Home security cameras - NVR vs SD high endurance cards?

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mdf

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#274511 26-Aug-2020 12:11

I've got a basic Amcrest security camera set up - couple of external cameras running on POE back to an Amcrest NVR.

Cameras are great, but unfortunately the firmware on the NVR is much older than that on the cameras with less functionality. In particular, the web interface is much worse on the NVR, to the point where it is unusable. The NVR is no longer supported and the latest firmware is 2017 so I can't see any prospect of it being updated.

I'm tossing up whether to buy a new NVR, or just power the cameras with a normal POE switch and record to SD high endurance cards (which I had never heard of until recently). The cameras are really only for home security and watching couriers so a couple of days footage is typically more than enough. I also have a NAS which I could back up recordings to.

Sidestep

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#2550133 26-Aug-2020 16:29

I have a couple of Garmin car cams with Sandisk 'Max Endurance' 128Gb MicroSD cards in them, and put the same cards in some Hikvision cams I've put out on the garage.

Powered the cams with leftover Unifi PoE adapters from Nano HD UAP's we've powered from a switch, all just supposed to be temporary - until I set the rest of the cams up in the house & installed the NVR - but that was weeks ago.. I'll get a round tuit as soon as I have the time, but they're quite usable as-is.

The MicroSD's are advertised as Class 10/U3/V30 speed rated, so should sustain a video capture rate of 30MB/s, designed for Security Cameras and Dash cams with constant writing/overwriting, and supposed to be good for up to 60,000 hours (over 13 years).. temperature-proof, waterproof, shockproof, X-ray-proof...

Sounds good, the 'proof' will be if they actually work as well and long as advertised.
The car ones are getting a good baking lately (it's been 30+ outside), we'll see how winter (and -30) treats them.

neb

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#2550213 26-Aug-2020 18:12

I like my Amcrest NVR, it powers the cameras via PoE and sends out live alerts via email, as well as providing live feeds via an app. I think by the time you faff around with custom SD cards (presumably SLC rather than MLC, which means they'll be pretty pricey and/or low capacity) you can probably get a PoE NVR and solve the problem properly.

Oh, and check for newer firmware, Amcrest recently released a block of new firmware for a group of NVRs that haven't been updated since 2018.