Spec me a CCTV System

I realise that you might not recommend them but im going to ask the question anyway.

Can anyone recommend some smart camera's that i can place in windows to record outside please?

I currently have the cheap Ring stick up cam, had them on the exterior walls of my house, but one got stolen (go figure) so i moved the camera's inside. They just wont record anything though because it uses PIR. If i had know this i would have saved myself the £300

I don't want to have to install camera's outside again and don't want to have to drill holes through walls to place them outside. So im looking at better options than i currently have. Ideally i'd like them to be smart so i can view them when away from home. i don't have any facility to really be able to install a server to record onto and can't run RJ45 cables around the house.

Thanks,
 
slothmeister said:
I realise that you might not recommend them but im going to ask the question anyway.

Can anyone recommend some smart camera's that i can place in windows to record outside please?

I currently have the cheap Ring stick up cam, had them on the exterior walls of my house, but one got stolen (go figure) so i moved the camera's inside. They just wont record anything though because it uses PIR. If i had know this i would have saved myself the £300

I don't want to have to install camera's outside again and don't want to have to drill holes through walls to place them outside. So im looking at better options than i currently have. Ideally i'd like them to be smart so i can view them when away from home. i don't have any facility to really be able to install a server to record onto and can't run RJ45 cables around the house.

Thanks,
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The glass is the problem. Cameras hate glass. Anything you place against the glass will get hideous reflections and, as you’ve discovered, IR just reflects straight back so you’ll be blind at night. I did see a bodged install where someone had screwed cameras to an upper floor window-ledge and then run the cables under the window frame. If you fixed your Ring cameras to the upstairs window ledge they might not get stolen quite so readily.

Anything you buy faces the glass issue.

The server issue is easily resolved with SD cards in the cameras themselves. Basically, either get an installer in (about £150 per decent camera installed) or just give in and write it off to experience.
 
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You may be able to get away with putting a camera in front of a window as long as you can disable the IR lights. This does mean you would be reliant on external lighting (street lights, floodlight etc). Picture quality would also be reduced depending on the distance the camera lens is from the window, so that is another factor to consider.
 
If the lights are off in the room with the camera then that might work but if the lights are on it will just have a horrid reflection. It’s a zero-success likelihood scenario.

My alternative Dahua distributor are selling off a load of 2MP and 3MP WiFi only 30m IR cameras. I think they’re at the £40-ish mark. If you could run a 12V supply cable under the window ledge you could probably mount them outside and they’d be fine on your home WiFi.
 
Not a huge fan of WIFI if I'm honest, as they are susceptible to interference and connection issues. I suppose you could pair the camera with an SD card of some sort if it supports it and use this to save footage in the event of a connection loss.

@slothmeister could the Ring camera not be re-purposed outside but situated higher?
 
I've got two 4MP Hikvision cameras to fit at home with a NVR. I still need to buy storage, Would a 2TB drive be sufficient? Would a WD purple be recommended or another brand?
 
Where are you lot buying your cameras from nowadays? My dad wants a new external dome camera, something with a high enough MP that he can zoom in when required. He currently has 3 Hikvision which he's happy with (apart from the aforementioned), but they seem to be trade only now.
 
Can anyone reccomend a company to look at to install some cctv? I'm in the north west. I dont fancy doing it my self.

Looking at back garden, side of house and front of house.
How much could I be looking at for 3ish camera's and the recording equipment?

Thanks.
 
michty_me said:
I've got two 4MP Hikvision cameras to fit at home with a NVR. I still need to buy storage, Would a 2TB drive be sufficient? Would a WD purple be recommended or another brand?
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Depends what bitrate + FPS you have set for the 4mp cameras

Edit
Dos anyone own or owned a imou ranger 2 https://www.imoulife.com/uk/product/specs/Ranger2 or a amcrest smartHome ash21 https://amcrest.com/amcrest-smartho...on-two-way-audio-nanny-cam-ash21-b-black.html if so what FPS do you get from RTSP set at 1080p H.264?

I mentioned imou and amcrest becouse they are the same cameras from dahua consumer product tradename
 
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What FPS are you planning to record at? I have mine set at 15. Haven’t needed to set any higher as I don’t notice the difference during playback with the naked eye and saving more disk space at the same time.
 
Scream said:
What FPS are you planning to record at? I have mine set at 15. Haven’t needed to set any higher as I don’t notice the difference during playback with the naked eye and saving more disk space at the same time.
Click to expand...

I guess around 20-25 but I'm yet to power it on so once I see it playing in person I'll have a better idea. I would like to have it to be able to record for 30+ days due to working away from home though.
 
michty_me said:
I've got two 4MP Hikvision cameras to fit at home with a NVR. I still need to buy storage, Would a 2TB drive be sufficient? Would a WD purple be recommended or another brand?
Click to expand...

2TB will get you about 4 weeks recording from 2 x 4 MP cameras assuming they’re H265.
 
There is a point though where going up in fps just fills up your hdd pointlessly. Anything over 15fps is definitely in the diminishing returns area.

Because of the whole pandemic thing I’ve been forced to offer people cheaper solutions for home use and you’d be surprised how effective motion sensing AI is with just an SD card in the camera recording only triggered events. It also makes reviewing the images a lot easier.
 
Nazbit said:
Has anyone tried the Colorvu range?

I believe quite a lot of light is needed. I'm in the countryside so pretty dark at night.

It will be one side of the front door frame there is an LED lantern lamp on other side of the door way. Looking to cover an area about 2m wide and 5m long.

Do I have a decent chance of getting 24/7 colour or should I just go for another G1?

Thanks
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@Nazbit - sorry for the delay in getting these images up but this is the new Dahua TiOC cameras. The rear garage/side gate image is the 2.8mm mini-dome, the back garden image is the 2.8mm bullet and the front parking image is the 3.6mm bullet. This is from a customer install I did last week. They're AWESOME. The only thing might be that the production camera lights are quite bright. Like someone shining a decent torch over the scene. The homeowner from the last install was expecting to get complaints about the light but one week in and nothing. It is quite literally bright enough to read a book (just) outside when the lights are on. And they are the same power consumption as IR apparently.

Daytime image from 2.8mm mini-dome

Image-1.jpg


And the same camera in full darkness (no street lights)

Image-2.jpg


3.6mm bullet camera with street-lighting on. You can see that the area under the streetlight is much brighter than the area around it. In this case the camera light is on.

IMG_2154.jpg


2.8mm bullet camera without street lighting. Dahua claim 40m range on the warm white lights and based on this I can completely believe it.

IMG_2156.jpg
 
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