Spec me a CCTV System
- Thread starter Sirrel Squirrel
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Looking for some advice... I bought a Ring Floodlight for outside my garage about a year ago. Product is ok for the price and am fine with the subsription based model of ring. Now I want to extend and get a couple of extra cameras for the sides of the house and in time maybe a doorbell for the front... Unfortunately the lack of Google Home integration with Ring Products is a bit of a deal breaker for me - otherwise would commit fully to Ring. Are there any other options for cameras that integrate with Google Home? I have looked at Nest but they are a bit on the pricey side and wondered of there is a better option? I have mains power at the 2 places I need the cameras... 1 is in a bit of a wifi deadspot but has a CAT5E cable running to it that I installed a while ago... The other no R45 cable but is really close to a Wifi Access Point.
Any advice on which products I should be looking at?
Any advice on which products I should be looking at?
Nothing wrong with Nest/Ring cameras, but for what you'd probably pay for one Nest cam and a subscription, you could get a half decent 4 camera Hikvision system installed.
Personally, I'd prefer a decent Hik/Dahua system over some gimmicky cloud based Nest camera.
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In real terms there is very little difference between most of the Hikvision and Dahua product. At the moment, Dahua have a slightly different take on colour night vision with a fairly powerful LED lamp that gives them a slight edge but on normal IR cameras there is nothing to choose between them.
I would go with a dedicated NVR over BlueIris but if you don’t have a lot of cameras (4 or less) I’d suggest a Synology Surveillance Station option (NVR-1218). Once you get into more than 4 cameras then it’s pricey at £50/camera in additional licence fees.
The dedicated Dahua and Hikvision NVRs will also do PoE for the cameras.
In real terms there is very little difference between most of the Hikvision and Dahua product. At the moment, Dahua have a slightly different take on colour night vision with a fairly powerful LED lamp that gives them a slight edge but on normal IR cameras there is nothing to choose between them.
I would go with a dedicated NVR over BlueIris but if you don’t have a lot of cameras (4 or less) I’d suggest a Synology Surveillance Station option (NVR-1218). Once you get into more than 4 cameras then it’s pricey at £50/camera in additional licence fees.
The dedicated Dahua and Hikvision NVRs will also do PoE for the cameras.
Hi thanks for this very useful.
Will go with NVR then, 8 cameras needed eventually.
If I was to buy grey import cameras is there any difference between hikvision and Dahua. With Hikvision I can see potential issues with firmware upgrades and password resets, but not sure what the situation is with Dahua grey imports?
It’s the same. Sometimes the grey imports are Chinese firmware, sometimes they’re factory seconds and ultimately the warranty on a grey market camera isn’t worth anything. A lot of the time the Ali Express sellers are only active for a few months at a time and then shut down and restart as someone else.
Thanks, and in terms of hikvision firmware are we forced to upgrade or can we just leave it alone?
So long as the camera works, I wouldn’t touch the firmware. If they add a new ‘free’ upgrade feature in the software then you might not get that, but it’s a cost/risk trade-off. LOTS of buyers take these cameras from Ali Express etc. and have no issues at all.
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Thinking about getting some camera's and had assumed I would get ubiquiti to integrate into my unifi network. Obviously there's a big expense for this. Would anyone recommend anything different?
Will likely get atleast a camera each for front and back then perhaps a camera doorbell but maybe not as they are fairly gimmicky.
I use Google home and have a microserver with freenas on.
Will likely get atleast a camera each for front and back then perhaps a camera doorbell but maybe not as they are fairly gimmicky.
I use Google home and have a microserver with freenas on.
Hi, I need some ideas for my father in law...
He wants to have a few CCTV cameras in his garden, mostly to monitor nocturnal wildlife. He is happy to have a recording device (DVR?) And will run the system from his garage, so power is not an issue.
He wants no more than 4 cameras and ideally a wide field of view.
What system should he purchase to given a decent balance between performance and cost?
He wants to have a few CCTV cameras in his garden, mostly to monitor nocturnal wildlife. He is happy to have a recording device (DVR?) And will run the system from his garage, so power is not an issue.
He wants no more than 4 cameras and ideally a wide field of view.
What system should he purchase to given a decent balance between performance and cost?
I’ve put a couple of these sorts of systems in for folks and if you want to see wildlife, you need a decent PTZ camera. And ideally you want one that will track motion. Like the new Dahua Wiz Sense cameras. They take a steer from an overview camera then lock onto something moving and track it. But it needs to be high up with a good field of view.
How big is the garden? How big (tall) is the house? Does your father-in-law want colour or will IR illuminated B&W be good enough? Does he want 4K quality or would 1080P be good enough?
If you’re happy with 1080P or up to 5MP then I’d say you could do a nice system for £1000+VAT.
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Ubiquiti Protect is a DISASTER. If you want something that works with Google Home then this Swann system could be for you.
https://youtu.be/DiP9JVmkPsQ
Personally, I’d rather have my teeth ripped out with pliers than use Swann (they’ve killed 3 generations of systems with three successive app releases that don’t support the previous generation of cameras) but if you want google home integration then Swann support that. This week.
The garden is fairly small and both the house and garage are single storey. So not much height to play with.
IR illuminated B&W would be fine.. And he is probably looking not more than £400.
Thanks
Sadly then I suspect grainy B&W images of distant blobs is on the menu for the next few years.
Anything smaller than a badger is pretty indistinct On a 1080P camera at say, 5m distance. That’s why you need the PTZ to get in close.
I honestly don’t want to be Debbie downer here, but it’s just unrealistic to expect to be able to watch nocturnal animals on a CCTV system that can’t identify a human in the dark.
And the height issue can be fixed by using a pole-mounted camera to get up an extra 2m or so.
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Thanks for the info. I can explain to him the issues and leave him to make his choice.
If he bought a general system with 2 cameras what is the best value for the £400 mark?
For £400 I would suggest a basic Dahua Cube NVR (NVR4104-P-4KS2-xT where x is the HDD size in TB) coupled with 2 8MP zoom cameras (Dahua IPC-HDW2831TP-ZS-S2).
That way, if your father in law can put food out or somehow attract the animals into a specific location then he can zoom in on that spot for a better view.
You should be able to get the cameras and a 1Tb recorder from a UK agent about £450.
I would REALLY suggest getting a PTZ though. Even if he just runs it off an SD card in the camera. Unfortunately the cheapest PTZ I would currently recommend is the 4MP Dahua SD49425XB-HNR. That is £430 just by itself though.
The equivalent Hikvision System would be 2 x DS-2CD2386G2-ISU and DS-7604NI-K1-4P recorder. The equivalent Hikvision PTZ would be the DS-2DE4425IW-DE. Pricing is usually similar between the manufacturers on similar products.
If you're not wedded to IP cameras then you can look at HDCVI as a lower cost alternative. The equivalent Dahua system to the IP one I listed above would be two 8MP HAC-HDW2802TP-Z-A, the recorder would be the XVR5104H-4KL-X-1T and that system would be about £420.
Drop me a Trust Message if you need help sourcing Dahua in the UK.
For something a bit more available Swann were made by Hikvision but are now Raysharp and they're also fine. You can probably get a 4 camera 8MP setup with a 2TB recorder for under £500. Reolink are made by Shenzen Baichuun and they are also excellent. Again, you should be able to get a 4 4K camera system and recorder for about £400.
That way, if your father in law can put food out or somehow attract the animals into a specific location then he can zoom in on that spot for a better view.
You should be able to get the cameras and a 1Tb recorder from a UK agent about £450.
I would REALLY suggest getting a PTZ though. Even if he just runs it off an SD card in the camera. Unfortunately the cheapest PTZ I would currently recommend is the 4MP Dahua SD49425XB-HNR. That is £430 just by itself though.
The equivalent Hikvision System would be 2 x DS-2CD2386G2-ISU and DS-7604NI-K1-4P recorder. The equivalent Hikvision PTZ would be the DS-2DE4425IW-DE. Pricing is usually similar between the manufacturers on similar products.
If you're not wedded to IP cameras then you can look at HDCVI as a lower cost alternative. The equivalent Dahua system to the IP one I listed above would be two 8MP HAC-HDW2802TP-Z-A, the recorder would be the XVR5104H-4KL-X-1T and that system would be about £420.
Drop me a Trust Message if you need help sourcing Dahua in the UK.
For something a bit more available Swann were made by Hikvision but are now Raysharp and they're also fine. You can probably get a 4 camera 8MP setup with a 2TB recorder for under £500. Reolink are made by Shenzen Baichuun and they are also excellent. Again, you should be able to get a 4 4K camera system and recorder for about £400.