Security Camera upgrade time! Looking at options and feedback

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Security Camera upgrade time! Looking at options and feedback

timbosan

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#295550 6-Apr-2022 09:08

Hi all, so I have reasonable CCTV system, a mixture of Reolink and Dahua cameras and a XProtect NVR. It runs great, reliable, but the Dahua cameras are old (3mp) and XProtect, being the free version, only has email notifications of movement, and none of the cameras have smart detection (person, car, etc.)

So I am looking at upgrading, ideally to cameras that work with XProtect.

I did consider Unifi (I have other Unifi gear) but the cost is very high compared to other brands. Anyone here have Unifi cameras? Any feedback good or bad?

I was also looking at Relink 8K cameras link this - ONVIF compatible and smart detection, 8MP.

I don't mind notifications from a seperate app. But ideally I want something that works with HomeKit (or HomeBridge) so I have one set of notifications.

Anything I should look at?

dt

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#2897497 6-Apr-2022 10:07

Unifi g4 and g4 pro's have amazing clarity and really good FPS in both day time and night time but their price to performance is off the charts imo - even the biggest unifi fan boys have a tough time forking over that kinda dosh for personal use and then you're also limited to only using them with unifi's NVR and have their limitations and can't be worked around due to their closed eco system.

if you want to spend an hour or so looking at some comparison vids there's a youtube channel called "the hookup" who do very thorough reviews that are incredibly simple to understand [he was a highschool teacher before moving to youtube fulltime] and he makes some very valid price to performance points with a wide range of pro's and con's that can really help you decide on what you do and don't need.. from memory Amcrest don't have the greatest night time performance but are 'acceptable' given their price..

im personally using hik visions colorvu cameras which are pricey but I wanted colour night time recording and I highly rate

digidave

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#2897611 6-Apr-2022 12:14

+1 for The Hookup, very informative and honest reviews.

If you use / familiar with Home Assistant, I recommend taking a look at Frigate NVR. I currently run it separate to Blue Iris, so don't use it as a full NVR which it can do, but Frigate AI detection options and integration into HA is great and you pretty sure you can link HA into Homekit for notifications from HA although never tried this.

Currently i just use lower resolution Camera sub streams on Frigate and it runs with very little resources on an old Thin Client with Coral accelerator along with HA, but it's becoming the go to app when something gets triggered and easy to view the clip on phone, especially when away from house. If it came to reviewing something i can go back to BI for 24/7 / Hi res capture of an event.

CrunchiePotatoes

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#2897904 7-Apr-2022 08:21

One thing to note on the Reolink 8mp cameras is the full quality stream is h.625 encoded, not h.264. This does cause some issues when trying to integrate with some platforms (i.e only Edge browser has h265 support, so you cant stream directly to chrome)

No idea what other cameras use.

Other wise my RLC-810a's have been solid (I dont use a stand alone NVR at this point)

Nudibranch

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#2897913 7-Apr-2022 08:54

I have the similar situation. Stuffs working well but old. I don't know if it will work for your particular case but I've been really pleased with the Hikvision DS-2DE2A404IW 4MP PTZ Camera. Considering getting more.

duckDecoy

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#2958572 24-Aug-2022 10:03

I am going to hijack this thread rather than start a new one.

We don't have a security system but would like to install one. Our garage is away from the house so the wifi cameras are not an option, I will need a POE system. I'd like opinions on what we are considering, and if any better options exist.

We want something that records well at night as well as during the day. We will put one outside the garage to monitor the driveway, one inside the garage in case someone goes in there, and one outside our front door. I would like the system to alert my phone if it detects something.

A friend has the following and is very happy with it. He records in high definition at all times (not just event triggered motion) and hasn't run out of storage space yet, keeps about 2-3 weeks of footage before recycling it. He does NOT have it set up to alert his phone if it detects something as his face the sidewalk and road so would get too many triggers, but he believes the HiLook NVR can be made to do this (can it?):

NVR

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/CCTHLK0009/HiLook-NVR-208MH-C8P-8-Channel-NVR---4K--H265-HDMI

HDD for NVR

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/HDDWD43001/WD-Surveillance-Purple-3TB-64MB-SATA3-HDD---247-al

Dome Camera

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/CCTHLK5102/HiLook-IPC-D650H-5MPH265-IndoorOutdoor-Dome-PoE-IP

Bullet Camera

https://us.hikvision.com/en/products/more-products/discontinued-products/network-camera/8-mp-network-bullet-camera-ds-2cd2085fwd

POE Switch

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/SWHTPL1020/TP-Link-TL-SG1008P-8-Port-Gigabit-Unmanaged-PoE-Sw

This looks fairly good quality to me and the price point is about right for what we want to spend. The only downside I can see with this system is it does not have a microphone, so we cannot talk to someone near the cameras. I would quite like that ability and someone mentioned HikVision,but that camera was nearly $600 alone so that's outside our budget.

Does anyone think the above setup is good, and can anyone suggest a different camera that has high definition and also a microphone that doesn't break the bank. I'm not particularly techy so many of the labels and numbers and specs etc are lost on me so I have a bit of trouble understanding if a particular camera is good or not, hence why i thought going with my friends recommendation was a good idea.

All help appreciated.