertainment or telecommunications or energy sources to other houses and I can keep using the PC in peace.

For cameras, I have a hikvision NVR and dirt cheap $20-25 720P IP cameras hooked up to it. Nightvision LEDs are crap on the cheap ones so have failed after about a year, but another board is $7 or so, which I have on my way and they look to be better larger LEDs so hopefully that is a one off swap I need to do.

Often things that say electrician required are labeled up for Aussie where even data cabling in houses is regulated because Aussie.

Richard rich.ms

chimera

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Reply # 1973156 12-Mar-2018 12:58

Hikvision gets my vote too. Although, I bought in from China direct, I think about ~NZ$850 landed (included shipping and customs fees etc.) Shipping was a good portion of the cost, although did a bulk buy and shared shipping costs with a few others at the time.

Got 4 channel Hikvision NVR with 4 x Hikvision DS-2CD2342WD-I IP cameras. Records to a QNAP NAS box on movement (or rather, on "line crossing") They do a phone app too which is fairly good.

Resolution is fantastic. Very happy with it.

Alternately, you could remove the doorbell... or hide in the bush with a baseball bat... :-)

u13turbo

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Reply # 1982608 24-Mar-2018 17:43

Im currently looking into getting a home security camera kit. With a DVR and 4x 720P cameras, Ive seen them for $100ish including free shipping. Then just pick up a cheap 1tb hard drive to record constantly. Has anyone got one of these cheap kits that they can recommend?

ZollyMonsta

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Reply # 1982676 24-Mar-2018 19:41

I’ve just ordered my second one of these. A good picture and price

http://s.aliexpress.com/n6f63YFF

Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz

Tinkerisk

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Reply # 1982728 25-Mar-2018 07:52

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If you buy a cheap China camera, you should expect that they'll 'phone back home'. If you are capable to block this IPs on your router to the WAN, have your own intermediate CAM server/service in between and no suspicious phone APP or cloud service involved, everything should be fine.

No backup, no pity. Anyway, RAID isn't one.

rp1790

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Reply # 1983205 26-Mar-2018 09:55

The cheapest option might be to actually just put up clear and obvious signs to say "CCTV Recording" or something like that, it's very likely to discourage them in the first place.

chevrolux

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Reply # 1983286 26-Mar-2018 10:45

Hikvision make an all-round great product. A bit of common sense setting them up and happy days. The only problem is it is an expensive option for a home install when compared with the other options.

After around 5-ish years my Hikvision 4-Channel NVR has just packed it in (storage drive is good, but NVR won't boot), cams are still good as gold - installed "Shinobi" on my server and am playing with that currently as the NVR solution, not sure I like it much, but it is a HEAP better than Zoneminder.

So anyway, recommendation would be Hikvision cams + NVR, but you will want to buy from a importer unless you pay extortionate NZ pricing.

neb

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Reply # 1983371 26-Mar-2018 12:04

dudalemon:
Does anyone have a CCTV kit installed for their home (outdoor) that they recommend?

I've been reasonably impressed with recent Amcrest gear, which is OEM Dahua without the Dahua price and with support. I've currently got two IP4M-1056E's hooked up to an NVR (you can run them without the NVR, it's just a convenient way to manage them), the performance is pretty good for the price.

neb

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Reply # 1983373 26-Mar-2018 12:07

Tinkerisk:
If you buy a cheap China camera, you should expect that they'll 'phone back home'.

... and get no security patches, upgrades, or support, and be flaky in operation, and crash from time to time requiring them to be power-cycled, and possibly just die altogether after awhile. I've been through several bargain Chinese cameras and found that most of them had several or all of the above traits, which is why I eventually paid a bit more for the Dahuas.

Tinkerisk

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Reply # 1983550 26-Mar-2018 15:13

neb: ... and get no security patches, upgrades, or support, and be flaky in operation, and crash from time to time requiring them to be power-cycled, and possibly just die altogether after awhile. I've been through several bargain Chinese cameras and found that most of them had several or all of the above traits, which is why I eventually paid a bit more for the Dahuas.

Bad luck for you. Can't confirm your complains for THIS company's outdoor camera. I never use the wlan feature for safety reasons but added PoE. As said, they try to phone home (and that's blocked by the router). The cloud app stuff isn't in use as well (most important!) since I connected them as plain streaming cameras to my own server via a NVR Docker plug-in and he's doing all the recognition and recording tasks. If one can't afford all this, he should buy other products (and check them nevertheless!).

No backup, no pity. Anyway, RAID isn't one.

richms

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Reply # 1983728 26-Mar-2018 19:00

rp1790:

The cheapest option might be to actually just put up clear and obvious signs to say "CCTV Recording" or something like that, it's very likely to discourage them in the first place.

PLaces have been done for that when people have parked there etc because of the signage and then finding that the CCTV was non existant or didnt cover that area. That is why all the real signs say may be operating on them.

Richard rich.ms

richms

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Reply # 1983730 26-Mar-2018 19:02

neb:
Tinkerisk:

If you buy a cheap China camera, you should expect that they'll 'phone back home'.

... and get no security patches, upgrades, or support, and be flaky in operation, and crash from time to time requiring them to be power-cycled, and possibly just die altogether after awhile. I've been through several bargain Chinese cameras and found that most of them had several or all of the above traits, which is why I eventually paid a bit more for the Dahuas.

My only problems have been an iframe on the web interface of one of them trying to pull down an equally antique piece of malware, and the IR LEDs dieing on the $18 outdoor ones. Replacement LED boards are about $8 for much better ones. Will fit them one day soon..

Richard rich.ms

TechnoGuy001

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Reply # 1984460 27-Mar-2018 19:02

Those of you who bought from China/aliexpress were you able to update the firmware from hikvision?

I'm thinking about buying a hikvision camera from Amazon, they say "English Version, can be upgraded from hikvision website", but I'm sure they all say that.

I thought maybe I'd buy it, try update it to the latest available firmware to wipe whatever call home stuff they have on it, if it doesn't work, return it.

Also I guess there is no way to buy from in NZ, at least I've not found anyone that sells here.

richms

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Reply # 1985156 28-Mar-2018 21:23

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Ive not bothered to update the firmware on the NVR or cameras. The hikvision NVR seems fine at not chatting to the internet, and the cameras are behind it so dont seem to have any internet access. A PC plugged into the camera ports certainly cant get internet access so I assume that the cameras cant at least.

Richard rich.ms

neb

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Reply # 1985415 29-Mar-2018 14:05

richms:
rp1790:

The cheapest option might be to actually just put up clear and obvious signs to say "CCTV Recording" or something like that, it's very likely to discourage them in the first place.

PLaces have been done for that when people have parked there etc because of the signage and then finding that the CCTV was non existant or didnt cover that area. That is why all the real signs say may be operating on them.

You could always do what this guy did....

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