Spec me a CCTV System

Whats a decent reasonable cheap good value display tablet that i can push a home assistant dashboard to, or even just output my reolink camera feeds too?
 
How about:

TCL Tab 10L Gen 2 10.1" Tablet - 32 GB, Dark Grey £106

HONOR Pad X8a 11" Tablet - 128 GB, Grey £129

Products from Lenovo also available, or spend a bit more for a Samsung.
 
Last edited:
Anybody who has some spare time and is a lot more clued up about camera specs etc help us out please.

Thinking of getting the wireless system with powered cameras RLK12-800WB4 to pair with the Reolink Video Doorbell (battery). Just curious on the cctv camera spec, as it means nothing to me. Specs as follows :-

Video & Audio
Image Sensor - 1/2.7" CMOS sensor
Resolution - 3840 x 2160 (8 megapixels) @20fps
Video Compression - H.265/H.264
Field of View - Horizontal: 88.8° Vertical: 45.2° Diagonal: 106.2°
Infrared Night Vision - "Up to 30 meters (100ft); LED: 2pcs/1.8w/850nm (Auto-switching with IR-cut filter)"
Color Night Vision - With spotlights: 1pcs/4.3w/6500k
Frame Rate - Mainstream: 2fps - 20fps (default: 20fps) Substream: 20fps
Code Rate - Mainstream: 2048Kbps - 5120Kbps (default: 4096Kbps) Substream: 1228Kbps
Audio - Two-way audio

The two areas am trying to cover are 25 ft x 20 ft where we park our cars (front of house) and 25ft x 70ft part of rear garden with outdoor gazebo, shed etc.
 
immy said:
Whats a decent reasonable cheap good value display tablet that i can push a home assistant dashboard to, or even just output my reolink camera feeds too?
Click to expand...
Possibly too late, but happy to recommend the Doogee U11 Pro - picked three up for my monsters to replace their ancient Fire Tablets. Speedy, full Android 15, loads of RAM.

I also have the T40 (larger screen, bit pricier) which sits on my bedside table to display our reolink system and very happy with that.
 
RedMogg said:
Possibly too late, but happy to recommend the Doogee U11 Pro - picked three up for my monsters to replace their ancient Fire Tablets. Speedy, full Android 15, loads of RAM.

I also have the T40 (larger screen, bit pricier) which sits on my bedside table to display our reolink system and very happy with that.
Click to expand...
Misses grandma needs a basic tablet to replace her old Samsung one that is now as much use as a paperweight. Take it these are good enough for simple task, messenger, internet browsing etc.
 
shaynemawer said:
Misses grandma needs a basic tablet to replace her old Samsung one that is now as much use as a paperweight. Take it these are good enough for simple task, messenger, internet browsing etc.
Click to expand...
Happy to recommend - kids play Roblox, stream their PCs via Moonlight, watch Netflix etc. They're excellent value.
 
Man-mathed my way into ordering a new NVR for my security cameras. I already have two separate POE switches and 2x 10Tb drives in the existing Uniview recorder, but it's limited to 4 channels of max 5mp cameras and won't display the new RLC-823S2 (4K/8Mp) at all, unless I seriously drop the resolution/bitrate.

I now need at least 6 channels (4x 5Mb fixed cameras, 1x 8Mb PTZ 20x zoom "Noseying the Neighbourhood" camera) and the doorbell.

Got a deal on the Reolink RLN36 (36 Channels, up to 12Mb each, with room for up to 3x 16Tb drives).

With my two existing 10Tb drives, I should get approx 6 weeks of 24/7 recording, which is more than sufficient.

I'll probably spend another £100 on a third 10Tb drive (I've used HGST Ultrastars which have performed brilliantly, if a little noisy), which will allow me to max out the recording bitrates of each camera for a similar length of time.

I should be able to sell on the Uniview NVR for pretty much what the Reolink has cost me.

I did consider other NVR brands, but there isn't anything comparable (amount of channels/hard drive space) for less than £5-600.
 
I am running QVRPro on a ten year old NAS. Two weeks of recording and up to ten cameras on the free license though I only have two.
 
Sirrel Squirrel said:
So I've got my system all up and running, I'm using 2 x Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I 3MP PoE cameras that feed back to a PoE switch and then to a HP N54L Microserver running FreeNas.

The cameras have a built in web server where you configure the encode settings, storage and schedule the recordings plus a load of other settings such as firing off frame grabs to an FTP site, I've just got it on 24/7 motion detection.

I've got them running at 2048x1536 resolution at 20fps.

Here's a few frame grabs from the cameras (click for full res 2048x1536);

47U6Es2l.jpg

HWdLos7l.jpg

vLt8T5Sl.jpg
Click to expand...
Aren’t your cams up too high? You’ll get nice footage of the tops of the heads of the perps?

Mine are all around 8-10ft except 1 that is higher. Here’s an overview of mine overview
 
Last edited:
IAmATeaf said:
Aren’t your cams up too high? You’ll get nice footage of the tops of the heads of the perps?

Mine are all around 8-10ft except 1 that is higher. Here’s an overview of mine overview
Click to expand...
That's what works for you.

I have mine set high (above the first floor windows, beneath the eaves) for a couple of reasons:

Overview: I have an EOT house, with two main points of entry (Front & Back doors), but two other vulnerable points - the downstairs bedroom window and our girls' bedroom window above that (reachable via the ground extension's flat roof).

Mounting the rear cameras high, but aimed diagonally across each other, covers the only entry point to the rear of the property (rear/side garden walls) from all angles.

The PTZ camera on the external corner has a patrol that crosses paths with the other two fixed cameras (Front Path & Parking). It's also high enough that I can zoom in on the rest of the area, to a decent distance. If I mounted it lower, that would be obstructed.

The front door has a doorbell camera covering the approach, with internal SD card, Onvif to NVR & cloud backup.

They're all high resolution enough (day or night) to catch details at their slowest point. Intrusion barriers are set at the garden & front path boundary, so anything person-shaped should alert before they get a chance to access the bedroom windows or Front/Back doors. The dog does a much better job, although it's usually foxes that set her off.

Wiring: having all cameras mounted high meant easier, shorter Cat6 runs around/across the roof, then down a single metal conduit to my study/downstairs bedroom where the POE switches are. No one's climbing 8+ meters to snip the cables (and unlikely to bring a hacksaw for the conduit).

Anti-vandal: high enough not to be tampered with by some lanky skaghead with a broomstick. Far less likely they nick the camera too.

Redundancy: cameras all have internal SD cards, which are faster to view remotely on the Reolink app. 24/7 recording to the NVR for longer-term storage (we have about 6 weeks, including audio, on the 2x 10Tb drives). Being mounted well out of reach, I'm not worried about the sd card getting pinched (most burglaries nowadays include the Ring doorbell getting lifted - usually pointless if backed up by a cloud subscription, but many victims let their subscription lapse, relying on the SD card/activity alert).

My Dad's first job out of the forces was as a security consultant for HNWI - I picked his brain when planning our install and took his advice seriously.
 
Blimey, you don’t have to justify what you want and did to me, I don’t really care, was just making an observation.

Your Camera 01 and 02, are they fixed or is one a PTZ? If they are both fixed then they are covering more of the pavement and road than your property?
 
IAmATeaf said:
Blimey, you don’t have to justify what you want and did to me, I don’t really care, was just making an observation.

Your Camera 01 and 02, are they fixed or is one a PTZ? If they are both fixed then they are covering more of the pavement and road than your property?
Click to expand...
You may as well talk to the wall in here, it's the wild west of CCTV installation.
I can only hope that the affected people get some data access requests given their blatant disregard for covering public spaces

Home CCTV systems

ico.org.uk ico.org.uk
 
Last edited:
Yes Cam 1 above is problematic, only about 15% of the image of your own property which is more incidental if anything. It captures more of two of your neighbours properties, including one’s front door which considerably outweighs what it captures of your property. It’s hard to justify this as reasonable and it could be argued the cameras focus is on your neighbours which is very problematic.

Cam 2 you could probably justify as reasonable.
 
Last edited:
b0rn2sk8 said:
Yes Cam 1 above is problematic, only about 15% of the image of your own property which is more incidental if anything. It captures more of two of your neighbours properties, including one’s front door which considerably outweighs what it captures of your property. It’s hard to justify this as reasonable and it could be argued the cameras focus is on your neighbours which is very problematic.

Cam 2 you could probably justify as reasonable.
Click to expand...
The way those 2 cams are angled/positioned does seem really strange to me. I’ve got mine positioned so that the wall/window is in shot so that any perps up near the wall/window will be filmed so to increase the chance of getting a good face shot. In my case I can’t add any more wall/window as if I do then in the dead of the night the IR reflection off the wall negatively impacts the video.

In the case of the OP the perps will cross their boundary within seconds and that’s it no more coverage unless the PTZ covers?

I don’t have a PTZ but if I did I would use my 2 driveway cams as spotters to then point and zoom the PTZ to the point of interest.

For my cam that covers the side of my extension, I did talk to the local police and even the council, they didn’t say yes but then neither said it would be a problem until it is a problem
 
mushtafa said:
Is there anything else I should be looking at for that budget before I commit?
Click to expand...

Well, I think Reolink are good systems so I'd say go for it. It's not showing on offer at Amazon for me at the moment though. The offers on Amazon can be very nice, although there's no knowing when they'll arrive, but it might be worth waiting a bit to see if a tasty price comes up.

If you want further advice you can try the Reolink community.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom