Home Alarm System

magicroundabout

magicroundabout

magicroundabout

Soldato
Joined
20 Apr 2008
Posts
3,816
Location
West Midlands
Hi all,

The GF is looking to get a decent high end security system installed at her home and has asked me if I could help find anyone reputable.

She would ideally like min x 3 cameras for the property (front, side and rear) along with sensors inside etc.
In time she would also like a low level electric security gate for the drive to help deter car thieves.

Any recommendations for who to gather quotes from. Based in West Mids
 
Hi. Reolink is often recommended here. They have a Facebook community so you could ask for isntaller recommendations there.

Other brands to consider are Eufy and Arlo. You might be able to get advice on installation from their support. Eufy I've seen recommended here. Arlo is connected to Verisure, who provide alarms, and advertise a lot. I can't necessarily say they are good, but might be worth a look.
 
radderfire said:
Hi. Reolink is often recommended here. They have a Facebook community so you could ask for isntaller recommendations there.

Other brands to consider are Eufy and Arlo. You might be able to get advice on installation from their support. Eufy I've seen recommended here. Arlo is connected to Verisure, who provide alarms, and advertise a lot. I can't necessarily say they are good, but might be worth a look.
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cheers for the info. I shall have a venture onto Facebook to ask about Reolink and will delve into the others too.

Its a minefield out there but we want something robust with a neat wire free installation
 
Hi everyone

The wife wants a ring doorbell but also wants to pay the yearly subscription for online recordings. Though I personally can't justify the price when I have told her we can buy a doorbell with our own recorder and I explained the reolink NVR to her.

Though I don't want it hardwired so would prefer the Wi-Fi version

[Official] Reolink Doorbell WiFi - Smart Video Doorbell Camera

Smart 2K+ 5MP Wi-Fi doorbell camera with clear night vision, person & package detection, easy installation, two-way audio, 24/7 recording, and waterproof rating.
m.reolink.com m.reolink.com

I was thinking of getting that and purchasing the 8 channel NVR. Does anyone on here actually have this combination and does it work perfectly fine.

Many thanks for any help and advice
 
FYI the options for recording the video from a Reolink video doorbell are "Reolink Home Hub Pro with a pre-installed 2TB HDD, Reolink NVR (with a built-in hard drive), FTP/NAS server, or microSD card (up to 256GB)".

Are you just looking to record the doorbell, or are you adding cameras as well? If just the doorbell, the NVR might be overkill.

The doorbell is designed to work with the NVR though, so I would imagine it will work fine. There's a Reolink Community available if you want to ask more.
 
Hi radderfire

At the moment we just want the video doorbell but the wife wants it to record so she can access the video footage whenever. I have told her the limitations of a ring doorbell and I am not happy to be paying that subscription over the years when you can buy a NVR. The Reolink camera I was looking at this one does work with the 8 channel NVR and in the long run would be cheaper than paying a subscription.

Though I read earlier you can use a Synology NAS with surveillance station and I do have a DS412+ just sitting here doing nothing so I might buy the doorbell and give the NAS a try 1st before looking at the NVR.

We won't be needing anymore cameras but the NVR would just be quieter and easier to place than the NAS.
 
Lord Alibaski said:
Hi everyone

The wife wants a ring doorbell but also wants to pay the yearly subscription for online recordings. Though I personally can't justify the price when I have told her we can buy a doorbell with our own recorder and I explained the reolink NVR to her.

Though I don't want it hardwired so would prefer the Wi-Fi version

[Official] Reolink Doorbell WiFi - Smart Video Doorbell Camera

Smart 2K+ 5MP Wi-Fi doorbell camera with clear night vision, person & package detection, easy installation, two-way audio, 24/7 recording, and waterproof rating.
m.reolink.com m.reolink.com

I was thinking of getting that and purchasing the 8 channel NVR. Does anyone on here actually have this combination and does it work perfectly fine.

Many thanks for any help and advice
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As an alternative to a more expensive NVR, do consider the Reolink Home Hub as suggested above hub, it works very well https://reolink.com/gb/product/reolink-home-hub/ plus they do bundled camera's as well https://store.reolink.com/gb/home-hub-series/
 
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I considered the home hub 1st but then I looked into it a bit more, there are a few things when the NVR works out better than the hub.

1 = Camera £90
2 = Home hub = £90
3 = 2 x 512GB sd cards = £100max

Cost of £280

Then the home hub with 2 cards in we will only get about 8 days of recording at 720p, this isn't enough for us because when we go away on our holiday it's usually for 22 days this alone turned me away from it.

Now if I went this way it works out better for us in recording time

1 = Camera = £90
2 = 8 channel NVR = £186.99 - with my own 8TB drive in

I also looked at the Home hub Pro but that is again more money it would look better than the NVR. I was worried about the Wi-fi on these hubs as well some people having problems when using the hubs Wi-Fi not picking up the camera but perfectly fine when using your own network. I can't seem to find if the home hub pro actually works with the camera we want because if we waited for black Friday and it actually come down I would purchase that instead.
 
Lord Alibaski said:
I considered the home hub 1st but then I looked into it a bit more, there are a few things when the NVR works out better than the hub.

1 = Camera £90
2 = Home hub = £90
3 = 2 x 512GB sd cards = £100max

Cost of £280

Then the home hub with 2 cards in we will only get about 8 days of recording at 720p, this isn't enough for us because when we go away on our holiday it's usually for 22 days this alone turned me away from it.

Now if I went this way it works out better for us in recording time

1 = Camera = £90
2 = 8 channel NVR = £186.99 - with my own 8TB drive in

I also looked at the Home hub Pro but that is again more money it would look better than the NVR. I was worried about the Wi-fi on these hubs as well some people having problems when using the hubs Wi-Fi not picking up the camera but perfectly fine when using your own network. I can't seem to find if the home hub pro actually works with the camera we want because if we waited for black Friday and it actually come down I would purchase that instead.
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Definitely unsuitable for you now you have added more information as to your needs. Not had any issues with the Hub's wifi though.
I've used our NAS drive Surveillance Station in the past also..
 
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My first CCTV system in 2017 was a an All-in-one box WiFi jobby in our old terraced GFF - the cameras still needed power (had to extend the 6ft cables) and no matter where I sited the base station, cameras on one side ended up with poor signal/drop outs.
I lost trust in WiFi cameras when our garage got broken into but the cameras didn't pick up the incident due to a WiFi dropout and the base station resetting itself to go from 24/7 loop-recording, to only recording movement.

We went for a fully wired (External Cat5E) Reolink system with separate POE Switch & Uniview NVR (built over time) - zero dropouts, 24/7 1440p/4k recording with sound, 10Tb drive gives us approx 6 weeks of footage before recording over the old stuff.

We visit my Wife's family in Canada every couple of years, usually for 6 weeks, so we wanted a system we could quickly view remotely (each camera has its own on-board SDXC) without using up all our roaming data and also view longer periods sped-up (NVR) once we were back on free WiFi.

Obviously tech and WiFi standards have improved a lot since our first system, with rechargeable wireless cameras using 5Ghz WiFi, but the extra peace of mind a hard wired system gives, I think is worth the initial install hassles.
 
Running it wired is a no go RedMogg we just spent a fortune having the living redone. So the only other place where we could put the NVR is upstairs at the back of the house and we don't want any wires running up there at the moment because the hall way and landing needs a do-over as well hence wanting to go wireless for now until this is all done and that could be a couple of years.

I have joined the Reolink forum but it's not very active with Reolink staff wanting to give any kind of help.
 
Just put a 256GB micro sd card in the cameras there isnt much need for NVR unless you need to record constantly but recording on motion works fine.

edit: just checked and im getting 41 days of motion on a 256gb on a quiet cul de sac so 512gb should be more than enough
 
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We have been having quite a lot of scumbags breaking into cars and houses where we live this last few months and the police are doing nothing about it so quite a few people in the street are putting up security cameras and video doorbells. Though having a sd card in the actual doorbell makes no sense to me if the doorbell goes missing your sd card is gone as well. They could break into your house and take the NVR but they would have to find it 1st and I highly doubt they would be worried about searching for it.

It's what the wife want's she wants to be able to access the recordings whenever and again she doesn't like the idea of putting an sd card into the doorbell.

The home hub pro looks to be a better option than a NVR but it's not out yet.
 
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So today we had Verisure come and quote for an alarm installation.

The installer recommended:
1 x Arlo Video Doorbell
1 x Arlo Essential XL + Solar Panel (free)
2 x Protected Video Detector
1 x Zerovision Smoke Barrier
6 x Smart Keys
3 x Total Shield
1 x Voice Pad + SOS
1 x Central unit

£42pm 24/7 monitoring with SOS, maintenance, Guard Response, 24/7 Security restore

All installed for £600

Now I don't know much about Security but so far this seems a real steal
 
magicroundabout said:
So today we had Verisure come and quote for an alarm installation.

The installer recommended:
1 x Arlo Video Doorbell
1 x Arlo Essential XL + Solar Panel (free)
2 x Protected Video Detector
1 x Zerovision Smoke Barrier
6 x Smart Keys
3 x Total Shield
1 x Voice Pad + SOS
1 x Central unit

£42pm 24/7 monitoring with SOS, maintenance, Guard Response, 24/7 Security restore

All installed for £600

Now I don't know much about Security but so far this seems a real steal
Click to expand...
Sounds crazy expensive to me.
 
It sounds very expensive to me especially with the ongoing costs. My alarm and cctv has no monthly costs.
 
I pay £27.99 a month for 24/7 monitoring with guard response. Alarm system is with simplisafe, although I am on the verge of cancelling it as monitoring does seem unnecessary.
 
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